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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 4134526" data-attributes="member: 19675">An amusing trap for the unwary is this: sometimes you get your players' PCs and your own PC's capabilites & resources mixed up.Like I said, we rotate DMing duties in my small group, and we have our DMPCs available when DMing...and also when we sit on the other side of the screen, of course.However, once we were in an adventure and the party (sans any DMPCs, for once) was utterly stymied.  We couldn't figure out a way past a certain magical barrier.  Eventually, we turned back.At the end of the evening, the DM asked us why we didn't cast "X" spell- we responded that nobody in the party had access to "X."  Convinced we didn't know what we were talking about, he examined the sheets of the PCs used that evening...then we checked out his main PC.His PC was the one and only PC who could cast "X."  (As a player, he was and still is loathe to share character resources, even when it makes sense.  Not only is his PC still the only one who can cast "X," he's being similarly stingy in a campaign with another group.)Moral:  If you do use a DMPC, make sure that you don't write adventures or scenarios in which the DMPC is neccessarily the hero of the moment.  Its fine for him to hold onto "the McGuffin" for a while, but don't make him the "Chosen One*" who is the only one who can actually use it.* Except as subterfuge, of course- its OK if you make the players believe your DMPC is some kind of Golden Child if you're setting him up, and that his exalted status is just a precursor to extreme jeopardy of some kind...like the Chosen One must be sacrificed the dawn following the ritual of using the McGuffin.</blockquote>

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