Bagpuss said:
I love how you seem to imply nothing could be wrong with your DM style, yet keep posting stuff like this.
Dude, seriously, wtf? Get off my ass.
A) I never said that there was nothing wrong with my DMing style.
No DM has nothing wrong with their DMing style.
B) I have consistently been saying that there are some things I need to adjust. I am learning what the players like and they don't like.
C) MOST players have very very few complaints. This one player, his complaints in one session usually outdo the complaints of 3 other players over several sessions. Not only that, but the player directly challenges me in the middle of the campaign, is condescending to me, and pouts in his chair, ruining the time of everyone, even if no one else is complaining.
But if you want to sit there and keep pointing the finger at me, the one trying to work this out and make things better, fine.
Bagpuss said:
Obviously you don't get it. So far you have told us your adventures consist of...
- railroad plots
- An NPC that outshines the party and comes to the rescue
- Multiple encounters designed to render this players character virtually useless
- but also some other good stuff as well (it ain't all bad)
and you still think he's the one totally at fault for complaining. Maybe he didn't go about things the right way but he has some valid complaints.
I have repeatedly said it is not all the player, but this player DOES have major issues with whining. If it were everyone, then I would assume it is almost completely on me, but since it is always that one player voicing his displeasure when everyone else is fine, I'm sorry, but I am going to be thinking that the major issue is how this guy plays the game.
As far as rendering the PC's useless... give me a break. They had an ally for ONE BATTLE and this guy did defeat the 16th level sorcerer, but the PC's walked through the beholder and the runic guardian in 2 rounds. They were
FAR from rendered useless.
Railroading... yes, some of that went on, and that is something I really am trying to work with fixing. I didn't need to be told that to realize it, I have been realizing it as I was DMing and I am working on opening things up a LOT more with the next campaign.
With multiple encounters that render the player useless. Not so. It merely changed the role he had to play, and that's just how it works sometimes. You explore an ancient wizard ruins you
will be finding some constructs. I am not going to keep constructs out of a sealed 2000 year old ruin because they are immune to a good portion of spells. Sometimes the PC's will face something like this. In such an occasion it's time for that player to show a little ingenuity by either summoning something to fight, using a wall of force to effect the battlefield, buff other players, etc. If you just want to hurl fireballs then yeah, you're going to miss out on doing what you want sometimes. That's just the way it goes.
I am not going to play a rogue and then complain I cannot sneak attack undead when I raid a lich's lair.
Bagpuss said:
If the first dungeon you run has Iron Golems, and undead with SR, and he feels useless and complains. Then the next dungeon also has Iron Golems, isn't he going to feel like you just ignored him? Does he know you changed it from 100% Iron Golems to a couple and Helmed Horrors instead?
These two dungeons were 4 adventures apart. He wasn't useless against them, in fact, the only reason the players won the battle against the Death Knight, was BECAUSE this player buffed them up so much that they were ridiculous. In that first dungeon there were two golems. But in there, there was also MANY encounters where he could unload his memorized spells. He was by no means sitting there throughout the adventure.
As was mentioned before, this player likes to see his character as the leader, the only one who matters, etc. He attaches a lot of ego to his character. So, if he faces an opponent that he cannot defeat, he gets pissy. If he feels like he isn't the center show, such as a battle with a golem, then he doesn't like it. He can't sit back and let the other players have their time in a sun. This is a flaw HE has. This isn't me.
Did he know I changed a lot of those constructs over? No. He doesn't need to know everything I do behind the DM screen. But this definitely fed my aggravation that when I catered to him behind the scenes, and he still complains.
The best way I can handle this is to have a talk, hash out our problems, and make it a standard to discuss this after the game and not during. If we cannot work it out, then we'll just have to stop gaming together.