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Is my DM being fair?
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<blockquote data-quote="GMforPowergamers" data-source="post: 7141233" data-attributes="member: 67338"><p>Is it fair... maybe but most likely not. </p><p></p><p>is it able to be worked with...most of the time yes. </p><p></p><p>I don't know about lucky, but over the years a few times I have asked players to tone things down (like the elf that crit on 12+ in 3.0, or the time a PC got an AC 18pts higher than the next highest PC). I have been on both sides of this...in fact the surprise question itself I have 2 examples of. I'm going to be fair to both sides here, one uses the weapon of warning, and the other alertness...</p><p></p><p>Disclaimer ####As a DM I am pretty liberal with the word surprise... I also have a "Ask the players input" policy. So often I will ask "Do you think anyone saw that coming?" instead of defaulting to rules...####</p><p></p><p>So 1: I had an Elf PC in a game I was running. He was a ranger with alertness. One of the big things the PCs put into the game was taking sides... so we didn't really have a good/evil divide as much as a military/non military divide between factions and PCs caught in the middle. every single time something happened that no one could see coming (me included sometimes I have crazy Players) he would argue we should roll initative and he not be surprised...</p><p></p><p>so 2... (the funny part is this was a game where the player of the elf was running and I was the Player) we got a club of warning as an early treasure (maybe even game 1) My cleric/paladin took it and used it for the rest of the campaign... it went great until the "Teleport" attacks started... than issues came up. Bad guys teleport in and attack "Weapon of warning no surprise" so he then ruled "Fine you have your action, but you don't know where people are teleporting in" so I would bless party and rogue would 'ready a shot" than he would say "Nope never mind they see you prep and don't finish the teleport" so we argued than the weapon would not alert us...</p><p></p><p></p><p>Both of my examples and yours comes down to this. The DM wants to surprise the PC, but can't. Sometimes that means "Well roll with it I can never surprise the PCs" but I get were that gets frustrating...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="GMforPowergamers, post: 7141233, member: 67338"] Is it fair... maybe but most likely not. is it able to be worked with...most of the time yes. I don't know about lucky, but over the years a few times I have asked players to tone things down (like the elf that crit on 12+ in 3.0, or the time a PC got an AC 18pts higher than the next highest PC). I have been on both sides of this...in fact the surprise question itself I have 2 examples of. I'm going to be fair to both sides here, one uses the weapon of warning, and the other alertness... Disclaimer ####As a DM I am pretty liberal with the word surprise... I also have a "Ask the players input" policy. So often I will ask "Do you think anyone saw that coming?" instead of defaulting to rules...#### So 1: I had an Elf PC in a game I was running. He was a ranger with alertness. One of the big things the PCs put into the game was taking sides... so we didn't really have a good/evil divide as much as a military/non military divide between factions and PCs caught in the middle. every single time something happened that no one could see coming (me included sometimes I have crazy Players) he would argue we should roll initative and he not be surprised... so 2... (the funny part is this was a game where the player of the elf was running and I was the Player) we got a club of warning as an early treasure (maybe even game 1) My cleric/paladin took it and used it for the rest of the campaign... it went great until the "Teleport" attacks started... than issues came up. Bad guys teleport in and attack "Weapon of warning no surprise" so he then ruled "Fine you have your action, but you don't know where people are teleporting in" so I would bless party and rogue would 'ready a shot" than he would say "Nope never mind they see you prep and don't finish the teleport" so we argued than the weapon would not alert us... Both of my examples and yours comes down to this. The DM wants to surprise the PC, but can't. Sometimes that means "Well roll with it I can never surprise the PCs" but I get were that gets frustrating... [/QUOTE]
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