Dungeon Master NERFS EVERYTHING In DnD | r/rpghorrorstories

[@LiteraryDM]

DM: *Bans and nerfs PCs into oblivion* Players: *Voice frustration* DM: *Surprised Pikachu face*

[@Solanin0803]

I'd be so mad if I picked out a cool class and skill and the DM just went "Naah, you can't use that like that"

[@shadenox8164]

*Uses Paladin correctly with basic optimisation* DM: Fucking Minmaxer! Man I'd break his brain with sorcerer metamagic.

[@carterrogers7722]

@@shadenox8164 This is what killed me! He says they're power gamers for using the most basic parts of their classes/subclasses/races! As a DM I could never justify doing something like this. In fact, recently my players destroyed my big boss I had planned so I'm not holding back on the next dungeon haha!

[@Infovorousness]

“Monks are too strong” is something no semi-competent or math literate DM would ever say

[@loganreed291]

but it was unfair that he got to make two attacks when no one else could ... including the dual wielding rogue ...

[@leguan278]

I Can imagen them being strong if the dm only use low Con creatures

[@johngleeman8347]

They've been one of the worst base classes in every single edition. Even with 3rd-edition which had one of the greatest degrees of flexibility, you needed extreme dumpster diving of obscure options to make a powerful monk.

[@mikeharris6429]

@@johngleeman8347 you have no idea what you are talking about and I feel sorry for anyone unfortunate to play with you.

[@Hyperdragon1701]

The problem is trying to argue with a DM who doesn't want to hear a different opinion...

[@vexxama]

“Healers are overpowered, they let you negate damage, no healing spells!”

[@AmaryInkawult]

"fighters are overpowered, they get to attack multiple times in one turn! NO FEATS!!!"

[@PTp1ranha]

@@AmaryInkawult"Dice are overpowered, you could roll a 20!"

[@reniefuwa]

The first story reminds me of a DM my husband played with at a convention. When he would play one-shots, his goal was a TPK with the most dramatic deaths he could imagine in the setting. The players knew that going in, so they didn't complain. He couldn't kill my husband's character, though; he always rolled high enough saves. So, the DM literally offed him with a meteor. My husband was salty about that one for a while.

[@REfan2002]

I love it when the first story, the DM has this DM v. Player mentality. Then when players voice their concerns, he starts to throw a fit.

[@solsotice6775]

Claims to have been a 5e DM for longer than 5e has been a thing. This is proof that he is a new DM and further proof is the banning/nerfing abilities and the temper tantrum.

[@CanadianFabe]

DM: The door is locked with a common mundane everyday lock. Rouge player:I take out my lockpick set DM: lockpicking is overpowered and is now banned

[@eldritch-rage]

The Unarmed strikes aren't even punches, elbow strikes and legs are unarmed.

[@RiveroftheWither]

Not to mention most druids wield quarter staves one handed and using Shellaliegh to still get the 1 d8 damage. So yeah, no matter how you spin this op would be well within the rules doing what they wanted to do.

[@byronsmothers8064]

My favorite flavor change was a satyr monk that every unarmed strike was a kick

[@Jaeger_Bishop]

Unfortunately, since most people know nothing about fighting, let alone marshal arts. They can't fathom the idea of mixing in kicks, elbows and head-butts, into attacking with hand held weapons of any kind.

[@marclytle644]

@@Jaeger_Bishop Everything is a weapon.

[@johngleeman8347]

Headbutts, shoulder tackles, knee rises too!

[@Insane234]

As for the last story I suspect the DM made her "just evil" as a way to "punish" the op, if she worked at an orphanage then she was no Jack Hourner.

[@Jaeger_Bishop]

First story is a classic. The DM has a DM vrs the players mentality (which is stupid) and can't conceive of a world where, it's actually a game ment for all to enjoy. If you want a story where characters struggle and ultimately fail, maybe go write a book to get your sadist jollies off.

[@ArawnNox]

There are "death spiral" games out there, but DnD isn't one of them.

[@schwarzerritter5724]

Maybe the DM was going for class balancing. I had a game where the barbarian got a new nerf almost every session, because she was usually the only one left standing at the end of a battle.

[@Jaeger_Bishop]

@@schwarzerritter5724 That's the idea behind Barbarians, they are supposed to be hard to kill... Sounds like your DM just doesn't do well with tactical gameplay. There are ways to deal with players other than, hit them until they die.

[@thiccphone1166]

​@@ArawnNox Literally DnD was created with DM vs Player in mind. When it was aquired by WotC then it became this soft utopian idealistic "but I'm the main character" game we have today. The players are supposed to use the tools they are provided by the dm to overcome the challenges presented to them by the dm. The players are not supposed to demand the dm tone down their vision of the world to suit their personal goals.

[@ArawnNox]

@@thiccphone1166 you must be a very lonely gamer. It's just a game, man, chill out.

[@firefang92]

These story remind me of an adage I can up with a while back: an encounter should be more interesting than a hole in the ground. I had intended a downed bridge to be an obstacle in a dungeon, my party almost all had abilities or spells that let them fly, I was miffed for a second but then I realized that's why they have these abilities encounters should require levels of different approaches and if they're solved simply well I probably didn't put enough effort into making them interesting in the first place.

[@shadowscall7758]

Not to mention that letting the players use their stuff to trivialize things every now and then is good as it validates their choices.

[@Surikoazimaet]

The Umbral Sight-thing was stupid since this wasn't a campaign set in a night-only setting.

[@blesper3415]

A dm who thinks that monk is too strong and only tells you about banned spells after you pick a class sounds like a nightmare without the gear stealing enemies.

[@StateBlaze1989]

"You can't have another attack! It's not fair to the other players." The other players including two battlesmith artificers, a paladin, a rogue, and a fighter. Not counting the sorcerer, *every single one* of these characters gets an extra attack. Rogue has offhand, the artificers and Paladin get extra attack at level 5, and the fighter is a fucking fighter. Saying the monk getting a bonus action unarmed strike after attacking with a monk weapon is unfair is one of the weakest excuses for nerfing someone I've heard yet.

[@windyface9383]

Plus the sorcerer can pick a metamagic option that gives them an extra spell on a bonus action. What was DM going to say when the monk got flurry of blows?

[@shadenox8164]

@@windyface9383 Well they can use a cantrip with a spell as a bonus action. Its kinda silly they have that limit but action surge lets you do two full casts in my opinion. But I digress, there's also twinned spell which allows the sorcerer to cast one single target spell TWICE as long as it has two different targets. What's great about that is if the spell requires concentration they only count as one spell. So you can double haste your melee fighters or enlarge the barbarian and reduce the enemy they're fighting. The only limit is the spell can only target one creature, not a group or area and you need two suitable targets for the spell so you can't double up an attack spell on one enemy. But sure, an additional unarmed strike early on is too much.

[@ChobinoftheFunk]

DM was targeting OP.

[@windyface9383]

@@shadenox8164 I mean, other spells that fall under that umbrella include Banishment, Polymorph and Disintegrate, so a high level sorcerer with twinned spell is a dangerous foe indeed. I've played one, and while I didn't have any healing spells, polymorphing an ally into a T-rex gives them an extra 135hp, a devastating bite attack, and a tail slam. And you can do it to two people at once? I think I'd forgive the monk's extra bonus action attack, honestly.

[@grave2501]

@@ChobinoftheFunk this!!!

[@joshuawiener5003]

I could only wonder what the DM from story 1 was possibly thinking and what his endgame would be. How far was he willing to go? Was he only experienced with players who play Champion Fighters and only use swords and shields? Dude was probably lying about his "experience"

[@leguan278]

5 years are relative, 1 2-hour session a year for 5 years would still count

[@carterrogers7722]

I don't know, shields are a little strong. Adding a whole 2 to your AC? Gotta ban those too. Actually you know what, thinking about it, swords are a little busted too. If they have swords they could actually play the game and, god forbid, defeat his enemies! Egad! Ban those too!

[@Creshosk]

Sucking at your job for five years doesn't mean he didn't do it (poorly) for five years. I knew a GM back in high school that had a revolving door of players. He kept trying to run the same game over and over just with different groups. He never did complete it. Never clued in that he was the problem. So he stays a bad DM to this day. He's a cousin so sometimes I hear about him and his attempts to run his game. It's been over a decade.

[@laughingalex7563]

Honestly he reminded me of the lead developer of a game i used to play, champions online. That dev would nerf EVERYTHING that worked even remotely well, nerfed gear, nerfed reward rates, nothing but nerfs. The devs of that game even released items that needed to be purchased with real life cash, nerfed those items and the released more overowrred versions of those items (again only obtainable with rl money) and nerfed THOSE after.

[@RLHooper]

That DM needs to have their ban hammer nerfed into a whiffle bat, then they need to be given a pacifier, then they need to be put down for a nap.

[@valortuka]

Story 1. If DM'ing is hard, then you don't need to DM. DM'ing is about having the most fun. You get to play everything not PC's. You get to set the environment and narrate the story the players write If you're having a hard time DM'ing, stop DM'ing and be a player.

[@carterrogers7722]

I struggled at the very beginning a little with the player vs dm mentality but then it dawned on me, they're having fun killing my dudes and my dudes are there for them to kill, so why am I upset? I had a big boss planned that they weren't even supposed to be able to defeat at that point but they did, and instead of getting upset I gave them a level. They deployed impressive strategy and beat a dude punching FAR above their weight class, that deserves praise, not punishment.

[@grave2501]

i would disagree with you on GMing is not hard, and that it´s the most fun. it is hard yeah i can design dungeons of any kind that challanges the players enough but just not kill their charakters, those are fun and not to hard mechanicswise. what is hard and draining is coming up with ideas to keep players interested and invested, seeing hours of prep going to waste because they are being ignored, or just burned down. setting up locations with interesting charakters who are designed to help the players while the only thing the players do is burn down those bridges massacre the NPCs and burn down the location to leave no evidence. it is hard to build the world in a consistent logic when the players are above level 8, i have not the time to design every npc down to it´s statblock and hack that into the VTT every time the players decide they itch for a fight because murderhobo. so what i do is i design Dan the Explorer who got lost in the jungle and is allmost starved to death and feels sick from dirty water, for a ration and some clean water or a mug of ale as well as the right directions to the next beacon of cilisation, dan will help the party out with useful informations about interessting places and strange landmarks and give him the scout statblock from the MM. what happens the players will try to force Dan, who is literally one inch away from death to escort them away from civilisation to every location he could mark on their map right this instant, threatening him like the pinkertons doing it to magic the gathering players with the pointe ends of their weapons. Dan would have been willing to escort them when they meet again after he could get his strength back and replace his lost gear and stack up on rations, but now he isn´t even willing to give them the markings on the map and ready to accept his humiliating death by a bunch of pinkerton wannabe murderhobos. another example of a burned bridge would be the proprietor of an inn with special services, she is a well connected npc and could provide the party with discounts at the market and leverage against certain npc of power (political not magic), and even cheap lodging (outside of her etablissement, coz she had some real estate dealings on the side). that bridge got burned down because some of the players startet a hot debate, that she has no right to tell them how to behave in her own domain. the situation for context: the bard just jumped on the stage to give one of his infamous performances interrupting the performance of a staff member of the etablissemnt. the proprietor is very protective of her buisness and her staffmembers and the quality of their performances, so since the bard botched his performance with a natural one, she asked him politely to get off the stage and ask for a scheduled performance before he does this. the bard doubled down and security mobilised to walk him off stage. till this point no harm done, nothing out of the ordinary everything relatively peacefull the bouncers wouldn´t have been roughing the bard up, just carried him off stage without harming him (hell the bard would probably tried to persuade the two lady bouncers into a date). at that point the other partymembers involved themselves, hands on weapons and asked the proprietor who she thinks she is to tell them how to behave in her domain. well let me say it that way the etablissement still stands, the PC are not welcome there anymore with the order of extreme prejudice, and the proprietor hates the PCs guts but unless they try something funny she wont use their influence against them. Dan was designed as a random encounter to fill the current journey and exploration theme of the campaign the proprietor a homebase anchor for the stranded PCs. to elaborate on that point, the PCs are stranded on an island, covered by jungle and guarded by a kraken destroying every ship that comes near that island, killing it is no viable way since it is an extraplanar being that will return within 2 days through a portal. the only option to leave the island is therefore seal the portal kill the kraken and then leave. so the players wil have to retrieve 4 holy weapons from ancient temples strewn across the island close the seal and kill the kraken. the temples are prepped and designed to challenge the players in a way they feel acomplished and having to fight for it. the problem starts with the filler part of traversing the island, to reduce the amount of rests and therefore encounters needed per day to make it interesting/challeging during travels they get a long rest after every four days (8 hexes) or if they spent a full day in a hex. but in exchange every hex is either a location to explore, a combat encounter, a treasure find, an obstacle to overcome, difficult dangerous terrain or a social encounter. since those are randomized and not fixated i don´t like to put to much effort into them by designing every last NPc including custom statblocks to challenge the players. that means i take the most fitting NPCs from The MM rename and retoken it (in the VTT) to match what i need and concentrate on the personality. i mean it fits the world that those NPC statblocks have no tiers, since a town guard doesn´t go on adventures which are getting exponentially dangerous and since their challenges as a guard are are relatively stagnend they don´t grow, i like that logic but i doesn´t fit the mechanics of the game. so here is the problem i have: the more an enemy has to to be a challenge the rarer it should be so the non combattant NPCs have a chance to survive the 30 ft walk from home to the outhouse. so by that logic using random combat encounters should more often be goblinoids or bandits than t-rexes or giant apes. but goblins and bandits (even as their bigger brother versions provided by the MM) are not challeging. so at that point i have to break the logic of the world so every encounter is at least somewhat remarkable in resource spending, hence more often challeging combats allthought those should be rare. don´t get me started on the logic of theme- or terrainbound monster to fit those in just to have a challeging mob. so my problem is not in the design departement, i am good enough my problem is the filler stuff, coming up with enough interesting ideas for it, without designing it totally from scratch into the last detail including specialised statblocks to keep the threatlevel for the charakters on a constant level. yes i could take the NPC statblocks from the MM and edit them fitting the tier of play the campaign is in, but thats time i´d rather put into content for said campaign. so yeah that why i think it´s hard and with all those player options Overpowered Magic while the GMs only got the MM to chose from or have to homebrew their asses off to keep things challenging and more importantly filled with stuff to explore that are more a distraction than actual progress, but yes it is fun after a session that leaves the players exited and accomplished and me drained of mental energy since it was a challenge for me too, but the other sessions where steamrolling encounters and ruining every social aspect of charakter interaction my players not feeling acomplished and me wondeing why i did put in the effort to design that place and all the npcs, set it up in the VTT just to have them ruin it like a bully a small kids formiddable sandcastle at the beach? those are the hard sessions.

[@valortuka]

@@grave2501 My best sessions are sessions that go the opposite way I imagined. Then I have to adlib six hours of content. In my current campaign, I gave them the classic “undead are attacking the village.” One of the undead I threw in was an undead child buried in an alley. No hook there whatsoever. They became focused on why there was a child buried in an alley. So, I went with it. A villager recognized her as a missing child. They stopped the undead threat and then immediately went back to “Why was there a child in an alley.” So I created a slaver’s ring arc. They’ve been chasing the slavers since last October and love it. They are one session away from closing out this arc. I’ve been giving them glimpses into backstory arcs coming via divine visions during this arc. All of this I’m coming up with on the fly, by reading their backstories and listening to in/out of game RP. Do I put work into it, absolutely. Is it hard, not at all. It’s nothing but fun. I love it. Yes, it can be difficult to flesh out NPC’s, so I highly recommend using ChatGPT. You start the NPC backstory: “Rog is a half-orc who grew up among dwarves and learned forging arts from his adoptive father. Since he was an orc living in a dwarven city he wasn’t accepted. Tell me about Rog’s backstory.” Then hit enter. What ChatGPT comes up with is great. I wanted to write a unique adventure for the PC’s to help an NPC they adopted. I had a very good idea of what I wanted to do, but I wanted more. So I got the story of the NPC and about the characters adopting her to ChatGPT and asked what can I add. WOW. Using ChatGPT, keep a discussion called NPC Backstories and make all queries there. ChatGPT will reference previous backstories when they intertwine. Keep another on each adventure, so it can be a reference, and so on. It makes fleshing out things so much easier. It’s still yours, you just have someone else to run ideas by and get suggestions. I don’t recommend just telling it to write this or write that. Still, there are auto generators for NPC stat sheets. Don’t let it get hard. If the PC’s walk over an encounter you wanted to be more difficult, review it and make the next one more challenging. Sometimes the PC’s love stomping a BBEG into a mudhole. If it happens, reward them. Don’t let DM’ing be hard.

[@StSubZero]

"If you're having a hard time DM'ing, stop DM'ing and be a player." Forever DM who wants to be a player badly but can't because no one else is willing to go behind the screen: "Bruh." But for real that's a good point; the saying "No D&D is better than bad D&D" applies to the DM too; if one cannot manage (or even more importantly enjoy) DMing but cannot get their friends to participate otherwise, it's probably better to pack up and play online instead. Might not be AS fun online but compared to the frustration of Story 1 DM having to "nerf" everything because he doesn't want to upscale or enjoy challenging the players reasonably, it would be bliss in comparison.

[@willropa4226]

1st story: I'm genuinely wondering what would happen if I was put into the same game with Mr. Nerfsalot. In general, I tend to lowball my characters when creating them not to the point where they have nothing to give but to avoid being too strong too soon, I've heard too many stories of games ruined by godly characters. Even in my most recent game, I played an Artificer in a setting that included guns. Most gun statblocks I could find seemed too OP for me, so I just used the light crossbow statblock and called it a gun (Turns out though that my DM had 0 issue with me using those OP guns though, had a 2d8 rifle that doubled as a 1d8 axe). 2nd story: I always imagine martial artists doing such fluid attack moves, at least that's how it goes in animated media of martial artists just attacking with a staff, twirling it around behind them, before delivering a solid gut punch. Anyways, I think that DM just had an axe to grind and thought you were the anvil, best course definitely was to cut it and run. 3rd story: I'm definitely NOT an experienced player, I have a few games under my belt, but I wouldn't say that I'm a pro so take this for whatever it's worth. I'm siding with you though on this, it would be perfectly within character for a lawfully good Paladin to want to resolve a problem peacefully, ergo wanting to negotiate with a person who sounds honestly like a pretty nice guy sounded perfectly reasonable. If those players have any problem with you working behind their backs instead of as a team, that's just life, there aren't that many teams where everyone is on the exact same page every step of the way. They should be happy that they wound up with an altruistic paladin instead of the usual edgy rogue or horny bard.

[@NewTypeDilemma01]

When DSP is a DM... If you get the reference, I applaud you.

[@vidmanandrew09]

DM Tantrum: He had no idea how any of these classes worked and was upset at class mechanics working as intended.

[@RockR277]

Lmao I remember the first time my buddy DM'd. Playing 5e, we started at 5th level and he let me multiclass warlock (4) and sorcerer (1). But, he decided day of session one that that would have been too powerful and unilaterally made the call that cantrip scaling would be decided on an individual class level rather than character level, which only affected me. So I ended up at the start with 2 1st and 2 2nd level spell slots and unscaled cantrips. So I asked, "hey can I just drop the multiclass and pick one of them?" He said no because the character as they were was worked into the story, which I'd really appreciate 9/10 times. When I protested that I didn't want to feel useless in combat, the responses from him and another friend were that "there's more to roleplay than combat". Fair enough. Anyway then we spent several hours in a 5 wave combat encounter. I felt practically useless. I later asked again if I could drop a class. Another no. Asked if I could drop the character and play something else entirely. No. Finally ended up relenting when I said I'd just sit out and watch them play. I hope that didn't come off as manipulative, like "do as I say or I'm leaving". Wasn't my intention, I just really didn't wanna play a character roughly half as capable as everyone else.

[@zombiehunter501]

Had a GM like this in a 40k Deathwatch game. Long story short, the "super elite team of super human soldiers of death" were less well armed than militias, as only pistols and knifes were allowed at the point where the players just left the group. The reason for the players leaving? The GM was the group's founder "Chosen" Successor. We all formed our own group and have been going strong for over 10 years now, while the old group lasted only 3 months when the successor took over. It was never about fun for this guy, it was all about control. Good on the party for dumping such trash.

[@JimAbooGames]

This First story the dm is using all of that as an excuse for the fact that he wants to win at dnd that's all it is. He wants to win and he hates that all these things that aren't that much of a problem are keeping him from winning dnd. So the fact that he's throwing a tantrum like that, just goes to show it's not about all of that he said that's ruining his game he's making his bans on things cause he can’t win.

[@talkingwithadam812]

That paladin nerf was super hard to listen to. Holy moly

[@shadenox8164]

It doesn't even sound like he was doing anything more than playing paladin normally.

[@theofficerfactory2625]

Wait, wait wait, WAIT! Nerfed Monk story; the fumbles kept hitting Monk? WTF DM! That's some supreme BS! Now I am an amateur DM but even I know that's some mega class BS right there! Going by Critical Roll's expansion, when a firearm fumbles; it is disabled, it doesn't magnetically attracts the shooters arm to whoever and shoots them!

[@DaCrump]

That first GM is honestly ruining his own fun. I buff my player's character abilities if I find them too niche or weak. Like letting a Swashbuckler Rogue use Panache as a Bonus Action, more fun for everyone and keeps combat flowing better. I like a group of powerful players with options because then I get to do powerful things for them to contend with and utilize their features in fun and flavorful ways.

[@shadenox8164]

That's the thing, its easier for him to weaken the players than to learn all the ways to balance encounters.

[@jaimerivera2382]

That's my thought on it as well. I *want* my players to feel powerful. If it gets out of hand, I can later either rein it back in or up the encounters.

[@DaCrump]

@@jaimerivera2382 Exactly, there's very few things that I wouldn't allow how it's printed and it's usually because it bogs the game down too much. I don't need 8 new initiatives on the battlefield mid combat BUT let's make it like 1 big mass to keep flavor and it goes after you or use another summoning spell. Either way these are conversations before sitting down to play.

[@bristlebum2422]

Man this first story reeks of new/unskilled DM issues. PCs can be strong, so build future fights with the party's skills in mind if you want it to be a "hard" fight Also unarmed strikes can be any sort of unarmed attack, such as a kick if your hands were full for example

[@informitas0117]

He couldn't stand the idea of players being in his perfect little glass story. No carefully crafted story survives impact with players, they will crush your glass narrative and take a dump on it AS THEY SHOULD and they will feel like they crushed it! It's clear to me the dark night encounter was meant to be scawwy and the pcs shoulz have been helpless in the dark but this ability took that away from the DM "ruining" his encounter, he wanted a book where everything happens like how he had staked out.

[@thewolfstu]

17:17 Bloody *Fuck,* I tell ya' I had a similar thing happen to me where I attempted to de-escalate combat cause, well, my character wasn't really feeling too up for the whole killing humans side of things and the party took that as her trying to betray them... To the point that despite her being completely naked (She sleeps naked cause she wears a harness for combat [Barbarian things] and didn't pick her stuff up when shit went down.) when our characters woke up after getting kidnapped and getting back none of her stuff the party was able to be swayed by the equivalent of another character calling her sus. So yeah, the character claiming she was a spy for this random ass unknown entity or group or what ever despite being with her longer than being with any of the other characters ended up killing her and I used that as my out to get out of that campaign.

[@ChuckPalomo]

Wait, you can choose to use divine smite AFTER the attack roll?! I've wasted so many spell slots!

[@BlueTressym]

Yes, you can. PHB p.85. "When you *hit* a creature with a melee weapon attack,' not 'When you make a melee weapon attack.' Therefore, you choose whether or not to use a spell slot to smite *when you land the hit*.

[@azzarox6661]

DM: Bans everything Players: Uno reverse card

[@BlackRainRising]

I feel called out by Lucky for my last comment... lol

[@leekonze7441]

It boggles my mind when DMs do stuff like this. I've played under three separate DMs over the years who have pulled stunts like this. Banned stuff has included Favored Terrain, Favored Enemy, Weapon Specialization, Fireball, Sneak Attack, Two-Weapon Fighting, and Combat Reflexes. Granted, all of these were in 3.5e games, but the DMs in question either said that the abilities in question were too powerful, or they trivialized encounters. Rather than talking to the table, the DMs just nerfed or banned them. And most of the games died shortly thereafter

[@Algahiem]

When heard the first story of the DM who nerfed everything I was like "Jeez, who hurt this guy?" Not that I sympathise with this DM, but I speculate that the poor bastard hosted a game before this event where all the players (intentionally or unintentionally) "min-maxed" their characters and steamrolled their way his entire game and ruined his plans. And much like Arthur Fleck from Joker, this DM unjustly ruined the lives of innocent people all because of "one bad day".

[@ChobinoftheFunk]

2nd story is clearly targeting. Class nerfed, weapon gets taken, pigeonholed into doing only fire damage, then boss secretly heals from fire? DM wanted that player gone, but was too cowardly to tell them.

[@WinteryNeighborhoodWinterspell]

Honestly, screw the nerf dm. Dm vs players is toxic unless that's what the players and dm agree on together, and want that type of campaign. I get excited when my players bring out strong characters, especially when they are well built. I just step up as a dm, and modify things to give them a challenge. It improves the campaign, not ruin it. If you can't work around a player being clever, that's on you, they did their job

[@zerothehero6100]

I'm gonna play devil's advocate here and way the OP of the last story was actually wrong. Ultimately, they talked out a plan with their party, got told no, did it anyway on their own without asking, and led the party into a fight no one wanted. That's not the best behavior.

[@ArcmageZaln]

Using kittens to gather likes and subscriptions is to op. We're going to have to nerf that. 😂

[@sentientbottlecap]

When you worry your players will break the game so you break it yourself

[@numbskull9481]

Yeah this first story has me questioning the DM's 14 years of experience. Honestly I stopped taking into account how many year anyone has, as It's become completely irrelevant in figuring out who would be a good DM or not. Yet DM's flex that like it means something. A better question would be to ask just how many successful games they have run, but even then, I'm certain they wouldn't be honest about that either.

[@paulman34340]

Something tells me the Dungeon Master of the 1st story might have had a run in with a power gamer and he couldn't adjust so now his go to Was just nerf everything. And then believes power gamers are out to get him And ruin his game so accused the players of doing this like they were out to destroy his game and he Didn't. Want to adjust for them basically he chose To just Blame them for something that wasn't their fault And was more his inadequacies, In this case he was likely a perfectionist who believed that his challenges were not so easily toward it, And when they were he just abused his power to try to make it. Certain his next challenges were not subverted so easily, Instead of I don't know Making the next challenges taking the other characters abilities in the mind without looking like. He's peaking and giving the opposition the edge because he's the dungeon master. Like people said when that 1 KZbin remained a joke music video about a rogue reaching level 4. Many commenters said just throw a mage with the hold person In that situation.. Some accused that that's nerving the character but no I could believe a mage would notice a character moving about like that and basically just put them in Place to make them easier to deal with. But as shown he picked the worst option in the world to no one surprised except maybe himself he pretty much lost his entire group. When you're wasting your players time and your only explanation is to blame them for it and accuse them of s*** that you shouldn't be surprised When They Don't want to be your friend anymore

[@raymondharnack4160]

I’m instantly out on critical fumble tables. Absolutely not

[@kyuven]

I think a detail the "Monk is OP" DM and Doge missed was that monk martial arts is supposed to convey that you also KICK enemies, or use your elbows or shoulders.

[@CooperAATE]

I'm nerfing this video, it's too OP Edit: see, I agree Umbral Sight is kinda OP, but the rest of that was silly

[@strawman5300]

its ok though. ranger is UP. so it evens out

[@WaveShock007]

How is granting darkvision that stacks on creatures that have it OP?

[@shadenox8164]

@@WaveShock007 Specially when it can be negated with dim light.

[@psi_feelingokay9784]

RIP Paladin. Smite is literally one of the best things about them

[@frederikklotzskov9673]

It reminds me of that one lady from Kitchen Nightmares who 86th everthing until there was nothing left to serve the customers.

[@rootfish2671]

Was it Amy's Bakery?

[@frederikklotzskov9673]

@@rootfish2671 no it was Cafe Hon kzbin.info/www/bejne/mnvaaXqtps2oa9E

[@duskgaming18]

DM in the first story should've just told everyone to play Level 1 Human Fighters. Basic as basic gets. No Race Features, no Class Abilities, just bonk with stick, as he wants it

[@mercofrevenge1]

I've never had a more visceral reaction to a horror story. Hearing about all those nerfs was ridiculous.

[@marybdrake1472]

Seriously? That first DM was a total thin skin. Going out of your way to nerf classes being played well is not something any good DM would do.

[@danielmartinontiverosvizca7325]

more common than you think I once got skill nerfed as a rogue because I "had too many skills"

[@marybdrake1472]

@@danielmartinontiverosvizca7325 Not really, I have heard of this before. Not quite to this extent, and not typically on the spot however. Obvious screw job is obvious. And seriously? Rogues have a crap ton of skills, it's what they do. It takes a bad DM to react that way to the functional class role in the group.

[@paulman34340]

Yeah his tandrum pretty much showed it, He likely ran to his first min maxer or whatever And couldn't handle that player, So like what happened in the first story he likely threw a tantrum And lost his players. So he likely doubled down and believed that it wasn't his fault that happened. It was the min maxer. So just kept repeating it and repeating it and losing more players until he got the poster And his group. Suffice to say if he doesn't want to learn. Then let him continue to ruin himself eventually word will get around and he'll find it very hard to find anyone willing to play with him knowing his Bad behavior. Those who refuse to evolve and change their ways for the better deserve to end up being locked In their woe never being able to evolve never being able to change because they themselves are too cowardly to do so and acknowledge their flaw.

[@marybdrake1472]

@@paulman34340 It's more like those people lock themselves into that outcome. I've seen a few times myself, and don't understand why anyone would do that. It's some next level self-destructive behavior.

[@paulman34340]

@@marybdrake1472 Those who don't learn their history "ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT IT!"

[@MrWarriorace]

Has the second Dm never held a stick or a broom before!? A quarter staff are like 4 pounds. If the Dm held a stick before, they would know wacking something with a stick. Then punching something would work.

[@shadenox8164]

They don't even have to do that, they could be kicking or slamming their elbow into them on the backswing or something. There's so many things an unarmed strike can be.

[@lanir9543]

1st DM sounds like they're having control issues. Don't try to control players, they like being micromanaged about the same as nearly everyone else you'll ever meet does: which is to say not at all. Diplomacy: The only issues that can come up from things like that are if you betray the group or slip up and give away information. Or if it takes too much RL time to RP out. Anything else should be fine.

[@Thedragonlover95]

To quote this. . .It's NERF or NOTHING

[@alsenddrake7764]

Umbral Sight i know im not a fan of as the Gloomstalker i played with tended to instagib the fight due to Sharpshooter, and the character was an idiot (killed me by shooting enemies, restarting the fight, after id managed to convince them to let us go because everyone who was vissible was basically dead, barb was down and I was only up because he JUST healed me, and id been boxed in...) But that was bs.

[@marclytle644]

Hmmm, unarmed attack, I did not punch them. I KICKED them, just like they needed to kick that horrid DM.

[@NEKOEVE]

Ya do you know how Unfair attacking twice is to the people that can literally cast magic? Look if a dm is banning a class's core features, of core classes, They probably shouldn't be running D&D, Pathfinder or whatever it is. Plenty of more basic games out there.

[@7thsealord888]

Story 1 - The DM started off OK, but I've no idea what his malfunction became. Nerfing a Character's ability or power on the basis of a single specific situation makes no sense - and this DM started making that a standard practice. Bad DMing, essentially. Story 2 - Monks can be a lot of fun to play, but I've yet to see any FRPG in which they are overpowered. Does seem like this DM suddenly set out to #### over the Monk character every way he could contrive. Story 3 - Making such a move without telling the party beforehand was a misstep, I think. But even if proven wrong, kudos to the Player for trying to resolve things the way he did, in keeping with his character. Far too often, the 'Just Role-Playing My Character" line is used to screw over the rest of the party and/or the scenario, but this is one time when it wasn't, and the rest of the party needs to respect that, even if it wasn't to their liking..

[@JacobL228]

Lucky was on point today. Give him some extra chin scratches for me.

[@Jaeger_Bishop]

Nerfed Monk story. Oh Christ...where do I even begin? Look, if you can't do your research on the basics of how the classes work and your are easily irritated by one player having one thing others don't due to class specific abilities. Maybe you should put down the DM screen and go play Skyrim or something, you know. Where there are no classes, no specific abilities to worry about and everything is nice and dumbed down for your smooth brain to comprehend. Granted, this guy uses fumble tables, so that's about all you need to know about a DM to go "Nope, not playing at this table", especially just yanking the guy's weapon out of his hand and bullshitting a way to take it away permanently...again, go write a book if you want everything a certain way.

[@shadenox8164]

Oh lord, its the whining because Skyrim just assigns your major and minor skills based on how you play complaint. Is it simpler? Yes. But was making a spreadsheet really as much fun as just you know... playing? NoT really, no. Just pick the skills you want to use by using them

[@Jaeger_Bishop]

@@shadenox8164 That wasn't the point of my comment but ok.

[@paulman34340]

Yeah when the enemy suddenly is a teleporting ninja that steals my s*** forever. That's when you know this Dungeon Master is terrible. He wanted to get rid of the staff but wanted to do it in a way that didn't look like he was abusing his powers as the dungeon master.... So he decides the smart idea to abuse his power as the dungeon master By making that b******* reason but the 1st clue should have been when the gunslingers instantly targeted the monk the very moment They rolled Nat 1. Afterwards it was quite clear he had it out for the monk Player making him useless nerving him to h*** even banning spells that would make him useful he knew what he was doing especially when they were fighting the. Balls that heals from fire damage and he knows his only means of contributing as fire damage he knows what he was doing at that point I would Have Socked that a****** in his smug face.

[@davidtherwhanger6795]

DM Tantrum Story. Hey I get upset at times because Spear DOESN'T HAVE Reach also. I can't get why any Polearm doesn't have Reach out to at least 5 extra feet. I mean most spears I have seen are 8 feet long. I also can't get why this DM would literally ban seemingly everything that the players use to their advantage. The only thing I can think of is either the DM really wanted to BEAT the players all the time for fun, which is just horrible in and of itself; or OP has heavily embellished this story for some reason, which doesn't seem likely to me.

[@caioaugusto3138]

I had a DM do that to me. While he used the tome of monsters lmao

[@Bloodhound2211]

Sounds like the DM is story one would LOVE One D&D since it’s an entire edition based on nerfing everything.

[@ponyboy696]

OP in the 2nd story should have complained every time a player used a class feature unique to them Paladin - divine smite: how is that fare I can't do that Barbarian - rage: how come they get a boost to damage and we don't

[@2tastey]

Bugbear Barbarian with 15ft reach that early on IS kinda wild though. That whole first party was STACKED. No reason to throw a tantrum though, just like... min/max your baddies against them?

[@trip9845]

12:45 or you know KICK!!!!!

[@Choujeen]

Not telling that your attacks don't do damage, let alone heal the enemy, is such an asshole move. He could at leas give him a knowledge or perception check.

[@AvatAR42420]

The second story the DM seems like they are hardcore DM vs Player with the crit fumble table and such. It is irritating that they nerfed BOTH OPs classes when the Monk extra attacks are integral to the Monk actually being good (couldn't even let them have a basic d8 staff) and banning some of the non-shifter druid's already limited toolkit. The mentioned spells are good, but they are mechanically balanced with what other characters can do at those levels. I can understand not wanting to deal with summons as they can bog down combat, but let players play their characters. It is not as if they are asking for some broken homebrew.

[@paulman34340]

But that felt like they were targeting the monk In general such as yeah let's see the other players fumble on a one. So that means they Attack the monk. The monk gets one fumble, And the enemy takes his staff and teleports away what the f***. I'm sorry that cowardly passive aggressive a****** dungeon master is targeting him. Then when he gives up on the monk. All the sudden the best Druid Spells are banned And then a boss when he uses flame blades suddenly as healed by fire damage. Yeah that last part was he was likely going to try to. Play the ohh? It's his fault for why they were not winning because he used fire that he didn't know was healing The boss. Until after the Dungeon Master opened his big mouth the Dungeon Master know what hes doing and hes likely laughing in word that the player. Hasn't called on yet or I believe? That poster is aware he just doesn't want to believe that the dungeon master would do something like this so blunt and so openly. And the other players see it I know they do. They just don't want to say anything because they fear they'll be his next target if they do. And let me tell them that yeah. You're gonna be his next target once it gets bored with the poster because after all bro hes gonna need victims determined and if the poster. Ever leaves or there's? No more fun than. He's going to target the next person until he loses an entire group because hes tasted blood now already.

[@dwaynejackson551]

Speaking of nerf guns. I recently made a nerf gun that fires touch spells by using spell scrolls as ammo.

[@ShinyAvalon]

That's kind of awesome.

[@dwaynejackson551]

@@ShinyAvalon It took a lot of work and may be broken though.

[@fred_derf]

You can't make an unarmed attack while holding a weapon -- because you can't hit people with elbows, or your head, or feet, or knees etc. and there is no way that you could let go of the staff with one hand to punch... Stupid DM!

[@TheZMage]

Pretty sure it’s “the CRUX of the issue,” not crust

[@ShinyAvalon]

Ooo, I missed that...but you're correct.

[@moizzy1587]

Imagine taking away your plater's tools to fit your setting when you have God Mods over your enemy stats, settings, whatever. You name it, the DM can change it to be in line with his players instead of removing fun... Honestly? How smooth of a brain can you possibly have? This guy might be a candidate for smoothest.

[@DisneyChar]

I havent seen them named anywhere so i call them cripple dms, they break the game to the point it doesnt move or they dont have to work for it, i blame incompetence/laziness. They commonly come up in survival horror, and paid horror

[@grave2501]

in genral i am with GMs banning a lot of stuff, like spells or races and certain subclasses, but only beforehand, not while allready running the campaign. for example spells like ressurection or restauration should not be in the classes spelllist in my opinion even though they are easily controlled by amounts of materials for theplayers to get their hands on, they should be only available in temples in my opinion. the list of spells i would take out of the players hands is long, just because those get rid off a lot of problems a GM could create and need creativity or at least a god strategy, instead the mage snaps his fingers and the party flies over the cannyon to the other side to continue their journey without a delay the GM maybe wanted on purpose. as allready stated, i have a problem with nerfed player abilities and getting rid of basic game mechanics. i have a GM who had up untill now not used the surprise mechanics as intended. the way he handled that situation if one of either the NPC or the PC did anything that surprises the respective other group only the person doing something got advantage on that action and then it was initiative as usual. while RAW surprise is in initiatve it just means that any surprised faction don´t get to act on their turn during first round of combat. i don´t want to say that we didn´t profit from that, since we had the same advantage when would have actually been surprised. the downside was we players lost our motivation to prep and waste resources like spellslots so we can get the drop on enemies since it didn´t matter enough anymore to make a difference. latest example: we hid ourselves behind and illusion created by major image (so we could move it) the moment one of us fired a guiding bolt through that illusion the bolt was done and then it was initiative, but those three enemies could act directly on their turn enabling the third to get away and gather reenforcements befrore anyone (not even me the tabxi monk with a maximum speed of 180 ft through feline agilityand monkshit) reach him without risking to run into said reenforcements. i should mention our party didn´t looked that well since we just fought a white dragon and managed to kill it but couldn´t take a short rest before the three others noticed us. so why making the effort and waste resources if there is little to no benefit. and possible sideeffects are something like an enemy gets the chance bye dice fate rolled in initiative. RAW we should have had the opportunity to bring them all to their demise, but that was taken from us making our situation more dire than needed. as GM i keep myself from banning anything except races and subclasses not suited for the setting of the campaign, i keep every mechanic RAW, and even keep the spells i would rather ban. i know tht this is the harder way for me as GM but on the other hand i am also a player under other GMs and as such i would like to be challenged not to be nerfed to be challenged.

[@mrosskne]

once the party has the ability to fly, you should probably come up with more interesting challenges than a big hole.

[@kikiblair5132]

Monk, a class so strong that it was only "good" from levels 8-12 in 3e.

[@mrosskne]

it wasn't good at any level.

[@kikiblair5132]

@@mrosskne Hence the quotation marks. I've had several people tell me the class is good at those levels. I was being sarcastic....

[@danwizzle91]

Both the first story dms were God awful, I really dont understand what goes through some dms heads with deliberately making games un fun

[@UltimatBlitz]

I mean I guess the guy in the last story would be the a-hole if he's leaving out stuff like not ambushing her got someone else killed or other characters seriously hurt or other real consciences. Otherwise it's all sounding very "How dare you make me fight the lady I wanted to fight!"

[@KatarnandKanos]

I disagree about the last story. I don't think OP did anything terribly wrong, but if the rest of the party agreed to one course of action and one player just decided to go against that, and especially if it then messed up their plans, then it's pretty understandable that they're annoyed at that player. You can have character conflicts that don't spill over into real life, but that only really works if everyone's on board with that ahead of time. Otherwise, if people aren't working together then it's going to cause frustration.

[@sn0wb00ts]

Unfortunately a dm like the first story is fairly common. It’s either ham-handed or very subtle. Kinda sucks and explains some dm-ptsd that I have experienced when talking to other randoms folks about this game and ttrpgs in general. Kinda sad lazy dms ban perfectly fine mechanics.

[@raymondharnack4160]

That first DM needs to get gud

[@Anthony_Culotta]

Sounds like the first guy wanted to kill some party members and when the used some good tactics to sneak by and collect the win got mad. Those characters seemed very basic nothing to crazy. Second who says Monk unarmed strike has to only be punches. The classed is based on the eastern style class and should be able to kick, elbow, knee and head butt, all being considered unarmed strike. So in his case spinning staff strike with back kick or some similar cinematic attack.

[@dragonmasterknight7]

Those first 2 stories aggravate me. I can acknowledge that nerfing will always be a part of any game. But to use it in heavy degree when a player or situation isn't going your way as a dm is just an excuse to flex a god complex. In the first one it felt like the dm was pissy cuz the party wasn't following this thinly veiled railroad he dreamed up and punished the group by removing mechanics that were not only balanced and legal but things he could have brought up or denied in session 0. And in story 2 I think dm was just heavily playing favoritism to the rogue by nerfing op but letting them keep multi attacks. All in all, both stories just reeked of alpha male mentality and not in a good way.

[@paulman34340]

The 2nd story's DM was straight up targeting that monk. Let's see making him completely useless check. The fact that the enemy that the poster attacked instantly turned into a teleporting staff stealing ninja Out of nowhere upon him getting a nat one. Check, When the poster decides to become a straight up Druid, And he pretty much bans a large amount of their best spells. Super check. And The kicker having the boss they fight suddenly healing from fire damage from the only spell. He could used just to make him out to be a detriment and a load For the party, super duper ultra check. Of course let's not forget the nice doozy that was him Being targeted the very moment the gunslingers got a nat one. At that point if he wants to play Alpha male woman this is winner with upper cut his a** on the spot. Well not really it's when he had the staff stealing Teleporting ninja Is when His smug smiling face meets my fist. Fairness my a** when I'm getting nerved because I can attack twice but the rogue. Isn't it's quite clear hes playing favoritism of course? The Rogue is obviously not going to complain why when he's getting favoritism. And I have to wonder if the poster is really this dense in the head. Seriously you're getting targeted? How the h*** are you talking like? This must be normal. This is like that picture of the dog in the burning house saying this is fine 😢

[@orchidofkhalida]

Why are you gonna nerf the arguably worst class in D&D😭

[@Nikodraws149]

The theming here seems to be "gm doesn't like it even players get to do things that make their lives easier." In which case they should probably just look into harshers systems? Where the PCs are designed to kinda just be barely making it by

[@shadenox8164]

Or work on their encounters. There's plenty of things for the DM to use, but its easier to take away from the players than to learn all the things he can do I guess.

[@1tiptip187]

Okay, Lucky. I liked and commented.

[@mikeharris6429]

If a Dm wants to ban anything I just say no and if they insist I leave. DMs don’t know shit about game balance and need to just accept it.

[@unluckyone1655]

I mean, i can understand banning creature summons. Theu can really bog down combat, and many creatures that can be summoned, even at lower levels are super OP especially if you sommon a pack/swarm of them. But the others, well at that point, just ban druids altogether then

[@mrosskne]

yeah, it's unfortunate they were using a game with an awful and outdated combat system

[@DanaOtken]

Well, yes, player characters are overpowered by the standards of the setting. This is why a given player character doesn't have at least even odds of dying in any given battle, why they can detect and survive traps that are generally created by people who have had far more time to put into the problem of remotely killing intruders, why they can ever be more competent than the authorities with training, a budget, and a mandate... do I really need to go on? A 1st-level PC is basically already on the level of Conan or the adventurer-wizards of Vance's Dying Earth stories: somebody who theoretically is easily killable but who is very unlikely to not at least live through the story to see a tragic ending.

[@lonespartan2272]

i think id argue and say that they wernt min-maxing. hell if i walked in with my tabaxi fighter with the eldritch knight subclass and got lucky on a couple of crits/defense against magic missle using the shield spell (a abjurcation spell that eldritch knights can use) and dm decided to go short on me and "punish" me by banning shield's use by eldritch knights / nerfing my character into the ground id pack my stuff and go. no dnd is better then bad dnd

[@Michaeljack81sk]

If that DM can't handle a reasonably well balanced system like 5e I'd love to see him attempt to DM a Pathfinder 1e campaign. He'd ragequit before the end of the first session Is the second DM maybe the first DM too?

[@shadenox8164]

I remember in the last pathfinder campaign I played. I swear I didn't minmax I just wanted a dex to damage build the game allows and I was basically impossible to hit.

[@Michaeljack81sk]

@@shadenox8164 Yep, thats P1e. It's so easy to start making a focused build and end up OP It's honestly one of the things I love about the game, but you need a smart DM to make sure the enemies are balanced and no party member gets left behind

[@AvatAR42420]

The DM in the first story seemed to only want advantages in combat for enemies and not players. NO satisfying combat works like that and I severely doubt this guy had any actual experience. Dude, these mechanics are baked right in to the game and an advantage does not mean "OP" or "broken".

[@shadenox8164]

Seems like his issue is he didn't know how to build encounters and blamed the players because he sucked at it.

[@TigerW0lf]

So he's trying to be One DND?

[@shadenox8164]

Uh no? They tested some questionable ideas for it sure, but good lord nerfing everything that makes a class unique wasn't even close.

[@TigerW0lf]

​@shadenox8164 well, from what I understand, martial classes got shafted

[@kirbth4769]

@@TigerW0lf all non wizards got shafted

[@TigerW0lf]

@kirbth4769 oh, so shade is lying then?

[@kirbth4769]

@@TigerW0lf no they weren't lying game balance is subjective I just feel they fumbled buffing the non casters and removed anything interesting from the others except wizard who despite being one of the strongest classes was buffed by a lot

[@nothing_82]

Only 'cause Lucky asked

[@vortega472]

Yes! It's a Lucky day. As in we have lucky the kitty on our screen today, not that it's a lucky...you know let's get on with the cringe.

[@deepseastonecore3017]

Good morning/ afternoon Guardian

[@DunantheDefender]

MOONBEAM!?!?

[@ladydarkangelyuki]

As someone who currently plays a Paladin with a halberd, the first story makes me cringe, Paladin is balanced by the fact that they have very few spells to use divine smite with and once exhausted of spells you are left with essentially a mediocre fighter.

[@shadenox8164]

Yep, they're all spike damage. The numbers seem big at first, but then you look at all the attacks they do where they don't smite and it evens out pretty hard.

[@informitas0117]

First story was clearly a DM VS players situation, DM didn't want the players to win and nerfed what happened to help them. If the final hit was a fist he would have nerfed that. I've seen many of those both irl and in stories. It's highly annoying as that's simply not how rpgs are ment to be played, you are in this together.

[@vodostar9134]

So before watching this, this sounds like my kind of DM. I play five torches deep which is basically 5e with everything nerfed. Not a fan of superhero games so I do think everything in 5e is OP. And after seeing it, yeah, that DM was bad. But I wouldn't have allowed any of those characters in my game to start with, lol.

[@shadenox8164]

Its high fantasy. The players aren't OP if you put the right things against them.

[@vodostar9134]

@@shadenox8164 High Fantasy or Superheroes. Not much difference to me and the characters have boringly high levels of power. I do play 5e, but I prefer something more old school.

[@fateric007]

Just make the encounters harder.

[@elijahj9012]

I think the OP in the last story is in the wrong. Who wants to play with someone who goes against the party? They basically said, "it's what my character would do. "

[@ShinyAvalon]

Perhaps the other players shouldn't have shut down their suggestion without due consideration? Any idealistic good character might do what OP's character did - suggest they try to minimize the damage and win without violence. If the others don't seem open to the idea, and don't explain why, then of _course_ a well-meaning person might try it on their own. Parties should at least try to reach a consensus, to persuade members who disagree, not just overrule any dissenting opinions.

[@elijahj9012]

@@ShinyAvalon I get where you're coming from, but we don't have much context to go from. There could any number of reasons why the party handled things the way they did, or why the OP decided that going against the party was for the best. Hopefully this was a one time thing in an otherwise good campaign though.

[@ShinyAvalon]

@@elijahj9012 - Fair enough. :)

[@BurroughsProductions]

"I caused a problem for my party when I went behind their backs and went on my own, something with a track record of going poorly, and my party was mad at me. Did I do something wrong?" Doge really defending a problem player. They basically went, "its what my character would do" if ur role-playing is causing problems for the rest of the party ur the problem.

[@shadenox8164]

Oh come the fuck on, trying to talk to an NPC to understand or bring a peaceful resolution isn't problem player shit. Threatening random NPCs and making enemies for the party is the problem causing kind.

[@ShinyAvalon]

"It's what my character would do" is only a bad excuse if your character's actions are stupid or nonsensical. If "what my character would do" is a perfectly reasonable action, then it's a valid defense. Sorry, but if you shut down a suggestion from one team member, and don't discuss it or offer arguments against it or possible compromises, then a character acting on their own is a natural result. Were they concealing info from that player? Here's a quick compromise off the top of my head: "Okay, you talk to her while we get in position. If it works, great, if it doesn't, we'll pounce."

[@paulman34340]

I'm sorry this Dungeon Master. The 1st story is dumb with that nerf or nothing Approach and hes just going to assure his players are going to despise him because he looks like hes an individual that doesn't like to deal. With conflict any nose conflict this coming so he decided to do what you expect from those like this period basically. I'm the DMI am God I get the determined. What and what does happen without player agency Whatsoever. And it's then shocked that he got the outcome he was trying to avoid. But I have something to say to him. You're gonna have s*** like this happening you're like a commander who had the ultimate strategy that got overturned because the enemy had an invisible cloak. So you somehow our God and Decide They can no longer use that invisible cloak because it's not fair to you. It's in formula but they're probably using what they have best to avoid challenges. You put the challenges in front don't be surprised at the player's finds of a point. It's like making a fortress that's completely anti magic And then deciding to ban my fighter who has powerful non magical weapons because hes steamrolling through the Fortress. There's no point in playing with you because you're just gonna nerf my perfect build. And I have no problem with nerf if it's done right And for the right reasons but it can always end up going wrong with the Dungeon Master. For example one day it's because it's painfully obvious Has a me versus the player mindset. This has all kinds of going to end up blowing up in his face because as the Dungeon Master. He has the power to pretty much abuse what she's doing right here And it's unfair to the players so he should be nerfed, By just accepting that the players are gonna have overpowered abilities And we'll take advantage of them to get past his challenges. It's not therefore for picking overpowered classes. It's your fault for not taking into mind. Those over power. Classes? Like you're gonna throw fiends or undead at a Paladin and then be surprised they steam rolled them easily? That's like getting mad and deciding to nerf water Because it's easily putting out those fires And that's just not fair. And then when you have a player who has the ability to manipulate the Earth decide to use that to put out the fires they get nerfed as well. So now how do we put out the fire? Of course he'll have no clue of how to do that. That's up to you the players to be able to do that with what he has left around you which is f*** all because hes getting rid of all. Actual means to take out the fire Because he didn't want to let you go past if I wanted this type of railroading. I'd play certain RPG video games. I can let those Get away with this behavior because well the programmers are Doing their best to predict what i'm likely to do and even then I could still find a way threw their railroad. Button something like this? I'm not gonna waste my time dealing with somebody who doesn't want to talk about the problem. Then gets upset when hes finally confronted after basically doing everything possible toalking about it and is liable will suggest nuke the game if necessary. To get his way at which point I'm done Because I'm sorry I have some understanding and wanting to conversate but if someone does not want to conversate with me and instead once the play the. Do as I say or else i'm not going to negotiate with them Because there's no point in negotiating with somebody who doesn't want negotiate and just one step of white conflict. This is the worst thing to have I have to say to the Dungeon Master get rid of this mindset immediately. It is not the players fault and they're not destroying your game out of fun. They are getting by your challenges the best they can will what they have and they're getting mad because you're doing everything possible to make it impossible to make. It impossible for them to get past your challenges unless They do it the right way the way you believe they should But the fact you mumble and say nothing and then decide to act like you listen to them but then ignore them or just ignore them entirely Does show that you know what you're doing And how they would respond you just been wondering how you would deal with the situation before you finally? Came to the conclusion many bad dungeon Masters Make. And that's not saying you're a bad person that's saying what many bad ones make and that is Deciding that you are the dungeon master your god you get to determine what does it does happen And they have to deal with it. And discovering the logical conclusion that no no they don't have to deal with it.

[@bgdowns10171]

He is sooooooo dead wrong about the last part. DnD is a team game. If your party makority agrees to do things one way and then you sneak around to advance the main story in a way that was specifically struck down, you are 100% in the wrong. This is main character syndrome. "My way is the only way that matters". No idea how this guy thinks op was '100% in the right'.