The "Problem" with Powergamers (And How To Handle Them)

The Wandering Tavern is OUT NOW on Kickstarter! No matter your game, take it to the STRATOSPHERE! (It's got freakin' airships man!!) www.kickstarter.com/projects/homieandthedude/the-w…

I’ve got to admit, “talk to the power gamer respectfully” is a better solution than the obvious “hit them with the shovel” option I was expecting.

Bro really tries to explain how to handle power gamers like he is not the one creating them 💀

Power gamers aren't a problem, problem players are. It's just that sometimes, the problem player is a power gamer.

I guess thinking powergamers are fun and inspiring to DM for is a hotter take than I thought it was haha!

As a power gamer myself and a DM, I think the 6th strategy (talking to them respectfully with an understanding that you both want to play the game) is definitely the way to go, especially when combined with giving opportunities for every character to have the spotlight

The "Also I've been doing you wife had me cackling

Party composition can create the illusion of people being power gamers. In my current campaign, I'm a Level 3 Totem Barbarian. It's a great subclass but obviously not busted on its own however in a party with two sorcerers and a rogue we're currently at a point where most enemies are able to one shot them without proving a problem for me and most fights end up with me running after knocked out party members with healing potions. I've played enough D&D to know the sorcerers are going to come online more as the campaign progresses but right now everyone does think I'm pretty OP for just basically being a standard Barbarian

Thank you very much for this video. I hope it does well.

I have played D&D since the 1st edition. The game has evolved a lot, for better and worse. With 5th edition, a good chunk of the fun is working through all the wild character creation options and trying to make it work narratively. At the end of the day, it’s a game and should be fun for all involved, however that works for each group. I really appreciate your videos man, rock on.

I see a lot of DMs who make every combat encounter an epic fight. On the surface this seems like a good idea, but throwing in some easy encounters to mix things up can be an excellent way to add variety to the game and deal with a power gamer. This works best with enemies where judging the difficulty of the encounter isn’t readily apparent, like bandits. Players have to decide if the combat is dangerous enough to use their resources. The power gamer will probably enjoy demolishing the weaker enemies as well.

A key thing is that min-maxing isn't necessarily powergaming. Optimising a character to be good at their specialistion is fine, the problem is if the play wants to outshine everyone else. And absolutely we should be rewarding EXP for overcoming encounters! If your character can get the party past a dangerous encounter, you stil overcame it. PS. What you got against Wales man? It's lovely!

The Spotlight Method is exactly how all of the best game masters I've ever had worked. This created synergy and fun games for all player types and character types alike.

As a power gamer myself i have noticed how my dm kinda straggeled with my character being really dominent in combet so i have started making combat moves to help the party members insted of being the direct damage dealer like: buffing allies insted of damaging so that i might not kill the enemy with that fireball but he will die to the ranger attacking more using haste or i'll turn our paladin invisable when she gets targeted by that cult so she could get a better attack angle my dm was really enjoing that and i found it really fun too cuz while i didn't deal the most damage i still made a really big impact on combat

My one rule is that if you come at me with some optimized power gaming class combo, you need to have a story that fits it. If you can't do that, you can't do the combo.

One of my best friends is a power gamer (even when he tries to not be), and I love playing with him. He tends to make really fun, memorable characters that are a joy to play off of. And our DM mixes up the sorts of challenges we face so everyone still feels useful

Back in my 3.5/pf days i always played the Thanos style character before MCU Thanos was a thing. What i mean by that is, "Fine, I'll do it myself." Much of the time i way underplayed my characters power, then when crap got tough, i went full power. It was often fun seeing the other players suddenly go, "WTF since when could you do that?!" Often with the response, "Always, just didn't see a reason to." I made op combat characters because i wanted to get back to the rp lol.

Personal suggestion in the matters of empowering other players As a powergamer myself i became the wiki of the groups i play with, the DM sends people to me to help plan characters and after they get their story in check building a build around is a lot of fun and takes off some of the job from the DM and engages the other players more in their character

Oh boy, this is gonna be a controversial one to say the least.

I once played a character named Big Mrow Mrow who became so strong so fast I worked with the GM to send him away on a solo quest and played as his brother Little Mrow Mrow for awhile. Once the other players got stronger I brought the big guy back and by the end we were all equally stupidly strong. It was a blast.