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Message: <blockquote data-quote="paigeoliver" data-source="post: 5051879" data-attributes="member: 45758">I think ineffective characters were a much larger problem in 3.x D&D than they were in 4th edition. In 3.x D&D it is very easy to make an ineffective character (much harder than in 4th edition). Many newbie players would fall into various PHB build traps, while even veteran players would routinely show up with worthless characters who "will be totally awesome at 11th level".I played the RPGA Living Greyhawk campaign for years at conventions and game days and really got to see a lot of ineffective characters in action. So many that I had classifications for them.The ArcherThe archer was usually a fairly low level character (under 6th), who primarily uses a bow in combat. These characters never had archery feats and rarely had a dex higher than 12 or a base attack bonus higher than that of a wizard (normally worse). The average action of one of these characters was to fire their (non-masterwork, non-composite) bow or crossbow into a target in melee who had cover, usually rolling at a bodacious final total of -4 to -5 once attack bonuses and penalties are accounted for.The archer is usually a "will be awesome at 11th level character" but is also commonly a "my friend built my character and I don't understand the build" character.Diplomacy!!This character is designed to take advantage of the rather poorly designed diplomacy rules. This character is normally an 18 charisma half-elf who might very well enter into a prestige class before even gaining a BAB. All feats, spells and other character options are directly related to that all important diplomacy check. In combat this character attempts to convert his enemies using diplomacy while all his allies are attacking them.The diplomacy character normally belongs to a veteran player who wants to do "something different".The Dwarf (Or "Don't forget to Power Attack Timmy!")This character is invariably a dwarf fighter played by a younger boy (10-13 normally) who has a mother or father playing as well. The dwarf always has a 20 constitution and a 12 dexterity and probably only has a strength of 14 despite the fact that they are a front line fighter. The dwarf has toughness, improved toughness, diehard, a tower shield, and is highly likely to have defensive magical gear even though they may be as high as 6th level and still not have a magic weapon. The dwarf spends his combat rounds whiffing again and again while the parents prompt them to power attack for full. Even when the character hits the damage isn't all that impressive since they have lowish strengths and wield a one handed weapon.The Dwarf is invariably designed by the parent to be unkillable even if it makes him pretty useless. The parent often plays a cleric who will walk past allies who are bleeding out in order to heal the dwarf that has lost 10 of his 60 hit points.The HalflingThe halfling is a pretty basic halfling rogue character with two major flaws. The first is that they have no strength bonus (and often have a penalty), the second is that they chose to waste their feats on the spring attack tree rather than the two weapon fighting one. Spring Attack is at the heart an anti-social feat, as it basically redirects attacks to your allies rather than defending against them directly. The halfling isn't capable of doing damage outside of sneak attack and even their sneak attack is unremarkable as their choice of spring attack severely cuts down on the number of attacks they can make. One might say that the two weapon fighting rogue has a -2 penalty, but the spring attack rogue simply redirects that penalty onto an ally (by continually springing into and then out of a flank that they enjoy the bonus of but not their ally).The MonkThis character is a monk and the player attempts to compensate for the weaknesses of the class rather than playing to its strengths. The result is something that plays out similar to "The Halfling" except with a lower armor class and even less damage. A significant fraction of these are multiclassed with a spellcasting class and spend their first round casting something to improve their armor class (which still ends up being rather unimpressive).The TheurgeThis character is preparing for any one of the half dozen classes that require dual casting but they aren't there yet and suffer from all the drawbacks of split casters with none of the benefits. Those that try for the less MAD route of Favored Soul/Sorcerer are even worse as they can be 6th level and still be casting 1st level spells.There are about a dozen more of these, but I am tired of typing them.</blockquote>

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