Orannis
2010-07-01, 04:50 AM
This post is 50% rant and 50% appeal for help.
I have been playing in a group with VASTLY different skill levels. On the one hand there is one guy who's characters without fail break the game due to the well done optimization he employs and who finds any hint of RPing as an opportunity to try and work the system. On the other hand another character wants to befriend literally everything that is trying to eat her, has no idea how to use her character, and makes frankly bizarre decisions like using a fireball wand on...our....wizard, (thank god he buffs himself to the hilt). Everyone else falls somewhere between those two poles. This has resulted in some truly painful games as the DM keeps changing his tactics to try and adjust every game and I have to keep changing mine.One day he encourages heavy optimization in the form of templates, items, classes, and outlook. The next he decides that everyone is too powerful and cuts everyone back. The heavy optimizer just builds another character that is destined to destroy the game and the rest of us scramble to make something semi-functional. Then he will try to strike a middle ground and we can have the powerful characters but he starts using his baddies as if they are the Borg collective, they all march in unison, have perfect tactics, and adapt after every encounter. It is the most surreal thing to one day have a character that is on the level, the next is over power, the third is under powered and the forth replaced. I keep trying to keep my character but he gets irritated at the cheese I have to employ to make my (yes, groan) monk viable. Wizard cheese? Totally cool. Cleric cheese, no problem. But a monk that is hard to hit? Unbalanced. In the middle of this is everyone else who sort of just try to ride out the waves until they subside but with everyone being significantly different in their experience they end up only being effective if they got help from the optimizer. This got me thinking, how DOES one balance a situation like this? If we worked as a team, used good tactics, and all built good characters then this would be simple but what do you do when you don't have any equality between the players. They can't learn because the stronger (better built or played) characters do most of the work. IS there even a solution?
I have been playing in a group with VASTLY different skill levels. On the one hand there is one guy who's characters without fail break the game due to the well done optimization he employs and who finds any hint of RPing as an opportunity to try and work the system. On the other hand another character wants to befriend literally everything that is trying to eat her, has no idea how to use her character, and makes frankly bizarre decisions like using a fireball wand on...our....wizard, (thank god he buffs himself to the hilt). Everyone else falls somewhere between those two poles. This has resulted in some truly painful games as the DM keeps changing his tactics to try and adjust every game and I have to keep changing mine.One day he encourages heavy optimization in the form of templates, items, classes, and outlook. The next he decides that everyone is too powerful and cuts everyone back. The heavy optimizer just builds another character that is destined to destroy the game and the rest of us scramble to make something semi-functional. Then he will try to strike a middle ground and we can have the powerful characters but he starts using his baddies as if they are the Borg collective, they all march in unison, have perfect tactics, and adapt after every encounter. It is the most surreal thing to one day have a character that is on the level, the next is over power, the third is under powered and the forth replaced. I keep trying to keep my character but he gets irritated at the cheese I have to employ to make my (yes, groan) monk viable. Wizard cheese? Totally cool. Cleric cheese, no problem. But a monk that is hard to hit? Unbalanced. In the middle of this is everyone else who sort of just try to ride out the waves until they subside but with everyone being significantly different in their experience they end up only being effective if they got help from the optimizer. This got me thinking, how DOES one balance a situation like this? If we worked as a team, used good tactics, and all built good characters then this would be simple but what do you do when you don't have any equality between the players. They can't learn because the stronger (better built or played) characters do most of the work. IS there even a solution?