Cheating and D&D

[DarrenGMiller]

While you're right about the editing, the Cockatrice's bite (and the Medusa's gaze) is not a flesh to stone spell. Whether break enchantment would work or not is therefore a judgement call. I recently faced much the same problem in my campaign, with the medusa' gaze, and ruled that it would work, and that the caster level was equal to the medusa's hit dice. (Of course, that may have been wrong - it's just what I did.)

I actually ruled it the same way. It is listed in the MM as "Petrification" effect and it is a CR 3 creature (IIRC), so I ruled that it was not "Flesh to Stone", but a similar, lower level "Petrification" ability at CL 3. So, the party Cleric was easily able to Break Enchantment.

DM

 

[boinkythegnome]

My Cheater

I had a guy in my campaign who blatantly cheated. He would roll a nat 1 and yell 20. He always had the right spell memorized at the right time. At 9th level he was playing a fighter with a 18 con and he had 125 hitpoints (One short of max). But what really made me angry was he cheated but he would never enter melee combat to help his party members. He wanted to stay behind the group (even the mages) and fire arrows into the enemies and let everyone else take the lumps. So i gave him a very powerful bow actually a +5 artifact that had a terrible curse, it forced who ever was using it to run into melee combat and it caused their character to fumble on a natural 1,2,3,4 or 5. Boy did he whine but the other players were so happy to see his untimely demise happen. I did not invite him back anymore and the players completely agreed with that decision.

 

[Templeton580]

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[wayne62682]

At the risk of getting lynched, I have cheated in the past... usually only in a situation where either the entire party is going to get TPK'ed or my character is going to die unless I kill what is in front of me... once in a while I up the die roll by one or two if I think I can guesstimate what the DC is, but its not often.

Then again, I take the opposite view of BlueBlackRed.. I play D&D for the story and the challenge is of no consequence to me, so I don't care if I cheat a little bit for something cinematic.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Cheaters characters tend to die quickly. If they keep cheating they will keep having to roll a new PC.

 

[Crothian]

Which is to say...is it only cheating when a player does it, or is it always cheating to fudge a roll or a rule?

Of course it is only cheating when players do it. Players and DMs live by different rules.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

DM's can't cheat.

 

[grimwell]

DM's can't cheat.

I agree. There is a large difference between a DM fudging the dice for the sake of a campaign, and a player cheating on their dice rolls to change the outcome of their actions. DM fudging is a sanctioned part of the game and is referenced as a tool just about everywhere gamers gather.

In the last major campaign I ran we had a player who cheated her dice rolls obsessively. She bought those super small dice which you can't read from across the table, and would roll them and snatch them up fast and announce the results (always positive). A few players noticed this, watched her roles, caught her cheating, and brought it to me as the DM.

The players were not spitting blood, but they wanted something done. A part of the problem was that her boyfriend (a good friend of mine) was in the group and I didn't exactly want to put him in a pickle.

My short term solution was pretty simple. I used DM fudging to make everything she went up against harder than it was for the others. Raise the AC, or DC, hit her a few more times in combat, etc. Worked OK, but then one of the other players found the best solution. He found a very cool dice bowl for rolling where you dropped the dice into a skull and they spilled out into a rolling field. I mandated that everyone used this bowl for all public rolls, and put it in the center of the table.

Problem solved without causing any social discomfort for my friend.

I'll also say that after she got comfortable with letting the dice fall, it was never a problem again. I swear by the 'dice box' at the table. Throw it out, tell everyone to roll in it, and there is no chance to cheat for the cheaters -- and the other people don't care either way because they are not affected.

Yes, there are other ways to cheat, but the dice box ends one quickly.

 

[Templeton580]

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[Crothian]

So it's a dictatorial kind of thing? Divine right of DMs? Do what I say because I know what's best for you?

Nothing like that. Around here you are not the DM because you say you are. It is an honor bestowed on you by the players who are saying we trust you and we want to play in your game. DMing has a lot of responsibility to it and part of that responsibility is to create a fun game. The rules of the game are guidelines, and any DM worth his salt knows when he needs to go outside the rules to preserve the fun and to help the game. It is the right of the DM to fudge dice and to do things that others may see as cheating. The right is not something he takes, or claims, or is given to him from something from the beyond. It is a right given to him freely by the players in their trust.