[Discussion] DM's with powergamers or min/maxers in their party just need to get better at encounter design and challenging the players. Agree/Disagree?
I see this occasionally in online discussions, but more often in real-life.
"Min/Maxing", "optimizing", "powergaming", whatever you want to call it, is sometimes looked down on. Building optimized characters is seen as unsportsmanlike, rude, or somehow hindering a character's role-play potential.
As someone who has DM'd a lot, I find it hard to see why this style of play is a problem. Because as a DM, you hold all the cards in combat. You choose the monsters, the environment, the tactics of said monsters, preparations/surprise before the fight, action economy, etc. It seems trivially easy to just pick higher CR monsters, or add more of them if you are struggling to challenge your party. And I've never known optimized characters to be poor at roleplay. Often times the characters with Dump Stats are the most interesting, because they have a strong flaw to grapple with.
What do you all think of this? Is this just a loud minority complaining about needing to adapt playstyle? Or are powergamers a real problem that DM's can struggle to manage along with the rest of the party? I'd curious to hear other DM perspectives.
Posted Jul 9, 2019, 5:54 PM UTC