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Is my DM being fair?
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<blockquote data-quote="TheSword" data-source="post: 7413355" data-attributes="member: 6879661"><p>[MENTION=6857506]Harzel[/MENTION]</p><p></p><p>I agree with pretty much everything you’ve said, so perhaps I should clarify.</p><p></p><p>The phaser to a knife fight analogy is a really good one. I’m all for adventures with higher power levels and I have no issue flexing challenges to abilities. My issue is when one PC has a phaser and all the other PCs bring knives. In my experience this isn’t because of a lack of knowledge on the other PCs. It’s becausr they aren’t looking to play the game that way. 5e is relatively balanced, at least compared to Pathfinder but there are still issues which result in unbalanced builds.</p><p></p><p>The assassin/alert combo getting to go first is an example. The assassin already gets to act in the surprise round, and with +5 initiative will almost certainly get to go before other PCs. That means the rogue is getting 2 rounds of actions before anyone else gets to go. 4 attacks, 2 of which sneak, is easily 40+ points of damage without crits which with 4 attacks will be 1/5 chance. This happens every time or near enough. I don’t have any issue with the auto crit part of assassin because it’s circumstantial and requires set up. I have an assassin in the campaign I’m running. He knows that he won’t be able to assassinate in most combats and that he shouldn’t take some feats. On the other hand I let him use a glaive as a finesse weapon so swings and roundabouts.</p><p></p><p>Very high grapples and the shove action to trip people up is a similar big issue. </p><p></p><p>When players stack bonuses and abilities so much that these kinds of things become auto success I have a problem. For me this is synergy up to a point and after that point (where it becomes the phaser not the knife) then I step in.</p><p></p><p></p><p>My usual preferred solution is to speak to the player out of game in advance and to say hey the Alert feet is fine, providing you arent planning on taking the assassin class. I strongly discourage 1 or 2 level dips just to get abilities like expertise for grappler builds. I’m lucky that I’ve built three stable groups of players and we’re on the same wavelength.</p><p></p><p>It would be a bit like a friendly local poker game in someone’s house and one person sits down with shades a visor and earplugs on. I actually saw that happen once and our host when he got up to get drinks, stood behind the guy, tapped him on the shoulder and when the guest took one earphone out he said “we don’t play like that mate.” There was a bit of shock at first but the got on really well with us in the end and came to many more games (sans ear phones).</p><p></p><p>The unfortunate thing in this case is that it wasn’t discussed at the start but at the same time those conversations don’t always come up. If it can’t be dealt with in advance, it isn’t unfair to deal with it when it becomes a problem. Better that then make a campaign go nuclear. </p><p></p><p>I don’t mind the party making easy challenges. In yesterday’s game they took a relatively tough NPC ‘boss’ and defeated him without him getting to act because of clever planning and deception - they worked really well as a team to be honest. My NPC didn’t get to act but a well executed plan for me was enough. When the challenges should be difficult but one PCs character trivializes it because of stacked abilities then I have a problem.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TheSword, post: 7413355, member: 6879661"] [MENTION=6857506]Harzel[/MENTION] I agree with pretty much everything you’ve said, so perhaps I should clarify. The phaser to a knife fight analogy is a really good one. I’m all for adventures with higher power levels and I have no issue flexing challenges to abilities. My issue is when one PC has a phaser and all the other PCs bring knives. In my experience this isn’t because of a lack of knowledge on the other PCs. It’s becausr they aren’t looking to play the game that way. 5e is relatively balanced, at least compared to Pathfinder but there are still issues which result in unbalanced builds. The assassin/alert combo getting to go first is an example. The assassin already gets to act in the surprise round, and with +5 initiative will almost certainly get to go before other PCs. That means the rogue is getting 2 rounds of actions before anyone else gets to go. 4 attacks, 2 of which sneak, is easily 40+ points of damage without crits which with 4 attacks will be 1/5 chance. This happens every time or near enough. I don’t have any issue with the auto crit part of assassin because it’s circumstantial and requires set up. I have an assassin in the campaign I’m running. He knows that he won’t be able to assassinate in most combats and that he shouldn’t take some feats. On the other hand I let him use a glaive as a finesse weapon so swings and roundabouts. Very high grapples and the shove action to trip people up is a similar big issue. When players stack bonuses and abilities so much that these kinds of things become auto success I have a problem. For me this is synergy up to a point and after that point (where it becomes the phaser not the knife) then I step in. My usual preferred solution is to speak to the player out of game in advance and to say hey the Alert feet is fine, providing you arent planning on taking the assassin class. I strongly discourage 1 or 2 level dips just to get abilities like expertise for grappler builds. I’m lucky that I’ve built three stable groups of players and we’re on the same wavelength. It would be a bit like a friendly local poker game in someone’s house and one person sits down with shades a visor and earplugs on. I actually saw that happen once and our host when he got up to get drinks, stood behind the guy, tapped him on the shoulder and when the guest took one earphone out he said “we don’t play like that mate.” There was a bit of shock at first but the got on really well with us in the end and came to many more games (sans ear phones). The unfortunate thing in this case is that it wasn’t discussed at the start but at the same time those conversations don’t always come up. If it can’t be dealt with in advance, it isn’t unfair to deal with it when it becomes a problem. Better that then make a campaign go nuclear. I don’t mind the party making easy challenges. In yesterday’s game they took a relatively tough NPC ‘boss’ and defeated him without him getting to act because of clever planning and deception - they worked really well as a team to be honest. My NPC didn’t get to act but a well executed plan for me was enough. When the challenges should be difficult but one PCs character trivializes it because of stacked abilities then I have a problem. [/QUOTE]
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