Speaking of failing can be fun, for the most part I agree. It's kind of like how I like my food seasoning, I want subtlety and nuance. If something is all just one overwhelming flavor then for me it's frequently less enjoyable.
However it can be taken too far. Back in 3.x days they had spells Holy Word and Blasphemy. For those that are unaware, the spells took effect on every creature within a 40 foot radius of the opposite alignment, evil for Holy Word and good for Blasphemy. I was playing in a Living Greyhawk region County of Urnst when a high level monster cast Blasphemy. The creature was high enough level that because of the level cap it automatically paralyzed, weakened and dazed every good aligned PC in the party. For 1d10 minutes.
This was also the region that had a super powerful dragon that also kidnapped and impregnated female PCs without the permission of the player or a chance to avoid it other than to hope it never found you. We had to do a quick stone shape spell to hide in the side of a cliff when it flew overhead so that my wife's PC wouldn't just be automatically taken.
So taking PCs out of play (our PCs would have died except the other PCs burned special favors to save us) when they have no chance at all? No fun. Doing things to players that cross the line into abusive? Even worse in my book.
I was told later that no one in the region played a PC with a good alignment and even the women rarely played female characters because of things like this.
However it can be taken too far. Back in 3.x days they had spells Holy Word and Blasphemy. For those that are unaware, the spells took effect on every creature within a 40 foot radius of the opposite alignment, evil for Holy Word and good for Blasphemy. I was playing in a Living Greyhawk region County of Urnst when a high level monster cast Blasphemy. The creature was high enough level that because of the level cap it automatically paralyzed, weakened and dazed every good aligned PC in the party. For 1d10 minutes.
This was also the region that had a super powerful dragon that also kidnapped and impregnated female PCs without the permission of the player or a chance to avoid it other than to hope it never found you. We had to do a quick stone shape spell to hide in the side of a cliff when it flew overhead so that my wife's PC wouldn't just be automatically taken.
So taking PCs out of play (our PCs would have died except the other PCs burned special favors to save us) when they have no chance at all? No fun. Doing things to players that cross the line into abusive? Even worse in my book.
I was told later that no one in the region played a PC with a good alignment and even the women rarely played female characters because of things like this.