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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Henry" data-source="post: 2960575" data-attributes="member: 158">First of all, the "niche player" is what <a href="http://www.warehouse23.com/item.cgi?SJG3009" target="_blank">Robin Laws</a> calls a "specialist." It's not a bad thing to identify your players' strengths and play to them. Note that while it's possible for a person to radically play against type and enjoy it, it's more likely that they will hate it. If you want some variety, it's possible to suggest to them new base or prestige classes that offer many of the same strengths as the classes they favor, and get them to expand their options slightly, a bit at the time.However, as A DM, you need to look on their desire for being specialists as a blessing in disguise. Unlike many DM's, you already know:--What the new party's strengths and weaknesses will be--What they're probably going to do in a given encounter, heck, down to the LAST PERSON'S ACTIONS!--What kinds of missions they'll excel at, and what they'll suck at.These things allow you a heck of a lot more pre-planning that having a group who varies dramatically.Me, I have players of many stripes. Two of these players love to play by type; one player will play roguish, or scoutish, or ninja-ish characters every chance he gets, subject to what supplements I allow. He LOVES sneaking in, and surprising the enemy and laying waste as fast as possible before getting out quickly. I try every session I can, to give him a chance to do that.One other player loves to play what our group loving terms "greedy bastards." Every single game, his character is the one who wonders, "what do we get paid for this." "How much can we get for the beholder eyes?" "How many monetary favors can we curry as payment for this mission?" Icentive for him is amazingly easy - offer loot, or the promise of loot, and he's off to the races. He's Han Solo from the first Star Wars movie. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />THe important thing, more than seeing more playing against type, is making players happy by appealing to their "emotional kick". The guy who loves to roleplay in character? Give him the (brief and easily solvable) moral dilemma. The girl who loves deep plot and story? Give her the convoluted mystery with snippets of clues found along the adventure path. The guy who is a Head-basher? It's easy to fix his needs. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />If you want more out of your play experience, I'd offer them one-shots with pre-gens every once in a while, to shake things up, give them a chance to try other classes, and they might just find something they like. without committing to a character for several sessions.</blockquote>

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