Was this fair?

[Gellion]

Well i really do not feel like explaining everything. But here is what happened. We has hired a Bard to sneak into a temple to steal a skull of a Necromancer that we had killed, so he could not be ressurected. However he was also part of an adventuring group. We had been dodging them for quite some time after we killed the Necromancer. However out DM said their Sorceror wne tback to where we hid his body and found his head that we had cut off. So they were going to get him ressurect. Well, that is where the Bard came in, he got the head from the temple. However the Monk of the group was onto him, they fought in the Inn, the Bard ran put the Monk to sleep and ran away. We were going top leave, but our Dwarven Fighter thought he was in the way of the door, and nudged him, the DM said he used an the Monks instant death attack, out Dwarf failed his fort save and died. Our DM even let him reroll it, but he still failed. Turns out this Monk is 18th level. The rest of the group is probably in their high teens as well, it was pure luck that let us defeat the Necromancer. The Monk then chased us down, but we managed to escape.

Another problem is my DM has a massive pet NPC problem, and is very arbitrary. He didnt like that i could attack with Improved Invisibility on, so he said it only lasted two rounds. Oh, and we are all ninth level currently. The guy who plays the Dwarven Fighter is now a Human Monk.

He loves to show off his NPCs, one of his NPC Barbarians did 24D6 damage to our Dwarven Fighter when he was still alive. Luckily he somehow managed to live through that one.

 

[Squire James]

Um, yeah, killing level 9-10 PC's with level 16-18 NPC's is quite unfair. The rest of this post is damage control... if all you want is your answer you can stop reading now.

Your DM appears to be tired of having to come up with a new Bad Guy With a Name each week... a feeling I can identify with even though I think his solution (raising NPC levels sky-high) is wrong. You're killing off his villains too early for his liking, and he's lashing out by creating NPC's while he's still a bit annoyed with you.

Encourage your DM to make NPC's closer to your level in exchange for a promise to give them due respect and their 15 minutes of fame. That's probably all he wants. If he wants more, be sure to tell him that the PC's are supposed to be the main characters of the story. If he wants to glorify his own characters, then perhaps he should be writing a novel (a much better medium for such pursuits, as R.A. Salvatore could tell you!). In short, both the DM and the players should be allowed to have fun with their characters, but if one is at the expense of the other it is the DM that has to give a little.

 

[frankthedm]

uhg, the uber npc. Tell the dm to fan-fic the guy into his favorite tv show and OUT of the campaign.

 

[S'mon]

I like having ultra-powerful NPCs (level 17+) in my campaign world, who sometimes interact with the PCs. The PC's arch-enemies are mostly vastly higher level than them. That said, the PCs (level 10-13) are amongst the greatest heroes of their local area, within a hundred miles or so. I don't think it's unfair to have powerful hostile NPCs in the campaign, it gives the players something to aim for, but it's definitely unfair to bend the rules to keep them alive.

 

[pogre]

Rule 0!!!! The Dm IS ALWAYS RIGHT!!!! Quit being an ungrateful player. If it were not for your DM there would be NO game!!!! Get over your failings!

Extra exclamation points purposely placed to annoy a certain member of our boards.


ummm, yeah - that sounds unfair. Maybe your DM needs a break or should run some published modules instead. He sounds pretty frustrated. Maybe if the adventure does not have a personal investment on his part he will be a bit fairer.

 

[Sanackranib]

I had a similar situation. our group was in the 10-13th level range and our DM inserted an epic level monk that we were forced to travel with to advance his plotline. the adventure culminated, for me anyway when he tried to force my character to advance his plotline though everything he had done before in reguards to his plot had made my character increasingly offosed to what he was trying to do. he had his npcs offer me a deal which would have resulting in my necromancer gaining a book of vile darkness among other plot related things. when I said that I wouldn't deal with "lackeys" they summoned thier boss who arrived pissed off and cast some epic level spell that did 44d6 damage REF save somthing like 35 or so save for half.

my advice is to just walk away

 

[Czhorat]

IN all fairness....

... we don't quite have both sides of the story. That the majority of the group was able to escape says that the situation wasn't ENTIRELY unfair. Had you seen much of this monk before hand? If you'd witnessed him moving and striking with nearly superhuman speed you could have had an inkling that he was a force to be reckoned with.

I know that we all have our house rules, but for the DM to drastically cut the duration on one of your spells just because HE doesnt' find it balanced strikes me as unfair. A better house-rule could be that after you attack opponents can track you well enough to attack with a miss percentage and the -4 penalty for fighting an invisible opponent. That would stop you from being an unstoppable killing machine, but still give the spell some utility. If he doesn't, you might consider asking him to let you swap it for another spell that he hasn't nerfed.

For me, the worst part is that you had to hire an NPC bard to do what should have been a major part of your adventuring. D&D is heroic fantasy - it shouldn't be about buying your way out of problems. How high level was this bard? If I read your post correctly, he put an EIGHTEENTH LEVEL MONK to sleep. I have no idea how a bard of any level would accomplish this. If you're hiring NPCs that are that much higher level than your party (and I'm not sure how a bard of any level would survive toe-to-toe against an 18th level monk) then the focus of the game is certainly not where it should be. THAT should be your biggest issue to discuss with your DM.

 

[Sanackranib]

I wondered about that myself. with the Monks HD & SR that shouldn't have even been possible.

 

[Gellion]

The Bard was also related to the king that we are helping. And as for him putting the Monk to sleep, he does that kind of thing all the time. After he put him to sleep we were going to leave, but our Dwarf thought that the Monk was in the way of the door, so he died, like i said earlier. And we only barely managed to escape from the Monk.

 

[Gellion]

Our DM claimed that the Monk was still battle-ready, even after being put to sleep. So after our Dwarf woke him up, we got out through one of the inns windows on the top floor. I cast leveitate on everyone so we could get out without hurting ourselves.

And yeah, we had met the Monk before, he was actually quite friendly to us, until he found out we had his friends head.

Also the Bard stole some of our money for "collateral", he gave it back when we got the head. But our DM didnt even allow a Spot check.