[OT] did i overreact?

[Sodalis]

wizardru:
You're an 18th-level cleric. An 18th-level cleric. You are potentially a living saint...one of perhaps a handful that your church as walking the Earth.. What is the dynamic of your church and the king?

that was my reasoning. I am --> <-- thiiis close to becoming a saint (epic) and a pidly guard has the right to slap me.

This palace sprung out of nowhere. last time we were in the city, there was no mention of a palace. the DM just neded us to go somewhere to do something....didnt really get that far in the game that night.

I left and pouted for both- in and out of game reasons. At that lvl, I demand respect from peopel I am helping. and since the king asked for my help, I demand that he show me at least the respect of a guest. You dont strip down a guest befoe you let him in. at lvl 5, he made us leave our weapon at jewelry shop (coincidentally guarded by two lvl 6 guards) and at merchant shops (coincidentally guarded by lvl 5 guards who ambushed us in the shop.

i think the problem is the DM's (not just his, but all in 3e) frame of mind. in 2e, the reasone for adventuring changes with lvl. at the first couple, it is for money, then land and property , then a title, then a castle to call your own, then immortality. But in 3e, so far, it is just adv to get money and powerful weapons. This means that the DM treats the party as such- just a group for hire... and our DM is doing this to the extreme.....

here is where they discuss this:

http://www.enworld.org/messageboards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12249

He likes to get us to adv, but his plot hooks are weak. and we accept them because if we dont do as he says, he says, "well you can go home cause I have nothign for you to do..." which kills our night cause we have planned for an adv, which ends with that...

and the rogue got his bow snapped three adv ago cause a lord paid us 5000Gp to do someting for him... correct me if I am wrong, but losing a 50,000gp bow for a 5,000gp purse is not worth it. But if we dont, we have nothign to do for the night...

 

[Zappo]

Everything you mentioned are problems of the DM, not of 3e. The only thing I can say is that if you're the king, you strip down your guests, no matter what. If they are high-level, that's one more reason.

But having people lay their weapons in shops is strange. The customs of the land may find it normal, though.

And using money as a hook at near-epic level games is, well, too weak.

 

[Bonedagger]

Well... Uhm I would say yes but without taking the details into account. You and your DM apperantly didn't agree on what is normal in your world. Give your DM the benefit of the doubt (He was probably not out to ruin your fun but had other things on his mind... see. Benefit of the doubt) then educate him on why it from you point of view was a problem. If he then don't care and a similar situation occures then being pissed of will not be an overreaction.

 

[Yuan-Ti]

This slapping stuff sounds stupid. If you are a high-ranking priest in a respectable church within that kingdom, no guard, peasant or anyone short of a great noble would slap you unless ordered by the king, and then they would probably apologize to you afterwards. Assuming they know who you are of course. This sounds pretty immature on the part of the DM (i.e., it's fun to tick off the players by setting up situations where the PCs are humiliated by NPCs).

As for the weapon issue: I would expect not to be allowed to wear weapons in the presence of the king. Why did you refuse to give up your weapon? Did you have some reason to expect a trap? Regardless, at 18th level, you probably did not need your mace to fight your way out of a trap.

Of course, if you have decided to disregard the King's orders because you felt he humiliated you (your character, I mean), then your DM should not punish you for anything. It sounds reasonable that a high level priest would be peeved by a petty king -- it could even lead to civil war in the kingdom, if you have enough clout. It is also reasonable that said cleric could then refuse to serve the king until the king apologized to the cleric!

Your DM may not see it that way...

 

[Anabstercorian]

You're 18th level and you're still taking orders from kings? What's up with that? You don't take orders from kings no more. You take SUGGESTIONS. If a King has a problem with showing some decent respect to someone who could destroy and rebuild his whole castle twice in a day, he should hire lower level characters. I think you would have been justified in kicking the kings ass and making him apologize for being such a dick to his betters. Remember the Interdict, baby.

 

[Umbran]

It seems like both sides were being unreasonable.

It is quite normal for royalty to demand that people leave weapons at the door. In a high-level campaign, though, it's also a bit silly. If a high-level character wanted to get at the king, asking them to surrender visible weapons isn't going to slow them down much.

The king also over-reacted. No sane ruler would force apologies from a high-level potential ally. Since they were forced, such apologies are known to be insincere - and thus the whole thing is not a matter of apologies, but of humiliating the PC.

Yah - a nation leader asks an archbishop to come discuss giving the nation aid, and then proceeds to humiliate the archbishop? Not bloody likely.

I have the sneaking suspicion that this was more about the DM trying to discipline the player than about the king trying to get things working with the cleric. If so, it was poorly concieved, and poorly executed.

 

[Aaron L]

Level the kings castle. Raze it to the ground. (Oh, you're not a Lawful Evil cleric? Never mind.)

 

[Sodalis]

I know I reacted in a childish way- but still felt justified in doing so.

The main reason i am here is to see what you guys think that the DM will do to me. I am trying to get an idea of a reasonable punishment- but I am still not willing to take it up the arse.

I know that he always wants the final say in EVERY situation, hence the slap, and by my running away from teh adv, I ruined his day. He will do something to retaliate, and i will expect to find myself dead by the end of the day.

thansk for all the feedback-

and yes- this has been happening all the time. As mentioned earlier, I haev been slapped by NPCs about ten time in the last 2 years- most in the same situation... all ending in a "if you dont take the money and go adventuring, then you can go home cause I aint got nothing for you to do..."

edit: and i would have hailed down a series of flamstrikes on the guards, but my alignment forbade me....

Plus, the Dm has a way with NPCs- if he has no stats, he is invincible. I would guess that the guards would have killed me- and the king would have been damn near impossible to hurt (SR, DR, wiz 20 spells, clr 20 spells) and stuff like that.

 

[Zappo]

You're 18th level and you're still taking orders from kings? What's up with that? You don't take orders from kings no more. You take SUGGESTIONS. If a King has a problem with showing some decent respect to someone who could destroy and rebuild his whole castle twice in a day, he should hire lower level characters. I think you would have been justified in kicking the kings ass and making him apologize for being such a dick to his betters. Remember the Interdict, baby.

If the atmosphere is what his post suggests, it is likely that the king would have whipped out some deus-ex-machina to save his ass and further humiliate the character.

 

[Aaron L]

If your DM is really like that suggest you find another DM. After you have a long talk with him about being childish, overbearing, and a bad gamemaster. Next time he says "go home because I have no adventure unless you do this", go home. Tell him you're tired of it, and leave. Maybe he'll learn how to make an adventure without leading you by the nose and insulting you. If not, his loss, not yours.