D&D 5E How do you feel about PC abilities being nerfed by the DM?

[CleverNickName]

No its not. "D&D is over-played and everyone is getting annoyed with it, please pick a different game."

Truth. If you are bored with a game you should definitely try a different one. If only for a few weeks to freshen things up, maybe get a new perspective. There are dozens of games out there to try. Hundreds, probably.

But if I'm the only one that's bored with D&D while everyone else in the group is having loads of fun, the problem probably isn't the choice of game.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Truth. If you are bored with a game you should definitely try a different one. If only for a few weeks to freshen things up, maybe get a new perspective. There are dozens of games out there to try. Hundreds, probably.

But if I'm the only one that's bored with D&D while everyone else in the group is having loads of fun, the problem probably isn't the choice of game.

That isn't the group's problem, but it might still be YOUR problem.

 

[Hussar]

Fair enough. I'm just getting tired of the assumption being "The DM is just trying to force personal preferences and abuse their authority", because that's my impression of a lot of what I'm hearing. Limits are not inherently bad.

On the flipside, they're not inherently good either.

I have a very well earned reputation for being highly critical of DM authority. I distrust it greatly and I find that sharing authority around the table makes for much, much better games. "Because it's my campaign" is, to me, the weakest argument a DM can make.

 

[Irlo]

On the flipside, they're not inherently good either.

I have a very well earned reputation for being highly critical of DM authority. I distrust it greatly and I find that sharing authority around the table makes for much, much better games. "Because it's my campaign" is, to me, the weakest argument a DM can make.

It might only be because I don't get to play nearly often enough, but if a DM I know and like offers to run a game with arbitrary and unexplained limits, I will jump at the chance to play. I certainly won't ask them to argue their case.

 

[Hussar]

It might only be because I don't get to play nearly often enough, but if a DM I know and like offers to run a game with arbitrary and unexplained limits, I will jump at the chance to play. I certainly won't ask them to argue their case.

See, that bolded part there is the rub. There's a number of gamers, like myself, who almost never get to know their DM before play. They meet at the FLGS and only associate with this person during gaming. Or, like me, they are playing online and never even get to directly meet that DM IRL.

So, sure, if it's a DM I know and like, I'm going to be far more willing to give the benefit of the doubt. That would be the point I was making earlier that trust is something you have to build first. Not simply expect.

 

[Irlo]

See, that bolded part there is the rub. There's a number of gamers, like myself, who almost never get to know their DM before play. They meet at the FLGS and only associate with this person during gaming. Or, like me, they are playing online and never even get to directly meet that DM IRL.

So, sure, if it's a DM I know and like, I'm going to be far more willing to give the benefit of the doubt. That would be the point I was making earlier that trust is something you have to build first. Not simply expect.

True, I only play with friends, acquaintances, and friends of friends. I actuallly forget sometimes that people game with strangers, because I would never do that. Which might be why I don't play as often as I'd like, so I might have to reconsider it ... ? But, no. No, I won't reconsider it.

 

[James Gasik]

No D&D is better than bad D&D. But sometimes, that monkey won't get off your damn back...

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Imagine your moon Druid could turn into a brown bear, but a fighter character had twice as many hp as you, could make three attacks per round as a single action and could also cast wizard spells. How would that make you feel and would you want the character reduced in power?

No.

Longer answer- I don’t understand why any fighter would feel overshadowed by a brown bear, first of all. They have garbage AC, and noticeably better damage than most fighter for…1 level, 3 if the fighter chooses a subclass on the lower end of the damage scale. So what?

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Better to be upfront and tell the players instead of secretly nerfing it and possibly dealing collateral damage to other PCs by constantly buffing enemies.

I don't know about the internet table for the moon druid, but if it is mainly reducing it to lvl 1/2 ceatures at level 2 (druid level/3 minimum 1/2 instead of 1), I even think it is deserved.
Actually it would probably more balanced at druid level divided by 4 (normal druid is druid level divided by 8). Maybe even other nerfs would be justified...

On the other hand, I would not force any player to play that character and even allow rebuild if I as a DM would nerf it during a campaign after it became appearent that other players (possibly including me as the DM) stop having fun because of an imbalanced ability.
I would still try to not nerf it or do it in consent with the player in question, but sometimes campaigns come to a halt, because noone has fun anymore by a single ability or item making prepping for the campaign or playing in it unfun.

In our current campaign I as a player suggested a nerf to the moon druid ability, because our DM really does not like it and just does not let the moon druid see powerful beasts, so while it is not nerfed on paper, our druid is quite behind in capability. :/

 

[TheSword]

No.

Longer answer- I don’t understand why any fighter would feel overshadowed by a brown bear, first of all. They have garbage AC, and noticeably better damage than most fighter for…1 level, 3 if the fighter chooses a subclass on the lower end of the damage scale. So what?

So that wasn’t the point. The point was would that second level brown bear Druid feel overshadowed if a fighter of the same level had three attacks per action, wizard spells and around 65 hp.

I’m not going to be drawn into a debate about whether the moon Druid overshadows or not. If you don’t believe it does then we’re gonna disagree in a thread about nerfing.