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Or maybe just give the not spell casters something else to do while the spell casters cast spells.

And honestly, I have advanced the plot as a martial character far more often than any of the spell casters in the party. Barbarians and ninjas are an impulsive lot and generally hate waiting for the spell caster to stand around and spend 30 minutes trying to pick the "right" spell for what ever.

The game I am GMing running right now the Fighter and Swashbuckler have done more to figure out how to do things and keep the plot moving more than the magic users.

Warpriest was a ton of fun

Barbarians are always fun...

I wish I could think fast enough to play a bard.

Body Oder...

I spent 5 years driving a garbage truck, if your BO is so bad it makes me want to gag, you probably shouldn't be out in public until you reacquaint yourself with soap and water.

I honestly feel bad for the owner of a small game store here in town, because even heavy handed use of bleach doesn't completely remove the smell of his customer's BO.

The distracted player used to bug me, but I have found just some random dice rolls pulls them back in pretty quick.

Also all of the "Uber builds" assume she's fighting 1 on 1, while they know all of her stats in-character to plan the perfect attack, that they have all of their spells, that they didn't fight through her realm to reach her, that she let them fully rest before attacking, and it's the problem with all the shroddinger wizard situations.

In order to get to her you've fought through her whole army and breached her realm. She's not stupid. She's not going to fight you if she thinks you can just paste her.

If I were running her she'd be popping in and out of numerous battles en route. Disrupting PCs at the worst possible moments.

I've played and run AD&D you'd be facing Black Dragon tactics the whole way.

You'd be in a CR 26 encounter, about to cast a spell, when all of a sudden, "Your spell is interrupted as something sharp slams into your back."

Black Butterfly is there, like 150 feet away, across difficult terrain. You have one round before she does something to aid the Angels you're fighting then is gone again.

She harries you the whole way, you never know when she's around. If she hasn't managed to weaken you before you reach her, when you do reach her, she bails.

She's an Empyreal Lord, not an idiot.

Hell you'd be dealing with her deeper darkness CONSTANTLY in fights not against her.

She'd be there, hidden, cast a deeper darkness while you're fighting someone else, drop an AM field, or a Mage's Disjunction then 5ft step and vanish.

She's not a video game end boss coded to sit and wait. You're about to kill a minion? Nope! She appears from nowhere, drops a quickened heal, slaps one of you with a spell of her choice, then vanishes before any of you can act.

This and DM > stat blocks. They are more like guide lines anyways. Plus since a few people missed it, if you look up Antimagic field you will find "Artifacts and deities are unaffected by mortal magic such as this"

So she can use antimagic field and still use all of her spells and spell like abilities with no problem.

Now I know some groups have different levels of humor and tone of game play. But I thought just for fun, what are those items that have come up during more lighthearted or silly moments in the games or just in game discussion.

Today, Coffee of Frog transmutation came up. It's coffee that turns who ever drinks it into a frog.

Last week I came up with an item for venerable aged female characters.
A handbag of whippersnapper bane. Adds a +10 to hit any character half the wielder's age or younger. Does non lethal damage.

It is just like running any other NPC, they have their own knowledge, beliefs and motivations.

Just because the NPC knows something, does not mean the NPC automatically divulges that information at the drop of a hat.

My current DMNPC is designed for support and to keep things running, in those occasional situations where the players forgot or missed the 27 times a certain thing was mentioned to accomplish a goal. Usually the PC fighter or barb do a good job at getting things unbogged down in pointless discussion, but sometimes they need a little help.

The climbing bit is the tricky part. Because horses do not climb as well as say a big horned sheep just due to their size. However big horned sheep and other goats can climb some stupidly steep and difficult terrain without thumbs.

Like this
https://www.google.com/search?q=goats+climbing+dam+in+italy&client=fire fox-b&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiw47nx r9HXAhVh64MKHUiDDrIQsAQIbQ&biw=1908&bih=966

You can find ungulates in pretty much any terrain on earth, including mountains. And while hooves are not as great as thumbs on all four of your limbs; keep in mind any quadruped race with arms and hands has six appendages to climb with.

So it would be more a matter of upper body strength to pull up their full body weight and if there is enough room for them to fit. They could actually reach much higher than a biped if they just stand on their hind legs with their fore legs up against a wall or just a good balance check.

Not feeling the barkskin or blindsense. Neither really make much sense to me even with the race background.

I would go with thick skinned for a small bonus to AC in the form of natural armor and Keen sense hearing for bonus to hearing perception checks.

But I do like pretty much everything else. Unique enough to be interesting and sized appropriately.

A stop at a average skilled blacksmith could provide the character with some more climbing friendly shoes. There are a few real breeds of horse that are sure footed in rough terrain. This character won't be scaling walls or smooth nearly vertical surfaces without a horse shoe version of spider climb boots, but they will fair alright.

Ultimate Cooking hardcover? Iron chef base class...

I would buy it, just cause I would find it entertaining.

Also, are you really going to argue with a dragon?

For simplicity sake, I always have the animal act with the character it belongs too, unless they want the animal to act separately. Like if they want the animal to fetch keys after the players have created a diversion on a different turn.

Also, get a small stuffed panther of cat stuffed animal. Set it on the table so you and the GM do not forget the cat is always with you. As that can happen frequently if you don't normally have an animal companion.

I have to agree it is less hate for the class as it is hate for the way people play them. Because most people just jump right into stick up butt goody goody mode for paladins.

Just like not all barbarians have to be blood thirsty dimwits, not all paladins have to be holyer than thou pricks.

Yes, but you have to do a couple things for it to work.

Firstly you must give the summon a gift.
Secondly, you can not have the summon engage in combat during any part of a 7 consecutive day span.
Thirdly you need some Barry Manilow and good wine
Fourthly and most importantly, you must treat your summon with respect and accept if they say no.

Though to be serious you could likely find rules in the book no one speaks of. Or just use cartoon porn rules which would be yes.

Honestly never paid attention to the average damage any of my players do, or the monsters do for that matter. Because I kind of figure I'll miss judge the fight balance one way or another and that is fine.

Is it bad if the fighter or barb kick the ever loving stuffing out of a few guys? Not really, because I might throw something a bit harder than I expected at them and its a multi round slug fest.

If you want to challenge the barb, throw something up at her that has a little better armor and more hit points. Take some CR 2 mook and give him or her a little better armor, bump their bab up 1 or 2, give them a better weapon.

Balancing fights so they are fun and challenging is a bit challenging some times...

I threw 5 CR 6 bandits at my group of 6 players who are level 4 and it was a bit on the long side because 3 players just rolled poorly. There was three or four rounds where the fighter and the paladin where the only ones hitting the bandits, who only had an AC of 17... They did have 70 hit points though.

I am working on playing other classes when I get the chance to play. Though I tend to enjoy the smash skulls classes over the spell casters or sneaky/face classes. They are all fun, but some times the brutal approach keeps the group moving in a time crunch.

I will also play male or female characters of any race. So far my favorites are a female Ifrit Rogue with a couple level of Sorcerer or a male half giant Gnoll fighter.

I usually stick with NG or CG, though have played two LG just to offset a few groups murder hobo tendencies.

And then of course, there are those people who roleplay dwarves as "short human who likes beer" and elves as "arrogant human with Spock ears."

Let's face it. We're all humans here, so any non-human race we roleplay is gonna have some human in it. We can't help seeing the world through human eyes.

To be fair I have had two GMs who have forgotten what race people are playing. I can understand NPCs not reacting to Dwarfs or Elves, but Kitsune or Tengus are another thing entirely.

So it does kind of go both ways, along with asking players what their familiars or pets are doing in combat or social interactions.

I don't know if every tavern owner or patron would be comfortable with a wolf or bear sitting at a table. But all the GMs I have had don't even have someone question at a bear in the tavern.

Granted since there are no Dwarfs or Elves in the party, I don't have to remember secret doors or passages if they pop up in any of the APs I borrow ideas from.

If we're going to psychoanalyze, we need to be complete about it: it's quite possible he points out the optimization in order to directly combat the notion that you must be human for optimization (which, to him, seems to be the problem), rather than because he wants the other races due to optimization.

Or it's possible that he got caught up in doing so, and forgot to make other points.

Or that he either conflates or unfairly differentiates (or both, in different cases) mechanical optimization and/or RP'ing interesting things or people - intentionally or otherwise.

Or he has worked too many 14 hour days and hasn't always worded posts really well... However the discussion is quite interesting and despite my poor ramblings, I am enjoying it. And "optimization" might be too strong of a word.

With a little thought and only an 11 hour work day... Perhaps I am thinking it as they can't see the forest thru all the trees. Or that they have focused too much on a few mechanics, they are missing other viable options.

While I agree the +2 to what ever you want can be handy as can be an extra feat, they don't offset the racial traits that can be a huge boon.

Like the Dwarf's +4 Dodge AC to anything of the giant subtype. That is far greater than just a +2 in Dex. And never encumbered by armor and darkvison, all pretty solid bonuses.

Or as I was thinking today, the Elven immunity. That pretty much kept a fight from being really devastating in a previous game. As the two Elves managed to raise an alarm before the enemy had gotten with in range.

And I agree, the other races need more background and fluff to make them more appealing. But I suppose I have an easy time building that fluff and some people do not.

But a Samsaran gets: with a Charisma score of 11 or higher gain the following spell-like abilities: 1/day—comprehend languages, deathwatch, and stabilize. The caster level for these effects is equal to the samsaran’s level.
Plus: a +2 racial bonus on all saving throws made to resist death effects, saving throws against negative energy effects, Fortitude saves made to remove negative levels, and Constitution checks made to stabilize if
reduced to negative hit points.
And: A samsaran’s past lives grant her bonuses on two particular skills. A samsaran chooses two skills—she gains a +2 racial bonus on both of these skills, and they are treated as class skills regardless of what class she actually takes.

Which I think more than makes up for the -2 hit to con. And a good roll can fix that as well, since they have a +2 in Int and Wis.

So basically the Jade Regent AP... Because that is the AP's main thing is getting the NPC back on the throne she didn't know she was supposed to be sitting on.

I would lean to keeping important person an NPC and letting the players make basically an honor guard. Final Fantasy X and XV both come to mind as neither main character is getting anything done without the rest of the party.

I created a major city for the campaign hub. Along with a wide story arch plot hook to get the PCs together.

I kind of have a loose timeline when events to the main arch happen. However for fluff, side quests and the like, I am just going to grab an AP. Maybe do a little NPC and location renaming, basic repackage so it fits my setting and call it good.

Saves me some time and effort. Since a player has nice maps for Brinewall Castle from the Jade Regent campaign, I'll use it for another castle. And most of my players haven't played any of the AP except part of the Jade Regent, they won't know they are in a town I pulled out of the Iron Gods...

Something along a Predator would be cool... or a hyper intelligent Xenomorph, cause my wife hates them. Or something like them as in their blood is harmful to others, they only eat fresh meat...

Asimov integrated life forms that don't breath human friendly air in several of his stories. Most had to carry small tanks of cyanide or similar poisonous gas to supplement the air on human worlds. Which would make for great story plot lines and role playing opportunities.

A race like the Hutts could be cool. But I agree more alien alien and less Star Trek humans with funny skin tones and bumps.

Why lead instead of silver, cold iron, living steel or Adamantine?

Any of the animal races: Kitsune, Gnolls, Catkolk, Ratfolk, Tengu.

I had a ton of fun with an Ifrit rouge, who hated spiders and had an uncontrollable urge to set slave traders on fire.

The world building and populating it with NPCs is a great deal of fun. I do enjoy the story telling aspect you get with being the GM. To me if my friends and spouse are enjoying the game, it is way more fun than doing other things.

Unless your GM is big on having your party attacked at night a lot, just remove it. Because your party might appreciate it if you took it off and bathed.

After a little thought and reading some of the responses, I think my stats are;
Str:18 I can break wood bare handed and routinely lift 100+ pound objects all day.
Dex:12 I do need to dodge falling or flying objects sometimes at work
Con:14 I haul garbage, there is no smell that sickens me, 10 hour days are common and I rarely get sick.
Int: 10 pretty average, but I get a +2 to useless knowledge checks.
Wis: 12 little more street smart than book smart
Cha: 8 I freely admit I am a bit of an ass most of the time.

Alignment, somewhere between NG and N. I don't like picking sides as most of the time no one is on mine.

At 6' 4" 270 pounds and being a garbage man, I really don't fit the gamer stereotype at all. As short tempered as I am, I should be an orc lol

I have never played with anyone who made you confirm a crit if you roll a 20. A natural 20 was always a hit and crit, unless the creature is immune to crits, then it is just an auto hit.

Heck my players have rolled so poorly, even skipping the confirm roll they have yet to get a crit.

A friend of mine and I have a rule of adjusting the DC of pretty much anything if the player describes their action extremely well or makes it a very dramatic action. As it makes the game more dramatic and encourages people to be a little more creative.

Basically a wow factor bonus.