Why do I alwaus get one player......

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Really? A real min-maxer would be fine with that as a DM - he'd know that it'd be crippled with the huge LA plus the VoP drawback, and could laugh when it dies the first time the party runs into a decent challenge despite dishing it out pretty well. Of course, if you've got a player who asks to play something like that in a game starting at level 1... that's not inappropriate so much as it is just dumb.

Well, to be honest, nobody's wanted all of that at the same time. 't was just an exaggeration for the purpose of comedic effect.

Though there was a guy I heard of who apparently played a Bahleen Anthro Whale Spiked-Chain Monk (3.0) for a single session at a local game here, and was killed almost immediately.

--fje

 

[Nareau]

I give my players a good idea of what a game will be like before we start generating characters. I ask that all the PC's know one another well before the adventure starts. If someone wants to play something that's very unusual, would be hard to play in the campaign, or would be disruptive to the other players' fun, I talk to them about how they'd like to fit their character into the game.

For example: Recently, a player joined our group wanting to play a Psion who could manifest psionic creatures. I've never run psionics in my game, and there were no psions in my campaign world. Furthermore, there were no sorcerors or summoning magic in my game. So rather than say, "NO!" to him, we talked a lot about how such a character could possibly exist. We came up with a long, X-Files-esque backstory for him, involving primative brain-surgery and terrible magical experiments. It worked out great!

So, long story short, I'd suggest you talk with the player about what would work in your campaign. And if he insists on playing something that simply won't be fun, make sure he knows what he's getting into from the start.

Spider

 

[wingsandsword]

Having lots of character options is a strength of 3.x, being able to come up with mechanics to make your concepts truly come alive and complment them.

That being said, you have to have some creativity to work with besides randomly putting together template/race/class/feat into the most powerful combination possible.

I could imagine giving a player who wanted such a strange character a test. Let's see if you can actually roleplay and make a character interesting without weird rules. Play a human fighter, straight up, non-multiclassed, no PrC's. Standard (for the campaign) equipment and feat selections. Come up with whatever background you want; an escaped slave, dishonored officer fighting to reclaim his honor, gladiator who won his freedom, farmboy who got swept up in events beyond his control, sole survivor of a destroyed brigade, disowned noble who wants to carve out his own kingdom one day, former urban thug trying to go straight, fugitive from an oppressive kingdom wanted for a crime he didn't commit. A good roleplayer can make even a "cliche" character type into something fun and interesting.

Rand al Thor, Frodo, Luke Skywalker, heroes of fantasy and legend typically come from mundane, everyday backgrounds and become heroes later, through their deeds, not by being a Half-Celestial Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale Favored Soul/Radiant Servant of Pelor with a mystical Vow of Poverty.

 

[Storyteller01]

This is why it's important to review characters before the player shows up on game day. Especially if you've had problems with the player before.

Or set the first day aside specifically for making characters. My personal policy anyway.

No worrying about fudged rolls, and we can negotiate about character parameters. Evereyone seems satisified with this.

 

[Storyteller01]

Since we're on the subject, anyone have players use strange reasoning (cultural or otherwise, not nessecarily in the RAW) to justify wierd bonuses?

Back in 2nd ed, I had a player try to pass off a dwarf with elven as well as dwarven special abilities . His reasoning:

His village/cavern community was destroyed by drow. He was later found and raised by elves.


Sorry if this is a highjack. Seems relavant though...

 

[Thanee]

Thats called a ranger.

Or Scout these days...

Bye
Thanee

 

[wedgeski]

Rand al Thor, Frodo, Luke Skywalker, heroes of fantasy and legend typically come from mundane, everyday backgrounds and become heroes later, through their deeds, not by being a Half-Celestial Anthropomorphic Baleen Whale Favored Soul/Radiant Servant of Pelor with a mystical Vow of Poverty.

Sounds cool. Can I have one?

 

[Tatsukun]

Well that's better than what I got. I am starting a new group / game in a few days. So right now I am writing plot hooks, and outlining the first adventure. Of course, I have to be general, because none of them have told me what kind of PC they might play.

As far as I know, it could end up being an all Paladin group, or an all Necromancer group. Talk about an exercise in "casting the wide net" for plot hooks!

-Tatsu

 

[Elf Witch]

I know there are players who do this because they want to be special. But sometimes I think it maybe because they are bored with all the other character classes. I think this can happen if you go through a lot of characters because of death or just playing in a lot of different campaigns.

I found myself in this situation when we started our Greyhawk campaign. I didn't want to play a heavy fighter type because I play that in our Kalamar game. There was already a bard, rogue , cleric and wizard and the pressure was placed on me to play a fighter type because "we needed one". I finally picked a warlock. I still get some guilt placed on me by one of the other players because he is worried about the party getting wiped out because we don't have a tank.

 

[Von Ether]

Since we're on the subject, anyone have players use strange reasoning (cultural or otherwise, not nessecarily in the RAW) to justify wierd bonuses?

Back in 2nd ed, I had a player try to pass off a dwarf with elven as well as dwarven special abilities . His reasoning:

His village/cavern community was destroyed by drow. He was later found and raised by elves.


Sorry if this is a highjack. Seems relavant though...

For the min/maxers who know me, all the time. I've been gulity of it myself.