The ruling seems good to me, taking the following into consideration:
1) you get two checks for that DC 20, increasing your odds by quite a bit;
2) DC 20 isn't that bad at 15th level, there's plenty of room for some skill points in listen and spot--something an adventurer *would* have. Neglecting to bring those skills up is like neglecting to make sure your saves are decent;
3) If a character starts throwing trees all over the place, I'm sure the gods will find it boring and...persuade the character into believing it's not such a great idea. They're sorta there as a metagame device to keep the fight interesting and not turn into a cheese fest.
Reaper: It's not disagreeing with the DM's rulings, or even bringing up discussion on anything he does. Heck, I agree his first ruling for the tree was bad. It's accusing the DM of foul play, and making it a motif in your arguments, that gets me going. It spoils the game more than any (reasonable) bad calls could ever hope to do; I "call you on it" because it
is affecting the game negatively. Anyway that's my only beef, state that a decision is bad and not that the DM is bad. I'd much rather we both forget about the whole thing, agreed?
Fingolfin might score a kill this round, but it depends on a few things (aside from a little luck). I can't say who it might be though, because that'd spoil all the fun
