D&D 5E Is my DM being fair?

Quickleaf said:

It's totally the DM's call about which feats, if any, are allowed. However, nerfing things mid-game is usually considered bad etiquette to be avoided in all but the most extreme situations.


On a personal note, if a DM is worried about a feat making you un-surpriseable...well...that sort of implies a DM who is wedded to a certain type of "antagonistic DM vs. players" style. That style can be fun, but it's not for everyone.

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I'm not a fan of changing stuff mid game unless we mutually agree it is "broken". I DO allow feats in my game, and I realize that by mid to high level the PCs are more powerful than most the stuff they fight, so then I have to start adding Monster Feats just so the baddies can keep up. Really, I wish there was a 5e supplement of monster feats by CR and Monster Type that you can just slap on to any creature.

Anyway, I'm not a fan of Alert's "never surprised". Never? EVER? So, is it like a Spidey Sense supernatural thing? A sniper couldn't hit you from hidden cover because you'd know the bullet was coming.

Nebulous said:

Anyway, I'm not a fan of Alert's "never surprised". Never? EVER? So, is it like a Spidey Sense supernatural thing? A sniper couldn't hit you from hidden cover because you'd know the bullet was coming.

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Don’t think of it in that frame of mind. You can still be hit, the attacker may still have advantage because you don’t know from where the attack is coming. But you aren’t denied a reaction and you can act on your initiative because you feel that something is happening... though you may not know what.

iserith said:

To my knowledge, you can't take the Ready action outside of combat.

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You've never waited online for Gencon tickets to go on sale then

Cue, "That's combat!" retort.

CapnZapp said:

No it doesn't. Every party I've DMd have had at least one high-Wis character proficient in Perception with Darkvision.

With a passive perception of 17 and climbing as written nothing gets past this character. Even monsters that are supposed to be sneaky have very rarely more than a 50% chance of beating DC 17. Most monsters, even of relatively high CR, have Stealth +4 or worse.

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If he's using darkvision, he has a passive perception of 12, not 17.

Darkvision changes darkness to dim light which is lightly obscured. In a lightly obscured area, such as dim light, creatures have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks. Under passive checks, if the character has disadvantage on the check, subtract 5. Hence, passive perception of 12. Which is...not so great.

smbakeresq said:

My god I didn't know people still used those with every book being out somewhere...

I forgot they even existed in once the books came out and the errata also years ago.

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I have all the books, but nothing beats a bookmarked PDF and the ability to keyword search in my view. So I use the Basic Rules PDF a lot, especially for reference on the forums and because I DM and don't need to look at character classes or feats much.

Mistwell said:

You've never waited online for Gencon tickets to go on sale then

Cue, "That's combat!" retort.

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No need to cue it. I had it as a Ready action. It automatically triggered.

iserith said:

I have all the books, but nothing beats a bookmarked PDF and the ability to keyword search in my view. So I use the Basic Rules PDF a lot, especially for reference on the forums and because I DM and don't need to look at character classes or feats much.

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As far as I'm aware, you can legally scan your own books. If, for example, you had an early printing of the PHB and you got a new copy you'd have a destroyed copy sitting around. You'd have little reticence in pulling all the pages out and scanning a copy for your own use (assuming you had access to a scanner)

I agree that a searchable PDF is fantastic. I own a lot of old modules, many of which I got on ebay before prices jumped. If my gaming group decides to play that adventure I find it very valuable to spend the $5 to get the PDF of the module to use while prepping at my computer desk. It also cuts down on handling a 35 year-old module.

iserith said:

I have all the books, but nothing beats a bookmarked PDF and the ability to keyword search in my view. So I use the Basic Rules PDF a lot, especially for reference on the forums and because I DM and don't need to look at character classes or feats much.

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I use the basic rules during play because they're so handy on my tablet. If I was playing a halfling champion, I wouldn't even need anything else.

Satyrn said:

I use the basic rules during play because they're so handy on my tablet. If I was playing a halfling champion, I wouldn't even need anything else.

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I've found it can be surprisingly fun to play with just the basic rules. Not all the time, but every now and again it's fun to play a stripped down game.

MichaelArkAngel said:

I recently joined a beginning 5e campaign where I am playing a human charisma rogue(charlatan background.) I was unable to take the "lucky" feat since the DM deemed it broken, so I took "Alert."

We are all now third level and I have been informed by the DM that I can no longer use the Alert feat. He feels, now, that this feat is broken as well because I can't be surprised, and that I have had crazy high initiative rolls due to the +5 added to initiative rolls, and he finds it hard to come up with a reason to explain why I'm not surprised, so he pulled it from my character.

For those DM's out there, is this fair? As a player do I try to fight it, or just suck it up and take the nerf? I'm assuming I get to pick another feat to replace it, any suggestions?

I'd love to hear your comments!

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I had a lot of trouble with the Alert feat myself. All the doors in dungeon of the mad mage can be seen with a 20 score in perception which he has as his passive score. Being frustrated, I didn't want to just give it to them so I switched the roll to a investigation roll to find secret doors. I realized he couldn't be surprised so he can react normally during a surprise round and that's okay. I pass him a note if he can sense something and leave it to him to tell the party he hears something, but that may cause him to be distracted. So far all the encounters are with intelligent opponents, so most have snuck around to attack the side or the back of the party. Once I had an assassin attack him and another at the back while mages attack the front. The assassins sneaking score, so long as it exceeds his 20 passive threshold, the assassin was effective, but the theif with the alert feat was able to counter with an attack before the assassin was able to go invisible again with a held action. I've not ruled on whether a sneak attack on him deals lesser damage off the sneak attacks extra dice yet. I'll deal with that when it happens. Likely, I will rule it to be halved.
Another character has observant feat with a passive score of 17 in both investigation and perception which makes it very difficult to challenge them. I don't know why people need that much advantage. It breaks the game, but I will work through it and allow it to make some scenarios too easy. "That which is given too easily isn't as appreciated" and denies them fun of overcoming the adversity, I think. January 15, 2020. TTN.