Combating My Own Boredom as a Player

[Thomas Shey]

Ever sense the pandemic, about 3-4 hours is the longest I can go. Sometimes closer to 2, especially on VTT.

Its not like there aren't other people who prefer shorter play sessions, so that's not exactly a sin, but its obvious that the shorter your sessions are, the longer advancement is going to take in a levelled system unless the GM deliberately adjusts it, and that's not easy within an Adventure Path.

 

[Gorgon Zee]

Not doing the optimized thing your class is designed to do violates the social contract. Paizo designed the game that you have no choice but to do it.

There are a couple of APs that are quite hard, but for the most part you don’t actually need to play optimized characters. If you do, then you are indeed locking yourself into a single way of playing and yup, it may well be very boring.

The social contract is not so much “you must be optimized” as “do something that helps the group”. You may have your go-to actions ready, but other helpful options are nearly always there. When you build a character, don’t mini-max three feats to get that extra dice of damage; instead look for other fun things to do.

Specifically, multiclass. Pick a class with utility ability where you aren’t trying to oppose peak enemy stats, pick up a class that can make monster knowledge checks, heal a bit, help people hide, summon annoying distractions … whatever is fun for you.

Take feats and skills that improve mobility, so you can get places and do fun things. Buy magic items that are interesting and fun, rather than maximizing damage.

If you are a good GM, you should have pretty darn good system mastery ability, so if you only choose 75% of options with minimizing in mind and 25% for fun, you will still be ahead of the curve in ability to contribute.

When I ran 4E and in PF2, I tell my players straight up: if you optimize your characters you will have less fun. It’s your choice, but it’s pretty consistent. Optimized characters are boring and create bored players.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The social contract is not so much “you must be optimized” as “do something that helps the group”. You may have your go-to actions ready, but other helpful options are nearly always there. When you build a character, don’t mini-max three feats to get that extra dice of damage; instead look for other fun things to do.

Specifically, multiclass. Pick a class with utility ability where you aren’t trying to oppose peak enemy stats, pick up a class that can make monster knowledge checks, heal a bit, help people hide, summon annoying distractions … whatever is fun for you.

(Emphasis mine, both.)

Those are a big part of my PC design mentality. I’ve been playing since’77, so at this point I’m trying to indulge my as-yet unmet inner goals. But not to the point where my PCs are more of a burden than a boon.

That’s how I found things in 3.XEd D&D like the original Sacred Healing feat*, which turned my Geomancer into a healing BEAST in RttToEE.

Or how Knowledge Devotion helped me create an “Arcane Paladin” from a multiclassed spellcaster/warrior.

Or the feats Draconic Heritage (Blue), Draconic Breath Weapon (Lightning) and Storm Bolt let me create a dragon-obsessed PHB Human Sorcerer who wielded a Maul & wore Scale Mail (both without proficiency) who nonetheless was a battlefield nightmare.

Or that high-Dex characters with the right selections from the Combat Reflexes and polearm feats can control a fair amount of action in melee.

Most people who saw the PCs I designed as detailed above initially didn’t have a clue as to how they were supposed to be effective. Their performances in action sometimes earned me double-takes or apologies.

None were CoDzilla. None were even as powerful as half-optimized full casters. But they were all solid contributors to their respective parties.





* another feat of the same name with completely different mechanics was published, but when I asked WotC CustServ about it, they said the 2nd one wasn’t meant as errata to replace/rewrite the old one; it was an editing error of not thoroughly checking previously published feat names.

The mechanics of the original: Sacred Healing = Use Turn Undead attempt to give FH3 for 5rds (1+Cha bonus) in a 60' burst

 

[Theory of Games]

I always felt that, as a PF player, if you weren't trying to "build" the most effective PC you could, you were kind of selling a system that excels at optimization. I love two kinds of characters: Diplomancers and the Gish. Those kinds of characters can be tweaked and adjusted for performance like car engines. That was the game within the game with 3.5/PF.

That can push back the boredom as well.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

I haven’t been a player since the 80ies, it’s simply not fun to me.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I always felt that, as a PF player, if you weren't trying to "build" the most effective PC you could, you were kind of selling a system that excels at optimization. I love two kinds of characters: Diplomancers and the Gish. Those kinds of characters can be tweaked and adjusted for performance like car engines. That was the game within the game with 3.5/PF.

That can push back the boredom as well.

The kicker with PF2e is that you can get a functional character with most builds (unless you go out of your way to emphasize attributes that don't support the class). There were some problem ones early on (they took a while to get Alchemists working decently), but as someone above said, its less about the build than PF2e really does expect you to operate as a team; if you don't want to do that for any reason, yeah, you're fighting the system.

 

[Retreater]

I think that my main issue is that the PF2 system isn't interesting enough to me to last a year, covering the first 6 levels of play. The tactical play isn't enough, and probably no system could be.
When we do skill checks, it's just everybody rolling until one of the players gets a high enough roll. It doesn't really matter who our characters are or what they do in the investigation.
Everything feels like autopilot.

 

[payn]

I think that my main issue is that the PF2 system isn't interesting enough to me to last a year, covering the first 6 levels of play. The tactical play isn't enough, and probably no system could be.
When we do skill checks, it's just everybody rolling until one of the players gets a high enough roll. It doesn't really matter who our characters are or what they do in the investigation.
Everything feels like autopilot.

Maybe long campaigns are not suited to your interests and tastes in general?

 

[CleverNickName]

I tend to zone out during combat. Like you said, it's usually the same thing over and over again for four hours: move, press A, press B, end turn. The rest of the story is so much more interesting to me--exploring, talking to NPCs, disarming complicated traps, solving puzzles, figuring out who murdered the baron, that sort of thing--but alas, for every 30 minutes spent doing non-combat stuff like this, we have to sit through 2 hours of combat grind. It's like that old joke, "Dungeons & Dragons: thirty minutes of fun packed into four hours."

I don't really have a fix for this. D&D has always focused more on combat than anything else, and that isn't changing anytime soon. The best I can do is try to keep imagining what every small detail looks like, and try to find ways to describe my actions differently.

I've heard folks say that a key to fixing this problem is to play a different game. If you usually run D&D games, try to join a Call of Cthulhu gaming group, for example. If you're over-familiar with a game system, it can be hard to break out of that "well here's what I would do instead" mentality. So it could just be that you need a change of scenery?

 

[Theory of Games]

The kicker with PF2e is that you can get a functional character with most builds (unless you go out of your way to emphasize attributes that don't support the class). There were some problem ones early on (they took a while to get Alchemists working decently), but as someone above said, its less about the build than PF2e really does expect you to operate as a team; if you don't want to do that for any reason, yeah, you're fighting the system.

IME when players operate as a close-knit team, everyone has fun. With ANY system