Not-so-adventurous character types?

[QuaziquestGM]

It depends on if the other players are jerks/powergamers or not. By this I mean the type of player who use metagame knowledge to judge the usefulness of other players' characters instead of what the pc has actually accomplished in game.

In one group I was running a multiclassed adept/witch as a replacement pc. The GM let slip what the class mix was and a couple of the other players started complaining about deadweight. Nevermind that she (and that was also part of the problem) spent less time knocked out than the rogue, could heal, bless, and pop out an unexpected burning hands on occation. The adept was supposed to be substandard. Never mind that they didn't understand the substandard part only becomes apparent after level 1. Never mind that she saved another party member and talked her way past a cr7 monster, and heal checked away thier illnesses, she was dead weight.

But she didn't die. And then she took a level of Sorc for level 3. "level one wonder" Then they started complaining that thier healer/arcanist didn't have magic missile. They didn't even stop complaing about that after her Magic Weapon spell let them take down a flesh golem. Damage over time > auto hit vrs DR/magic just didn't click with them.

I play with different people now who are more RP oriented and can run pentuple classed casters (with a level of rogue too) with no complaints and even some admiration.

If you have any people with a power/metagaming problem, I'd suggest ACTING like the pc has a BAB of +5 for the first combat and then maybe they will let you run your own pc.

 

[Maldor]

whats skills are you wanting and can you not get them all off a hero class.

in the group i'm in we did have a character that was dead wight the xp was getting split up and she did nothing but this wasn't becuase of her class pick fanally we told her to shape up or ship out

 

[Peni Griffin]

Moogle, I wanna play with that player!

It really is all about play. I've known people who couldn't run a 20th level PC class with every magic item slot filled with carefully coordinated and maxed custom items effectively, and others who could do memorable stuff running a commoner with a dagger. I once ran a GURPS character who was a pacifist scientific naturalist in a party full of knights, Vikings, and other adventuring types, and she always had plenty to do.

I find that power and excitement exist in inverse relationship to eachother; the more obviously powerful the PCs, the harder it is to give them anything interesting to do. Someday when I have a lot of more liesure than I've got now I'd like to start off a d20 game with all NPC classes, so that they could be challenged by the kinds of things that challenge us in real life. Sharks, tigers, big guys with pointy sticks, that kind of thing. Advancement past first level would depend on developments in the campaign. I'd just like to see if you can maintain a low (and therefore interesting) power level with the d20 system, or if the nature of the beast is so power-oriented that going to different systems is the only way to get a different experience.

 

[ThirdWizard]

I never really understood the draw of picking one or the other when you can go for both combat prowess and skill ability. Why spend half the game bored and half the game doing something useful when you could be useful all the time?