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Message: <blockquote data-quote="smbakeresq" data-source="post: 7758630" data-attributes="member: 28301">I get what you are saying but the rule book also gives the DM unilateral power to change any rule as he sees it.  All editions have. When you play the games you mentioned you are in direct competition with the players, and those rules sets are set for fairness to all.  The DM is NOT in competition with anyone, the ruleset is written as a framework and guide for the players to participate in and the DM to narrate, direct and adjudicate a fantasy improv play.This is an overriding issue.  In another thread about MC the argument is essentially players who want to MC hexblade believing RAW descriptive text in all the books is irrelevant and DM who disagree with them are railroading them.  What those players essentially believe is they are in direct individual competition with the DM and they need to get every advantage they can to “win” because that is the goal.  They always say the DM must slavishly follow only RAW at all times, otherwise the DM is cheating them out of their advantages so the DM can “win.”  You see this all the time.  If you play out a situation wrong like “DM that’s a ranged attack against a prone creature so it’s disadvantage” that’s fine for a player to correct.  But if the DM says this creature attacks with advantage for some reason the DM determines “Hey that’s not in rules, that’s not allowed, it’s unfair.”  I had a player quit because he thought it was unfair the mindflayer in his lair ambushed the 10th level group with his mind blast through a peephole, arguing the cone effect wouldn’t fit through the peephole according to the rules and since his PC couldn’t be surprised he can’t be ambushed either.  He might have stayed if he made his saving throw but I don’t know.As a DM I am not out to “win.”  In only think of the terms win/lose as a DM I always lose.  When all my creatures and nefarious plots are beaten by the sly, tricky, guidance spamming players, I am beaten.  If the players all die is a fair fight I “lost” as the group is now dead and we have to start over.  Worse is if I miscalculated something and just TPKed everyone then I really lost, we start over and the players say “What the hell  was that?”  The DM only “wins” when the players are happy they got a real run for the money, when you hear through someone else “So and So said you really had them going the another night.”The DM who believes he is in competition with the others players for “victory” is the worst kind of DM.  Running the Tomb of Horrors and killing everyone is only fun for the DM because everyone knows going in it’s essentially a giant railroad and everyone is in on it.Jeremy Crawford rules decisions sometimes make no sense and to me reflect little knowledge on the current state of the game and how it’s being played.  This makes sense though, I doubt he actually has time to read these forums and all others and probably wants to get away from the game after work closes.  Sometimes the problems are long running, say beast master ranger, which many would like to play but is just terrible and worse unwieldy at the table.  But let’s appreciate what he has done since 5e is a great edition to the game.</blockquote>

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