| darkfireslide |
I've been running my first Pathfinder campaign for the first time in a while, and I ran into an interesting issue with a new player a few days ago that I didn't really know how to address. I've been a DM for about 8 years of 3.5e, and 3 for Pathfinder. I'm not as familiar with Pathfinder yet as I was when 3.5 ended, and so I'm not as familiar with the wide range of classes available, especially since Pathfinder is so much more focused on base classes than prestige classes compared to 3.5e. My other two players are both long-time veterans of D&D, especially 3.5e, and I myself am running an NPC cleric of Gorum, while the two veterans are running a Gunslinger and a Ninja. The new guy is running an Inquisitor. The player of the Ninja invited the Inquisitor to play, and I told him that any class was fine so long as the Ninja helped him learn his character. This didn't go as well as planned.
So the players are assaulting this bandit fort because a double agent of a crime syndicate tipped them off that the bandits were working with the syndicate, and may have information about the syndicate. The characters are 5th level, except for the Inquisitor, who was 4th level because he missed a session. They get past the first group of archers on the wall by tanking shots on the approach, blasting open the gate's lock with the Gunslinger's grit ability, and then climbed the stairs on the other side. They clean them up and then proceed to fight these mercenary longspearmen. During this fight, the Ninja uses his invisibility trick (not a fan of this ability--very powerful for what it costs, since it essentially gives him a free sneak attack) to get around the flanks of one of the spearmen and uses that flank. Thanks to his sneak attack and some good rolls, he deals about 40+ points of damage in one round.
The Inquisitor, who is using a Repeating Crossbow, then fires one shot, and hits for 2 points of damage.
"He did about 42 points of damage that last round," he then says about the Ninja. To help him out, they gave him a Strength 2 Masterwork Composite Longbow to use instead, but even so, without rapid shot he was only doing about 1d8+2 (+3 with point blank shot) on a successful hit, which, given his 16 Dexterity, wasn't as often as he had hoped.
I admit that I didn't know much about the Inquisitor, and figured it to be sort of a divine Rogue. After the session, I read into the class and began to understand why the new guy was having some issues. Inquisitors have a lot to keep track of: Bard spell progression, Judgments, and at 5th level, Bane, as well as Teamwork Feats and a slew of other abilities. This is all on top of him trying to play a ranged character, which are difficult to pull off in the first place without the right stats and feats. Also unbeknownst to me until last session was that he was playing an Ifrit, but because I trusted my Ninja, I didn't catch this until he had already made the character and ran a session with it. Bad GMing on my part, I suppose. Alongside my research into the Inquisitor I discovered that Ifrits get a +2 Dexterity, -2 Wisdom, and +2 to Charisma, which is.. sub-optimal for an Inquisitor.
In response, I decided to send the Inquisitor a guide through email on his abilities to help him understand the class better. This is basically just a band-aid to the overall problem, though, if he even bothers to read it. I am contemplating allowing him a complete rebuild if he isn't enjoying his character because, being new, I want him to have fun instead of being locked into a character which will always seem or feel inferior.
So here's my question: Is it out of line for me as a GM to ask a player to retcon his character's race and class after he's played it for two sessions? Is it too strict of me to ask him to do these things if he's sort of attached to the idea? What do you GMs typically do when you have players who want to do weird things?