Trapsmith
There’s always that one guy in the group. You probably have one at your home table. No matter what system, no matter how good the odds, he will find a way to screw up the die roll. Such hapless luck-suckers always manage to faceplant into the pit trap, fail their save vs. mind whammy, succumb to the effects of poison, or somehow biff their attack rolls against inanimate objects. Never allow such a jinx to touch your dice, and for safety’s sake you should probably make them sit at the far end of the table.
Thief, for example, has the ill luck to be saddled with such a player. That poor girl really ought to consider a career change.
Which brings us to today’s meta-update.
Handbook is up past 50 pages now, and it’s occurred to us that we need to share the spotlight a little. Fighter is our main guy, and that’s not going to change any time soon. But if we’re going to keep this thing going into the foreseeable future (which is indeed the plan) we want the rest of the gang to be something more than a generic adventuring party, never mind the fact that they’re named after their respective classes. We’ve got Fighter nailed down as the resident munchkin, and “the unlucky one” seems like a good fit for Thief. As for Cleric and Wizard, you may have noticed that the former is a little too lawful, while the latter always seems to enjoy staying in character (hint hint). They’ll get their moment soon.
REQUEST A SKETCH! So you know how we’ve got a sketch feed on The Handbook of Heroes Patreon? By default it’s full of Laurel’s warm up sketches, illustrations not posted elsewhere, design concepts for current and new characters, and the occasional pin-up shot. But inspiration is hard sometimes. That’s why we love it when patrons come to us with requests. So hit us up on the other side of the Patreon wall and tell us what you want to see!
Of course. This wouldn’t be a proper rpg comic if there wasn’t character growth. =)
I mean…. mainly I expect Fighter to grow more terrible but… that’s a kind of growth anyhow. =P
“Character growth? You mean like BAB? Because mine’s growing faster than anybody else in this stupid party.”
–Fighter
*doubles over laughing*
I had a fighter that had the luck of fighting some lowly bandits, enough skill difference that there shouldn’t have been a problem at all, except my first attack ends up being a nat 1. Our DM played with a certain concept of critical fumbles, and ended up rolling that instead of hitting my target with my glaive, I drove it into the ground and the blunt end into my solarplexus, out for the rest of the round and two more rounds – and by then, if I recall correctly, most of the fighting was done.
In another instance, we were in a pub we suspected to be connected to a local band of criminals when suddenly all the people pulled daggers and threw them at my character specifically (he must have looked like the most lawful and threatening guy around). I believe it was five guys, and I had the luck of all of them hitting and two even critting. I was down before the fight had really started.
Sometimes as a GM I will roll to see who the monsters attack. Sometimes I roll a Yahtzee.
There’s a bit of a recurring joke in our group that our Fighter usually can’t roll over a ten. This is mostly because our Fighter almost always rolls under a ten. But that just makes the times he succeeds on a roll that much sweeter.
Every group has one. The unluck is real!
My little brother is such a player. His light-footed rogue was the only one to fail a Dexterity check to avoid destroying an old staircase, which is by far the most memorable example for obvious reasons. Our gaming group also has a superstition about it being bad luck for him, specifically, to touch your dice. Or for your dice to touch his. Or—well, when someone’s having an unlucky streak, there’s decent odds we blame him.
I can’t help it if his failures are so much more memorable than his successes.
This is me. My DMs and GMs have let me get away with what would be considered somewhat overpowered characters purely because my rolling is such complete shit. In my 5e campaign, I play as a Totem Warrior goliath barbarian with the Lucky and Great Weapon Master feats. Considering my bullshit levels of strength and Advantage from Reckless Attack, it should be easy for me to get a hit. Not so much…