What's The Absolute Worst PC You've Ever Seen?


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One of the joys of playing with people who are new to the system - or RPGs in general - is seeing what sort of fun and insane combinations they come up that no one with any experience with the game would ever dream of playing unless they were deliberately gimping themselves. I don't mean that in a sarcastic way - it's actually a lot of fun.

So what's the worst PC you've ever seen that wasn't deliberately trying to be bad?


A player in a group I was in was playing a Cavalier in breastplate (by choice, not because he couldn't afford full-plate) running around with a Longsword, a lance, a mace, a longbow, an axe, and feas being all over the place... oh dear it made me wanna cry....

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A witch/Druid mystic theurge that doesn't know / prepare any buff spells but doesn't invest in high ability scores to up DCs of offensive spells or in feats. It was the "best" worst blaster I've ever seen .


A Ninja/Water Oracle that would drop an Obscuring Mist that only they could see through leaving no one else able to attack.


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Dread Knight wrote:
A Ninja/Water Oracle that would drop an Obscuring Mist that only they could see through leaving no one else able to attack.

Funny thing is that the Water Ninja is actually a rather solid build... xD


It isn't at level 2(for him level 1 for most of the rest of us) when no one else has a way of seeing through the mist at higher levels when the rest of the team can see though it I can see that it can be a good tactic.


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I've got a few.

We had one guy who's first character was a drow dread necromancer who managed to kill himself by begging to get healed(died right after killing a party pet), his next character was a goblin shaman(adept) who spent most of the campaign training at a monastery to get xp while the rest of us rescued a princess and that one got baleful polymorphed after a bad attempt to fight me in pvp, and his next character he built just to kill me was a necromancer who's first action was too... fire a crossbow and miss. He had fifth level spells, and he chose to fire a crossbow. The worst part is he thought he was trying to powergame the system the entire time. All of his characters accomplished... not much.

We had another guy who was a non combat rogue with worse skills than the party wizard who apparently had nothing better to do than to actively sabotage the party with his lying. A wanted fugitive who isn't bothering to disguise himself and actively announces himself was apparently not a good choice in party member. Did I mention he wasn't particularly good at lying?

I also heard stories from one gamer about Jebediah the Dirt Farmer. A guy who spent a mission at a mansion in its front yard farming dirt, only to be struck by lightning by the GM who finally got fed up with his existence(or lack there of...). This inspired a friend of mine's summoner, a dirt farmer with a gopher. A giant flying super gopher.


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MrSin wrote:

I also heard stories from one gamer about Jebediah the Dirt Farmer. A guy who spent a mission at a mansion in its front yard farming dirt, only to be struck by lightning by the GM who finally got fed up with his existence(or lack there of...). This inspired a friend of mine's summoner, a dirt farmer with a gopher. A giant flying super gopher.

Hahaha incredible. I'm trying to picture that one.

"I cast Disintegrate on the dragon"

"While she's casting Disintegrate, I charge the dragon to draw its attention"

"I ready a healing spell"

"I continue to remain at the mansion and farm dirt"

"Damn it, Jebediah! You've been at that mansion for six sessions now!"


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MilesBeyond wrote:
"Damn it, Jebediah! You've been at that mansion for six sessions now!"

"Its good dirt."

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I had a player in one of my games play a 3.0 character with 8 classes- He was a cleric/wizard/sorcerer/bard/barbarian/lasher/exotic weapon master/loremaster. See, he was a cleric of the god of magic, so he wanted to be able to cast spells off of all 3 mental stats. Also, he decided to be good with a whip - so bard for proficiency, barbarian for BAB, then the lasher/ewm prestige classes. The whole PC was a mess. It was really funny at about 12th level when he ended up next to a foe and the rest of the party found out he didn't have any Concentration, which was a skill back then.

Oh and he was advancing in all those classes equally.


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MrSin wrote:
MilesBeyond wrote:
"Damn it, Jebediah! You've been at that mansion for six sessions now!"
"Its good dirt."

Dirt farmers can be strong too.


A Drunken Master monk archetype with the vow of fasting sounds pretty awful.


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A goblin bard with 6 STR and 8 CON. His primary weapon was a blowgun with which he could do a maximum of 1 non-lethal damage (non-lethal because his actual damage roll was always 0 or negative).

His primary performance was dance. So, when battle started, he would run into the middle of the fight and start dancing to inspire courage.

He refused to ever wear armor, except whatever he could cobble together from pots and pans, scraps of wood and armor, and whatever other detritus he came across.

It was amazing.


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My first character :(


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We had a guy in our group, we'll call him Jack, because that is his name, who played a Bard that never used any of his Bard abilities. He tried to do everything but actually be a bard, and he didn't do any of the other things well. He hardly ever hit in combat (he currently holds the record at my gaming table of most 1's rolled in a single session), the spells that he chose were, for the most part, esoteric and mostly non-helpful, he put skill points in skills that he rarely used, and he collected so many items, magical and otherwise, but never chose to use them in the correct situations and, finally, he would complain during combat that he "couldn't do anything effective."

He doesn't play with us anymore.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Worst I saw for Pathfinder was a wizard that maxed intelligence and constitution, and bought every other stat down to a 7. No strength, little AC or initiative due to bad dexterity, no will save due to bad wisdom, and no charisma.

The player was new to wizards, so didn't have the best selection of spells. Good for a beginner though. The dump stats hurt him badly, yet it was a learning experience.

The worst PC I have seen outside of Pathfinder is a tie between -

Randomly rolled superhero in the old TSR Marvel super heroes (What can you do with stats lower than a common person, prehensile hair, and animal communication with fish? He was worse than Aquaman!).

And the old school Traveler character that died before character generation finished! (Yes, you can die at character generation in that game).


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Randarak wrote:

We had a guy in our group, we'll call him Jack, because that is his name, who played a Bard that never used any of his Bard abilities. He tried to do everything but actually be a bard, and he didn't do any of the other things well. He hardly ever hit in combat (he currently holds the record at my gaming table of most 1's rolled in a single session), the spells that he chose were, for the most part, esoteric and mostly non-helpful, he put skill points in skills that he rarely used, and he collected so many items, magical and otherwise, but never chose to use them in the correct situations and, finally, he would complain during combat that he "couldn't do anything effective."

He doesn't play with us anymore.

that is pretty sad that after you helped Jack to understand his mistakes and explain some of the bard class features to him that he still did not play with you anymore :(


Puju, an anthrompomorphic bat sorceror pretending to be a tauric creature who ritually eviscerated the druid's dog that was taken from the druid by the GM to chase down said bat-man and make him join the party cause he was hiding in the shadows above us well the rest of us fought.


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A merfolk bard whose only real contribution to the party was drowning the occasional enemy who fell overboard. He got killed by a shark.


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My example is kinda different. The player intended it to be a bad character but it ended up being amazing instead. He decided to play a one armed Goblin Commoner. But somehow he ended up with the highest climb and swim checks in the party. He also single handedly (I swear I did not intend that pun) took down a Wizard that was supposed to be above APL with grappling.


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Lamontius wrote:
Randarak wrote:

We had a guy in our group, we'll call him Jack, because that is his name, who played a Bard that never used any of his Bard abilities. He tried to do everything but actually be a bard, and he didn't do any of the other things well. He hardly ever hit in combat (he currently holds the record at my gaming table of most 1's rolled in a single session), the spells that he chose were, for the most part, esoteric and mostly non-helpful, he put skill points in skills that he rarely used, and he collected so many items, magical and otherwise, but never chose to use them in the correct situations and, finally, he would complain during combat that he "couldn't do anything effective."

He doesn't play with us anymore.

that is pretty sad that after you helped Jack to understand his mistakes and explain some of the bard class features to him that he still did not play with you anymore :(

You can only have so many discussions with someone, offer so many suggestions, and realize that they are falling on deaf ears.

Dark Archive

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The Crusader wrote:

A goblin bard with 6 STR and 8 CON. His primary weapon was a blowgun with which he could do a maximum of 1 non-lethal damage (non-lethal because his actual damage roll was always 0 or negative).

His primary performance was dance. So, when battle started, he would run into the middle of the fight and start dancing to inspire courage.

He refused to ever wear armor, except whatever he could cobble together from pots and pans, scraps of wood and armor, and whatever other detritus he came across.

It was amazing.

That doesn't say 'worst' to me. Yes, it's hardcore mode, but your description suggests the player know what he could do (dance, collect crap, use a very light weapon) and did what you want a Bard to do anyway (Inspire Courage, hassle the enemy).

The PC may ot have been a powerful build, but it sounds like the player squeezed good use out of the unpromising chassis. Poison the blowgun and you start getting somewhere good.


Thats a toss up be between the ranger/ninja (he called himself the freaky ninja, we called him the ninjer) and a ranger/wizard. In both cases, there was multi-classing where the abilities of the second class were not used.


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Well, I doubt this is any better or worse than what some people have put forth here, but here goes:

In my tabletop CotCT campaign, one of the players had an aasimar summoner for a character and a bipedal sort of eidolon. Now, normally, this isn't too out of line, but as he levelled up, pretty much the only evolution he put on his eidolon were tentacles.

Yep. Tentacles. Nothin' but tentacles. And the worst part was that he didn't even bother buying the evolution that made his eidolon's attacks count as magic weapons.

This came back to bite the party when they ran into wererats and his eidolon couldn't do anything to contribute.

Well, he kept smacking the wererat leader for 1d4 points of damage each hit. That was easily absorbed by the monster's DR.

We got tired of him after that and his next character was a cleric that was able to contribute more to the party.

Liberty's Edge

Dread Knight wrote:
A Ninja/Water Oracle that would drop an Obscuring Mist that only they could see through leaving no one else able to attack.

I played with a ninja who did the same thing in Pathfinder Society. The plan was so he could get sneak attacks with shurikens. Not only did it make it difficult for other players to attack, but he was all too happy to remind my rogue and the other ninja in the group that now we CAN'T sneak attack because of concealment. So +1 on the ninja/water oracle because not only did his tactics not work during that adventure, but he also managed to gimp the entire group.


KestrelZ wrote:
Worst I saw for Pathfinder was a wizard that maxed intelligence and constitution, and bought every other stat down to a 7. No strength, little AC or initiative due to bad dexterity, no will save due to bad wisdom, and no charisma.

I actually played with a character that was almost exactly like the one you just described. The differences were that it was a dwarven necromancer who dumped everything except Intelligence and Charisma.

Our first adventure was in the Whispering Cairn. The poor dwarf didn't last three rooms before getting cut down by a many-legged slashing monster and a swarm of acid beetles.


Recently a guy made a Savage Barbarian.

That's pretty much the whole story. No armor. 9 AC at level 1 while Raging.

Also he took like Extra Traits instead of Power attack or something useful.


Rynjin wrote:

Recently a guy made a Savage Barbarian.

That's pretty much the whole story. No armor. 9 AC at level 1 while Raging.

Also he took like Extra Traits instead of Power attack or something useful.

Ouch. My sympathies.


Dragoncat wrote:
KestrelZ wrote:
Worst I saw for Pathfinder was a wizard that maxed intelligence and constitution, and bought every other stat down to a 7. No strength, little AC or initiative due to bad dexterity, no will save due to bad wisdom, and no charisma.

I actually played with a character that was almost exactly like the one you just described. The differences were that it was a dwarven necromancer who dumped everything except Intelligence and Charisma.

Our first adventure was in the Whispering Cairn. The poor dwarf didn't last three rooms before getting cut down by a many-legged slashing monster and a swarm of acid beetles.

RIP in pieces Erip. *sniffle*


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Thalia Winterflower, in a Kingmaker game on these boards. She was a Bard priestess of Calistria. She was catty for no reason, tried to initiate inter-party strife, wanted to seduce pretty much every NPC we came across, constantly left the group to engage in her own scenes, and turned every possible situation into soft-core porn. Including combat.

(slightly nsfw)

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Dragoncat wrote:
Our first adventure was in the Whispering Cairn. The poor dwarf didn't last three rooms before getting cut down by a many-legged slashing monster and a swarm of acid beetles.

To be fair, lots of well-built PCs fell to those acid beetles.


Back in the 3.x days, we played with a guy who had what I guess would be called "special snowflake syndrome" He was always going off on his own, would never listen to the other members of the party, and who would often take actions that were out and out stupid. The last time we played with him, he managed to roll up a character with 4 18's and two 16's. Even with that character he managed to contribute absolutely nothing to the party. (Well, other than humor when his own actions would inevitably come back to bite him.)


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Ross Byers wrote:
Dragoncat wrote:
Our first adventure was in the Whispering Cairn. The poor dwarf didn't last three rooms before getting cut down by a many-legged slashing monster and a swarm of acid beetles.
To be fair, lots of well-built PCs fell to those acid beetles.

He was doing great up until the first time he tried to cast a spell.

"You wanna make a Concentration check Erip?"

"Nah, I'll take my chances."


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Bierberson. No, that wasn't the name the player gave his Male Drow Noble. In fact, he didn't even give him a name or read up on Drow all. So the group named him.

First fight: rebuilds his character during the session at the rest of the group's request because he couldn't do anything.

Other gems? Refusing to give up a Cloak of the Manta Ray and the running off the docks to use it to run away from a fight with his sister and the Retriever she brought with her to take him home. The entire fight was because of him, and he ran away...

"I'm a prince. I'll just ask my family for money." Should have been our first clue.

Luckily, there was one factor we all got a laugh out. The fight with his sister? Was right after a holiday in real life.

Other Player: "What's she want him for?"
Me(in low, malice-filled voice): "You forgot Mother's Day, Beiberson..."

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My first PFS game I showed up with a rogue and a blowgun. The DM was kind as he could have easily killed him, but didn't. After the session, he gave me tips on improving him.


WAIT UP: Once had a cleric who, with a 20-point buy, decided to put it all into Wisdom. He had 10 in every stat and 20 Wisdom. He also refused to worship a deity and named his character "Hugh Mann". He proceeded to do nothing but cause some serious damage to the party when he channeled negative and got 1-shotted by the same gorilla that killed my cleric. He stopped playing after his character died, which is probably the best thing that could have happened.


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Fetchystick wrote:
A merfolk bard whose only real contribution to the party was drowning the occasional enemy who fell overboard. He got killed by a shark.

I plan on playing a merfolk Cleric someday. She'd be traveling on land with the rest of the party thanks to a persisted Sky Swim spell.

The worst character I've ever seen (that I remember) was a Druid with 8 Wis. The sad think is that he still was one of the more effective PCs in that group.


Goblin bard. 12 charisma. No idea how to spells. Played like a Fighter.


Worst character I saw would have to be the 12th level cleric that came in late into the adventure with 10 Wis because the player thought that they cast off of Cha. And yes, he was otherwise set up to be a caster cleric so was useless on the front line.


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I was playing in a group that had a Barbarian/Frenzied Berserker/Warhulk. While it was very very good at killing the bad guys, 90% of the time it would kill the party as well! The DM was just about giving the rest of us free reses so we could do something.

Dark Archive

Let's see. Here are ones that stick out in my mind currently for 3.5 / PF. Details are sort of fuzzy in my memory since none of them were lasting, long-term characters.

The one that probably stands out the most was a sorta-average-stats-across-the-board Rogue who used a crossbow and dagger both reasonably ineffectively and refused to use magic items because having to rely on items was an insult to his natural skills or something like that (and would get angry with any attempt to convince him to use them). That character was fortunately for a one-shot or something, since I don't remember having to deal with it for an extended period of time.

The one that sticks out as having come from someone who had previously made better (not optimized, but still, much better) other characters was a Druid who was mono-focused on deer. She didn't wildshape so far as I can recall, had a generally iffy build and spell selection, and wouldn't summon / work with any animal that wasn't a deer. I think that character either got replaced (without dying, I think the player just eventually wanted to switch PCs) by a better one partway into things or dropped from that campaign (and joined back in a later one with a different character).

The high-dex, sorta-low-wis whip-Cleric (who I think took a single level of Rogue?). It didn't have any stuff that actually made the whip useful, couldn't cast well, and tried to melee when it was bad at it. That one died quickly and got replaced by something less-bad.

There were a handful (4 or so) of sorta-optimized-for-becoming-an-undead-later-in-the-campaign characters who got one-shotted due to 6 or 8 CON and poor AC. This was mostly wizards who wanted to become Liches, but there was a fighter trying to become a Graveknight who stood out there as particularly ineffective for his role.


I have a few from many games, from the same player so I 'll list his worst ones from just PF. And I don't mean this as a shame thing, he's a genuine pleasure to game with but his characters are just silly.

I had played with this guy for a long while and knew he had never played a caster before so I started the campaign with him I wanted to give him training wheels, an NPC dummy for him to clod around to work out the kinks. Thus I made an NPC cleric of pharasma named Tanya. Moderately stated, I fluffed out her background for him(gave access to background details and link pharasmas info), and left feats & else to him selection to him. He placed his skills in weird things(no knowledge religion, spellcraft, or perception), instead always prepared the same spells as though he was an Oracle, and refused armor and gave away gear to the "real" PCs. Saw Undead and ran away rather than fight. Generally was a Joke as played by him, but was a good learning experience of what not to do. Soon after Tanya got murdered by a Vamp Synthesist and began playing his real character, which is a tale for another time...


1. So in a rather brutal game this guy made a Magus with straight 10's in all physical stats and spent all of his feats on Skill Focus. He was a snotty noble with a Blackblade and he would never contribute in combat, instead he would do something like "I continue to examine the bookshelf." When he did try to contribute he never hit and wondered why he wouldn't with his +2 to hit at level 3.

2. This other guy was a Bard in another super low level game; he never used Bard song. Not once. All he would do was try to use Lullaby to put enemies to sleep in combat... and every time we would explain that is not what the spell does. And then he would try again. So glad he quit early; that game has now been going on for two years and is level 14.


my 3.5 halforc fighter1/bard4/spellswordx. took a lot of dm fiat to make that one not suck.


A crossbow user fighter. The game started at level 10, the fighter tactic was to run away 100 ft the first rounds of combat then start sniping (stealth +30 or something like that) for 1d10+10 of damage.


Nicos wrote:
A crossbow user fighter. The game started at level 10, the fighter tactic was to run away 100 ft the first rounds of combat then start sniping (stealth +30 or something like that) for 1d10+10 of damage.

What if they chased them?


Darth Grall wrote:
Nicos wrote:
A crossbow user fighter. The game started at level 10, the fighter tactic was to run away 100 ft the first rounds of combat then start sniping (stealth +30 or something like that) for 1d10+10 of damage.
What if they chased them?

He use darkness supernatural ability or invisibility. Fortuntately the game did not last much.

Sovereign Court

Harsk...
_____

Among player-built characters, I adventured with a Wizard / Gunslinger who was actually OK at lower levels but seems a little conflicted. The other bad ones weren't that bad -- a Dwarf Drunken Master who contributed little (he might get better at higher level) and a couple druids played with little skill (they should get better if the players keep them).


Sadly, mine in an Age of Worms campaign. Four classes by ninth level, couldn't hit anything, bad AC. Great skills, very flavorful for RP. But he would have gotten other PCs killed.

It was the result of trying to make a PC fill a hole in the party, front liner, which this 3.5 ranger, scout, rogue, prestige class monstrosity couldn't do.

Liberty's Edge

I generally work pretty hard to make sure my players have characters that actually work. Mostly by advising them on precisely how to do what they want. So...not a lot of these stories.

The closest were a Kitsune Druid who tried to do both wild-shape melee and effective casting, and have good Charisma (just...not all that effective at any of the three), and a seriously unoptimized for melee Cleric (Str 14 if I recall rightly) who then took levels in Fighter.

I've had others who weren't optimal, but they were all effective and fun. The Con 10 Cha 14 Half-Elf Illusionist with a day job as an actor is still one of the scariest characters I've seen played (because, y'know, competent player with a Wizard).

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