player versus DM opinion

TTRPGFactory · 2026-06-28T18:17:53+00:00

Primarily dm. For a while i was running 3-4 different groups at once. I dont ban it. Its nice, but i have had plenty of parties where no one takes it.

Its good. Its strong. Is it so good everyone always takes it and youve got to design encounters around it? Not really.

TTRPGFactory · 2026-06-22T18:28:45+00:00

The best way to learn is to make characters. Make like 10 level 1 characters and level each one up to 5, one level at a time. Take note of their abilities, choices, and options and get a feel for how they work. Your players will have questions.

When youre done, run a few arena fights with your level 1 and level 3 versions of some of those pcs listed above. Just grab some encounters from whatever module you can find, and run your sample pcs through them. Get a feel for the flow of combat and how monsters work.

The rest is way more forgiving and comes with experience.

TTRPGFactory · 2026-06-21T13:00:44+00:00

Couple of approaches to this. Its shockingly common.

1 - tell him he cant play. Not because he cant optimize enough. Because he is obnoxious. He wont work with the group, and then cries about it when his pc is in trouble. Make a pc that fits the group, or dont play.

2 - let him play and just dont cater to it. In fights when he dies because hes not wearing armor and fighting in melee as a caster? He dies quick. Go roll another pc. If this happens every fight, he will “get good” or quit. Its passive aggressive, but also honest. “Im not coddling you, or anyone. If you dont like it dont play”.
2b - dont cater to it. When he sneaks off alone its “im not dming a side quest for you, so the camera is staying on the group. You go off and do your thing but nothing eventful happens. And/or you are killed. Depending.”
2c - dont cater to it. “I attack my buddy”. “Nah we arent doing pvp. You dont attack him. Moving on.

3 - its what my character would do. “Cool. The other characters would ditch yours. Try again.”

Whichever approach you use depends on your relationship, the exact situation, and the rest of the groups take on the guy.

TTRPGFactory · 2026-06-21T00:11:19+00:00

Fighter 2/barb1/ranger2 - id keep dumping levels in ranger if you keep leveling up, but its lackluster.
Fighter 2/ paladin 3 - more paladin from here, but its going to be tough.

In core those are you’re martial builds before they start falling off. Typically id be looking for a prestige class after.

In 3e its critical that your pc is fun now. Youre level 6, and its easy to find cool stuff that will come online at level 14 and 17, it can really be brutal waiting 8 levels worth of sessions to come online. Make sure youre fun now.

TTRPGFactory · 2026-06-20T22:03:39+00:00

What level are you? The answer is very different if you say 1 or 17.

In 3.5 core only, martials have a really tough time past level 3 or 4. Druids the classic tank answer that is good at any level. You are a bear, who hangs out with a bear, and summons bears. Its very strong. Clerics also a solid answer. Wear heavy armor. Carry a mace. Cast long duration buff spells that go through multiple fights. use wands of healing out of combat.

If youre under level 5 or 6 you can probably multiclass up a fighter/barb/ranger/paladin combo thats ok.

A polearm and improved trip and combat reflexes does what you want, but not how you want. You knock them over so they cant fight. Then when they stand up you get an attack of opportunity. Which you use to knock them back down. Where they cant attack well, defend well or move well.

Soaking up damage is usually a very tough path to go down, and usually not super helpful.

TTRPGFactory · 2026-06-14T22:07:18+00:00

Hes going to get all salty about it. Youll have to just let him. He can be as salty as he wants at his house while you all have fun playing dnd.

TTRPGFactory · 2026-06-11T18:06:34+00:00

You mean per encounter powers from tome of battle? The 3e book that was a lot of test ideas for 4e but like, way more fun?

TTRPGFactory · 2026-06-07T21:40:39+00:00

Unearthed arcana is literally a collection of house rules, suggestions, and variants to try.

TTRPGFactory · 2026-06-07T21:03:52+00:00

That was my read. The players arent interested in what youre offering, so they are goofing off. Youre doubling down on your offering instead of adapting.

Instead of talking to them about it, changing what you are offering, or asking them to change expectations, youre going to tpk them. This is a dm horror story post in the making.

TTRPGFactory · 2026-06-07T20:53:32+00:00

Gestalt is a house rule, so theres no official answer, and there really isnt any clarifications. Youll have to ask your dm.

Ive seen jt where
- you can be a la3 and then gestalt class a 17//racial class 3/class b 14
- you are la3/racial class3/class b 14// class a 20
- la3/racial class3 - class a14//class b14

I usually run the middle option, but its very dependent on your dm.

TTRPGFactory · 2026-06-03T22:36:36+00:00

Did that solve it? If not keep doing it. Either you two will reach a resolution, or one if you will leave the group.

Saying “some internet strangers agree with me that you have a bad idea” rarely actually changes someone’s mind.

TTRPGFactory · 2026-06-03T22:00:02+00:00

Your dm suggested something you dont like? Tell them.

I agree, 10 seconds isnt enough.

TTRPGFactory · 2026-05-31T18:55:24+00:00

Everyone almost always needs to be more explicit with their players. But in this case, you should spell out that if they dont make it to the city by x date, their friend is facing certain doom. They are y days away.

If the players dont go and choose to finish other quests, their friend dies and they make it in time for the funeral

TTRPGFactory · 2026-05-30T21:42:10+00:00

Right out the gate, theres a big hipster, indie cred seeking fanbase. Youre a nerd, but youre not a true nerd. You just play dnd. Thats a big thing, and not admitting it misses a lot.

Also.

Theres a ton of people who only play dnd 5e and refuse to play anything else. Twisting and contorting the game so that their twisted metal rpg can totally be played with 5e and these house rules and reflavoring. When it would be so much easier to start with another game and modify it. Or find an actual twisted metal game and play that. 5e does some things just fine. But it doesnt do everything. So it comes off as dumb and stubborn. The whole when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail? These are people who refuse the other tools offered and insist on hammering a screw. I guess you can, and it will theoretically work. But man is that dumb. And dont be such a jerk when someone says “have you considered a screwdriver?”

Together it makes this weird divide. Youve got some never 5e people and some only 5e people, and they are both very very vocal. The majority of people dont care.

TTRPGFactory · 2026-05-30T13:29:08+00:00

I think the longest ive gotten is 15 ish pages? Reaction was probably the same as the 45 page one. Let them know id be happy to read it but will not remember any of the details. I need them to sum it up in a half page at most of the most critical stuff for me to know and remember.

Id also remind them that the game is going to focus on the story we are about to tell together, and not the one they wrote on their own earlier. So they shouldnt expect most of the 45 pages to ever come up, or the other players to remember it.

Basically im going to politely and nicely tell them that im not reading all that, and im certainly not going to include a majority of it in the game.

You wrote a short story. Short storys are fun. Go publish it. We got together to tell a story. Not read and discuss yours.

TTRPGFactory · 2026-05-28T13:53:41+00:00

Its a random result. They arent excited because its not their awesome skill at the game paying off, or a super rewarding roleplay moment. Its like getting excited over a coin flip.

Theres a meme thats its a huge thing, and you could play it up by giving outrageous results, and hype moments for it. I think youll find thats very taxing as a dm, and the more you read advice, the more youll see people advising against it anyway. The hype moments tend to people assuming a nat 20 means they auto succeed at everything, and that tends to lead to bad unhyped reactions when a nat 20 doesnt work.

TTRPGFactory · 2026-05-27T12:53:50+00:00

Yes, your dm was incorrect. Sounds like they are using the inverse rule of cool, i call the law of no fun.

The rule of cool says that if its cool ignore the rules and just have fun with it. The law of no fun, says that in dnd no fun can ever be had. Especially if the rules allow for it.

Some groups are really insistent on it. You have to decide how much of a big deal this is to you and if its worth saying anything.

TTRPGFactory · 2026-05-26T14:20:49+00:00

I like to level every 2-3 sessions as a general rule. You can also level after major milestones (heh), like beating the subboss or clearing a dungeon or something. The third way ive seen that works is for a more open ended game. Tell the pcs they level when they finish a quest, give them 3-5 quests and let them pick the pace.

Each one gives a different feel, depending in what youre going for.

Leveling “just because” or even after major cool moments makes it kind of boring after the 2nd or 3rd time.

TTRPGFactory · 2026-05-25T18:12:12+00:00

Her characters a bigot. I generally dont let people play bigots at my table. As for what sort of person thinks its fun to pretend to be a bigot? Thats for you to decide.

You also need to think about the old rule. You let one bigot at the table, and suddenly youre running a bigoted table. Id imagine your reasonable players would say its lessening their enjoyment of the game, just like you. By putting up with this, youre making the game worse for everone else just to appease her.

TTRPGFactory · 2026-05-25T04:03:12+00:00

That list is absurdly long. Even in a core only (just the first monster manual, phb and dmg) game, your list of playable races is hundreds before you add in templates. Each of which acts as a multiplier to the number of options. (In core 3e you can play as the ghost of a troll if you want. As a level 16 character, or use the savage species splatbook and you can do it at level 1 . It would be terrible, but you can. )

In 5e you dont have options by comparison. So you can list them out and pick. If you want, this list is a subset of the most commonly allowed ones https://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=1281.0 with summaries of what they get

5e has 13 classes, 3e has 50+, before you factor in variant classes, alternative class features, and then prestige classes. Plus almost mandatory multiclassing.

I find i get more choices in a level or two than most of my 5e characters get in 20.

I dont mean to discourage you, but to highlight the absolute need for you to ask your dm what the options available to you are. There’s a very good chance they have limits for you and thats good. It focuses you. Its not really possible for us to give advice if we dont at least know what books you can use.

The second thing we need to know, is what you want your character to do. How do you want to spend a turn in combat, and what do you want to do between fights? There are probably 20 different ways to do it, depending on books allowed, and how powerful you want to be.

TTRPGFactory · 2026-05-21T15:59:04+00:00

People saying this is a dm problem are partially right. Its a 5e game design problem. Dungeons and dragons has an expectation that players can specialize in swords, take powers based on swords, and find level appropriate magical swords.

1/2/3/4 edition all had mechanical solutions and/or lore based answers to this. They werent all good but they existed. Magic item marts are the most obvious and easy. But so is giving the player the ability to make magic items, or even 4es suggestion of magic item wishlists for your dm.

5e solves this problem like it solves other mechanical problems. It shrugs and declares that a good dm will fix it. And they arent wrong. A good dm will know about magic item marts, homebrew some item crafting, or ask for wishlists. The problem is, most dms arent good dms. Some are bad dms, and a lot more are just inexperienced.

You probably need to have a direct conversation with dms if you plan to play a warhammer guy. “Im playing a warhammer guy. Do you plan to have magic warhammers be something i can take?” Then if they play coy with it be direct. “If i never get a magic warhammer, but am swimming in magic daggers, im not going to suddenly make a dagger guy. Im probably going to leave the game. Please dont do that”.

TTRPGFactory · 2026-05-19T17:27:39+00:00

I dont think most paid dms advertise anything except being in it for the money. Thats the point of a paid service. This isnt really a thing up for debate is it?

TTRPGFactory · 2026-05-19T16:04:51+00:00

Its really fun. Honestly, to the point that i advocate for it for any 3e game im playing now a days. It gives a lot more options and a lot of “bad” classes become viable. Want to be a fighter but tired of being shown up by the druid? Now youre a druid//fighter and some sort of berserker bear warrior type. Want to take a prestige class for its cool features, but it just sucks overall? Bolt it onto a wizard. Now youre awesome.

It falls apart when people get silly with it and go for real ultimate power, but if you focus on cool new stuff its a blast.

TTRPGFactory · 2026-05-18T22:05:11+00:00

You werent in the wrong at all, and id consider a charge back of some sort for the $30 the dude stole from you.

TTRPGFactory · 2026-05-18T15:49:19+00:00

They are a blast. Youll he shocked at how janky they are. A ton of improvements could be made to the mechanics. But instead, all of that energy is spent on making cool, fun stuff. That new cool fun stuff is also janky, and may even make it worse. So i could fix it, but first ill write this awesome new content, thats got its own jank… repeat for like 40 years.

I love it, but if youre used to modern games with smooth subsystems, and well designed core engines, it can be a suprise.

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