D&D 5E Shadow Step in dark dungeon - general purpose teleport or abuse of feature?

[Corwin]

If it stops being cool if the character conatantly teleports in darkness all the time, limit it.

Not to call out UngeheuerLich, specifically, as others have expressed similar concerns. But "stops being cool" by who's standards, exactly? The player doing it? Or the DM?

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Not to call out UngeheuerLich, specifically, as others have expressed similar concerns. But "stops being cool" by who's standards, exactly? The player doing it? Or the DM?

I think it needs to be group consensus. And sometimes the DM needs to stop it if adventures just don't work with such an ability. I think if you are grown ups, you find a good consensus.
The other options are:
1) the group is ok with that. The player does not take the whole spotlight.
2) the player takes the spotlight, the rest of the group has no fun and the DM does nothing.
3) same as above but the DM always has to find excises why thag ability does not function in some situations so the rest of the group does not feel left behind.

If your group falls under number 1, everything is fine. The other options are bad in my opinion. So I like to talk to my players and present a reasonable consensus how to use the ability that in normal situations does not hinder the player and in a way that the player does not have the feeling that I build adventures in a way that his ability is always countered, such as every BBEG lighting his lair with upcast continual lights...

 

[robus]

Not to call out UngeheuerLich, specifically, as others have expressed similar concerns. But "stops being cool" by who's standards, exactly? The player doing it? Or the DM?

I'm sympathetic to UngeheuerLich's position - basically it stops being cool when it seems at odds with the fiction of the world. I.e. as he says there's zero-cost/effort in endlessly teleporting all over the place all the time (that's the button mashing aspect I referred to in the original post). I want these abilities to be narratively interesting, rather than "I jump from here to there, lolz". For one thing it would probably become quite nerve wracking to the rest of the party to have this guy popping in and out all the time

 

[Corwin]

Is the whole party subjected to group consensus for all their actions? Does the rest of the group tell the paladin his Smiting is spoiling their fun? Or the warlock to stop using Eldritch Blast so much? Or when the fighter should Action Surge? And so on ad infinitum?

It is my humble opinion players should worry about their own fun. Why are people trying to step on someone else's enjoyment? What exactly is it about this ability that is supposedly ruining other people's fun? Maybe a little more introspection might help get to the root of the real problem.

 

[Corwin]

I'm sympathetic to UngeheuerLich's position - basically it stops being cool when it seems at odds with the fiction of the world.

Why create a fiction that intentionally runs at odds?

I.e. as he says there's zero-cost/effort in endlessly teleporting all over the place all the time (that's the button mashing aspect I referred to in the original post). I want these abilities to be narratively interesting, rather than "I jump from here to there, lolz". For one thing it would probably become quite nerve wracking to the rest of the party to have this guy popping in and out all the time

I've seen no evidence that the player is taking the attitude of, "I jump from here to there, lolz." That seems to be casting his enjoyment in a demeaning light.

For the record, there has been a few shadow monks in our games. They very much enjoyed this ability as well. We've never experienced a problem with it. So maybe that's why I'm not quite sure what's going on here.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[robus]

Is the whole party subjected to group consensus for all their actions? Does the rest of the group tell the paladin his Smiting is spoiling their fun? Or the warlock to stop using Eldritch Blast so much? Or when the fighter should Action Surge? And so on ad infinitum?

It is my humble opinion players should worry about their own fun. Why are people trying to step on someone else's enjoyment? What exactly is it about this ability that is supposedly ruining other people's fun? Maybe a little more introspection might help get to the root of the real problem.

I don't want to make some big deal about this. Certainly the player is having fun and I just was a bit confused about whether the fun he was having was actually supported by his ability i.e. are there "shadows" when there is no light to cast a shadow. To me that seemed cool that the ability was able to the applied to flit from shadow to shadow to stealthily move around a place that was otherwise lit. But in a dungeon it just made the ability seem banal. Mash button jump here, mash button jump there. The cool was gone.

But yeah - there's nothing wrong with it. It just seemed meh rather than awesome.

 

[Corwin]

But yeah - there's nothing wrong with it. It just seemed meh rather than awesome.

I get it. Totally. I was just trying to remind people that one player's meh can be another player's awesome. And to be careful in that regard.

 

[Arial Black]

The absolutely most important thing in RPGs is that each player thinks that his own PC is cool!

It's nice if other people think it's cool too, but their opinion is not what matters.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*