Psychic Robot wrote:Here's a thought: play the fucking game so that everyone is having fun. Period, full stop, exclamation points, eleventy-one, and so on.
See, while I'm liable to agree with you on first blush, the fact of the matter is that as a DM, you put a metric fuckton more work into the game than probably the entire PC party combined. It's your job to create and run everything.
If the idea of the DM as supreme overlord of the universe who giveth and taketh life (but mostly taketh) is Gygaxian and bullshit, then this idea that the DM is the slave of the players' whim/enjoyment is just as bullshit and we need a term for it too.
If I have to create the gameworld, create the plot, prep before the game, keep track of dozens of NPCs/monsters, keep track of all the combat, be the ultimate reference/arbitrator to the rules, and pace the game so it remains interesting, and *then* I have to sit there and hand-tailor your character so that he isn't a suckfest (and only use resources that the player approves of... I mean WTF?), or even worse go back and re-write the game to coddle the suck-tastic PC (and still try to figure out how to make the game seem fun and challenging), then I might as well not run a fucking game, I should go write a story at that point. It'd be less work and probably less stressful.
My solution is to let the players do whatever the fuck they want within the rules established at character creation. It's not my job to make sure the PCs are up to snuff. If your story calls for custom-tailored challenges, then go ahead and stick it to them. Otherwise, create your challenges not with your PCs in mind, but with what makes sense and is appropriate to the situation. Let the PCs sink or swim on their own adaptability.
And I'd tell this monk player that if he's not open to all constructive advice because some of it comes from someone he doesn't like, then he's on his own optimizing his character.