Half the other players are rank noobs. so probably don't care one way or the other. The other half are happy enough with their own characters and thus don't care one way or the other.
On the party, we have:
* Human Fighter
* Half-Elf Rogue
* Human Cleric of St. Cuthbert
* Tiefling Psion
* Catfolk Druid (recently moved in and will be there for the summer)
* Warforged Paladin 2/Monk 3 (Strongly thinking about full monk or PsiWar 2 in place of Paladin)
As an aside, the new players had to leave early, so the rest of us continued playing with each of us running one of the departed player's PCs. We got a lot more done in a few hours than we've got done over two sessions. I've noticed a few things about the game as is:
a) The new players really don't know how to build effective characters, and that's no surprise. The Rogue and Fighter were leveled from 1st, but the Cleric was given 3 levels and said "make whatever". He became ineffective against all of the monsters we've been fighting and has been unconscious more than actually playing, which is dull enough for him. The Rogue's skill points are all over the place. The Fighter, well, I don't think there's anything wrong with the character, but the player doesn't do more than move and fight; granted, that's what Fighters do, but the rest of the mob doesn't co-ordinate well.
b) The party is under-geared to challenge the monsters we've been facing thus far, mostly fiends and creatures with the fiendish template. I'm the only person on the team with a +1 weapon, and that's because I was permitted to 'buy' my starting gear.
This made for long, unnecessarily drawn-out fights. Our saving grace is the Psion with her Energy Ray... but she gets burned out after 2-3 combats. I'm starting to wonder if we actually
need a Wizard on the party.
c) The DM has a hard time getting control of the table and gets frustrated as a result. I don't want to tell him how to DM, and I'm the 'new' guy in their circle of friends, so I don't want to step on toes, either. He also enjoys his seat of power the way we all did when we first started DMing, meaning he may be over-estimated his player's abilities and happy to throw in whatever combat "because it's kewl". I could be wrong and he may just be using whatever the random dungeon generator threw in, but every monster has had the fiendish template on this level and we ARE looking for a demon portal...
On the flip side, I'm plotting on possibly running a concurrent game for the people with more game experience. They all live together in a happy house, and three players is more than enough for a real deep game (I'm used to running solo games, so less people = better, IMO). I wouldn't be against running with the newer players at all, save that my style of DM'ing is compacting a complete adventure - plot-complication-resolution with fun RP - into a 5-hour session. It's been a few years since I've DM'd, and waaaay longer since I've run a 6-person group (last time I did, I was still in high school).
BUT, the current Dm has been talking about Pathfinder, and what a great way to introduce a new system... by having an experienced DM run some session in it!
Mwa haha...
