What do you do when you are playing with a player is really good at mediocrity?

[Insnare]

Hi everyone!

After GMing JR to mixed results, I have been playing in Reign of Winter.

The group has stayed the same just I am no longer running the game. One of our players seems to have a problem with making a character that is effective, or better yet makes their character obtuse or more of a liability to the party than an asset.

First, the person made a cleric who was an anticleric chose the option that disallowed using CLW to substitute other spells. And only begrudgingly used her positive energy to help the party.

After two months, the player decided that they didn't like their character and made one of the weakest in power sorcerors I have ever seen all the while complaining that the rest of the party was too bad ass in comparison.

When I was GMing the player, they decided to stop taking levels in druid and took this thing called a brightness seeker which basically left the character falling further and further behind in effectiveness as the campaign went on.

I and the rest of the party would rather the character either rp their quirks but not complain that our characters get the job done or make their character more effective.

[Lincoln Hills]

One of the responsibilities a role-player has when he or she shows up for a group activity is to make a character that wants to be part of a group; and one of the unspoken assumptions when you start an adventure path is that player will create a character who has a reason to go along with the plot. As a role-play-oriented type myself it always saddens me to see somebody deliberately dragging the rest of the group down. However, it's possible that this poor performance is either A) passive-aggressiveness or B) sheer apathy. In either case you should probably ask the player what he or she is looking for out of the game. Got to be some reason that the player keeps showing up.

Of course, if your group is otherwise full of big optimization fans, it can create a somewhat... unwelcoming environment for players who favor 'interesting' options over maximum effectiveness. You'd know better than we would if this is true of your group.

[Goblin Hood]

i agree with lincoln.. as i'm too a RP oriented player.. and i always make RP characters that sometimes are nearly nerfed compared to PP and Optimized builds of other players... but that make me only laugh more, when out of combat i can do something, i can do it better and i can do more than one specific...all without being focalized on that :D

[Kydeem de'Morcaine]

First a question,
Does the player not know how to make an effective character or not want to make an effective character? Those are 2 completely different issues and need to be handled differently.

[David knott 242]

If this player does not know in advance that he is building ineffective characters, you could be liberal with rebuilding and retraining for him whenever he does catch on. Some players have more trouble than others in figuring out how to translate their character concepts into game mechanics.

[blackbloodtroll]

Knowing if the ineffective build was done on purpose will greatly change the way you handle it.

Find this out first.

[Insnare]

Hmmm, the first character was definitely intentioned to be somewhat of a sore thumb. The second one maybe not as much.

From my POV, you make your choices which may or may not be successful but you shouldn't begrudge the other players for your inadequacies. I made my character "The Hunter" class because well the group needed a woodsman, and since the cleric didn't want to be a healer but something else... I gave my character two healing spells just to keep the group moving forward.

It is a very tedious when the player complains all of the time about others being overpowered, or mechanics or rules or how we roleplay, alignment...

I do feel the player would rather take something obscure than helpful...

[Corvino]

Your dilemma reminds me of this comic from Order of the Stick. As long as a player turns up and plays the game, everyone else will forgive a lot. If they just want to complain and only act when people ask them to, why are they playing in the first place?

[Faelyn]

Normally, I don't begrudge anyone the type of character they decide to make, especially if they are not "optimized", as long as its the type of character they are wanting to play. That being said, if a player makes a disruptive PC with the sole intent to be disruptive and then complain that everyone else is "too good", well... I don't agree with that at all.