D&D 5E Hex Shenanigans

[Arial Black]

Player 1: I hex .... a chicken!

Player 2: Sorry, you hex a what?

Player 1: A ... chicken! Do not make me tell you a second time!

Player 2: That's 'orrible. What's that chicken ever done to you, eh?

Player 1: Well ...

Player 2: Oppression, that what this is.

Player 1: But I want to save...

Player 2: Look! Look at the Warlock! Oppressing poultry!

Player 1: Look, it's just..

Player 2: See the violence inherent in the system!

Player 1: Oh shut up.

I would not eat a talking chicken! Talking chickens are too valuable!

 

[Arial Black]

Pre casting mage armor is not gaming the system. Straw man arguments can sometimes be illustrative. This one is simply nonsensical.

Your character is not being rational by doing the hex chicken. They're being an optimized caricature.

I frankly don't see that as something a realistic person would do. It would be as if you took a chicken and used it for shooting practice (because you need to eat). Then spent an hour cleaning and maintaining your firearm because you'd fired it (short rest). And then walked around the rest of the day with your gun drawn (concentration). All on the off chance that you might need to use your gun that day. And you do this every day.

It's absurd. You're treating the game world like you would an MMORPG or other CRPG. Rather than a TTRPG where there are other people at the table with you trying to actually immerse themselves in the game.

Pretty sure the soldiers in the Vietnam War weren't that on edge all the time, but sure, it's justified because your background states that your character suffers from ultra-super-paranoia or something, right? Sure.

If you have spells which last 8 or 24 hours or such like, and you regain slots on a short rest, it is entirely rational to cast them and then rest to regain your slots when you know you are going adventuring!

It's as sensible as a soldier pre-loading their magazines with bullets instead of waiting for the bullets to start flying before loading their bullets into their magazines one at a time.

 

[jasper]

Player 1: I hex .... a chicken!

Player 2: Sorry, you hex a what?

Player 1: A ... chicken! Do not make me tell you a second time!

Player 2: That's 'orrible. What's that chicken ever done to you, eh?

Player 1: Well ...

Player 2: Oppression, that what this is.

Player 1: But I want to save...

Player 2: Look! Look at the Warlock! Oppressing poultry!

Player 1: Look, it's just..

Player 2: See the violence inherent in the system!

Player 1: Oh shut up.

Addressed to the warlock.
"Tis a fowl fowl thing that warlocks go around hexing innocent chickens.
I say Fie. Fie on you warlock.
I say you are foe of chickens."
I bite my thumb at you sir.

 

[jasper]

....

It's as sensible as a soldier pre-loading their magazines with bullets instead of waiting for the bullets to start flying before loading their bullets into their magazines one at a time.

Bang. Private takes out the mag and loads one bullet into his thirty round mag.
DRILL DGT, "PVT PYLE! What are you doing?"
Pvt Pyle, "Just preshooting my rifle, SGT!"

 

[Arial Black]

I mean, how often have you seen people being primarily a warlock and not just going two levels in for munchkinning?

From my own file of 5e character sheets:-

• Pal 2/War 3
• Ftr 1/War 9
• War 5/Sor 2
• Pal 6/War 14
• Bar 3/War 11
• War 3

The last one, currently being played from 1st, is my very first warlock who intends to rely on eldritch blast instead of fighting in melee.

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

From my own file of 5e character sheets:-

• Pal 2/War 3
• Ftr 1/War 9
• War 5/Sor 2
• Pal 6/War 14
• Bar 3/War 11
• War 3

The last one, currently being played from 1st, is my very first warlock who intends to rely on eldritch blast instead of fighting in melee.

I now know why you don't want the warlock to interact with their patrons at all.

 

[Arial Black]

Do those parameters include "using the class descriptions in the PHB and not just treating classes as just collections of abilities"?

I create my own PC's fluff while obeying the rules.

Each class starts with three examples of the class in a brief description. These are just examples, not role-playing shackles disallowing your own character ideas.

My rogues don't feel compelled to steal from their own party, and rarely steal at all.

My barbarians are frequently wearing civilised clothes and have never slept outdoors before their first adventure. Few of them feel compelled to prance about in a fur loincloth.

Few of my monks wear a Gi or shave their heads. Some even wear a nice suit and work as a bouncer in a fantasy nightclub.

Tell me, what are 'fighters' like? Do they all behave the same, dress the same, have the same background, same motivations, the same....anything?If so, why would I play with a DM who won't let me create my own PC? If not, why compel this for ANY class?

ALL of the class mechanics are up to the player to fluff in any way that they can make plausible. Rage? Deity-inspired fighting trance. Bard? Joxer the Mighty, specialising in buffoonery, inspiring his party to greater heights to compensate for his perceived incompetence. Aasimar monk? Angel in human form who is a crimelord who is that hard!

The DM doesn't create the PC, the player does, according to the rules.

 

[Arial Black]

We've been debating a house rule that once you take a single level of warlock you've committed to it. From then on out you must be a warlock.

It's the only multi-class option I've seen in my home games other than my own fighter/rogue.

Yeah, I can hear the cries of "horrible DM how dare you limit my freedom" but I don't care. People aren't taking the levels because they want to be a warlock, they're taking the levels as a cheap power boost to their "real" spell casting class.

Yeah, you are being a horrible DM, because you are assuming base motives for players and that horrible assumption is based merely on their choice of class.

TLDR: "merely choosing to play a warlock demonstrates that the player is dishonest". That assumption is truly horrible.

 

[Arial Black]

What unexpected bill? I mention it in my campaign intro, that if you play a warlock there will be a cost and go into some explanation of what patrons are available.

As another example if you choose the noble background, the family may call upon your services as well.

It's called having a living campaign world. One where your choices matter and don't exist in a pre-scripted vacuum.

What's the 'unexpected bill' for being a fighter?

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

I create my own PC's fluff while obeying the rules.

Each class starts with three examples of the class in a brief description. These are just examples, not role-playing shackles disallowing your own character ideas.

My rogues don't feel compelled to steal from their own party, and rarely steal at all.

My barbarians are frequently wearing civilised clothes and have never slept outdoors before their first adventure. Few of them feel compelled to prance about in a fur loincloth.

Few of my monks wear a Gi or shave their heads. Some even wear a nice suit and work as a bouncer in a fantasy nightclub.

Tell me, what are 'fighters' like? Do they all behave the same, dress the same, have the same background, same motivations, the same....anything?If so, why would I play with a DM who won't let me create my own PC? If not, why compel this for ANY class?

ALL of the class mechanics are up to the player to fluff in any way that they can make plausible. Rage? Deity-inspired fighting trance. Bard? Joxer the Mighty, specialising in buffoonery, inspiring his party to greater heights to compensate for his perceived incompetence. Aasimar monk? Angel in human form who is a crimelord who is that hard!

The DM doesn't create the PC, the player does, according to the rules.

Do you also make your wizards idiots? Do you make your druids ruthless industrialists? Have you made an anti-theistic cleric?

Because, to me, those are basically the same thing as making a warlock where you actively ignore your patron. Hopefully you'll forgive me for thinking that, because you don't involve your patron in your warlock, that means that you think you shouldn't have any consequences for murdering a NPC in broad daylight in the middle of the street.

If that is the case, just go play an Elder Scrolls game or something, then you won't have any DM trying to ruin your fun.