DM: yea I kind of made this world concept where magic was everything and I wanted everyone to play a caster. OP: but I made a non magic user DM: how about you play as an oath breaker paladin OP: okay that works and that's how you get the best of both ways... except the DM wanted to have someone get killed and that's why he wanted OP dead because OP had too much HP but still
Considering the other players were the ones to point out his AC was miscalculated, thus saving him, only for the DM to turn around and say the other players didn't like his character.... Wow.
it sounds to me like the dm wanted to bully squishy casters and the fighter was an obstacle to that. also, the fact he blocked him without even discussing it disgusts me because its just such a cowards way to go...
I don't know, I mean, yeah but then again, if he wanted to kill him he could have just said sorry that's what you have there. figure your shit out right next time. Also, what's so amazing sounding about this campaign? I mean, it basically sounds like avatar only with magic schools.
@@Hangman-yq5uh Too bad the Skyrim merchants can't afford anything. My house has a dedicated "stuff to sell" chest that I can never even begin to empty.
@@nicholasbrosseau6035 I don't know why, but I always forget that that exists in Skyrim. I play on PS4, so I don't know if it's different on PS4 than PC, so I'll have to test it out.
@Platypus I killed 1 player accidently, we just laughed it off since it was a 1 hit kill and made a story arc to revive him later, though the guys death was really dumb, he was a glass cannon mage playing out in the open against my homebrew monster that was also a glass cannon
Another case of DM not being very handsome, having a small di°° and was always powerless and inferior to everyone else around him in his imprinting years. Finally he is a powerful god who decides everything! But then he isn't! :)
Also, this isn't a communication problem, this is a "The DM is an asshole" problem. Any DM worth his salt could have incorporated OP into the game without issue or simply let OP know they were running an All Caster game. By trying to kill them and then kicking them out, the DM shows that their personality was the issue, not any communication issue.
230 likes later and NOBODY responded to your comment? You're right spot on any DM worth their salt could have accomplished whatever their story required with even only one spellcaster in the party. Killing or booting a player based on class choice? Especially a player that chose to take a debased role for the purposes of playing tank for an all squishie party full of literal monster food.. just shows us this DM is not worthy of dm and needs to be demoted to player for a few years at the very least.
@@KingJamesIX agreed or just simply you know at character creation if it matters that much just make it a rule. I don't agree with it but if this game is caster only, and at the jump you say guys only caster classes cool. Cool. Then if you don't want a caster just bow out no muss no fuss. So many ways for this to be not a shit show.
@@rithrin7008 Right! Or at least be flexible enough to let the person play Paladin it's got the magic feel without the actual spell working and then I can tank, heal, resurrect.
@@KingJamesIX indeed so many options and I get the only arcane caster thing in theory if you have some super specific story in mind ( and aren't to good at the improve ) it is the dms story after all. At start dm gets that privlage as long as they are up front. And everyone agrees. But he wasn't and let the dude make a non caster. Then tried the weirdest and most inefficient kill method. I never limit my players that way but I will say this is what I have in mind theme and general feel of the world please make something that fits that feel. Session zero is truly the most important thing for starting a good campaign for both the players and gm.
I was thinking this, seemed strange to include an unlimited well that grants higher armor class when applied to any clothing, like he was trying to correct for caster squishiness and render meat-shields pointless from the start. The whole campaign smacks of someone who wants everyone to admire his brains, and diminish those of physical capability. It's a simple case of reverse bullying, and he couldn't admit his bias because it would have revealed him to be small-minded, which was obvious from where things went. His world was all fluff, there to push his agenda, and with no tolerance of the non-magical (low intelligence) folks. it was a façade that he couldn't have built on without revealing his weakness.
DM: "Hey, man, I dig your character and he's being a really good tank for the party, but do you mind taking a multi-class in a magical class next level? It's kind of vital for the campaign and I'm at a loss as to what to do otherwise." Player: "Sure, no worries, man!" Crisis averted
@@Vermbraunt it's not exactly ironic. the DM wanted to kill/ knock out a player but when he tried to make the enemies attack the casters (who would have had the least HP and AC) OP forced the enemy to attack him. eventually the DM realised that OP was stopping the enemies from attacking the casters so he decided to try and make everything kill OP, but luckily failed each time... and then the other players suddenly had problems with OP that they told the DM about instead of ever expressing their concerns to OP for some reason
If you really do steal this idea there is some other decent material from a 2E D&D World called Mystara, more specifically a country called Glantri. It is a Magocracy(not sure if I spelled that right). It is very much in the same vein as this DMs idea, I am wondering if he didn't bastardize the setting honestly. It will have a lot of good ideas for making something like this so I thought I would throw it out there. No idea how to, or even if you can, find books for it other than ebay and the like(which I DO NOT suggest, people think this older stuff is GOLD and ask ridiculous prices for the old books). But if you are resourceful I'm sure you can find them! ;)
my characters the moment they had inifint money would just be like 'ight, I retire. I'm good that's enough adventuring for me. time to retire to a diamond mansion made of gold and diamonds.
I would make so much overpowered gear. I mean that might go against his character traits but I was thinking of making a slimier build where it would be a fighter or barbarian who saw magic as a cheap move, dangerous and insulting but wouldn't be above using magic enhanced gear so I dunno. if you want to be under powered because of your character traits then I respect you!
Also the fact that the other players got sad when the thought OP's character died and cared enough to go back over the stat sheet to save them really is not in line with 'well the other players don't like you'. Like it's not even a believable lie.
If the higher had Diamond Water on his equipment, assuming the water gave a +1 bonus for it's AC bump mentioned in the video, it's possible that the battlemaster could have had 24 AC with Defense style and a +1 shield.
Wow- can't even begin to imagine why you would spend the time to create such a setting and then not use it because you expected the players to what- read your mind? If the DM wanted mages only he should have said so from the outset, making it plain that low magic types were to be strictly NPC's. Sheesh...
DID he create the setting though? Or did he just find a cool setting that already existed and decide to use it without thinking the implications through?
@@desraedos-h8o He might not have even had a real setting, and just copied someone's campaign description to lure players to his dungeon-fest (I've seen it too many times before).
@@epsilon-eleven Yeah, did seem like it. What the DM did though to OP, I don't think would have been solved with communication. Because as OP stated, the balor didn't start targeting their battlemaster until the Goading Attacks made it miss a lot of attacks on the casters. The DM might have been getting ticked at the fighter, which could be because they wanted casters only because of some plot point that would involve the low-magic types ring up or something. One of the party being a low-magic type and specifically hoping for a moment that woud help their character break from her obedient nature, might have been seen as a problem to the DM for whatever reason. That, or the DM just wanted all casters so they could just kill them repeatedly with low-magic types or something. They did seem to want to go after the casters at first with the balor... Communication probably wasn't going to help.
@@desraedos-h8o It did makes me ring a bell about WoW Lore, about the Ancient Night Elf Empire, where mages where on top of society, and it survive through High Elves, Blood Elves and Nightbornes, but not through the actual Night Elves, which is more oriented on druids and moon priestess. But, I'm not 100% sure this is OP's DM inspiration. I would need the full description of this DM world to be sure.
I agree with the other commenters, given how quickly the DM seemed to throw out their world building as well as any attempt to RP at all I find it incredibly hard to believe it was something they came up with on their own. I dunno, maybe they wanted an all-caster dungeon crawl and trawled some posts on reddit or a D&D forum somewhere for a setting that seemed to line up with that desire? Still, I can't imagine the inclusion of one fighter would harm that kind of campaign very harshly unless it was something stupid like a last act twist where the final dungeon/BBEG nerfed casters into the ground yet was week enough for one armored fighter to be able to trivialize.
I’mma be blunt here, communication or no, it isn’t fair to single out a player just because their character choice would put the story in jeopardy, improvise and change some parts based on what the player’s characters are, and my guess is that the DM wasn’t very good at coming up with a story once something other than a castor showed up.
Exactly. Hell, we had a situation like that in my campaign. Had to introduce a player's character who was a crazed Half-Orc rogue who was literally named Fruitgoth. He liked to collect various fruits, and was a bit loony. When the party encountered him, I had no idea how to introduce him, but then I made something up on the spot that actually made a lot of sense in my world, and made for some amazing shenanigans.
I think the gm has never had a good story to be jeopardiesed... I mean: no real RP, all that was of interest in the first town was essentially a shop where they could buy every single magic item twice since they had an unlimited money source and all that stuff...
That, or just tell your players that you have a story idea but it requires all of them to play casters. You can even go as far as giving out a list of specific classes you want to see but letting them decide between themselves. It's really not attacking player agency, it's not a big ask.
If you need all the players to be a certain style, be upfront about it, I understand the whole "make them feel they came to this conclusion on their own" or "it has story signifigance" but just beating around the bush and then trying to shift the blame is extremely juvenile. Also if you do want to just hint at it, maybe make it less enticing to play the "outcast" class, some people may like the additional challenge of being looked down upon by society, like playing a nosferatu in vampire the masquerade bloodlines.
I dislike the idea of discouraging classes, or anything else for that matter, by making them "outcasts". Something like that should be purely a matter of roleplay, not for the sake of discouraging classes or races.
Yay the great crab hath noticed me, also *EXACTLY* I hate seeing DMs who act like social status suddenly makes your money worth less or has monsters that should neither know nor care about social norms target specific characters because they suddenly care about what the city they're terrorizing thinks of said character. Have citizens give dirty looks or a noblemen push them aside rather than going around them but don't act like being lower class suddenly makes the whole universe hates you. Also want to add the fact that the DM blaming the other players after they literally backed up OP when he would have died is just pure idiocy.
I agree I've run games in the past with political stances being the main focus of the game and intending for the players to make characters that made them all by default be on one side or the other of the political spectrum but I always made it a point to make it clear to the group what I expected from them you can't hold someone accountable for rules you made up and didn't even bother to tell them about and trying to kill a players character should always be the last resort it can quickly escalate a situation that doesn't need to be taken to that level in the first place more than likely if a player is told what is expected of them by the DM and other players then they at least have the option to either conform or find another group but at least nothing gets out of hand dms who take joy in killing their players don't make sense to me what have you proven you can literally throw everything in the world at the player untill they die everyone knows you're the DM and you have complete control what gains more respect from me and fellow players is a DM who can handle a situation without it becoming a major conflict and causing a player or group to leave the game
With a DM that petty...I really hoped that his game crashed or the other players left. You can have the greatest story but if you're going to bully another a player then later kick them out just because you couldn't be bothered to communicate and that you don't want to admit that you messed up. Blaming the other players is just as abhorrent as well as it sounds like they were having fun and likely were happy with having OP with them...
No kidding, you'd think a party of casters would be absolutely thrilled to have a front liner that could not only tank the hits, but also, SOMEHOW, always managed to draw aggro without even doing anything? They'd be able to just sit in the back and blast fools without having to worry about getting chewed up themselves, which from the sound of it is what happened (since the bosses always seemed to get, well, melted by a party of full-on blasting mages).
In my humble opinion, the only reason so many bad guys should all be going boom is if you’re running a Power Rangers/Kamen Rider kind of game. ...Ar-are those a thing? Because that would be so damn cool.
Dm's Guild has a pay-what-you want class for it called the Henshin Hero that's pretty good. There's also a less mechanics-focused book called Sentai that just released based on Power Rangers/Super Sentai with an expansion called Konchu Rider in the works.
I really wonder if this was even his setting to begin with. I was in a game once with some great lore set in a huge city kinda like Waterdeep and all the lore was centered around it. The DM then didnt use any of it and the adventure took place outside the city and really didnt make any sense. Like, we were hired to investigate a murder at a farmhouse outside the city and all I could think was "Why aren't you going to the police?"
OP here. Wow, my post got picked for a vid! Thanks CritCrab! :D I still to this day do not know for sure why the DM was targeting me. I had always assumed it was because a few of my goading attacks on the first boss were the cause of him missing some of the squishy casters after what seemed like a hit, but then I reminded him to roll with disadvantage. That may have caused frustration that just festered until he forgot why he was mad at me. But you're right, it's possible he could have wanted an all caster party from the beginning and failed to communicate it. He did advise caution because it would be hard to play a non magical character in the setting, but I welcomed the challenge, he said okay and helped me connect my backstory with another player's, and we went from there.
You thought a challenge as in people treat you poorly and you have tough NPC interactions, he meant he would make characters you don't want to fight head on. I get you, I picked a Tiefling Druid, DM has NPCs assume I was the one committed crimes, I just turn into a squirrel and hide while all the NPCs start turning on each other, it's fun to deal with problems. Sounds like he meant he wanted only mages by his non-magical laws and didn't want to write around a tank, so he made you tank a gauntlet of bosses.
Man I feel bad for you like how would someone not understand that when you litterally say something like none magic users are oppressed and looked down upon that no one would choose a none magic user like that’s litterally the setting of some kind of interesting rp lore if I was making the most strict campaign ever I’d at least just say in my world everyone is a magic user then everyone will choose magic don’t give the option if your not going to allow the option so I’m sorry what happened to you hope you can have fun with other campaigns
@sussusamogus4714 I actually reached out to a few of the other players to corroborate the DM's claim that other players were complaining about my character, but none of them expressed any problems to me. Whether they were just not telling me or the DM was just making excuses I have no idea.
I doubt the DM actually made this setting, probably just borrowed/stole it from a friend so he didn't have to spend anytime away from designing dungeons and explodey monsters.
OP: yea I guess I won't buy anything because I'm not allowed to DM: your employer would technically own the items so you can get stuff OP: I'm not paying for stuff that's not gonna even belong to me. I'll just try to see if anyone has any +10 items
Black clover An anime about a boy born without magic in a world where magic is everything Its a good anime but it will beat you over the head with that the entire show almost
There's this strange assumption of DMs that they should remain in character at all times and that making any OOC commentary or else immersion will shatter. Especially new DMs should be open about rp situations where they don't know how to proceed. Though in stories like these, you never really know if the problematic person was inexperienced, delusional or abusive.
It is my opinion that out-of-game stuff, even a degree of meta-gaming, is required for a healthy story. As I view these games as a 'collective storytelling,' I consider my players as colleagues and not opponents. I also view them as separate entities then the characters they are playing, and thus have no problem if the players possess information that their characters do not yet know. Should I feel they are abusing this knowledge too much, I can easily listen to their reasoning behind what they are attempting to do before deciding if it is something I am willing to allow. The reason for this is very simple, and all new storytellers should pay attention: With this information your player's might figure out a better solution to the problem, one that fits the story and is far more interesting to play through then anything you dreamed up! Oh: And sometimes what they have thought up is just down right stupid, and you just have to see the results....
@@liamdalemon1525 Perhaps the Fighter secretly DOES have a magic power, or rather a curse, which turns important enemies into bombs. This also explains the unbridled rage and aggro from all bosses. *Boss, after realizing they have a cursed bomb in their chest:* "YOU DID THIS TO ME!"
I can relate. I once played a game where the DM wanted everyone to be a good alignment but didn't explicitly tell us this. Instead, he made sure that my Neutral Evil character would be the first one to die, and the DM seemed to get pisses off Everytime I did something evil as if he didn't want me getting away with it. Kinda ridiculous, and really restricted RP freedom
Our ongoing campaign is tightly railroaded and the DM tells the players off if they do something he considers "unheroic". Fighter's warhorse got stolen because the fighter ran from a battle, that kind of thing. The worldbuilding is very intricate, and our characters have earned either noble titles or official positions from the local baron, but we don't really get to roleplay fulfilling our titles - we can't interact with the setting in that sense. It can be frustrating when you're trying to solve the obvious plot hook but you realise the DM won't let anything you do succeed until you trip the right plot flag.
The whole diamond water chest thing, and the whole high-society mage thing, and the extreme focus of killing the only non-mage in the group reminds me of something my last DM did. He had this setting where my character and all the other characters in the party were these super-important warriors who were caught in a temporal cycle in a closed-off world. He gave us these super-awesome destinies which conflicted with, or were completely disconnected from whatever backstories we made for ourselves. We were involved in the politics of the nations of that closed-off world, for no discernible reason than we were just that important. Listening to how the post in this video went, it seems to be more of the same: they were intended to be limited to mages, which meant they were going to be super-important, and the diamond water was meant to boost up their ACs in otherwise hard encounters for casters, as well as give them a source of money to support their well-to-do-ness. It was basically the DM just handing them stuff they hadn't earned. A very gameplay-oriented DM with no sense for story, considering the OP created a character that's very dynamic for story, and the DM didn't care for it. As for killing off the one non-mage, I'm guessing he was thinking making it a society where mages were highly valued would act as a deterent to keep people from playing non-mages, which might be why he didn't ask the one non-mage to change his character. Still, he definitely could've and should've been more upfront about wanting him to play a mage, rather than resorting to killing him off and throwing him out. A very "my way or the highway" DM, from the sounds of things.
@@vexbanearamori7224 In all honesty, it kinda was, which was probably why i wasn't all too thrilled with it. And while our characters needed a threat to stop, it wasn't our characters that were driving the plot, per say. Our characters' destinies were pretty much carved out for us (though we could still die), and we weren't given much room to carve out our own, which limited our freedom to an extent. And while those destinies were pretty great, they were, for all intents and purposes, handed to us. And yeah, the plot itself was pretty convoluted. But even that seemed to stem from those "destinies". I guess what the whole thing boiled down to was, "We're great because we do things that can be defined as great; greatness is not something to be just given to you."
I mean heck, if he wanted a railroaded mage only experience he could have "Blessed/Cursed" the low magic character with some ass pull plot magic type that made OP both a Mage AND an outcast.
seriously? the other players had a problem with it? first thing is that OP was taking all hit's for the party, thus keeping them out of danger and if they wanted to take some damage then they should have asked the DM to spread the damage more evenly. secondly they ended up saving OP when he got his armour class wrong. why did the other players just suddenly have a problem with this guy? is this going to be some "yea in the last session he was making death threats" incident? are we missing something?
@@DarkAlex1978 I'm not going to say that you're wrong in that way of thinking but to give a counter point, I find most people who write anything online including myself won't really bring anything up about people who don't play a part in the overarching story. If we follow that train of logic then the fact that everyone was only really spoken about for when OP "died" and later to find out if the DM had any validity in their claim makes sense.
three things to take note, there are a lot of players who are 'dungeon crawler' types. One of the dms I rolled with preferred dungeon crawling with lore ties from point a to point b, but it was just a very wordy reason to dungeon crawl. Which was fine, we knew what we were doing and going into. It's quite possible that these other players were either used to dungeon crawling or enjoyed it. Second thing to take note. Only one fighter. A lot of casters... *Why the fuck would any caster player be angry if a fighter has the boss's focus at all times?* If anything it sounds WAY MORE like the dm was helping the party by making the only person who can take a hit, take a hit. If anything, the little shop segment seemed more like the dm trying to give the fighter more toys and utilities to survive being the tank though the tank was in full on roleplayer mode vs the dm who was in dungeon crawler mode and gave them basically the infinite money cheat. The third and final bit of notice is that there was probably a fair amount of conversation going on. When the tank 'died', the party did go out of their way to just double check things real quick. A little piece of information to note is that the OP expressely said 'she' for her character, so it's quite possible that the player was actually a woman and thus it's also possible that they were more meek and no one really noticed. Dice gets rolled and you're focused on your own bits of glory until someone dies. If no one calls out on the bullshit, no one notices the bullshit. My third thing is a very 'weak' point and the first two points are more important, but it is a thing to consider. Of course, this is an online story by a stranger we know nothing about, literally nothing. Could it be poor formatting? Or a lie? Or all fabricated entirely? It's really impossible to know. All these stories must be taken with a grain of salt and we realize that even if it was a lie we got three things out of it. Entertainment Retrospection (on how to be a good dm or how to avoid bad dms, even if fake) and Critcrab's smooth silky voice. In the end, not a loss for me.
So yeah...you CAN call BS on the whole "every enemy explodes" thing. Especially if they are established D&D NPCs. Unless they ALL had dynamite rigged to blow if they die, this makes no sense and is a dead giveaway the DM is out to get you. Which is a cardinal sin for any DM. You're already god of the universe. Unless the player is really a dick, let it be okay.
It made me think of old NES bosses who'd blow up after being defeated. Or Sentai/Henshin (Power Rangers) villains who blow up. Buuut, we all know that wasn't the DM's intent.
The best ending to this story would've been if he had figured out a way to make himself explode and left the game after taking the boss with him. A true war hero that should change the perception of non-magical persons.
I have to say that this DM obviously didn't have the dice gods on his side and they seem to hate that he was single mindedly trying to kill one player for not being a magic user
This falls into the category: "Do not use game mechanics to punish players" DMs who use game mechanic to harass players are absolute tools. A responsible DM will come clear to the players if they got an issue with something.
At first I thought this was the "Eric, Son of Eric" story where everyone but one dude was a caster and every time the fighter died he'd made a new sheet that was that Fighter's son. It got to the point that the Fighter's player had a briefcase full of character sheets for Eric, Son of Eric.
honestly the idea of a family of fighters that all have the same name out of tradition is really funny and i will be stealing this idea thank you very much for informing me of this story
So, the DM wanted a castor party, expressed this as what he wanted, then allowed a non-castor type and did his best to bully him until he needed to boot him when that did not work. Yeah, that's now how you do that. You disallow classes upon character creation, not punish them for getting permission to bypass that.
"I was wondering when the lore rich setting would come in to play." I've been there. I joined a game that had a really cool mega city as it's core focus and had a lot of interesting interplay with the various factions and guilds within the city. I did a lot to tie my character to this setting and location. The game had nothing to do with it. It was really a let down and I mentally checked out a couple sessions in before the DM cancelled the game because of RL time conflicts. It also had one of the more egregious examples of railroading I've had to put up with.
@@Fear910 It wasnt Ravnica, actually. This was back around 2010. I think it was someone's homebrew he co-opted. I don't remember much, I just remember the big intricate city and it being totally ignored.
DM: *Doesn't target tank* tank: "Oh, we've got a big man over here, focusing on the little mage because he's scared of me" DM: *takes the goading personally*
I remember a game that a member of one of my ongoing groups ran one time, when we were a player or two down. He said straight up that we couldn't play divine casters (because all the gods in his world were dead) and we couldn't play elves or dwarves (because they were extinct). My buddy and I were totally on board with it, and we built our characters based around those restrictions (I played a human rogue/sorcerer, he played a halfling monk). If a DM wants to run their game a certain way, they should just say it upfront. That way, everybody knows what to expect. If a player doesn't like it, they can just skip that game or group. If a DM doesn't tell the players what they want their game to be, they have no right to get pissy and passive aggressive when a player doesn't play the way the DM wants.
That would be hilarious and I think there's a high chance that happened. If after multiple weeks he kept it this way there's a strong chance it will be that way indefinitely
@@liamdalemon1525 I don't think that was entirely the reason. He openly gave them a supply of diamonds to mitigate caster squishiness by both increasing their AC and give them rezzes
Okay so you have a high Magic/caster heavy game. That's fine, in fact from what the OP posted, I'd have been down for it too. If someone wants to go against the grain and be the underdog that's something you should expect in your setting. If you don't want that kind of character than yeah definitely mention it before you throw everything out to do generic dungeon crawls.
I have said it before, and I will say it again. Never try to solve out of Character/game problems in game. Talk outside of the game. If you can't agree there, agree to not game together. don't punish the character for perceived issues on the Player's side. That just gets frustrating for everyone, and leaves the player guessing at what went wrong.
"Hey man, so the story I'm trying to set up kind of hinges on all the PCs being magic users, would you mind changing your character up?" "Sure DM, no problem." How hard is that?
Ah yes, the classic "other players are complaining about you". I've had that same thing said to me by a DM, followed by the other players standing up for me and when the DM refused to budge, leaving and the game falling apart.
"Non magic people were not allowed to own non magical items" That is shear lunacy. How the hell is it possible for non magical people to keep up with large level threats? Also how could non magical people possibly expect to have good loot?
Kindof the point of the whole setting. Non-magical people are the outcasts from society- The trod upon, the disdained, the slaves, the lesser beings. The whole story is about the DM trying to kill this specific player for being one of those non-magicals. Tbh I'm kindof surprised the DM handwaved the non-magical having magical items because since he was a servant/slave of one of the other players it would technically belong to that other player; So it was okay if he used it since his 'master' allowed it. The non-magicals aren't allowed to have good loot, And if they find some 'That belongs to your owner, slave, Not to you.'. Or to keep up with large scale threats- If it's a large level threat, 'Leave it to your betters, slave.' etc etc.
It makes sense from a roleplaying perspective rather than a game perspective, the whole world looked down upon people with lesser or no magical ability. Not far fetched at all for people believing that non-magical people should not be allowed to use magical items.
Notes from a NG human Idiot; Greetings from lovely Restenford(doing rather well here....)! A wise Priest of Pelor once told me "Good communication is the bridge between confusion & clarity." and i truly agree with both the Priest and Critcrab that communicating is the key difference between "Bad D&D" and "Great D&D". My advice to all of you is simple: Listen to those around you, you might be suprised at what you hear.... May your pantheon Ever favor you(especially in these trying times), Baron Trevelyan of Restenford
Gonna be honest... when he gives the party all but INFINITE money I'm not sure what would require only casters for story purposes... I mean... come on. 2: If there's some sort of mage only event the shenanigans the party might go through simply to sneak in their meaty smash man (read with a sneer or snicker) would be super entertaining. Also even with a mage only event planned if you had assumed only casters would be there than it might not even be that hard for the party to smuggle the guy in... fake papers, a couple spell storing items to fake some magic idk, I seriously doubt you had much in the idea department when it came to ensuring non-magical people couldn't enter beyond it being in the mage mansions and stuff because you assumed it wouldn't be needed to flesh that out... and in a world where they can't even own the magical items... well it wouldn't be weird for the people to not have that kind of security measure.
Taking a step back and analyzing this from a in-universe standpoint, can I just say how stupid it would be to hold an "all-caster" event? Let's say that there's a very small group of people who don't like the ones in the party. All it would take for that small group to kill nearly everyone at the event would be a couple of anti-magic fields (either using their own spells or via magic items) and a bunch of martial class brutes. Suddenly you have a room full of squishy casters who can't cast spells going up against a group of guys that can attack 2-3 times a round with metal weapons. Things don't look too good for the casters in this scenario.
True enough but I would assume they're pretty common in the grand scheme since, after all, chances are every politician is a caster, all of high society... also casters, and even if that's not quite the case based on medieval society while some servants might be at an even as servers (and why would they when a first level spell gives you a spectral servant incapable of poisoning food unless ordered to, fun politics there really) the mages are almost certainly the only nobles and peasants (those without magic) are not invited to a noble's ball. Also Clerics aren't exactly squishy, they said casters not Wizards and Sorcs... heck some of those casters could be Eldritch Knights (probably the militant families/body guards most mages hire), Arcane Tricksters Rangers, Paladins, Druids, and bards are all (at worst) only kind of squishy... and, other than bard (which can still qualify for the next statement with certain colleges) and Druids (you mentioned A-M fields), they're all adept at breaking faces. Now that I've said all of this I do wonder how Warlocks are viewed in this world... no magic hacks that contact unstable and dangerous entities who, for whatever reason (probably nefarious), give the guy magic and weirdness... hmmm... the more I say this stuff the more I want to run a world like this. I gotta admit I didn't even think of all those martial casters until you mentioned the... I'm going to go with Terrorist Attack (what else would the people in power call it?). Got my brain working... need do design stuff now, make plans...
I looked up Balors because I didn't know about the explosion thing, kind of crazy cool some monsters do that but as for all the other times in the video the DM used it to try to kill OP just seemed to overdo it, it's also weird because non casters are less powerful than casters and OP tried keeping that to a minimum with his character but the DM treated it as if somehow his character was broken. IMO though I have no proof to back up this claim, I doubt the DM actually told the other players he was kicking out the player or would have. Basically had OP never gotten in contact they wouldn't have known or believed that he had "raged quit" that's the narrative I believe the DM would have given them. My reasoning for this is after the DM booted him he then blocked him, an easy way to strangle hold the conversation and put it where you want. Think about it, if CritCrab decided to block his comment session he could just make a video claiming it was full of nothing but hate. He would have the narrative completely in his hands. Not that CritCrab would do that but I think that is what the the DM did. At the same time OP sharing the story means he controls the narrative in that way so it might be so cut and dry. Still seems strange that after failing to kill off a character several times DM would boot him and blame the rest of the party for the action. If OP had taken it personal and believed what the DM said then it would have made an even worse rift. Also now I want to play a one-shot where a group of Balor obsessed with "not-japan" show up in samarai garbs and everything taking some sort of mission tour through a countryside and the party has to help them on their "quest" for mcguffin before they return to abyss, their chaotic evil nature constantly getting in the way and honorable bushido code dictating they must seppuku themselves which the party has to try and convince them not too...don't worry their just going through a phase is all.
Sean Hannan sounds like a really fun one-shot! Might I suggest social situations bring them in proximity of oil derricks, priceless paintings, and highly flammable puppy orphanages, never to actually go off but just to put the players on edge about what _could_ happen...
tl;dr: GM is craven, uncommunicative and bad at handling anything that breaks their carefull-crafted dungeons, got mad at the player that was wrecking their plans (hence why the Balor and everything after it started gunning for the PC AFTER THE PC STARTED USING GOADING STRIKE,) tried to "fix the problem" by killing the character instead of asking the player to play a squishier character without CC (or with CC the GM could negate against bosses) because the GM had no imagination and is a craven lout, and then made up lies to boot the player from the campaign because the GM is That Guy. It had nothing to do with OP not playing some form of caster and everything to do with the character preventing the GM from running battles the way they wanted. Full stop. After reading between the lines, I realize what's happened here and frankly can't stop laughing. Honestly, one of the reasons I am an "Eternal GM" is that I often end up in this situation when I try to play. You see... the GM does not know how to communicate with players and wanted to run a completely different kind of game than the one that was advertised by the world. If the GM had the competence to create an interesting world and have these carefully-crafted dungeons, they have the competance to disallow a character that doesn't fit what they want for the campaign. Key factor for understanding is this: the Balor initially tried attacking the rest of the party but was foiled by the fighter. Suddenly, GM realizes that a character that will wreck the game he/she has put together and now has to remove that character but since the GM has no spine despite ostensibly NOT being a mollusk, they just try to kill the problem character and upon failing, are so weak and craven as to make up an excuse about the Player being a problem for the others and booting them. In other words, the GM is loser: full stop. I don't think that the GM actually cared one tiny iota of a spec of a bit of anything at all about the setting and just used that as a basis to have a massively-magic-heavy world that would justify a hugely-kitted-out party and nonsense like diamond water to justify said kitting out so that the GM could run massive, high-power combats... but the GM had no clue how the game works and how powerful some things are or aren't. The fight with the Balor was supposed to be dramatic, thematic, and set the stage for the characters fighting for the angels against powerful demons but the GM screwed it up and placed all blame on the player who had the character that "broke" their encounters. Literally, the GM expected people to roll casters and at first just laughed inside at the one dumbass playing a warrior... until they realized what said warrior could do. I garante that running a paladin, elderitch knight, or any other warrior caster would very likely have had the same result because the GM had no clue how to balance for a party mismatch. You know what that is: everyone brings a character except the one person who's character is either much more powerful than or so totally different from the party that you have to get creative with encounters to avoid murdering one or the other outright because of either a power scale difference or a difference in what the characters do. You know... like when you have a party of all rogues except the one guy who brought a wizard or you have a party of unoptimized PCs and but that one gal brought a hyper-optimized one. You have to get creative with that sort of situation and this GM was NOT CREATIVE. They could create a premise and lore for a world but that's easy. I can throw that together in a few minutes on the John. Being creative is being able to ajust on-the-fly for a number of things. Then too, it's VERY likely that the GM didn't look at any PCs before setting up the game and just figured everyone would play squishy wizards with no CC "because people are dumb like that" (which is a phrase I hear a lot from a LOT of GMs, especially those that run games on Roll20 on a regular basis.) By the way, yes it was the CC that was annoying the GM and it annoys A LOT of GMs. Goading Strike, Hold/Charm, etc. piss off a lot of GMs because they feel it trivializes certain things. I can almost garante the GM had plans to immunize against caster CC but totally forgot about Warrior-type CC. So no... I don't think this is the GM ejecting a PC because they had a character they weren't supposed to. This is a case of a GM with no spine but a talent for making module-style encounters and dungeons running face-first into something they didn't know how to deal with and being a lout about it. Of course, I COULD be wrong... but after doing this for over 30 years one learns to see certain signs and I see 'em all here. MAYBE I'm wrong... but I don't think I am. Frankly, unless the OP is obtuse to the point of inducing mindless rage, which seems VERY unlikely given the structure of the story, this GM didn't communicate worth a damn and had not the courage to reach out to the player of the problem character in a mature way and work things out in a reasonable fashion so the just tried to kill the character and when that failed, make up lies and boot them. News flash, friends, but it is HIGHLY UNLIKELY you're That Guy or have That Character if the other players are coming to the rescue of your character... unless they really, really need that character. Also, DIAMOND WATER. Full stop. Seriously, it sounds creative but it's inane. I've used something simillar for a simmillar purpose but it was gross green goop that turned into emeralds and stunk like rotten eggs in a stew of diareah that'd been left in a very humid jungle during the summer. It was hillarious and that was the point because it's inane: you either make it obnoxious and silly or it's totally transparent. Also, in some editions, Balors explode in a fireball when banished from the prime plane via the destruction of their corporeal form (they can't actually be KILLED on the prime.) They are also wreathed in ever-burning fires that damage anyone getting close. Exactly how nerfed was this Balor... and why? Questions, questions. I would seriously call the OP a liar but I've had this shit happen to me as a player before and I know why it happens so yeah... ugh.
the focusing on the OP only really started after the first "boss" where the goading attack screwed over the DM's boss. Also the repeated Death Explosions, and the sudden addition of "You're dead if you hit 0." is too much. I think you're trying too hard to see the good in this DM. It seemed very obvious that he was salty and petty that the Battlemaster Fighter was effective in screwing up his rolls, and then just kicking him from the group under false pretenses when he *almost* kills him? It's all too much, there's an obvious pattern. The DM was immature and couldn't handle not winning.
This player was the extra in a Michael Bay movie, kept surviving, became a mascot for the protagonists, and the director wrote them out of the sequel, lol.
I mean, I'm in a game where all the players are casters or half casters, but the DM said up front that it would be all casters. So no problems aside from lots of low hp characters
That's the moment when you make a mountain dwarf war wizard getting proficiency with heavy armor some nice resistances and the ability to be front line if push comes to shove.
yea the low HP is what the DM wanted. he wanted to kill PC's but when he tried to do that OP forced the enemies to attack him so the DM wanted to kill of OP so he couldn't tank
I'm genuinely terrified about the amount of property damage this world has had considering every single person in this world spontaneously explodes when they die.
From hearing about this I have a funny feeling on of the bosses was intended to be "magic proof" til Warrior Mcwarriorton showed up. Either that or the DM was a wizard player who was upset most people abuse spellcasters
I've heard a lot of stories like this. The motivation isn't always the same but the plot: "yeah he targeted but could not kill me" is a pretty great one. I always like these stories
That DM... Sorry mr Crab but I think your analysis is BS. I appreciate you trying to account for both sides but the whole removal of player without giving them a chance to talk and saying it's based on other players complaints (after they had tried real hard to keep the poster alive) speaks volumes, and the DM and I doubt the setting took any more miportance after the non-caster's removal. Communication is key, but I doubt that's the only issue here.
Every boss exploding is just so hilarious. Sounds kind of like the DM did not have too much imagination. Repeating the same action and expecting a different result is the very definition of madness.
Earl Son of Earl shenanigans. Only with the DM *still* being a bit more patient than THAT DM. Didn't go out of the way to control the non-magic character for the purpose of bullying out the other player. Granted, it's not MUCH better, basically stacking on monster abilities to keep killing the OP's fighter, but still. And also I agree: wasted lore it seems.
The fact that this dm has to boot him and block him before a response shows his immaturity to work with a player. If he wanted the campaign to move forward he only needed to find an interesting compromise.
Honestly i wouldn't vouch for the DM like that. a plot where all players have to be a certain way but he cant tell them that they have to be a certain way is integrally flawed. I get you're playing devil's advocate here but it seems screwy on the DM's part imo.
Reminds me, kinda, of the DM from a story called "Legacy of Earl", in which a DM from a high magic setting usually uses some kind of curse to take control of non-magic PCs by reducing intelligence to 1, because "in a setting with magic, no one would ever want to use weapons".
@@TalinSilverbane because people don't like fighters so if you like fighters you're having fun wrong. I love Martials. I wish they had more cool options and magic would stop making them entirely irrelevant
@@unwithering5313 that's only a couple more than a wizard. A wizard who can throw fireballs, assault your mind, create clones to reincarnate into, wish, etc. Fighters don't get most of that stuff. Most don't get any of it. Fighters are solid in 5e, but they aren't going to be stopping time any time soon
one day a dm was sitting in the street outside of his game store. he was deeply crying while holding 14 different set of dices. in that moment, shia labeouf was walking down the street while in the middle of an interview, but when he saw the weeping dm he sat down next to him and asked what's wrong. the little dm responded:"my party bullied me because everything in my campaign explodes and now no one wants to play anymore..." hearing that, shia wiped a single tear out of the little boy eyes and with a warming smile said:"you know, I was a dm too. and people would always hate my games, but I never stopped playing and beliving in what I was doing. now listen here: you are gonna wake up and work harder, you'll not give up. just do it, I belive in you". hearing that, the little dm felt new energy in himself and decided keep dming, because that was what he liked. the next day he stormed in the game store, left a bag inside and activeted the explosion while walking out of the store, blowing it up. since than he created tons of amazing stories. wanna know the name of the dm? Michael Benjaming Bay
Crab, I have a personal story about an angry incel in my group taking out his sexual frustration out on all female PCs and NPCs and harassing everyone else irl. The punishment was very fitting.
Okay, every single enemy just exploding is just hilarious! The DM is like a Saturday morning cartoon villian sending out their minons only to fail and explode in the same way each time.
After the second boss (dragon, known to not explode) exploded upon death, I would have warned the DM to cut the bs, and after the third boss exploded I would have left on my own. Which apparently was what the DM wanted all along.
Sounds like the DM just hates martial characters and created the setting in hopes of noone makes one. Just ask for the players to make casters if thats what you want. Your campaign suffers if you give them promises of what could have been. The real question is do you think the DM would have done the same thing if the OP was a hexblade warlock, paladin, or ranger?
I have an addiction to playing half casters, spell casting subclasses and full casters but just playing the underdog like this guy's character sounds so fun I would probably be able to resist it (even avoiding magic initiate or a race like tiefling where you get some spells).
None of those things aside from the Balor and the Gorgon are a thing, and of those only the first actually has that explosion quality so, how did they all have that if he had taken the time to establish that stuff like psychic surgery or arcane Gene modding were things then sure but he didn't and therefore I can only assume that his entire point of the game was to kill this one character, and no body saw any proof of the campaign that was advertised so I submit that the campaign never existed to begin with and this person if you would call them that was never interested in anything more than settling an as of yet unnamed grudge against the poster and set this up as the trap.
I have a feeling that the DM didn't actually have the campaign they claimed (a Craig sort of thing), and got a grudge when this player did something unexpected.
I once ran a game where it was me and the other characters vs 1 character, but that was the point of the campaign it wasnt done out of spite. I set it up where 1 person was chosen as the "Hero" in the first part of the game. Each person underwent trials and by the end of it the Fighter had been chosen as the "Hero" to undergo the quest to destroy the "Mad God". After this i messaged each of the other players and told them my plan. They were working as a sort of "cult" and their goal was to sacrifice the hero to the god. I didn't give them much more detial then that other then "You win this campaign by sacrificing him, but he has to LIVE up to that point. And you lose if he figures it out before the final fight." All of them were 100% down for the subterfuge. Meanwhile the fighter kept getting the best weapons and armor and things seemed to go well in his favor, but i still MADE him work for it so he had to FEEL he earned it. 2 of the party members died to save him throughout the campaign and were added back as new characters. Now cut about a year and a half later and were at the final fight. They slay the "evil" corrupt goddess and lay at the precipice to the end of the world. They start a celebration where the Fighter celebrates a little too hard and the Rogue in the party doses him and causes him to pass out. He wakes up chained to a stone platform with the Goddess dead body next to him. This is when I bring out the High-Priest a very old man that relays his situation. A long time ago this World made a deal with a godess that if she helped them they would worship her for eternity. But after a few centuries they found out they didn't want to be tethered to a god, so they hatched a plan to betray her. They sacrificed their 100 most powerful magical users in a week long magical ritual that bestowed upon a single person the power of ascension. They declared that the God they worshipped had turn corrupt and needed to be vanquished, so they named a Hero and gave them the Power Of Ascension and had them slay the godess. This power allows one to absorb the God's powers and Ascend, but since it was magic created by man it answers to man, but since the magic of a god gets mixed in it just causes an Ascended being to go into a sort of "comatose" like state for 100 years. Once that 100 years is up they wake up knowing that they've been betrayed and seek out vengeance. This cycle repeats every 100 years. So The Hero MC gets sacrificed and before he Ascendes he vows Eternal Doom. I allowed all the characters to roleplay this point forward. And started a new campaign after this one where it was that character as a god vs the new party.
Sounds like CritCrab is returning to his old glory. After the rather boring and unexpectedly controversial Ross saga (that I enjoyed debating more than listening to) and then the last three positive, wonderfully wholesome and epic D&D stories (that I absolutely enjoyed), this is the first story in a while that actually deserves the title of a D&D horror story.
Here's what you do when you put a dragon against the group, but don't want to use the usual stat block. 1) Make it a Dragon Spellcaster (At least 9 levels into wizards or sorcerer), 2) Put down Glyphs of Warding outside its lair that match thematically with the type of dragon it is, 3) Cast Greater Invisibility on itself, 4) Fly into the air and just start going crazy. These steps will guarantee a fun and challenging battle for your group to outwit this foe. If you feel extra crafty, you can give the dragon a shapeshifter form to really screw with your players.
0:50 I love this idea. In a world of magic, wonder, enchantment, and college's, the non-casters are at the bottom. The world was against you from the start, but you didn't give up your hopes and ambitions just because you couldn't reach them with magic. You trained on your own accord, mastering the art of war. Without magic, you were destined into slavery, but with your ambition, you ripped your destiny up and laid the tracks towards your own future. And who knows... maybe this was your destiny...?
i have to wonder why none of the other players went "wait these bosses don't explode on death" or "why do you keep attack them when they haven't used a taunt"
@@liamdalemon1525 The one where they try to forcibly retire a Jedi who just keeps surviving until the DM just gives up and drops spaceship debris on him?
It's hilarious when I hear about DM's like this "failing" to kill a character. Like, you are god. How do you fail? Fudge the damage and save DC's. I'm not saying thats the RIGHT thing to do, he'd be an asshole either way and the correct course of action was to use his words. But if you ARE gonna try to kill them...just do it.
@Skylynxify Reborn the DM didn't ban OP because he was sick of him surviving, granted he should have voiced peoples concerns instead of just saying that and banning him as his first response but the rest of the party had been complaining about OP's character... without saying anything to OP... and without even having any complaints in the first place but they were still a part of the thing
@@liamdalemon1525 Except the other players basically said the DM was lying. So either the obviously-bad-and-spiteful DM was lying, or the players who went out of their way to save his character were lying. Which one seems more likely?
@Skylynxify Reborn yea I know I'm just making fun at how it's stupid that the DM would think that OP would believe that despite them being pretty cool with each other and it NEVER coming up!
Fighter walking out of the third death fireball smoking “why is everything so explody, that was just a snake lady and it’s like she subsisted on a diet of gunpowder.”
Had an experience like this on roll20 a couple years ago. Got an invite from a friend who found a long-time DM running a campaign with an interesting, very fleshed out setting, cool mechanical interactions with magic, etc. He had homebrew classes for all of his named npcs, which for the most part gave them plot armor - they were at least interesting to fight, though. My one complaint was that he tried very hard (and generally succeeded) at killing at least one player each session. Anyways, there were some homebrew options available to, and even encouraged for, the players... I don't remember what all was available, but it included the Psionic Handbook. I was playing a pretty vanilla divination wizard; the only non-standard option I took was a feat that gave me access to an ability called 'Occluded Mind.' This allowed me to force an enemy to make an int saving throw. On a failed save, I could choose one statement of up to 10 words in length, and for 5 minutes the target would believe it to be true. So we're in a fight against, simultaneously, a purple wurm and some sort of earth dragon. Killed the wurm first, though nearly all of our party were either knocked unconscious or just outright killed in the process. I scrambled to one of our other players who'd received a 9th level disintegrate scroll a few weeks prior and managed a clutch, just-barely-good-enough arcana check to drop this dragon down to like, 20 hp. Being a named npc, it of course then attempted to fly away... Before it could get out of range, I used Occluded Mind to convince the dragon that its wings were both broken, ensuring a failed save with portent. To the cheers of the party, the DM begrudgingly stated that the dragon dropped from the sky, died, and that we could begin stabilizing our remaining part members. Later that night, I and my friend who had joined together received private messages from the DM explaining that, because of several complaints from the rest of the party, we were being kicked from the group. Removed and blocked before I even saw the message. IM'd a few of the other players, and they had no idea what he was talking about; they seemed pretty upset that we'd been kicked. Personally, I found it hilarious that we were removed from his group for killing a boss...
If I was in the DM's position I would have just told Fighter that due to the setting it would be best if he went the path of Elderitch Knight. That's still a Magic user. Then if Fighter didn't ADJUST and adapt, don't bully your players.
Sounds like this is the world of exploding monsters, actually. You must figure it would be terrifying to live in a place where, even if a monster attacks your town and you defeat it, it's probably going to just explode anyway.
You think Mr. Torgue spawned those bosses?
I'm not saying he did...
But I'm not saying he didn't.
Which episode was torgue again?
@@CritCrab HMMM
Seems like something he would make in his campaign. THIS MONSTERS EXPLODES WHEN IT DIES
"THAT SENTENCE HAS TOO MANY SYLLABLES!!! APOLOGIZE!!!"
"I want to run a game where everyone plays a caster" is all it takes. One sentence. That's all the DM needed to avoid this.
I completely agree. Fighters have a spell casting sub class called an eldritch knight. If the DM explained this, it would have been an easy switch.
Maybe fix the suicide bomber's to
Will J Those probably wouldn’t have been a thing if he was a caster as they only affected OP
Literally my current campaign i'm running. Player wanted to be fighter, asked him to be caster then boom, Paladin.
It was that easy
DM: yea I kind of made this world concept where magic was everything and I wanted everyone to play a caster.
OP: but I made a non magic user
DM: how about you play as an oath breaker paladin
OP: okay that works
and that's how you get the best of both ways... except the DM wanted to have someone get killed and that's why he wanted OP dead because OP had too much HP but still
Considering the other players were the ones to point out his AC was miscalculated, thus saving him, only for the DM to turn around and say the other players didn't like his character.... Wow.
Gotta leave a like for the giga
it sounds to me like the dm wanted to bully squishy casters and the fighter was an obstacle to that.
also, the fact he blocked him without even discussing it disgusts me because its just such a cowards way to go...
@@jadenprice1463 shoulda made another account and contacted the group chat that way and been like... sooo you guys heard the news?
I know, I hope his players found a new DM
I don't know, I mean, yeah but then again, if he wanted to kill him he could have just said sorry that's what you have there. figure your shit out right next time.
Also, what's so amazing sounding about this campaign? I mean, it basically sounds like avatar only with magic schools.
*Slams down a chest full of Diamond Water*
Y'all mind if I destroy the economy real quick?
Skyrim merchants: *WHADDAYA GOT?*
@@Hangman-yq5uh time lots of time
@@Hangman-yq5uh Too bad the Skyrim merchants can't afford anything. My house has a dedicated "stuff to sell" chest that I can never even begin to empty.
@@KingNedya save, attack merchant, load last save.
@@nicholasbrosseau6035 I don't know why, but I always forget that that exists in Skyrim. I play on PS4, so I don't know if it's different on PS4 than PC, so I'll have to test it out.
yeah never kill a pc's character out of spite. That's childish.
@Platypus no that's not childish, that being a dick.
@Platypus fun for who? Just the DM's fun, no don't do it. The player and DM's fun, sure.
Accidents happen, just remember to learn from them.
@Platypus I killed 1 player accidently, we just laughed it off since it was a 1 hit kill and made a story arc to revive him later, though the guys death was really dumb, he was a glass cannon mage playing out in the open against my homebrew monster that was also a glass cannon
Another case of DM not being very handsome, having a small di°° and was always powerless and inferior to everyone else around him in his imprinting years.
Finally he is a powerful god who decides everything!
But then he isn't! :)
I think this area of chat needs some TERRORISM explosive flavor
Also, this isn't a communication problem, this is a "The DM is an asshole" problem. Any DM worth his salt could have incorporated OP into the game without issue or simply let OP know they were running an All Caster game. By trying to kill them and then kicking them out, the DM shows that their personality was the issue, not any communication issue.
230 likes later and NOBODY responded to your comment?
You're right spot on any DM worth their salt could have accomplished whatever their story required with even only one spellcaster in the party. Killing or booting a player based on class choice? Especially a player that chose to take a debased role for the purposes of playing tank for an all squishie party full of literal monster food.. just shows us this DM is not worthy of dm and needs to be demoted to player for a few years at the very least.
@@KingJamesIX agreed or just simply you know at character creation if it matters that much just make it a rule. I don't agree with it but if this game is caster only, and at the jump you say guys only caster classes cool. Cool. Then if you don't want a caster just bow out no muss no fuss.
So many ways for this to be not a shit show.
@@rithrin7008 Right! Or at least be flexible enough to let the person play Paladin it's got the magic feel without the actual spell working and then I can tank, heal, resurrect.
@@KingJamesIX indeed so many options and I get the only arcane caster thing in theory if you have some super specific story in mind ( and aren't to good at the improve ) it is the dms story after all. At start dm gets that privlage as long as they are up front. And everyone agrees.
But he wasn't and let the dude make a non caster. Then tried the weirdest and most inefficient kill method.
I never limit my players that way but I will say this is what I have in mind theme and general feel of the world please make something that fits that feel. Session zero is truly the most important thing for starting a good campaign for both the players and gm.
I was thinking this, seemed strange to include an unlimited well that grants higher armor class when applied to any clothing, like he was trying to correct for caster squishiness and render meat-shields pointless from the start. The whole campaign smacks of someone who wants everyone to admire his brains, and diminish those of physical capability. It's a simple case of reverse bullying, and he couldn't admit his bias because it would have revealed him to be small-minded, which was obvious from where things went. His world was all fluff, there to push his agenda, and with no tolerance of the non-magical (low intelligence) folks. it was a façade that he couldn't have built on without revealing his weakness.
DM: "Hey, man, I dig your character and he's being a really good tank for the party, but do you mind taking a multi-class in a magical class next level? It's kind of vital for the campaign and I'm at a loss as to what to do otherwise."
Player: "Sure, no worries, man!"
Crisis averted
Or hell, the Magic Adept feat at least.
what if DM just convinced OP to multi class into a paladin? it would basically be the same thing, except now he can heal people and smite his enemies
That or ask him to go eldritch/rune knight fighter subclasses so he can still be a melee tank but also a spell caster.
Even role play it saying he wanted higher social status so chose to learn magic
@@Paralius
DM: non magic users are treated as second class citisins
OP: ruclips.net/video/cDBlqu6KF4k/видео.html
Well it seems that he did a great job of tanking and protecting the squishies
And lasting the suicide bomber's
Vermbraunt Friggin squishies
sadly that's the entire reason why the DM wanted him dead
@@liamdalemon1525 That is why it is ironic
@@Vermbraunt it's not exactly ironic. the DM wanted to kill/ knock out a player but when he tried to make the enemies attack the casters (who would have had the least HP and AC) OP forced the enemy to attack him. eventually the DM realised that OP was stopping the enemies from attacking the casters so he decided to try and make everything kill OP, but luckily failed each time... and then the other players suddenly had problems with OP that they told the DM about instead of ever expressing their concerns to OP for some reason
The setting has officially been *STOLEN* by me.
That's what the internet is for!
It seems like it was ALREADY stolen from Black Clover so don't feel bad :p
Jokes on you its now stolen by..... dun dun duuuun...... me
@Mungkorn88 app.roll20.net/lfg/search/ and www.reddit.com/r/lfg/ are pretty good for finding new groups.
If you really do steal this idea there is some other decent material from a 2E D&D World called Mystara, more specifically a country called Glantri. It is a Magocracy(not sure if I spelled that right). It is very much in the same vein as this DMs idea, I am wondering if he didn't bastardize the setting honestly. It will have a lot of good ideas for making something like this so I thought I would throw it out there.
No idea how to, or even if you can, find books for it other than ebay and the like(which I DO NOT suggest, people think this older stuff is GOLD and ask ridiculous prices for the old books). But if you are resourceful I'm sure you can find them! ;)
my characters the moment they had inifint money would just be like 'ight, I retire. I'm good that's enough adventuring for me. time to retire to a diamond mansion made of gold and diamonds.
Like everyone’s first Creative Mode Minecraft house.
I would probably go "Ok not it's time to commission me the most impregnable fortress I can possibly think of to live the rest of my days out in."
I would make so much overpowered gear. I mean that might go against his character traits but I was thinking of making a slimier build where it would be a fighter or barbarian who saw magic as a cheap move, dangerous and insulting but wouldn't be above using magic enhanced gear so I dunno. if you want to be under powered because of your character traits then I respect you!
@@liamdalemon1525 Full armor and gear enchanted with an anti-magic zone as far out as you can get it.
The fact that the DM seemed almost pleased with the unlimited money the party obtained, makes this one quite the head scratcher.
Also the fact that the other players got sad when the thought OP's character died and cared enough to go back over the stat sheet to save them really is not in line with 'well the other players don't like you'. Like it's not even a believable lie.
Bad DM: "Why won't you die!?"
BM Fighter: _"Diamond water,_ son"
you know OP might have gone full on minecraft on the campaign
It hardens in response to rocks. You can't kill me, DM.
@@MartinBlackArcano *Gorgon explodes on death dealing 1/10th of their HP*
WHAT DID I JUST SAY?
DON'T FUCK WITH THIS FIGHTER!!!
_Dropkicks DM_
If the higher had Diamond Water on his equipment, assuming the water gave a +1 bonus for it's AC bump mentioned in the video, it's possible that the battlemaster could have had 24 AC with Defense style and a +1 shield.
Wow- can't even begin to imagine why you would spend the time to create such a setting and then not use it because you expected the players to what- read your mind? If the DM wanted mages only he should have said so from the outset, making it plain that low magic types were to be strictly NPC's. Sheesh...
DID he create the setting though? Or did he just find a cool setting that already existed and decide to use it without thinking the implications through?
@@desraedos-h8o He might not have even had a real setting, and just copied someone's campaign description to lure players to his dungeon-fest (I've seen it too many times before).
@@epsilon-eleven Yeah, did seem like it. What the DM did though to OP, I don't think would have been solved with communication. Because as OP stated, the balor didn't start targeting their battlemaster until the Goading Attacks made it miss a lot of attacks on the casters. The DM might have been getting ticked at the fighter, which could be because they wanted casters only because of some plot point that would involve the low-magic types ring up or something. One of the party being a low-magic type and specifically hoping for a moment that woud help their character break from her obedient nature, might have been seen as a problem to the DM for whatever reason.
That, or the DM just wanted all casters so they could just kill them repeatedly with low-magic types or something. They did seem to want to go after the casters at first with the balor... Communication probably wasn't going to help.
@@desraedos-h8o It did makes me ring a bell about WoW Lore, about the Ancient Night Elf Empire, where mages where on top of society, and it survive through High Elves, Blood Elves and Nightbornes, but not through the actual Night Elves, which is more oriented on druids and moon priestess. But, I'm not 100% sure this is OP's DM inspiration. I would need the full description of this DM world to be sure.
I agree with the other commenters, given how quickly the DM seemed to throw out their world building as well as any attempt to RP at all I find it incredibly hard to believe it was something they came up with on their own. I dunno, maybe they wanted an all-caster dungeon crawl and trawled some posts on reddit or a D&D forum somewhere for a setting that seemed to line up with that desire? Still, I can't imagine the inclusion of one fighter would harm that kind of campaign very harshly unless it was something stupid like a last act twist where the final dungeon/BBEG nerfed casters into the ground yet was week enough for one armored fighter to be able to trivialize.
I’mma be blunt here, communication or no, it isn’t fair to single out a player just because their character choice would put the story in jeopardy, improvise and change some parts based on what the player’s characters are, and my guess is that the DM wasn’t very good at coming up with a story once something other than a castor showed up.
Exactly. Hell, we had a situation like that in my campaign. Had to introduce a player's character who was a crazed Half-Orc rogue who was literally named Fruitgoth. He liked to collect various fruits, and was a bit loony. When the party encountered him, I had no idea how to introduce him, but then I made something up on the spot that actually made a lot of sense in my world, and made for some amazing shenanigans.
I think the gm has never had a good story to be jeopardiesed... I mean: no real RP, all that was of interest in the first town was essentially a shop where they could buy every single magic item twice since they had an unlimited money source and all that stuff...
That, or just tell your players that you have a story idea but it requires all of them to play casters. You can even go as far as giving out a list of specific classes you want to see but letting them decide between themselves. It's really not attacking player agency, it's not a big ask.
I believe the constant dungeon was because the party was supposed to be an all caster group and he was trying to kill the fighter before they started.
And it would only be natural for casters, who are like the elite, to employ bodyguards lol.
If you need all the players to be a certain style, be upfront about it, I understand the whole "make them feel they came to this conclusion on their own" or "it has story signifigance" but just beating around the bush and then trying to shift the blame is extremely juvenile. Also if you do want to just hint at it, maybe make it less enticing to play the "outcast" class, some people may like the additional challenge of being looked down upon by society, like playing a nosferatu in vampire the masquerade bloodlines.
Precisely. Communication is key.
I dislike the idea of discouraging classes, or anything else for that matter, by making them "outcasts". Something like that should be purely a matter of roleplay, not for the sake of discouraging classes or races.
Yay the great crab hath noticed me, also *EXACTLY* I hate seeing DMs who act like social status suddenly makes your money worth less or has monsters that should neither know nor care about social norms target specific characters because they suddenly care about what the city they're terrorizing thinks of said character. Have citizens give dirty looks or a noblemen push them aside rather than going around them but don't act like being lower class suddenly makes the whole universe hates you. Also want to add the fact that the DM blaming the other players after they literally backed up OP when he would have died is just pure idiocy.
I agree I've run games in the past with political stances being the main focus of the game and intending for the players to make characters that made them all by default be on one side or the other of the political spectrum but I always made it a point to make it clear to the group what I expected from them you can't hold someone accountable for rules you made up and didn't even bother to tell them about and trying to kill a players character should always be the last resort it can quickly escalate a situation that doesn't need to be taken to that level in the first place more than likely if a player is told what is expected of them by the DM and other players then they at least have the option to either conform or find another group but at least nothing gets out of hand dms who take joy in killing their players don't make sense to me what have you proven you can literally throw everything in the world at the player untill they die everyone knows you're the DM and you have complete control what gains more respect from me and fellow players is a DM who can handle a situation without it becoming a major conflict and causing a player or group to leave the game
With a DM that petty...I really hoped that his game crashed or the other players left. You can have the greatest story but if you're going to bully another a player then later kick them out just because you couldn't be bothered to communicate and that you don't want to admit that you messed up. Blaming the other players is just as abhorrent as well as it sounds like they were having fun and likely were happy with having OP with them...
No kidding, you'd think a party of casters would be absolutely thrilled to have a front liner that could not only tank the hits, but also, SOMEHOW, always managed to draw aggro without even doing anything? They'd be able to just sit in the back and blast fools without having to worry about getting chewed up themselves, which from the sound of it is what happened (since the bosses always seemed to get, well, melted by a party of full-on blasting mages).
if he was capable of having a great story he would ahve been able to dealt with having one 'dumb' swordsman in the party
In my humble opinion, the only reason so many bad guys should all be going boom is if you’re running a Power Rangers/Kamen Rider kind of game. ...Ar-are those a thing? Because that would be so damn cool.
Dm's Guild has a pay-what-you want class for it called the Henshin Hero that's pretty good. There's also a less mechanics-focused book called Sentai that just released based on Power Rangers/Super Sentai with an expansion called Konchu Rider in the works.
Yes. There's a power rangers ttrpg
How would a game like that even be done?
There's a fanmade Storyteller hack for Kamen Rider called Rider: The Transformation.
There's the Power Rangers Hyperforce campaign. I think that's a released module?
Why create a world with inequality if you're not gonna allow the drama of inequality to be a part of your story.
I really wonder if this was even his setting to begin with. I was in a game once with some great lore set in a huge city kinda like Waterdeep and all the lore was centered around it. The DM then didnt use any of it and the adventure took place outside the city and really didnt make any sense. Like, we were hired to investigate a murder at a farmhouse outside the city and all I could think was "Why aren't you going to the police?"
@Terror Semantics
Motterman1 Cause Fighter players are his arch nemesis, I guess.
What we intellectuals call the RWBY effect.
@@ponygonporygon2153 What is the RWBY effect exactly? Sounds like an interesting term but google is not my friend on it.
OP here. Wow, my post got picked for a vid! Thanks CritCrab! :D I still to this day do not know for sure why the DM was targeting me. I had always assumed it was because a few of my goading attacks on the first boss were the cause of him missing some of the squishy casters after what seemed like a hit, but then I reminded him to roll with disadvantage. That may have caused frustration that just festered until he forgot why he was mad at me. But you're right, it's possible he could have wanted an all caster party from the beginning and failed to communicate it. He did advise caution because it would be hard to play a non magical character in the setting, but I welcomed the challenge, he said okay and helped me connect my backstory with another player's, and we went from there.
You thought a challenge as in people treat you poorly and you have tough NPC interactions, he meant he would make characters you don't want to fight head on. I get you, I picked a Tiefling Druid, DM has NPCs assume I was the one committed crimes, I just turn into a squirrel and hide while all the NPCs start turning on each other, it's fun to deal with problems. Sounds like he meant he wanted only mages by his non-magical laws and didn't want to write around a tank, so he made you tank a gauntlet of bosses.
Man I feel bad for you like how would someone not understand that when you litterally say something like none magic users are oppressed and looked down upon that no one would choose a none magic user like that’s litterally the setting of some kind of interesting rp lore if I was making the most strict campaign ever I’d at least just say in my world everyone is a magic user then everyone will choose magic don’t give the option if your not going to allow the option so I’m sorry what happened to you hope you can have fun with other campaigns
Did the other players block you too, or simply never follow up? Kinda sad to know that nobody communicated anything even after you were booted
@sussusamogus4714 I actually reached out to a few of the other players to corroborate the DM's claim that other players were complaining about my character, but none of them expressed any problems to me. Whether they were just not telling me or the DM was just making excuses I have no idea.
I doubt the DM actually made this setting, probably just borrowed/stole it from a friend so he didn't have to spend anytime away from designing dungeons and explodey monsters.
OP: yea I guess I won't buy anything because I'm not allowed to
DM: your employer would technically own the items so you can get stuff
OP: I'm not paying for stuff that's not gonna even belong to me. I'll just try to see if anyone has any +10 items
Black clover
An anime about a boy born without magic in a world where magic is everything
Its a good anime but it will beat you over the head with that the entire show almost
There's this strange assumption of DMs that they should remain in character at all times and that making any OOC commentary or else immersion will shatter. Especially new DMs should be open about rp situations where they don't know how to proceed. Though in stories like these, you never really know if the problematic person was inexperienced, delusional or abusive.
It is my opinion that out-of-game stuff, even a degree of meta-gaming, is required for a healthy story.
As I view these games as a 'collective storytelling,' I consider my players as colleagues and not opponents. I also view them as separate entities then the characters they are playing, and thus have no problem if the players possess information that their characters do not yet know. Should I feel they are abusing this knowledge too much, I can easily listen to their reasoning behind what they are attempting to do before deciding if it is something I am willing to allow.
The reason for this is very simple, and all new storytellers should pay attention:
With this information your player's might figure out a better solution to the problem, one that fits the story and is far more interesting to play through then anything you dreamed up!
Oh:
And sometimes what they have thought up is just down right stupid, and you just have to see the results....
Or be a delusionally abusive noob.
a DM that wants to run a RP-heavy game is only an issue when it's 7 hours of nothing but talking with no plot progression
Player: "Stop exploding every monster in my face, you cant do that."
DM: "Haha, boss go boom!"
why did their target explode when he was being petrified? WHY CAN A REGULAR GUY DO THAT?!?
@@liamdalemon1525 Perhaps the Fighter secretly DOES have a magic power, or rather a curse, which turns important enemies into bombs. This also explains the unbridled rage and aggro from all bosses.
*Boss, after realizing they have a cursed bomb in their chest:* "YOU DID THIS TO ME!"
@@willyvereb that is brilliant I'm stealing this my players are not going to be happy about the innocent box they find in the cave
@@adriansollace7601 how did that end up?
I can relate. I once played a game where the DM wanted everyone to be a good alignment but didn't explicitly tell us this. Instead, he made sure that my Neutral Evil character would be the first one to die, and the DM seemed to get pisses off Everytime I did something evil as if he didn't want me getting away with it. Kinda ridiculous, and really restricted RP freedom
Same thing, DM tried to kill the character he approved after one session
Our ongoing campaign is tightly railroaded and the DM tells the players off if they do something he considers "unheroic". Fighter's warhorse got stolen because the fighter ran from a battle, that kind of thing. The worldbuilding is very intricate, and our characters have earned either noble titles or official positions from the local baron, but we don't really get to roleplay fulfilling our titles - we can't interact with the setting in that sense. It can be frustrating when you're trying to solve the obvious plot hook but you realise the DM won't let anything you do succeed until you trip the right plot flag.
The whole diamond water chest thing, and the whole high-society mage thing, and the extreme focus of killing the only non-mage in the group reminds me of something my last DM did. He had this setting where my character and all the other characters in the party were these super-important warriors who were caught in a temporal cycle in a closed-off world. He gave us these super-awesome destinies which conflicted with, or were completely disconnected from whatever backstories we made for ourselves. We were involved in the politics of the nations of that closed-off world, for no discernible reason than we were just that important.
Listening to how the post in this video went, it seems to be more of the same: they were intended to be limited to mages, which meant they were going to be super-important, and the diamond water was meant to boost up their ACs in otherwise hard encounters for casters, as well as give them a source of money to support their well-to-do-ness. It was basically the DM just handing them stuff they hadn't earned. A very gameplay-oriented DM with no sense for story, considering the OP created a character that's very dynamic for story, and the DM didn't care for it. As for killing off the one non-mage, I'm guessing he was thinking making it a society where mages were highly valued would act as a deterent to keep people from playing non-mages, which might be why he didn't ask the one non-mage to change his character. Still, he definitely could've and should've been more upfront about wanting him to play a mage, rather than resorting to killing him off and throwing him out. A very "my way or the highway" DM, from the sounds of things.
sounds like a half second anime plot honestly.
@@vexbanearamori7224 In all honesty, it kinda was, which was probably why i wasn't all too thrilled with it. And while our characters needed a threat to stop, it wasn't our characters that were driving the plot, per say. Our characters' destinies were pretty much carved out for us (though we could still die), and we weren't given much room to carve out our own, which limited our freedom to an extent. And while those destinies were pretty great, they were, for all intents and purposes, handed to us. And yeah, the plot itself was pretty convoluted. But even that seemed to stem from those "destinies".
I guess what the whole thing boiled down to was, "We're great because we do things that can be defined as great; greatness is not something to be just given to you."
@@Dragonpit the problem is. you played a SLIGHTLY interactive novel.
not an RPG game.
I mean heck, if he wanted a railroaded mage only experience he could have "Blessed/Cursed" the low magic character with some ass pull plot magic type that made OP both a Mage AND an outcast.
Like only being able to use spells on self
Sounds very Black Clover.
DM: makes world with rich political lore.
Also dm: makes every session a dungeon crawl.
seriously? the other players had a problem with it? first thing is that OP was taking all hit's for the party, thus keeping them out of danger and if they wanted to take some damage then they should have asked the DM to spread the damage more evenly. secondly they ended up saving OP when he got his armour class wrong. why did the other players just suddenly have a problem with this guy? is this going to be some "yea in the last session he was making death threats" incident? are we missing something?
@GihKaL don't you just hate DMs that just result to *BAN* as their first OOC response?
@@DarkAlex1978 I'm not going to say that you're wrong in that way of thinking but to give a counter point, I find most people who write anything online including myself won't really bring anything up about people who don't play a part in the overarching story. If we follow that train of logic then the fact that everyone was only really spoken about for when OP "died" and later to find out if the DM had any validity in their claim makes sense.
three things to take note, there are a lot of players who are 'dungeon crawler' types. One of the dms I rolled with preferred dungeon crawling with lore ties from point a to point b, but it was just a very wordy reason to dungeon crawl. Which was fine, we knew what we were doing and going into. It's quite possible that these other players were either used to dungeon crawling or enjoyed it.
Second thing to take note. Only one fighter. A lot of casters... *Why the fuck would any caster player be angry if a fighter has the boss's focus at all times?* If anything it sounds WAY MORE like the dm was helping the party by making the only person who can take a hit, take a hit. If anything, the little shop segment seemed more like the dm trying to give the fighter more toys and utilities to survive being the tank though the tank was in full on roleplayer mode vs the dm who was in dungeon crawler mode and gave them basically the infinite money cheat.
The third and final bit of notice is that there was probably a fair amount of conversation going on. When the tank 'died', the party did go out of their way to just double check things real quick. A little piece of information to note is that the OP expressely said 'she' for her character, so it's quite possible that the player was actually a woman and thus it's also possible that they were more meek and no one really noticed. Dice gets rolled and you're focused on your own bits of glory until someone dies. If no one calls out on the bullshit, no one notices the bullshit. My third thing is a very 'weak' point and the first two points are more important, but it is a thing to consider.
Of course, this is an online story by a stranger we know nothing about, literally nothing. Could it be poor formatting? Or a lie? Or all fabricated entirely? It's really impossible to know. All these stories must be taken with a grain of salt and we realize that even if it was a lie we got three things out of it.
Entertainment
Retrospection (on how to be a good dm or how to avoid bad dms, even if fake)
and Critcrab's smooth silky voice. In the end, not a loss for me.
So yeah...you CAN call BS on the whole "every enemy explodes" thing. Especially if they are established D&D NPCs. Unless they ALL had dynamite rigged to blow if they die, this makes no sense and is a dead giveaway the DM is out to get you. Which is a cardinal sin for any DM. You're already god of the universe. Unless the player is really a dick, let it be okay.
It made me think of old NES bosses who'd blow up after being defeated. Or Sentai/Henshin (Power Rangers) villains who blow up. Buuut, we all know that wasn't the DM's intent.
The "Diamond Water" was clearly a sign that a lot was going to be custom here.
"...And you're dead!"
"Do I explode too?"
The best ending to this story would've been if he had figured out a way to make himself explode and left the game after taking the boss with him. A true war hero that should change the perception of non-magical persons.
I have to say that this DM obviously didn't have the dice gods on his side and they seem to hate that he was single mindedly trying to kill one player for not being a magic user
This falls into the category: "Do not use game mechanics to punish players"
DMs who use game mechanic to harass players are absolute tools.
A responsible DM will come clear to the players if they got an issue with something.
At first I thought this was the "Eric, Son of Eric" story where everyone but one dude was a caster and every time the fighter died he'd made a new sheet that was that Fighter's son. It got to the point that the Fighter's player had a briefcase full of character sheets for Eric, Son of Eric.
honestly the idea of a family of fighters that all have the same name out of tradition is really funny and i will be stealing this idea thank you very much for informing me of this story
Every Encounter in this game: “Nice to meet you”
The Party: “Actually we met before”
Encounter: “WHAT?!” *explodes*
Don't startle Malfunctioning Eddie
Ahahaha! I watched that video yesterday.
"Oh, what a surprise."
*tiny boom on shoulder*
"Look, I barely exploded at all!"
@@azuredragoon2054 w e c a n c o n t r o l t h a t w i t h m e d i c a t i o n
So, the DM wanted a castor party, expressed this as what he wanted, then allowed a non-castor type and did his best to bully him until he needed to boot him when that did not work. Yeah, that's now how you do that. You disallow classes upon character creation, not punish them for getting permission to bypass that.
"I was wondering when the lore rich setting would come in to play."
I've been there. I joined a game that had a really cool mega city as it's core focus and had a lot of interesting interplay with the various factions and guilds within the city. I did a lot to tie my character to this setting and location. The game had nothing to do with it. It was really a let down and I mentally checked out a couple sessions in before the DM cancelled the game because of RL time conflicts. It also had one of the more egregious examples of railroading I've had to put up with.
Ah Yes, Ravnica is a great setting for a 5e game, if you have a good DM that is...
I was playing a gruul barbarian myself
@@Fear910 It wasnt Ravnica, actually. This was back around 2010. I think it was someone's homebrew he co-opted. I don't remember much, I just remember the big intricate city and it being totally ignored.
DM: **Targets the Tank**
Tank: *”YOU ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD!”*
DM: *Doesn't target tank*
tank: "Oh, we've got a big man over here, focusing on the little mage because he's scared of me"
DM: *takes the goading personally*
Full counter!
I remember a game that a member of one of my ongoing groups ran one time, when we were a player or two down. He said straight up that we couldn't play divine casters (because all the gods in his world were dead) and we couldn't play elves or dwarves (because they were extinct). My buddy and I were totally on board with it, and we built our characters based around those restrictions (I played a human rogue/sorcerer, he played a halfling monk).
If a DM wants to run their game a certain way, they should just say it upfront. That way, everybody knows what to expect. If a player doesn't like it, they can just skip that game or group. If a DM doesn't tell the players what they want their game to be, they have no right to get pissy and passive aggressive when a player doesn't play the way the DM wants.
It would be funny if nothing changed about the session after OP was booted and the DM just wanted an all spell-caster party for no good reason.
That would be hilarious and I think there's a high chance that happened. If after multiple weeks he kept it this way there's a strong chance it will be that way indefinitely
he wanted to kill a PC but he couldn't dew it because OP was tanking too many hits
@@liamdalemon1525 I don't think that was entirely the reason. He openly gave them a supply of diamonds to mitigate caster squishiness by both increasing their AC and give them rezzes
Okay so you have a high Magic/caster heavy game. That's fine, in fact from what the OP posted, I'd have been down for it too. If someone wants to go against the grain and be the underdog that's something you should expect in your setting. If you don't want that kind of character than yeah definitely mention it before you throw everything out to do generic dungeon crawls.
I have said it before, and I will say it again. Never try to solve out of Character/game problems in game. Talk outside of the game. If you can't agree there, agree to not game together. don't punish the character for perceived issues on the Player's side. That just gets frustrating for everyone, and leaves the player guessing at what went wrong.
"Hey man, so the story I'm trying to set up kind of hinges on all the PCs being magic users, would you mind changing your character up?"
"Sure DM, no problem."
How hard is that?
Ah yes, the classic "other players are complaining about you". I've had that same thing said to me by a DM, followed by the other players standing up for me and when the DM refused to budge, leaving and the game falling apart.
"Non magic people were not allowed to own non magical items"
That is shear lunacy. How the hell is it possible for non magical people to keep up with large level threats? Also how could non magical people possibly expect to have good loot?
Kindof the point of the whole setting. Non-magical people are the outcasts from society- The trod upon, the disdained, the slaves, the lesser beings. The whole story is about the DM trying to kill this specific player for being one of those non-magicals. Tbh I'm kindof surprised the DM handwaved the non-magical having magical items because since he was a servant/slave of one of the other players it would technically belong to that other player; So it was okay if he used it since his 'master' allowed it.
The non-magicals aren't allowed to have good loot, And if they find some 'That belongs to your owner, slave, Not to you.'. Or to keep up with large scale threats- If it's a large level threat, 'Leave it to your betters, slave.' etc etc.
Engineered equipment the player could use I guess.
Guns
It makes sense from a roleplaying perspective rather than a game perspective, the whole world looked down upon people with lesser or no magical ability. Not far fetched at all for people believing that non-magical people should not be allowed to use magical items.
As if casters weren't overpowered compared to non-casters already. Sounds like an awful game.
...OH NO THE VIDEOS TIME REMAINING REACHED ZERO, ITS GONNA EXPLOD-
Okay that was clever
What do you mean, it began exploding even though I petrified it with 10 seconds left?
Is Micheal Bay the DM because every time an enemy dies, it explodes.
Yes
Nah the DM just had the grunt funeral skull turned on
Notes from a NG human Idiot;
Greetings from lovely Restenford(doing rather well here....)!
A wise Priest of Pelor once told me "Good communication is the bridge between confusion & clarity." and i truly agree with both the Priest and Critcrab that communicating is the key difference between "Bad D&D" and "Great D&D". My advice to all of you is simple: Listen to those around you, you might be suprised at what you hear....
May your pantheon Ever favor you(especially in these trying times),
Baron Trevelyan of Restenford
The DM is clearly stuck in video game land or movie land .
Gonna be honest... when he gives the party all but INFINITE money I'm not sure what would require only casters for story purposes... I mean... come on. 2: If there's some sort of mage only event the shenanigans the party might go through simply to sneak in their meaty smash man (read with a sneer or snicker) would be super entertaining. Also even with a mage only event planned if you had assumed only casters would be there than it might not even be that hard for the party to smuggle the guy in... fake papers, a couple spell storing items to fake some magic idk, I seriously doubt you had much in the idea department when it came to ensuring non-magical people couldn't enter beyond it being in the mage mansions and stuff because you assumed it wouldn't be needed to flesh that out... and in a world where they can't even own the magical items... well it wouldn't be weird for the people to not have that kind of security measure.
Taking a step back and analyzing this from a in-universe standpoint, can I just say how stupid it would be to hold an "all-caster" event? Let's say that there's a very small group of people who don't like the ones in the party. All it would take for that small group to kill nearly everyone at the event would be a couple of anti-magic fields (either using their own spells or via magic items) and a bunch of martial class brutes. Suddenly you have a room full of squishy casters who can't cast spells going up against a group of guys that can attack 2-3 times a round with metal weapons. Things don't look too good for the casters in this scenario.
True enough but I would assume they're pretty common in the grand scheme since, after all, chances are every politician is a caster, all of high society... also casters, and even if that's not quite the case based on medieval society while some servants might be at an even as servers (and why would they when a first level spell gives you a spectral servant incapable of poisoning food unless ordered to, fun politics there really) the mages are almost certainly the only nobles and peasants (those without magic) are not invited to a noble's ball.
Also Clerics aren't exactly squishy, they said casters not Wizards and Sorcs... heck some of those casters could be Eldritch Knights (probably the militant families/body guards most mages hire), Arcane Tricksters Rangers, Paladins, Druids, and bards are all (at worst) only kind of squishy... and, other than bard (which can still qualify for the next statement with certain colleges) and Druids (you mentioned A-M fields), they're all adept at breaking faces. Now that I've said all of this I do wonder how Warlocks are viewed in this world... no magic hacks that contact unstable and dangerous entities who, for whatever reason (probably nefarious), give the guy magic and weirdness... hmmm... the more I say this stuff the more I want to run a world like this. I gotta admit I didn't even think of all those martial casters until you mentioned the... I'm going to go with Terrorist Attack (what else would the people in power call it?). Got my brain working... need do design stuff now, make plans...
I looked up Balors because I didn't know about the explosion thing, kind of crazy cool some monsters do that but as for all the other times in the video the DM used it to try to kill OP just seemed to overdo it, it's also weird because non casters are less powerful than casters and OP tried keeping that to a minimum with his character but the DM treated it as if somehow his character was broken. IMO though I have no proof to back up this claim, I doubt the DM actually told the other players he was kicking out the player or would have. Basically had OP never gotten in contact they wouldn't have known or believed that he had "raged quit" that's the narrative I believe the DM would have given them. My reasoning for this is after the DM booted him he then blocked him, an easy way to strangle hold the conversation and put it where you want. Think about it, if CritCrab decided to block his comment session he could just make a video claiming it was full of nothing but hate. He would have the narrative completely in his hands. Not that CritCrab would do that but I think that is what the the DM did. At the same time OP sharing the story means he controls the narrative in that way so it might be so cut and dry. Still seems strange that after failing to kill off a character several times DM would boot him and blame the rest of the party for the action. If OP had taken it personal and believed what the DM said then it would have made an even worse rift.
Also now I want to play a one-shot where a group of Balor obsessed with "not-japan" show up in samarai garbs and everything taking some sort of mission tour through a countryside and the party has to help them on their "quest" for mcguffin before they return to abyss, their chaotic evil nature constantly getting in the way and honorable bushido code dictating they must seppuku themselves which the party has to try and convince them not too...don't worry their just going through a phase is all.
Sean Hannan sounds like a really fun one-shot! Might I suggest social situations bring them in proximity of oil derricks, priceless paintings, and highly flammable puppy orphanages, never to actually go off but just to put the players on edge about what _could_ happen...
tl;dr: GM is craven, uncommunicative and bad at handling anything that breaks their carefull-crafted dungeons, got mad at the player that was wrecking their plans (hence why the Balor and everything after it started gunning for the PC AFTER THE PC STARTED USING GOADING STRIKE,) tried to "fix the problem" by killing the character instead of asking the player to play a squishier character without CC (or with CC the GM could negate against bosses) because the GM had no imagination and is a craven lout, and then made up lies to boot the player from the campaign because the GM is That Guy. It had nothing to do with OP not playing some form of caster and everything to do with the character preventing the GM from running battles the way they wanted. Full stop.
After reading between the lines, I realize what's happened here and frankly can't stop laughing. Honestly, one of the reasons I am an "Eternal GM" is that I often end up in this situation when I try to play. You see... the GM does not know how to communicate with players and wanted to run a completely different kind of game than the one that was advertised by the world. If the GM had the competence to create an interesting world and have these carefully-crafted dungeons, they have the competance to disallow a character that doesn't fit what they want for the campaign.
Key factor for understanding is this: the Balor initially tried attacking the rest of the party but was foiled by the fighter. Suddenly, GM realizes that a character that will wreck the game he/she has put together and now has to remove that character but since the GM has no spine despite ostensibly NOT being a mollusk, they just try to kill the problem character and upon failing, are so weak and craven as to make up an excuse about the Player being a problem for the others and booting them. In other words, the GM is loser: full stop.
I don't think that the GM actually cared one tiny iota of a spec of a bit of anything at all about the setting and just used that as a basis to have a massively-magic-heavy world that would justify a hugely-kitted-out party and nonsense like diamond water to justify said kitting out so that the GM could run massive, high-power combats... but the GM had no clue how the game works and how powerful some things are or aren't. The fight with the Balor was supposed to be dramatic, thematic, and set the stage for the characters fighting for the angels against powerful demons but the GM screwed it up and placed all blame on the player who had the character that "broke" their encounters. Literally, the GM expected people to roll casters and at first just laughed inside at the one dumbass playing a warrior... until they realized what said warrior could do.
I garante that running a paladin, elderitch knight, or any other warrior caster would very likely have had the same result because the GM had no clue how to balance for a party mismatch. You know what that is: everyone brings a character except the one person who's character is either much more powerful than or so totally different from the party that you have to get creative with encounters to avoid murdering one or the other outright because of either a power scale difference or a difference in what the characters do. You know... like when you have a party of all rogues except the one guy who brought a wizard or you have a party of unoptimized PCs and but that one gal brought a hyper-optimized one. You have to get creative with that sort of situation and this GM was NOT CREATIVE. They could create a premise and lore for a world but that's easy. I can throw that together in a few minutes on the John. Being creative is being able to ajust on-the-fly for a number of things.
Then too, it's VERY likely that the GM didn't look at any PCs before setting up the game and just figured everyone would play squishy wizards with no CC "because people are dumb like that" (which is a phrase I hear a lot from a LOT of GMs, especially those that run games on Roll20 on a regular basis.) By the way, yes it was the CC that was annoying the GM and it annoys A LOT of GMs. Goading Strike, Hold/Charm, etc. piss off a lot of GMs because they feel it trivializes certain things. I can almost garante the GM had plans to immunize against caster CC but totally forgot about Warrior-type CC.
So no... I don't think this is the GM ejecting a PC because they had a character they weren't supposed to. This is a case of a GM with no spine but a talent for making module-style encounters and dungeons running face-first into something they didn't know how to deal with and being a lout about it.
Of course, I COULD be wrong... but after doing this for over 30 years one learns to see certain signs and I see 'em all here. MAYBE I'm wrong... but I don't think I am. Frankly, unless the OP is obtuse to the point of inducing mindless rage, which seems VERY unlikely given the structure of the story, this GM didn't communicate worth a damn and had not the courage to reach out to the player of the problem character in a mature way and work things out in a reasonable fashion so the just tried to kill the character and when that failed, make up lies and boot them. News flash, friends, but it is HIGHLY UNLIKELY you're That Guy or have That Character if the other players are coming to the rescue of your character... unless they really, really need that character.
Also, DIAMOND WATER. Full stop.
Seriously, it sounds creative but it's inane. I've used something simillar for a simmillar purpose but it was gross green goop that turned into emeralds and stunk like rotten eggs in a stew of diareah that'd been left in a very humid jungle during the summer. It was hillarious and that was the point because it's inane: you either make it obnoxious and silly or it's totally transparent.
Also, in some editions, Balors explode in a fireball when banished from the prime plane via the destruction of their corporeal form (they can't actually be KILLED on the prime.) They are also wreathed in ever-burning fires that damage anyone getting close. Exactly how nerfed was this Balor... and why? Questions, questions. I would seriously call the OP a liar but I've had this shit happen to me as a player before and I know why it happens so yeah... ugh.
did you mean: rasputin?
No, Rasputin was a magic practitioner
the focusing on the OP only really started after the first "boss" where the goading attack screwed over the DM's boss. Also the repeated Death Explosions, and the sudden addition of "You're dead if you hit 0." is too much.
I think you're trying too hard to see the good in this DM. It seemed very obvious that he was salty and petty that the Battlemaster Fighter was effective in screwing up his rolls, and then just kicking him from the group under false pretenses when he *almost* kills him? It's all too much, there's an obvious pattern. The DM was immature and couldn't handle not winning.
Imagine having a dm that wants to "win". 😢
"The tank "ruined" my boss fight using taunts, lets making it so all of the bosses only focus on the tank to the exclusion of everyone else!"
Aw man, I thought this was going to be a story of the Psion-hating wizard, Elsimore.
Would love to hear CritCrab recount that story.
This player was the extra in a Michael Bay movie, kept surviving, became a mascot for the protagonists, and the director wrote them out of the sequel, lol.
I mean, I'm in a game where all the players are casters or half casters, but the DM said up front that it would be all casters. So no problems aside from lots of low hp characters
That's the moment when you make a mountain dwarf war wizard getting proficiency with heavy armor some nice resistances and the ability to be front line if push comes to shove.
yea the low HP is what the DM wanted. he wanted to kill PC's but when he tried to do that OP forced the enemies to attack him so the DM wanted to kill of OP so he couldn't tank
I'm genuinely terrified about the amount of property damage this world has had considering every single person in this world spontaneously explodes when they die.
couldn’t kill him in game so he killed him in real life
Is that legal?
@@justanotherglorpsdaymornin5097 If you're a magic user it is
@@rubedog961 isn't killing anyone irl just murder though?
It Anit murder if you eat him. Now live life because you didn't merder
@@justanotherglorpsdaymornin5097I will make it legal
From hearing about this I have a funny feeling on of the bosses was intended to be "magic proof" til Warrior Mcwarriorton showed up. Either that or the DM was a wizard player who was upset most people abuse spellcasters
Nobody:
Every boss of this campaign when they die: My main goal is to blow up *explodes for 20d6 damage*
OP: okay fine I die as I get hit
DM: okay. now cleric it is your tur-
OP: hold on for a second. let me roll for explosive damage as I die!
BUH BOOM!
I've heard a lot of stories like this. The motivation isn't always the same but the plot: "yeah he targeted but could not kill me" is a pretty great one. I always like these stories
That DM...
Sorry mr Crab but I think your analysis is BS. I appreciate you trying to account for both sides but the whole removal of player without giving them a chance to talk and saying it's based on other players complaints (after they had tried real hard to keep the poster alive) speaks volumes, and the DM and I doubt the setting took any more miportance after the non-caster's removal.
Communication is key, but I doubt that's the only issue here.
Every boss exploding is just so hilarious. Sounds kind of like the DM did not have too much imagination. Repeating the same action and expecting a different result is the very definition of madness.
Earl Son of Earl shenanigans.
Only with the DM *still* being a bit more patient than THAT DM. Didn't go out of the way to control the non-magic character for the purpose of bullying out the other player.
Granted, it's not MUCH better, basically stacking on monster abilities to keep killing the OP's fighter, but still. And also I agree: wasted lore it seems.
The fact that this dm has to boot him and block him before a response shows his immaturity to work with a player. If he wanted the campaign to move forward he only needed to find an interesting compromise.
Honestly i wouldn't vouch for the DM like that. a plot where all players have to be a certain way but he cant tell them that they have to be a certain way is integrally flawed. I get you're playing devil's advocate here but it seems screwy on the DM's part imo.
Reminds me, kinda, of the DM from a story called "Legacy of Earl", in which a DM from a high magic setting usually uses some kind of curse to take control of non-magic PCs by reducing intelligence to 1, because "in a setting with magic, no one would ever want to use weapons".
Oh look, another story about a DM who is a huge prick.
As a DM myself these kinds of stories irk me the most.
I've made a joke about how thoughtful these bosses are that they only focus the tank.
Mayhaps this was one of those "Martials suck, so play casters only" kind of guy.
Why is that a thing?
@@TalinSilverbane because people don't like fighters so if you like fighters you're having fun wrong.
I love Martials. I wish they had more cool options and magic would stop making them entirely irrelevant
@@getthegoons I personally think Fighters are kinda overpowered, unlike most classes who get 5 ASI levels Fighters get 7 of them; SEVEN ASI LEVELS
@@unwithering5313 that's only a couple more than a wizard. A wizard who can throw fireballs, assault your mind, create clones to reincarnate into, wish, etc.
Fighters don't get most of that stuff. Most don't get any of it.
Fighters are solid in 5e, but they aren't going to be stopping time any time soon
@@getthegoons I'm a stats freak so I kinda default to considering more stats as an overpowered factor
one day a dm was sitting in the street outside of his game store.
he was deeply crying while holding 14 different set of dices.
in that moment, shia labeouf was walking down the street while in the middle of an interview, but when he saw the weeping dm he sat down next to him and asked what's wrong.
the little dm responded:"my party bullied me because everything in my campaign explodes and now no one wants to play anymore..."
hearing that, shia wiped a single tear out of the little boy eyes and with a warming smile said:"you know, I was a dm too. and people would always hate my games, but I never stopped playing and beliving in what I was doing. now listen here: you are gonna wake up and work harder, you'll not give up. just do it, I belive in you".
hearing that, the little dm felt new energy in himself and decided keep dming, because that was what he liked.
the next day he stormed in the game store, left a bag inside and activeted the explosion while walking out of the store, blowing it up.
since than he created tons of amazing stories.
wanna know the name of the dm? Michael Benjaming Bay
Crab, I have a personal story about an angry incel in my group taking out his sexual frustration out on all female PCs and NPCs and harassing everyone else irl. The punishment was very fitting.
Okay, every single enemy just exploding is just hilarious! The DM is like a Saturday morning cartoon villian sending out their minons only to fail and explode in the same way each time.
Oh boy ere we go, love me that notification bell
Me too, Roderick.
After the second boss (dragon, known to not explode) exploded upon death, I would have warned the DM to cut the bs, and after the third boss exploded I would have left on my own. Which apparently was what the DM wanted all along.
Sounds like the DM just hates martial characters and created the setting in hopes of noone makes one. Just ask for the players to make casters if thats what you want. Your campaign suffers if you give them promises of what could have been. The real question is do you think the DM would have done the same thing if the OP was a hexblade warlock, paladin, or ranger?
DM: "HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIVE"
Fighter: "Death and luck are mine to control"
*fighter bad. Fighter no roleplay. Make everyone squishy*
I have an addiction to playing half casters, spell casting subclasses and full casters but just playing the underdog like this guy's character sounds so fun I would probably be able to resist it (even avoiding magic initiate or a race like tiefling where you get some spells).
The best part is that +1 his shield gave him wouldn't have saved him if the DM didn't expressly push the player to buy something at the start
ignoring the whole I hate this player thing, this GM sucks at everything.
“Each kingdom based on a school of magic”
Thassilon (from the Pathfinder RPG setting) says hello.
None of those things aside from the Balor and the Gorgon are a thing, and of those only the first actually has that explosion quality so, how did they all have that if he had taken the time to establish that stuff like psychic surgery or arcane Gene modding were things then sure but he didn't and therefore I can only assume that his entire point of the game was to kill this one character, and no body saw any proof of the campaign that was advertised so I submit that the campaign never existed to begin with and this person if you would call them that was never interested in anything more than settling an as of yet unnamed grudge against the poster and set this up as the trap.
I have a feeling that the DM didn't actually have the campaign they claimed (a Craig sort of thing), and got a grudge when this player did something unexpected.
I once ran a game where it was me and the other characters vs 1 character, but that was the point of the campaign it wasnt done out of spite. I set it up where 1 person was chosen as the "Hero" in the first part of the game. Each person underwent trials and by the end of it the Fighter had been chosen as the "Hero" to undergo the quest to destroy the "Mad God". After this i messaged each of the other players and told them my plan. They were working as a sort of "cult" and their goal was to sacrifice the hero to the god. I didn't give them much more detial then that other then "You win this campaign by sacrificing him, but he has to LIVE up to that point. And you lose if he figures it out before the final fight." All of them were 100% down for the subterfuge.
Meanwhile the fighter kept getting the best weapons and armor and things seemed to go well in his favor, but i still MADE him work for it so he had to FEEL he earned it. 2 of the party members died to save him throughout the campaign and were added back as new characters. Now cut about a year and a half later and were at the final fight. They slay the "evil" corrupt goddess and lay at the precipice to the end of the world. They start a celebration where the Fighter celebrates a little too hard and the Rogue in the party doses him and causes him to pass out.
He wakes up chained to a stone platform with the Goddess dead body next to him. This is when I bring out the High-Priest a very old man that relays his situation. A long time ago this World made a deal with a godess that if she helped them they would worship her for eternity. But after a few centuries they found out they didn't want to be tethered to a god, so they hatched a plan to betray her. They sacrificed their 100 most powerful magical users in a week long magical ritual that bestowed upon a single person the power of ascension. They declared that the God they worshipped had turn corrupt and needed to be vanquished, so they named a Hero and gave them the Power Of Ascension and had them slay the godess. This power allows one to absorb the God's powers and Ascend, but since it was magic created by man it answers to man, but since the magic of a god gets mixed in it just causes an Ascended being to go into a sort of "comatose" like state for 100 years. Once that 100 years is up they wake up knowing that they've been betrayed and seek out vengeance. This cycle repeats every 100 years.
So The Hero MC gets sacrificed and before he Ascendes he vows Eternal Doom. I allowed all the characters to roleplay this point forward. And started a new campaign after this one where it was that character as a god vs the new party.
Sounds like CritCrab is returning to his old glory. After the rather boring and unexpectedly controversial Ross saga (that I enjoyed debating more than listening to) and then the last three positive, wonderfully wholesome and epic D&D stories (that I absolutely enjoyed), this is the first story in a while that actually deserves the title of a D&D horror story.
Here's what you do when you put a dragon against the group, but don't want to use the usual stat block. 1) Make it a Dragon Spellcaster (At least 9 levels into wizards or sorcerer), 2) Put down Glyphs of Warding outside its lair that match thematically with the type of dragon it is, 3) Cast Greater Invisibility on itself, 4) Fly into the air and just start going crazy. These steps will guarantee a fun and challenging battle for your group to outwit this foe. If you feel extra crafty, you can give the dragon a shapeshifter form to really screw with your players.
I love your vids!
Thanks!
0:50 I love this idea. In a world of magic, wonder, enchantment, and college's, the non-casters are at the bottom. The world was against you from the start, but you didn't give up your hopes and ambitions just because you couldn't reach them with magic. You trained on your own accord, mastering the art of war. Without magic, you were destined into slavery, but with your ambition, you ripped your destiny up and laid the tracks towards your own future. And who knows... maybe this was your destiny...?
Hey critcrab have you ever been a familiar?
I will be in Last Arc!
i have to wonder why none of the other players went "wait these bosses don't explode on death" or "why do you keep attack them when they haven't used a taunt"
Ummm isn't this railroading to an extreme
Yes, it's a very bad attempt at hiding their railroading.
it kind of reminds me of that video where a DM just screws with logic so that a new player manages to kill OP
@@liamdalemon1525 The one where they try to forcibly retire a Jedi who just keeps surviving until the DM just gives up and drops spaceship debris on him?
@@TheBronzeDog that's the one
@@TheBronzeDog Can you give me a link to that, please?
One look at the title and im like...just...what? Good story through
It's hilarious when I hear about DM's like this "failing" to kill a character. Like, you are god. How do you fail? Fudge the damage and save DC's.
I'm not saying thats the RIGHT thing to do, he'd be an asshole either way and the correct course of action was to use his words. But if you ARE gonna try to kill them...just do it.
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE???
YOU FOOl!
SHHHH QUIET HE MIGHT HEAR YOU
Hey, it's something to brag about.
"In one campaign I was so hard to kill that DM just had to straight up ban me from existing"
This story is just weird. I'm not sure if the DM is bad. It's just weird.
@Skylynxify Reborn the DM didn't ban OP because he was sick of him surviving, granted he should have voiced peoples concerns instead of just saying that and banning him as his first response but the rest of the party had been complaining about OP's character... without saying anything to OP... and without even having any complaints in the first place but they were still a part of the thing
@@liamdalemon1525 Except the other players basically said the DM was lying.
So either the obviously-bad-and-spiteful DM was lying, or the players who went out of their way to save his character were lying. Which one seems more likely?
@Skylynxify Reborn yea I know I'm just making fun at how it's stupid that the DM would think that OP would believe that despite them being pretty cool with each other and it NEVER coming up!
*slams down chest of diamond water* " YES I would like to BUY THIS PLANET
Player: "I'm going to play a non-magic class."
Monsters: *"Allahu Akbaaaaaar!*
Fighter walking out of the third death fireball smoking “why is everything so explody, that was just a snake lady and it’s like she subsisted on a diet of gunpowder.”
Had an experience like this on roll20 a couple years ago. Got an invite from a friend who found a long-time DM running a campaign with an interesting, very fleshed out setting, cool mechanical interactions with magic, etc. He had homebrew classes for all of his named npcs, which for the most part gave them plot armor - they were at least interesting to fight, though. My one complaint was that he tried very hard (and generally succeeded) at killing at least one player each session.
Anyways, there were some homebrew options available to, and even encouraged for, the players... I don't remember what all was available, but it included the Psionic Handbook. I was playing a pretty vanilla divination wizard; the only non-standard option I took was a feat that gave me access to an ability called 'Occluded Mind.' This allowed me to force an enemy to make an int saving throw. On a failed save, I could choose one statement of up to 10 words in length, and for 5 minutes the target would believe it to be true.
So we're in a fight against, simultaneously, a purple wurm and some sort of earth dragon. Killed the wurm first, though nearly all of our party were either knocked unconscious or just outright killed in the process. I scrambled to one of our other players who'd received a 9th level disintegrate scroll a few weeks prior and managed a clutch, just-barely-good-enough arcana check to drop this dragon down to like, 20 hp. Being a named npc, it of course then attempted to fly away... Before it could get out of range, I used Occluded Mind to convince the dragon that its wings were both broken, ensuring a failed save with portent. To the cheers of the party, the DM begrudgingly stated that the dragon dropped from the sky, died, and that we could begin stabilizing our remaining part members.
Later that night, I and my friend who had joined together received private messages from the DM explaining that, because of several complaints from the rest of the party, we were being kicked from the group. Removed and blocked before I even saw the message. IM'd a few of the other players, and they had no idea what he was talking about; they seemed pretty upset that we'd been kicked. Personally, I found it hilarious that we were removed from his group for killing a boss...
"I want a game where everyone's a caster." Oh hey look the situation's completely avoided.
If I was in the DM's position I would have just told Fighter that due to the setting it would be best if he went the path of Elderitch Knight.
That's still a Magic user.
Then if Fighter didn't ADJUST and adapt, don't bully your players.
Sounds like this is the world of exploding monsters, actually. You must figure it would be terrifying to live in a place where, even if a monster attacks your town and you defeat it, it's probably going to just explode anyway.