this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2024
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Help with a player that likes the idea of being a caster, but not the mechanics (lemmy.world)
submitted 8 months ago by godzillabacter@lemmy.world to c/dm_academy@lemmy.world
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11298431

I've been a DM for about 3 years, and have predominantly run one-shots and short campaigns in DnD5e and PF2e. I have a player who persistently builds primary caster based characters, but then won't do anything in combat but "I stab it with my dagger." They rarely use cantrips, and basically won't cast a leveled spell unless I suggest it immediately before their turn. They seem to enjoy playing despite the fact that they're far too squishy to be a front-line melee character and don't utilize most of their class features. I've talked with them explicitly about how their play style seems to be discordant with the kind of play they want to do, and that maybe next time they should try a paladin/champion or a fighter/rougue subclass with some minor casting. They agreed at the time that sounded like a good idea, but low and behold showed up to the next one-shot with a primary caster, and over 3 hours of play and 3 combats never cast a single spell, including a cantrip.

I enjoy playing with this persons as a whole. They are engaged in the fiction, and are particularly engaged during exploration activities. They tell me they also find combat quite fun, and they are requesting I run a mega dungeon in the near future.

As a general rule, I like to let people play how they have the most fun, but issues have arisen with this play style. Namely, all of my TPKs have been associated with this player charging a squishy character directly up to a significantly stronger villain and continuing to stab it with a dagger until they went down, significantly hindering the party in the action economy and resulting in a TPK. I feel I have to intentionally weaken all of my encounters to keep the party feasible in the face of such mechanically poor combat choices.

What else can I do to help drive this individual towards melee builds, and/or help encourage them to change their play style to better suite the caster classes they choose?

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[–] mozz@mbin.grits.dev 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I feel I have to intentionally weaken all of my encounters to keep the party feasible in the face of such mechanically poor combat choices.

I wouldn't necessarily say this is a bad thing... if you have to balance all the encounters as if you had 3 players instead of 4 because one of your PCs is functionally useless in combat, and if this player is okay with their character dying from bad choices once in a while, what's the harm?

It kind of sounds like they just enjoy the role playing aspects and aren't into the mechanics of the game. Which, if that's affecting everyone else's enjoyment in a way you can't fix, then the only real solution is to remove them from the group (or at least indicate to them privately that you might need to if they don't modify what they're doing). But, if it seems like everyone's having fun, I wouldn't necessarily try to force them to care about aspects of the game that they clearly don't care about.

[–] godzillabacter@lemmy.world 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I mean it makes the game less fun for me. I enjoy running monsters and tactical combat. I like using cool and powerful monsters (as appropriate for party level). I like using some semblance of strategy and making my monsters behave in a way that is realistic for their stat block. It makes running the game less enjoyable to be faced with the choice of 1. nerf the monsters significantly to remove all real danger to the party and be easily defeated 2. choose suboptimal behaviors to minimize damage to PCs or 3. Risk a TPK on an encounter that shouldn't normally produce a TPK

[–] littlebluespark@lemmy.world -1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

"It makes the game less fun" for you? Everyone else seems fine, but your lessened enjoyment is projected onto a player and you're asking this community to help find fault in their contribution, rather than recognize that the problem is your own? Furthermore, this false "choice" you described isn't helping anyone, as none of those are as inevitable as you allude.

Real talk: own your shit; don't point the finger at your players unless you prefer playing all by yourself. As the DM/GM, you have a responsibility to the table, and (on a much smaller scale), they to you — though the latter is more simple etiquette than anything.

At the end of the day, the choice is yours: are you able to DM without being an adversarial dick? Or, do you need to do the others a favor and play by yourself so they can enjoy the game in their perfectly reasonable ways?

[–] godzillabacter@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

I never once asked the community to help me find fault in their behavior. It is a devastatingly poor mechanical choice to play a full caster with no armor and completely avoid using any leveled spells while rushing into melee. It makes it exceptionally hard to balance the game at a level which is challenging to the players but without threat of TPK. I am allowed to be frustrated that the "safe" encounters I feel I have to build to avoid TPK result in me basically never landing a single hit on the players. I have tried addressing this multiple times in a polite and genuine manner. I've tried suggesting we play a different, more narrative driven game like PBtA systems, which all of my players shot down, especially this player in particular, because they "like the crunch" of the systems we've been playing. I don't like that you're calling me an adversarial dick because I am expressing a frustration with a player even though I have done nothing adversarial.