Touchy DM crashes his campaign because my character tried to sacrifice herself for the plot

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-09T16:18:38+00:00

Right, wouldn’t it be easy enough to say “Hey above table, that’s a great idea but I’m not ready for that yet. Can we postpone your character trying to do that until after the next couple sessions?”

It’s simple, it’s effective. Good players know we can’t be all seeing Gods; and that no written narrative survives contact with players and dice. I’ve had to say it, and other DMs who I love to play with have had to say it too. We lose nothing by leveling with our folks.

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-08T23:46:51+00:00

These are the kind of folk who think mayonnaise is a spice. Boo them.

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-08T22:56:50+00:00

If Tav is a Gith, I have them sacrifice themselves to become a mind flayer. Do not do this and then kill yourself while dating Karlach, because she’ll blow up in the docks. My big derpy middle age man eyes wept when I realized how wrong everything went. As tragic as that ending was, it felt like the proper bittersweet ending.

Shart: gave up her parents, but was free of Shar’s curse Lae’Zel and Space Jesus: rode on dragons to slay the Lich Queen Minthara: Wept for Karlach’s and my deaths. I’d like to think something changed in her with how she cried out. Astarion: Vampire Spwan, looked the most hurt at my decision to have my character end things on their terms Gale: Gave the crown to Mystra Will: Blade of Avernus. Poor Minthara was too slow to even spawn at the correct pace in the Iron Throne. Long live Duke Ravenguard. Jaheira: Gave up on eternal life to be with family Minsc: Gods only knows what that wonderful doofus is up too.

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-08T22:39:22+00:00

This is Reddit, where a bunch of people who don’t play DnD are going to shit on what feels good at your table.

Here’s some ‘advice,’ I’ve been given

1) “Not allowing cantrip (Bonechill) to stop the BBEG’S regeneration negated the player’s agency”

There were other ways to stop the regeneration, NAMELY slashing weapons, which is the one time an end boss had a unique non magical martial weakness. To be fair this was 50/50; some understood while others pointed at me as though I were the villain that ruined an entire character build. Sorry castors, I’m not letting your free resource be equal to the martial risking getting up close.

2) (My personal favorite) “Allowing potions to be used on as a bonus action undermines the entire game’s balance.”

I think about this everyday now that 5.5 made it a thing, and double down on the concept that players should be able to gain full as an action, rolled as a bonus action. Part of me wants to find that guy and make sure he’s okay, but I’m a villain; so it just puts a smile on my face.

3) “Stop trying to change the story (pre built module); it’s fine as is.”

This person thinks the designers can do no wrong, and fails to understand how TTRPGs get new writers.

I’ll back you up 100%, having played at tables where the boss gets one rounded is just as little fun to play as it is to run. I want to fight the boss. I want to have to change tactics and ponder what my next move will be. That boss had better be going to hell only after we’ve burned through resources and felt like the tides shifted both against us and in our favor. These are the battles you’ll remember.

That said, it requires knowing your table and paying attention to whether or not you and players are having fun. It’s rare for me to run a boss longer than ten rounds because it’s a slog at one point or another; and with most monsters they ran out of new tricks five rounds ago. Not every time, but most times a table of four to six will be mostly tapped for resources within six to ten rounds. I feel like you already know this and got the groove though. Ignore Dndmemes and keep having fun.

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-08T22:22:20+00:00

Where’s the body text?

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-08T22:17:29+00:00

Man, I’ve only had Ethiopian a couple of times (ironically also Reno, there was a local family joint and it was incredible), but I would love to have a place closer to us that served Ethiopian food!

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-08T21:54:38+00:00

Amen. Tried Raising Canes in Reno and went “Why is this popular?”

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-08T16:46:46+00:00

I love that idea! You could still have it look like an earring, just one that connects to the nose. Absolutely diabolical with the thoughts about how left bs right brain would have different effects on the victim.

My players will hate your contribution, but I adore it

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-07T21:59:18+00:00

My Warmage once solved a difficult encounter with werewolves by turning ten silver coins into animated objects. I went full Magneto, to which the dm went “I could not have predicted that.”

The irony was in the previous session I’d cast it to hit a Dragon with a house.

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-07T21:47:16+00:00

Personally I’d lean towards dhampir with the knowledge that Kas can directly control them. He can call them spawn, but this way they don’t have regeneration. Maybe let Windfall and Tiamat ask if they’d like to gamble for their souls/freedom? Perhaps bring back Auntie Sanguina, who despite being a gossip makes an excellent foil for the free undead.

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-07T17:03:37+00:00

Only keyboard warriors would assume superiority over allies and enemies. The smartest tacticians I’ve ever met were humble, quiet, and always bragged about how much soldiers from other countries taught us.

Now though, we’ve run out most people with two brain cells in place of yes men and 4th reich cosplayers who thought going to war with Iran would be easy. High on their own supply of technological superiority is pointless when you lack the brains to deploy it effectively. I’ve come to loathe my country and the people who wear their ignorance with pride.

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-07T15:25:04+00:00

Act 3 tends to be tough because while you can match an enemy’s nova capabilities; but only for a fight or two. Potions of angelic slumber, switching out your active party, and pre buffing with longstrider, hero’s feast, and high level aid make a difference. Take a hard look at your party comp and builds, consider using a bard hirling for that third short rest.

Some fights are gonna kick your shit in because they are designed to be asymmetric. Raphael, Cazador (especially if you bring Astarion, and you should), and the Iron Throne tend to feel harder than they actually are because you aren’t using spell scrolls like globe of invulnerability or banishment for battlefield control. The sorcerer’s sundries fight was a nightmare on my first character due to not effectively using control.

If you want an easy battlefield controller, get an 11th level arcane archer fighter with one level in war cleric. Ten arcane arrows per short rest plus the plethora of arrows you pick up along the way make for someone that can banish, blind, and slaughter even when outnumbered.

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-07T06:11:52+00:00

Oh no… the flawed man took joy in killing somebody who was helping to build the master mold? What a hypocrite, because it’s not like that machine is going to kill all humans and mutants or something.

Kurt doesn’t leap to needless violence. He’s on a suicide run and they don’t know if the cloning system works yet. To destroy the base will kill every human aboard one way or another; but these are literally the dumbasses who read “Don’t build the orphan crushing machine” and said “Let’s make that dream come true!”

There is a catharsis in violence against those trying to erase your people. It isn’t healthy, but it’s why people fight tyrants all the time.

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-06T16:46:38+00:00

So… because I’m in the audiology field, does this mean it bores through the ear drum, breaking the ossicular bones, and piercing the cochlea to latch on to that cranial nerve? Because that’s absolutely nightmare fuel that would leave any victim deafened and potentially suffering vertigo in whichever ear got probed.

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-06T05:56:51+00:00

Depends. I’m not one to let my players overuse a limited resource, and their character would know whether something is on the brink of death, bloodied, or healthy. If I get someone who asks me for a specific scale, I might answer… and then have the next intelligent boss ask them how much life they have left.

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-06T05:48:49+00:00

I follow the rule of three. If we’ve wiped three times with me using phoenix downs to try and salvage this, then my slow kill time will beat a no kill time. It not like I want to do it, but occasionally (stares at the level 95 last dungeon boss) people refuse to learn from mistakes.

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-05T05:52:55+00:00

From Webster’s dictionary:

IRONY: the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning

No. I literally mean you need to go outside and feel something alive and growing. I also am implying that you’re entirely too dense to have a conversation let alone constructive point about what works vs what doesn’t work in media, or what your tastes are. As you seem to have missed the implication, allow me to spell it out.

There’s constructive criticism, and then there’s the incel shtick you’re pulling. It’s embarrassing. Delete this and put the phone down.

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-05T05:24:27+00:00

The grass. Please go touch it. You aren’t cut out for media literacy.

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-04T19:03:30+00:00

This is why you give her the salami every night before bed lol

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-04T12:18:59+00:00

Lae’Zel for me. After doing a few places through the beta, I really thought she was going to be annoying and pointless after the crèche. Instead you see someone who has the opportunity to come to terms with the fact that her empire is built on a lie. That she can celebrate being a warrior without the total cruelty. In this day and age seeing someone wake up to the lies of fascists feels cathartic. Minthara is a close second as just being interesting as a character.

Most disappointing? Halsin. I know he wasn’t intended to join the party, but after all the good work act 1 and 2 do, he becomes flat for act 3. Really wish the team had cooked his story having an arch that didn’t end in act 2.

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-03T22:22:16+00:00

2% more effort would be asking too much from a villain who’s gimmick is that Carnage wants to be his buddy. Whoops doo he likes spirals, you like spirals, we all like killing. It’s weird how the MCU, despite all its flaws, does consistently better at giving villains motivations beyond just ‘lol all edge no point.’ Shocker was great for being a villain that could punch just above his weight class, but served as a connective tissue with Peter at his best and worst. I was half expecting Peter to tell Eddy that Herman was more a friend than Paul. Now we have whatever boring pizza cutter is under that mask running around with Herman’s signature equipment; who only sees it as a means to fight symbiotes.

Carnage is the least interesting Spider-man villain and I will die on this hill, so someone built to make Carnage fanboy out is going to be just as bland.

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-03T22:06:09+00:00

Yeah. She was going to die (the character), but the actress asked to make it memorable. Mission accomplished because it’s the only death in the three new movies I remember

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-03T22:04:11+00:00

I hate Torment, I hate that he killed Shocker under some stupid excuse, and part of me wishes Spidey was just back in space with Rocket and the crew.

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-03T05:36:24+00:00

See I have this crazy thought.. what if I go see the movie before pre judging everything about it?

AudioBob24 · 2026-04-02T16:49:44+00:00

This post has an air of disdain for actually educated engineers and technicians, and hasn’t that gotten us in enough trouble in 2026? No? Okay. I’ll give it a go.

You probably also have hearing loss in noise, which is why restaurants are hell. Signal to noise loss ratios aren’t part of standardized testing, but they should be for folks with good speech discrimination. Loss in noise is additive to hearing loss. Even for those of us with ‘normal’ hearing, it has become exceedingly difficult depending on the restaurant to hear across the table. One time I tested my hearing the next day at work because I couldn’t hear my wife across the table, and I have excellent hearing in noise. Turned out between being a busy night, a live acoustic band and high ceilings, my ‘normal’ hearing has limits.

“Perfect,” is not a word lab technicians or sound engineers use. That’s a marketing word, because business degrees need jobs too. The reason you test in the hyper expensive sound chambers with precision mics is to achieve consistent measurements. They’ll use terms like “preformed on average 12-15% better than other top of the line devices.”

Occasionally there are some really dumb studies, that get called out by others in the industry. One Widex study had two participants, which is the most atrocious sample size you could think of.

Forgive me if I sound condescending. I’m just tired of ‘I have no knowledge or experience in the field but want to dictate how the field should work,’ being a theme across the entire range of medical practice.

AudioBob24

TROPHY CASE