>>717262469
LBG's main strength lies mostly in utility and customization - as in each LBG is vastly different from another one due to different ammo types in different quantities with different reloads and mobility etc. that you can mod further slightly, and it really affects gameplay while most other weapons don't have much of a difference it terms of gameplay itself.

With utility it's healing others, buffing them, putting shit to sleep, paralyzing, etc. you're basically a walking status dispenser on demand and that's basically the most useful LBG is ever gonna be.
You can also go with an LBG focused on singular ammo type, while it's not as useful it can fulfill your niche power fantasy if you want to feel like you have a grenade launcher, sniper, shotgun etc.
You can also take shit in-between obviously, as I said LBG allows for a lot of variety in its own class. Though going for one ammo type focus LBG isn't as good as just taking other weapon types in terms of damage.

That said, speaking about World, personally ever since the Stygian Zinogre released whenever I play LBG I just use his.
Spread 3 with good mobility (and basically nothing else) is really fun, having to stay up close and blasting monsters in the face with your mega shotgun while dodging whatever they do is some great stuff.

Let's say that the player party has some sort of special monster helping them long term, for example a dragon or an ogre or whatever.
Something that's powerful and very different from typical PC.
Outside of combat, it can just be played by the DM but what about the combat itself?
I feel like having DM have full control over said powerful creature would just defeat the point, players wouldn't feel the power of this creature that's helping the party, it'd feel like DM fighting against himself.

So, how would you attempt to give control of it to the players?
My main ideas, and why I feel like they wouldn't work are:
>Just make one player play as the monster as straight up their character, providing more unique experience but then it's unique to just one singular player and by default makes them more special than everyone else at the table which obviously kinda sucks
>Each turn another person controls the monster, so turn 1 Player A control it, turn 2 Player B controls it and so on. However this means that the monster is borderline schizophrenic as its plans basically change every single turn since they're controlled by different player each time
>Some sort of meta currency to spend to control it, however this would create an issue of meta PvP game where players have to take away the control from other players or just stop giving a shit about controling the monster themselves altogether
>Players making a decision together. It seems the best at the first glance, but it'd result in shitton of bickering and long turns as players try to come to one decision on what to do every single turn
Is there any way to do this?
To have players be supported by a powerful non-human entity with control over it split between the entire group without making it frustrating?
The more I type it out the more it feels like a pipedream to be abandoned but I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas.