D&D 5E Is my DM being fair?

[Barolo]

(...)

Feats are intended for campaigns where super awesome characters do super awesome stuff. If the flavor is supposed to be grittier than that (not saying default options are gritty, just grittier than feats), this variant doesn't belong.

(...)

Not really. Feats are for campaigns where people like more options and possibility for overspecialization. Grittiness can always be adjusted by the DM according to whatever the group can dish out, and feats are not necessarily the best combat boosters over ABIs in all circumstances, even when the discussion is restricted to the ones specifically tailored for combat.

 

[S'mon]

If he thinks he has a hard time winning initiative, I wonder what he would say to a 7th level barbarian (advantage on initiative) with the alert feat.

I'd say "Why the Hell did you take Alert when you already have can-act-when-surprised-if-rage as a class ability?"

 

[MichaelArkAngel]

Probably would need to know the context of the surprise. Might very well be that the DM doesn't even play out surprise itself properly.

In my games surprise is only really an option around every 5th battle anyway. And usually a PC has a 80% or higher chance to notice at least one threat even without feat. So that's basically only a 4% chance of being surprised per battle. A feat that reduces that 4% chance to 0% doesn't seem THAT powerful to me.

How to play out not being surprised when someone attempts a surprise attack?
"You move along the passage. A hears something from behind, turns around and sees some enemies sneaking in from behind, already prepared to attack. Everybody please roll initiative. B, C and D are surprised."

Here is the message from my DM:

It's been getting kind of ridiculous. This is the third time we've had a situation where something happens unexpectedly or someone makes a sudden move, you can't be surprised ever, and then you roll a higher initiative, so it's like "This guy didn't make his move yet, but you just had a HUNCH he was going to suddenly cast Misty Step" or "PC didn't do anything yet, but you can just sort of tell that they are going to suddenly kick this guy". This isn't Diviniation magic, and you're not a Jedi, there's no way that being more "Alert" would cause you to predict events before they happen.

Comments?

 

[Wepwawet]

Comments?

Basically that Initiative doesn't mean waking up.

Initiative measures your physical ability to act. Being the last on the initiative count doesn't mean that you didn't notice anything that happened before. It just means that you can't move faster than anyone else. For instance you can take a reaction before your turn comes up. Because you are aware of what's happening around you.

 

[jmoolaman]

I think your DM doesn't understand surprise. Surprise only relates to you as far as the game is concerned, there are no hunches on anything else but things trying to hurt you. It's like spider sense, it only relates to when Spiderman is in danger, it doesn't go off when Aunt May is dropped from a building by Doc Oc.

 

[jasper]

Hmm If he a new dm just roll with for a couple sessions and talk with the group and dm.
Aside. The old dm teaching new people who has a old timer taking Observant. SMACK the OLD TIMER AROUND. Explain LOUDLY to the OLD TIMER " I am trying to teach new people. Don't be a pill. "
NO ONE has started out as a good dm. We all made mistakes. Did take backs of feats, cool builds, and magic items.

 

[MichaelArkAngel]

I think your DM doesn't understand surprise. Surprise only relates to you as far as the game is concerned, there are no hunches on anything else but things trying to hurt you. It's like spider sense, it only relates to when Spiderman is in danger, it doesn't go off when Aunt May is dropped from a building by Doc Oc.

Great freaking example! Can I use this for my argument to keep it?

 

[schnee]

Here is the message from my DM:

It's been getting kind of ridiculous. This is the third time we've had a situation where something happens unexpectedly or someone makes a sudden move, you can't be surprised ever, and then you roll a higher initiative, so it's like "This guy didn't make his move yet, but you just had a HUNCH he was going to suddenly cast Misty Step" or "PC didn't do anything yet, but you can just sort of tell that they are going to suddenly kick this guy". This isn't Diviniation magic, and you're not a Jedi, there's no way that being more "Alert" would cause you to predict events before they happen.

Comments?

Yeah, he doesn't understand the surprise rules and is inferring too much.

This doesn't mean you anticipate the caster casting Misty Step and can act before they start. It means they start casting, which initiates combat, THEN the surprise check is done. Everyone else in your party checks for surprise, and some of them might not get to go this round. You just roll initiative as normal and go when it's your turn.

So, if you roll initiative poorly, the spell goes off, and you still get thumped, before you can do anything.

All it really means is the attackers don't get a free round against you ever, where they often do against other members of your party.

--

Now, if he thinks that means you get to react to someone beyond your range of hearing firing an arrow, or a stealthed Sorcerer that beat your Perception check hurls an Ice Knife at you (no Vocal component), then he's giving it too much power. There are plenty of circumstances that will catch you flat footed the same as everyone else. This feat is really about melee combat.

--

Also, his complaint about the Jedi stuff - it's widely known that people who intend to do violence give off all kinds of 'tells' that are obvious to skilled observers. They get fidgety, they look around a lot, they unwaveringly focus their attention on their target, stuff like that. If you can see the people who are going to attack you, you have evidence and cues that you can react to. If you're aware and anticipating it, you can act quickly enough to thwart what they want to do, the same way I used to catch stuff as it was falling off of a shelf when I was doing martial arts for several hours a week.

 

[CydKnight]

I admit to being intimidated by feats for my first time as a DM. They seemed overpowered but I also realized I lacked experience as a DM and didn't want to overrule a mechanic offered in the rules as written even if it was optional. So I compromised a little by taking feats off the table at character creation removing Variant Human from the options. All players were free to take feats starting with Level 4. This gave me a chance to get my feet wet as a DM while still allowing the players all available options in the Player's Handbook. Feats were simply delayed a bit before becoming an option.

 

[Valetudo]

I have a couple questions. How friendly are you with this dm? Did you know this dm well outside the game? Do you feel like the dm is doing this to attack you personally or is he/she just a control freak?Has any of the other players had this happen to them? At first glance this sounds like a overcontrolling dm. But honestly you really havent given enough info on the whole group dynamics. Im serious though when I say if you think your dm suck, that you should take over. Thats what I did when I felt my old dms where not up to par and Ive been dming ever since. That was around twenty years ago.