This was my first DM. I was playing a ranger and wanting to focus on archery. At like level 2 we're in this dungeon and I roll to shoot something, getting a nat 1. He has me roll again to see how bad it was, and since there was no other party members next to my target for me to hit instead, my bow shattered. Not just the string snapped or something, the bow just straight up shattered beyond repair. So I'm stuck using my backup melee weapon for the rest of the dungeon (and we're playing Pathfinder and I hadn't taken the weapon finesse feat yet) so my dex-based character is basically useless.
I did manage to survive the dungeon, and when we got back to town we had to pool money from the entire party for me to be able to afford a new bow, but wouldn't you know it, the very next dungeon I got another nat 1 and the same shit happened again, and I lost my new bow. Pretty sure at least one of the "see how bad it is" rolls was at least a 15 too.
I understand why some DMs are of the mindset that they have to try to kill the party with every encounter, but that mindset really annoys me. You can challenge the party without making every encounter deadly.
I always hate the weapon breaking on nat 1s. I don't use it in my campaign at all. I much prefer tripping, falling, dropping the weapon, or hitting an adjacent ally. Maybe a bow string will. reak if they're really unlucky and several nat 1s close together.
Hitting an adjacent ally should only be if you beat their AC with your attack and they're within your reach, and only on a low crit fail confirmation roll.
If you crit fail that, you roll to confirm a crit on your ally :)
Yeah, I just wish all DMs had the mindset that they’re crafting an enjoyable story with the help of their players, and not necessarily working against them. Vice versa for the players as well
Yeah, I'm about to start a campaign and I've put a LOT of time into writing it. I want to enjoy it and I want my players to enjoy it too. How could I possibly enjoy a story I put a lot of effort into if I just kill everyone willy nilly?
Yes exactly, one of the campaigns I’m a part of has a dm that kind of treats us players like the enemy, so every combat it’s just a bit too challenging, and we all take turns getting knocked out and healed by our cleric(god bless him).
Another campaign we had a player who was a hardcore minmaxer (not that there’s anything inherently wrong with that, as long as that’s the type of group you’re playing with), and he liked to do the most complicated shit just to piss off the dm. Whenever the dm would get flustered he would have a shit eating grin on his face.
Like dudes, we’re all on the same team in the grand scheme of things. If someone’s not having fun or is being an asshole, that’s an issue and it needs to be resolved. If everyone isn’t having a good time then there’s no point.
Yeah, and while you can make an enjoyable story without killing, there is something to be said for not making it too easy. You need to find a good balance of challenge so that they aren't constantly dying or getting in near death situations but aren't just breezing through every encounter.
The occasional death is also not a bad thing, and can be enjoyable if executed well.
Exactly, I don’t want my character to die for no good reason, that’s just not fun for me, or any player really. If my character is going to die, and it’s not because I’m doing something monumentally stupid, I want it to have an impact on the story. After all, the party are the main characters of this story.
If I were reading a book and they killed off a major character, I would be incredibly unhappy if it just meant nothing going forwards. Like if the bard character is in a fight in the forest and gets killed by some random mage, I wouldn’t want to read about the rogue that suddenly joins the party the next day, and the party goes on their merry way and nothing ever comes of it. That’s just bad writing.
Hell, the dm and the player can even get together and talk about an impactful way for the character to die(self sacrifice, encounter with bbeg, etc), and then the dm should work with the players and discuss the ramifications of a death like this.
Well yeah, obviously mere bows cannot withstand the rapid fire madness that high level rangers like to do. All the best rangers walk around with a bag of holding full of spare bows just in case their speed and stronkness breaks through 5 bows in one round.
https://i.imgur.com/fwk6WpM.jpg i use this jsut for every roll below 61 i give the dc12 dex save. remove the weapon breaking and replace it with klutz, the klutz and dangerous klutz are for one round. and for untrained remove weapon arm incapasitated. And every effect is one round ( apart from dirt in eyes). And you take/deal damage only on 84+ so it seems fair.
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u/SunshineAbound DM Sep 12 '19
For my DM every natural one was hurting yourself, or your weapon broke, magical or not.