What to do With a Bored D&D Player? A DM’s Dilemma

What if you have your D&D campaign going, the players are having a good time … except one of them, who’s bored? Maybe they’re bored with their character or combat or the way things are going, and now figuring out a way to pick things up a notch for this player falls to you. Do you let them revamp or replace their character? Do you make combat more difficult? Making things more complicated, if the other players are having fun, is adjusting for the bored player going to ruin it for the rest of them?That’s the question Larry H. brought to us in a message to 3 Wise DMs. In this episode, Thorin, Tony and Dave talk about their experience with bored players, sometimes being the bored players, and the things they do to try to accommodate players who aren’t having fun in the game with their characters. They even get into some extreme character tinkering, like the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or “Rockwell,” a character who could wake up as any of three characters every the morning. 2:00 A listener question from Larry H.: 2 players are having fun, but one player is bored, is it OK to let them revamp their character?4:00 Who’s fault is it if the player’s bored with their character: the player or DM?10:00 Those “Oh Shit!” moments: Putting combat-optimized PCs in more challenging situations15:00 Combat shouldn’t always be the best option18:00 What makes a character interesting to play and for how long?20:00 When and how should you let players revamp their character or bring a new one to the table?25:00 How do you avoid party awkwardness when you swap out or change a PC?34:00 How far is too far? Do you allow retroactive multiclassing, for example?41:00 Red flags that could mean the change is disrupting your group45:00 More extreme ways to spice up characters and make things … more interesting56:00 Tips to make combat more challenging for a min-maxer63:00 Final thoughts