Has anyone created a character, e.g. "Expert shot, seeking revenge, has pursued it over a pile of corpses", but found that their luck with dice makes the character a laughing stock?
I've done it a few times, and now I'm resigned to making characters that are, not to put too fine a point on it, average at best.
Point in case was (4e) a man named Finnoch, a human, seeking revenge on the man that caused him to be jailed for the majority of his young adult life. I wrote him as a great shot, and engineered him to be so, but my dice rolls were abysmal. Finnoch ended up as a joke.
I don't see it happening quite as predictably in 5e, but I still worry that my luck will just invalidate any character I make. One bonus is, I suppose, that it makes character creation more challenging. I have to think outside the box a bit in order to make a character that can contribute to the group.
Anyone had any similar situations?
I DMed a d20 King Arthur game (Legends of Excalibur) where a player' knight had the worst dice luck I have ever seen. Worse, another player's hedge mage had the best dice luck I have ever seen. She would wade into combat with a morning star and routinely outfight the hapless knight. She didn't even have a buff spell on (she was new to d20 and spellcasting). She just . . . waded into combat. And kicked butt doing it. Her stats gave one no reason to believe this was a good idea, but her dice luck always came through for her. Conversely, the knight just could not hit anything to save his life, and if he got hit, he would almost certainly suffer the maximum possible damage (or very near to that). Successful saving throws were a mythical concept for him. But again, looking at his character sheet it seemed like a perfectly reasonable knight.
See it as a roleplay opportunity. Consistent bad luck? Your character must have done something to upset the gods or the fates. The beauty of good and bad luck is that they balance out over time - so even if your character starts out as a joke due to a couple of bad sessions, at some point the dice will roll your way. If you play it right, your character will then have redeemed itself in the eyes of the gods, fates, and most importantly, the rest of the party.
Aside from that, some CharOp never hurt anybody. There's a reason to-hit is king in the CharOp forums.
From just a few sessions ago, after I had been playing my newest character in a campaign I've been having particularly bad luck with for the 3rd straight session:
Fighter: "It's about time one of your spells worked, old man."
My Aged Wizard: "...you wouldn't figure physically deformed ogres to be so agile as to effortlessly avoid rays like that... I think I've got it down now, though."
Fighter: "I thought you were supposed to be an expert wizard?"
My Aged Wizard: "Of course I am... I'm just a bit rusty."
Sorcerer: (laughing her head off) "He's got tower rot!"
svendj wrote:
I had a AD&D thief back in my misspent youth that was armed with a raft of daggers and would all ways open combat by throwing them, never hit a thing not once despit being played off and on over the years and 4 or 5 systems/editions. hum must roll him up for 5th
In 5e edition, try to get advantage as much as you can, that way, you roll 2 d20 and take the best roll of the 2. Take an hafling so you reroll your 1 and take the lucky feat so you can reroll 3 roll of your choice per long rest.
This is my best idea to counter bad luck. (and for sure, put your best stat in your ability determining if you hit your opponent (dex for archer/finess, strenght for melee weapon, Intellect for Wizard, Wisdom for Druid/cleric spell)
I had a dwarf Druid that had good stats and for the life of the party he could not do a thing but drink. It actually turned into great fun because battles became a test of wills for him and the group pretty much cheered anytime he was successful at anything. Best comedic character ever without starting the build that way.
I built a character expecting her to be underwhelming: a TWF rogue/painter who used to be secretary for a minor crime boss. She refused to underwhelm and when straight for over-the-top. ("Are you new?" "[PERFECT BLUFF] Yeah, just started today." "Oh. What are you serving?" "PAIN!" and then one-shotted the guy before going into the surprise round where I one-shotted another guy. Killed an entire room in the surprise round)
The only thing more lethal than her was the ruthlessly optimized greatsword fighter who could pull 2d6+300+ in a single blow. He regularly took out CR 13 monsters at level 6. Of course, nobody was richer than me, since by the time we took a break, my bank account was the budget for several small nations. And the interest that paid... Hmmm....
EDIT: And it can always be worse; your group could be like the A-Team - succeeding only because your enemies are more incompetent than you. And tanks made out of plywood, scuba tanks, and prayers to MacGyver.
One of my characters for the playtest is a veteran mercenary who has fought for a couple of centuries (a fighter). During the first session I don't think he did any damage at all since he missed so much. The group, where the characters did not know each other before, found him slightly incompetent. However, I did get permission to change the fighing style to GWF (with damage on a miss) as an insurance against that kind of underwhelmingness. Of course, he started hitting more consistently by then (and others had equal bad days).
The underwhelming feeling from first session still stuck, and highlighted the benefits of the damage on a miss mechanic.
OrwellianHaggis wrote:
It happened to my 4e sorcerer, one paper and in the storyline he was powerful and deadly. In combat I'd never roll higher than a 3 and he died.... 5 times in two years? I still love him, my dice just never loved me. Except when I DM, last night some orcs beat my players like drums 
I also have a story in the opposite line, though not my character, there was a librarian with a... I think it was an old broomstick, that absolutely destroyed in a zombie campaign I was in. I think the only guy who racked up more kills ran over about 100 zombies with an RV towards the end. I might need to bring that stick up sometime as an artifact weapon...
Ah, I've just remembered DMing a game. 4e, I created a shark solo, beefed up a bit to make it really scary, and then went on to miss everyone. Shark steaks for all. The group nicknamed it "the crap shark".
When my dice get like that I usually put them in the freezer for a week for misbehaving. 
I had a friend in a 4e game who was playing a renowned Warlord gladiator and got into a duel with a bandit leader while the rest of us looked on. The entire duel he couldn't roll over 10. It got so bad we were starting to sneakily aid him with buffs and cures when he got pushed to the sidelines. Only way we managed to get out of there is when the warlock snuck off and set fire to the bandit camp. It was the only time that the gladiator actually had a solo duel, and he was miserable at it.
That's the exact situation I used to find myself in.
In our first game of 5e, my DMpc missed everything with his long sword, and wasted one of his two spell slots on command (he commanded a goblin to strike another goblin in the back, but the attack missed). On the bright side he was fast enough to reach the fighter to stabilise her when she went down, and he managed to calm some unhappy animals with the help of some rations.
I run a 4E game, and my sister plays an assassin. Despite having some of the best attack and damage numbers in the party, she has jokingly been dubbed "The Worst Assassin Ever" by the party, because she infrequently rolls above a 4 when attacking.