NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 8869732" data-attributes="member: 2629">If your significant other is hanging out with someone that you know they're attracted to, there is a lot of ways to look at it.You can decide not to trust that significant other, tell them you need them to stop socializing with that attractive person to save your relationship, etc...  You can say, "Hey, cool, I trust you - but that is the type of thing that can catch you off guard.  Be honest with me if something unexpected happens."  You can quietly say to yourself, "Well, if you're going to do that, I've got a chance to hang out with Jean and see what might be possible there.  Jean is hot and I think Jean has a thing for me."  What does this have to do with powergaming?  There are a lot of potential outcomes, and one of the biggest factors in how it plays out is how you respond to the situation.  You're deciding where it is no longer worth squeezing that fruit for juice.  There may be plenty of juice in that fruit for everyone to enjoy when you decide to give up the squeeze if you have the right tools to get it.  In my experience, the DMs that struggle the most with powergamers are the ones that treat D&D as oppositional rather than cooperative.  They get frustrated (or fudge the dice/numbers) when the PCs get some lucky strikes in and take down a foe 'too easily'.  They feel that the game needs the PCs to be vulnerable to their threats in order for the game to work.  At the core, they feel the players are cheating - and they may not realize it, but they mean the players are cheating against the DM.The DMs that do not struggle with powergamers tend to be the ones that let the PCs shine.  They let the high powered PC be devastating in combat.  They look to things other than survival as the core challenges of the game.  Don't get me wrong - they still have some battles where the PCs have their hands full surviving - but the PCs spend more time trying to achieve a goal than they do trying to survive to the end of the battle.  The PCs feel like heroes from comics that you know will survive, but might fail to save someone, might fail to prevent the tragedy, etc...   Those are great stories to experience because your PCs do feel powerful and heroic - and still have actual chances of truly failing in a combat without having to build a new PC. D&D absolutely works over a broad spectrum of power levels unless someone obstructs it.  That 'obstruction to fun' is usually a DM that is trying to control the game tightly.  It can be players, too, but usually it is that DM that just wants to have "their" fun by making sure the PCs/play3ers can see how awesome they can build an encounter. To that end, my suggestion to DMs that have powergamers at their table is:  Don't see it as a problem.  See it is a tool.  Figure out how to use their effectiveness as part of good storytelling and to create challenges for the group that allow them to shine and risk failures, even if their survival is never at stake. The DMs that make that leap tend to find their players get more engaged, get more involved, and are happier with the overall experience.  YMMV - but is usually doesn't when people really make the leap.</blockquote>

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