How to help weak players once they reach level 4 / 7 (play season 4)

[Lamontius]

ericthetolle wrote:

Based on what I've heard here, it's the duty of a good GM to show the player how to play an urban ranger, archeologist bard or vivisectionist alchemist instead of a rogue.

PFS

Vivisectionist
what I heard
WHOOPS

[David Bowles]

The SRD does not have the right source for friendly switch.

Any class in PFS has *multiple* builds that do just fine in PFS. People just have to think a bit about what they are building and put a little thought into gear they purchase. They need to be aware of some of the challenges that are out there: DR, darkness, vertical climbs, flying enemies, multiple small enemies, single large enemies, etc.

The reality is that if each member of a group is merely *effective*, not even overpowered, nearly every PFS encounter has the math skewed against the NPCs horribly. Unless, of course, playing up is involved. I tend to not play up with people I don't know because even one ineffective character can cause the house of cards to fall when playing up.

The difficulty also is very different based on the amount of combat healing a group has. I've never felt particularly endangered by encounters when playing my cleric.

[Mekkis]

At risk of thread necromancy and exposure to flames, as I see it, the issue is that a player might be playing a poorly built, ineffective character for five or six levels. They might realise that they character isn't up to the snuff, and be powerless to stop it.

Meanwhile their friends who they've played their character with for 100 hours or so want to continue playing their characters of the similar level, and a certain amount of pressure is on that player to continue playing his ineffective character. This results in tensions and ultimately an amount of dissatisfaction. Character deaths result in a further skewing of this already weakened character away from the 'appropriate power level'. And with every session the player plays, the harder it is for them to throw their character away and start a new one.

The solution I propose is to be able to approach the player after the session, and discuss with him about fixing his character. To provide a way of doing this legally, Certain People (VCs, VLs, 3-star GMs - exactly who would be determined by Campaign Leadership) would have the authority to allow a player to rebuild their character.

I bring this up because two of my friends have been in this situation. One finally decided to ditch a sixth-level rogue and has only recently brought a new character up to its previous level. The other has showed a large amount of discouragement and does not often play PFS anymore - he only rarely shows up at gamedays.

[David Bowles]

Rebuilds are only allowed at level one. My first character was not particularly well-built. This can somewhat be compensated for by spending wealth wisely.

[Mekkis]

I know that. That's why I'm suggesting that this should be changed.