When does a DM Cheat?

[S'mon]

It sets a dangerous precedent, though.

Starts to lead to house rules for badly-injured spellcasters having to make Concentration checks to cast because they're in pain... wounded rogues not being able to tumble to safety because their injuries prevent them somersaulting, etc etc...

Where does one draw the line?

-Hyp.

I disagree on that - and previous editions of AD&D had rules on winged flying creatures being unable to continue flying when wounded. Taking off vertically from the ground is in the real world an extremely difficult/energetic action, nothing like casting a spell or tumbling etc IMO. Of course a wizard in pain from eg a sword of wounding or Melf's acid arrow shoulf have to make concentration checks, arguably such could raise the trumble DC for a rogue also - these aren't cast in stone. Another point - most dragon hp seem to repressent muscle & mass, unlike a human-sized PC with 200hp. A human with 2hp is as well-off as a typical Commoner, a Huge Dragon with 2hp is practically dead in dragon terms.

Edit: Anyway, my point is that you could have brought the fight to a more satisfactory conclusion without fudging/cheating on die rolls or monster hp.

 

[Geron Raveneye]

To answer the original question...

...as a GM, I "cheat" to provide more fun for the players, or whenever a daring action by one of the characters would lead to an untimely demise. After all, as GM, I'm the final word on how reality works in my campaigns, and knowing what your players want is more important than keeping to the dice rolls like a slave to his chains.

One thing that always baffled me is the question how roleplaying is supposed to simulate all the excitement of fantasy novels and movies if the GM (author/director) is not allowed to cheat now and then in favour of suspense and fun...

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

I don't change dice rolls, I change the bonuses. We all decided a while ago to do open rolls with all the highs and lows associated.

Btw I placed a raise dead avatar early on due to the likelihood. Also changed the way raising is handled, now you have an enforced adventure of choice as the payment "quest".

Did have an accusation of cheating earlier on when I improvised when the adventure went "off the page". More correctly I was rightly accused of making things up. My solution was to be open with the modifiers for all and drop the distrustful player, wasn't a friend.

 

[Quickbeam]

I try to avoid fudging rolls, but I have no qualms about creatively interpreting the results of a roll on special occasions. Those occasions include avoiding PC death in a less than heroic manner (unless they deserve to die stupidly); preserving a crucial plot or story element; and perhaps even fending off the untimely demise of a crucial villain or NPC. But generally, I let the dice fall where they may.