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<blockquote data-quote="Stormonu" data-source="post: 5889883" data-attributes="member: 52734">I have a player in my group who basically runs his character off the rails - and I love him for it.In the first 3E campaign I played with him, he ran a half-orc druid - armed with a cestus and carrying a maniacal badger in his pudgy flabs of fat.&nbsp; He became the most beloved character in that group, inspiring my other players to try off-the-wall options and actions.&nbsp; He constantly flummoxed my resident powergamer and his wizard build by successfully performing actions that should have been &quot;statistically impossible&quot;, simply by the virtue of trying them.&nbsp; He couldn't do the boatload of damage the fighter could dish out, but he'd save the group from defeat (or even from being involved in an entire combat) with his tricks (we're not even talking spells here, most of the time).&nbsp; Even when he would fail, it was in a spectacular fashion that left everyone at the table in tears of laughter.It probably helped that I'm no killer DM and I don't see my role as challenging the character to their max every time they turn the corner.&nbsp; We play for fun, not neccessarily challenge, and I, for one, enjoy watching the character's story unfold - both their interperonal reactions as much as watching them overcome obstacles.&nbsp; I'm also not above tweaking rules to bolster something I see as weak (rare) or toning down/disallowing something I see as too dominating (far more common).&nbsp; As far as his character went, the only rule changes I remember making was to make the Wild Spell feat unvailable in my game.I always try to encourage my players to &quot;play what they want, damn the rules&quot;, but this player has been better than all the words I can spew about playing &quot;unoptimized&quot; choices, because he's done it and shown us all how much fun they can be - even sometimes, in failure. So, play what you want and damn inbred optimization.&nbsp; That's the way D&amp;D should be, I think - and how I enjoy it.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Stormonu, post: 5889883, member: 52734"] I have a player in my group who basically runs his character off the rails - and I love him for it. In the first 3E campaign I played with him, he ran a half-orc druid - armed with a cestus and carrying a maniacal badger in his pudgy flabs of fat. He became the most beloved character in that group, inspiring my other players to try off-the-wall options and actions. He constantly flummoxed my resident powergamer and his wizard build by successfully performing actions that should have been "statistically impossible", simply by the virtue of trying them. He couldn't do the boatload of damage the fighter could dish out, but he'd save the group from defeat (or even from being involved in an entire combat) with his tricks (we're not even talking spells here, most of the time). Even when he would fail, it was in a spectacular fashion that left everyone at the table in tears of laughter. It probably helped that I'm no killer DM and I don't see my role as challenging the character to their max every time they turn the corner. We play for fun, not neccessarily challenge, and I, for one, enjoy watching the character's story unfold - both their interperonal reactions as much as watching them overcome obstacles. I'm also not above tweaking rules to bolster something I see as weak (rare) or toning down/disallowing something I see as too dominating (far more common). As far as his character went, the only rule changes I remember making was to make the Wild Spell feat unvailable in my game. I always try to encourage my players to "play what they want, damn the rules", but this player has been better than all the words I can spew about playing "unoptimized" choices, because he's done it and shown us all how much fun they can be - even sometimes, in failure. So, play what you want and damn inbred optimization. That's the way D&D should be, I think - and how I enjoy it. [/QUOTE]

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