Ainulindalion
First Post
There is a significant difference between
DM: "Bob, it's your turn."
Bob: "Joe does nothing because I don't like combat. Next turn."
and
DM: "Bob, it's your turn."
Bob: "Joe hides in the corner and puts up minor illusion to disguise his hiding place because he's afraid."
Now, hopefully Joe has a character arc and eventually overcomes his fear. If at level 10 or so, Joe is still doing the same thing, I think the other players are totally within rights to complain - unless Joe adds to the experience outside of combat. 'There should have been 4 combats today, but Bob's character Joe got us past 1 without having to fight, and we still got full XP.' In that case, Joe's participating. But if they can't say that, at least semi regularly, say, 1 time out of a number of fights equal to the number of characters (i.e., 1 in 5 with five PCs), then Joe isn't really pulling his weight, and Bob is edging towards being a disruptive presence at the table, by virtue of the fact that this is a cooperative game.
DM: "Bob, it's your turn."
Bob: "Joe does nothing because I don't like combat. Next turn."
and
DM: "Bob, it's your turn."
Bob: "Joe hides in the corner and puts up minor illusion to disguise his hiding place because he's afraid."
Now, hopefully Joe has a character arc and eventually overcomes his fear. If at level 10 or so, Joe is still doing the same thing, I think the other players are totally within rights to complain - unless Joe adds to the experience outside of combat. 'There should have been 4 combats today, but Bob's character Joe got us past 1 without having to fight, and we still got full XP.' In that case, Joe's participating. But if they can't say that, at least semi regularly, say, 1 time out of a number of fights equal to the number of characters (i.e., 1 in 5 with five PCs), then Joe isn't really pulling his weight, and Bob is edging towards being a disruptive presence at the table, by virtue of the fact that this is a cooperative game.