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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pming" data-source="post: 8195476" data-attributes="member: 45197">Hiya!It sounds to me like you think the GM is somehow an "equal" to a Player. He/She is not (I'm going to just say 'he' for GM, because it's easy from here on out).The GM has ALL the power as it relates to the game. The GM can, technically, just utterly annihilate the PC's on a whim. The old "Rocks fall. Everyone dies" thing. Of course, such a GM would find themselves sitting alone at the table the next week wondering where everyone is....so it's a self-correcting position, so to say! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />I'm going to have to use my imagination for this exercise, because in 40 years of GM'ing, I have NEVER had a spellcaster completely "overshadow/overpower" other PC's/NPC's, etc. I honestly find it a bit of a conundrum, to be honest. But hey...everyone has different experiences, and all that, right? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />As long as the GM did all this "pre-emptively"...in other words, BEFORE the campaign even GOT to such high level play.... then go for it. The campaign world the GM is running/creating/nurturing doesn't get that way by accident. Any GM worth his salt would have probably spent hundreds of hours already pouring over his world and thinking about all these "What if...?" situations. These "what if" situations are typically quite boring when compared with all the exciting antics the Players PC's get up to during a 6 hour play session! Things like "Ok, this town sits on a hill side near the coast....how does it handle rain and sewage?", or "The town Mayor is elected every 6 years, but does he get to pick his helpers? Or is there some sort of 'committee'? Are they elected? Hired? Lifetime?", or "This town has a tower that the retired Sorcerer Nostronomono lives. How does his magic fit into the town as a whole?".Any GM who hasn't thought of "So, are Otyughs attracted to the lower section of the town, where the sewage runs into a disgusting slough at the edge of the river?", or "What if the Mayor has spells or abilities that let him persuade virtually any commoner?", "If Nostronomono summoned a demon, how bad off would the town be?", etc....needs to go read some old Dragon Magazines on DM'ing and running a successful campaign.No! Bad GM! BAD! No twinkie for you! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f621.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":mad:" title="Mad    :mad:"  data-smilie="4"data-shortname=":mad:" />This is something I feel quite strongly about, obviously. To me, this is the only way a GM can really outright "cheat". Now, a GM can think "Oh crap! The fort is made mostly of wood! Obviously they would have barrels of water or some means of stopping a fire...hmmm....ok..." and then come up with something REASONABLE to the capabilities of that fort and it's inhabitants! The GM should still not just pick the toughest most sure-fire way to fix such a fire...so no "Well, it's an old fort that these bandits have fixed up in the last year. Lets put an enslaver water elemental in a barrel in every large room. Oh, and every sergeant has a Ring of Water Elemental Command. The wood is all treated with Anti-Magic too".That would NOT be "reasonable".Barrels of water with a pile of old blankets next to them. That's reasonable for bandits in an old half-ruined wood fort.See above!Nope. Bad move. The only time I've ever done this sort of thing was when the Players are really into the moment and my dice suddenly decide "Naaa...lets just kill everyone!". I only do this VERY rarely. Like...once a year or three. If I was to do it more often...well...you don't get the title "Killer DM" by doing that sort of thing! I have my standards!<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />In a nutshell: Never had a problem with spellcasters. In any version of the game I've played (all but 0e ['Brown Booklets'] and 4th). I think the problem honestly comes from GM's simply not actually thinking about what they put into their game (re: adapt or allow). When a GM just sort of takes the roll of "I'm the Player that rolls the dice for the monsters", that's when things go bad. When the GM is resigned to trying to make EVERYTHING so whiz-bang-spectacularocious that he say's "Yeah, go ahead and use any of the official books. And yeah, you can choose whatever race...and we're using Feats...and Multiclassing...and the new Tasha's stuff so you can go nuts and make the PC you want"...and then does absolutely zero thinking of what those choices will/would have on his setting/world/campaign? Well, that's when you have the problems of "Uber-Spellcasters".A GM should have at least half his off-time taken up by thinking about economics, relationships between NPC's, religious festivals of the locals, weather, soil composition of the area, migration patters of animals, availability of timber and thatch to fix/build structures, etc. If a GM isn't or doesn't take the time to think about all that 'boring world stuff', their campaigns will be...."typical". Maybe fun, but nothing special. Nothing they or their players will remember decades later. It will just be "Oh yeah, I played that Adventure Path! I was some kind of multiclass paladin/sorcerer or something. It was fun". Yeah...TOTALLY memorable and worthy of GM pride. ... ... ... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />IMNSHO, of course. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />^_^Paul L. Ming</blockquote>

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