TheEvil
Explorer
My signifant other (SO) and I have been playing in a 3.0 game now for several months. The rest of the group consist of the GM, his wife (GMW) who is a rather new player, and two of their long term friends.
In the very first session, when the GM learns that you can draw a weapon as part of a move action, he immediately states that he won't allow this, as it makes the feat Quick Draw useless. Yup, you guessed it, his wife's character is the only one with the Quick Draw feat. At the time, my SO and I decided to simply keep an eye on things and see how they developed.
Several red-flag conditions apply here. The first unfortunate bit is that my SO and I and the GMW are all playing melee combatant types. VERY unfortunate. I have even opted not to take weapon focus so as to avoid having as high a to hit as her character. The GMW and my SO are also the only women at the table, which I have seen lead to unfortunate competition for the spotlight, so to speak. I have seen this happen in the past and worry that it is happening now, since GMW seems to complain about SO's capabilities, but not mine. I don't believe that my SO has the competition attitude, but I suppose I wouldn't.
Anyway, things have developed.
The GM's wife often comments on how high my SO's elven rogue/ranger's to hit bonus and initiative bonus seem to be, which will happen when you have 18 dex and dump a couple feats into weapon focus and weapon finesse. This is a 25 point buy game, so getting an 18, even with the racial bonus, is a pretty big investment of ones points, not to mention the two feats when you have no fighter levels. By comparison GMW's character is a straight human fighter, has 18 strength (at 4th level), 10 dex and Improved Initiative and quick draw, and I don't know what other feats, though I don't believe weapon focus or specialization are in the mix. Basically, we are comparing a focused dex warrior archtype to a tankish style fighter that doesn't seem to have any particular focus, other then quick reactions. The expected diferences follow.
In the course of the game, we were given special, non-magical items. I got a flail that can distribute fluids (eg. holy water) on a strike, my SO got a concealable wrist dagger, and DMW got a suit of instawear breastplate, giving her the best armor in the game that can be put on in one round.
In the latest campaign twist, it seems that our characters have been transformed into different types of undead (that is Ravenloft for you, I suppose). In her transformation, my SO's character gained 2 points of strength and lost 4 points of dexterity becoming some lesser form of vampire. My SO feels this has been done to reduce the effectiveness of her character to mollify the GMW. She also worries that it is intended to be a permanant change, something I personally doubt, though, again, what do I know.
The change happened at the end of the last session, we are not scheduled to play for another week, and the GM and my SO are currently arguing by e-mail about the how the changes effect her character. He is arguing that the special abilities granted balance out the penalty. As she has pointed out, a -4 to the dex of her character is a pretty substantial blow, effecting her accuracy, skills, initiative, etc (armor class loss is balanced by a large natural armor bonus)... I do find it troubling that the changes address some of the very things that GMW has complained about. To his credit, he hasn't shown any favoritism in combat or roleplaying, the GMW takes the hard hits just like everyone else, and other then the armor, has not recieved any special treatment from NPCs.
So what do you all think, is their GM bias going on? If so, what would be the best way to bring it to his attention? Since the biggest problem with these threads is a lack of info, I will try to address any questions you may have.
In the very first session, when the GM learns that you can draw a weapon as part of a move action, he immediately states that he won't allow this, as it makes the feat Quick Draw useless. Yup, you guessed it, his wife's character is the only one with the Quick Draw feat. At the time, my SO and I decided to simply keep an eye on things and see how they developed.
Several red-flag conditions apply here. The first unfortunate bit is that my SO and I and the GMW are all playing melee combatant types. VERY unfortunate. I have even opted not to take weapon focus so as to avoid having as high a to hit as her character. The GMW and my SO are also the only women at the table, which I have seen lead to unfortunate competition for the spotlight, so to speak. I have seen this happen in the past and worry that it is happening now, since GMW seems to complain about SO's capabilities, but not mine. I don't believe that my SO has the competition attitude, but I suppose I wouldn't.
Anyway, things have developed.
The GM's wife often comments on how high my SO's elven rogue/ranger's to hit bonus and initiative bonus seem to be, which will happen when you have 18 dex and dump a couple feats into weapon focus and weapon finesse. This is a 25 point buy game, so getting an 18, even with the racial bonus, is a pretty big investment of ones points, not to mention the two feats when you have no fighter levels. By comparison GMW's character is a straight human fighter, has 18 strength (at 4th level), 10 dex and Improved Initiative and quick draw, and I don't know what other feats, though I don't believe weapon focus or specialization are in the mix. Basically, we are comparing a focused dex warrior archtype to a tankish style fighter that doesn't seem to have any particular focus, other then quick reactions. The expected diferences follow.
In the course of the game, we were given special, non-magical items. I got a flail that can distribute fluids (eg. holy water) on a strike, my SO got a concealable wrist dagger, and DMW got a suit of instawear breastplate, giving her the best armor in the game that can be put on in one round.
In the latest campaign twist, it seems that our characters have been transformed into different types of undead (that is Ravenloft for you, I suppose). In her transformation, my SO's character gained 2 points of strength and lost 4 points of dexterity becoming some lesser form of vampire. My SO feels this has been done to reduce the effectiveness of her character to mollify the GMW. She also worries that it is intended to be a permanant change, something I personally doubt, though, again, what do I know.
The change happened at the end of the last session, we are not scheduled to play for another week, and the GM and my SO are currently arguing by e-mail about the how the changes effect her character. He is arguing that the special abilities granted balance out the penalty. As she has pointed out, a -4 to the dex of her character is a pretty substantial blow, effecting her accuracy, skills, initiative, etc (armor class loss is balanced by a large natural armor bonus)... I do find it troubling that the changes address some of the very things that GMW has complained about. To his credit, he hasn't shown any favoritism in combat or roleplaying, the GMW takes the hard hits just like everyone else, and other then the armor, has not recieved any special treatment from NPCs.
So what do you all think, is their GM bias going on? If so, what would be the best way to bring it to his attention? Since the biggest problem with these threads is a lack of info, I will try to address any questions you may have.
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