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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Uller" data-source="post: 327474" data-attributes="member: 413">Incorrect.  I will ALWAYS allow a player to drop skills, feats and spells if they go unused for extended periods of time so long as changes are small and slow to happen.  That's the general rule because it makes sense to me and sort of reflects real life a bit.  I encourage my players to take advantage of it if they wish because I do the same with the NPCs.  You misunderstood my "Probably Not" statements because I was applying it to your example of allowing a Rogue who picks pockets all the time to suddenly drop that skill.  I would not allow that.  He would have to almost never use pick pockets in order to reduce his ranks to apply them to something he uses often.  I probably won't allow him to completely drop pick-pockets to represent that he still knows how to do it if only on a subconscious level.  There are some things that I would not allow to be changed in this manner.  For example, a cleric can't up and change his diety or his domain.    A Druid can't just decide she'd rather have a Wolverine for an animal companion than her bear.  She'd have to go find a wolverine.I will always allow players who made a mistake for whatever reason to swap something around if it is impacting the fun of the group.  This is not so much a general rule, but has come up from time to time.  I do it on a case by case basis.  Usually it is not an issue.  None of my players have ever whined or thrown any sort of fit over this (what kind of people do you game with?  They must be horrible if you feel like you must guard against whining and hissy fits!).  But when a player says something like "My character is so ineffective" game after game, I'll sit down with him and help him make adjustments.  More often than not, this is advice on how to play more effectively.  But sometimes, changes are warranted.  Hopefully we find in-game explations for such changes but since it's just a game, I don't really care. I make no distinction between experienced or inexperienced players.  Both can make mistakes.  Either way, I don't think the DM taking a "You made your bed..." stance with an unhappy player to be very productive.  That's a great way for me to teach my kids about the consequences of their actions in real-life, but I'm not trying to teach wisdom to my players...I'm trying to simply have fun.The way I look at it, the PC is the domain of the player.  It's all they've really got control over.  I try to give them the same power over their PCs that I have over everything else.   If I see a part of my game world is not working out, I'll twist it around a bit behind the scenes to make it more fun.  I want the players to have fun, so I let them to a bit of the same.  I'm not about to give them everything they ask for.  Life is still very hard on my PCs and they have to struggle through most adventures just to survive.   In the end that's what makes things really fun and keeps people coming back for more.  Especially if they feel like their character made a difference.</blockquote>

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