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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WayneLigon" data-source="post: 4130956" data-attributes="member: 3649">There's a lot to go through in this thread but one thing I haven't been able to determine: Has he played a lot of D&D? It sounds like it, if he's talking about playing class combinations like the bard/beguiler but on the other hand it sounds like he's carried over the expectations from HERO into D&D and that's a recipe for the kind of frustration you're seeing. I think he has a fundamental disconnect in his understanding of how D&D and HERO differ, and are going to continue to differ. Since you're not familiar with HERO, the summary is:HERO has a flatter power curve than D&D does. You start off as a stronger character in many ways, but at the end of the campaign it's unlikely you'll be unrecognizably much more powerful than when you started, especially if you are a spellcaster. You will be more broadly capable, though. In HERO, XP directly translates to the ability to better your character at that time; I get 3 xp for the session, I could use those right away and buy a new skill, get a couple of language, get a new spell, or up many of my stats. Or I could bank them for bigger purchases. D&D requires you to wait a lot longer for in many cases what is a smaller increase.He's used to choosing a crapload of skills right at first and being very good at many of them right at first. He needs to be told that in D&D, that's something you work into gradually. There are some feats, like Educated (which turn all the Knowledge skills into Class skills, I think) that might help him, but he has to accept that a D&D character is more tightly focused than a HERO character. It has a job to do and outside of that job he's just going to suck. Also something he's going to have to get used to is how the dice work. In case he hasn't realized it, HERO using 3d6 as it's resolution mechanic means that he's used to a bell curve. It's far less likely that he'll roll poorly, like he did in the example. D&D's resolution mechanic  doesn't have a bell curve; using one die means that all results are equally likely. Using a d20 means he has exactly the same chance to scew up big-time as he does to succeed big-time. Also something he needs to get used to.If you want a quick mechanical band-aid to his skill problem, then simply declare that all skills can be used Untrained; that gives him a basic roll in all those knowledge skills without putting points into them. Another mechanical band-aid is to do what Arcana Unearthed did for their skill-monkey/everyman class, the Akashic: ALL skills are class skills for the Bard. Or just say he can use his Bardic Knowledge class ability for most of that stuff.</blockquote>

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