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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hastur_nz" data-source="post: 7196667" data-attributes="member: 40592">One thing, regardless of edition, is that as DM you are best focusing on preparing and running the adventures, and giving the players as much agency as possible in terms of creating and running their characters.  That's why most people have now moved away from "roll stats in order", because it forces some players into playing something they most likely would never have chosen to if they had more agency.  For example the Warlock described here, and the overall balance of classes.  Anyway, what's done is done...You could certainly run this campaign as a short one, wrap it up at say the end of 4th level, then do a re-start, now that you've all learned more about how 5e works.  While we all love to keep a campaign going as long as possible, and players love to plan ahead on character development, a completely fresh start could be exactly what you all need, sooner rather than later.  It's certainly worth discussing with the players, at some stage - would people enjoy a change to re-start at level 1, maybe also changing the PC generation method, and any other tweaks you've all thought of now you're getting the hang of 5e more.  This is actually my most highly recommended course of action.Regardless, I'd personally recommend you don't try and fix all the players' problems, helping them too much will make them lazy and won't increase anyone's enjoyment.  As you say, they are learning lots, maybe often the hard way, but that's OK, and people learn much better when they are making their own choices, rather than be spoon-fed answers by someone else.  By all means ask them questions about their approach to their problems especially if you think they are sub-par, but give them time and space to have actual decision points and make their own considered decisions.  Let them learn by experience, and don't punish them for trying stuff as they learn.  For example don't ambush them and/or force them into fights, and when fights do break out don't always optimise the terrain and monsters in ways that actively play to the group's weaknesses.  Maybe give them the odd helpful hint in terms of team tactics / spells, but really they should be working that stuff out themselves eventually, it's not the DM's job to play the group's PC's.As you say, they have already got two new PC's in play, hopefully they gave some thought as to what the group was missing, but if they were forced to roll in order, aren't you taking away their ability to do much about it, e.g. say they know they need a 'tank', but roll low Str and Con and Dex - what then?  Would you allow someone to actively switch out a PC for a different one in order to help the group have more fun, and if not, why not?  Personally my players love a long-running campaign, but they also love creating a new group as a mix of team and individual effort - generally the discussion goes something like "what ideas for characters do we have", they see if there is a decent mix or at least no huge overlaps, but ultimately most people's initial ideas are what they play (some people always have too many ideas, so are happy to play whatever the group needs more).  As a player I often retire a PC before it dies because the current one has played itself out and the group would be better off with something different; I've also had a few players do the same (sometimes early on, sometimes after a long time).  I've only ever seen games where stats were rolled in order once or twice many years ago, and I don't remember it increasing the fun for anyone.</blockquote>

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