Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mort" data-source="post: 8431495" data-attributes="member: 762">Late to this discussion, but I find this a very interesting situation.First, the DM seems to have given you a benefit for your background. You got a long rest (presumably, not fully stated); and were thus able to engage the Duke's men fully healed, all spells ready to go etc. If you had confronted them at the inn you would have had to confront them after a long day of travel/adventure and likely a significantly depleted state (or maybe not maybe you guys were at full heading to the inn)? Anyway, while not ideal, that's something.That said, I would have handled it differently. I'm not a big fan of springing something on the players after they've done something creative/clever that would seem to negate their work - at least not without them knowing what happened!For example here - If I made the farmers loyalists, I'd have telegraphed it. One of the PCs notices the farmer's Common is tinged with speech patterns common to loyalists. Then that PC (or another perceptive one) spots a plaque that only loyalists tend to have even remotely displayed. Then (depending on tech level) there's a newspaper crumpled in a corner - one that loyalists favor. You can't just go with one clue, my rule is at MINIMUM 3 that the PCs could pick up on.Another way, say they're not loyalists - The PCs see one of the farmhands slip away as they are talking to the farmer. Then that night, at the communal meal, one of the other farmhands comments  on the absence at dinner, that Biff NEVER skips dinner unless there is a REALLY good reason. Etc. Make sure the PCs see the ambush coming and can act on it - or not.What the DM actually did here, is an issue I see with too many DMs - refusing the party information that they really should have - likely because he felt that giving out that information would have made things "too easy" or some such. Or, of course, he just wanted the PCs to fight the Duke's men and that's that.TL/ DR: Did the DM "abuse" his authority? No not really, it's well within DM purview to have a bottleneck fight. But could it have been handled better? Absolutely.</blockquote>

Verification