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<blockquote data-quote="Reynard" data-source="post: 4445748" data-attributes="member: 467">The thing is that a character, any character in any situation, is only as useful as the DM alows.&nbsp; Given their high intellect, their study of arcane secrets and their unique perspective on things mystical, the magic user should never wont for things to contribute, with or without spells.&nbsp; Combat is hardly the only, or even primary, aspect of D&amp;D, IMO and IME, so a wizard being down on spells means that the player has to use his bain to find ways to contribute and feel &quot;useful&quot;.Really, it comes down to running the game to your players.&nbsp; If the party consists of a magic-user, two thieves and a bard, you're going to run enirely different kinds of adventures than if the pary consists of three fighters and a cleric.&nbsp; Their choices of characters -- race, class and proficiencies or skills -- tells you something about what kind of adventures they want to go on, what sorts of things they find fun and entertaining, and what they expect when they sit down at the table.&nbsp; Ignoring that and making a player feel useless is bad DMing, plain and simple.One thing that a DM can do is to make sure that encounter sna dscenes within a adventure or session focus on different PCs, particularly encounters and scenes outside of combat.&nbsp; Character class says a lot about a character -- even stuff that isn't necessarily written on a character sheet with a bonus or penalty next to it -- and character race, background and other elements do so, as well.&nbsp; You use that information to build a game that caters to your players and no one ever feels useless or bored.In a perfect world, even those players whose characters don't get the spotlight in a particular scene or encounter still enjoy themselves: D&amp;D is half spectator sport, being entertained while the DM and a couple players ham it up and/or engage in a dramatic/interesting/funny scene.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Reynard, post: 4445748, member: 467"] The thing is that a character, any character in any situation, is only as useful as the DM alows. Given their high intellect, their study of arcane secrets and their unique perspective on things mystical, the magic user should never wont for things to contribute, with or without spells. Combat is hardly the only, or even primary, aspect of D&D, IMO and IME, so a wizard being down on spells means that the player has to use his bain to find ways to contribute and feel "useful". Really, it comes down to running the game to your players. If the party consists of a magic-user, two thieves and a bard, you're going to run enirely different kinds of adventures than if the pary consists of three fighters and a cleric. Their choices of characters -- race, class and proficiencies or skills -- tells you something about what kind of adventures they want to go on, what sorts of things they find fun and entertaining, and what they expect when they sit down at the table. Ignoring that and making a player feel useless is bad DMing, plain and simple. One thing that a DM can do is to make sure that encounter sna dscenes within a adventure or session focus on different PCs, particularly encounters and scenes outside of combat. Character class says a lot about a character -- even stuff that isn't necessarily written on a character sheet with a bonus or penalty next to it -- and character race, background and other elements do so, as well. You use that information to build a game that caters to your players and no one ever feels useless or bored. In a perfect world, even those players whose characters don't get the spotlight in a particular scene or encounter still enjoy themselves: D&D is half spectator sport, being entertained while the DM and a couple players ham it up and/or engage in a dramatic/interesting/funny scene. [/QUOTE]

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