Am I an unfair GM?

[phloog]

On your most severe Bad Hair Day, I would give the character some form of Knowledge check to pull back/realize.

Generally speaking, I would in all other situations just tell them it doesn't work.

Part of your annoyance is that his use of metagame knowledge is leading to an unrealistic outcome...your fix seems to be to make his wizard (not the player, the character) not understand the most basic bits of magic...which to me seems just as immersion/realism breaking as the initial attempt.

It sounds like he needed to be smacked down - it's just not the way I would have done it (and I'm a gd geeeeneeus) because of the break in realism, and also because as it seems there was a fair chunk of gaming time lost for this argument and the accompanying cursing.

I would have been blunt, though..."Dude, that's completely metagame knowledge...so watch that...but also it won't work because...."

And of course I understand that DMs have a lot on their plate already, but I would have pulled the figures for the hidden folks anyway...or left them there, but kept track of their REAL locations secretly..which would have been a great way to deal with the attempt to be meta if they DID have a spell that could do something through the wall.

 

[Chronologist]

Wizard Ineptitude

Honestly, I get both sides of the argument. The player was trying to make a cool effect go off, and you were limiting his actions to was is possible. i think it was an honest mistake, but maybe I don't know the situation well enough. Seriously, it was your call, and I think it was the right one. As a GM and player, I think that once a GM makes a decision, it final. You don't argue or try to rules-lawyer your way out, it's final.

Metagaming is kind of inevitable. We're not adventurers in real life, our reactions are different than what a real person would do in that situation. Personally, if I faced real zombies, I'd become a useless gibbering madman. In D&D, I charge straight at them. I figure that the fact that we're detached from the situation and can think through split-second actions changes what we'd do. Sorry, I'm rambling. Back to the main point.

A Fighter knows how to use his feats. A Barbarian remembers her damage reduction, and she tracks her damage and hit-point changes while raging. A Cleric tracks how far his heal spells reach, a Druid keeps a record of her Wild Shapes. A Wizard is expected, no, obligated to know how his spells work when he chooses them. Even if you're not a genius like your character, you should know how your character works.

If a player doesn't know how a class feature operates, then he or she shouldn't be playing that class. If he can't properly play ANY class, then maybe he should try out D&D 4.0, with nifty cards telling him exactly everything he can do.