Joseph Elric Smith
First Post
No but it does stop rules lawyers from trying to tell the DM what he can or cannot do in his own game.kreynolds said:
Ken
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Help me thwart my DM and save our life! Wand usage...
- Thread starter Tsyr
- Start date
Ken
Pielorinho
Iron Fist of Pelor
Three approaches:
1) Consider this as a major artifact that this particular NPC carries around, and don't worry too much about it.
2) Next time you expect to fight him, cast silence on one of the fighters, and send him charging at the wizard. Grapple him and snatch the wand from his belt, and toss it over to the party wizard. Hee hee! Good magic item!
3) Y'all know what the command word is, right? Let's say it's "railroad." Next time you see him, claim you want to parley with him. Then, all party members simultaneously shout, "RAILROAD! I target the wizard." If it's simply the noise of the command word which sets off the wands, then the wizard should be facing 7 PCs x 10 wands x 5 missiles/wand = 350d4+350 points of damage. Wizard flambe!
Daniel
1) Consider this as a major artifact that this particular NPC carries around, and don't worry too much about it.
2) Next time you expect to fight him, cast silence on one of the fighters, and send him charging at the wizard. Grapple him and snatch the wand from his belt, and toss it over to the party wizard. Hee hee! Good magic item!
3) Y'all know what the command word is, right? Let's say it's "railroad." Next time you see him, claim you want to parley with him. Then, all party members simultaneously shout, "RAILROAD! I target the wizard." If it's simply the noise of the command word which sets off the wands, then the wizard should be facing 7 PCs x 10 wands x 5 missiles/wand = 350d4+350 points of damage. Wizard flambe!
Daniel
DiFier
First Post
It sounds to me like your DM has an issue with being in control. Almost like he isn't DMing to give you guys a fun chalenging thing to do on a wednesday night but instead he's trying to see how he can 
you over and have you jump through hoops. If you do convince him that the 10 duct taped wands of magic missles don't work he will just give the guy someting else which may not be against the rules but will still be very powerful. rather than making the adventure interisting which baits you into doing what he wants he is using strong arm tactics. Tell his about getting more flies with honey. It might be mean but you could have everyone in the group make comments everytime the NPC shows up. "Oh this guy again. . .I guess we are going in the wrong direction. again." "Oh we must be wondering into the area [the DM] didn't design yet [the NPC] with the wand is back."
Another suggestion is to have the group attack him. the charachters attacking the NPC not the players attacking the DM. Go for a TPK. If you could get lucky and actually take out the NPC but another more powerful one will take his place. You can show how dissasatisfied you are with his tactics by getting the party whiped out. When he asks why the you all just did that tell him that we want to make some decisions ourselves every time you tried to make a desision in the past he ended up making it for you. by threating your charachters with death. so you choose death cause that was the only option.
Of course and if you are really into the charachters; switch nights pick a new DM and don't tell the old one.
you over and have you jump through hoops. If you do convince him that the 10 duct taped wands of magic missles don't work he will just give the guy someting else which may not be against the rules but will still be very powerful. rather than making the adventure interisting which baits you into doing what he wants he is using strong arm tactics. Tell his about getting more flies with honey. It might be mean but you could have everyone in the group make comments everytime the NPC shows up. "Oh this guy again. . .I guess we are going in the wrong direction. again." "Oh we must be wondering into the area [the DM] didn't design yet [the NPC] with the wand is back." Another suggestion is to have the group attack him. the charachters attacking the NPC not the players attacking the DM. Go for a TPK. If you could get lucky and actually take out the NPC but another more powerful one will take his place. You can show how dissasatisfied you are with his tactics by getting the party whiped out. When he asks why the
you all just did that tell him that we want to make some decisions ourselves every time you tried to make a desision in the past he ended up making it for you. by threating your charachters with death. so you choose death cause that was the only option. Of course and if you are really into the charachters; switch nights pick a new DM and don't tell the old one.
Wippit Guud
First Post
Refuse to be railroaded, then die, then make a new character.
Refuse to be railroaded, then die, then make a new character.
Refuse to... well, you get the idea.
Eventually, he'll take the hint, get sick of it all, or whine that you aren't playing the game right. And then you can tell him he's not playing right either.
Refuse to be railroaded, then die, then make a new character.
Refuse to... well, you get the idea.
Eventually, he'll take the hint, get sick of it all, or whine that you aren't playing the game right. And then you can tell him he's not playing right either.
When a DM creates anything for their campaign, they should use the full weight of their imagination, in my view, not follow rules that are designed for player characters. Neither NPCs nor items created for a DM’s campaign should be thought of as limited by those rules, to me. It is actually a new concept to me that people regard this topic in a different light; quite an eye-opener. To the extent that many responses here and in other threads recommend attacking the DM, verbally or physically! I assume those are not literal, but just expressing strong feelings on the issue, but it is still a big surprise to me that players would be upset at a DM for keeping things fresh and different. I understand that in this case, it is also dangerous, but I am suggesting that the broader fact that it is a new and different challenge at least be taken into account.
There are some good suggestions on handling the power of this opponent above. Or, possibly, your group can’t defeat them. Having people in the world more powerful than yourself is pretty normal. Is this worse because they have a new magic item than if they were an exact PC-type character with several of the more deadly items in the DMG? I don’t see the difference at all, myself. Unless it is this determination to bind the DM with the rules that exist only to standardize player characters. They are not there to standardize other people in the world, in my view, but I do see that that is more and more the tendency in products. Really an unfortunate approach to playing an imaginative game, I think. Having a right to expect physics in the game world to remain consistent is I think pretty reasonable (with room for exceptions), but expecting that all magic will adhere to the options available to PCS seems like it would terribly limit the degree of imagination in the game, to me. Sometimes liberal use of their imagination by the DM will benefit the players, sometimes their opponents- but the game would be awfully repetitive and dull if the DM did not have freedom to apply their ideas.
If the DM’s rule explanation for this magic item seems weak, maybe remember that they don’t really have to have one at all. The fact that a PC can’t duplicate something does not mean that it can’t exist. Focus on in-game thinking instead- it is a new powerful magic item, not a real surprise in a world that has plenty of such things.
There are some good suggestions on handling the power of this opponent above. Or, possibly, your group can’t defeat them. Having people in the world more powerful than yourself is pretty normal. Is this worse because they have a new magic item than if they were an exact PC-type character with several of the more deadly items in the DMG? I don’t see the difference at all, myself. Unless it is this determination to bind the DM with the rules that exist only to standardize player characters. They are not there to standardize other people in the world, in my view, but I do see that that is more and more the tendency in products. Really an unfortunate approach to playing an imaginative game, I think. Having a right to expect physics in the game world to remain consistent is I think pretty reasonable (with room for exceptions), but expecting that all magic will adhere to the options available to PCS seems like it would terribly limit the degree of imagination in the game, to me. Sometimes liberal use of their imagination by the DM will benefit the players, sometimes their opponents- but the game would be awfully repetitive and dull if the DM did not have freedom to apply their ideas.
If the DM’s rule explanation for this magic item seems weak, maybe remember that they don’t really have to have one at all. The fact that a PC can’t duplicate something does not mean that it can’t exist. Focus on in-game thinking instead- it is a new powerful magic item, not a real surprise in a world that has plenty of such things.
Hypersmurf
Moderatarrrrh...
Re: Re: Re: Re: Help me thwart my DM and save our life! Wand usage...
Hey, if we Empower those and Haste him, that could go in Sultans of Smack!
-Hyp.
Hey, if we Empower those and Haste him, that could go in Sultans of Smack!
-Hyp.
Pielorinho
Iron Fist of Pelor
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Help me thwart my DM and save our life! Wand usage...
Just remember: if it's the noise of the command word, rather than the act of activating the wand, that matters, no matter how much damage the NPC can do to the party each round, the party can do (number of party members x megawand's damage) back to the NPC each round, just by shouting out the command word themselves.
Daniel
Hypersmurf said:Hey, if we Empower those and Haste him, that could go in Sultans of Smack!
Just remember: if it's the noise of the command word, rather than the act of activating the wand, that matters, no matter how much damage the NPC can do to the party each round, the party can do (number of party members x megawand's damage) back to the NPC each round, just by shouting out the command word themselves.
Daniel
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