I have a problem with one of my players. He wants to get the most out of his rages, so his playsttyle is to rush each room before he runs out of rage, or looses it because he is not hit.
The main issues here is that he is killing any tactical aproaches for the party, and if I only run initiative just when the first combat arises, he can get pretty far with the same order, and that sucks too. Specially if new enemy types are introduced
Is there a way to fix this? And how do I reroll (or avoid it) initiative in the middle of a fight?
place a trap, lock a door, set an ambush -- fighting in one room makes noise, so guys in the next room can prepare and make for a much more difficult fight, or even go get more reinforcements from deeper in the dungeon.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
If the barbarian can get to the next encounter before rage ends for not having enough violence going on, then why didn't the creatures for that encounter come and help the creatures they could probably hear locked in battle (because fighting is loud) during the first encounter? If they were too scared of all the scary battle sounds to come help, why didn't they get even further away than they started out?
My experience has been that if the dungeon feels alive and like it responds to what the players are doing within it, that players will default to a cautious (if not actually strategic) approach regardless of the fact that doing so means not squeezing every last ounce of use out of things with limited duration.
Strange personal note, I have met his real life mother, her name is Cookie. Very nice woman, works with the theater department for one of the universities in Denver.
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"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
I have to agree with the distance thing being easiest. Barbarian rage wears off if you don't attack or suffer damage in one round. So, the barbarian rushes off and... nothing. Nothing to hit, nothing to be hit by. Ideally, the best option is to address this either IC or OOC (depending on how you want to handle it).
I personally probably would go a bit further, and set up ambushes. Let the barbarian rush ahead, then activate a trap and separate the party. Two pronged attack. I'm personally of the mindset that most monsters aren't stupid, and they want to lay traps. They play dirty.
I once played with someone that acted much the same. The group spent fifteen minutes coming up with strategy. Then the one guy ignored everything we all agreed on, rushed in, and began bashing around, ruining all the plans. Everyone was upset. His responce? Oh, its fine, see, everyone survived. Nevermind that our group healer and my character (back row blaster) risked our PCs lives to keep the berserker alive. Dang near party wipe a couple of times. Without any kind of consequence, that player never learned that he was annoying everyone else with their selfish playstyle.
Put something the barbarian can't kill--a locked, reinforced door; a moat; a canyon; a wall--in between the first encounter and the second. Or do what someone else said. Or, failing all that, talk to the player.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
This is an issue that might even have in play potential. It Sounds like nobody in the group is Fond of the Barbarian's approach. Encourage players to have their characters tell the Barb so. If they make it clear that they will No longer rush heads on after the Barb and they act in it either the Barb changes his way or the Barb's player might have to roll another character.
It sounds to me that the player seems to be viewing his characters abilities in the mind set of a video game: in order to be the best I need to always be at the top of my game, have all my features active, etc. Rather than conserving his rages for the right moments and in the spirit of D&D, sometimes using them at the wrong time and needing to deal with it (which leads to some fantastic role-playing opportunities in my experience).
I would talk to the player to see what his perspective is - is it because he wants to not waste his rage and bonus damage modifiers, or is it because that's what his character would do? (The wild brute seeing red rushes to find more heads to smash).
If it's the player thinking along the lines of "how do I keep my rage going", then talking is the best way to sway this behaviour. If it;s the character's mentality, then having those "oops" moments of traps, being separated will lead to those fantastic role-play moments.
I have a problem with one of my players. He wants to get the most out of his rages, so his playsttyle is to rush each room before he runs out of rage, or looses it because he is not hit.
The main issues here is that he is killing any tactical aproaches for the party, and if I only run initiative just when the first combat arises, he can get pretty far with the same order, and that sucks too. Specially if new enemy types are introduced
Is there a way to fix this? And how do I reroll (or avoid it) initiative in the middle of a fight?
place a trap, lock a door, set an ambush -- fighting in one room makes noise, so guys in the next room can prepare and make for a much more difficult fight, or even go get more reinforcements from deeper in the dungeon.
How do you get a one-armed goblin out of a tree?
Wave!
Pitfall trap... HULK SMAA-aaaaaaash......
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
...just make the next encounter further away.
If the barbarian can get to the next encounter before rage ends for not having enough violence going on, then why didn't the creatures for that encounter come and help the creatures they could probably hear locked in battle (because fighting is loud) during the first encounter? If they were too scared of all the scary battle sounds to come help, why didn't they get even further away than they started out?
My experience has been that if the dungeon feels alive and like it responds to what the players are doing within it, that players will default to a cautious (if not actually strategic) approach regardless of the fact that doing so means not squeezing every last ounce of use out of things with limited duration.
Have you not heard of Leroy Jenkins?
Roleplaying since Runequest.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
"Coooooooooooooooooooooookie!!!!!!!!!"
Roleplaying since Runequest.
I have to agree with the distance thing being easiest. Barbarian rage wears off if you don't attack or suffer damage in one round. So, the barbarian rushes off and... nothing. Nothing to hit, nothing to be hit by. Ideally, the best option is to address this either IC or OOC (depending on how you want to handle it).
I personally probably would go a bit further, and set up ambushes. Let the barbarian rush ahead, then activate a trap and separate the party. Two pronged attack. I'm personally of the mindset that most monsters aren't stupid, and they want to lay traps. They play dirty.
I once played with someone that acted much the same. The group spent fifteen minutes coming up with strategy. Then the one guy ignored everything we all agreed on, rushed in, and began bashing around, ruining all the plans. Everyone was upset. His responce? Oh, its fine, see, everyone survived. Nevermind that our group healer and my character (back row blaster) risked our PCs lives to keep the berserker alive. Dang near party wipe a couple of times. Without any kind of consequence, that player never learned that he was annoying everyone else with their selfish playstyle.
Put something the barbarian can't kill--a locked, reinforced door; a moat; a canyon; a wall--in between the first encounter and the second. Or do what someone else said. Or, failing all that, talk to the player.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
This is an issue that might even have in play potential. It Sounds like nobody in the group is Fond of the Barbarian's approach. Encourage players to have their characters tell the Barb so. If they make it clear that they will No longer rush heads on after the Barb and they act in it either the Barb changes his way or the Barb's player might have to roll another character.
It sounds to me that the player seems to be viewing his characters abilities in the mind set of a video game: in order to be the best I need to always be at the top of my game, have all my features active, etc. Rather than conserving his rages for the right moments and in the spirit of D&D, sometimes using them at the wrong time and needing to deal with it (which leads to some fantastic role-playing opportunities in my experience).
I would talk to the player to see what his perspective is - is it because he wants to not waste his rage and bonus damage modifiers, or is it because that's what his character would do? (The wild brute seeing red rushes to find more heads to smash).
If it's the player thinking along the lines of "how do I keep my rage going", then talking is the best way to sway this behaviour. If it;s the character's mentality, then having those "oops" moments of traps, being separated will lead to those fantastic role-play moments.
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