Hey Veeky Forums, how do you deal with murderhobos?
I have the ancient crown the dwarf wears that gives him his eldritch knight powers be also a test of character. Basically 3 ancient dwarf royalty are judging his actions and are the things that grant him his powers. He attempted to kill a Naga guardian in a temple the party rescued for commanding him to stand up and stop disemboweling the dead enemies in the sacred room and listen. His response was to murder it. At that instant his crown activated and put him in a trance. He heard the discussion of the 3 dwarfs and how they were judging him. One was sick of his horrid actions and took away a cantrip, the other was still reserving judgement and the last had hope for him and gave him another cantrip. Obviously the player got very salty and said that it wasn't fair, but I am curious is this the right way to go about it or am I being a dumbfuck? I told him this was going to be a test of character, and his response was nothing is controlling his mind and he wants to find the entities in the crown and murder them. Am I in the wrong for doing this? Can anyone offer help with murderhobos and characters who's sole purpose is to hit shit with a weapon.
Hey Veeky Forums, how do you deal with murderhobos?
Sounds like your shit is already FUBAR but maybe you could just have the hobo pick a fight with the wrong person and get smoked.
Not a bad idea? But that doesn't really solve the problem at heart, he'll just roll up a new character yada yada nothing changes...
If anyone is curious this is 5e campaign.
bump for help!
Provide incentives for them to not murder. Create monsters that are very, clearly difficult to brute-force. Situations that are very clear cut-- high numbers, or high power.
The whole group is minmaxed the fuck out and have gone above well and beyond their combat capabilities. They also have smart people they have managed to figure out several puzzles. But the brute-force method could work.
>Hey Veeky Forums, how do you deal with murderhobos?
Tell to the player "No, I don't allow that. Instead, your character says he helps them for free. From now on if you want any rewards at all you're going to have to be nice to my NPCs!"
That should do the trick. Don't be afraid to railroad a little if your players don't behave. Your job is to provide a fun game for everyone, and that won't happen if the players ruin your plot.
Build a campaign around making hitting shit with a weapon interesting.
aka Dungeon Crawls
However, you want a magic little thing called "XP for loot" which forces characters to interact with the world in nonviolent ways to advance their character.
If it's because he's a warlock, he's right to complain.
You're fucking him, taking his class abilities, when the paladin, the monk, the cleric and the druid can't lose anything anymore. Only the paladin can change oath eventually.
It's never stated in the warlock section that the powers granted can be taken back and will be.
You're basically punishing a player for choosing a class.
You don't want them to murderhobos? How about you talk to them and say "hey guys, I don't like the way you kill everything you see and act like a bunch of psychopath"
They do fine in dungeon crawls it is interacting with stuff that isn't hitting stuff that makes it hard for him, they've been doing a "dungeon crawl" for 2-3 sessions going deep into the forest to make sure the temple wasn't going to be destroyed and the barrier brought down.
The main problem is I'm literally playing his character for him, and maybe asking could work.
No he's a fighter with an eldritch knight tree but he received his powers from the crown which was stated.
His eldritch knight power? So, basically, you're still fucking him, but it's a different class?
He's right to be pissed.
He wouldn't be right only if it was "bonus" power, in addition of his classes
He's right to be pissed, and maybe I'll give him his power back, but the whole purpose of the crown was to give him greater power. I thought this would be a creative way to stop him from murdering everything, gain a kingdom, and more power. What would a better idea be instead?
I'm a fan of talking with your players, making sure everyone is on the same page as far as what sort of game people are looking for and what the expectations of the world are. If the player legitimately wants to do nothing but run around killing things, while you want to create a larger story with meaningful NPCs, it might be the case you aren't suited to being in the same group.
The only person that wants to run around and murder everything is that player. I'll talk to him thought thanks for the tips.
He's right to be pissed ahen he learns his actions have consequences? In D&D once you get to a certain point you can't punish murder with "the guards arrest you" because of power creep. So in turn you have to apply power creep to the consequences. While I understand why players cry GM Fiat when the hand of god comes down to punish them. There is a certain point where the only creatures capable of punishing players for doing things like murdering innocents are god-like or similarly meta-physical beings.
I think the issue is less one of consequences and more one of lines. As a player, one generally has complete control over their character- both how they act, and how they are built. Forcing a player to deviate from their build is a dick move.
Don't run a game for them
>and his response was nothing is controlling his mind and he wants to find the entities in the crown and murder them
"You want a 3 v 1 fight against revered dwarven ancestors, each of whom are powerful enough to bless you at will through a simple crown from beyond the grave?"
Express just how badly that's likely to go for him, and that if he doesn't want to deal with the honour of some dead dwarven demigods then he can leave their crown (and it is theirs and their heirs, he's just using it) and lose his spoopy death knight powers.
Play up the dwarven honour shit, stress that the ancestors could be actively hindering him if they so chose, but definitely give the guy the option of going his own (bloody, stupid, and bloody stupid) way.
Get ye gone, Satan.
Don't tempt innocent fa/tg/uys with your terrible advice.
In my experience players like that are just shitheads.
Let him know he can stop wearing the crown at any time. He can have 3 old dudes watch and judge in exchange for magical powers, or he can choose to not do so.
Making the player make choices like this will force growth. They will whine. they will beg. The dumb nigga may even suggest that he can get the spirit expunged from the crown (not that he knows the word expunged). Do not let him weasel out of it.
Shit. Your player fucking triggered me. The only way it could be worse is if he has a 10 page backstory centered on a mary sue who is too powerful to appear in game where they lived on a magical island. Fuck.
To be fair, patrons fucking with your powers is right there in the players handbook fluff. Its never mechanized but its there.
If he gained the crown in play then it seems like fair game to me. Especially because he recieved no downgrade. He evened out to the same number of spells, but I can understand a player not wanting their class abilities touched.
I don't think thats what happened. I think his player reacts badly to his character being judged or spoken down to, and reacts with in-game murder.
I dont think obnoxious,greedy,and grudgeful dwarfs can be the best judges of character.
>The dumb nigga may even suggest that he can get the spirit expunged from the crown
Looking at OP, this line caught my eye
>I told him this was going to be a test of character, and his response was nothing is controlling his mind and he wants to find the entities in the crown and murder them.
Really tells you a lot about the player right there
This is the case where the Golden Rule (whoever has the Gold makes the Rules) perfectly applies (with metaphorical "gold") - they're the ones supplying the power, they can be whatever sort of judges of character they want to be
>they're the ones supplying the power, they can be whatever sort of judges of character they want to be
This. The crown is supplying the power, if the guy pisses off the crown, no more crown powers.
You can push for a compromise, just show a little mercy/insight/whatever the fuck you want him to be displaying, he won't like it, but remind him that the crown he found is in no way obliged to continue giving power if it doesn't want to.
Power usually comes at a price. If that price is being slightly less of a dickhead, so be it. Remind him of spider-man or some shit.
why are his class abilities tied directly to an item?
i'd check the rules for eldritch knight but unfortunately i don't have the pdf on hand, is this just a basic feature of the class?
if so, that sounds like a pretty shitty class. a really shitty class, even.
i'd want to get rid of the literal mind control, too, and maybe put those wasted levels into something that can't be crippled by a lucky thief.
as far as not murderhoboing goes, that's always a tricky problem and to be honest it sounds like he just doesn't have much of an actual connection to the world or any reason to do anything but kill, which i'm pretty sure 5e's ideals and bonds system is supposed to help alleviate
what'd he put down for that stuff?
>They do fine in dungeon crawls it is interacting with stuff that isn't hitting stuff that makes it hard for him, they've been doing a "dungeon crawl" for 2-3 sessions going deep into the forest to make sure the temple wasn't going to be destroyed and the barrier brought down.
Stop turning your nose up at dungeon crawls for the sake of your story.
The way loot for XP works is that characters gain XP (and it should be the majority of XP) from recovering enumerated treasure (to prevent the headache of calculating how much the flatware is worth) to civilization. As a rule of thumb, a good chunk of this should not be coins, so finding someone to sell it to can be an adventure like if you have a bunch of peppercorns or thousands of bolts of silk. It also forces the characters to interact with the world in nonviolent ways. Similarly, if you enforce encumbrance (as you should), you have to hire porters or charter caravans and shit like that.
Fair enough I suppose. But I don't see how this is entirely different from a paladin falling. Though I'm drunk and haven't played d&d extensively.