cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11298431
I’ve been a DM for about 3 years, and have predominantly run one-shots and short campaigns in DnD5e and PF2e. I have a player who persistently builds primary caster based characters, but then won’t do anything in combat but “I stab it with my dagger.” They rarely use cantrips, and basically won’t cast a leveled spell unless I suggest it immediately before their turn. They seem to enjoy playing despite the fact that they’re far too squishy to be a front-line melee character and don’t utilize most of their class features. I’ve talked with them explicitly about how their play style seems to be discordant with the kind of play they want to do, and that maybe next time they should try a paladin/champion or a fighter/rougue subclass with some minor casting. They agreed at the time that sounded like a good idea, but low and behold showed up to the next one-shot with a primary caster, and over 3 hours of play and 3 combats never cast a single spell, including a cantrip.
I enjoy playing with this persons as a whole. They are engaged in the fiction, and are particularly engaged during exploration activities. They tell me they also find combat quite fun, and they are requesting I run a mega dungeon in the near future.
As a general rule, I like to let people play how they have the most fun, but issues have arisen with this play style. Namely, all of my TPKs have been associated with this player charging a squishy character directly up to a significantly stronger villain and continuing to stab it with a dagger until they went down, significantly hindering the party in the action economy and resulting in a TPK. I feel I have to intentionally weaken all of my encounters to keep the party feasible in the face of such mechanically poor combat choices.
What else can I do to help drive this individual towards melee builds, and/or help encourage them to change their play style to better suite the caster classes they choose?
I’ve talked to them, and they can’t really identify much more than 1. they don’t want to spend the limited resources of leveled spells and 2. they just forget. Sometimes I’ll remind them multiple times throughout a session that they have spells, even leveled spells to use and that’s the whole thing of their character, but having to basically play the character for them by constantly having to suggest spells to cast really sucks the fun out of GM’ing. Even when they cast spells (the vast majority ranged spells) they’ll close the gap to the enemy and try and cast ranged spells from point-blank distances.
Hmm yeah this seems like a fundamental misunderstanding of spellcasters on their part. In general they have two objectives: stay alive, and cast all their spells in a productive way. They should try and end every adventure day with no spells left. In my experience there is little value in hoarding spells, and if they want to do that suggest that they buy scrolls of the spells they always want on hand. Spell slots aren’t much of a limited resource assuming they can rest when they want or near enough, with scrolls filling the gap.
That said, it sounds like casters just aren’t for them. Have them play a fighter, seriously. They will love it I promise.