In addition to knowing all the abilities of his character and applying these appropriately and fairly, the big thing that a player can do to assist the DM in running a game, and particularly a complex game like D&D, is to be ready on his turn, with the details of what he's going to do all worked out. Chances are, you've had about a minute since your last turn, which should have been plenty of time to decide what to do, look up the appropriate spell effects, and so on. So, really, all you should have to do is announce your action, pass the spell description to the DM (if needed), and get rolling dice.
Now, of course, this isn't a hard and fast rule. You may not know what you're doing next for several reasons, from a sudden shift in the tactical situation in the last character's turn, or due to needing more information from the DM on the situation. But, barring such circumstances, if your action is to step back and cast Burning Hands, there is no excuse for not being ready.
(It's perhaps worth noting that it is usually spell-casters who slow things up in this fashion, simply because they have more options, and more fiddly options, open to them. It's just easier to be ready when your action consists of 'hitting him again with my longsword'.)
Archived comment by Andrew:
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that would be useful would be a couple of sheets that had the information required on them instead of having to ask to look at the Players Handbook all the time. The best example I can think of is having a copy of Feat descriptions that the character has and what it does so that the player can check. This of course probably wouldn't work for spell-casters but would certainly make my decisions quicker. Maybe some sort of "crib sheet" is needed? Obviously photo-copying the spell effects would be too expensive to justify but how can a spell-caster remember every spell effect especially in D&D?
Archived comment by me:
ReplyDeleteIt would, indeed, be too much to expect a spellcaster to remember every spell effect in the game. I see three options here:
1) Do nothing. The player should look up the spell they're planning on using before their turn comes up, and have the book ready to hand to the DM at the appropriate time. Naturally, this isn't a perfect solution, but it would help.
2) Each spellcaster should have a dedicated Player's Handbook set aside just for the use of that player. That only works if there are lots of books at the table, and only in a 'core rules only' game.
3) Print out copies of the SRD. This certainly works for feats, but might be too expensive for spells. The SRD is essentially the PHB without the flavour text, so this should be a viable solution. However, it only works for a 'core rules only' game.
I don't think there are any perfect solutions, and I don't want to sound like I'm suggesting the player should always be ready with his action, 100% of the time, without exception. However, in a large group, there are usually fairly large gaps between your action in one round and your action in the next. This should, hopefully, give some time to be ready with all that stuff.
Anyway, I'll try to prep sheets with printouts of all the feats characters possess the next time I update the character sheets. I may even throw in sheets with stats for all the monsters that can be summoned, but am making no guarantees.