Upset player advice

[PaucaTerrorem]

So our DM gave us an evil campaign in his homebrew setting. In it we are all cursed to take the world. Half the party(hate sayin it but it's the thinking half) decided we should start it in a slow methodical way. Take a small town with a keep, some smash take overs, some political take overs, whatfore and henceforth...

Anyways, one of our long time players(he, myself, and another are all that are left from our 9 player start) likes roll-playing. He started a barbarian cannibal but quickly got fed up when three of us decided to NOT smash-kill everything. Next session he shows up declaring he's gonna switch to bard so he can be relevant to ALL scenarios(limelight hog).

Now I love this guy, but his personal INT is about an 8 and I know he's not an optimizer at all. I envision him getting mad because his bard sucks across the board. I told him that I think he won't like bard and to stick with his barbarian, that there will be talking and there will be smash-killing and that "you're not understanding that". Then the smokers went out for a smoke and when we all came back in he had split.

My question is, first off was I out of line? Second is how should we handle this if he comes back next session?

[Aegis013]

How about something like "Alright, go ahead and make a bard. I'm concerned you won't enjoy it so don't get rid of your barbarian's sheet just yet. You can try out the bard for awhile and if you decide the barbarian would be more fun you can switch back."?

Something like that? I mean, it sounds like you're trying to look out for his ability to enjoy the game but approaching it in a way that sounds, from his position, like you're trying to politely stop him from having fun.

[Psyren]

I would help him build his Bard. Bards can absolutely "smash killl everything" if they want to, and do so more effectively than any Barbarian. If he wants to play a Bard and doesn't know how to extract its potential, that's where the group can come in. (Especially if it's a slower campaign and you can take the time to give him tips.)

[sparkyinbozo]

I think this is a case of what versus how it was said. I think your intent was on the right place, but it sounds like you might have come off as a little patronizing regarding a choice he'd probably put some thought into.

It'd be like the difference between sitting at a restaurant and someone saying, "Hey, the chicken is really good here," versus, "You shouldn't have that beef you ordered, eat the chicken instead."

[ArcturusV]

Course, another option might be to split the party a bit and let the guy run his barbarian as he wanted to see it played originally. More work for the DM, but as a Player interested in the intrigue and slow path to power, you should perhaps support this if the Barbarian/Bardic player thought it was a good idea.

I mean if you're going for the political empire that you want to take over and expand... you need things. The match in the tinderbox so to speak, to get the fire started. Since you're Evil, that fire usually involves a lot of bodies, one way or another. Having the Barbarian player going out there, massacring, causing trouble and stirring the pot can feed into your political machinations.

And if you're worried about Mr. Limelight getting a lot of Solo Artist attentions, you can tag along on his journeys to crush his enemies, see them driven before him, and hear the lamentations of their women.

It's something I've done (And been on the player side of) quite a few times. It works out pretty good, contrary to the usual wisdom of "never split the party". Just remember you still ARE a party and should link back up regularly. Particularly at places where your plots converge.

So one session you have the Barb soloing in some village, causing mayhem, while your more politically minded people are doing their diplomacy. Next session they link up to "solve" the problem the Barb's rampage caused and take said village into their fold. Rinse and repeat formula.

[eggynack]

Just teach him the subtle magics of diplomancy, and the somewhat less subtle magics of giving everyone on the team a pile of fire damage. He doesn't necessarily have to play a bard who's bad at stuff, because bards are really cool. Also, maybe you could point out that barbarians have intimidate as a class skill, and that intimidate is a reasonably good out of combat skill. It's no diplomacy, at least not in its out of combat uses, but it should help out some. If his characters suck, and he wants his characters to rock, help him do that. If you can't, or don't want to, rocking characters are rather our specialty.

[PaucaTerrorem]

Thanks everyone. Will try these ideas on the DM.

BTW, I know bards rock. This guy's just not a bright one.