Are there any ways to negate Evasion?

[Rystil Arden]

What rulings do you need to make though by knowing what the player is playing up front, before the game even begins? As long as a player makes the appropriate character for the campaign (again, this is a trust issue that the player will follow the DM's guidelines when creating the character), what rulings do you need to make?

I'm with diaglo on this one--quite a few, actually. If we can learn anything from the threads here on the Rules Forum, it is that there are many many points where people can be of two opinions and both walk away thinking they are right. By not letting the GM see your character sheet, you take away the opportunity for the GM to make the ruling or even look to see how you are ruling it, so your ruling stands every time. This can become quite a problem, in my eyes. Best to let the GM make the ruling--that's what the GM is for.

 

[IcyCool]

This can become quite a problem, in my eyes. Best to let the GM make the ruling--that's what the GM is for.

Silly RA, don't you know that GM's are for beating up on, are for complaining to/about, and are supposed to cater to your every whim?

At any rate, it sounds like Rigamortus2 plays in a different game than several people. If it works for him, then great!

As to your question, it doesn't negate reflex saves, but take a look at the Explosive Spell metamagic feat in Complete Arcane. A successful save pushes them to the edge of the effect. Great for a fireball on, say, a small platform over a pit.

 

[just__al]

I guess. Personally, I don't like to play gimped characters. Obviously characters are going to have weaknesses in some areas. There is no way to make a character that is 100% protected from everything (Pun Pun aside of course). I certainly don't go out of my way and tell the DM what my character's weaknesses are (Oh, I have bad Reflex saves, so feel free to hit me with area effect spells as often as you like to make it more challening for me). In fact, I think it is more fun for the DM to try and figure out ways to get around the player's offense/defense, just as the player's try to get around monster's defenses and offenses. I don't even tell the DM what kind of character I am playing. I give him an idea such as "warrior type" or "healer type" or what have you, just enough info so that he can fit me into his setting. But you need a certain level of trust between the players and DM in order to do that, and not every group has that.

This reminds me of players who don't tell the DM what their ranger's favored enemny is before it comes up during the game because they fear the DM will not use the favored enemny in the campaign.

As A DM I feel it's my duty to introduce things into the campaign like your favored enemny so you get benefit from your class feature. I will also from time to time make it so that you don't see hide nor hair of your favored enemny to make things less easy.

I need to see my players character so I can plan encounters to allow them to shine, just be there or be hosed as appropriate.

Just don't take spell mastery in my campain. I'll make sure you get to use it.

 

[Nail]

Just to "even things out" a bit on this thread:

I ask that my players *don't* tell me various things about their PCs, such as hp, AC, saves, etc. (The information *is* written down at our group website, so that the other players can look over each other's sheets and spot problems.) I do this so that my NPCs can more realistically plan for and fight the PCs.

Besides, I like the surprise of finding out how tough the PCs are.

So, RigaMortus2, I understand and support your playing style, FWIW.

 

[RigaMortus2]

I'm with diaglo on this one--quite a few, actually. If we can learn anything from the threads here on the Rules Forum, it is that there are many many points where people can be of two opinions and both walk away thinking they are right. By not letting the GM see your character sheet, you take away the opportunity for the GM to make the ruling or even look to see how you are ruling it, so your ruling stands every time. This can become quite a problem, in my eyes. Best to let the GM make the ruling--that's what the GM is for.

Like I said, the DM trusts the players and vice versa. There is nothing "hidden" on the character sheet that would be controversal. I know the way my DM would rule, so I take that into consideration. Obviously if you are a new player or playing with a new DM, this level of trust isn't going to be there. I've been playing with this DM since 3E first came out, and we are pretty insync when it comes to the rules. We both know how the rule work, and I know how he would rule should an "iffy" situation came up. And IF there was something "iffy" about what my character can do, I certainly would ask the DM how he would rule. There is nothing "iffy" about an ability that allows Ref for half damage (which is what my original question about Evasion was based on).

 

[RigaMortus2]

This reminds me of players who don't tell the DM what their ranger's favored enemny is before it comes up during the game because they fear the DM will not use the favored enemny in the campaign.

As A DM I feel it's my duty to introduce things into the campaign like your favored enemny so you get benefit from your class feature. I will also from time to time make it so that you don't see hide nor hair of your favored enemny to make things less easy.

I need to see my players character so I can plan encounters to allow them to shine, just be there or be hosed as appropriate.

Just don't take spell mastery in my campain. I'll make sure you get to use it.

See, I do the opposite. I ask the DM to begin with, what types of monsters does he think we will encounter often. What monsters are common for the area we are starting on. Then I pick the favored enemy based off what he tells me. I don't pick Favored Enemy: Dragons and hope or expect that th DM puts dragons in his setting. What if we are playing a setting where Dragon's don't exist?

 

[RigaMortus2]

Just to "even things out" a bit on this thread:

I ask that my players *don't* tell me various things about their PCs, such as hp, AC, saves, etc. (The information *is* written down at our group website, so that the other players can look over each other's sheets and spot problems.) I do this so that my NPCs can more realistically plan for and fight the PCs.

Besides, I like the surprise of finding out how tough the PCs are.

So, RigaMortus2, I understand and support your playing style, FWIW.

Thanks I can't tell you how often my DM beats up our group and he'll ask, "What are you HPs at?" And I'll be "Don't worry about it" He doesn't WANT to kill us, but I don't want to tell him the exact amount of hit points I have so he doesn't hold back. Makes it more realistic. We usually use descriptive text or percentages. "I am below 10% of my health" or "I look really really bad". Death happens often in our games, just part of the game...

 

[Bacris]

Our games are somewhere in between these two extremes being discussed...

We all post our char sheets on the forums our DM sets up, but don't necessarily worry about it at the table... and the DM doesn't necessarily READ the char sheets. But, we've pretty much weeded out the problem players from our group and all trust each other... and we also tend to do each other's math to add up rolls and the like (bad math students in our group =P)... so it's pretty open.

I can see why you would go either way on that, tho... it depends on the group style

 

[Nail]

He doesn't WANT to kill us, but I don't want to tell him the exact amount of hit points I have so he doesn't hold back.

Exactly.

At our table, all dice are rolled out in the open, and there's no "dice fudging", etc. Still, it is possible to "take it easy" on a PC if you know they're about to die -- it's just human nature, and who really wants their friend's precious PC to die? By not knowing how many hps the PC has left, I don't have to worry about unconsciously holding back a bit.

Etc.

It's all about trust...and having more fun by increasing the tension a bit!

 

[RigaMortus2]

Exactly.

At our table, all dice are rolled out in the open, and there's no "dice fudging", etc. Still, it is possible to "take it easy" on a PC if you know they're about to die -- it's just human nature, and who really wants their friend's precious PC to die? By not knowing how many hps the PC has left, I don't have to worry about unconsciously holding back a bit.

Etc.

It's all about trust...and having more fun by increasing the tension a bit!

Or DM mostly rolls in secret, only because the main table is far away from him. But when the important rolls happen (like it could be a life or death attack roll or saving throw), he'll break out the "big" die and roll in front