D&D stereotypes you can't stand

[Shinkuro]

here are a few that personally apply to my saturday group.

here is one played by a fat guy named Aaron with no respect for women. it makes up 87% of his characters

Polgara, the somehow pretty  but completely vain elven stripper vanity is a valid reason to dump charisma, but this stereotype refers to female elven or dwarven gish characters who dump charisma, build themselves with literally no synergy, try to sleep with everything they can due to their bisexuality, are a walking insult to women everywhere, do stupid stuff for attention, are always bearing some Orc's Bastard Child, and think that because they fluffed their bad charisma as being pretty but vain, that they should have fat bonuses to seduction rolls, despite dumping charisma. seduction involves more than just looks, it involves presentation too. expect such combinations as duskblade with blood magus levels for Stanch and diehard, despite having better overall combat ability by going straight duskblade.

and here is one involving Weekly William

the guilty reformed sadist you know the old school DM who used to be a complete sadist famous for inflicting a dozen TPKs per session? he didn't get a lot of players anymore, so you know what he did? he turned a complete 180. he is trying everything he can to keep characters alive, has become a complete yes man to his players with the exception of a few specific rules, is completely afraid of losing his players, spoonfeeds every bit of relevant info in a handwaved manner, and completely going against his former sadistic manner. he uses fewer encounters per day, increases treasure amounts drastically, and completely removes every sign of risk. instead of being the difficult sadist he was, he became this advocate for supporting players and is influenced by modern easier gaming styles which completely rub the tactical intellect and survival instinct away from their players because they are no longer needed.

[BrutticusForce]

Gr'rok  the half orc hitpoint bag... barbarian What gets me is that this was actually mechanically justified. Half orcs are pidgeon holed into melee... the INT hit takes skill points and wizardry out of the picture. The charisma hit makes sense in a non racist way (its hard to be a half orc in a humans world) but the Int hit is unjustifiable. Gr'okk has to become a barbarian or a fighter, or he is mechanically hindered. He can not make use of his only racial feature.

Also, while I'm this topic, if the DM isnt careful, Dungeons and Dragons can become something of a racial genocide, with the "good" races sending armies and adventurers to kill every member of an "evil" race they can find, take their possessions, and assassinate their leaders... All these orcish hordes, does anyone wonder why they keep coming back? What the orcs could possibly want? Could it be something understandable? like arable farmland or prime hunting ground? or maybe humans, those irreproachable explorers keep settling on orcish land?

Nope. They are evil. Go kill them adventurers. take their stuff. I have shinys and magic items for you when you return

[Nicklance]

Gr'rok  the half orc hitpoint bag... barbarian What gets me is that this was actually mechanically justified. Half orcs are pidgeon holed into melee... the INT hit takes skill points and wizardry out of the picture. The charisma hit makes sense in a non racist way (its hard to be a half orc in a humans world) but the Int hit is unjustifiable. Gr'okk has to become a barbarian or a fighter, or he is mechanically hindered. He can not make use of his only racial feature.

Also, while I'm this topic, if the DM isnt careful, Dungeons and Dragons can become something of a racial genocide, with the "good" races sending armies and adventurers to kill every member of an "evil" race they can find, take their possessions, and assassinate their leaders... All these orcish hordes, does anyone wonder why they keep coming back? What the orcs could possibly want? Could it be something understandable? like arable farmland or prime hunting ground? or maybe humans, those irreproachable explorers keep settling on orcish land?

Nope. They are evil. Go kill them adventurers. take their stuff. I have shinys and magic items for you when you return

I'd gladly launch a genocide on kender in any setting I play in.

[Lord Slasher]

Gr'rok  the half orc hitpoint bag... barbarian What gets me is that this was actually mechanically justified. Half orcs are pidgeon holed into melee... the INT hit takes skill points and wizardry out of the picture. The charisma hit makes sense in a non racist way (its hard to be a half orc in a humans world) but the Int hit is unjustifiable. Gr'okk has to become a barbarian or a fighter, or he is mechanically hindered. He can not make use of his only racial feature.

Also, while I'm this topic, if the DM isnt careful, Dungeons and Dragons can become something of a racial genocide, with the "good" races sending armies and adventurers to kill every member of an "evil" race they can find, take their possessions, and assassinate their leaders... All these orcish hordes, does anyone wonder why they keep coming back? What the orcs could possibly want? Could it be something understandable? like arable farmland or prime hunting ground? or maybe humans, those irreproachable explorers keep settling on orcish land?

Nope. They are evil. Go kill them adventurers. take their stuff. I have shinys and magic items for you when you return

I'd gladly launch a genocide on kender in any setting I play in.

Or Gnomes for that matter.

[Nicklance]

Gr'rok  the half orc hitpoint bag... barbarian What gets me is that this was actually mechanically justified. Half orcs are pidgeon holed into melee... the INT hit takes skill points and wizardry out of the picture. The charisma hit makes sense in a non racist way (its hard to be a half orc in a humans world) but the Int hit is unjustifiable. Gr'okk has to become a barbarian or a fighter, or he is mechanically hindered. He can not make use of his only racial feature.

Also, while I'm this topic, if the DM isnt careful, Dungeons and Dragons can become something of a racial genocide, with the "good" races sending armies and adventurers to kill every member of an "evil" race they can find, take their possessions, and assassinate their leaders... All these orcish hordes, does anyone wonder why they keep coming back? What the orcs could possibly want? Could it be something understandable? like arable farmland or prime hunting ground? or maybe humans, those irreproachable explorers keep settling on orcish land?

Nope. They are evil. Go kill them adventurers. take their stuff. I have shinys and magic items for you when you return

I'd gladly launch a genocide on kender in any setting I play in.

Or Gnomes for that matter.

Both actually coz fuck them for fucking over the kobolds and goin "U mad bro?"

[Drammor]

I'd gladly launch a genocide on kender in any setting I play in.

Oh hell yeah. I hate those things.

[Shinkuro]

Gr'rok  the half orc hitpoint bag... barbarian What gets me is that this was actually mechanically justified. Half orcs are pidgeon holed into melee... the INT hit takes skill points and wizardry out of the picture. The charisma hit makes sense in a non racist way (its hard to be a half orc in a humans world) but the Int hit is unjustifiable. Gr'okk has to become a barbarian or a fighter, or he is mechanically hindered. He can not make use of his only racial feature.

Also, while I'm this topic, if the DM isnt careful, Dungeons and Dragons can become something of a racial genocide, with the "good" races sending armies and adventurers to kill every member of an "evil" race they can find, take their possessions, and assassinate their leaders... All these orcish hordes, does anyone wonder why they keep coming back? What the orcs could possibly want? Could it be something understandable? like arable farmland or prime hunting ground? or maybe humans, those irreproachable explorers keep settling on orcish land?

Nope. They are evil. Go kill them adventurers. take their stuff. I have shinys and magic items for you when you return

I'd gladly launch a genocide on kender in any setting I play in.

Or Gnomes for that matter.

Both actually coz fuck them for fucking over the kobolds and goin "U mad bro?"

i would Happily commit Genocide on Gnomes, Kender, and Halflings with a smile on my face. Kobolds and Goblins can stay.

Gnomes always have to annoy people with new technology

Kender always rob their allies

And Halflings are only ever played in 2 ways that i have seen. Wannabe Kender, or a cheap Frodo Expy who thinks he can start with a ring of invisibility at level 1 and pick up a suit of +1 mithril chainmail before he reaches level 2.

[Elevevated Beat]

*snip*

*snip*

*snip*

I'd be inclined to reply with "Just because you're a gnome doesn't mean you have to be a cunt."

The thread finished for me with that. I lost my shit. Can't read any more.

[TiaC]

i would Happily commit Genocide on Gnomes, Kender, and Halflings with a smile on my face. Kobolds and Goblins can stay.

Except for pathfinder goblins, those fuckers need to die.

[b100d_arrowz]

Eesh. There are other threads to argue the connotations of alignments.

Anyways, this is more of a notion I can't stand rather than a stereotype I can't stand: that any mechanic has fluff baggage. What I mean is that a paladin must follow a deity, a rogue must be a sneaky backstabber who was raised in alleys, and all fighters are ex-military men. I hate it when DMs limit feats because "you couldn't have possibly been trained to do that with your backstory." Most of all, I hate when someone says, "I am [insert alignment], so I can't go/help/fight/etc. because a person of my alignment just wouldn't do that.

RP COMES BEFORE ALL ELSE BUT RAW.

I'm so glad my party finally figured this out... several times in the past they had attacked an NPC just because their alignment was evil even though the NPC had done nothing overtly threatening to the party (which did coincidentally make for awesome RP afterwards when they got arrested). I was so proud of them when they let the Evil Wizard who beat them to an artifact go free after he warned them of a demon summoning by teh cult of Rovagug [super evil destruction rage god who birthed the Tarrasque in Pathfinder] so he [the wizard] could go on fighting the BBEG of the campaign. They are finally learning  Of course finally having another player who prizes RP more then almost anything else [while still being quite effective in combat] has helped them along that road tremendously.

[Shinkuro]

Eesh. There are other threads to argue the connotations of alignments.

Anyways, this is more of a notion I can't stand rather than a stereotype I can't stand: that any mechanic has fluff baggage. What I mean is that a paladin must follow a deity, a rogue must be a sneaky backstabber who was raised in alleys, and all fighters are ex-military men. I hate it when DMs limit feats because "you couldn't have possibly been trained to do that with your backstory." Most of all, I hate when someone says, "I am [insert alignment], so I can't go/help/fight/etc. because a person of my alignment just wouldn't do that.

RP COMES BEFORE ALL ELSE BUT RAW.

I'm so glad my party finally figured this out... several times in the past they had attacked an NPC just because their alignment was evil even though the NPC had done nothing overtly threatening to the party (which did coincidentally make for awesome RP afterwards when they got arrested). I was so proud of them when they let the Evil Wizard who beat them to an artifact go free after he warned them of a demon summoning by teh cult of Rovagug [super evil destruction rage god who birthed the Tarrasque in Pathfinder] so he [the wizard] could go on fighting the BBEG of the campaign. They are finally learning  Of course finally having another player who prizes RP more then almost anything else [while still being quite effective in combat] has helped them along that road tremendously.

speaking of Rovagug and cults. i had an uneducated oni blooded tian (pathfinder's series of oriental ethnicities) martial artist (non-lawful monk archetype) who viewed the Tarrasque as the epitome of perfection, sought to become a more powerful terrasque, and engaged in progressively increasing levels of bestial cruelty to detach herself from humanity. the only reason she wasn't considered chaotic evil was that she was ignorant of common morality from her slave background and lack of education, being used as a human attack dog akin to Jet-Li's role in the movie, unleashed.  she abandoned her former identity to adopt the name of a Savage beast of great stature (Rex, as in the T-Rex). her unarmed combat style consisted of grappling, tearing off body parts, biting the jugular, etc.  she also had magically enhanced adamantine prosthetic arms to replace the forearms she lost to gangrene as a slave. Rex was Chaotic Hungry. (or neutral hungry). she had no qualms with eating the victims she slew, refused to consider herself human, spoke the most broken form of common i could think of at the time, and her catch phrase was "Am Rex Good Dog?"

[Sinfire Titan]

Except for pathfinder goblins, those fuckers need to die.

As do half the writers.


Another one that bothers me is this: Int Penalty = Braindead. An 8 Int is still close to the human average (according to D&D), and is most certainly still fully capable of dialogue (even with a smaller vocabulary). And even if they have an Int score of 10 these players still act like their character has an Int 4.

[Libertad]

Except for pathfinder goblins, those fuckers need to die.

As do half the writers.

That's uncalled for, Sinfire.

[littha]

Another one that bothers me is this: Int Penalty = Braindead. An 8 Int is still close to the human average (according to D&D), and is most certainly still fully capable of dialogue (even with a smaller vocabulary). And even if they have an Int score of 10 these players still act like their character has an Int 4.

The way I always present this to my players is that your Int is 1/10 of your IQ. It seems to get the point across but I don't expect it to work perfectly, especially with higher Int monsters. I have no idea how a creature with an IQ of 320 would act (gold dragons for example) but I have a better grasp on what someone with 80 or 60 would.

Again, not a perfect measure (especially considering what IQ actually mesures) but it gets the point across mostly.