Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="ForceUser" data-source="post: 1232941" data-attributes="member: 2785">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:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">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.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">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.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">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.</li> </ul></blockquote>

Verification