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Hi /tg/. So, as of late I've been DMing D&D 3.5e (no wait come back) with some good friends of mine. It's gone decently despite this campaign being the first I've DMed; I did my research to an apparently acceptable degree and the players report that they've been having fun with it, so I'd count that as a success. There's one problem, though. One of my players gets extraordinarily salty during combat. He seems to have horrid luck, usually rolling either quite low or quite high on nearly all of his rolls, and so he seems apprehensive whenever he has to roll just about ANYTHING, and is keen on complaining about having to do it pre-emptively.
>So anon, just boot him from your session, he's a shit player
Not so fast, anon. That's not really an option for me for a couple reasons:
>Best friend of mine out of the group, known him since middle school
>He's a legit good roleplayer and his characters are a delight outside of combat
>The party's only 3 players strong, so removing any of them without a suitable replacement would likely kill the game
So what do I do about this? I can't just NOT have combat. I've tried cutting down in it, one decently-sized, rewarding encounter every few sessions - but D&D is very much a combat-focused game, and I don't believe I could or should cut down on combat more than I have. But this player absolutely dreads combat, and definitely seems unhappy when it's his turn to move. In the past, he asked me to run his characters in combat, but that's also not a very viable idea for a few other reasons, not the least of which being I fear he'd just disengage from the session entirely if he has no stake in anything, especially since everyone except him is fairly new to the game and as such combat tends to move pretty slowly.
>TL;DR
Have a player who's a great roleplayer but hates combat. Playing D&D, so avoiding combat is hard. We're too far into the game to change systems, and removing a player would likely kill the campaign. What do?
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The usual meme answers would be to either talk to him about it like an adult or not play D&D.
It's a tricky issue. D&D is by far the most recognized and easy to get into tabletop (foreverDM here running a Pathfinder campaign for the first time in forever for a bunch of first-timers) and as you said it is very combat focused. Does he get apprehensive about non-combat rolling? If not it could be the permadeath aspect that's making him nervous. What level is your party and what role does he play? It might be possible that D&D combat doesn't jive with him and you might want to recommend a backline support role.
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>>52503625
What about playing a character that has to roll the less possible?
Heal/buff cleric away from the frontline?
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>>52503625
Grant unto him the ability to only do consistent orderly damage every fucking time he needs to Roll.
Oh wait, I'm talking about A Fucking Modron, they literally Roll their initiative once for 24hours, and that's their permananet initiavite for that period of time.
Basically, limit and streamlike his options with ingame choices, not relying on homebrew.
I think the Modrons were in the Dragon magazine for 3.5 or a Web Enhancement.
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>>52504050
This is one issue, and absolutely on me for not helping the party with - they're a party of five with no cleric or other healer. I've considered either giving them a GMPC cleric to travel around with or giving them some sort of perma-wand that lets them cast a healing spell a few times per day or whatnot. It's a very character/story focused campaign so just rolling a new character isn't exactly ideal either.
>>52503803
Well here's the thing, he's got the most TTG experience (both in 3.5e and a few other versions, but I'm not sure if he's ever played anything non-D&D). And he ought to have either made peace with his shitty luck by now, or... not played a Fighter if he hates combat so much. (It makes sense with the character, so he says, which I agree with but I'm not sure if I'd play a character you know you're gonna hate fighting with). His other character, a homebrewed mess that would take too long to explain but is currently similar in function to a fallen Paladin, does kind of play a support role due to his nerfed status.
>>52504132
I've also considered swapping to rolling with 2d10/3d6, but I don't really know if R20 supports doing that (we're playing online) and the other players aren't experienced enough to know their rolls and do them manually.
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>>52504132
I actually have that issue.
RIP Dungeon & Dragon magazine, I hate WotC for it a little bit.
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>>52504200
>they're a party of five with no cleric or other healer.
Well, I can see why they are nervous. the game is waaay more risky without healers.
Drop potions and stuff they can UMD. Also, talk with them and see if that is the issue. If is this, it can be easily solved. No worries.
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>>52503803
Also, as an aside, I actually do want to try other systems. Is there a system that's just "D&D but sane" where I can have a cozy high-fantasy adventure that's a little lighter on combat (or at least more streamlined)? My inner game designer tells me I'd prefer a system less luck-based, so preferably nothing on the d20 system, or at least something where you have more ways to reduce your reliance on luck.
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Buy him some new dice, see what happens. I know that solved my problems.
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>>52504602
Literally tons. Savage Worlds if you want mechanics, it's pretty easy to pick up. FATE if you want to go full narrative combat but that's hard on newcomers to roleplaying. If you want something really loose but with randomness for narratove sake there's homebrew d6 systems floating around /tg/
>>52504739
Not even superstitious but this, you'd be surprised. Also look at your rolling surface.
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>>52504739
>>52504957
We're playing on roll20, so as dope as a cool new set of dice sounds (I've always wanted that dwarven-style set made of metal from q-workshop,and I don't even own physical copies of any books) it's not exactly a viable option.
>>52504957
I've heard good things about SW, I might check that out. Worth skimming the DMG (or equivalent) at least. Any idea where I could procure some PDFs?
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>>52505004
warez-bb . org/viewtopic.php?t=21364933&highlight=
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>>52504602
>Is there a system that's just "D&D but sane" where I can have a cozy high-fantasy adventure that's a little lighter on combat (or at least more streamlined)?
Define "high fantasy". Do you mean high magic? Because that's pretty much guaranteed to break a game. The capability high magic gives folks is incredibly exploitable, and requires an overly-complex framework of rules just to try to keep it in check. With that said, 3.5 / Pathfinder is the most out-of-control edition of D&D by a decent measure.
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>>52505392
>max download speed: 50kb/s
>seven parts of hundreds of mb each
Is there a better download (preferably torrent) somewhere? I got the Deluxe Edition corebook, but I've been looking for a while and I haven't found a damn thing. I found a few links from /tg/ which have all been 404'd/DMCA'd by now.
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>>52504602
>>52503625
>D&D but sane
try 5ed. also pathfinder is superior to 3.5 while being very similar
>>52503625
you should start by understanding what makes him hate the combat.
the big RNG and the chance to die? give him a reroll powers ( there is better support for them on PF or 5e).
the fact he doesn't get to roleplay? make players narrate their turn, describe their action. if they kill the last enemy they get to describe his death however they want.
perhaps he just finds it terribly slow and boring. Again 5e is a bit faster than 3.5, but if everyone does his part and force your players to do their turn quickly you can improve on the time.
if he has just experience terrible unlucky rolls then what you should do is roll behind the screen and not have him take critical hits in the wrong moments.
If he doesn't like "rolling for anything" havehim understand that failure is roleplay too, and have your player describe how their characters faila check, when it makes sense ofc.
Also try to work out what character is he playing and what he does. The game gets very infuriating when the best way to play it safe becomes "not doing what you built your character for". For example a meele character who takes damage might be forever on the retreat without dealing blows, or a cleric that actually dreamed about casting some funky spell might be forced to use all his spell slots to heal and that's not fun.
For the healing part: give them a wand of cure light wound. it's the standard solution.
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If I got this correctly, he's playing a fighter... but doesn't like combat.
Let him retrain as some other class (if he wants to keep the combative approach, something like a Warblade; the maneuvers give lot better roleplay opportunities in combat than "mr full attack").
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>>52503625
>We're too far into the game to change systems
How so?
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