Lokishadow
First Post
Hi, all.
I'm new here, but not new to D&D. I've always loved it, but since the release of 3rd edtion, and especially 3.5, I've encountered one large, glaring problem:
Roll Playing.
It seems that every DM these days is out to kill the PC's. While I understand the need of a good challenge (I'm the guy that tosses a hydra at a 2nd level party), I don't understand the need of the DM's to find every little excuse to enforce the rules in a fashion that gives the monsters more of an edge than the PC's.
What am I speaking of? Let's take the last 3.5 game I attended as an example. I made what I considered to be an interesting character. The DM had told me to make a 4th level character, and that the party had no arcane spellcaster. So I built a 4th level dwarven wizard. Picking spells, I noticed my first major gripe with 3.5 (I'm getting a little off-topic here, please bear with me): spells. What do you mean, spider climb is a 2nd level spell?! And enlarge is not reversible and only works on humanoids?! They killed my spellcaster by turing him into a miniatures-battle-support character.
I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and picked what I thought were some cool spells. Then I showed up early at the game and asked the DM for a little help and commentary, seeing as to how I had only been DMing for the last 9 years or so. He took a look at my spell list and promptly told me that roughly 30% of my spells were useless. He specifically pointed out that spider climb and expeditious retreat were useless because 1: spider climb is a waste of a perfectly good 2nd level spell (such as scorching ray) and 2: expeditious retreat has a range of personal.
I decided that I show him differently, and, I feel to my credit, I did. But the circumstances! Goodness. The party consisted of 9 characters, including 1 cleric, 1 wizard (myself), 1 rogue, 2 rangers, 1 barbarian, 1 paladin, and 2 fighters. The party's average level was 4th. Our first encounter consisted of what I call SEAL Team Orc. 16 orcs, each of them 4th level fighters or rangers, with their chainmail stowed in their packs (so it wouldn't make noise) and wearing Masterwork Studded Leather, and cross-classed ranks in Move Silently and Hide, snuck up on our campsite and ambushed us. It took us nearly 22 rounds to off all of them, and we had three characters below 0 hp and 2 that were flat out DEAD by that time. The DM allowed us a one-day reprieve (he didn't roll any random encounters) to rest and heal up, and for the two players to roll up new characters. We then continued with our plan to infiltrate the orc keep to the southwest.
We determined that the best way to get into the orc keep would be to scale the cliff, work our way above it, and rappel (did I spell that right?) down onto one of the guard towers. After two weeks of journeying and three nights camped nearby, the DM decided it was an appropriate time to roll for weather, and miraculously rolled up a blizzard. We camped and waited out the blizzard, but the cliff was now covered in ice, making the climb check a DC 35! The DM neglected to tell the rangers that it would probably be very hard to climb the cliff after their stunning Survival and Knowledeg: nature rolls of 25-29. So, thinking we could make it, we proceeded to wipe out half our hp trying to climb the cliff. The only remaining route was to bluff our way in the front gate...after determing that even under a spider climb spell, the rogue with a total climb modifier of 12 could not scale the cliff.
We did manage to bluff our way into the inner guard house, at which point we elected to take out the two lonely orc guards. Who turned out to be 6th level fighters. Despite the iron-strapped heavy oaken doors and empty secondary chambers, and 40 feet of intervening space, the two orc's cries for help were heard by everything in the keep. Shortly after dispatching the two guards, the four ogres (3rd level fighters), two hill giants (2nd level fighters) and 30 orcs (all of them 4th level fighters except the leader, who was 8th), managed to stave in the reinforced doors of the inner keep and attack us.
The resulting combat yeilded about 1,500 xp each, lasted 40-50 rounds, killed 5 pc's, and reduced eveyone who survived to single-digit hp's.
The DM called this a CR 6 encounter. While he was cackling over his critical hits, and our critical fumbles on a natural roll of 2.
The bad part is that the last 7 games I've been involved in were just like this, though circumstances were obviously different.
My question is, what happened to DMing? What happened to stories? Why is everyone (the last 8 DM's I've played with) so concerned with rules rather than playing? Is it just me? Is it bad luck? Or, is this a growing trend, the wave of the future for D&D?
I'm new here, but not new to D&D. I've always loved it, but since the release of 3rd edtion, and especially 3.5, I've encountered one large, glaring problem:
Roll Playing.
It seems that every DM these days is out to kill the PC's. While I understand the need of a good challenge (I'm the guy that tosses a hydra at a 2nd level party), I don't understand the need of the DM's to find every little excuse to enforce the rules in a fashion that gives the monsters more of an edge than the PC's.
What am I speaking of? Let's take the last 3.5 game I attended as an example. I made what I considered to be an interesting character. The DM had told me to make a 4th level character, and that the party had no arcane spellcaster. So I built a 4th level dwarven wizard. Picking spells, I noticed my first major gripe with 3.5 (I'm getting a little off-topic here, please bear with me): spells. What do you mean, spider climb is a 2nd level spell?! And enlarge is not reversible and only works on humanoids?! They killed my spellcaster by turing him into a miniatures-battle-support character.
I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and picked what I thought were some cool spells. Then I showed up early at the game and asked the DM for a little help and commentary, seeing as to how I had only been DMing for the last 9 years or so. He took a look at my spell list and promptly told me that roughly 30% of my spells were useless. He specifically pointed out that spider climb and expeditious retreat were useless because 1: spider climb is a waste of a perfectly good 2nd level spell (such as scorching ray) and 2: expeditious retreat has a range of personal.
I decided that I show him differently, and, I feel to my credit, I did. But the circumstances! Goodness. The party consisted of 9 characters, including 1 cleric, 1 wizard (myself), 1 rogue, 2 rangers, 1 barbarian, 1 paladin, and 2 fighters. The party's average level was 4th. Our first encounter consisted of what I call SEAL Team Orc. 16 orcs, each of them 4th level fighters or rangers, with their chainmail stowed in their packs (so it wouldn't make noise) and wearing Masterwork Studded Leather, and cross-classed ranks in Move Silently and Hide, snuck up on our campsite and ambushed us. It took us nearly 22 rounds to off all of them, and we had three characters below 0 hp and 2 that were flat out DEAD by that time. The DM allowed us a one-day reprieve (he didn't roll any random encounters) to rest and heal up, and for the two players to roll up new characters. We then continued with our plan to infiltrate the orc keep to the southwest.
We determined that the best way to get into the orc keep would be to scale the cliff, work our way above it, and rappel (did I spell that right?) down onto one of the guard towers. After two weeks of journeying and three nights camped nearby, the DM decided it was an appropriate time to roll for weather, and miraculously rolled up a blizzard. We camped and waited out the blizzard, but the cliff was now covered in ice, making the climb check a DC 35! The DM neglected to tell the rangers that it would probably be very hard to climb the cliff after their stunning Survival and Knowledeg: nature rolls of 25-29. So, thinking we could make it, we proceeded to wipe out half our hp trying to climb the cliff. The only remaining route was to bluff our way in the front gate...after determing that even under a spider climb spell, the rogue with a total climb modifier of 12 could not scale the cliff.
We did manage to bluff our way into the inner guard house, at which point we elected to take out the two lonely orc guards. Who turned out to be 6th level fighters. Despite the iron-strapped heavy oaken doors and empty secondary chambers, and 40 feet of intervening space, the two orc's cries for help were heard by everything in the keep. Shortly after dispatching the two guards, the four ogres (3rd level fighters), two hill giants (2nd level fighters) and 30 orcs (all of them 4th level fighters except the leader, who was 8th), managed to stave in the reinforced doors of the inner keep and attack us.
The resulting combat yeilded about 1,500 xp each, lasted 40-50 rounds, killed 5 pc's, and reduced eveyone who survived to single-digit hp's.
The DM called this a CR 6 encounter. While he was cackling over his critical hits, and our critical fumbles on a natural roll of 2.
The bad part is that the last 7 games I've been involved in were just like this, though circumstances were obviously different.
My question is, what happened to DMing? What happened to stories? Why is everyone (the last 8 DM's I've played with) so concerned with rules rather than playing? Is it just me? Is it bad luck? Or, is this a growing trend, the wave of the future for D&D?
