D&D 5E Characters that annoy you (and/or the players who play them)

[Fralex]

Er...because 3-18 *is* supposed to be the range of human ability; with anything less than 3 essentially non-functional and anything over 18 essentially godlike.*

For intelligence in particular, a handy way to look at it is that a character's IQ is roughly its Int. score x 10...thus a character with Int. 6 has an IQ of about 60, which is defined as mentally deficient in most situations; which in turn means there's nothing wrong with playing it as such.

* - Wisdom and Charisma are the two that can wander outside these ranges without too many headaches.

Lanefan

I try to compare Int scores to monsters' to figure out how a character would act. A person with an Intelligence of 3 has a level of cognition on par with a very clever animal, such as a dog.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

* - Wisdom and Charisma are the two that can wander outside these ranges without too many headaches.

Strength as well. There are plenty of old folks in the world who have a strength of 3 or less; and a toddler probably has a strength of 1 (judging by carrying capacity).

 

[The Crimson Binome]

For intelligence in particular, a handy way to look at it is that a character's IQ is roughly its Int. score x 10...thus a character with Int. 6 has an IQ of about 60, which is defined as mentally deficient in most situations; which in turn means there's nothing wrong with playing it as such.

That's one way you could look at it, yes. It would also mean that roughly 10% of the people in the world are dumber than Gump, and every town with ~2000 people has ~40 people at least as smart as Hawking. That would be a simple way to look at it, or perhaps a convenient one, but not a particularly useful one.

I would consider the alternative - that scores 3 through 18 represent the normal range of healthy adults, and exceptions to that are exceptionally rare - to be a much more useful model.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

(Yes, I used a "dumb" accent lifted from a Bugs Bunny cartoon- the one with the gangsters.)

Yeah, that would bug me. (No pun intended.) This is a thread about pet peeves, though, so there's no restriction on being rational; just because I don't like it, that doesn't mean there's anything wrong or invalid about that character choice.

 

[Minsc]

I hate it when people overgeneralize about Drow- I played 3 different Drow PCs years before Drizzle even got published, and none were evil.

Well, I've certainly never played with you then.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I am a black swan, to be sure.

 

[pukunui]

I have one player in my group right now who suffers from decision paralysis on a regular basis - and I'm not just talking about hesitating when it's her turn in combat or whatever. She really struggles to make a character, too. At the start of the campaign, she showed up with an unfinished character, despite my asking that everyone get me their PC's stats at least 24 hours out from the first session. She's been working on a new PC and has had about six weeks now in which to get it done, but we're a week out from our next session, and all I know is that her new PC is going to be an arcane trickster rogue who is the estranged harlot mother of one of the other PCs. I suppose for some people that might be enough, but I feel the need to see the specifics of a PC before I let it into the game. For one thing, it helps me integrate the character into the campaign better. The other issue is that this player is consistently late, and I'd prefer not to have to pause the game so I can take a look at her character and figure out how best to introduce it into the campaign while everyone else sits around waiting.

I also dislike it when PCs get adversarial and try to sabotage the rest of the party. I think if you're going to have a PC who is party-unfriendly (a warlock using the darkness + Devil's Sight combo comes to mind) or whose endgame is ultimately one of betrayal, then that needs to be established OOC, so that the other players can OK it and know that's what's happening, so there's no chance of misunderstanding or hurt feelings. Basically: I dislike it when players make assumptions or keep secrets from the other players. I think everyone needs to be open about what they want and what they're doing so that everyone can be on the same page.

 

[Wolfskin]

Players who are on a power trip and whose characters consistently try to cow everybody into submission, giving free stuff, etc.
Players who attack PCs (or even NPCs) because they "feel like it" without provocation or reason.

 

[delericho]

My pet peeve is players who choose their character's race purely for the stat boost and then proceed to play them as nothing more than "humans with funny ears". IMO even if you're playing against type (say as a dwarven wizard) you should still be trying to play against type in a dwarven way. (In the same way at ST_TNG's Worf was very much against the Klingon norm, and yet he was still very distinctly Klingon for all that.)

However, when it comes down to it, it's the player's character, so if that's what he wants to play then so be it.

I despise consistently late players.

Probably the one thing that most annoys me is the player who is consistently late or simply no-shows... and especially the one who fails to let the rest of the group know when that's happening. I get that occasionally stuff happens that will make a person late or unavailable, and indeed that that will occasionally happen at the last minute.

But in a world with the internet, email, and mobile phones there are very very few reasons good enough to justify failing to let someone know.

The worst example of this occurred at a game I'd had scheduled for a while where (due to seating) I had a limited number of spots and so had had to turn people away once the game was filled. And then one of the players simply didn't show up without any word at all. And so we ended up playing with an empty chair and a disappointed waiting list.

 

[Nebulous]

Also this one guy i played with once or twice, was reflecting his real life violence into games, he seemed so aggressive and always used intimidation with the words intestines and hanging. I think i overheard that he smoked weed as well or something,not sure.

That would bother me as well, it's bringing outside negativity in. Now I did used to game with a fella who IRL had some anger issues, but he played a chaotic barbarian so his spats of torture and intimidation and zero patience actually worked out ok

Me, I can't stand a consistently late player. Late as in "I'll get there when I get there," kind of late, not just a few minutes. Really, just don't come.