sword-dancer
Explorer
One thing is clear in my games, every challenge may be survivable, this means definitely not winable!JLXC said:
When the things you encounter start talking to you, and then you just attack them, and then you are suddenly dead.... it may be because the DM was going to let you off... but you assumed that every encounter is winnable. You're right, they are not ALL winnable, but most of us will WARN you first.
Depending on Alignment, and Character of the character(and the situation),DM's WILL REMEMBER when you see innocents getting wasted because you wont even TRY to help. We Also fault you for hunting some person/thing/quest only to run at the last because the encounter might be dangerous.
Why should the character run in like the stupid US (Hollywood) Cav?
First of all if my char had a selfish, egoisticalk Alignment/attitude
Why should he risk it`s neck?
Second if the character regardless of alignment/attitude sees/believes his chances are slim to none
Why shouldn`t he be punished for not helping, self sacrifice is heroic, senseless wasting your life stupid
The chalenge I agree with you to the fullest, but to avoid a encounter to clever planning, sneaking behind it, instead of challenging/fighting it, is IMPOV an absolut acceptable way to handle it.WELL DUH! We as the DM are SUPPOSED to challenge you sometimes, this means you may have to deal with powerful foes. You may avoid that encounter, but eventually the DM will set you up another... and another... and another....
Throwing for that encounter of encounter at the Party is one of the things tha falls under my definition of.
the WORST failures and METAGAMING a GM can do !
The same as if the GM didn`t want that you have success, the you you aren`t allowed to have success.
Not under this circumstances it is impossible to have success.
JLXC said:
HERO. The word means something.
Mercenary. That may be what most of YOU think Hero means. I'll take pay to kill the Evil, but not too much Evil at once, and I aint gonna die for ya but I can beat a lot of little evils and gain levels and get tough and maybe THEN I can tackle that Big Evil which is now a Small Evil and so I'm good.
No. You are not, sorry.
The Question is, is HERO part of the character concept, definition or Mercenary or adventurer/freelancer.
On the other hand your definition of Hero is a bit narrow IMHO.
The ethical/moral reasons for the decisions you made, and the actions you take then define the if the PC is going the heroic way.
And if he sees stupidly wasting his life will change/help nothing didn`t make him a coward.