Forbidden banished exiles. Especially in MMORPGs, I've found that the most common overall in-setting guild theme is "we don't belong in the society that this setting established." It's not just in MMORPGs, of course. It's often a crutch (or training wheels, if I'm being generous) for some roleplayers to participate by not participating. I'm not saying that a character (or a player for that matter) has to bend the knee to Lord So-And-So, but it's kind of hard to find plot excuses for the the forbidden banished exile to even be in the same picture, let alone get the quest to do the thing.

Plot armor dependents. Yes, it's quite likely that if I'm running the game and telling the story that I won't have the guards kill a player character on sight even if they do something exceptionally stupid just to see what happens, like stabbing a random citizen. Those kind of players don't tend to last long if their only contribution is "try to knock down the props just to see what happens on set."

People that directly lift an established character in well known fiction, often just changing the spelling, and often not even trying to resemble or act like that character. In an older MUD, I recall a "Frrodoh Bhaginz" that was a Half-Ogre hunter. Again, it didn't ruin the game, but it was annoying. I admit it can sometimes be a red flag warning, and a helpful one, if the lifted name is from chud fiction, like if they have "Rahl" in their name. It can show me what to expect, either in a tabletop group or in a MMORPG guild.

  • lurkerlady [she/her]
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    edit-2
    2 years ago

    one with a player character that was basically entirely unhittable, and the other where the gm had to ramp up well above what we were “supposed” to be fighting because even un-optimised, we were smashing the opposition into the ground in a turn or two

    i think your dm just doesnt know how to use the monsters or read the stat blocks or maybe isnt playing rules as written. our paladin with huge shield focus gets hit regularly and has to keep pulling out shields as she gets swarmed by enemies who go for flanks and trips and knockdowns on her. if your dm is playing it like 5e where you walk up and you say 'swing sword' theyre doing it wrong. almost all of our fights we barely get out alive despite knowing the system well and i feel like it adds to the experience. like we're actually nervous to fight so we dont go murderhobo everything and selectively choose our quests.

    like on average, a paladin might have 2-4 ac over what your average fighter will have. that shouldnt equate to 'unhittable'. that should equate to 10-20% less hittable

      • lurkerlady [she/her]
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        edit-2
        2 years ago

        a lot of creatures have a precise sense other than sight which negates hidden from sight. you can also drop hidden to concealed or observed for a lot of things with a single action seek check. true strike negates it completely as a single action. these are things that are accessible at the first level and the dm should absolutely be using them against invisible players