paizo.com - Forums / Pathfinder First Edition: General Discussion: GMs: Should you reward caution, or bravery? (2024)

I like to think my DM rewards playing in character more than anything, but when my Paladin charges at the giant monster he just threw at us, or blows all my lay on hands on the ranger's animal that just got critted in half, he tends to be a little more impressed than when we discuss all the different ways to not get killed in the next room.

My characters are typically meleers who feel it's better to burn out than to fade away, or do the heroic thing over the smart thing. I always have a concept in the wings if the demon is more difficult than I thought.

Depedning on the situation. I reward bravery, but not recklessness, in a vacuum. Charging the dragon because you know your friend the cleric will be right there by your side is good party coordination, and that i call courage. But rushing forward while your rogue tells you the scoop and without listening to the plan )otherwise known as Leeroy Jenkins behavior) is...well...unfortunate. I will respond realitically (i.e. it will most likely fail). I like a party that takes the initiative to plan ahead, and i reward quick thinking. If they want to charge in blind, I won't penalize them other than in the obvious way.

But what I appreciate most of all are two things. The first is character consistancy. The paladin that charges in to help the innocent because they have little time to plan, knowing it is suicidal but acting because they know in their hearts that their sacrifice will mean the lives of others is cool, especially if its consistant. Again, this is courage, not recklessness. Charging with a PURPOSE, and a character driven one no less. And what warms my heart most is seeing a party bunker down, huddle, and actually discuss a plan of action. I don't care if they're wrong, or if they make assumptions that are false. If they are devoting the time to plan it out and try and beat my challenges together, and of their own free will, well, I feel as if I've accomplished something.

People are forgetting one thing when asking what the DM should reward: Caution or Bravery. Because lets not forget players ruin anything.

The DM could be planning on rewarding caution in this case, but if when a player suggests caution the rest of the party says screw it and goes in anyway.

We've had some cases where we go slowly and cautiously, but generally we're a fireballs to the wall group. We blew up a hoteln once because we figured there were too many enemies inside. I barely escaped while another member was annihilated. In these cases, if given a cautious choice, or an epic memorable scene, we'll choose the scene everytime, even if the DM had an armoury of magic weapons in that hotel we just destroyed, the scene wrote itself.

The black raven wrote:

My GM tends to reward bravery. Or rather to be bored/annoyed by caution.

Though he will also complain that we play overoptimized munchkins and lament the swift passing of his supposedly strong monsters.

So he is in fact sending mixed messages.

Also most players in my group have been TRAUMATIZED by Living Greyhawk under other GMs and tend to be extremely cautious. And I have unconsciously followed suit. Note that this was strengthened by the punishment the RAW inflicted on my very first character when I forgot about this whole AoO business.

This theme shines an interesting light on things. I need to add it to the things I should take into account when I will be the GM.

What was it about Living Greyhawk that was so punishing?

Because of the spate of recent threads on "how much death should penalize a character," I'm also wondering about the relationship between the Caution/Boldness spectrum and the impact of death.

Logically, GMs who want to reward boldness would make death really easy to recover from. Does that sync up with anybody's experience?