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1 year ago ::
May 11, 2012 - 1:51AM
#11
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Date Joined:
Apr 14, 2010
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^ That, and make characters that are "idiot-proof". I ran an intro game this week for which I built some pregens. What really stuck out to me was that the player who took the Scoundrel Rogue had a hard time getting his character to work (needing to get combat advantage and all that), while the Elementalist Sorcerer just blasted away without any trouble.
This taught me that Essentials classes, with their lack of options, are great for new players since they're pretty hard to screw up.
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1 year ago ::
May 12, 2012 - 12:55PM
#12
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Date Joined:
Mar 10, 2011
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...Make them solid pre-gen characters that use sound math to teach beginning players what they need to be going for in combat. In the long run you are just saving everyone a headache.
Feel free to build a few and add them to the Pre-Gen Adventurers' Guild: (link)
It could save some DMs a lot of time, and some beginning players some grief.
New DM Tips
Show
- Trying to solve out-of-game problems (like cheating, bad attitudes, or poor sportsmanship) with in-game solutions will almost always result in failure, and will probably make matters worse.
- Gun Safety Rule #5: Never point the gun at anything you don't intend to destroy. (Never introduce a character, PC, NPC, Villain, or fate of the world into even the possibility of a deadly combat or other dangerous situation, unless you are prepared to destroy it instantly and completely forever.)
- Know your group's character sheets, and check them over carefully. You don't want surprises, but, more importantly, they are a gold mine of ideas!
- "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." It's a problem if the players aren't having fun and it interferes with a DM's ability to run the game effectively; if it's not a problem, 'fixing' at best does little to help, and at worst causes problems that didn't exist before.
- "Hulk Smash" characters are a bad match for open-ended exploration in crowds of civilians; get them out of civilization where they can break things and kill monsters in peace.
- Success is not necessarily the same thing as killing an opponent. Failure is not necessarily the same thing as dying.
- Failure is always an option. And it's a fine option, too, as long as failure is interesting, entertaining, and fun!
"Broken or not, unbalanced or not, if something seems to be preventing the game from being enjoyable, something has to give: either that thing, or other aspects of the game, or your idea of what's enjoyable." - Centauri
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1 year ago ::
May 12, 2012 - 4:15PM
#13
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Date Joined:
Jun 19, 2004
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...Make them solid pre-gen characters that use sound math to teach beginning players what they need to be going for in combat. In the long run you are just saving everyone a headache.
Feel free to build a few and add them to the Pre-Gen Adventurers' Guild: (link)
It could save some DMs a lot of time, and some beginning players some grief.
My first act in adding to the guild would be to remove the other two characters from the list. I mean that as no offense to you, just saying they might not be the best bases to build from for the rest of the guild.
That being said, why don't you post in Charop Forums a request for Simple to use well-optimized characters to be used for this purpose. I'm a moderate optimizer, but there are still some classes I am not really qualified to speak out on. Post something in CharOp about what you need and we can hammer you out an entire guild in a day or two.
This actually does sound like it would be an awesome resource to use, but one that needs to get some community involvement to actually make sample characters from each class to play around with that will not be crappy.
The more I think on it, the more I want to make the call myself and organize the list. Would you mind if I headed up creating a new "guild" of pre-gens to draw from?
Currently working on making a Dex based defender. Check it out hereSpoiler:
Show
Need a few pre-generated characters for a one-shot you are running? Want to get a baseline for what an effective build for a class you aren't familiar with? Check out the Pregen thread here
If ever you are interested what it sounds like to be at my table check out my blog and podcast here
Also, I've recently done an episode on "Refluffing". You can check that out here
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1 year ago ::
May 12, 2012 - 5:09PM
#14
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Date Joined:
Mar 10, 2011
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Feel free.
I'd never heard the term "optimized character" before I joined this site, never role-played in a group that used them, and it's still a fairly alien concept to me now.
I started the thread over a year ago in response to one of the other "where can I get some pre-generated characters" requests. I figured they would be more than enough for new groups to get their feet wet playing D&D in a few one-shot adventures before creating their own characters, but was a bit surprised by the size of the optimization community.
So, I won't be producing optimized pregens any time soon, but there seems to be a large demand for them out there.
Create your own thread, or add to mine, it's all good with me either way.
New DM Tips
Show
- Trying to solve out-of-game problems (like cheating, bad attitudes, or poor sportsmanship) with in-game solutions will almost always result in failure, and will probably make matters worse.
- Gun Safety Rule #5: Never point the gun at anything you don't intend to destroy. (Never introduce a character, PC, NPC, Villain, or fate of the world into even the possibility of a deadly combat or other dangerous situation, unless you are prepared to destroy it instantly and completely forever.)
- Know your group's character sheets, and check them over carefully. You don't want surprises, but, more importantly, they are a gold mine of ideas!
- "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." It's a problem if the players aren't having fun and it interferes with a DM's ability to run the game effectively; if it's not a problem, 'fixing' at best does little to help, and at worst causes problems that didn't exist before.
- "Hulk Smash" characters are a bad match for open-ended exploration in crowds of civilians; get them out of civilization where they can break things and kill monsters in peace.
- Success is not necessarily the same thing as killing an opponent. Failure is not necessarily the same thing as dying.
- Failure is always an option. And it's a fine option, too, as long as failure is interesting, entertaining, and fun!
"Broken or not, unbalanced or not, if something seems to be preventing the game from being enjoyable, something has to give: either that thing, or other aspects of the game, or your idea of what's enjoyable." - Centauri
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1 year ago ::
May 12, 2012 - 6:10PM
#15
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Date Joined:
Jun 19, 2004
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Feel free.
I'd never heard the term "optimized character" before I joined this site, never role-played in a group that used them, and it's still a fairly alien concept to me now.
I started the thread over a year ago in response to one of the other "where can I get some pre-generated characters" requests. I figured they would be more than enough for new groups to get their feet wet playing D&D in a few one-shot adventures before creating their own characters, but was a bit surprised by the size of the optimization community.
So, I won't be producing optimized pregens any time soon, but there seems to be a large demand for them out there.
Create your own thread, or add to mine, it's all good with me either way.
The project is started and is located here:
community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...
Currently working on making a Dex based defender. Check it out hereSpoiler:
Show
Need a few pre-generated characters for a one-shot you are running? Want to get a baseline for what an effective build for a class you aren't familiar with? Check out the Pregen thread here
If ever you are interested what it sounds like to be at my table check out my blog and podcast here
Also, I've recently done an episode on "Refluffing". You can check that out here
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