Quote:
Originally Posted by ericthered
I see a fair amount of overconfidence on character sheets. I can't say that its ever had much effect on the game. I'm not really sure how to enforce it either: I've heard some really harsh interpretations that turn it into a death sentence and rob players of agency at the worst moments, and I'd like to avoid that.
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RAW, Overconfidence should always make a player attempt to take on more difficult tasks than they know their character is capable of handling.
The natural "player inquisitiveness" that makes PCs not call in the army/cops/whatever, does not have to come from Overconfidence, there are many PCs for whom a special situation is entirely within reasonable estimates for their capabilities.
For someone with Explosives (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) of 15+ it is likely reasonable to expect successfully disarming a bomb within a time limit, unless there are special scenario considerations that would impose a penalty beyond the one from the time limit. On the other hand, for someone with Explosives (EOD) of 10-12 it would definitely take some degree of Overconfidence to tackle a random bomb with a time limit.
For a combat scenario there are several considerations. A major one being the campaign style (Realistic/Cinematic/Whatever). Then there's the campaign genre, along with what type of and how many opponents. A generic Fantasy warrior with good armor & weapon and 15+ weapon skill should usually not be considered Overconfident in taking on a group of 3-4 "cannon fodder" creatures (giant rats, wolves, kobolds, or whatever else). Taking on an ogre or giant in single combat may be a different situation, depending on the campaign style and PC equipment/skills/stats. But trying to take on 3+ opponents, that are known to be skilled and well equipped, without backup is a definite sign of Overconfidence.
Staying behind to hold off a large group of pursuers
may not be Overconfidence, it could be a deliberate self sacrifice to (hopefully) protect people that are important to the character. Overconfidence could easily make the character expect to survive the situation, but someone lacking Overconfidence could still try to take a rear guard position even if they don't expect to survive.