What is a rule that your DM enforced that detracted from the fun of the game for you? Part 2

[@nicolasv6031]

I think the magic suppression was an interesting concept, but rather than entirely blocking it, making more of the disadvantage roles, reducing damage, or giving the party a way to temporarily counteract the suppression within a small area, would have been much more fun

[@pulsefel9210]

makes me think of FF12 and the magic negating stones. something like those that get consumed by spells but allow them to function would be a way to limit the spells and give the party a way around it.

[@roganf4013]

I'm currently running a fantasy FATE game (was originally in DnD but FATE is a bit more cinematic and definitely easier to run/ play with a table of 8 online during pandemic situations) and the current arc involves the parties divine casters having been black-bagged (w/ previous consent from the players) by the state church of the crappy, Soviet-analogue country they're travelling through. The trick being that the prison these PCs are sent to has a massive (-5 in a dice pool that ranges from +4 to -4, before stats and boosts) debuff to divine energies. The captured PCs have escaped their jail cell (freeing some NPC prisoner/ victims and one players new character) and the non-divine PCs have snuck/ fought their way in to help with the jail-break, so the escape now has access to theirs rogue and barbarian/archeologist as well as their final front-line tank (Divine PCs included that new LG Paladin char., a previously existing Oath of Conquest CN Paladin, a self/team boosting "Battle Cleric" who thinks of himself as a travelling actor, and a single Non-Violence/Healy Cleric; so they were more than capable of providing their own front line...). The crew and NPC prisoners have found and been defending/ infiltrating the ancient sci-fi barely-a-dungeon at the heart of this holy-site-turned-super-max-prison. Due to settings from an ancient war it's force field won't allow the Orc or Centaur PCs or a couple of Fey-blooded NPCs in, so they and an increasing number of allowable (Human, Aasimar and Dwarf) PCs have been fighting at that front gate while the interior team (Down to just a Human rogue PC and a bunch of former prisoners) has just figured out the controls to what he thinks are the front gate. I'm REALLY looking forward to this week's game when they find out that what he thought were force field controls are actually for the energy-dampening system that's been nerfing the team's Divine skills but allowing the local church jackasses access to THEIR Divine magics! Oh, the turntables! XD I just hope I can knock out that Oath of Conquest Paladin before the switch gets hit. His player and I have been looking for ways to teach him a BIT of humility in battle situations, but the dice just keep proving his arrogance right! XD

[@an8strengthkobold360]

Even just no magic could be really, really interesting if it was run well and only lasted for a combat or 2 sessions at most. Ie. The party is unable to use magic. They're being attacked by monster that are incredibly weak to something the party could normally use with magic. There's a clear win condition that would allow the casters to regain their magic. Create a circumstance where the caster need to do their best to stay alive and get their spells back while the matrals run interference.

[@Void_TheDemon]

@@roganf4013 that's actually really cool-

[@Azure9577]

@@an8strengthkobold360 yes it can be done well Hell, it has already been done in many video games already There was an entire arc in trails in the sky sc where orbments (machines that allowed users to use magic) where disabled by an huge emp ranging the entire country We were given some special devices that resisted the emp and allowed orbments to work in a small radius All four of my party members were given one and were told to distribute them throughout the guilds so that communications could be re-established We had to give the devices up to the guilds one by one making the characters unable to access magic

[@paperip1996]

Joined an ongoing campaign and left after the very first session, where the DM had a house rule that if you had to make a saving throw during combat, that counted as your primary action for your next turn. Justified it with "well, a combat round is only six seconds, and if you're focused on dodging a hazard, you won't really have any time leftover to use an attack or cast a spell." Said combat was on rough terrain, so, we could either take a move action with a dex saving throw, OR we could attack. DM didn't think it was that bad because, "you still have a bonus action you can use". DM was also very, very into making sure we could only use "in-character knowledge", and not in like just "don't metagame, actually roleplay to convey things" way a lot of folks do. You'd say "I roll a 16 on my investigation check to look for footprints to figure out which way the thief went." DM would then go silent for 5 minutes while he wrote four or five flowery sentences describing the footprints, the texture of the mud, the color of the pebbles scattered around the area that he would then privately message to the player - so said player could then tell the table, "Look! Footprints, they're headed north!"

[@2fortsmostwanted]

that first paragraph made me go "WHAT?!" out loud. your DM was stunlocking you wtf

[@dextertek9536]

Just follow along with the DM's idea for the first paragraph. Bring a character with all sorts of saving-throw related abilities. Saving Throw cantrips and spells, ball-bearings, Alchemist's Fires... Anything that requires a saving throw, use it against your enemies and stunlock them. If you can, then get the other party members in on it. I wonder how long the DM would take before he scraps the rule.

[@IntergalacticPants]

Knew a DM back when everyone was playing 3.5 that ruled barbarians had to attack the closest person regardless of friend or foe when they used rage. Imagine the person who made you really angry is right there, 30 feet in front of you. Can you attack him? Nope gotta turn around and pummel your ally who's 10 feet behind you, and has done nothing to deserve it, and you weren't even looking at.

[@ericsmith1508]

I played in a campaign where the DM wanted to use the "realistic" rest variant presented in the Dungeon Master's Guide (5e). I thought it would be cool to give it a try as it caught my interest when I first read in my copy of the DMG. It *SSSSUUUUUUUCKED* *OUT* *LOUD* !!!! Nobody in the group was having any fun with it at all. No matter how many times we complained about it and told him we weren't enjoying it he just let it go in one ear and out the other. It was painful. The really bad thing was that he still ran monsters and NPCs as though they got their spells and abilities back after a regular rest. What I mean by that is he didn't "role" play them as being concerned about how long they would be without spells and abilities after popping them in combat. So while we were holding back so as not use up our stuff and be a FULL WEEK without spell slots or certain class features, the monsters and NPCs are giving us everything they've got. Every fight. Every time. Then he would have nothing for us to do in town during our rests, even though he had promised that having to spend so much time in civilization between adventures was going to be a key feature of the campaign. Then he would get upset at us LOOKING for things to do ourselves if no hints or clues were forthcoming from him. If it hadn't been for all that it may have actually been cool to play with that mechanic.

[@maximecaron886]

My campaign right now uses a variation of those rules Long rests are only available in towns, cities or safeplaces and last 72 hours, these 3 days are considered times where you can do activities that are not "Adventuring" so shopping, intel gathering, stuff of the sorts. If you are heavily wounded then you might be limited in those activities. At the end, all health is restored and spells returned Short rests are 8 hours long and can be done from anywhere. Players that have spells can regain spell levels equal to their own level Exemple, if you’re a 2nd-level wizard, you can recover up to 2 levels worth of Spell Slots. Ex.You can recover either a 2nd-level spell slot or two 1st-level Spell Slots. It's been working out pretty well, had a few things to change here and there but it's fun. I also rule that if they spend 1 full session in a long rest even if that session doesn't encapsulate the 3 days the rest of those 3 days will be offscreen.

[@VidelxSpopovich]

I had one yesterday that really made me furious. So, we the players are participating in a big tournament which is several days long and consists of teams fighting each other until only one team remains which then has to fight among itself for the title belt. So, we make it past the first free for all against three other teams and start throwing ourselves a little party and planning our strategy for the next match when the DM shows up and says “Oh by the way I’m retconning your Portable Hole from existence for the rest of the tournament.” When confronted about this she lied about her reasoning, proceeded to get caught in said lie and then act furious that I had dared call her out on it. Meanwhile all of our enemies in the tournament do extra damage and have ridiculous buffs found nowhere else in the game which she claims if for the sake of “balance”. It’s getting really tiresome. Edit: This DM also only lets you roll skills you have proficiency in.

[@leatcanned]

Only the edit is really anything wrong, The other parts are the purview of the Dm. However I have a thing you can do which is walk away. You are not beholden to play in a bad/anoying/inconsistant Dms game.

[@polaris3c0]

1:08 What about only fumbling when you crit fail ALL of your attacks? That way the monk has to roll several nat ones whereas the wizard only has to roll one.

[@justinthompson6364]

Or you could "confirm" crit fails similar to the way you'd confirm crits in 3.5

[@Delphineas]

Oops. I did the first one. In my defense, Icewind Dale (Rime of the Frostmaiden) has been under brutal winter for TWO YEARS, so I told the ranger that while game was scare enough he would not autofind anything, he would get advantage to his Survival check when foraging.

[@imugi-16]

I think that makes sense considering the setting. And you still gave the ranger advantage in foraging to make up somewhat. This is much better than basically removing a core background benefit for no reason like the first story

[@Katilciker]

I think that is completely fine. Also while giving him adv. you could give the inexperienced in foraging disadvantage because of the weather conditions for 2 years.

[@Some_Average_Joe]

I mean that background completely breaks the tone of some settings where survival is important. Dark Sun comes to mind.

[@billcox8870]

Limiting the number of cantrips a spellcaster can cast in 5th edition to two times the level of the character. That basically means warlocks are essentially useless in the early levels. For me they come across as squishier than a wizard.

[@trololoev]

feel yourself almost like monk with 2 ki points.

[@reaprcussion5703]

2 x level like, per rest? Long for most, short for warlocks? They were basically making cantrips a resource?

[@billcox8870]

@@trololoev I want to play a game as a Warlock but he won't budge. Therefore, I will not play a warlock. To me it is like limiting the number of sword swings a fighter or any melee class. Without the Eldritch blast cantrip they are severely limited.

[@billcox8870]

@@reaprcussion5703 you would get them back after any rest but you only get two castings times your level. He will not budge and therefore I will not play a warlock even though I really want to.

[@billcox8870]

@@reaprcussion5703 that would actually apply to any spellcasting class. He's mixing 5th edition, second edition and homebrew. He's basically crafting a world that he would have fun in as a player while ignoring the players telling him this is not that enjoyable but rather frustrating.

[@blazingtrailzftw5702]

Was listening to one of the stories and i had a thought about it, instead of making it so you needed to upcast to a level 4 spell to use even a lvl 1 spell, i would have simply make it that any spell you use needs to be upcasted by 1 level or be done with disadvantage. Utility spells that require no roll need to be upcasted while and that require a save roll or spell atack roll can only be rolled at their normal roll with disadvantage. i think it would be a cool way to spin the magic being suppressed as successfully casting a spell requiring more magic then usual, while also making higher level spells much more important. as an added bonus should you want to role play it into a campaign that gets progressivly harder it can then be made so you have to upcast 2 or 3 level later into the game, when they are actually able to cast their spells even with that hinderance.

[@atsukana1704]

This is actually the opposite of what one might expect, but the DM made the game have little threat level because my wizard got revivify (which is already illegal under normal circumstances) but they then removed the cost of material components, meaning every day I could just revive three people for free if I wanted to. I really realized that so long as I didn’t die which basically meant me being one shot, nobody had to worry about dying at all. Usually a DM is limiting something but in this case I just feel too powerful.

[@Fapaljack]

every day im thankful for the quality of the DM that runs my current campaign, he has gone "I was gunna make you roll for that but you roleplayed it so perfectly i dont want to ruin it with a roll!"

[@MissCaraMint]

I remember I got auto success in performing as a bard when I actually performed for the group (I’m learning opera and am a classically trained flutist). It was a fun campaign.

[@lordixlandis5085]

Mine was definitely critical fumbles. I warned my DM I did not like them and why. Now, I'm different than most, I think that player versus player can be beneficial to D&D when done correctly. However, unintentional PvP forced by dice causes way too many problems. When one player killed another with it, causing massive drama, I left the campaign.

[@grantgarbour]

I absolutely hate critical fumbles. One of my dms who could never run a session past like session 5, would roll "Severity" whenever we or an enemy rolled a nat 1. "Severity" was not a set chart, or anything predictable it was a D100 he rolled in secret then basically did whatever tf came to mind depending on what he rolled no matter how absolutely idiotic it was. Nevermind this nerfing melee characters in opposed to spellcasters who make far less rolls. Sometimes spellcasters would end up shooting teammates, sometimes melee would end up falling prone yada yada The absolute worst thing that happened was an enemy that rolled a nat 1 to hit me then rolled poorly on "Severity" stumbled, tripped and fell off the boat we were on for no reason, and his armor was so heavy that he instadrowned. This was looking to be our first combat that had some teeth to it but the DM admitted after combat and maybe even during combat that he was so scared of killing us that he makes combats easier. All combats were a joke

[@viperblitz11]

My DM makes a lot of homebrew mechanics, and some are more popular than others. One of his worse ideas was a new resource called "Vitality points," and it was meant to add gravity to the regular danger by leaving lasting weakness and injuries if you go down. Basically, you have an average of 4-6 vitality points, depending on your con and further boosted if you're also a martial class. You lose one point by going down, and another for each failed death save. Your con would be temporarily lowered by an amount equal to your missing vitality points for the few days it takes to fully recover. If your vitality points reach 0, you instantly die, even if you had death saves remaining. Now this doesn't sound *too* bad on the surface. Sure it's just more busywork and it doesn't really add anything, and it also straight up punishes players for doing combat, but at least it's not ruining anything. Except for the fact that vitality points are tied *both ways* to con. In other words, if your con is negative, you have fewer vitality points. If someone has a con of 5, they would only have two points, not even enough to fail a single death save. If their con is any lower, they'll have 1 point, meaning they die immediately upon reaching 0 HP. I have pleaded with him repeatedly that if he won't do away with it, to at least give squishy characters a minimum of 4 vitality points so that years of character development can't get accidentally powerwashed away by a lucky breath attack, but he adamantly argues it's "part of the risk". You mean aside from the existing risk of dumping THE HIT POINT STAT!?

[@Truth4None]

3:04 Yeap. Had that happen once. I promptly threw the weapon they had so meticulously crafted on the ground and the entire party left it so we could carry some other stuff. DM got upset, we told them plainly, the rule was stupid and we were certain the enemies didn't follow it either.

[@lvlHive]

Mine had a rule where if anyone was in a anti magic zone martials lose all feats and abilities and casters begin dying. He also added a rule that you get insta killed by god for lying in a church, which he only told us about AFTER my character lied so he killed me.

[@Squink200]

I know this isn’t a video about unique characters, but I had an idea about a character that died, but something prevented the character from dying, so the skeleton lived on, seeking the entity who prevented it from dying and ask to be left to rest, however refuses to kill anything having experienced the pain of death and not wanting others to feel it

[@mr.cobalt1668]

Pathfinder 2e has skeletons as a playable race now.

[@pixlbelle8081]

There’s a good reason I don’t do flanking normally, as I picked up this neat alternative from the Unexpectables: flanking does not grant automatic advantage, but it does grant a +2 bonus to your attack rolls, however you have to be in perfect flank- make a murder sandwich. Enemies also have this benefit and drawback.

[@grantgarbour]

Same, it's been very fun so far. My party works hard to get in position or out of flanking position. This combined by interesting environmental features made movement in combat matter. It took me a while to think of ways to stop "murder lines" where the line is PC,enemy,PC,enemy,PC they are rarely an issue. Adding "a creature being flanked, cannot flank another creature" definitely helped taper the power but still added to it's use

[@aaronwilliams8887]

glad to hear the groups and DM's that realized after a while, yeah that doesn't help the fun at all. I don;t mind bad rules when the DM and players have open discussion and realize they do or don't like things.

[@billcox8870]

Random direction roll every round because you're heavily obscured inside Cloud kill. His excuse is that they were coughing and sputtering as if they were inside stinking cloud but taking damage from cloudkill.

[@billcox8870]

I forgot to add there was a second reason and it is because your vision was heavily obscured. I argued that the characters should just be able to run in a straight line until they get out of whatever has obscured their vision.

[@ironbeard4627]

Critical failures on Natural 1 is fine if you ONLY count the firts attack of the round. That way nobody makes more mistakes when leveling up, and the % of failures per attacks goes down. I also like idea of failure check, DC 10 1d20 + proficiency.

[@artemisknight9450]

I was going to type one up with a lot of detail but halfway through realized it was more of a DM horror story. So instead I'll just put the specifics. My DM ruled for his friends bear totem barbarian that they could stack bear totem to become immune to all damage but psychic. This was made even worse when we had a sparring match. I had an ability that undercut resistances and immunities to my hits. (High level Eldritch Knight-esque homebrew the DM came up with) I won the spar, and was very nice and cordial about it. We even had some laughs. Next session the DM decided that my ability was too broken and only worked on weak easily defeated anyways enemies and started throwing stuff at us immune to my main damage type so I couldn't do shit. Lots of stories from my DM but some of the rulings and changes on the fly he made were ridiculous.

[@billcox8870]

When I was playing a Bard I would come up with a rhyme to inspire specific characters. For example I used for the barbarian, frag, no more monsters have the power axe of Frag has struck this hour. Thank you Black Sabbath for the song of war pigs.

[@kylethomas9130]

Regarding flanking, always felt off with the Advantage version. Trying out one suggested by Dungeon Coach, uses a modifier that increases as you surround the enemy with allies. Can still get advantage from other features.

[@NoFaithNoGlory]

Opportunity attacks every time you move inside someone's reach. It made combat dull and static and completely shut down positioning tactics. Funny thing is that he also added that concept to ranged attacks so a couple of goblin archers could pin an entire party. Then we went like "ok, let's fight this back, let's use bows". Then I personally took over a fight with 15 orcs because I was getting 2 attacks to hit each turn consistently. Since then he decided to nerf it and ranged opportunity attacks where made at disadvantage. He was also applying the rule of "every time you roll a 1, something bad happens" and since he did not had any idea of what to do with bows, the string snapped. That made us to stop using bows or crossbows for the entire campaign because at the end of every fight you always had to replace the string of your bow by a professional (you could not do it on your own bc you were no "bowsmith").

[@AGrumpyPanda]

In case anyone ever tries to pull that last point on you, please fire back with "Proficiency in any bow-related weapon includes stringing and un-stringing, because if you leave a bow strung you'll damage it." That or just tell them to look at an actual historical bow, and see how the string is literally only held in place by tension and a couple of hooks, and all you need to do to string it is bend the bow and attach the string.

[@rick30521]

Opportunity attacks when in reach is cool for melee, for ranged attacks, it's stupid. Also, Idk if this was in 5e or a home rule, but my DMs use this rule, with the extra rule that it's considered a reaction. You might think that it's not a big deal, until you're against a formidable foe and you are a rogue or a mage, who could use their reaction to protect themselves or someone else instead of attacking when the enemies move. We've also baited enemies to attack our stronger teammates by moving away from them, so that the more fragile can get away without dmg or go in and out for quick attacks (which could be a rogue who didn't use the bonus action for disengage but dash or a hexblade warlock early in the game, for example), another thing is that if you baited a reaction attack out of a boss and they also use magic, they might not be able to defend themselves from a powerful spell.

[@NoFaithNoGlory]

@@rick30521 yeah, that's in 5e. Opportunity attacks use always a reaction, and yes, that reaction can be used for many things. His hb was that you create opportunity attacks when you move inside or within the reach. You usually just create it when you move out of it unless you have polearm master. As you said, for a caster a reaction is so precious bc that's what they use for counterspell or absorb elements or whatever. Most wizards won't hit you with an opportunity attack, 1st bc of action economy, 2nd bc unless they have war caster, they can only do a puny punch. If you want to create "the reaction master" try the subclass Cavalier with the feat Sentinel and Interception combat style. You'll have like 4 or 5 different things to do with your reaction each turn, all of them defense oriented and making impossible for your enemies to move out of your reach and absolutely a pain to attack anything that's not you. You need to back it up with a good amount of AC (a friendly cleric dropping a Shield of Faith or Protection from Evil and Good) but you'll be able to punish them in soooo many ways with your reactions.

[@Shinsamquafit]

A DM we had found online came to our house. Had us all roll up new characters as normal. After we put a few hours into backstories with our whole group being traveling circus performers, (I was a dragon born fighter with hand axe throwing as my fighting style, we had a bard with dance as his music, a cleric who took the trickster domain I think it was, doesn’t matter and I’ll explain why) we begin the campaign at his starting point. A town next to the sea. After the first dungeon where the dm completely negated the alert feat our ranger had taken (this is 5e and with the alert feat you cannot be surprised if you took your action in the round) well the dm threw that away and surprised us. We overcame the battle and dungeon. But when our PCs got back to town, they all got killed off by the dm in some way or another. He then makes us all create characters using HIS formats. He also made the rule if a dragon of any kind psuedo dragon included hits you 3 times you are outright dead

[@Shinsamquafit]

Well not only is that a bs ruling after being called on it and presented with the new characters we created without his pre existing characters he stated “that’s not what I wanted for your characters” to my older brother. We told him to leave and not return.😊

[@albinoreaper2949]

This was an entirely homebrew campaign with completely hand-crafted gods, items, NPC’s, and areas. Our DM actually controlled 3 PC’s, which wasn’t too too weird since two more of us did as well, but he was the DM which made it weird to begin with. The shitty rule was that no one could be stronger than any of them. He came up with some bulls but that all three of those characters were the children of the most powerful primordial god, and had primordial god patrons that looked after them, so they were effectively invincible. He also criticized us and belittled us and called us selfish assholes every time we wanted to strengthen our characters. He threw pity parties every time we had to strengthen our sheets and stats, because we weren’t having fun. Our characters had no room to shine because the actual PC’s weren’t the main characters, the DM’s sibling trio was.

[@sebastiancollins01]

Coup de Grace roleplay moments boiling down to a single attack with maximum damage or just advantage. If one of my players are a sniper with a souped-up magical crossbow and let loose a bolt that strikes their target in the heart or a cowboy who quickly draws his pistol in a card game and shoots some unfortunate soul in the face they should do more then just a surprise round attack for free. No. There's a real strong chance that if the target is unaware and undefended that they die right then and right there in those situations. "My assassin sneaks into the dignitaries hotel room and runs him through as he sleeps in his bed." "Great. He's asleep so you just hit him. Roll damage." "Uh... Five." "Alright, you stab him REAL good and he wakes up. You just need to hit him six to eight more times before he can alert the guards and you get stomped into oblivion. Easy."

[@VidelxSpopovich]

I remember a similar story where I was playing a Way Of The Shadow Monk in 5e. Basically, the entire town we were in had been brainwashed save a few citizens and our party had split up to search for clues and such while I went to round up the brainwashed citizens for detainment. So I sneak into the Barracks of The City Watch at night knowing I have just enough speed and attacks with a surprise round to take out all the sleeping guards before they can react. This makes my DM go ballistic and she says I’m not allowed to do that and starts not so subtly suggesting that the moment I try to stealthily strike one of them they’d all somehow immediately wake up and attack me. Well, long story short after she screamed at me for a bit and the other players jumped in to defend me, my character shortly thereafter left the barracks with a wheelbarrow stacked high with unconscious bodies.

[@foxfireinferno197]

If your DM does critical fumbles, just play a spellcaster who never makes attack rolls, just forces saving throws.

[@joshuascrutton1474]

there was one rule the dm had where since i never explained in a backstory where i learned magic, i had to roll from the wild magic table, yes i was a sorcerer but i didn;t even use the wild magic sorcerer subclass, and it seemed like most the time my spells went wild and i had to find somebody to teach me how to use my magic to avoid this. from memory we had one caster on the party who was a scammer so i had to lose all of my money if i even wanted to learn from him, this campain never lasted long, only 2-3 sessions

[@Martino2156]

Having to roll a deception check every time an illusion was cast. If that wasn't bad enough he started wanted deception rolls made for each npc who saw it. Someone finally asked why he didn't just ban illusion spells

[@Madchemist002]

About the "hitting a party member" rule. My DM has something similar. Basically, if I'm standing in a direct line behind somebody and roll a nat 1, then the attack will proceed along the line and hit my ally. Basically, I just take the risk if I need to, or I side step for a better angle

[@do6631]

I use a rule that states if you roll a nat 1 on a ranged attack or spell and there is an ally that is in the direct line between you and the target, it hits the ally. I do this because it makes them think a little more tactically about their positioning. On the flip side, I don't give enemies any higher of an AC because there is someone in the way. I've never had any major player complaints about it, but it has changed how players position themselves in fights and means there is a lot more movement in fights. Enemies have the same against them and I have accidentally killed an enemy who was firing at one of my players and rolled a nat 1.

[@MissCaraMint]

That makes sense. It’s a risky shot in real life, so naturally it’s a risky shot in game. Also can be effective at pushing critical thinking.

[@Sorain1]

Consistency of application for rules like those, along with clearing it with the players beforehand is what makes that work for me.

[@do6631]

@@Sorain1 I even apply it for bad guys and NPCs involved in combat. Everyone knows from the beginning and trust me after the first time they accidentally shoot someone in the back, they take their positioning into consideration when they shoot.

[@SilkyPurple]

DM confession time (kinda) I don't think I was in the wrong here, but I'm open to opinions: "No, I will not give your (true neutral) barbarian weretiger lycanthropy so he can have unlimited immunity to nonmagical attacks." The player wanted weretiger lycanthropy specifically because since weretigers are true neutral already, embracing it would just give him the buffs without changing his alignment, all instantaneously. He then complained I was not letting him have fun when both me and another player told him "that sounds OP"

[@georgeclinton4524]

A WereTiger normally won't infect someone as they view more WereTigers as increased competition for territory. Also WereTigers are monsters who have no compunctions about hunting and killing other humanoids for sport to prove their hunting prowess, or if one is in their territory. If your player somehow gets infected with lycanthropy from a WereTiger and embraces it and doesn't get the curse cured as quickly as possibly that is no longer a Player Character. I would explain to them that if their character wants to get infected with lycanthropy and embrace it that's fine, but at the point that they do they hand their character sheet over to you and roll a new character. WereTigers murder people for fun, and it's not anymore evil than when a Tiger kills someone. It's just their bestial nature. For a Player their character getting infected with lycanthropy and not getting it cured is the same as their character dying because they don't get to play that character anymore.

[@hyhena-gaming9986]

I only have one of my players lycanthropy as a barbarian because his stats were just shit all around, he rolled very poorly and he never asked to re roll and I would have let him, so I made him a werewolf, but I agree with your reasoning

[@TheNoobRapter]

I have 3. 1.if you are not a monk you can't punch someone. Not you deal very little damage with your punches just you do not know how to punch. 2. their is no incline or objects to interact with in combat. like when a bar fight starts all chairs, tables, innocent people, and cups just vanish. 3. find familiar can effect plants. Had a wizard cast it and their familiar was an ear of corn because the GM thought it would be funny. corn could not move or do anything like the spell said it could do.

[@justinthompson6364]

There are rules for proficiency dice- you roll ONE die (two for expertise), and you basically determine which one it is by doubling what your proficiency bonus for that level. Fresh low level character? Add 1d4 to rolls you're proficient in. Max level? Add 1d12. You don't have to roll a million die, and since the average roll is only half a point higher than your normal proficiency bonus, normal values work fine for everything else. P.S.- Psychic Scream targets "up to ten creatures of your choice that you can see within range". The caster _does_ fit all of those requirements, so I suppose it could work RAW. Not that it diminishes the stupidity of the whole incident.

[@BarrakDraconis]

This came up in a PvP encounter. Another player had just shot my character's eye out (Called shot, critical hit). When I went to retaliate, the player suddenly starts arguing whether he can just... not occupy the square I'm attacking. The DM allows him to roll a Reflex save at an "arbitrarily high DC", which the hostile Rogue passes without even blinking. And he dodges my melee attack by having been somewhere else the entire time.

[@erikkennedy8725]

Old 2nd edition game. DM ruled wizards had to mix special ink to write spells in a spell book. My wizard would know how to do this, me as a kid, not so much. So when I used grasshopper guts as part of the components for ink to write down a jump spell, he ruled it made my spellbook a sticky mess, ruining that spell and several others.

[@DredgenStorm]

The DM of my first real campaign enforced a stupid rule regarding Advantage/Disadvantage. Instead of a secondary roll, it would be +3/-3 respectively to the roll. Due to this stupid rule, most of the party took the Lucky feat. But that rarely helped when it mattered cause by the time a big fight happened, we would have collectively blown through all of our Luck points to pass saving throws against traps design to cripple or kill us.

[@bidoofapostle8910]

I like critical fails they're fun. I don't usually give it anything more substantial than maybe dropping a weapon, but it's a fun way to add something more interesting to combat and stuff like that. Plus hitting 3 times makes you more likely to critically succeed too

[@leekonze7441]

An old DM of mine in a 3.5e campaign had a rule where you would roll a Spellcraft check whenever you cast a spell, and your check result was the Spell Save DC, which seemed great at first. But, he changed it so that only Wizard and Cleric got Spellcraft as a class skill. The icing on this shit cake was the DM put our party of 3 level 1s (a Ranger, Rogue, and Cleric) up against a 5th level Wizard. The Wizard won Initiative and cast Fireball; the Wizard got a total of 31 on his Spellcraft check. None of us made the save, and we all died.

[@BlackRainRising]

I love using crit miss stuff based on what they tell me they are doing, like I had a player with a greatsword, he said he was doing a horizontal sweeping swing hoping to use the cleave feat if the target died, he nat 1'd, I had him roll again (I make crit fails reroll and get creative with the roll, the lower the worse/funnier, the higher the better they just wiffed) he rolled like a 4 or 5, had him get his sword stuck in a tree by misjudging his swing, he simply let go and drew his longsword cause he didn't want to spend the round to remove the stuck blade

[@molegaming7559]

so, the only rule I have used that has ruined and made games is a rule I believe i got from your video we just call it the click rule. now as a note we don't always use this rule! and I only started because the party wasn't paying attention when I told them they stepped on a trap. I got sick of trying to explain it and calmy said CLICK! as loud as I could. Ya the look of confusion on the face as they finally paid attention was priceless. needless to say, the fighter was dangling upside down from a tree 20 feet up and they panicked tried to cut him down with a bow and preceded to shoot him with it with a Nat 1. Ya, they pay attention now. but it has ruined a few games on accident like when the party tried to run away and forgot about the trap the just went around.... Ya no one survived that encounter. if you want to use this rule, please be careful with it. oh, and the way it works is when they step on a trap all you say is click. then you let them do 1 thing always let them do something. (Best to be fair with it.)

[@postapocalypticnewsradio]

PANR has tuned in.

[@user-fx3cm4zr6y]

you know typically you tune into the radio rather than it tuning into you

[@Atma_Weapon]

hi panr.

[@postapocalypticnewsradio]

@@Atma_Weapon hi Johnny

[@postapocalypticnewsradio]

@@user-fx3cm4zr6y yes. But can a station not its self own a radio to tune into other frequencies?

[@user-fx3cm4zr6y]

@@postapocalypticnewsradio that's a question I am in no way qualified to answer.

[@_Nykolaii_]

Tried playing a dwarf cleric of the forge. DM limited my channel divinity to the letter. When exploring caves, the ores were random loot tables with athletics check. I had pickaxe proficiency but rolled less than the barbarian (couldnt add my proficiency). Later they changed it so only with a pickaxe can you roll on the table, and i still couldnt use proficiency. The only piece of metal i ever had after 4 sesh was a dagger. I left. Also everytime when i readied action sacred flame on the first enemy in sight when we were about to open a door, he kept making me say the same long "I hold my action casting cantrip sacred flame on the first enemy i see once the door opens" despite it being the same thing for the 7th time by then.

[@aislinbellarosa6334]

I like critical fumbles in principle, but the can often get a bit ridiculous, so I tried to balance them. The way I play it a nat 1 provokes a special attack of opportunity from the target (which counts against their normal limit if they take it), and lets them make either a disarm attempt, a trip attempt, or use 5 feet of their next turn's movement. It isn't an automatic penalty, the target still has to succeed on their check to disarm or trip, and if they move out of the way of a ranged/reach weapon attack it *can* hit the person behind them, but rather than an automatic hit I have the player role an attack against the new target with disadvantage.

[@joshuawalsh3255]

Oppurtinity attacks are triggered when entering an enemy space, rather than leaving. We read the rule book again and laughed about jt.

[@Lily.Hiragashi]

For 1:10 for any of my traps such as traps near doors I have a personal rule where is a player searches an area within their movement radius EVERYTHING in that movement radius gets revealed

[@ZkiiGames]

Had a session recently where the party broke into a bandit leader's bedroom "surprising" him. There was a short RP before we started the combat. I rolled a nat 1 on initiative after taunting the guy, and the DM told me that I was considered surprised (the enemy wasn't) so every other creature in the room managed to go twice. I never got to have a single turn in the combat because of how it turned out. Really soured the entire session and didn't feel like participating the rest of the night. I only spoke up on my turn for our next combat. So far some of his rules have been really rough. He has DM'ed a few good campaigns for me and Is one of my best friends, so we talk about stuff bad stuff and, unless he gets burnt out(happens often) he usually manages to make it better. The last session we did was fairly good (minus the barbarian falling asleep IRL since it was RP heavy, but, made us laugh a little bit.) My group has a few DM's so we usually swap out if things get pretty bad.

[@georgeclinton4524]

In 3.5 I decided to make a Dagger thrower. Human Fighter with Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, and Quick Draw at Lvl 1. DM declared that I was trying to "break the game", that "using Point Blank Shot with throwing weapons is broken because it's the equivalent of giving yourself a +1 magic weapon at Lvl 1. Stop trying to break the game!", and ruled I would only ever be allowed to use Quick Draw to draw a single dagger per round as a free action despite the feat specifically stating you can draw as many thrown weapons per round as attacks you have. I said, "But I can use a Shortbow with Point Blank Shot and shoot as many arrows per round as I have attacks without taking Quick Draw, right?" He said, "Yup, that's perfectly fine," and for a split-second he looked confused as it dawned on him how stupid what he was throwing a tantrum over was but he had an authoritarian tick where he absolutely refused to ever acknowledge if he was incorrect about a rules decision. So instead of throwing a dagger at 1D4+1 dmg, 19-20×2 crit, and 10ft range increments I was shooting a Shortbow at 1D6+1 dmg, ×3 crit, and a range increment that never interfered with Point Blank Shot, plus I could take Precise Shot as well and have no penalty shooting into melee combat. For the rest of that campaign whenever I was tearing up his combat encounters with my bow I always made sure to comment, "Wow, this is so much better than throwing daggers. Thanks for talking me out of that,' and his eye would start twitching.

[@DarthSironos]

10:14 Denial is the most basic human reaction to the uncomfortable.

[@MrShinoTheBugman]

I personally really like flanking, especially on smaller groups, but I use a lot of movement in my battles. It makes everyone pay attention to movement. If the combat became just "surround big thing and hit it until dead" or your group was so big that you could easily get flanking on everything like the player described. I could see how that would take all the fun out of combat.

[@danielhale1]

One that frustrated me was lethal non-lethal damage. We were trying to calm a mob of villagers, and decided to rely entirely on nonlethal damage so we wouldn't kill people who were simply being manipulated or magically controlled. But the GM decided, in His Infinite Wisdom, that if we dealt more than 50% of an NPC's health in non-lethal damage, they died. These were level 0 villagers with no hit points to speak of... And he wouldn't let us do anything to pull our punches -- it was basically impossible to not deal lethal damage with our nonlethal attacks. Even a slap killed. We didn't know what the word Narcissist meant in clinical terms back then, but we do now. He got off in disturbing ways from making his players miserable. Glad we left.

[@svartrbrisingr6141]

on the one about magic suppression. for the most part if i did something like that(the idea has come to mind before) then id just have it escalate over time. "as you cast your spell you would feel that your grasp on the magic is weakened in some way" just a typical roll with added flavor to warn the party that something is up. then they would have to roll a check using their spell casting stat to cast the spell, starting with a low DC but getting harder every so often with me describing the situation so they always know that its getting worse. this whole time giving them hints to the source or subtly pushing them towards it. and then directly around the source(something like 60ft) id have all magic be uncontrollable. but at this point they know the source and likely know how to stop it. and after stopping it they get a brief boost to their magic to make up for them not being able to use their magic for a bit earlier. since they would be in combat during this.

[@BoredTAK5000]

I used to have it so that if you rolled a nat 1 on a saving throw against damage you would take double damage (I was new at the time). Yeah after a fireball did 54 damage I stopped using that rule.

[@J_o_B_is_back]

Oh, easy one. My local dm decided that for every level we had to spend 500 gold per level (1000 for 2nd, 1500 for 3rd, etc) and a week in game time per level to level up our characters. He didn’t tell us that until well after we in the game. Half of us dropped from the campaign by level 3 since it took away all the gold we earned just to level up and that was only half the party getting to level. Keep in mind, we also weren't getting much of anything for gear from loot either, so we were pretty well screwed from the get go.

[@BlueTressym]

I can see the logic of it, as in, spending time and money on training and learning, but if you're going to do something like that, you need to make it feasible. How did the DM react when someone pointed out (someone, did, right?) that it was making levelling near-impossible?

[@J_o_B_is_back]

@@BlueTressym several of us in fact did point that out. His response was if my memory serves: "Play smarter and you won't run into issues.", which was really the last straw for me, and a the next week two more players dropped, then another the week after. To my knowledge, that campaign is still going and he changed the rules for leving up to something much more manageable, which I was more than happy to give him an "I told you so." To his annoyance.

[@BlueTressym]

@@J_o_B_is_back yeah, I think I'd have done the same, including the "I told you so."

[@AnxietyArchfeyPwincess]

I’m not sure if I posted it, but I actually have a time I enforced a rule that made the game not fun. In concept the idea was very interesting. A super powerful artifact combined with a magic uranium substance, called Arcanium, to repeat a single day… that was unintentional, but still. The party appeared to have a downtime session to attend a festival. The repeat began at a rude awakening where a construction worker fell through the ceiling of their room. The day occurred like a downtime day until the artifact went off repeating the day. However they had to pass a Wis save to recall the first time through the day. I’d decided to make their bodies not reset. Any lost HP or spells used remained…. And it counted as being up 2 days with no sleep, giving a point of exhaustion. This counted up the more times it repeated, but only gained a new pint every few repeats. It was supposed to put an element of stress, like they couldn’t live through the repeats forever. The rule that I enforced was actually a RAW thing with rolling at disadvantage on skill checks when you have 1 point of exhaustion. You never realize how many skill checks are done in a 3 hour period until you have to roll each at disadvantage… for a party of 5 or 6. Once they finally stopped the time loop, my players told me while a good concept, it was not implemented well. I now on the rare instances of a character becoming exhausted for any non-magical reason, I have them do a con save, DC 10+days awake. If they pass the con save, no exhaustion... since irl some people are able to stay up 2+ days without sleep and have no ill effects. I also have thought more on how to do a time loop in DnD… No good homebrew as of yet…

[@MrDmitriRavenoff]

We use a crit fail table, but it ends up being more funny than truly detrimental. It never seems to do anything so bad as to doing a fight against us.

[@svartrbrisingr6141]

for the first one, even with features like that i make them roll survival. but its purely to see how much they find, or if they find something interesting.

[@mitchellenderson7194]

As a DM, the one ruling I regret making to this day was deciding how Unwavering Mark and Ancestral Protectors would apply on the same creature, and deciding that the most recent one applied would take priority.

[@trueblade39]

Not so much the enforcing of a house rule, but my former DM's selective enforcing of said rule. When one player complained about her boundaries about assault not being respected he would leap to her rescue like a white knight, but when it was my boundaries regarding depictions of vigilante and mob justice (read: lynch mobs) he was perfectly fine with not only violating said boundaries but making a big joke out of it too

[@lordjor96]

Odd flanking is a very hard action to pull in 3.5, preatty much yo need: 1: the enemy dosen't see you. 2: Be on the enemy's back And 3: Only do 1 attack to the enemy said attack has a +4 the rest of attack would be normal.

[@Booksforthewin]

00:47 I think this is fine if it’s put out before the campaign, especially if you are running a Survivalist campaign

[@MitchT97]

My first time attempting to make a character as well as later in a small campaign my friend was running he was absolute that Paladins had to be 100% to the T Lawful Good and no exceptions. He’s since rescinded this idea mostly but it kinda killed creating my backstory since both times I was aiming more Lawful Neutral or even just Neutral. Never really got to play either character save for session one of that campaign, though I am thinking about trying a paladin again. Thinking a Dwarf Oath of Devotion who is Chaotic Good and bent on bringing anyone back to the way of good even if it means breaking conventional law as they may be wrong and what caused the problem to begin with.

[@Snowfox572]

you know i was in a group with someone who wanted to make an entire REGION of the game world cause any arcane magic casting trigger a roll on a wild magic table per spell level. he refused to comprimise on anything suggesting it be anything but "as long as your in this region this will happen" and he seemed to think "but you can upcast spells beyond your level though" made it worth the risk. and it didn't affect clerics or paladins. The warlock of the group who refused to tolerate that dude's shit is reasonably convinced it was cooked up 80% just to fuck him over. Said dude also tried to make a rework where bards don't get magic, and he replaced almost everything useful the bard could do with literally just worthless party tricks, and while he didn't demand people play it (when it was incomplete) he tried very, very hard to push for it.

[@wagz781]

I tend to play more osr-themed/hardmode style games. So I'll put up some I use that I've gotten complaints about as well as why I use them. Grim Reality. It's the alternate resting rule that I find makes dnd play far better. 8 hour short rest, 1 week long rest. However it's not as easy as just slotting it in. Barbs need to recover their rage on short rest with this, and you do need to scale back encounters a bit. Not every encounter should be the usual life or death ones so common in 5e. More often it's the players dealing with getting shivved by kobolds or goblins on patrol without actually being threatened. Encumbrance and Ammunition. I genuinely dislike these rules as well, but I play with a fair chunk of powergamers. Such players are the reason these rules exist. Without encumbrance, strength is a dump stat on a lot of characters without any kind of negative. It's a pain, but you do start to get used to it after a while. Ammunition tracking is what keeps non-casters from just staying back eternally as well as makes some weapons shine a bit more. I kinda view these as neccessary evils, personally. Though I do give martials some love to help compensate. Failed death saves linger as wounds. They don't give any penalties because death spirals aren't fun. Casting regenerate or lesser restoration will cure them, so will successful medical checks, but most commonly you recover them from long rests. One at a time. Additionally, having failed death saves in gnarly places invites disease. This is more to prevent the whack-a-hero kind of play you see with grave clerics being the most optimal form of healing. Granted I also make ressurection fairly common. Like you can get a death insurance at most churches, and so long as you make an effort to honor and respect the gods you can come back... for a fee. Cantrip slots. Yeah I get a lot of hate with this one. You get a number of cantrip points you can cast equal to spellcasting modifier plus level. You recover them when you regain spell slots. You have those weapon profficiencies for a reason, casters. If martials have to track ammo, so do you. Adventure-based spell acquisition. I get a lot of hate for this one too. So, I don't let casters learn spells abover third level through level up. If you want something better, go find it or work for it. With warlocks this means seeking more power from your patrons. With wizards it's your usual spell scrolls. With sorcerers it's gazing inward and seeking medicines to bring out your potential or being tutored by similar individuals. I liked in older editions where finding spells was an adventure, and I think a lot of the reason casters feel so untouchably powerful is the fact that mages can just pick and choose whatever they like. Spell focuses are magic items. Yeah, we're back to material components. The cost is 10x spell level in gold. I still give out spell focuses to players that are willing to engage with the world's magitocracies or craft one themselves, but if you want to go solo then it's not going to be easy. Worth mentioning I use the silver standard and actually tend to approach giving out money according to wages provided in the player's handbook. I forget where it's stated but a copper piece is roughly equivalent to a dollar. Most people pay for things with tenners, not hundred dollar bills. Granted, I also give players stuff to spend that money on, but still. Survival buffs. Mostly stuff like outlander no longer auto-finds stuff, but gives advantage to find stuff in a chosen terrain with a downtime activity to acclimate to a new terrain. Goodberry consumes the mistletoe component. Rules clarifications like how many days of water a waterskin holds (the answer is three, even though I'm pretty sure RAW it's 1). Reminders that backpacks hold 30lbs plus bedroll, rope, and lantern. So if you want more carrying capacity, invest in sacks and baskets. Possibly a mule. Seriously they hold more than bags of holding and small races can use them as mounts for like 80 silver. I do have other beneficial rules like free feat at level 1(variant human and custom lineage are banned, tho) as well as lots of love for martials, spell customization, business ownership, etc. But this is a vid about rules that people dislike :p.

[@andrewjames9132]

I had a Dm once who insisted if your die left the table at all it was an immediate botch. He pissed off people all the time. A year later he asked me why no one wanted to finish his campaign.

[@aidanjackson5084]

At character creation, you roll for your stats one at a time. First stat roll is for STR, second stat roll is for DEX, etc. While I understand this can lead to interesting character dynamics for some, this lead me into making a Dragonborn Paladin with a CON score of 10. Didn't help much that the campaign ended up including a Human Bard who felt like they hogged the spotlight. Just didn't really enjoy the game much, and that stat roll rule was the start of it.

[@tylerwellman8252]

If I recall that is an older rule from past editions that was commonly ignored for how unfun it was. I can feel ya on that one, it's a horrible way to generate stats.

[@viperblitz11]

I believe the original spirit of that rule was that stats would be the first part of character creation, and you'd pick your class with the results in mind. It's from an era that predates the modern practice of drawing up a whole ass person to play during the adventure, and it's not really a system that works with the new D&D culture.

[@paulbarnett5528]

My DM decided to double my friends XP for doing something he wasn't proficient in but I only got normal XP for actually playing my character.

[@helptomanycats5912]

one time in a campaign i played a bard who could only play hit cross buns on the recorder.

[@gruumy]

There were several rules that our dm enforced that weren't fun in any way. Firstly Crit table: this rule was horrendous everytime a crit was hit a seriousness roll would be made and a location roll, a low roll of seriousness could be something like being hit in the arm would give disadvantage until the next turn. a high seriousness would be damage like 5 levels of exhaustion, bleeding damage, and could be permanent damage, like a broken eye. and there was equal chance for the low crit seriousness as the high crit stuff. My level 7 barbarian was once hit by a surprise arrow from a goblin, in the throat, 5 levels of exhaustion, instant zeroed my health, and gave me serious bleeding... shit rule, and he didn't understand when we explained that often monsters will have more attacks against us than we them, horde wise, so their chance of critting would be higher. He did try to improve the system to a tick based and did was better but only a by a bit. When my character died, I refused to let him be resurrected (said he was content with his death), and then rolled a grave cleric and maxed my wisdom Sentinel at Death's door for the win. Another rule was stuff like reach weapons couldn't attack enemies within 5ft. Added wild magic to everything. And I love wild magic, its awesome but for god sake there need to be a limit. every spell shouldn't trigger wild surges - especially when you arent playing a sorcerer

[@valhein]

I played once with a dm who had us for -I kid you not- AN HOUR looking for the way to drop from one floor to the next one, we where all level 1 and the first player who tried to jump broke his legs and died. (Dm applied falling damage and it came out max), so we all tried all sort of ways to drop down for an hour... finaly we had to firs sit on the ledge and then carfully let ourselves drop... FUN YEEEIII!!!!

[@MaxwellKent]

My groups now ex-DM house-ruled, without the groups knowledge, that *anyone* who cast spells in ANY form could be taken over by ANY God at ANY time. No warning, no saving throws, no booting them out, it was just automatic and unavoidable. The DM claimed it was so 'you guys can get important information that you wouldn't have access to otherwise'. The problem was that the only times people would get possessed, it would be the PC's who would then go on to act totally OOC and break laws, forcing the party to go one quests and perform penance for the actions that the GODS PERFORMED IN THEIR BODIES! The worst godly offenders were actually the Lawful and Good varieties, who the DM turned into a bunch of Murder Hobo's who also made Zeus look chaste and meek! The Evil gods simply resorted to petty pranks and cryptic phrases/prophecies before vacating their meatsuits in contrast.

[@AidanWR]

Our group doesn't use flanking, but we have this thing where if a unit, both pc or enemy, is currently engaging in multiple people, you will have advantage against them. For instance, if an ogre is getting attacked by two people at the same time, the pcs would have advantage, but if it was fighting one person, but there happened to be another oc nearby, they wouldn't get advantage

[@vampire9545]

Yeah I don't get the flanking story. Maybe I missed something tho. My only 2 campaigns had flanking and it wasn't anything like this. Are they all martials? Because even then flanking shouldn't be some crazy thing.

[@ROBANN88]

for the magic supression thing, i had an idea about like a cult that wants to remove magic. they would be heavy users of Counterspell and Dispel Magic. possibly Silence or their leader has Anti-Magic Field. question is, would that be any fun? maybe a session or two at most

[@maximumforce8275]

In a current campaign I'm in, in a human oath of vengence paladin. Dm said that paladins can't smite on hit and must say if they do before the attack roll result. He also said that divine smite counts as a spell. These two rulings are really the only two that really bothers me since I don't even really get anything back since as stated in the description, it littlerally says "when you hit with a weapon attack" but nope he wants it to be "fair" mostly cause he dosent want the paladin to smite on crits. Even though it's made this way because the paladin doesn't get that many spell slots so it's made this way to not have them waste their spell slots.

[@joncrowe7873]

not so much a dm rule but a dm misrule, my dm misunderstood the wording on resilient sphere thinking it could only be undone by either dismissal or the disintegrate spell (this became clear when one of us tried to cast an up-cast dispel magic) and when we tried to talk to him about this he dug in his heels, it was clear that he made the encounter as one were the bad guy is supposed to survive and runaway using this misunderstanding as the foundation for that it was frustrating and just took the party out of a fight that we were pretty into up until then

[@shaden489]

The wild magic yhing could work in theory but you would need to incorporate it into the world and do something along the lines of wild magic zones so that players knew when yhey were entering more risky teritory and could plan accordingly. Also helps of they know from session 0 so you can gauge if they hate it or not and thus just change it so it bairoy comes up

[@jameasoncurrie348]

I like to use the wild magic when DMing, but only when a caster roles a Nat 20 or a Nat 1

[@NathenTiger]

Confirming Crits. If you roll a nat 20 you had to roll again and if your second roll would fail then you would only do normal damage instead of double to dice then add modifiers. Most absurd rule I have ever had to play with.

[@xen1313]

I played a 2nd ed dnd campaign where, as a wizard, I had to actually speak a incantation to cast verbal spells. Tracking every spell component down to the oz. I get rare components sure, but a handfuls of dirt, while standing outside?

[@foxfireinferno197]

I had a DM who was positively anal about ammunition. This was in 3e, when firing a half-dozen arrows a round was pretty easy, so the archer had four quivers of arrows ... and bought two for everybody else so he had backups.

[@ShenSorein]

My DM really was not a fan of "leveling up instantly gets you new skills" so when we got enough EXP to level up, we were still the 'previous level' until we got downtime to train and RP leveling up. Which, in and of itself, isn't a bad idea, adds a slight bit of realism to a campaign and also a further attachment to the characters in a way. The PROBLEM is that this also cost 1d10 times 10 GP per level (because he felt we had too much money) and took 1d10 days per level. So for example, going from level 5 to level 6 would be 6d10 days and cost 6d10x10 GP. Oh, and the BBEG stuff was on a time crunch, so we didn't have the freedom to go "well, I rolled a 56 so I have to spend the next two months leveling up" because the bad guys would blow up half the civilized world if we took that time to do so. And each of these level-up rolls would be individual, not party-wide, so we could have my Sorcerer taking the aforementioned 56 days to level up, and costing around 600 GP out of the 700 I had, while the cleric could take 6 days and spend around 60 gold for the same process. He was also rather stingy with even giving out gold to begin with, so we never spent it on anything so we would have enough just to level up when it was time.

[@Sorain1]

That is disgusting. Firstly, because of how inconsistent it is, that is WAY too much RNG variance to be acceptable. Secondly, because the time pressure of the BBEG doesn't mean anything. No forces offering dubious bargains for power, no risky side quests to cut down on time, no morals testing shortcuts to power. Just 'screw you the dice say you don't get to level up' because the DM is being an idiot about it. Hell, even after introducing it, when you have a situation like that where someone got screwed by the dice, you SHOULD pull out one of these (preferably something from a set you already prepared for this situation) to let that character catch up. The only way you can dodge that is if the whole thing is set up as a groundhog day style loop, where if the party fails, they get another shot at it. (Thus allowing them to eventually devote the time.) Hell, pull out a Hyperbolic Time Chamber or something DM, stop sucking so badly!

[@manahakume9870]

oof wild magic always? i mean i can think of 1 reason for that to be the case and it might be fun; the campaign is based in a world where the magic weave is SO broken that it's causing all the wild magic when spells are used and the WHOLE CAMPAIGN is about FIXING the weave so it stops doing that! obv thats also told to the players UP FRONT so they are aware and agree to it! ya also might want to change the roll table so there's not super punishing stuff in there if your gonna roll that often ._.

[@zackposey592]

So my take on critical misses hitting teammates. Make it make sense. If it makes sense that a teammate can get hit like being to close to the enemy or within the range of a big swing then yeah it has the chance to hit. So yeah if they miss the enemy with a critical miss, have them roll again to see if it hits the teammate. So my group doesn't mind it and actually leads to hilarious moments including one with a animated broom

[@lighthadoqdawg]

The flanking thing was quite honestly, a lack of creativity on the table's part. Having played in games with and without it, and currently playing concurrently in a game using flanking rules and one without. it really comes down to party composition and the maps your DM use. Chokepoints, bunkers, and hallways would spice up things if the group is literally just "move to flank and attack". the problem with flanking is that it can highlight flaws in both map and encounter design of the DM, and allows for a fast and cheap method for players to exploit, but if it's taken into account and balanced around, spells like fairy fire and trip/shove still have their place. There's also the looming issue of "leading the horse to water" in terms of building your character in a way that just isn't too conducive to how the rest of the party wishes to play. You can either adjust, or simply ask the party if they or at least someone will try to play ball with you. hopefully someone will be willing tom because strats that require two players working together are both fun for the players and fun for the table, and encourage others to either wanna join in or think of more shit. and DMs love that. basically what i'm saying is, flanking isn't for the creatively lazy.

[@Darknova67]

Wasn't me but the group I played with would always talk about how bad their dm would be, he was really strict on injuries and had an entire bone chart for them and was just incredibly unforgiving. One of my friends soft quit the campaign because when they tried to do something cool they got punished for it and lost an entire arm that would have cost a fortune to get back.

[@some_Russian_dude]

Basically making an entire campaign world where anything but human wasn't allowed. Kind of takes the fantasy out of the world. And even with those limitations ass was so freaking picky for every character we would make, me and the others just gave up and we made a new campaign.

[@lornbaker1083]

The worst rule that was ever enforced for me was the fact that I was unable to actually go out and find a Non playable character Wizard to specifically pay To have a clone of myself made. I was a high level individual our party was well known. If but apparently just because it was a warlock, I was not allowed to do any of this. Nope, it's just because I'm a warlock. It wouldn't matter if I was a celestial warlock or anything else. Nobody in town whatsoever would even slightly engage with me And this persisted in every town. Eventually I just left the group because screw that. They let everyone else set up a insurance policy in case the characters Die. But they actively told me no you're a warlock no one's going to ever help You can't come back even though the rules say That you can come back you can't. As soon as you die your patron It takes you away. At that point I just walked away because that was just total bs. I cannot stand d m's who do not Actually read and follow the rules

[@Pineapply_Queen]

8:53 Whenever we roll some flavor of Charisma check, the DM just asks for a general idea of what we're saying and the roll determines how well our characters say it. If we play it out to some degree, I think it lowers the DC.

[@joaquinljumovic5591]

One of first times i rpg'd. Dm had a book of werewolves pretty similar to VtM. My character had 5/5 str points plus a transformation that ads +3. Dm said i wasn't strong enough to lift a dude in full armor, no explaining, just that. Bruh i'm 3 points BEYOND the limit, at least said it's bc of magic, a curse, something.

[@joaquinljumovic5591]

Say* pardon my grammar

[@Goingus345]

The thing is my dm randomly enforces rules just so I can’t do what I want to do e.g. I hadn’t moved at all on my turn and we were fighting a white dragon, the dragon was about to land an attack on me that would deal a lot of damage so I say “I’m going to use uncanny dodge” then my dm says that I can only use that once per short rest ( I had used it before in a different encounter) yet no where on the ability information does it say that so I tell the dm this and he says “oh that’s a rule I just made where you can only use each of your abilities once per turn”

[@lichguard]

That one at 4:30 or so with the d100 dm was painful

[@alsenddrake7764]

I had a GM try the "you succeed so well it fails" in a fight where my highly trained martial artist killed a caster by punching a summoned elemental. In Mutants and Masterminds where by core rules throwing a truck at someone would only cause a Knockout unless they players agree beforehand to use Dying. They backtracked FAST at the backlash. And that unsynced leveling is HELL NO. Fuck that shit. It's not fun to me. I HATE it. PCs are same level. Had a DM want to do "one player starts a higher level" and even just that destroyed my mood even before we rolled to see and they backtracked. I've played unsynced level games. It's a mess. You always either have the higher level player(s) stomp, or the lower level players can't do anything.

[@Leftists_are_Losers]

Critical fumble tables. Take it from a long time player, Critical fumble tables are always a mistake. Don’t use them. Don’t create them. Critical Fumble tables don’t need to exist.

[@louiesatterwhite3885]

3:21 in some systems, line targeting abilities can only be cast in cardinal directions from the player. D&D, at least 5e, is not one of those systems

[@strongestcardaceofspades]

In a 2e campaign right now, a few sessions ago the DM found their fumble chart. I'm playing a monk, and I use Chakram, y'know, the weapon that lets ya throw 3 in one attack but ya gotta roll to hit each of them one by one? This stacking with the DM allowing monk's extra attack to let me throw 3 *per attack* in a round (Not as good as it sounds, remember, 2e, they all do a flat 1d4 + 1, ranged attack bonus if the stat is high enough but it's so complicated it's a mess for minimal reward if your dex is even high enough to apply.) So me, and another player both voiced our concerns, noting how casters (Our party is almost entirely pure martials, meaning this only hurt the party and didn't help it much) had no concern for this and the ever-present gap between martials and casters only got worse. Another player, boomer that he is (disagreeing with them on this aside he's honestly a treat to have around, don't get me wrong) saw no problem because that's how it always was in the old days when they played DnD, and our other two members (A novice and a guy always on his phone so he doesn't care much to begin with) were neutral on it. It's not become relevant yet thankfully, but, unfortunately the DM stuck to their morals and is keeping the fumble chart.

[@witchcitywitch]

Had a DM who banned critical hits for PCs but NPCs could still land them.

[@sky_nerd3797]

I had a dm once that ruined the fun for me being that he said simply no full casters. Hell the only caster I can play in the campaign was an Artificer. Soiled the fun for me because I don't have a head for smart melee, and some magical effects are just not available.

[@Skywarp2099]

That last story, natural 1 rules don't exist, outside of house rules. For what it's worth, most people don't apply the true 20 correctly either. It's possible to fail check with a true 20 roll, and I enforce this in games. The natural 20 roll is only effective in combat. Groups who decide to use natural 1 consequence rolls should take a moment for introspection, and ask themselves the following: "What purpose does this serve? What problem is it solving? Does it add to or take away from the fun of the game?" I've used a natural 1 table, created by my own design, for a couple groups because good god were they a couple of doozies.

[@cyclonebear]

Fumbles. Quite simply the idea of being punished 1/20 times I attack as a fighter is ludicrous. I'd have less of a problem if it wasn't narrated as "Your character does something outright dumb; or hits their ally"

[@BlueTressym]

What gets me is the claims by DMs using it that it's 'realistic'. No, it isn't; any RL warrior or soldier doing that wouldn't last long.