Things that annoy your PCs?

[Richards]

Richards' Puzzles!

My son, reading that over my shoulder, said, "So we're not the only ones!"

Johnathan

 

[Victim]

Foes that use up the treasure, or have treasure that the PCs can't use. Vampires hopped up on potions armed with Lifedrinker Great Axes, for example.

Negative levels, and the long casting time of restoration.

Ineffectual assassin PCs.

Disjunction.

NPCs that don't shut up.

When they can't buy or use magic items. Once, our group found a +5 Tome and lots of treasure. When they returned to their usual haunts, the region's biggest magic item dealer had been killed and his inventory cleaned out. Events were escalating so fast that the paladin didn't have time to read his book.

A long fight loaded with incapcitating effects. Half the group played on the X-box for everything except the first and last rounds.

 

[Wee Jas]

My son, reading that over my shoulder, said, "So we're not the only ones!"

Gorgoldon's Gauntlet had great puzzles. They were a challenge... Some of the others fried my brain!

/Thread Hijack!

So looky at the sig I brought Erasmus back in the new storyhour! When Return to Gorgoldon's Gauntlet hits Dungeon Mag I'll have to update with:

Kill Erasmus - Find out how!

Although I hear you took liberties with the character classes.. lol.

/End Thread Hijack!

 

[Gnarlo]

Much the same as what's been put forth already: anything that takes away something that they feel they've worked hard to earn. This would include level draining, stat loss, and critters that steal/destroy/sunder treasured weapons and items.

 

[Cor Azer]

Well whose fault is it for saying "He has 3 iron golems at the top of the tower." Whose? Oh, yours? So DMs can make mistakes, eh? Little CR 5 encounter almost kills the 10th level characters, because you lets the uber-huge-level NPC claim there were iron golems.

Now let me take my little 7 strength bard and jump off a 300 ft tower to appease you.

To be fair, the evil knight said that there were three iron golems up there, but they were likely repositioned. And while the Large Earth Elemental was CR 5, with all the elven archers and kobolds there, the encounter level was closer to 10 or 11.

And yes, I'm quite aware I can and do make mistakes. Like the murder of crows at the star of the game that almost killed several characters.

 

[robberbaron]

Me going "heh, heh" when glancing at my notes.

The BBEG almost going TPK then getting away.

NPCs/monsters that are as hard to hit as the PCs, and hit as often.

 

[Mystery Man]

Puns. When a player puns or makes a bad joke in my game they get dice thrown at them by me.

I have a transparent d6 I use that's really hard to block. I just never aim for the face since it gets thrown back.

They hate it when I say "whoops" or when I make them role wil saves for no apparant reason every hour (game time). Or when I smile and show them the d8 I'm about to roll that I've had since '83.

 

[hong]

Being swallowed whole on more than 50% of the conmbats that the PC has been in.
It was funny for a while... now it's just sad.

"I'm not fighting that thing until I know whether it spits or swallows!"

 

[Zappo]

Disjunction and level draining. However, I think this annoyes just about every player on the face of the Earth.
I have to steal the Nystul-Aura-on-a-chair idea.

The main thing that annoys my gaming group are modules that don't make sense and/or greatly lack deatils about the "why" and "how".

Yeah. Oh, yeah. This ties with my riddle rant in the other thread.
The rare times I have a "...nothing short of a wish..." in my campaigns, it means that there's either a deity or an epic spellcaster involved. There is a good reason. And the magical aura will be seen for miles, unless a good Magic Aura spell is somewhere in there. And even assuming that one controls this kind of magic, he won't use it for a stupid door, because it's incredibly costly either in money, XP, or both.

 

[Altalazar]

Lots of undead annoys them - at least, if there are any rogues in the group.