I know (pretty much) the direction of my paladin, and more importantly I understand everything my character can do. I.e. what his class features are. The other members... Not so much. Two are new, so it's understandable, though now one has started to read into it and his rogue is starting to become much more optimised.
The other new guy is a ranger, whose stats go something like WIS 17, DEX 14, STR 10 and CON 9, can't remember the CHA or INT. Not great stats, especially when the GM insists rangers should be at the front of melee, and seems to change the subject whenever I say "well he can't with STR 10, CON 9 and 17 hit points." Plus he doesn't have the animal companion he's supposed to have, being level 4.
Next is the bard who is content to fire arrows into a fight, but more often tries to avoid combat completely because he's scared he'll die, not understanding any of the class features except for lots of skill points for RPing. Oh, and he doesn't know what his spells do, last week attempting to send a manticore to sleep by casting Lullaby.
We have a new player coming next session, and the GM said she wants to play a sneaky class so he suggested a ranger/rogue. Which is great if that's what she wants to play. I'm just worried that, I'll be on my own in melee and have to worry about all the other characters dying with their low hit points, or we'll be forced to avoid lots of combat and my two-handed paladin will become useless.
Just, any ways to encourage the players to think about their characters more, without coming off as whiny and controlling? Or how to get the GM to sort out the other players and make sure they know how to play their characters and give the ranger his animal companion?
We're all level 4, by the way.
Many thanks for any advice or suggestions!! :)
Teach them.
Provide them with free online resources, such as the PRD, d20pfsrd, etc. Answer questions for them.
Have a character-building/Q&A session in place of one of your gaming sessions, where everyone can have a bite to eat, share a drink, and talk about anything they are unsure about regarding the game and/or their characters.
Your GM should be involved in this as well, though I am sure they would appreciate it if a player could organize and/or take the lead on this.
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It sounds like maybe your GM is new as well. It is hard to brooch these things with people sometimes, and not knowing the maturity level we are talking here makes it difficult to advise you on the situation. It sounds like if you can talk with him/her outside of the game and figure out what is going on this would be the most helpful. If you have a GM that is that incompetent, it really makes for a bad game unfortunately.
As far as the ranger goes, when you get a break or something, perhaps show them in the book that a ranger gets a pet. Then let the ranger bring that up to the GM, and you can back them up when it is presented. Sometimes there is strength in numbers and it will be harder for him to dismiss it if there is more than one voice.
If there is a Pathfinder Society in your area, perhaps take the gang to one of those sessions. Society is a good way to learn the rules if nothing else and it usually has a strong base of support. Practice makes perfect, and had I not played D@D since the 1st edition I could see a lot of this stuff being confusing, especially when you consider things like table variance.
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If there is a Pathfinder Society in your area, perhaps take the gang to one of those sessions. Society is a good way to learn the rules if nothing else and it usually has a strong base of support. Practice makes perfect, and had I not played D@D since the 1st edition I could see a lot of this stuff being confusing, especially when you consider things like table variance.
This is an excellent suggestion.
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The talking with them can be problematical depending upon the people involved. Some players get really bent out of shape if you offer unsolicited advice on their PC's. Some GM's get very upset if 'you start trying to take over the group.'
One of the things I've seen very few people get upset about is the guides. Print off the ranger guide and give it to the player with an off hand, "I found this online and thought you might like to look it over for some ideas or whatever."
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For general rules learning (especially of combat), I once did an arena match thing. Our GM had game days every other week to give him time to prepare. On the weeks inbetween I would run gladiatorial challenges with the players bringing PC's (or using my pregens). I would make various arena environments (snow/ice, jungle, buildings, cave, open, ...).
They would fight singly or in groups against different kinds of opponents. Start them off with standard things then gradually work up to more complicated things with more advanced tactics. Like wild dogs, tigers, bears, captured enemy soldiers, trip/disarm gladiators, spellcasters with battlefield control spells, to eventually demon sorcerers casting deeper darkness and black tentacles and then picking them up and throw them into the tentacles.
As a GM, I try to make sure that all of the players are on the same page regarding the level of optimization that they're planning. Because it's the kiss of death if you have a mix of optimizers and non-optimizers in the same campaign.
The optimizers complain that they're carrying the whole party, and the non-optimizers complain that their characters are never able to do anything.
For the GM, this situation makes is extremely hard to design encounters that are appropriate for the party.