The 7 Types of D&D Players 

your performance of the old Tom Lehrer song was brilliant!

Honestly this was my favorite add. How long did it take you to write it???

I'm also here to congratulate you on the performance of that song! Bravo!

Nat 20 performance roll. You need to charge more for your ads.

Hey I recognize that product! That song was AWESOME!!!

Oh, yeah! Been there, done that! Almost had a DM rage quit over shenanigans! Was hilarious!

Well the unhinged DM could be any of these player types taken to its illogical extreme.

Unhinged sounds like a fun way to play.

I really appreciate your ending. I 100% agree. The only thing I think is specifically a negative player trait is being inconsiderate of other's time at the table, and that can be part of any playstyle.

As a forever DM I wholeheartedly agree. You will spend all of your time figuring out and gaining the capability to one-shot a tarrasque. And then you will decide not to kill the tarrasque because "it's really just misunderstood" convince the temporary DM to let you tame it and rampage across the forgotten realms gloriously.

J

Exactly, that's why this excellent. Many a video will go on about the problems with these types of players (which is also fair, sometimes DMs need help managing a certain play style if it doesn't fit their own) but it's good to see the positive aspects highlighted.

I agree. A Superhero can be a whiny b*tch when things don't go their way. An Actor can be an attention hog to the exclusion of all others, possibly even the DM. A Storyteller might even want to force their interpretation of the setting on the DM. If the group is playing a pre-made campaign, they might read ahead to know what's coming, and prepare accordingly, even though the Character wouldn't know to do so in-game. A Minmaxer might ignore the setting, the rules' intent and even basic physics and common sense to push through their "perfect" build. A Scientist may not see things like the Peasant Railgun, the Hulking Hurler, the Omniscificer, or Pun Pun, the lvl 1 ascended god, as a fun thought experiment, but as a challenge to pull off in-game - and be surly when the DM won't let them do it. An Instigator may derail campaigns by doing random sh*t "for the lulz". Often the excuse "but I'm Chaotic Neutral" will be used. A Socialite may actively sabotage a campaign just to get the group to play something else.

I agree there isn't a bad type of player just people are are not fun to play with

exactly what i was thinking

Most people are terrified of playing the DM. You should ask them to do a one-shot set in their characters background-story.The other players will behave nicely, because nobody wants to break the game/continuity.

I've played with a DM who played a character that wasn't part of the party but played as NPCs (such as merchants, innkeepers, etc) and as certain enemies including rolling their own checks and things like that as well as personality & morality type. In fact he even created a separate character that became a boss type enemy.

I'm a storyteller and scientist

My party has the opposite problem, too many dms. We have three campaigns happening at the moment. EDIT: 4 now smh

I like being a player, but I also want to DM every once and a while. I may be VERY new to actually playing DND, but I would be happy to DM a one shot, or even a campaign for you. 😁😁

That's what I would call a quiet or calm extrovert person. Someone who loves being surrounded by people/friends, but won't bother taking most of the initiative, but will enjoy the vibe regardless.

I had a similar sweet moment but I think all my players might be the last Archetype. They all want to play but each doesn't do a lot of playing... it's a strange group but I love em

I have three players who are like this, I don't play the same campaign with all of them, and they all love me and give me feedback, and allow me to improve my dungeon master skills comfortably.

Only problem is none of them can tell when dnd is supposed to be fun, so their feedback is not very helpful.

@@EngLhag Yep, plenty of those around, always had one in my playing or dm group. In Critical Role its Ashley Johnson, certainly in season 1.

That's a rotten thing to do to a friend for a pun.

All tomorrows type shit

That is a shitty thing to do unless you have them permission to do that

@@jerrymcbride5589 I was cool with it, was pretty funny and they did turn me back later

And that’s how you know those are true friends. The best of friends will have no mercy towards each other

Dang mate you reminded me of one of my "young" friends, he would always want to be the leader and seeks attention and NEVER wants to lose a fight, very frustrating sometimes, but i still enjoy playing with him and my friends, since he is the only attention seeker so its fine i suppose...its a game after all

What about the player whose sole mission is to break your campaign? Lol

@@theladyivy I would say that “if they are a player who’s sole mission is to break your campaign” they “don’t respect or care if the others at the table are having fun”. I as the DM certainly wouldn’t be.

@@Quietu Exactly!

@@Quietu ​ @theladyivy Ive been in a party where it felt like the sole purpose of the DM was to kill everyone in the party and/or not care about the players at table. Then Ive alslo had other players try their best to annoy, break, or purposely try to go off and do their own thing what the DM clearly had in mind. Also the ones that really didnt care about others in the party or having fun by trying to take all the gold or items etc.

I have a strong minmaxer streak in me, and several of my fellow players are much more story/RP driven, i had to adapt my play to make my minmaxing support the group RP so as not to become a bad player. I've found a fun solution to adapt is to minmax BAD ideas, my dwarven sorcerer focused on buffing his familiar in combat was comedy gold, AND when it worked it felt amazing (it often didn't work :P ).

@@GuatemalanJedi Becoming the scientist.

Being a minmaxer can be a great way to engage the party if you go for combos that require other characters. I know that won't always work, but when it does it means you and your partner get to be amazing at the same time.

And then there's that one guy who makes the super fast to backseat cuz he "gotta go fast".

What about the one that is trying to survive ? : |

Same here. I have just found that I have to be careful to not get too focused on those to the exclusion of others nor to make encounters so difficult that only the min maxer can do anything.

I get to hurl titans and fucking gods at them and make them feel awesome for coming out of it

Thanks for your service as forever DMs. I wonder if I’m a unique blend of player that y’all may have not encountered. I am the type of player who is a cross of a min maxer that makes sure both DM and players utilize all bonuses or detriments to every roll no matter the situation. I only maximize things that allow my party to survive and not on my individual ability. If you have encountered this type of player at least somewhat then I would like to hear y’all’s thoughts on them.

as a DM i do, as a player, i feel like min/maxers tend to have bad main character syndrome and it sometimes feels like your "fun character" gets put to the sidelines when you have a 30AC 50avg damage level 1 player at the table.

I'm starting to become a forever DM for both groups I play with. I'm sad I don't get to be a player, yet I do enjoy being behind the screen. Optimizers (which was the term I first learned to call Min-maxers) help me think outside the box to test if an encounter is too hard or not. It also teaches me how specific builds work as I learn faster by listening than by reading.

So a bard with the lucky feat...

Yeah, I'm about to give up on and quit a game because we have one of these turds in our party.

I think this is me, but a mildly controlled chaos. I have some experience as a DM, so when I play as a character I ask the DM if it's OK to push their boundaries and if not, then that's fine and I'll go be the storyteller player. The controlled chaos allows me to push the rules and the DM's creativity. I of course would also allow it in my game! I made a Twilight Human Cleric for a Strahd campaign and she messes with the balance of the game a bit haha. I try to not step on the toes of my fellow players though. The DM threw me into a doppelganger role for a few weeks and it was way too fun to scheme ways to kill the party. I almost succeeded with one death, but no dice as of yet. The doppelganger did poison a cask though, so that will probably come up eventually. :x

I think the Agent of Chaos probably exists underneath the Instigator banner.

One of the absolute worst player types unless utilised and controlled strictly by a very competent DM.

First

I think I'm a Min Maxer; But I feel like the Socialite at times cause while I do enjoy making my character good at their job. Its not the be all end all as that is something I've learnt from watching other dnd groups/channels like you. :D I wouldn't mind hearing your take on some of the Other DnD 5e type TTRPGs out there. Which ones you like and which ones you don't ect.

I think I'm mostly the scientist, but with a touch of most of the other things too. I absolutely love using a combo of magic items with spells and abilities to make crazy things happen, such as having my shadow monk activate a daern's instant fortress over the head of a lich so it fell on him and crushed him instantly. Or when I used a chime of opening to unlatch the saddle of someone we were pursuing so he fell off his horse, before then shoving a potion of fear down his throat and casting detect thoughts on him in order to interrogate him. Being a scientist is so much fun for me.

With the last one shot I played I was absolutely the min-maxxer. The DM was not happy. But you were right about hexblade paladins, hell of a multiclass.

Instigator myself. But there are parts of me in all of those.

I used to love them as well... Until I got a party of 4 of them (and 1 Storyteller) And, each of them specialised in a different aspect of the game And 2 of them got upset if they didn't get to do any of their big things, and 1 specialised in combat with no social, and the other specialized in social with barely any combat Got to a point where I had to pull out litteral Tanks to threaten the Combat character (sci fi setting) And the Social character, bassically couldn't fail any social rolls

Its funny because the solution is almost always nets.

As a DM and a borderline minmax player myself, I would say they are not a problem UNLESS they are put at a table with non-minmax players who don't care about things like DPR, action economy, etc... It can create a lot of tensions because they don't want the same thing out of the game. Some minmaxers don't understand that other players might do "sub-optimal" choices. Players who don't want to optimize their builds might not like that there is a dude able to pull out more than the rest of the group combined, and feel like all the math take them out of the story.

@@kharnthebetrayer8251 I LOVE that type of stuff. It turns it into a fun co-op but also competitive thing. I don’t think a DM should try to kill the players, but being able to know that you can afford to make mistakes because they’ll find a way to do it all anyway is great. Also I just like seeing how creative they are. Artificers are terrifying once they hit level 2

At first. Yeah. 100% was great. But It quickly got to a point that anything short of an anti-tank weapon, wouldn't even be physically able to hurt the combat player. Not even Exaggerating (Game has Soak armour, and he was at close to 20 against weapons that do d10+modifier dmg) And the social player was squishy enough that a regular gun could put him down in like 3-4 shots

I think I understand how you would want to do it, but the last sentence in the spell description kills that, I think: If you move more than 100 feet from the disk (typically because it can't *move around* an obstacle to follow you), the spell ends. (Emphasis added) If you would try to constrain it in a contraption like that, it would simply not move at all. The question would remain, however: If you trap a disk, move 90 feet away, and release it, would it instantly catch up to within 20 feet of you?

@@Smilley85 By follow range I meant the 20 foot distance between the caster and the disk, that the disk tries to stay within. Outside of weight reduction enchantments, I don't think it would be possible to hold a gnome past the 100 foot limit of the spell, not that it useful in the first place. As long as you don't try to enclose the disk with the crane/boom lift it should not regard the items placed on it as being different from any other heavy load within its carry capacity.

Spirit shroud or summon fey are better options IMHO - that's what I went with. Also took dispel magic & counterspell - invaluable. I actually didn't take fireball, but that's probably for the best because I ended up taking gravity sinkhole instead later.

@@slywolfe Not saying they’re not great choices, but the utility that you gain from Haste is undeniably strong. +2 AC, always useful especially for being nigh un-hittable. Advantage on Dex saves; yes please. Double bladesong movement of 80’ before dashing, check. Need to keep/out pace a flying dragon? Check. Stop an important NPC/creature from running away? Done. Stop the BBEG from throwing that switch/completing that ritual/etc., On it. Still make attacks/cast a powerful spell at an opportune moment AND down that potion of superior health? You betcha. Make that extra attack round over round, all day every day. Those can absolutely out dps haste, but you don’t take it for the dps. 👍🏻

@@chrishardy3439 the drawback is too high. Even slow is better to be completely honest. If you want something similar to haste but don't like mind whip, slow, or expedious retreat, I recommend ashardalon's stride. Or take the mobile feat, it's awesome. But it's hard to compete with vortex warp & mind whip, especially if you have meta magic adept for quickened & twinned spell. Hitting with mind sliver & mind whip or vortex warp in the same turn, or hitting two enemies with mind whip & moving two allies or enemies 180ft with vortex warp is amazing.

@@slywolfe Again; all those are great spells in specific circumstances, slow is a great spell and I keep it and haste prepared on my Bladesinger for use depending on the given situation. Mind whip is a great pseudo slow that deals damage as well, as long as the target fails the save.. and only lasts one round… and is a debuff to the enemy instead of a buff for you. Expeditious retreat is fine if all you need is speed AND don’t have need of your bonus action. Ashardalon’s Stride is also great; if you have a lot of enemies to use it against and no one/thing you need to avoid. Like I said in the original comment, Haste is a great spell overall for a lower level Bladesinger, that shouldn’t be overlooked. That’s it.

Hope you have a great time

Yeah, though I’d say a full minmaxer party can be pretty fun.

@@williamwontiam3166 Most definitely. I'd also say that minmaxers can mesh well with scientists and socialite as long as all parties are respectful to each other. The scientist and minmaxer especially can learn a lot from each other. Scientists can learn how to make their weird ideas work better by optimizing their execution within the design space of their idea. And minmaxers can learn from scientists how off-meta choices can be just as viable, giving the right circumstances and potentially broaden their horizon in the long run.

@@williamwontiam3166 it can, but that's why I try and weed out min-maxers. That and they usually tend to also be rules lawyers (and as someone who still doesn't know a lot of rules I just don't want to deal with them) and meta gamers. I want all my players to have fun and feel like they have something to offer, more often than not min-maxers just suck all the fun out of the room.

@@Ailieorz how many have you actually dealt with?

I feel a lot of the people bitching about min-maxing never actually ran a game with one on the table. Its a social game, fucking TALK TO THEM if its that much of an issue

This is probably the worst build ever as it doesn't even work

Cleric: worships god, god gives power. Paladin: swears an oath and follows it, a entity takes notice and gives them power for that oath (they don't worships that entity). Celestial warlock: makes pact with angel in extange for power (think devil pact but with angle) Divine Soul Sorcerer: a family member banged an angel so you now have angel power in your blood.

@@matan8074 please continue, cause the magical classes is where I get confused. Added Paladin cause people would complain, but what would drive a character to make a pact with a God or become it's priest?

@@Maninawig added the rest. Cleric: same as any real world priest but the god might give them magic. Warlock: Making a pact with angel will probably be the same as making any other pact, typicly power/ wealth/ love or some other worlds gain (selfishly or selflessly).

@@matan8074 I think you are missing something. If clerics a priests given powers, then why are they not divine soul sorcerers? If they are gifted powers as a boom, then why are they not divine warlocks (as a Warlock pact can be made without concent)? And for that case, if a priest makes an oath to uphold a god's will, do they become paladins or are they still clerics?

@@Maninawig TLDR is at the end. Think of the sorcerer more like you've inherited the magic; you may not believe in anything or know why but that divine blood is still in there giving you your magical powers. In terms of the difference between the warlock and cleric it's a but harder so bear with this. You could certainly argue that one could exist without the other and vice versa (it is D&D after all (e.g. why does ranger exist when you could just multiclass fighter and druid? (as a note I really like the ranger class))) but there is a subtle difference between them; this is who provides them their power. The cleric receives their power from a literal god; whilst the warlock receives it from a Celestial being like an Empyrean or Kirin (Celestial beings tend to be good, so enforced one sided deals, like you mentioned about, are less likely). You should work with your DM for whichever you feel is more appropriate for the character you wanted to play, there is no hard and fast rule in a roleplaying game as to how you must act because character logic, class and background (you could be a character who thinks they are a trickery domain cleric but actually made a pact with an archfey who was just looking to have some fun...). TLDR: Cleric- gets powers from literal god's (would have to work with DM for a game without god's) Celestial Warlock- gets powers from a celestial source (rather than divine). Divine soul sorc: inherited blood (usually) Most importantly have fun with your character ideas. Thank you for reading.

I do the same but for the long game... I made a Reborn Shadow Sorcerer who's a total superhero and proudly claims to be an Devil Lord. But now I am making a Death Domain Cleric who simply wants to help as many souls find peace...

I love a game with some character disadvantages, though I irked my group by pointing out our characters all have them.

That's not types of player tho, that's just plain bad personality traits.

Honestly, any sexual fantasy can be bad to bring to the table if the other players aren't into it (which, usually, they're really not)