Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
PC refusing to play a higher level character to start...
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 459778" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>One question:</p><p></p><p>*why* will he only play a first level character?</p><p></p><p>Because he thinks it looses story and plotline? Because he likes to be weak?</p><p></p><p>There a few things you may be able to do:</p><p></p><p>*Powerful races. If he doesn't want a high-level character, he can have a high HD monster as a race. Just hook up with some advice on ECL's on these boards, and you should be good to go: low levels, and he's not that much weaker than the rest (by ECL +14, those guys BETTER be getting some monster hit dice, or I have bigger doubts about the ECL idea than I thought....)</p><p></p><p>*Let him write the tale of his adventuerer *until* he met the PC's. If he's not a 1st level character, he's been through some adventures before, and bringing in an already-seasoned adventurer could help him get over that "realism" hump. Certainly, the PC's aren't the most powerful people in the world? Develop this guy like an NPC, and then have him join the party. Is he a well-known swordsman? Is he a slayer of dragons from a kingdom over? A mysterious traveler from beyond the sea? An elderly elf who has seen twenty wars already? If he's as big a drama queen as you're making him sound, this should be his dream: he gets to legally make up any convoluted novella he wants about his character. As the DM, you can use this for plot hooks or just say that you might. Either way, he's not playing a budding adventuerer. He's playing someone who's a hero already, whose interests mesh with the party's.</p><p></p><p>*Give him a template. Might add a bit of resilience to him, so that it won't be so easily to accidentally kill him (or at least no easier than it would be to any other character). Make him a were-something, or an undead or a half-golem or whatever your imagination can concoct. It could be incapacitating ("Sorry, you're a zombie, new PC time! But you can't walk out, because I didn't kill your old one..."), or just something to give him a slight edge he may not have right now.</p><p></p><p>*Let him play his 1st level nobody...but make him a prince or something, perhaps a budding celestial or the reincarnation of some important figure. He can go on adventures, and he's likely to survive...and then just level him up like nobody's business (the XP that a 15th level party gets should bump him up helluh-fast).</p><p></p><p>Seriously, it's a bit tough to stop him from doing something you don't like if I don't know the motive behind it...</p><p></p><p>Either way, don't be forced to play with him. There are probably methods that will stop it from going that far, but sometimes two people's idea of how to have fun with an RPG just don't mesh. I mean, I may be friends with a Vampire LARPer, but, dude, I ain't gonna have fun doing that, you depressed whackjob. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>Yeah, try having him play potent races or meshing with the story.</p><p></p><p>Or, if you're really getting annoyed, here's a plan: afflict his character with a template. Say, make him a Werebear or a Vampire or something. Something that'll up his power without discarding his original character. If you're really a RAT BASTARD DM, I'd either make his character undead ("hey, you said don't kill your character, and I didn't....permenantly..."), or give him some sort of incapaciting injury that doesn't kill him. ("you're not dead, but with Wisdom as a nonability, you're technically an object. I'm affraid you'll have to create a character that will work")</p><p></p><p>I guess the main issue is that he shouldn't simultaneously be insiting on playing a weak character and then forbidding you from killing said weaking. That's the risk of playing a low-level character, dood. Suck it up, and stop yer whining, candy-bottom. <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=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 459778, member: 2067"] One question: *why* will he only play a first level character? Because he thinks it looses story and plotline? Because he likes to be weak? There a few things you may be able to do: *Powerful races. If he doesn't want a high-level character, he can have a high HD monster as a race. Just hook up with some advice on ECL's on these boards, and you should be good to go: low levels, and he's not that much weaker than the rest (by ECL +14, those guys BETTER be getting some monster hit dice, or I have bigger doubts about the ECL idea than I thought....) *Let him write the tale of his adventuerer *until* he met the PC's. If he's not a 1st level character, he's been through some adventures before, and bringing in an already-seasoned adventurer could help him get over that "realism" hump. Certainly, the PC's aren't the most powerful people in the world? Develop this guy like an NPC, and then have him join the party. Is he a well-known swordsman? Is he a slayer of dragons from a kingdom over? A mysterious traveler from beyond the sea? An elderly elf who has seen twenty wars already? If he's as big a drama queen as you're making him sound, this should be his dream: he gets to legally make up any convoluted novella he wants about his character. As the DM, you can use this for plot hooks or just say that you might. Either way, he's not playing a budding adventuerer. He's playing someone who's a hero already, whose interests mesh with the party's. *Give him a template. Might add a bit of resilience to him, so that it won't be so easily to accidentally kill him (or at least no easier than it would be to any other character). Make him a were-something, or an undead or a half-golem or whatever your imagination can concoct. It could be incapacitating ("Sorry, you're a zombie, new PC time! But you can't walk out, because I didn't kill your old one..."), or just something to give him a slight edge he may not have right now. *Let him play his 1st level nobody...but make him a prince or something, perhaps a budding celestial or the reincarnation of some important figure. He can go on adventures, and he's likely to survive...and then just level him up like nobody's business (the XP that a 15th level party gets should bump him up helluh-fast). Seriously, it's a bit tough to stop him from doing something you don't like if I don't know the motive behind it... Either way, don't be forced to play with him. There are probably methods that will stop it from going that far, but sometimes two people's idea of how to have fun with an RPG just don't mesh. I mean, I may be friends with a Vampire LARPer, but, dude, I ain't gonna have fun doing that, you depressed whackjob. ;) Yeah, try having him play potent races or meshing with the story. Or, if you're really getting annoyed, here's a plan: afflict his character with a template. Say, make him a Werebear or a Vampire or something. Something that'll up his power without discarding his original character. If you're really a RAT BASTARD DM, I'd either make his character undead ("hey, you said don't kill your character, and I didn't....permenantly..."), or give him some sort of incapaciting injury that doesn't kill him. ("you're not dead, but with Wisdom as a nonability, you're technically an object. I'm affraid you'll have to create a character that will work") I guess the main issue is that he shouldn't simultaneously be insiting on playing a weak character and then forbidding you from killing said weaking. That's the risk of playing a low-level character, dood. Suck it up, and stop yer whining, candy-bottom. :) [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
PC refusing to play a higher level character to start...
Top