Things I don't like about the 4E DMG - part 1 of 1000

[Wonka]

Hmm I see absolutely nothing wrong with the example you quoted. Nothing. The DM is WELL within his rights to say the spell failed, hes the DM, he can do whatever he wants. Sure if he gets to draconic then no one will play with him, but the point is DM is king of the castle. On another note, pretty shocked this thread hasn't been locked yet. Ok maybe shocked is too strong, more like surprised.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I'm thinking there are fewer mods here today due to the holidays.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Coming Up: Part 2 of 1000: Things I really hate about page 42. (subtitled: why you shouldn't follow a 20th level character up a ladder)

I completly disagree with everything you said...but I can hardly wait for part 2...it was a good read.

 

[Remathilis]

Your example is flawed. You told the PC what die roll he needs. A true RBDM assigns an AC "range" of a target-number +/- 5 points, depending on how important he is.

Player: I roll to attack. 27!
DM: (This character is too important to die now) He parries your blow and shifts 1 square.
Player: Nuts!

Now, onto your point which is that a DM shouldn't thwart PC rituals because they might interfere with your plot. A good DM should NEVER stop a PC from clever use of spells to ruin his game!

Hey, when are you running a 3e game? I got a 18th level sorcerer I want to play. His favorite spell is wish...

 

[Raven Crowking]

OP boils down to: If the ritual didn't fail because of the player, don't tell the player that it did. Yes, you can make the ritual fail, but don't blame the player.

The 4e DMG advises the DM to have the ritual fail, and to tell the player that it's because he didn't do it right. That is bad advice, even if every other tidbit is gold.

Not RAW is king. Not a pack of insults. Not any of the other vitriol heaped on the OP.


RC

 

[ThirdWizard]

I think the OP had a decent idea for a post heaped in such vitriol that I find it distasteful to agree with him.

 

[Gentlegamer]

I think the problem the OP has with that advice speaks to the different goals of adventure role-playing and narrative/story role-playing. It's a problem that has been present in D&D since the beginning. D&D, historically, has been much, much better at the former than the latter.

 

[Dinkeldog]

I'm thinking there are fewer mods here today due to the holidays.

But we're not all gone.

There are problems throughout the thread. We can move forward if we keep a few things in mind: 1) Not everyone has to like everything you like. 2) Some things that turned out to be huge problems for other people may have never been a problem for you.

Let me put this up, then I'll put in my own 2 cp.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

In before the Edition War starts!

 

[Dinkeldog]

I have had adventures really falter because of the scry-teleport problem in 3rd edition. It got to the point that after 9th level, I needed to start taking every adventure apart and put it back together taking this into account (and a couple other 1-shot save or die spells).

Part of this is fixed in 4E with the cutbacks in availability of teleport powers, but the scrying can lead to its own issues.