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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 6177324" data-attributes="member: 1165">There was a thread I participated in on the Paizo board a month or two ago, in which a relatively new player built a bard/something not related to a bard (level 2 total character), in other words a really weak character, and showed up at Pathfinder Society with that. This isn't an edition thing, by the way, you can easily make a weak character in 3.x (many monks) or a really weak hybrid character in 4e.Maybe the poster was trolling, though. Many players didn't like the idea of running with a PC who couldn't contribute much and wouldn't even pass an interview to join the group (like in many organized play scenarios, the DM and players have no choice about who they play with), and many DMs didn't like the idea of trying to balance encounters for such a PC either.Furthermore, while D&D is a flexible game where you can "play what you want", you actually don't get to do that. Not for long anyway. You need to play something that suits your adventuring group. In many cases, this could mean design a character concept, then show it to the DM ahead of time so they can tell what you need to do to have a contributing PC. (A friend of mine told me she wanted to play a "Disney princess" in a Pathfinder game, a druid/bard combo, so she was basically a bard who could talk/sing to animals. Another weak PC. She's often not serious.) I'm not a Pathfinder guru, but I told her what sort of reaction she'd face (incredibly negative) and suggested she look up archetypes for the bard (greensinger? I dunno) that could let her accomplish this.Having an incredibly weak PC is just as bad as having a ridiculously powerful PC.Suppose someone came to my group and told me they wanted to play a master thief. No sneak attack, just lots of social skills and Thievery. They've effectively developed a kender handler without the insanity. I would tell them they have designed a non-adventuring character and can't participate in the adventure as a PC. Naturally someone would say "you're not letting them play your character, and treating your playstyle as superior to theirs", which is fair enough. They can take their playstyle to another group, assuming they could find one that suits them. (Note: This never actually happened to me.)</blockquote>

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