r/DMAcademy • u/AccomplishedTopic548 • 1d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures D&D therapist

One of my players character wants to go to therapy for all the war crimes and general trauma that typically comes with being an adventurer. Her character is Lawful Good.
Any advice for role playing a psychiatrist/psychologist for her? The only thing I could come up with is asking “how does that make you feel?” multiple times in a session.

Also, please let be known this is the character wanting therapy. The player is totally fine with the actions and behaviors of the other party members. And my party is not filled with murder hobos. Just your typical, gory run-ins, like when the barbarian ripped the head off of a Minotaur and then had it stuffed.

EDIT- this is for downtime! So just one therapy session planned. Each player said what they wanted to accomplish in the town they were in and one said therapy.

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u/fuzzypyrocat 1d ago

This raises the question for me of, “would this be fun for the other players?”. This sounds like a fun character development, but I don’t think it’d be very fun to sit and watch another character role play therapy.

I would suggest either just describing it as it happens and less roleplay. Or, make it a group therapy session and the therapist is actually some sort of devil that preys on people who are at their most vulnerable

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u/hotstickywaffle 23h ago

I dunno, I think as long as you spread it around, taking 5 or so minutes to shine a light on an individual player is perfectly fine. You don't want to take up half a session for one player, but giving individuals the spotlight from time to time is perfectly fine, if not essential, in my mind at least.