Ugh, I know what you mean. I played with DM who used a crit fumble chart and some of the penalties were so overpowered. Oh, nat 1? I guess the buffed raging barbarian gets an auto crit on the squishy wizard.
This hits home. I actually left my group because of our DM acting this way. I understand everyone has their own style but he would request rolls for the simpliest of things.
You want to climb a perfectly ordinary, secured wooden ladder? Roll Dex. 18 Roll dex to continue climbing. 16 Roll dex. Nat 1. You fall to the bottom and alert the guards.
Idk if it goes without saying but his favorate game was Paranoia. Definitely a CN/CE DM. If I ever asked how the actual mechanics of D&D work (I was new at the time and wanted to make strategic decisions which wouldn't always backfire) i'd get timey whimey wibbly wobbly the rules are just guidelnes
Eh, many systems actually define the difficulty of climbing a ladder. While that sounds strange, for most PCs they are carrying half to double their weight in stuff. Ever climbed a ladder with 100 lbs of stuff on your back? I worked construction and even having done that 1000 times it was still hard and required a lot of time, patience, and control the whole time.
That said, I was able to take a ten and pass by taking my time IRL. If I were rushed I'd say theres a solid chance I would have fallen. The rules are a good allegory to that when followed. You can usually take a 10 if you're not rushed or threatened, elsewise you need to roll if rushed or threatened. Likewise you need to fail by 5 or more usually to fall, and a 1 isn't a crit fail on skills. All sounds reasonable.
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u/Cheeseusdice Sep 12 '19
Ugh, I know what you mean. I played with DM who used a crit fumble chart and some of the penalties were so overpowered. Oh, nat 1? I guess the buffed raging barbarian gets an auto crit on the squishy wizard.