[for DM] What's the consensus about coward characters?

[Satinavian]

Doesn't matter if it's D&D or not. You participate in the game. You don't do nothing while everyone else engages what's happening. You don't do nothing when there is a combat.

I very heavily disagree.

Combat doesn't have to be an activity where the whole engages. It might be something, that only the combattants do. Like scouting is often something the scout does alone and like negoatiation is often something the face or the character with the highest social status does. Or crafting is what the crafter does. Or the cyberspace excusion is something the hacker does.

Now there are players who don't like this and want all characters doing all things together, no matter how little sense that makes (everyone fights, even the noncombatant civilians, everyone searchs the books in the library for clues even the illiterate party members who have to rely on pictures, everyone takes part in all negotiations even those that don't know the language, everyone takes part in the secret scouting mission, even the load and big ones)... but i am certainly not one of them.



That D&D so heavily relies on "combat is for everyone" is the main reaso, it can't have proper fighters. Because the difference between someone specialized in combat and a civillian is not allowed to exist for PCs. That is not alwqays the case in other games.