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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oryan77" data-source="post: 3474901" data-attributes="member: 18701">I'm one of those gamers that tries to think outside of the box when playing. I like to visualize the surroundings and think of what I can do as a character to overcome a challenge taking into account the environment and anything else I can think of. I also try to make it exciting & interesting. I do this as a DM also.But now that even players know D20 rules so well because they are so easy to learn, I find it hard sometimes to make a scenario more stimulating & exciting. I will think of a really clever & unique action for a character to do, only to find out that because of one miscellaneous rule, I can't do it without breaking the rules. I can't get away with it because the players will catch me   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> Sometimes as a DM, I will do something that I know will scare players into thinking the situation is going to be bad, but I don't have the intention to actually screw them over. I just want to make them think they are screwed so when they thwart my attempts, they will feel even more heroic. But it sucks when a rule gets in my way. For example, our groups archer uses the magic bow in melee combat 24/7 thanks to Arrow Mind. I wanted to scare her a bit and do a sunder attempt on her bow. I had no intention of actually breaking the bow because they could kill the NPC before he did enough damage to destroy it. I just wanted to freak her out so that after they kill him, she'll feel like she overcame a scarier challenge than what she's used to (saving her bow rather than her life).I've never done a Sunder before, never even seen anyone do a sunder. So all I knew of the rule was what I remembered reading in the PHB. When I announce that the NPC attacks her bow and she gets an AoO, she freaked out, "WHAT?! MY BOW?! What the hell am I going to do if I lose my bow! CRAP!". She was genuinely worried. I asked the players to find out the Hardness & HP of a magic bow for me while I moved on to the next initiative to keep the game moving. And of course, a minute later a player finds the text in the DMG guide that says a magic item can only be damaged by a magic item of an equal enhancement bonus. Seeing as how she has a +2 Legacy bow and very few NPC of mine wield magic weapons, this NPC can't even damage the bow even if he did a sunder.Then the players rejoice. Once again my own rule book thwarts my actions rather than the players. Honestly, little things like this are pissing me off  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> Some lame obscure rule makes me look like a dope yet again. I can't ignore the rule or all hell would break loose and I would lose my player's trust. So I suck it up, and try to think of other ways to be "original" and get the players nervous so they can reminisce about that moment later on.I also see it happen with players. Sometimes a player wants to do something clever and he can't because he lacks some stupid feat or something. Or maybe it's because he can't take a move action then a standard action and finish it off with a reasonable partial move action just because it's against the rules. And I can't let them get away with it because they prefer to stick to the rules (well, they prefer that my NPC's stick to the rules...they wouldn't mind getting away with things if I let them...and if I can't do it, they can't do it  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />  )</blockquote>

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