Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go right now!

[Dannyalcatraz]

Do you ever see Players hold back or delay when their action or abilities aren’t needed? Do you, personally, hold back or delay when you aren’t really needed?

Yep, all the time, to both questions.

Nearly everyone in my current game group- a combined gaming experience pool of at least 160 years- delays or holds when they can't do anything when they come to the fore in the combat round cycle.

Its one of the factors by which we avoid the "15 Minute Workday," as I've mentioned several times.

 

[Hussar]

My players tend to be like Bullgrit's over the years. Given the choice between sitting and doing nothing and doing anything, they'll generally take "doing anything" or at the most, delaying to later in the round to do something.

A round for us takes about 10 minutes (7 players including myself) so, I cannot blame anyone for wanting to do SOMETHING every ten minutes after watching the game for half an hour.

 

[fba827]

I've seen some players like that. But I've seen other players that aren't like that.

Me, personally, if I can't think of something quickly (or want to see a certain reaction), I tend to delay in fact, I hate having high initiative for that reason.

I have no problem waiting a round or two (but, at the same time, I should point out that I am an active watcher even when it's not my turn as I try and figure out what's going on, so my mind isn't wandering or bored)

If I don't have any offense type options available, and delaying wouldn't change much then I just go for aid another (to boost someone else's attack or defense) or go on total defense, or just move (under the premise that i'm "guarding the door" since I'm not going to be effect/needed for whatever else is going on)

But, yeah, as said, I have seen the other type of player as well
(Heck, if you catch me in certain moods, I can be that other type of player too).

 

[timbannock]

Do you ever see Players hold back or delay when their action or abilities aren’t needed? Do you, personally, hold back or delay when you aren’t really needed?

I've seen players hold off when their abilities didn't seem immediately useful, or the action they intended was no longer valid. Usually this is because I play with stubborn @$$e$ though, so they'd rather mope and pout than have to reconsider their actions. Sad but true.

I very rarely see my players make good use of the Delay and Ready type actions in various games, because of this.

I however, love these tactics. I don't use them enough (mainly because I'm the DM usually), but I do use them when I remember to. I tend to do this automatically as a DM, though, utilizing such actions in order to "combo" against my players and make them really hurt. It surprises me everytime when the Players go "How'd they do that!??" and I just refer to them to the Ready and Delay maneuvers.

Boneheads!

 

[Lord Pendragon]

I recall a game in which our wizard ran out of spells, and then desperately threw his bedroll at the water elemental in hopes of soaking up some the water.

This is the kind of behavior I try to promote in my games, and perform in the games in which I play.

In D&D, actions are your most precious resource. Letting them go to waste is a tactical sin, IMO. That doesn't always mean you have a choice in the matter. But when it comes down to it, Caudor's wizard is at least trying to help defeat the party's enemies, rather than letting an action slip through his fingers.

Note that I'm not advocating foolishly expending unnecessary resources. But it's quite a leap from blowing your most powerful dailies to standing around doing nothing.

 

[Felon]

Well, characters standing around doing is kind of at the far opposite end of the spectrum from "gotta go, gotta go right now". I prefer the happy medium where people act based on necessity.

My group has a guy who always plays martial types, and he always wants to charge right in to thick of battle. Of course, that constantly gets in the way of the arcane classes who want to toss AoE's but only have AoE's that target "all creatures" instead of "all enemies" (that's the burden of the arcane power source). So, it's getting to the point where we just shrug and blast him too.

Another player had a paladin who I was trying to ask to hold off from charging a really tough opponent (an owl bear) that I wanted to drop a control effect on. I was trying to coordinate a plan of action with him, but he got miffed that discussing tactics was slowing the game down, so he just moved his five squares and passed his turn to me. He died fighting that owl bear, along with another character. I hope he learned something.

 

[Victim]

It can useful to reorder initiative to allow allies a chance to move out of area blasts, set up flanks, not have the most vulnerable person move up front right before the monster's turn, etc.

OTOH, actions are resources too. You don't want to squander them. Reordering turns to gain an extra benefit can really useful. But something has to be pretty special to be worth a complete pass (or equivalent).

 

[dm4hire]

I've a player I play with who if his character can't hit the target or he feels he isn't doing anything will have the character just quit fighting. One time he had the character just start meditating right in the middle of the battle and when everyone asked him what he was doing with the character he replied, "I have nothing that will damage them so my character is just going to meditate."

 

[Victim]

I've a player I play with who if his character can't hit the target or he feels he isn't doing anything will have the character just quit fighting. One time he had the character just start meditating right in the middle of the battle and when everyone asked him what he was doing with the character he replied, "I have nothing that will damage them so my character is just going to meditate."

Defeatism like that pisses me off.

In one game, our paladin was Enervated a few times fighting a vampire necromancer. So, with something like -7 attack, he had problems hitting. And then complained of not being able to do anything.

Of course, a lot of her AC was coming from a 3.0 shield spell, so he could do a lot to improve his chances of hitting with effective movement. He had a Decanter of Endless Water, which could hose down a vampire for something like 1/3rd of its HP every round. His Lay on Hands carried enough charge to obliterate her, and could be delivered via a nice touch attack (feasible even with penalties).

Yeah, he was useless alright.

 

[Wycen]

One of the reasons I love DnD and playing a spellcaster specifically is to try to find something to do when there is nothing you can do.

Typically, if I'm standing around doing nothing it is because of various elements which I may have no control over:

1. we have too many people in the party and I'm redundant

2. the battle is dragging too long and I've exhausted supplies

3. the battle is dragging and I'm too low on hit points or in a bad position (ex. the gargoyle attack in Here There Be Monsters - I had single digit HP, was prone, with a gargoyle over my body who was fighting the last standing party member - though you might consider this self preservation, since I was playing dead)

4. I've lost interest in what is going on (ex. the final battle with Kalarel)

5. I'm waiting for just "the perfect moment" to use an area effect spell or something similar

6. The most dispicable of reasons, is I'm plotting against the rest of the group

7. But getting back to the first thing I said, if I'm finding I can't influence the battle without limited risk of harm, then I might try to find a use for that scroll of Grease I've been saving.