Lame-O Characters in Your Party

[Numion]

One dude in our group played a monk for 16 levels, and the PC was very ineffective. Flurry of blows became flurry of misses. He almost never accomplished anything, but I guess the player showed up every time eager to play. He didn't even RP it much.

I guess you just have those kind of hanger-ons in the group sometimes. They like to play, but don't play much. Or something.

 

[diaglo]

how about the gamer who watches TV, plays video games, or sleeps until it is his turn in combat. and even then he isn't paying attention until he is reminded a half dozen times to roll the dice.

i've met my fair share in the last 3 years of discount gamers. they are a dime a dozen.

it takes some doing to gather a decent group. believe you... me...

 

[the_mighty_agrippa]

We had a real doofus who couldn't tell the difference between a d12 and a d20 for a while.

One game I was in, the mage threw his magic missile dice at the minis - or at you, if you were his target. Lesson learned: RP geek < Haymaker.

 

[spunky_mutters]

I prefer my players to roleplay before rolling on diplomacy, bluff, etc. I will accept a description of the strategy being used in lieu of actual talking, but I will not usually accept dice rolling. If I do it's because I really don't care about role-playing that particular encounter (with a generic guard, merchant, etc.), and the real-time clock is ticking.

 

[MarauderX]

I think I am the weak link in one game I am in now.

Wiz1/Fighter2/Monk3. He was built around the gimmick of the feat Great Throw, but for whatever reason he hasn't been able to toss anyone as of yet, at least not while I was there. He took the fighter levels for the HP, BAB and feats, the wizard to have someone who can create scrolls as well as read arcane magic in the party, and cast mage armor on himself to enhance his ultra-poor AC. In the last fight his attempt to toss down an enemy was met by him getting tossed to the ground, surrounded, and pummeled into unconciousness. His only help to the party was to distract the 3 baddies from the others. Now his only gimmick is his speed (40') so he can run away.

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

Five sessions into a game, I finally found out that this one girl was playing a rogue. Not because she got in a sneak attack, or picked a lock, or disarmed a trap, or anything like that, but because someone said something like "okay, so we'll wait here at the inn for the rogue to finish what she's doing and come meet us." I looked around the table and said, "there's a rogue?"

 

[Ogre Mage]

Lame-O Characters in your party

We had a ranger who insisted on fighting with nunchaku and darts. He actually wasted a FEAT so he could fight with nunchaku. Yes, you heard me correctly. Why he couldn't use a real weapon and a longbow is beyond me.

In our current group, we have not one lame-o character, but two. It's so bad that our 5th level party struggles against CR 5 monsters!!!

We have a fighter with with STR 11 and CON 13 but CHA 17!! He wanted to be different. His difference is that he can't hit for $h!*, can't deal damage for $h!* (average 4.5/hit) and goes down if he gets hit by a dart!! He is supposed to be a DEX based fighter. Why, then, did he waste a feat on weapon finesse when he INSISTS ON FIGHTING WITH A LONGSWORD AND REFUSES TO USE A RAPIER EVEN AFTER OUR DM GAVE HIM A MASTERWORK RAPIER FOR FREE!!!! He left it behind!!

We also have a cleric with the following stats:

STR 11
DEX 10
CON 12
INT 16
WIS 14
CHA 10

Our DM looked at these stats and suggested the player remake the character using 32 point buy. He declined. This character does the dumbest things ever. He is human and doesn't have the blindfighting feat but memorizes darkness multiple times and then casts it on himself and tries to run around so the enemies "won't hit him." Also, as you noticed, his STR and CON is similar to our fighter, so he is useless in a fight. For some reason, he took the feat MWP: Glaive. Even though he has a strength of 11 and is known to cast darkness on himself and run around in circles.

*Tries to stop from screaming*

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I have had problems with mages in my campaigns (and in another one) recently.

We have this one guy who always plays sorcerers. Always has a low Charisma score (eg 16 at 15th-level). He always has a high Strength and Dex and uses melee weapons ... but has low Con, refuses to use buffing spells except mass enlarge person ... he died in my high-level campaign but gets lucky in other campaigns.

Once he saved our butts in melee as a 3rd-level sorcerer ... but we had to convince him to sit still and let us heal his 1 hit point behind! (He got smacked down early in the combat.)

He also tells us that the DM should roll for falling damage when he jumps out a window! Um, anyway...

Okay, I've had two other wizards in my high-level campaign. It's 28 point buy, so some of these issues are my fault.

The effective wizard decided to nerf his Dex (to 13) and Wisdom (to 8) to get an Int 18 and a high Con (being a gnome and all). I wasn't too happy about that, but it was my fault for not using the default 28 point buy. The only real worry is his sunburst spell, since it can blind multiple opponents and has a good save DC because of his high Int. Oh yeah, and apparently his opponents are blinded forever (even he agreed I should nerf the spell).

The other wizard was only there for one session. Like the above wizard he's pretty smart and uses tactics ... even when I had to remind him about the haste nerf. Alas, he picked low physical stats (all three) to boost his physical stats, and so has low hp, AC, Reflex and Fort saves ... seriously, if he were to fight a prepared enemy he would die quickly.

I've done this myself too, of course. I played a ranger in a low-level campaign. Foolishly, I chose Weapon Finesse instead of Precise Shot at 1st-level. I'm getting close to 3rd-level and am still regretting the decision. I will definitely take Precise Shot at 3rd-level. Definitely.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

For some reason I can't edit my posts...

I meant to say that the default point buy is 25.

 

[ForceUser]

Lame-O characters. Well, not so much lame characters as a player who makes some pretty poor decisions and inevitably gets his character killed. In a single campaign, which has only run for about six months (playing twice a month) at this point, here's his track record:

• First character. 1st-level Paladin. Happened to be the lowest level PC in the group, but didn't know it. In the first combat encounter of the campaign, the party (six PCs, average level: 2rd) stumbles across an angry owlbear in the wilderness. The Paladin's player, winning the initiative, thinks to himself: "The DM would never throw a monster at us that we couldn't handle!" He charges the owlbear and misses. The creature happens to go next on initiative - claw - claw - DEAD. Go figure.
• Second character. Now the player is running a lightly-armored fighter with scimitar, buckler, and chain shirt. He's 3rd level (average party level: 4th). The party, bolstered temporarily by three NPC adventurers (total characters: 9), is attacked by a pair of trolls. The Fighter has the misfortune of happening to be in the path of one of the charging giants, which wounds him badly. Does he back off from the front lines, back to the healer? No! He heroically stands tall against the troll. Claw - claw - REND - dead fighter. Tragic.
• THIRD CHARACTER. We're on our third character here. He's up to 4th level by attrition, playing a Fighter 2/Ranger 2 dual-wielder type (average party level: 5th). In a stunning coincidence, the party is attacked by a pair of owlbears. The owlbear he is fighting happens to be blinded by a well-placed glitterdust, as well as stuck in a thorny patch of trees. Rolling randomly, the owlbear swings at his square, connects, does damage and pulls him into a grapple. Grappled, he can only use his short sword - obviously, a disadvantaged position. The Wizard, cleverly played, notes the predicament and casts grease on the Ftr/Rng's armor, giving him a +10 to his next Escape Artist check. On his action, does the player wriggle free to continue hacking away in relative safety at the blinded beast?
  
  NO!
  
  He fights on, grappled, with his short sword, defying the greased escape route! And what happens on the owlbear's next action? You guessed it - CLAW - CLAW - BITE - DEAD.
  
  Except I couldn't do it. I saw the look on his face, the resignation of yet another character death. I discovered that I simply couldn't be that hard-hearted, so I flubbed the final damage roll, and he lived. Just barely. Afterward the Wizard's player chastised him roundly in-character, and after the session the whole group gave him all sorts of tactical advice.