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I only played one paladin. Being the stoic, heroic bastard that he was, he held a door and died while the others escaped. I loved that guy's stats, but, I role played him the way I had created him.

I... really like the even-handedness and thoughtfulness to this approach here. I like that you take these terms that most people would take negatively and express the value to them at the table and the way to balance the good tendencies against the less positive ones. This was a wonderful video and one I think I'm going to share with some of my friends!

Just DMed my first game, fiance was a player. Favoritism? Lol! First battle her PC tripped over the bar, vomited on the steps and healed the rogue for 1 HP. She forgot to loot the bodies and everyone else picked them clean.

This video is funny for me. As a DM, I play with 3 players. One are a "Powergamer", the other one (my brother) are a "Rules Lawyer", and the last one are new to D&D and he's a fantastic Roleplayer. :)

I love my players right now, they just want to have fun and adventure.

This series is interesting. Just stumbled across it, and it's actually good advice. Filling in the gaps for me, as a DM

being a LG rules lawyer is a hard path, for to be true, one must call out rules that the DM forgot that hurt your own character. Otherwise you risk turning into a LE rules lawyer... a vile creature.

In regards to the favoritism. I've learned that if I'm going to introduce loot or a boon or design a special item then I do that for everyone in the group or make sure that everyone else also has something cool happening with them.

I had a different problem but it was similar to the "favorite player". My wizard was what i would say a "not favorite character" lol. Everyone else including the dm just wanted to wack things and not describe anything in combat other than. Friend: "AC 20?"... dm: "hits"... Friend" I deal 5 dmg to the goblin"... Dm "goblins turn, AC 14"... Friend: "misses"... Dm: "alright, next person"... So I liked to try to talk to the dm's npcs in character for the fun of it. We walked up on some hunters cooking food and eating it over a fire and I asked them if they liked the way their food tasted, because if they didn't, I would be able to change the flavor to something they may like more (using prestidigitation). Right away everyone at the table sighed and laughed because of the question. The dm responded "if we didn't like it, we wouldn't be eating it". Everyone at the table thought it was a stupid question :/ how am I able to know if they liked it or not? Maybe they were eating it because that's the only thing they could find that day. Maybe some of them would have liked to eat venison instead of the rabbit they caught. Maybe it was bland. Maybe one of the people overcooked it and it tasted terrible. I was just trying to be friendly and it turned into everyone at the table thinking my character was stupid for asking that question... I continued to be friendly with every other non hostile npc, thinking that eventually, I would run across someone that would like their food to be seasoned or drink to taste a little different. But I was met every time with rejection. Not a "no thanks" or a "eh, no I am just fine with this" but with stuff like "if i didn't like it, I wouldn't drink it" or "I wouldn't be eating this if I didn't like it"

Jim you seem so chill, the best quality for a DM in my mind although i hope you get to be a PC too.

Being my friend or S.O. as a DM just means I can get away with putting you through harder encounters without you getting mad ;)

The bit about the DM's partner is interesting, because In a recent game my DM's partner got the Big Bad down to 1HP (after a long fight and of course we didn't know how much HP it had until after, but he was describing it as being on it's last legs (or fins it was a merrow)) and then as the Rogue I leapt up and sneak-attacked it in the face, after two previous unsucessful hits when I used my Cunning Action to disengage but still ended up getting hit for 2/3 of my HP in ONE HIT. Afterwards she was like "You should have fudged that to let me kill it." And the DM to his credit was like "No. You didn't do enough damage." I ran up and stabbed the damn thing through the eye, flipped it over and in its death throes used it's tail like Legolas used the Oliphaunt's nose in LotR to land.

This is what I try to do to help solve some of these problems. I tell my players to run their characters by me when they level up and tell me why they chose the things they chose. This helps offset the power gamers and gives me a bit more insight into the character's motivations and path. I give the players a list of resources they can pull from. If they want to go outside of it, they must run it by me first and I reserve the right to say no or to tweak it to better fit my campaign and/or houserules. I tell my players to share the spotlight and that none of them are truly main characters, but that they are all supporting characters to each other's stories. I tell my players that I reserve the right to make a mechanics ruling on the spot and to change a mechanic as a houserule. This helps combat rules lawyers. I am a bit of a rules lawyer myself, but I try to be civil about it and understand that the DM has the final call on a ruling. I don't mind rules lawyers like that. The ones that yell or pitch a fit are the ones that I will NOT deal with.

thing for a power gamer. dont use a big bad use A LOT OF THINGS. You can get a level 17 party to run from kobolds.

I love the content on this channel, especially the one where you guys talk about whether orcs and goblins are actually evil, you have earned my subscription!

Really dig the pop up commentary on this. A lot of the newer content comes across with more casual rigor which, for some of the trickier stuff like the monster explorations which is nice but doesn't stick i my head as well as some keywords.

Good vid, thanks guys! Also, love the Peach Trees shirt x

I think D&D could achieve world peace...

My favorite, recent encounter was this: our group was waiting in a closed room and I (the wizard) sensed a strange innate magic coming from the bottom of the well. Lo and behold, our 2nd level party came face to face with a basilisk we all flipped our shit and had no idea what to do. Somehow, the rogue and I finished it off after the cleric, paladin, and druid went down with no deaths or petrifications. It was the suspense and the horror that was so fun.

You missed a number of player types. Like the specialist, method actor, the tactician and storyteller types. Great channel, keep it up!

I am all three. I have a character that can hit hard, yet doesn't get into fights unless the fight drags him in. Also when the character sees their companion(s) in trouble will push back his turn and go and swap places taking a attack of opportunity. Will also use a prepared move action to move to their companion and push them out of the way to take the blast or put body in front of the attack. Now I don't know how to properly put things into words so hopefully most players understand what I wrote.

Yes, agreed. At a point in every GM's game, it happens...And as the PC's progresses into the upper levels, the more and more powerful the character gets. Wizards especially!

WoD mages have a habit of just breaking the rules, but the main premise of world of darkness is story first anyways. My mage decided to go the whole hog and activate his kinfolk gene.. though to his surprise, he wasn't a werewolf but a bastet. WHOOPS (OOCly, already knew he wouldn't be a garou... did it to punish my character for his hubris, which is a theme with mages anyways). End result is he got a better soak against damage, but that's as far as he's taken it.. plus falling a 100' without any damage just to snub his nose at the other shifters was kinda cool too. And it was a very, VERY strong lesson against thinking he knew it all. It was fun to see the fianna and nuwisha try to pin the cat down in the middle of his first change... thankfully they were far better at brawling then I was at dodging. :) the image of a coyote and werewolf sitting on a werecat, too funny...

Jim looked liked he had some other choice words to say about power gamers and rules lawyers. Great video as always!

1:58 power gamer ...being one I think I know how to handle them :D

That ending was the best! ^^

power gamer - this is me, but i make sure im not stepping on everyone else to get my picks done, i try to fill slots the party might be missing, or just be useful in combat so everyone else can get to their fun, if its out of combat stuff, but usually im not the only one trying to excel in combat, so we can get everyone through

I tend to be the comedian, nothing annoying, but just little things that keep things fun during tedious parts of the game.

On with it.

congratulations on your cat catroon

I had to become a DM because I am too much of a rules lawyer. I can handle it if a DM makes a specific consistent homebrew rule, but I tried playing in a game with a DM who was a bit fast and loose with the rules and I just couldn't enjoy it. But I can be a great DM for new players because I remember almost everything and how every class and ability works so I can help my players out. I definitely add in a few specific homebrew rules, but they are extremely purposeful, and I love being able to bring that consistency, clerity, and predictability to the rules of my game. I definitely have some OCPD traits that I think are part of the reason I care so much about the rules.

I have played as a peasant once it was semi comic relief but a cool charecter to rp

Great video as always! But what happened to the episode that was previewed at the end of last week's? I was looking forward to a discussion on metagaming!

I'm a rules lawyer and a power gamer oh god

I really like my group, but there is a huge problem. I have 2 rules lawyers with semireliable knowledge. Which means atleast once a session we have a discussion about the rules which goes on until somebody is fed up and looks the stuff up.

Good stab a lot of famous archetypes!

if everyone was power gamers, then...

Haha how am I just finding this video. I read a 3rd edition that was about the styles of play and personality. I read through part of it and found it enlightening and it taught me how to be a better friend. I have no idea what the title was, does anyone know?

I'm a hybrid rules lawyer/power gamer, but i'm that thing by necessity because my group often times gets stuck on these things or makes really not good builds or doesn't play their combat very well because they get rules confused all the time and I play that way so we can get through these frustrating moments really quickly.

I feel like the best characters are always Spell-casters. A level 10 wizard/sorcerer is always significantly better than a fighter or a barbarian.

Our current campaign have a powergamer in the team. She has excessively high level in some skills (mainly spot and search), if she could fail something others won't have a chance to win. She's not (that) overpowered in combat and actually quite good in roleplaying, so now we still don't have much problem about it. However, she's a vampire mage and we are playing 3.5e in which mages are already quite overpowered. As the DM, I'm worrying she may become some master-of-all character later on. Honestly, this is more of a class balancing problem. Maybe I will ban some gamebreaking spells to deal with that.

i like to be the undersog. i am a good player i don't need stats or special items. I just like to do cool things like doing push ups as a bonus action while the opponent is proned. Ask a beholder if it might be interested in a staring contest. Let a child Vampire master grapple me while I jump into a church.

You’re so young. So full of life.

Where can I get that castle DM screen?

Can you do an episode on weapons?

Im really bad about shining rhe spotlight normaly every session one group gets the main focuse but my players almost never wanna be in one single party its just 10 people in groups of 3ish going in diffrent directions

my old group didn't have to worry about favoritism because the DM had us all roll for our own actions, though sadly the DM's little brother tended to think that he was always being targeted (which he wasn't).

That neck beard is glorious. I feel pitiful beside your presence as my face is near hairless and baby-like. I feel like a weakling.

I play with an group where beeing an rule lawyer or an powergamer is viewed with extreme prejudice. I can't even do evil characters or play evil campaigns with them because all of them are good suckers. While i do have a ton of fun playing with them, i'm also an guy who roleplays to the letter. If i am a righteous paladin, i AM a righteous paladin, and i will act like, doesn't matter what the party may think of my actions, y'know? And most of the time i get caught having to cut down some features from my characters personality just not to counter the will of the party. I may be an powergamer side, but i take my roleplaying seriously. And getting to trim my character actions and overrall personality just because it goes against the will of the party kinda makes me unsatisfied (I do get tons of fun playing those campaigns and i find them awesome, but still... :\).

just like to point out that a lot of powergamers are rules lawyers and vice versa

Agree with you on the power gamer.Disagree with your take on rules lawyer. I had a player that was a power gamer that knew the rules forwards and backwards, but he rarely argued rules at the table. He was an excellent resource for me if I didn't know something. The problem with rules lawyers is when they stop the game to argue every little detail because of something stupid. For example I had a player literally stop the game to argue because we had a monk that wanted to pray for guidance and his goddess was Chaotic (Desna from pathfinder) because his order traveled frequently so they paid tribute to her domain. The rules lawyer lost his mind because no lawful character would ever pray to a chaotic god. It ruined the game and nearly broke the group up.

I want to MOVE THE GAME FORWARD. Just milling about endlessly to no effect is boring. Either accept the plot hook, or run off in the opposite direction. Don't just stand there. So, when I see an opportunity, I'll take an action intended to draw the rest of the party in that direction

Know thy enemy.

Im always that one crazy guy with high int that behaves like an idiot xD.

I have a very easy way to deal with a powergamer being in the group: I just add a bit of sword fodder but not increase the difficulty much. The powergamer will notice that enemies aren't challenging to them and I won't do anything about that since this is what they chose by having their character being stronger than anyone elses. For me, the diplomacy/bluff powergamers are a bigger problem which require house rules. If you don't set a limit to the application of those skills, those players can solve every situation which deals with creatures solo.

I feel I am a powergamer at heart. I want to make a character with a good story, but not at the expense of stat efficiency. I think of characters that could end up being legends, I'd want my group to eventually reach 'Hero' status. I've seen some commenrs saying things like "if you want to powergame go play a video game". These people are dumb asf. I'm a gamer and I like the idea of being able to MAKE your own backstory and have it show in gameplay. Videogames just don't do let you do that. D&D lets you play your character EXACTLY like you want them to, that one unique tabletop RPG "mechanic" is what draws me to game. I've downloaded numerous PDFs and read through them multiple times, so that when the time comes I will be ready. I'll be that new guy that doesn't ask how everything works, I'll even try to be the guy that takes the least amount of time during combat turns, but I'll still have fun with the social aspects of the game cuz I don't want to just save the kingdom, I want the poeple to regard me as a true hero. The only thing I expect would expect from my DM is to let me know their houserules so that I know where to start building my power chadacter. Oh, and just because I'm a powergamer doesn't mean I'll be going the boring route. I want to kick ass, but I also want to look damn good doing it. If I ever have the option to Eldritch Blast or move up to Shocking Grasp someone's face, I'll move up, Grapple the enemy by the face and either burn Action Surge/ SP to Quicken Spell to fry their skin off while I drag them along the ground, and if DM allows, throw them as far as the rules let me- upwards, and uppercut them on their way down. And I would know that it would take an Attack Action with 2 Extra Attacks, a class feature (Fighter/Sorcerer), and a high Strength score to be able to pull all of that off ahead of time. I'd even forgo physical dice rolls and use a dice app if allowed, just to shave off some seconds on my turn.

I like "For The Greater Good" characters- "sure, i'll kill that kitten, if I know it saves a thousand lives," but throwing in a sprinkling of hypocrisy- "I will save my own skin first. Better me alive to sow brutal good into the world then me dead without purpose."

Is it bad that I have a character in my campaign that gets the spotlight that seeming seems like the favorite only because he got lucky early on and is the only original character that lived?

power gamers... i just don't get it... the primary source books are enough to be creative , and you can win most fights simply by positioning your characters smartly and working as a team.

Still don't quite understand what a powergamer is. In video game terms is it a min/maxer?

lol I'm so mean to my SO at the table. No favoritism here lol

*Just me wondering through and watching the oldest Web DM videos .*

#Half-ElvesMatter XD

That wasn't epic that was just stupid.... that pretty much described every character death I've ever had... ever.

World peace... But Hatfilms exist...

G