A powergamer in a non-powergame.

[takyris]

Hi, all. Let's all be clear on this: this is Tacky letting off steam.

I don't consider myself a Powergamer, except that apparently I totally am. My character-creation philosophy is "Make a character concept, then make the best possible character within the rules for that concept, and then play that concept faithfully, even when it's to the character's detriment." That part in the middle is where I'm a powergamer from hell, evidently.

I'm playing in a game in which the DM has modified things pretty heavily -- magic uses his own house rules, and he's added a poker-chip mechanic for a bunch of special combat maneuvers he's made himself. That's fine. No objections there. My objections come from the fact that I am, apparently, a munchkin.

Things Too Powergame-y For This DM

- Improved Feint
- 3.5 Power Attack's "x2 if wielding with both hands" rule
- Getting enough money to purchase nonmagical medium or heavy armor
- Reminding my allies (OOC) to pick up the equipment I'd dropped in the fight before getting knocked out. The allies dragged me off, and when I brought it up later, the DM gave them spot checks to have seen it, then ruled that they hadn't.
- Taking armor or weapons off of fallen bad guys about half the time -- armor is "too heavily damaged because of what you did to him" and weapons are "obviously of (orc) make, so you'd be executed as an (orc) sympathizer if you were seen using them". This is more likely to occur when the weapon does extra flaming damage or when the armor is heavier than anything we've got.

Things the DM is Fine With

- 6 level 3 PCs, equipped with no magical equipment and no armor heavier than chainmail (once PC had this -- everyone else has studded leather) against 10 bad guys, all of whom shoot flaming arrows. 9 of the bad guys were, I believe, level 1 or level 2. The 10th was, and I'm guessing here, level 7-ish -- +13 to hit while wielding a +3 flaming scimitar, and with around 90 hit points.
- Having a bad guy use overrun as a move action rather than a standard action, so that he overruns one PC, runs to the second, and then attacks.
- Using special homebrewed combat maneuvers to declare that an opponent isn't actually flanked, so my rogue cannot sneak attack. Note: there is currently no combat maneuver that lets my rogue sneak attack when he otherwise wouldn't be able to do so. There's a maneuver that lets somebody flank when he's not actually flanking, but it explicitly says that it doesn't work with Sneak Attack.
- Declaring that when my rogue was reduced to 0 hit points in a fight on the docks, he was thrown off the docks due to flavor-text, and the flaming warhammer he'd just gotten sank and was lost because of said flavor-text. (To be fair, we evidently had magical weapons waiting for us as a reward, so this wasn't as bad as it could have been. Still, annoying.)

I'm completely owning that this is largely me blowing off steam. The DM appears to want to run an epic game where you start piddly and eventually become huge and powerful, but there's a point after which being outclassed in every fight, or winning because of the assistance of the DMPC who is a better archer than the PC focusing on archery, gets old.

And this is coming from a DM who defends to no end the concept of the DMPC, the NPC follower who accompanies the party. This is coming from a DM who loves his story and, while trying not to be obvious about it, really tried hard to get that story told in the games I ran.

Rrrrrrrgh.

 

[Nightfall]

Tacky,

Maybe you should try out my online IRC chat games. I can promise you, find something you like and I'll be fine with it. Of course understand you might be short on magical items but hey not something to worry about right?

 

[Thurbane]

I'm always a little skeptical when I only get one side of the story, but if everything you posted is accurate, you need to have some words with your DM.

I can see that he is shooting for a certain type of game, but I think he is being incredibly hamfisted in how he goes about it. To dish out magical goodies for use against the party which suddenly become "unusable" after the fight is pretty weak, IMHO. If done sparingly, it can be OK (i.e. the BBEG has an evil weapon which the good aligned party cannot/will not use), but when used routinely to outfit low level opponents is pretty poor form.

Rather than dropping out of the game altogether, I'd have some words with your DM and fellow players about your concerns. If you are the "odd man out" (i.e. the DM and other players are happy with the current situation, and the DM is unwilling to adapt his style), you will have to weigh up whether the game is still fun enough to be worth your time...

 

[takyris]

Heh.

Thanks, guys. And really, I just needed to let off some steam. This guy works with me, and it's a three-couple game -- the DM and his wife, me and my wife, and another coworker and his wife. All three of the guys (and my wife as well) work at BioWare, so quitting the game because I can't get Improved Feint or Spring Attack isn't going to happen. I also really want my wife's first pen & paper D&D experience to be a positive one, and she seems to be having fun, so I'm not going to rock the boat on this.

To be fair, we did get the scimitar after the bad guy died. Apparently we were supposed to run away from that fight (and we tried, but were failing ride checks), and the DM opted to let us keep the scimitar afterward. It no longer flames, but that at least is consistent -- weapons have runic magic that always wears out eventually, so the flaming enchantment was only good for a month (during which time we were travelling).

I'm just feeling a bit hemmed in, and I'm also feeling that I know the rules better than the DM, so that when the DM decides how something is going to work, and I know that it actually doesn't work that way, I feel a bit cheated. (Like Overrun, which he called Bull Rush and then did so as to get that extra attack.) On the one hand, this DM has fun NPCs and, I think, an interesting storyline. On the other hand, when I wanted to go scout out a bad guy area, I had to roll Streetwise (his homebrewed skill) to see what I COULD spot, then Spot to see what I DID spot, and then an Int check to see what I REMEMBERED spotting when I went back to my friends.

Also, I'm pissy about fighting monsters with DR in games without magical weapons. (The +3 scimitar is nonmagically enhanced -- it's made of Fine Steel.) If Power Attack doesn't get the x2 bonus for wielding a weapon with both hands, and there ARE NO magical items in the game, how, beyond sitting back and letting the party wizard tax himself to unconsciousness casting Magic Missile, do we kill the damn things? It's not scary and edgy and frightening. It's frustrating.

So I come here and rant.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Well, it sounds to me like a bad DM. But yeah, I suppose there might be more to the picture etc.

Going on what you've posted though, the DM sounds incompetent, oblivious, and a control freak to boot.

Faaaaantastic. :\

 

[Digital Archon]

Hey takyris,

I know people you probably know (say hi to James, Jason and Andrew for me).
Anyway, my only suggestion is to kill him and take his stuff.

I'm going to start recruiting for a campaign (without mental sounding house rules that nerf everything) over the next month or so, so if you get really frustrated, keep an eye on the Gamers Seeking Gamers forum.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Also, I'm pissy about fighting monsters with DR in games without magical weapons. (The +3 scimitar is nonmagically enhanced -- it's made of Fine Steel.)

Is it defined as an enhancement bonus from the masterwork quality?

If not - if it's a non-magical +3 enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls - then the weapon is, in fact, considered a magic weapon for the purpose of bypassing DR X/Magic.

Damage reduction may be overcome by special materials, by magic weapons (any weapon with a +1 or higher enhancement bonus, not counting the enhancement from masterwork quality), certain types of weapons (such as slashing or bludgeoning), and weapons imbued with an alignment.

If it's a weapon with a +1 or higher enhancement bonus (save from masterwork), it's considered a magic weapon by the DR rules.

-Hyp.

 

[smilinggm]

If I was in your shoes, I would privatly talk to the other players about the game to see if they feal the same way that you do. I would see if you could gain other players support, then I would tell the DM that unless these things change I would drop out of the game. Give him a deadline. State your greviences during the game. Stick to your deadline. Do not backdown! Remind you DM that the game is group effort and that if everyone is not having fun then he is not doing his job! Try to work with your DM to make the game work, but do not backslide.



Having said that!

Kill his Pet DM PC! Kill it and Take its Stuff!

Do No Suffer A DMPC to Live!

 

[takyris]

IIf it's a weapon with a +1 or higher enhancement bonus (save from masterwork), it's considered a magic weapon by the DR rules.

Smurf, you know that, I and know that, but the DM does not, and based on how other questions I've asked along similar lines have been answered, the DM will not let "fine steel" overcome a vampire's DR.

Players fighting a monster that hits for d8+12 damage twice per round? Fair.
Players getting to overcome that monster's DR? Not fair.
(But to be fair, see below... we did get fire last time.)

(We fought two vamps last session. They didn't drain levels or anything, so they're homebrewed monsters. The first one was killed almost entirely by the scimitar-wielder getting a few points of damage past DR and the wizard using flame-missiles to automatically hit each round for a bit. For the second monster, thanks to an anonymous benefactor, we had all been given rune-enhanced weapons that did flame damage, so we were hitting for 1d6 fire damage each round, and a negligible amount of physical melee damage. The anonymous benefactor was nice, and thanks to him, we've now got chainmail and chain shirts for those who want it -- stuff that we couldn't afford before, because we're playing in a game with historically realistic prices for things like armor and weapons.)

Everybody else... thanks. I guess I just needed to hear that I wasn't a crazy powergamer who couldn't roleplay. I'm not asking for a frenzied berserker... I just want the crap in the book.

I'm also going to have to go push on my wife's behalf to find out what she gets instead of an animal companion or spells at her 4th level of ranger. We just hit that last night, and all he'll say is "It's different in my game." Different is fine, but a ranger who gets NOTHING instead of ranger spells or an animal companion is... not.

Although I'll be honest. I'm getting bummed enough that, frankly, I'm cheating. I'm not faking dice rolls or cheating on my numbers, but if the DM doesn't remember that Precise Shot should be in play, Tacky the Rules Encyclopedia isn't going to bring it up and make his wife have an even SMALLER chance to hit. She's already outclassed by the DMPC archer. So I suppose I'm cheating vicariously by not telling my wife to take a -4 for not having Precise Shot while the vampire hits us for 1d8+12 twice each round.

Also changed in this game: range penalties. In this game, they go 0/-3/-6/-12/-24. Apparently people in his last game tried to break his plots by fighting from a distance a lot, so he altered the rules to make things more fun. He also apparently changed the physics of his world (like how the sun moves across the sky, how gravity works) so that people can't "play physics" to declare that something should or shouldn't happen.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Smurf, you know that, I and know that, but the DM does not, and based on how other questions I've asked along similar lines have been answered, the DM will not let "fine steel" overcome a vampire's DR.

Given that they're homebrewed vampires, it may not be applicable... but a core vampire's DR is 5/silver, so enhancement bonuses don't bypass it anyway.

Players getting to overcome that monster's DR? Not fair.

Does Power Attack work on light weapons? Or has he kept that half of the change?

(I have to keep reminding myself that there's no 2-for-1 Power Attack in Grim Tales )

So I suppose I'm cheating vicariously by not telling my wife to take a -4 for not having Precise Shot while the vampire hits us for 1d8+12 twice each round.

I'm trying to wrap my head around a 3rd level archery-focused PC who doesn't already have Precise Shot!

-Hyp.