DMs: What Powers Do PCs Get That You Hate?

[Aulirophile]

Yep. Earthgrasp Strike is so good that my 24th level Warden is still using this level 3 encounter power.

Really? What are his other powers? I trained it out for Warden's Lure at 17 (natural progression) and don't miss it, though it was nice when I had it.

 

[MrMyth]

Everyone at our table (DM included) was always glad to see Earthgrasp Strike used, but only because the first few times the warden used it, it kept sounding like it was called "Earth Crabs Strike!

...and, thus, the name stuck for the next 20 levels...

 

[Bold or Stupid]

Surprised this one hasn't been mentioned

Thief of Five Fates.

Combined with a Taclord Lead the Attacking (A power I love but thinks needs a little toning down). This was the doom of many solos in my first 4e game.

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Taclord used lead the attack in my last game - which was actually very good for me, as he used it on a higher level elite soldier I had in there (he's to be a reoccuring NPC, so I want the players to start off weaker than him), and it brought his defences down from ungodly to a bit weak. Then he got pushed down a hole he couldn't climb out of - it worked very well story and gameplay wise.

That said, I can see it being potentially a problem - but I also like it because it makes throwing over leveled baddy NPCs at them viable.

I guess my biggest annoyance is the amount of healing the cleric can pump out, even post erratta. It makes it hard to make an encounter difficult but not grindy - by the time I'm getting through their healing triggers, they are also through their powers. It also makes for short aventuring days - to challenge them, I have to make them blow more surges in an individual encounter, which means fewer encounters per day. Doesn't help that we also have a warlord - but its better now that he's retrained his extra healing feat for a feat that boosts the attacks he gives out - I love that one, it turns all our other characters into strikers, at least for their attackes on the warlord's turn.

I think I'll have to try some encounters where I seperate the party more, and do more focus fire, which is something I generally avoid. So long as I don't focus fire the same guy all the time, it should work.

 

[Rechan]

This breaks the rules of the question, but I hate any power my PCs miss with.

It bums me when I see their limited resource fail. Also because that limited resource means less damage output, meaning it's creeping closer to grind.

 

[Xeterog]

few powers get to me...Plague of Frogs for some reason is annoying...it's some of the epic feats (that should be great so I shouldn't complain really)...but you can get +6 to all your non-AC defenses with just 4 epic feats...and the paladin in my party now does, with challenge/sanction, -2 Attack, 17 Damage and the creature is weakened for the attack if the attack does not include the Paladin...

 

[Aulirophile]

few powers get to me...Plague of Frogs for some reason is annoying...it's some of the epic feats (that should be great so I shouldn't complain really)...but you can get +6 to all your non-AC defenses with just 4 epic feats...and the paladin in my party now does, with challenge/sanction, -2 Attack, 17 Damage and the creature is weakened for the attack if the attack does not include the Paladin...

...Really? All the amazing epic feats you pass up to get those defenses and that bothers you? Four feats is a huge investment.

And geez, my group not only gives Paragon/Robust defenses for free (at level 11 and "retained" at 21), we give an epic defense feat for free to the lowest defense of each character. We do take out the option of taking any of the other epic defense feats, though, but if the defender in a group I DMed really wanted to use that many feats on his NADs I'd wish him well.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I only ran 4e up to about 8th level, but the one which really bugged me was "consecrated ground". shuffle round amazing healing and damaging of people all over the place. Any time it turned up it was annoying and tended to make things a little more grindy. We should have made a square out of wire of the correct dimensions to facilitate all the shuffling around of figures it caused us to make.

The one which bugged me most in terms of seeing a player disappointed in a useless power was Fireball, which got used by the wizard twice, each time rolling about 4 or 5 damage on the 3d6. The wizard player got so frustrated by the ineffectiveness of his most powerful daily spell that he actually quit the game in frustration.

 

[jcayer]

I've got 2. Come and get it just annoys the crap out of me. The fact a character can influence creatures so far away.

The other is wall of fire. I would be fine if it was just a straight line, but it doesn't read that way. Who heard of a wall that could double back on itself? My guys use it so effectively, unfortunately, it takes them 10 minutes to figure out exactly how to do that. This square...no, this square, what about moving it this way and getting these 2 squares.

 

[davethegame]

I've got 2. Come and get it just annoys the crap out of me. The fact a character can influence creatures so far away.

Come and Get It can just be wonky in terms of story- you have two bodyguards protecting an important non-melee badguy... and suddenly, you've pulled him into combat without having to roll, and mark him so he's not moving away.

My latest annoyance has been the Healing Sun, the Radiant Servant 12 utility- basically, during a short rest, party heals to full without spending any healing surges. Had the potential to wreck my last adventure, where the PCs were losing surges from the weather... almost made that aspect of things meaningless.