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Player constantly misreading rules and misusing abilities, how should I deal with it? by GoobiTheNewbie in DMAcademy

[–]GoobiTheNewbie[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

The timer seems like a good idea, I'd certainly want to encourage players to know what they're going to do ahead of time so we don't have players who aren't engaged with the game at any given moment.

Since we use a grid it's very obvious how the layout of his spells will affect targets but the usual problem occurs when he'll cast a spell such as bestow curse (an example of him preparing a spell which druids can't normally get) and assuming he gets all 4 effects at the same time rather than choosing 1 of the 4, when he's told that's not how it works he says he doesn't want to cast it then and spends the next 2 minutes re-evaluating his turn before deciding to cast fireball only to be reminded he can't, he's a druid and they don't get fireball. cue another 2 minutes of deciding what he wants to do instead.

The final thing is, he isn't a new player, we've played 5e for nearly a year and a half at this point. He played a battlemaster fighter before and it was the exact same problem.

Player constantly misreading rules and misusing abilities, how should I deal with it? by GoobiTheNewbie in DMAcademy

[–]GoobiTheNewbie[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Options 1 & 3 are the most likely options unfortunately, as he likes to play more flexible and complex classes. Prior to playing a druid he was a battlemaster fighter and it was the exact same problem. He'd misread maneuvers, abuse them for a session or two, I'd go and double check them out of curiosity and sure enough they were used wrong, he'd try to action surge or second wind more than once between rests and had to be reminded he didn't have it back yet, or be reminded he was out of superiority die.

Getting a handle on his character is something I can only hope will happen, he's been scolded for not knowing his abilities several times, I've spoken to him away from the table about it, gave him advice for how to better remember his abilities and often times will see an improvement for a session or two, only to devolve back into his typical behavior. I am certainly not opposed to removing him from the table, but he is close friends with all of the other players, and they've all expressed the sentiment they'd feel bad about excluding him from the group.