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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aboyd" data-source="post: 5536978" data-attributes="member: 44797">I agree.  I used to be sorta difficult when a DM broke a rule that he allegedly followed.  I'd break out the book, and rules-lawyer him a bit.  Nowadays I'm waaaaay more relaxed.  In our last game, the DM had someone take a move action and then delay.  A player turned to me and said, "Can he do that?"  And my response was that sure he could, if this was a house rule for him.  Otherwise, he probably meant to have his NPC "ready" (standard action) rather than "delay" (full action).  I left a big out for the DM to assert whatever he wanted, and I'd have gone along with it too.  But I managed to mention what the official rule was, and the DM interrupted, "No, no, I want to play by the rules, so I must have meant ready."Being relaxed and acting as if you don't care actually helps you to get it right more often than if you act like you do care.  Many DMs can get defensive.It's true that nowhere in the description of Fly does it state "You can move in 3 dimensions."  However, Fly does list "Fly up at a greater than 45° angle" amongst the skill checks, which implies that flying up at an angle that is not greater than 45° should be possible without any skill check at all.It's also true that the Fly skill does state that having ranks in Fly does not mean you can fly.  You need to have it listed under movement as an option.  So he may have been confused and tried to apply that distinction to your balls of lightning.  Note that I don't actually think that's what he's doing, but I do wish to put it forward as a possibility.Uh oh.  Hmm.  It's starting to sound to me like you're playing with a bit of a railroad DM.  I mean, he may not be forcing you to do everything he wants, like puppets, but he does appear to have an idea of how combat should go, and anything that surprises him or is too effective will get nerfed on the fly.That happens in many games, more often than you'd think.  I'm in a game with my good friend, and his wife dropped out for a reason similar to what you're experiencing.  She said, "When I load my sorcerer up with fire spells, suddenly every enemy has fire immunity.  If I have flight, they have flight.  If we can deal 100 points of damage in a single round, they suddenly have 300 hit points."  That's a bit of a paraphrase; I don't remember her exact words anymore.  But the point is that some DMs really really believe that their job is to let you juuuuuuust barely live.  Every fight is supposed to be difficult in their way of thinking, even if the rules say that some fights should be easily overcome.So you may have a DM who has this mindset, and isn't good at handling surprises.  How to deal with it?  Hmm.  Resort to using skills, spells, and feats that are more commonly accepted by DMs (they might even be more effective, but if the DM is used to it, he won't object).  Or stop caring so much.  If the DM nerfs something, stop using it immediately, no arguments.  If the nerf causes you or your party to be in danger of dying, just accept it instead of fighting it.  I've found that sometimes the DM nerfs things because he assumes you're are slaughtering (or will slaughter) the enemy, and when the on-the-fly nerfing causes the group to utterly lose, it can be a real eye-opener for the DM.  Let the party members die so the DM can scramble to react, and maybe realize (to his surprise) that his actions are based on an inaccurate assessment of the game, and need to be reconsidered.  If you struggle to compensate each time he nerfs something, you may be inadvertently reassuring him that the decision was good, because he sees you still valiantly struggling, and feels it's an even match.Also, get used to retraining your feats, and dropping certain spells for other ones.  Get aggressive at saying, "Oh, that doesn't work as the book states?  Okay, on level up I drop it and take _________."  Or if the DM won't allow you to re-jigger your character, just use the (many) deaths your PC will experience as an opportunity to build something better.Good luck!</blockquote>

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