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Alex Ashgrave
2010-01-19, 05:18 AM
I'm new here-and I am sorry if I sound like an idiot for not knowing about this for certain (even more embarassing as I've been gaming for about 5 years now)

But first, some backround. (Bare with me, there is a purpose to this)
We (my gaming group) are a small bunch. We have one great DM, one god one and one....well.....one that "Plays to win and score a TPK." He's DMing at the moment. We put up with his.....excriment for the sake of playing. (And we don't wanna hurt his feelings etc.) The only way to survive is to powergame, something I never did.(And only survived cause I hid behind the power gamer buffing and healing.) In fact, our munchkin I think you call him, only does what he does so we have a chance at survival. It's a miracle we made it to third level with only one death.

Anyway, level 3. He has designed this demon house and a demon possesed halfling. The house has insanely dangerous traps, is darkened, and the halfling is sneak attacking us for a crapton and a half of damage. Powergamer goes to take her out when thanks to a failed spell, her posistion was revealed.
Anyway, in response she dimension doors, brining an unwilling powergamer into a trap that does 129 damage. To a level 3. And no, we couldn't run, "the house wouldn't let us."
I had a readied action, used benign trasportation declaring to the party as they watch on in horror (before the trap was sprung) "Oooh....lived to long. This is my honour." (Doctor who nerd, I know.)
I, as a mage had 16 hp. DC 20+ save for half damage. Needless to say, I was toast. But had I not, everyone would have died.

Backround out of the way, am I mistaken in thinking the dimension door spell shouldn't have worked as it did, (much less without a save) when I'm pretty sure it states you may take "One willing creature....per 3 caster levels" Furthermore, powergamer's character was over 1000 pounts. The halfling would have been over encumbered (exceeding maximum load) as well.

Last time we were to be teleported, I said offhandedly I "dont want to go, I'm not ready yet, give me five more minutes." and as such I was left behind, causing an immense amount of trouble for me. That said, we can ignore this case when examining the one I pose to you now.

I guess, what I want to know is, by the book, was this legal? I have no intention to cause the DM any trouble, I'm just looking for some...closure. And I may talk it over with him to see if I can be raised for another shot. (As the party at the level the Wizard becomes somewhat dangerous.)

Thanks you in advance.

Oh-and we're playing 3.5 if it helps. I really want to be sure before talking to the DM, so I'm not in the wrong.

kamikasei
2010-01-19, 05:25 AM
I think you're saying the halfing NPC used dimension door to transport herself and one of the PCs?

No, that's not legal. The spell works on objects or willing creatures, not on unwilling creatures (which can't even be treated as objects).

Alex Ashgrave
2010-01-19, 05:29 AM
"I think you're saying the halfing NPC used dimension door to transport herself and one of the PCs?"

Hit the nail on the head. Thanks.
:smallbiggrin:

(Edit)
Oh, the big rant was there cause I was half expecting a "Leave the group" response, something I don't want to do. And sorry about any mistakes with spelling. I should probably spell check, but I'm too tired to at the moment.
:smallredface:

BooNL
2010-01-19, 05:45 AM
Kamikasei had it right, you cannot use Dimension Door to 'port unwilling targets. Oh the fun we would have if we could do that!
Dimension Hop on the other hand, does allow this. Though only about 10ft in lenght, IIRC.

That said, I'm avoiding the "leave the group" argument as the guy is probably a good friend of yours, but have you (as a group) talked to him about his style of DMing?
Different styles can be good and a holy-crap-there-is-no-way-to-survive-this-meatgrinder-dungeon is fun every once in a while. There is however, a specific limit to how meatgrindery you make it. Hitting a character with hundreds of points of unavoidable damage isn't being a clever DM, it's being a jerk.

Alex Ashgrave
2010-01-19, 06:10 AM
Thanks, to both of you.

Yeah, the whole "Lol, you're level 3 and I've sent you to the infintie layers of the abyss IN A KILLER HOUSE WITH A KILLER HALFLING!" thing got up my nose. Another thing that bugs me is every town we go to lasts all of 5 minutes before being destroyed-all we seem to do is flee. And we can't even do that right at times. Or we just can't flee at all. Oh, I should add, we had lost almost all of our equipment. Armour, magic items, basically everything. Cause he said so. All we had was one weapon each. And my spellbook in my case. The trap was designed for the power gamer, to kill him so the rest of us would fall-a chain reaction. But I digress. Heck, he had even made the house indestructable. Well, to us. Not to the halfing. With a room full of the kobold bombs (Diverbombs? I'm sure that's not the right spelling) and dynamite.

I only know two of the traps would have resulted in instant death. We found two others-out of who knows how many.

Ho humm. What's a guy to do?
:smallconfused:

kamikasei
2010-01-19, 06:15 AM
Are you enjoying the game? Are the other players? Are you perhaps enjoying some aspects, but not others?

Try talking to the DM - tell him that some of the things he's doing are causing you to have less fun, and indeed damaging your ability to enjoy the other things he's doing.

Alex Ashgrave
2010-01-19, 06:32 AM
It's better than nothing. And he has put some effort in (to killing us).
The others....I'm not so sure. We do talk about it amongst ourselves. It's becoming an arms race-and one we as players are determined to win(and are almost certain to lose). Just to stick it to the odds.

Hell, I even have a plan that involves a Well of many worlds, a disjunction spell and disintergrate spell.

Although, I half expect a TPK. At which point, he would probably tell us to roll new characters and continue. I know at least myself and one other (Half the current group) would refuse, as our characters wouldn't know what was going on, the fact we are getting tired of it all, etc. Every campaign he runs is like this.

One other player is cautioning me (rightly so) about this. But to the point of telling me to drop it. Thing is, it seems they expect me to throw a fit and sock the guy or something. At most, I plan to pull him aside and politely ask to get my Wizard raised as he shouldn't really be dead-as the chain of actions that led to his sacrafice was hinged upon that spell carrying the halfling and the PC into the "Room of death." The spell that you guys have confirmed, along with my PH, shouldn't have worked like so.

I'll hold off on talking to him until he does something worse. (Which I expect is on the way)

Tyndmyr
2010-01-19, 07:17 AM
Different styles can be good and a holy-crap-there-is-no-way-to-survive-this-meatgrinder-dungeon is fun every once in a while. There is however, a specific limit to how meatgrindery you make it. Hitting a character with hundreds of points of unavoidable damage isn't being a clever DM, it's being a jerk.

I enjoy meatgrinder styled campaigns. However, I do not enjoy Gygaxian campaigns. Arbitrary "you die" sorts of things(and 100+dmg without a save at level 3 IS a you die moment) do not add to the fun.

I'd suggest talking to him about following the rules a bit closer. They're not perfect, no, but they have a decent foundation, and usually have some sort of predictability to them, allowing players to plan to overcome challenges.