Am I an unfair GM?

[Arkhandus]

Generally, wizards are fairly intelligent (int 15 or higher, typically), and they DO learn the parameters of their spells known. So in-character, even if the player refuses to read his character's spell descriptions, his wizard should know the spell's parameters, limitations, and effects. That means, as DM, you should be telling him what would happen if he cast that spell, even if only telling him the gist of it and then leaving him to read the spell description himself.

In-character he would know that his spell won't reach through the wall that's blocking his line of effect, and in-character he would never choose to try casting the Force Cage past the wall that's blocking it. In-character, he'd know that placing an Evard's Black Tentacles really close to him would be a bad idea, so if he says he'll do it, you should advise him that he will be caught in its area of effect and won't be able to cast most of his spells while grappled by it.

Then you should let him change his mind once he's aware of the spell's effects, just as he would be if the lazy bum actually bothered to read his own character's rules material.

As DM, of course, you have every right to DENY that player the right to play a Wizard in your games, on account of him being too lazy to do the necessary planning and book-reading that Wizards require. Maybe suggest he play a sorcerer, and give him a simple list of spells to use. Or just tell him to play a simpler class altogether.

 

[JLXC]

OP I think it was a fair ruling, I'm a long long time GM.


I would have simply said "You can't see it, so you can't target there." THEN if he still argued he could magically throw the spell into the abyss hoping for an open area, I would have failed the spell.

Still, if there's no rules, there's no game. Someone has to be the "buzz kill" now and then.

 

[SnowHeart]

I would have done it differently (i.e., telling him you can't do that because you have no line of sight) but I think what you did is perfectly fair and acceptable. I have little sympathy for metagaming and while I don't go out of my way to punish folks for it, I do think letting them reap the consequences of their own decisions (particularly when they are born out of metagaming) is 100% appropriate and fair. If you're going to use special knowledge that your character wouldn't have, then you don't get access to knwoeldge your character should know but you don't.

 

[Kask]

They guy is playing that high of a level caster and doesn't know the basics of spell casting? He deserves the wasted spell. No doubt.

 

[Taureth]

Mm, a bit sticky, that one. Because:

1) Strictly at the player level, my opinion is that it was completely fair. You gave him a chance and, completely of his own free will, he mad a bad choice. These things happen.

2) BUT, at the character level, it strikes me as really unlikely any wizard capable of casting a spell of that level would not fully grasp its basic limitations. Sorceror, possibly not, if he's new to it, but wizard most certainly. Exhaustive study of their art is an assumed part of a wizard's routines.

Personally, I probably would have taken a middle road and, as suggested above, asked for a Knowledge Arcana roll. Or possibly a stat roll against Int to give him a chance to remember this little detail. In stress situations, people do sometimes forget things or make common sense errors they otherwise would not.

 

[dnchut]

I'm not the rule police, infact I just got back into dnd a couple months ago... I love 3.5 hate 4.0.

My thing is I play dnd to have fun to interact with people. If everyone is not having fun, then there is a problem. Especially if its on a regular basis. If everything went "according to plan" I think most of us here would not really want to play dnd that much.

As for the spell ruling... The fact that he can read and still had that reaction to you makes me wonder. I would never tolerate that.

after reading this thread, I feel bad for my dm...I really suck at playing psi warrior... Love tanks, I always screw up all my caster aspects.

 

[DJ_draken07]

You are a fair GM from What I read. Metagaming is never the answer.

I wish there was a rule in the Rulebook that says Slap the Metagamer's hand and Go "No... You dont do that Mister! Now go in the corner and think what you just did..." It might teach those Metagamers a lesson

 

[moritheil]

You are fair, but you could have come on stronger to begin with by saying something like, "Oh look, you have quite a few ranks in Know (arcana.) You automatically realize that this spell will fail if you cast it this way due to not having line of effect. Are you still going to proceed? Yes? Well then, your spell fails, as you knew it would."

 

[RangerWickett]

I think the fair thing to have said was, "Your character wouldn't know they're there. That sounds like metagaming to me. Anyway, you don't have line of sight or line of effect, so you can't even put the spell there."

His Int 17+ character ought to know that, and I think that it is implicit in any group roleplaying game that the point is to help everyone have fun. Aside from momentary schadenfreude, there's no benefit in making a player waste his action. The best way to help everyone have fun would be to encourage him to try something that would work.

Of course, it is just a game, and while I can understand him throwing a fit because you ruined his fun momentarily, if he started cursing, that's just not cool.

 

[dontpunkme]

Or just tell him to play a simpler class altogether.

Yeah, he's pretty lousy with a warrior or rogue class too. Kind of amazing that someone can play the same game for over a decade and still be that bad at it. We've had to do things such as write "apply dodge bonus" on his character sheet. Every one of his warriors always has power attack, yet he never uses it except for when a target has obscenely high AC. If he's attacking a giant or some other notorious AC-deprived target, he won't employ it. I think his major problem is he understands the rules, but forgets them when in play. Between sessions, I typically will spend time going over rule intricacies, but during game he will act like its his first time playing.

I'll still never forget a campaign we were playing a few years back. His character was on watch while the rest of the party was asleep. An arrow comes out of the darkness with a piece of hide in the middle of it. So the arrow is sticking out of the ground with a piece of hide (we were all savages and technology was very bronze age so paper hadn't been invented yet and papyrus wasn't available as we lived in the arctic). He was utterly baffled by this and didn't know what to do. So the DM at the time is trying to nudge him along that this is obviously a note affixed to an arrow without outright saying it. He keeps getting progressively more ticked off. The rest of the table is laughing at how upset he is that he doesn't know what this is. Pictures are drawn, a demonstration is created by the DM with a pencil and a piece of paper shoved. Still no idea. I ask the DM if I can help him, he grants permission. Knowing he is a huge Monty Python fan, my hint was "Message for you, sir." Still no clue. At this point we're all kind of laughing and he is getting more and more pissed off and is screaming and cursing. I think that wasted several good minutes of game time. Finally, when we all get frustrated enough at his incompetence the DM just outright tells him. He wakes the rest of the party. We're all relatively low level and the "note" was from a well-known frost giant ranger with a ton of class levels (read: CR 20+ as opposed to our maybe 4th level characters) and a friend of our clan. We get to the dialogue and he wants us to attack the thing (it obviously has wealth and therefore we should go about acquiring said wealth because why would the DM put something on an encounter table if we weren't meant to kill it and claim its loot as our own). Thank god we were able to talk him out of that one.