Is this DM bs or is it not?

[-Ekimus-]

my friend has a 13 barb, and was using his wings of flying to make a short journey to a neighboring city. 10 harpys flew out of the forest around him, did their charm thing, he failed, instead of killing and eating him like they are said to in the MM, they took all his magic items (consisting of a rod of lordy might and white dragon scale armor, along with about 3 others) and just flew off. WHY WOULD HARPYS TAKE STUFF? they have no use for it nor can they sell it... what are your takes on it?

 

[Crothian]

Sounds like the GM wanted to remove some of the Barbarians magical items. By the book, I guess they could do it. Maybe they are Capitilist Harpies.

 

[CRGreathouse]

How do you know they were harpies? They could easily have been polymorphed or altered creatures...

 

[Tsyr]

Ah yes. Dungeonmasterus Kleptomanius . I know the type well.

Essentialy, unless your campagin has other changes I don't know about, yes. The DM did it sorta "out of the blue", to rob the player.

Be warned. Next up will be one-legged beggers taking your +5 swords, Dwarves with sucking chest wounds taking your Ring of Invisibility, and small lizards taking your +5 Plate of Command.

Well, maybe not, but keep your goods gaurded anyhow.

 

[noretoc]

Sounds like a good way to get rid of some magic items. Now remember where thoes harpy's were, and when you get to the point you can take them, go get revenge. Who knows what else they have in thier horde.

 

[MythandLore]

Sounds like the GM wanted to remove some of the Barbarians magical items. By the book, I guess they could do it. Maybe they are Capitilist Harpies.

I got to agree.
It was a CR13 encounter, BUT...
Since there were only 2 of you, it would have seemed like a CR15-16 encounter...

"You see ten harpies fly out of the trees at you! Hee Hee!"
"Oh ! I try to fly away!!!"
"AH-HAHAHAHA!!! Make ten saving throws!!!"

Bottom line the barb got shafted.
On the up side he didn't die.

 

[Akunin]

Maybe they wanted him to gather together some friends and try to track down his goods... These Harpies are trolling for adventurers!

 

[Mouseferatu]

Given what we know so far, I have no problem with this.

First off, it could be a major plot point. For all we know, in a few games, these thieving harpies are going to become major villains.

Second, would the player prefer the harpies had eaten him?! I'd be happy to get away with my hide intact under those circumstances.

Finally, to put it bluntly, even if the DM's only objective was to clear out some excess magic, that's his prerogative. The DM giveth, the DM taketh away. Players who assume that the magic items they have are somehow sacrosanct kind of annoy me. DM's make mistakes; if he's realized that he's given this character too much magic and this is his way of correcting it, so be it.

 

[-Ekimus-]

well we went back there to, not to find them this time, and our DM is stingy on magic items and gold, at lvl 13 we have about 5000gold to our names, total, in a group of 4.

 

[Crothian]

You can't talk about stingy gold unless you have placed in Sanctuary, Thieves World. We were 6th level and celebrated finding a crossbow. No exaggeration