How many other tables are seeing the Ratcatcher with the card that lets the dog block a critical for severity obedience. I find critical wounds don't usually come is such rapid succession to specific PC's that a 2nd one gets by while that recharges, with result that the Ratcatcher avoids criticals session after session while others get them. It's seeming like a bit "too good" an option.

Rob

I think many skills as written are better than others, some wastly better, some wastly weaker.

But to me this will only become a problem if players view GM as an enemy, which must be hindered stopped at any cost.

Players can allways do the "munchkin" style, and make chars that are "min/maxed. The question is why would they do so?

A "good" dynamic group (group as in players and GM combined) will look at creating a good story, and it's not a good story that the ratcatcher uses his best friend as a constant shield... It would be like a dwarven char picking up a Swordmaster action card. Might be really cool strong card, but no dwarf with selfrespect would learn/use elven skills!!!

So to me a well played ratcatcher would find situations where it's suitable to have the dog tale the hit, and situations where it would be not so good, and use that as a roleplaying mechanism to help making the fights more alive/cinematic.

When I play with new players, my warning signals starts ringing when they ask "which ability is best?". I ask them if they mean best suited for their career, and hope they say yes to that. But some players will really be looking for whatever ability/skill that makes them as strong as posible, and shun any abilities which performs "worse" than other's alike it, even though that ability might be better from a roleplaying perspective.

With some talk, and explaining most will "calm" down and see the reasoning in making a "real" char rather than making the "best" char.

At my table, he is mostly a ranged character, and the dog is not usually directly attached to the ratcatcher.

In this case, I would look into:

Checking whether the dog is even able to take a hit, is he physically in range?
Have the dog take some other hits from time to time. The dog drops to 0 obedience, there goes his companion.

Make the player work to get his dog back as well. Don't treat the dog as a meatshield, it's still a living thing storywise, and will wise up. If it takes hit after hit, it might start losing more than double the obedience. It might even flat out refuse to perform the "trick" anymore, while still dropping in obedience when the trick-card is used.

Wanting to forge a nice story is great, but if all you want is a nice story, where the outcome is sort of set from the get-go, there is no more sense of suspense&achievement. Everybody just drifts along, helping the story, but not really having any individual character development or individual goals.

If there is achievement involved, it means feeling like you earned that achievement. And you can only do that if you actually have to work at it.
Why would you dig a hole with a stick, when you can choose a shovel? And in the same line, why would you pick a skill that is visibly weaker that another, only to handicap yourself when compared to others in the party?

Nisses said:

It's no competition, it's about having fun. If fun equals to "flexing" your char-sheet, then yes you can try'n see who can kill/survive most/longest. I just never found it much fun. I play strategy games if I want adversaries.

Trying to create a nice atmosphere does not mean everything is given, it just means that players, and GM should try'n work together.

I as a GM won't go through the monsters/npc's and find which ever way helps kill the players fastest. I'm not gonna gimp them either, but look for what makes the most sense in the given situation.

Example one of my players was standing on a wagon, and he wants to jump over the beastman standing below him (on the ground), I tell him it's gonna be darn hard, and he might be better of just attacking (they were pressed...). But he wants it to look as good as possible, because that's the character he's playing, one that wants everything to look good. So he does it, and pulls it of. But had he failed he'd likely be looking at the beastman getting hefty bonuses on next attack.

Of course it gets rewarded with fortune points, and the group also recieves a bonus xp if I think they worked hard to make the session entertaining, so it might even out in the end really...

My point... being that there's allways gonna be skills/actions/talents etc... that are "better" than other's in the same group, but this is where players and GM should have a talk and discuss why it might be that the skill, or whatever, wouldn't be used to much.

My wizard is holding back on using his powerfull spells, because he "plays" that he's afraid of Chaos Powers.

My noble agent refuses to use anything but rapier and pistol, and only wears very light armor, because a gentleman fights like that, and he won't use heavy armor till he's been knighted. He also wont fight females, and of course children (havn't had a chance to test that yet...).

My thug... well he hits anything with the best avail weaponry and using every dirty lowsome tactic he can muster. But that fits his character very very well.

Val,

Lets look at this a different way.

The dog may not be 'taking the hit' per se. I always describe it as the tiny dog rushing in to bite at the striking hand, or scratching at the opponent's eyes. Honestly if a tiny dog 'took the blow' from a wargors waraxe it would get bisected, obedience rules or no.

But what you're seeing is a tough character, a survivor, being cautious and clever and managing to squeak by just one more time without life threatening harm.

But, there are dozens of other cheerful things you can do. Is the dog constantly biting chaos minions? Why look at that corruption. Fluffy sprouted tentacles? Now there's one bad dog. Quick ratcatcher, do you have the heart to murder your constant companion?

Oh did he block that nasty plaguebearer shot? Well here's to disease. And I bet catching rats will give you some checks for picking that up together with your loyal companion - as ratcatching isn't exactly a sanitary profession.

Don't look at this as a problem, unless the other players are complaining. The ratcatcher is playing like a tank. He's taking less damage, and less critical damage. So be it! There are plenty of ways for you to challenge him, or otherwise threaten his existence.

Have a little fun with it!

Thanks for thoughts and advice.