1. if you want to survive. partaking in a hazardous task is rather dumb. so why is this character even adventuring? 2. if he wants a legacy. that can be done. a player at my table has something similar. he's the rogue/bard type with lots of support and diplomacy elements to it. you can let such a player make contacts with various groups and factions. let them gather resources. let them stumble upon some old ruins which they might even decide to eventually re-build. rebuilding costs resources as well. so more reason to make contacts around the world. thus leading to in-direct reasons to adventure and end up in diplomatic situations. trying to gain the deeds to a plot of land to build that legacy on. 3. it is ok if such character is not effective in combat and more geared to surviving/diplomacy. as the DM just take it into consideration when making encounters. I for one count such a character only for half its worth when making the encounters. If i take them into consideration at all. That way encounters are still challenging for those that do join in on the combat side of things. While, and I kid you not, this survival character just goes to bed. Really. The rogue/bard went to an auction and then to bed. While the rest of the party was in town investigating and ending up in a fight with an Oni and some Hobgoblins. But that's ok as long as your also create stuff for the survival character to do towards their bigger goal.
So the Question is. What is this legacy? and how will you go about building up that legacy. That will put the character in natural conflict with themselves. Take the risk for the legacy? or be a coward to survive and not honoring the legacy. Thus being unable to face his lost relatives/people in the after life etc.
Adding an arc with giants in it isn't that difficult either. just pick one of the chapters from Storm King's Thunder and modify it a bit. And that is the lazy approach ;)
I agree with Biowizard. If all of the suggestions don't work. Time to bench that PC at a nice quiet remote village for a mundane boring non threatening life. While his ancestors will haunt his dreams about how weak and pathetic the PC is :D
I have a player running a cleric in my campaign who is all bluster and deception. He’s totally ineffective in combat as he’s always trying to make it look like he’s doing something useful even if it’s not. “Show” always takes precedence over “substance.” He often casts Guidance and tells everyone he’s casting Bless or Aid, for example. Now, the players usually know what he’s doing, but the characters don’t. He's good at drawing attention to when it works and it ends up being quite funny even though it’s very suboptimal and the party regularly flirts with TPK. The point is, it’s very mechanically substandard, but everyone is having fun with it.
So I have a few leading questions: How is it affecting the gameplay? Is it role playing when you’d rather have a crunchy miniatures type experience? Is it a character who should retire from adventuring? Should he become a cautionary tale (the Samurai who fears dying in battle Most certainly will die in battle)? Is he comedic relief? Maybe the character needs to have an epiphany or the behaviour should become a condition to be overcome.
Talk to your player about to the story arc and endgame they envision for their character assuming he survives. Maybe it’s not a good fit for D&D. Maybe there’s a hero’s journey in there somewhere.
Ultimately what are the consequences of the behaviour and are people having fun?
the party is being presented with opportunities and NPCs which i spend a while preparing and he wont follow leads or trust NPCs who are associated with other party members, even if they know each other. its hard to RP a character who is kind hearted when everything i do is insighted and shunned.
the party is being presented with opportunities and NPCs which i spend a while preparing and he wont follow leads or trust NPCs who are associated with other party members, even if they know each other. its hard to RP a character who is kind hearted when everything i do is insighted and shunned.
I think we're all still waiting to find out why the PC would actually be out adventuring? What is he searching for? Just to kill giants?
lets see why is he adventuring trying to find any remnants of his people if he is really the last, To find Items of cultural importance, Texts of cultural/religious importance. he can't carry on his peoples legacy without these things and this is really super easy to bake into just about any campaign. he as a player has given you carte blanche to mess with his character at any point in time.
what i am surprised is that we have wasted nearly two pages trying to figure out why he is adventuring
1. if you want to survive. partaking in a hazardous task is rather dumb. so why is this character even adventuring?
2. if he wants a legacy. that can be done. a player at my table has something similar. he's the rogue/bard type with lots of support and diplomacy elements to it. you can let such a player make contacts with various groups and factions. let them gather resources. let them stumble upon some old ruins which they might even decide to eventually re-build. rebuilding costs resources as well. so more reason to make contacts around the world. thus leading to in-direct reasons to adventure and end up in diplomatic situations. trying to gain the deeds to a plot of land to build that legacy on.
3. it is ok if such character is not effective in combat and more geared to surviving/diplomacy. as the DM just take it into consideration when making encounters. I for one count such a character only for half its worth when making the encounters. If i take them into consideration at all. That way encounters are still challenging for those that do join in on the combat side of things. While, and I kid you not, this survival character just goes to bed. Really. The rogue/bard went to an auction and then to bed. While the rest of the party was in town investigating and ending up in a fight with an Oni and some Hobgoblins. But that's ok as long as your also create stuff for the survival character to do towards their bigger goal.
So the Question is. What is this legacy? and how will you go about building up that legacy. That will put the character in natural conflict with themselves. Take the risk for the legacy? or be a coward to survive and not honoring the legacy. Thus being unable to face his lost relatives/people in the after life etc.
Adding an arc with giants in it isn't that difficult either. just pick one of the chapters from Storm King's Thunder and modify it a bit. And that is the lazy approach ;)
I agree with Biowizard. If all of the suggestions don't work. Time to bench that PC at a nice quiet remote village for a mundane boring non threatening life. While his ancestors will haunt his dreams about how weak and pathetic the PC is :D
the party is being presented with opportunities and NPCs which i spend a while preparing and he wont follow leads or trust NPCs who are associated with other party members, even if they know each other. its hard to RP a character who is kind hearted when everything i do is insighted and shunned.
I think we're all still waiting to find out why the PC would actually be out adventuring? What is he searching for? Just to kill giants?
Just throw a challenge 20 dragon or dinosaur on him so he learns his lesson IMAO
lets see why is he adventuring trying to find any remnants of his people if he is really the last, To find Items of cultural importance, Texts of cultural/religious importance. he can't carry on his peoples legacy without these things and this is really super easy to bake into just about any campaign. he as a player has given you carte blanche to mess with his character at any point in time.
what i am surprised is that we have wasted nearly two pages trying to figure out why he is adventuring
This thread is 3 years old. The problem is, in all likelihood, gone.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?