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

[Wednesday Boy]

I think what annoys me the most is when players who aren't in the scene or in the know contribute out of character hints and suggestions. One of my friends likes this because it allows a character to do or say something that otherwise would be missed. But it gives me no sense of accomplishment and feels rather cheap. Personally I would rather accept the consequences of failing on my own volition than be given the answer.

What does annoy me, however, is when a player will put down another player for trying (and occasionally failing) to roleplay or be creative and interesting with their character.

Definitely. I've seen my GM get ridiculed by another player for trying an accent for a character. The GM became self conscious and dropped the accent. It's too bad because it was a passable accent and gave that character more life than yet another character with his regular voice.

 

[Midknightsun]

I have one player who in 5 years of playing (and she's been playing longer than I've known her) still can't navigate her way around a character sheet, doesn't know any of her bonuses or most of her abilities, and often requires me to basically give her the answers (which I can figure out in my head in about 10 seconds). Sadly, she plays almost the exact same character every time. . .and another player who is only marginally better. Please at least know your own character, for the love!

Which ties in to my general dislike for people who don't know their character's own abilities and the grinding halt it puts on combat rounds. After a level or two, even as a newbie, you should be able to figure it out. That's all I ask.

I used to have a player who would kill any capable (character leveled) NPC he came across because he didn't want them turning on the party at a later date. He admitted that as a DM he often used this tactic on his players, so he expected everyone else to as well.

Stealing from the party is a big no-no, thief or not. I always make this announcement at the beginning of a campaign. Nothing ticks people off more than having their character's stuff taken away because "I'm a thief and I'd totally do that". Well, you are in a party of murderhobos, and they would totally gank you if you do. And they will find out eventually, at which point the player may get ganked as well.

Kender- because I have yet to see one who wasn't a klepto without any sense of self-preservation

Drow- sometimes. I don't mind them in general, but anyone who makes Drizz't clones or wants to be his nephew or niece gets a big eye-roll from me. Usually because it comes with expectations like, "Can I adapt to the sunlight since I've been above ground for a while?". . . . grrrrr.

Characters who expect that, because they have the gold, anything should be available to them in any town with an outhouse and hitching post. Why yes, these poor dirt farmers totally stock magic plate armor. They make great scarecrows

Players who need to be some special different race all the time, and then still act basically like humans in funny suits.

 

[Nebulous]

Definitely. I've seen my GM get ridiculed by another player for trying an accent for a character. The GM became self conscious and dropped the accent. It's too bad because it was a passable accent and gave that character more life than yet another character with his regular voice.

I too have seen that happen, to myself actually. Ridicule for the sake of humor (even though it's not funny).

Which brings me to another point. And this actually bothers me more than someone being late.

I used to have a player who was an awesome, completely dedicated gamer. But he was a jokester and part of his personality and sense of humor was to belittle others at the expense of a laugh, or what he considered a laugh. I do not find that quality amusing, and actually found it highly annoying and insulting.

 

[aramis erak]

The player who just wants to kill stuff. Tends to run up to the nearest enemy, leaves tactics to everyone else, attacks the NPCs for no reason when a parlay is what's needed, and just generally tries to outdo the KODT "UT+1"...

 

[evan]

Drizzt clones. They tend to suffer. I've been told the chat logs of what I did to one in an online game is what inspired the SAW movies.

Gnomes are also on my list.

I'm pretty okay with a lot of drow characters. Drow paladins are fun to see.

Gnomes? Why gnomes?

 

[Paladerp]

Wow, you guys had some really bad kelptos.
We had an great kelptomaniac in our group. First of all he would steal when appropriate, i.e. he would not be taking your sword of +5 butt kicking right before a big fight but during travel or down time.
Our kelpto was also very judicious what he stole which made a big difference. It would't be gold or gems it would be something obvious. Our klepto would be found walking around with a fancy jewel encrusted crown, or our wizards scroll case out in the open.

Basically the theft wasn't done in a way that was detrimental to the party and it was obvious what the kelpto stole since he would parade around proudly with the stolen item and he would never steal something that was vital or important and certainly not before a fight.

There is plenty of ways of being a kelpto without being an a fun ruining jerk. Sadly those people are fare and few between it appears.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

People who play paladins as absolutist, dogmatic, humorless prigs who are better suited to witch burnings than dungeon delving.

 

[delericho]

I too have seen that happen, to myself actually. Ridicule for the sake of humor (even though it's not funny).

Oh, this post reminds me of one...

One of the very few times I actually got to play 3e (rather than DM), a friend of mine was starting off a Ravenloft campaign. He said up-front that he'd like this to be a "semi-serious" game, which was fine.

Everything was great until one of the players decided to call her halfling rogue Jigglypuff. And in an instant, the campaign was dead. To his credit, the DM gutted it out through the rest of the session, but there was never a second session for some reason.

(That session was also the one where I realised it was entirely possible to 'cheat' on dice rolls even with the whole group watching. One of my fellow players 'rolled' a 14/17/18/18/18/10 array. What he did was that after that first 17 he picked up the dice and then dropped them from a low height, thus eliminating all of the randomness from the roll. Though I've never been sure if he deliberately did so, or if he just didn't think about what he was doing. With him being a friend, and indeed the brother of the DM, and of course with my not being the DM, I didn't press the issue. )

 

[Fralex]

Tired players. I can't stand it when I set down to play a game and one person's just totally inattentive and lethargic and bogs the whole game down. I can understand if it's gotten late, but if it's only evening and someone is like, "uh, sorry, I'm kinda tired..." it just drives me insane. Getting an entire group together is hard enough; please at least come in a state you can actually play the game in!

 

[Nergal Pendragon]

Gnomes? Why gnomes?

I find the various ways they are implemented to be incredibly irritating in some manner. I'm certain there's a good implementation of them somewhere, but I don't feel like spending the weeks hunting it down.