Worst DM judgement calls


log in or register to remove this ad

I recall a game where the DM made us make a Dexterity check to climb a ladder, such that my PC could climb the WALL ITSELF faster and with better chance of success, thanks to his climb skill.

I ended up doing just that, after falling off the ladder twice, in hopes that the DM would see from my actions the silliness of his ruling. Not sure it took, though.
 

The time he demanded we only have cheese pizza, what are we eight????

OK OK, so I made that up, but the question is, can a DM?GM be wrong?
 

I did it, I'm afraid to admit.

#1 A character with combat reflexes has a large tentacle pop up through the ground right next to him. the character requested an AoO, and I denied him that AoO.

...I was wrong.

#2-through X forthcoming
 

Did the tentacle pass through a threatened area? (Does solid earth count?) Not sure you made the wrong call there, unless the tentacle tried to start a grapple without Improved Grabbing.

I'm trying to think of a boneheaded mistake that I've made DM'ing -- a rules call that screwed the players over -- but to be honest, I can't think of one. I'm pretty anal retentive.

I once had a DM tell me that my cleric of Fhlarhnhaghahn HAD to use a quarterstaff as his weapon, because it was the Weapon Of Choice of the god . . . it's generally massive suckiness as a weapon notwithstanding. Hasn't he ever heard of flavor text?

Yeah, that happened relatively recently :).
 

Hmm... Let me see (bunch of different DM's here):

The DM made a single d20 roll, and, without calling for spot checks or initiative declared that an NPC picked up a 5th level PC fighter with one hand and threw him into another character, causing them both to fall down.

A character of mine risked death by charging into the midst of a group of enemies to attack an evil cleric involved in a demon-summoning ritual over a sacrificial pit. He landed several blows, but the DM didn't even have the cleric make concentration checks, "because it's a ritual, not a spell". In desperation, I started saying I'd bull-rush the cleric into the pit (playing a fairly strong Ranger, definitely a reasonable course of action), only to stop when I saw the look the DM was trying to hide and realized that, going by his record so far, he'd have the heavily armored cleric automatically side-step and let my character fall into the pit.

An enemy assassin leaped out from under a pile of treasure getting a surprise round by DM fiat. My Elven rogue wasn't allowed a Spot check to avoid being surprised because he "wasn't in the room"... despite having just spent a couple of rounds doing a quick appraise check on the treasure in question. To make it even better, one of the other party members (also surprised) was scoping the room with detect magic, and the assasin's gear was pretty much the only stuff glowing.

Having decided that Gloves of Dex +2 are overpowered for an 8th or 9th level character, the DM made up a ruling in the middle of campaign that they'd be destroyed any time my character took enough damage from an area effect spell (such as fireball) and proceeded to throw more and more specialized evokers at the party. His last attempt was a wizard casting a Fireball with a DC of 21 or 22 at the party, which nearly killed two of our characters, destroyed the clerics's Heward's Handy Haversack and several items in it, and left my character (a single-class 9th level rogue) completely unscathed. (maybe not wrong, but certainly stupid)

The DM ruled that, since a Nightshade had spell immunity to spells of 6th level or lower, it was not affected by Antimagic Field, even though Antimagic Field is specifically not affected by Spell Resistance and wasn't targeted on the Nightshade. Oh, and we were a 12th level party with a single +3 weapon (which got sundered) fighting a CR16 monster who was immune to all our spells.

The DM refused to make any kind of checks to play out a chase involving jumping down a large distance, dodging though a crowd, and an 11th level rogue going after a 3rd level sorcerer, because "You both have speeds of 30, so the only way you could catch him is if he stopped".

The DM didn't bother reading Otto's Irresistible Dance carefully and was using it without a save or attack roll, from a range.
 

Forrester said:
I'm trying to think of a boneheaded mistake that I've made DM'ing -- a rules call that screwed the players over -- but to be honest, I can't think of one. I'm pretty anal retentive.
You and me both, Forrester. You and me both...
 

too many to list.... :(

actually, to be honest, MOST of the time the DM is wrong but is too stubborn or biased to admit it.

The exception is when he'll actually look at the rule and see how it works.
And he'll never just trust that I know the rule, regardless of how many times the rules prove my words correct.

It's just the way it is... I realize this, and am not exaggerating.
 

I dunno if this counts as a judgement call or just sucky DMing, but one player in our group took a turn at being DM. On the second or third session the party came on a group of goblins who were threatening us, and we naturally kicked their butts. After the battle was over he told us that goblins were considered intelligent creatures on his world and that that we wouldn't have attacked them, and that our characters now needed to go through a period of extreme guilt because we had done something unlawful and evil.

All of us agree that it's more that we just managed to wipe the floor with his big battle, he just got miffed at the end and wouldn't have done so if we'd had more trouble. Needless to say, I'll never play in a campaign of his again, apparently he does the same sorts of things all the time when he GMs in his other gaming groups.
 

reapersaurus said:
too many to list.... :(

actually, to be honest, MOST of the time the DM is wrong but is too stubborn or biased to admit it.

The exception is when he'll actually look at the rule and see how it works.
And he'll never just trust that I know the rule, regardless of how many times the rules prove my words correct.

It's just the way it is... I realize this, and am not exaggerating.

Must be rough being right all the time :)

I took a beating when I didn't allow the Paladin to use his holy sword after he lied to a green dragon. The player felt a little railroaded (maybe it was unfair) and claimed I cheated him for about 3 years.

I also gave a dwarven fighter magic items that made him RIDICULOUSLY good. It took me months to get the rest of the party on a similar power level. Now that dwarf guy complains because he has a 13th level charatcer with an AC of 19 because he hasn't gotten a magic item in 5 or so levels.

MAybe the biggest mistake I made was converting over a 1/2 ogre fighter really early of 3E. We didn't know about ECLs so now he is walking around with a 24 str and 22 con and just better than everyone. Luckily the guy playing him has a very good sense of game balance and doesn't really take advantage of it.
 

Remove ads

Top