When the GM gips you (a rant)

[Storyteller01]

This is eating away at me, so if I rant here I can let it go. Feel free to add any opinions or similar experiences for or against. Comradery is a beautiful thing...


One of the players in our group started running an IK campaign. Figured things should be okay, but I was warned that the new GM tends to showboat his personal NPC's. This I can live with.

We're in the middle of town, setting the stage for the characters joining into a group. The village/town is suddenly the target of about 12 to 15 thrall undead of varyiong types. No worries.

Now I'm playing a 3rd level Cavalier ala Green Ronin. the other player characters are 3rd to 4th level with the exception of the Tharn monk (3rd level monk, but the ECL and monster dice put him at much higher). My character's currently in charge of 4 3rd level warriors.

My cavalier and his troops don't have much of a chance of dealing with these things conventionally (we were caught off guard, so my horse and most of my equipment were elsewhere) but we just came out of a bar 20 ft away. So I come up with an idea: go back to the bar, get a couple of kegs of the strongest stuff they have (cost me 23 gp) and roll the kegs into the lane the undead are approaching in. It's treated as a full round action. The troops I'm in charge of can shoot the kegs for some decent fireballs. If it doesn't damage them, it slows them down.

Here's where things get interesting: 3rd level warriors trying to hit rolling kegs miss with a 7... no explaination beyond 'there were penalties'. I can deal with this, as there might have been some wierd magic going on that my character may not be aware of.

It gets to be the head NPC's turn. His action: toss a 9D6 FIREBALL igniting the area, undead, barrels, and two characters who were in melee at the time (one of which died, but admittedly my plan might have killed him too).

Might not mean anything, but it bugged me to no end. Still no explaination as to why.


Thanks for your time and bandwidth.

 

[Mark CMG]

(. . .) the new GM tends to showboat his personal NPC's. This I can live with.

I wouldn't. I don't run or play in games where there are DMPCs or their near-equivalent.

 

[pawsplay]

Ha ha ha!

Sorry. I got nuthin'.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

3rd level PC's vs 9th level NPC. Can you say lackeys?

Olaf the Stout

 

[Aus_Snow]

Kill him and take his stuff.

 

[Qwillion]

Tell the DM to quit showboating his npc's or you will leave, plain and simple.

 

[grimwell]

Not enough information. Need to know who this NPC was and what their relevance to the overall campaign is... report back in after your next session. Perhaps this is the BBEG and it's supposed to be a first (and painful) blush in a 'getting to know the neighbors' sort of way? Don't throw the GM out with the bath water.

Your NPC's missing the barrels with a '7' isn't all that much of a surprise. What kind of AC did you think the barrels are going to have (you don't just need to hit them, but hit them hard enough to do something...)

 

[IcyCool]

Let's see, a keg is probably small (at least the man-portable ones are), so that's a +1 AC. 0 Dex is -5 penalty to AC. So, that's a base AC of 6 (assuming you consider kegs to have Dex 0 and not Dex -). Then, the DM's helper (circumstance modifiers) come in because they are rolling. I'd probably stick those anywhere between -2 to -5 to hit, which would mean at a bare minimum you'd need an 8 to hit (by my ruling). Were there any range penalties? How about cover?

All in all, your situation doesn't seem to be covered in the rules really well, and to me it appears that your GM had his NPC help your plan out. I'm not sure why you are upset, but then again, I wasn't there. Given that you feel irritated enough about it to rant, there was clearly more to it. Perhaps he said, "Nuh uh, your guys miss and my guy makes the barrels explode!" Of course, I'd have kicked him in the nuts so hard he'd be tasting them for weeks if he did that to me...

 

[Storyteller01]

Not enough information. Need to know who this NPC was and what their relevance to the overall campaign is... report back in after your next session. Perhaps this is the BBEG and it's supposed to be a first (and painful) blush in a 'getting to know the neighbors' sort of way? Don't throw the GM out with the bath water.

Your NPC's missing the barrels with a '7' isn't all that much of a surprise. What kind of AC did you think the barrels are going to have (you don't just need to hit them, but hit them hard enough to do something...)

Small object (+1 AC for size, -5 for being an object [no dex]) puts it at AC 6 (10 - 4). From my understanding of the game the object has hardness but no AC inprovements, and definitely none that rival medium armor. The warriors had a base +3 to hit. I don't know their stats or feats. That gives them a minimum of 10 in the roll.

I can see not breaching hardness, but damage wasn't rolled.


The NPC is a former PC Gunmage from a previous campaign he played. He's in charge of the group. He's apparently a student of Magnus the Betrayer. The current story is that we've just been sent to intercept a Skorn troop movement (unknown size) on its way to Cryx.

 

[Storyteller01]

Then, the DM's helper (circumstance modifiers) come in because they are rolling. I'd probably stick those anywhere between -2 to -5 to hit...

I'd have to wonder why, as they were 3rd level warriors (good BaB), and the barrels weren't rolling faster than any character (few classes get AC bonuses for movement).

Were there any range penalties? How about cover?

Using IK military pistols (80 ft range inc). At best the roll would have suffered a -2 to hit. The barrels didn't have cover.