Want to know if this is a houserule or not?

[bennyhobo]

Ok, so I'm playing with a group of n00bs to 4E, including our DM. He played 3.5 a lot, and I'm pretty sure he keeps rolling back to 3.5 rules and stuff. He's admitted to me that he didn't read the 4E Players Handbook, only the quick start rules you can get for free on the Wizards' website. I'll spare you the detailed breakdown of what rules I know for sure that he's ignoring. My main question is about two encounters.

1st: 4 players vs. a T-rex - He said that the T-rex has a special condition where, with it's thick hide, you can't tell if it's bloodied or not. Is that a real thing, or did he make it up?

2nd: 4 players vs. 20 angry gorilla creatures - He had us (all level 2 characters, btw) fight 20 gorillas of some kind, and he said that they all had some kind of group power, where as they were killed, the remaining creatures would increase in power. So after every round of combat, if any of them died, the rest of them got 10 more HP, and all their other stats increased. By the end of the encounter, they'd grown to be 12 feet tall with four arms. I think the only reason we didn't die is because he realized that they were supremely overpowered for our characters, and he started dialing their stats back down. Again, is this a real thing in 4E? Did he make it up? Is it based on something from 3.5?

I don't have the resources to investigate myself (meaning, I don't have the cash to buy a bunch of books to look it up), so I'm hoping people on here can give me some insight?

I'm not complaining if he made them up. Whatever. He's trying to make it fun. I just want to know that when he says "Oh yeah, this is all standard stuff." that he's not lying to me. Because if he is lying, then I'm afraid that I can't trust him as a DM when it comes to stuff that's going to matter. Then again, I already said that I know he's ignoring some rules. So I already can't trust him to play fair.

Well, either way, can anyone shed a little light? I'm hoping that I'm overreacting. Houserules are fine by me, as long as the players KNOW that they're houserules. The problem I have is that he's trying to pass them off as the real rules. And the times that I've caught him on that, he's blown it off and ignored me.

Sorry, that was pretty erratic.

Thanks!

Benny

 

[the Jester]

Sounds like homebrewed monsters to me, but mostly reasonable stuff.

However, the whole "can't tell when bloodied" thing is silly- there are tons of abilities that key off of bloodied/not bloodied.

The apes thingies sound cool, but again, sound homebrewed. But then again, who knows? There are thousands of monsters for 4e now, and I'm certainly not familiar with all of them! They might be from a Dungeon issue, RPGA module, etc.

It does sound like you might have some trust issues to work out with the dm- and it doesn't really sound (from the limited info available) like he's being straight with you, appealing to authority by saying "It's in a book somewhere!" instead of saying, "Hey, trust me, I'm the dm and I'm out to make everyone have fun." It also sounds like he may not completely 'grok' the 4e approach to things.

 

[Amaroq]

Yeah, both of those sound house-ruled to me.

Bloodied is a keyword, not a "something you can tell so you know when somebody is halfway injured"; as Jester noted, lots of powers key off of it (e.g., do extra damage vs bloodied, gain temporary hit points if your hit bloodied the monster, etc), so "hiding" it from the players really doesn't work. Thick hide is more accurately expressed (in both 3.5e and 4e) as resistance to damage or higher armor class.

For level 2 characters to be facing 20 creatures, they should be minions. Now, 20 level 2 minions is a fine encounter for a group of level 2 characters - but them "powering up" as described is certainly non-standard. Your DM may not yet really get how minions are supposed to work, is what that sounds like to me.

 

[bennyhobo]

Thanks. I appreciate the quick replies. I think I'll probably let it go for now. What's done is done, and there's no point to fighting about it. But if something happens again that is problematic, like the whole can't-tell-when-bloodied thing, I'm going to call him out on it.

Yeah, we definitely have trust issues. As another example, for our second encounter, we were level 1 characters fighting a Colossal Red Dragon from the deck of an airship, flying over an ocean. I told him I wanted to jump off and take my chances in the water. He said no. The whole encounter was structured so that our actions were worthless. The high level NPCs were doing all the work. I think he's more interested in telling us a story than he is playing a game.

But I don't think this forum is designed to complain about jerky DMs, so that's enough from me.

Thanks again!

 

[Starfox]

In 4E, monster design is an art, not a craft. The DM can make his critters any way he likes - there are guidelines but no rules. So anything pertaining to monsters is not really "house rules" - unless you count any use of your own monsters as a house rule.

That said, a monster that never becomes bloodied (never gives out the game effects of being bloodied) is a possibility, but a monster that becomes bloodied and does not tell of it seems a bit silly. On the other hand, there is no rule saying the GM has to inform the players about the status of his monsters - as long as he applies the effects. The DM can keep whatever information he likes to himself, but then has to take on the burden of implementing all rules and conditions on this.

Finally, the Dm is never wrong - he can do anything he likes with his game. It sounds like you are learning 4E together, and the DM is testing out encounter ideas to see what works. It will take a bit of time before you all learn the ropes - 4E is fully as complex as 3E even if the complexity is even more of an emergent quality in 4E. Give it some time, give friendly and encouraging feedback, and have fun!

 

[Nytmare]

I see the trust issues as more a problem with you than a problem with the DM.

His problem is "I'm new and trying to learn how to do this" and in the end, that's not really a problem unless you're looking to make it one.

 

[bennyhobo]

You make a good point. I probably need to relax. I guess, being so new, I'm leaning heavily on the written rules to help me through. Maybe I need to step back from that and just go with it for a while.

 

[lkjopajdowma]

Yeah, we definitely have trust issues. As another example, for our second encounter, we were level 1 characters fighting a Colossal Red Dragon from the deck of an airship, flying over an ocean. I told him I wanted to jump off and take my chances in the water. He said no. The whole encounter was structured so that our actions were worthless. The high level NPCs were doing all the work. I think he's more interested in telling us a story than he is playing a game.

Try talking to your DM. Let them know it's bothering you. I ran into a similar situation with a campaign once in 3.5...we had a ship full of higher level NPCs who saved our asses all the time...it was annoying...felt like our PCs weren't the heroes. We didn't talk to the DM and the campaign ended abruptly one session when we refused to move forward (literally, it ended with an argument and our characters stuck in a pocket dimension, refusing to go into the next room to talk to a lich that wanted to "help" us).

We never talked with the DM about our issues, and got an unsatisfactory ending. Which is why I suggest trying to talk to your DM and let them know the issues you're having. Give him a chance to make things better. If he won't, and you're not having fun, perhaps it's time to find another game.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

The first one sounds homebrewed.

The second -- didn't a monster in the Sword & Sorcery Creature Catalog for Scarred Lands work this way? I seem to recall one -- the Aberrant, maybe.