Fraidy Cat Characters

[the_mighty_agrippa]

To be clear, I dislike going after PCs to prove a point. So casting a Wall of Force to beat on him for any reason other than "that is exactly what this villain would do" is not going to fly. Picking off weak members works well for hunting beasts when the herd does not turn against them, but this herd has a souped up tank that causes 90% of the damage in combat, so the NPCs tend to deal with him first.

On a roleplaying level, how can I address it? The party almost got annihilated and only survived because the NPCs got a little overconfident at the end.

Thanks!

 

[Savage Wombat]

My characters don't avoid combat - but I do have two that currently (and one chroniclly) is so afraid of HP damage that he'll Expertise/Fight Defensively to the point where he can't actually hit a monster. He won't get hit himself, but he's not really contributing to the defeat of the foes either -- unless I generously allow the monster to pound on that PC to no effect.

 

[Chimera]

The moment I saw the thread title, the image of the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz came into my head.

Thanks for the laugh.


One of the things I do as a GM is to ask the players why their characters stay together. If one PC isn't pulling his weight, is stealing from the group, is arguing all the time, or whatever, I have to stop and ask;

Why is so-and-so still a part of the group? Why do the rest of you adventure with him/her? Why do you trust that person with your life?

If the answer is only because that's the way Player X is playing the character, then I have to suggest that they stop travelling with that PC. This means either that the offending player comes up with a new PC, or the PC gets read the riot act and decides to reform.

 

[Mr. Kaze]

To be clear, I dislike going after PCs to prove a point.

Going after the ready target who is a nice full-charge action from the rest of the group isn't "going after a PC to prove a point." It's more like taking an attack of opportunity -- and your NPCs do that, right?

But the real question you need to ask yourself (and your other players) is "Is this character earning their share of XP? Are you comfortable taking an X% XP cut because this guy/gal is in the party? (Did you realize that this character is technically a CR X creature that you can kill for XP?)"

I had one player who built an under-performing character (Arcane/Divine Necromancer wannabe) who was little more than an XP drain for the rest of the party. That character just didn't work out as well as he'd hoped, for which he apologized repeatedly and profusely to the other players after a general lapse in the party's good judgement resulted in his character being the only viable survivor of an effective TPK. Suffice to say, after some scathing commentary from the other players, both I and the player had wished we'd removed the character from the party earlier. The problem wasn't really the player -- most of his other characters are much more capable, regardless of where they are on the battlefield.

Unless they're a wizard on the front lines underneath a fiendish dire lion because the fighters were milling around in back as they didn't think they could possibly contribute while the other half of the party was discussing the door to the left and ignoring the passageway to the right. I didn't pick him off, he was standing in front with naught to do but cast fireball at the kitties. The fighters' players were so traumatized by the fact that the people in the front of the party were dying while they were milling around waiting for fights to start (this was the second time somebody died in this sort of fashion) that they quit the game.

In the first situation, the other players hated having to give up their hard-won XP to somebody who wasn't doing anything and it would've been better if they'd just kicked him out of the party and picked up a different character. In the second situation, the players weren't interested in playing the same sort of challenging high-danger game as the other players (and the DM), so it was just as well the situation escalated to a breaking point.

But if, in your situation, everybody in the party thinks that the coward is still a valuable contributing member of the party and people aren't dying because he's hanging out on the back lines, then maybe it's okay. If it's not okay with them, then they shouldn't mind too much (that is, will be secretly elated) if your NPCs start laying hurt/charm/domination/etc on the stragglers.

::Kaze (notes that there's also a, what, -7 penalty to spot checks from 70'?)

 

[the_mighty_agrippa]

Said character is usually flying or something similar. That's usually just good tactics, but in this case, it's the default action for the character.

Ah... giving up. It's been 3+ years in roleplaying lite group. If they don't care, why should I?

 

[Tewligan]

Just ONE player? Must be nice. In the game I play in, it seems like everyone else in the group bends over backwards to avoid any possibility of ever taking any damage. Characters huddle in a corner far away from any door that's being opened, and agonize forever over what spell to cast or the potential dangers of a misplaced 5-foot step. In a recent HackMaster game, when an unpleasant beastie was unleashed, the fighter promptly scooted through a door and slammed it shut behind her, leaving other party members to fight the monster. The FIGHTER! There's something wrong when the thief has to take up the fighter's slack in combat. Sigh. Um, anyway, I have no useful advice for you. Even the harshest of mockings won't make those players change their wicked ways, I'm afraid. Sorry!

 

[milotha]

I was in a campaign in which one player always played a fraidykat. They were always at least 70ftaway from everyone and everything. They would always play a druid and turn into a bird and fly off. After a bit the GM began to subtley have things happen to the character that was either in the back, seperated from the party, or hiding from the adventure.

Try having monsters attack the isolated character, who will quickly get surrounded or overwhelmed. Try having the traps effect the person who is far way more. The celing of the halways collapses 10ft away from the door. If the player runs off from combat, have something else show up that they can't deal with. You won't have to do it everytime, but just do it enough to provide a negative reinforcement for being a fraidykat.

 

[Jeb McDonald]

A couple of thoughts regarding your fraidy cat PC--
1. (noted before)--Have the other PCs talk to the offending PC in character. If the group is putting their collective neck on the line, then why bother with the PC who runs away all of the time? If a PC doesn't watch my character's back, my character makes it very clear to that character his back won't be watched!
2. Send baddies in waves. Have the second wave of enemies show up after 2-3 rounds. This will give the helpful PCs a chance to get involved in combat and the fraidy-cat PC time to run away--right into the oncoming second wave of enemies!

 

[Hypersmurf]

In our group, it's a mythical connection with sorcerer levels.

I DM'd a sorcerer who, until 5th level, never took a single point of hit point damage. (He did take some subdual damage at 2nd level, but that was the Paladin punching him, so it didn't really count.) He finally took some damage when he opened a flask of alchemist's fire and sniffed...

We had a sorcerer in another party who would Mage Armor up at the slightest noise from outside the radius of the torch... who was always cowering at the back... etc, etc.

We had a half-orc barbarian who happily waded into combats with his greatsword... until he levelled up and took a level in sorcerer. And suddenly, he seemed horribly concerned for his own skin, and avoided melee.

And so, ever since then, when a PC starts acting like a wuss, he gets regaled with catcalls and "So - level of sorcerer coming up?"

Most recently, it was our paladin. 20 Strength half-orc. With a pansy longsword-and-shield combo, and never exactly displaying valour, courage, or any of those other paladinly aspects.

We finally sorted it out at a session the player couldn't attend, where the PC was run by committee. He ditched the shield, picked up a greatsword, took point, and solo'd a Bearded Devil (killing it with a greatsword attack from prone, on 0 hit points, having just been CLW'd awake from unconsciousness, and falling unconscious again).

So my suggestion for how to fix a wussy PC? Run a session without the player there, and present him on his return with his New Improved Brave PC as a fait accompli

-Hyp.

 

[Smokingmonkee]

We call them elves

In the games we play up here it seems that the entire elven race is made up of cowards. The strange thing is I have found this in multiple groups and different PC's doing it. So now when a non-elf acts cowardly our favourite insult is "your ears are looking a little pointy, eh?"