Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 6474095" data-attributes="member: 177">It is a game, and people playing a game want to do well in the game.&nbsp; Players are typically pretty smart, and they will see the decent strategies pretty quickly.So, if you don't want them optimizing on specific combat role focuses, you will need to make it so that doing so is not a winning strategy.&nbsp; If the Fighter is never required to *know* things, then he will not develop knowledge skills.&nbsp; If the wizard never needs to climb things, he won't worry about building up his athletic ability, and so on.It is not enough for the GM to say, &quot;I *want* the characters to be well-rounded.&quot;&nbsp; What you, the GM, wants in the characters is kind of secondary - they aren't *your* characters after all.&nbsp; And it isn't exactly fair to the players to make them create well-rounded characters that then kind of suck in actual play.&nbsp; If you put forth that well-rounded characters are what will be in the game, you then have to back that up with situations that call for it.When was the last time you had an adventure in which the fighter needed to know things, and another character with greater knowledge skill wasn't around to answer the question?&nbsp; How do you make it so the characters need a skill themselves, and cannot reasonably lean on each other for support?&nbsp; Do you *want* it so that they don't lean on each other for support?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 6474095, member: 177"] It is a game, and people playing a game want to do well in the game. Players are typically pretty smart, and they will see the decent strategies pretty quickly. So, if you don't want them optimizing on specific combat role focuses, you will need to make it so that doing so is not a winning strategy. If the Fighter is never required to *know* things, then he will not develop knowledge skills. If the wizard never needs to climb things, he won't worry about building up his athletic ability, and so on. It is not enough for the GM to say, "I *want* the characters to be well-rounded." What you, the GM, wants in the characters is kind of secondary - they aren't *your* characters after all. And it isn't exactly fair to the players to make them create well-rounded characters that then kind of suck in actual play. If you put forth that well-rounded characters are what will be in the game, you then have to back that up with situations that call for it. When was the last time you had an adventure in which the fighter needed to know things, and another character with greater knowledge skill wasn't around to answer the question? How do you make it so the characters need a skill themselves, and cannot reasonably lean on each other for support? Do you *want* it so that they don't lean on each other for support? [/QUOTE]

Verification