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<blockquote data-quote="Sword of Spirit" data-source="post: 7604463" data-attributes="member: 6677017">As a DM, I get unreasonably frustrated when players don't seem to remember their characters' basic abilities. Second Wind and Action Surge for fighters is a common theme I've seen for most first time 5e fighter players for some reason. I mean, they're the only actively used features a 1st-2nd level fighter has--how can you not remember them? Does you not like kEwL pOwErZ? Our bard also had a really hard time remembering Cutting Words. I literally wrote &quot;Cutting Words&quot; in big red letters on the background of the virtual tabletop for a while to help him start remembering (and it did). That player is highly proficient in D&amp;D; I think it just got into a bad sector in his brain's hard drive.My main frustration is because, as the DM I remember that they have these abilities*...plus I'm keeping track of a bunch of NPCs, monsters, etc. It seems like a small thing to ask for them to know just their own character's capabilities.But, although I get frustrated, I'll generally bend over backwards to try to help them remember it. I've created what I call action-oriented character sheets, where I list any particular abilities they need to know that they have in categories such as Actions, Bonus Actions, Free Actions, Reactions, Passive Defense (and I think I might include a Passive Offense for some things). I include a brief description (usually enough to not need to look it up) with how often it recharges, or whether it takes some sort of resource, etc. I do think that helps people out.*Okay, I don't have them all memorized, and I'm very pleased when a player remembers to invoke some feature they have that I don't remember. And, to be fair, I forgot the player had Cutting Words a lot of the time too.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Sword of Spirit, post: 7604463, member: 6677017"] As a DM, I get unreasonably frustrated when players don't seem to remember their characters' basic abilities. Second Wind and Action Surge for fighters is a common theme I've seen for most first time 5e fighter players for some reason. I mean, they're the only actively used features a 1st-2nd level fighter has--how can you not remember them? Does you not like kEwL pOwErZ? Our bard also had a really hard time remembering Cutting Words. I literally wrote "Cutting Words" in big red letters on the background of the virtual tabletop for a while to help him start remembering (and it did). That player is highly proficient in D&D; I think it just got into a bad sector in his brain's hard drive. My main frustration is because, as the DM [I]I[/I] remember that they have these abilities*...plus I'm keeping track of a bunch of NPCs, monsters, etc. It seems like a small thing to ask for them to know just their own character's capabilities. But, although I get frustrated, I'll generally bend over backwards to try to help them remember it. I've created what I call action-oriented character sheets, where I list any particular abilities they need to know that they have in categories such as Actions, Bonus Actions, Free Actions, Reactions, Passive Defense (and I think I might include a Passive Offense for some things). I include a brief description (usually enough to not need to look it up) with how often it recharges, or whether it takes some sort of resource, etc. I do think that helps people out. *Okay, I don't have them all memorized, and I'm very pleased when a player remembers to invoke some feature they have that I don't remember. And, to be fair, I forgot the player had Cutting Words a lot of the time too. [/QUOTE]

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