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onthetown
2010-05-07, 06:57 AM
This is more of a story than anything else, I guess, since a logical resolution for it is apparently never going to be brought around. Sorry in advance for the wall o' text.

I've mentioned my enchantress a few times on this forum, even started some threads for her because I'm always trying to find ways to make her a little more powerful. She was lawful evil and was completely power hungry, but quietly enough so that she's smart enough not to stir up much trouble when the paladin's around and the group keeps her around (mostly because her father is an archmage and they like being on his good side). She was a Black Robe of High Sorcery and kept her home base in Tarsis and the Tower instead of on Faerun with the rest of the party, going back and forth when she's needed, and she was well on her way to becoming a Conclave Mage and, the DM told me, Head of the Black Robes by the end of the campaign. To sum it up, Nuitari absolutely adored her, considered her one of his favourites, and did countless favours for her that she always repaid. Even the DM admitted it. Those last two sentences are going to seem weird by the end of this.

I always roleplay my characters exactly as I think they should be played. My enchantress was power hungry, so I was steadily working her to the top of her Order and letting her take any extra opportunities along the way. I don't back out of something just because it's a bad idea if the character would do it.

The DM knows all my characters very, very well. In this case, too well.

We met up with a summoner whose eidolon took a bit of an interest in the enchantress. The DM dropped the first hint of things to come: the eidolon told her that she was standing at a nexus, and could unlock it to weild dark magic beyond mortal comprehension. I was wary, but my enchantress would naturally take the bait. She went to Daddy the Archmage and asked after it, and he told her that the eidolon must have been speaking of vile spells. It only comes at the price of your soul! Very few people are able to handle it, but the ones that are have become incredible dark mages. He warned her against it but when you're desperate for power you'll do just about anything, and being able to tame vile magic would make her rise even more in the Black Robes. So she goes back to Krynn to speak with Nuitari.

Looking back on it, this is an incredibly odd conversation considering what's going to happen. Nuitari agrees that vile magic is powerful but costly and difficult to use, but he seems to think that she'll be able to handle it and tells her he'll hand over the vile spellbook after she's had her kid (yeah, she's pregnant at this point; with a kid that Nuitari formed a pact with to ensure he'd get another Black Robe, no less). Since the characters didn't want to adventure without their best wizard, we skipped 3 months to when she had the kid and then she went looking for the spellbook. Nuitari practically gave it to her gift-wrapped and taught her everything he knew about it. He made it very clear that though it's illegal within the White and Red Orders, the Black Robes are free to use it.

She experimented a bit with the vile magic, and the DM then told me that she's getting horrible cravings like she's addicted to drugs. At this point we were just casually roleplaying, so we didn't bother with Will saves (my mistake, but it didn't make sense at the time as this was more of a character exploration roleplay session than anything else) and I let her go out to a bandit camp and kill one. Which led to another. And another. Soon enough, she had 19 points of taint on her and she turned into some horrible demon (I guess devil, since she was lawful). She went berserk and proceeded to kill the same amount of people down in Haven.

It was at this point I realized just how screwed over I was. She would either be killed or expelled from the Order, but I realized Nuitari was the one who prompted her into this so I figured he would save her yet again (seeing as how she had more than repaid all her debts to him). Daddy the Archmage brought down devil-enchantress with a team of Order mages and clerics, and they were able to turn her back to normal.

Fast forward a few weeks and she's standing in front of the Conclave, answering for her crimes and whatnot. She throws herself at the mercy of them, trusting in her god. Who is silent. The Head of the Black Robes proceeds to tell her that vile magic is banned from all three Orders -- what? Even if Nuitari was bold-faced lying to her, she spent over three months just studying the subject on Krynn. Wouldn't she know that it was banned from the Orders, including her own? All three Heads of Orders expelled her (I think the only reason they didn't execute her was because I tried to convince the DM that I could somehow turn this around), effectively banning her from using magic on Ansalon, and warned her that if she ever came back she would be hunted and killed. Through it all, Nuitari didn't say a word and still has yet to contact her. If he ever decides to.

What doesn't connect is that the DM has told me time and time again that she's one of Nuitari's favourites and he actually likes her and is willing to do favours for her as long as she repays them. She's repaid all of them. She's gone through hell for that Order. So he rewards one of his favourite mages by teasing her with forbidden magic, telling her it's legal, and letting her get expelled so he can't use her anymore? Considering she just gave birth to the child that he has a pact with that could bag him another Black Robe as long as he makes sure she brings him up to it? Not only is it stupid (that kid ain't learning good things about the Black Robes, so fat chance of him getting another mage and more power), it goes against everything I've been told so far about where she stands.

I get that the god's probably disgusted with her because she lost control, but the DM told me early on in this that he fully expected her to lose control and turn into that devil-thing. So did the god. So did Daddy. So why do it?

The DM has also told me a few times in the past that he doesn't really like the character (he tends to play good or neutral characters with a good sense of morals). Did he just set me up? He knows I'll roleplay them to their death exactly as I intended them to be. This reminds me of a thread or two that were started awhile ago about forcing a paladin to fall; where the DM more or less sets up a situation where the player, if they play their paladin to their character, have to walk right into it or not be able to get out of it or whatever and the paladin will fall no matter what. This is basically what happened to my lawful evil wizard. I couldn't ignore vile magic because that would go against every aspect of her personality: she constantly thinks she's able to handle things that she shouldn't (and she is, most of the time), she's cunning, and she wanted power. He thought it would be a fun concept to introduce and knew from the start that it would completely screw me over. It was fun until I realized how cornered I was and that I was about to lose a year and a half's worth of what I worked on with that character.

I'm not so attached to my characters that I freak out over the littlest thing, but this honestly just really doesn't seem fair. I'm not too hooked on the whole "everything has to be fair" bit, either, but in this case it just goes a little beyond the deception I would ever expect from him as a DM. As I said... knowing that I would roleplay her truly to her character, he handed me a plot hook that I couldn't in good conscience refuse and waited for the fireworks. He made it sound really interesting throughout the whole thing, too, until it reached the point where I realized that she was about to lose her entire life on Krynn. I love playing a character from Dragonlance, it's my favourite setting, and I really loved it when he let me base her there while we adventured across other settings.

He knows I'm not impressed (as I said, I really liked her as she was) so he's letting me completely rebuild her from the ground up. I'm going with Bard (not only is she already an enchantress, but there's a bit of backstory to it for her) and taking Sublime Chord next level so I can hopefully get back some of what I'm losing here. He wins: she's not lawful evil anymore, she's either true neutral or neutral evil. He now has a perfectly nice, prettily arranged good- and neutral-aligned party who have strong senses of morals and will run to save the world without any hesitation (or feeling fear, anxiousness, etc). He has all the characters, including my former wizardess (but still enchantress), sitting in his palm. The player will be able to follow any train tracks he sets out because her characters are completely heroic and altruistic. This is all I can come up with to explain why he might have wanted to get rid of the evil in the party, despite he's told me a few times that he finds her interesting. He liked my chaotic evil drow last campaign, too.

As I said, there's not going to be any resolution to this apart from me rebuilding the character and finally letting her do what he wants her to do (not that she was fighting very much against the campaign in the first place, seeing as she was the most helpful character in the party as a wizard). When I try bringing it up, he just ignores me, changes the subject, or goes, "Mmmmm........" and trails off and pretends to lose his train of thought.

I didn't see this entire thing coming at all because I was doing what I do best -- which would be playing my characters to their character, which is what he encourages -- and he played off of that to lead me on and trap me. DMs are supposed to keep ahead of the players and can do whatever they want, I get that, but I think a better DM would have asked me what I thought of it -- and he did, but then explain to me what my character would find out during her three months of study instead of just letting her crash and burn into the ground with none of the information that she would have found out. Like the fact that it's apparently a well-known forbidden art in her former Order. I don't mind the switch to Bard (again, it was in her character) except that I was basically manipulated into nerfing the best character we had for the party.

This also kinda goes back to the "wizards are too powerful and must be nerfed" argument, too, I guess. People don't complain when fighters slaughter the enemy or when rangers land a between-the-eyes shot with little effort, but the minute the wizard shows any talent they have to be put out of their misery. Have I mentioned that I play in a solo campaign with the DM and there's no other players to complain about her? Or the fact that she's an enchantress, but this happened practically the day after I mentioned that she might go to blasting a bit more (as in, prepare one or two more Fireballs than previously) because of some things that had happened in-character?

I'm adapting, because as a player that's what I'm supposed to do. My character is also adjusting nicely and she makes a great bard. I'm just not impressed that this had to happen because he wanted to blindly manipulate me into destroying my character. As he said, "I didn't force you to -- I only dangled the carrot in front of the horse." Guess what? I have a horse, and horses like carrots. They will do just about anything to get that carrot because it is a treat and they want the treat. He spends time with my horse and knows this. So how is that any less worse than my angle on it?

I guess that's my story/rant.

PS -- If you have any opinions on good spell-focused bard builds, feats, etc, I'll be happy to hear them. My past bards have been more melee-mixed than anything else, and this girl won't be doing much melee.

Optimystik
2010-05-07, 07:03 AM
PS -- If you have any opinions on good spell-focused bard builds, feats, etc, I'll be happy to hear them. My past bards have been more melee-mixed than anything else, and this girl won't be doing much melee.

You have three choices for this one - Sublime Chord (the primary), Virtuoso on a more castery class, and Fochulcan Lyrist+MT/Arcane Hierophant for a Druid/Bard combo.

For the story, I'll go back and read it, I just wanted to give this bit of advice so you could look those up while you wait. :smalltongue:

onthetown
2010-05-07, 07:07 AM
I am taking Sublime Chord next level... I just want to figure out how to get her close to the power she would be having as a wizard. He knows I'm not giving up 10 levels for bard without trying to get back what I'm losing :smalltongue: I love bards, but not when I have to drop from wizard...

One Step Two
2010-05-07, 07:48 AM
Your story evoked a few different feelings in my own thoughts, from me as a player and me as a GM.

Without knowing all the circumstances, from what I can see he did seem to pull the wool over your eyes and decided to punish you when you believed you were roleplaying. It could be an alignment issue, it could be a power issue. To him it could have been a test for you and not your character. Ultimately all you can do is just ask him earnestly, "I don't mind changing my character, I just want to know why it had to happen in that way?" But from what you said he doesn't seem to want to answer which is dissapointing. I recommend politely persisting the inquiry if it continues to bother you. I think it worthwhile if only to assure you can avoid such odd, if not somewhat petty, incidents later.

I've had something similar happen to me in the current DnD campaign I play in with my own wizard. To cut a long story short, magic has been unleashed into the ancient world of Rome. Playing a scholarly wizard I took a feat from a third party sourcebook called Polyglot, which allows me to learn any language in a matter of moments with a relatively moderate Speak Language Check.
I chose it as a roleplaying element, but has proven pivitol to the party, so much that it saved us from fighting a mummy and 2 stone golems when we were low on magic and health with a bluff check on my part. The mummy believing I had sworn alligence to it's lich master attached to me a scarab directly over my heart and a Stone golem to keep watch over me, as guardian, and jailor.
The DM decided to inform me that once we resumed the game (currently on hiatus) that my master would be saving me from the scarab and the party from the golem with a Disjunction. Calling this game low-magic would be generous, the loss of our magic items would be disabling. The reason: Because I subverted his attempt to give us a recurring enemy, and to curb my power. At level 7, I have a total of 4 different 3rd level spells, and with little to no resources to learn new ones. I have a short time to try and convince him otherwise, but like you, I, and my party, are going to be punished for what I thought amounted to good roleplaying.

It sucks, but hey, fallen Paladins can be Blackguards, and if I happen to lose my spellcasting from getting the artefact on my person Disjunctioned, then I have a neat idea for a Cleric planned when he gets rebuilt. (I know the spell doesn't work quite like that, but my GM makes it that unless I am holding said artefact when I cast haste everyone ages a year, so who knows.)
The point is, it's just another scar to point at and go, "This is what I did to piss off an over-deity, and I still survived."

Long story short: It's a pain when the GM pulls a fast one, but hey, life goes on.

PS: As other options there's the Beguiler, or the prestige bard. Different flavours, but still caster-liscious.

Mando Knight
2010-05-07, 07:52 AM
...Yeah, that DM's a jerk. Yes, he only dangled the carrot in front of the horse, but that was after poisoning the carrot and laying hidden bear traps along the path.:smallsigh:

onthetown
2010-05-07, 07:53 AM
I am persisting, but I'm also DM's Girlfriend. Makes matters a little complicated, but not too much so. I'll get an answer out of him yet. :smallsmile:

I really don't mind changing the character at the end of the day for the sake of story, but I didn't like being pulled along like I was.

And... ouch. That had to have hurt. :smalleek:

Thanks for your feedback. :smallsmile:

Edit: Mando Knight: He's a bit shortsighted sometimes, yeah.

Mongoose87
2010-05-07, 07:58 AM
Things

You're being punished for speaking too many languages? Because the DM can't do his recurring villain? He can't think of a way to make people that can communicate fight?

Eldariel
2010-05-07, 08:10 AM
Well, c'est la vie. It is the danger of playing an excessively experimenting character, I guess. Really, I don't see what could have happened differently other than pressing him for the information you were due with the Knowledge-checks (as my DM doesn't allow takebacks, I always make sure to make the DM explain in detail what kind of a trap was found, what information was derived and so on). It's really easy to not let the player know what he deserves if the player doesn't make it a point to get it all out as it's the kinda thing you kinda skimp on to speed up things. It's worth pointing out that as a Wizard, your Int is so high that you should have no trouble figuring stuff like the illegality out.

But yeah, sucks when that happens, but then again, things could have been worse. So...yeah, best of luck in the future. I feel for you here. Anyways, Bard 9/Virtuoso 1/Sublime Chord 2/Virtuoso +8 is pretty perfect a "basic Bard". Make sure to abuse her Charisma though. :smallbiggrin: A couple of friends alongside Bardic Music boost (Song of the Heart/Inspirational Boost/Mw. Instrument/etc.) makes for a surprisingly efficient team.

Vizzerdrix
2010-05-07, 08:20 AM
Your character is a prime candidate to become a cleric of Cas. Or an Ur Priest, seeing how your god also left you twisting in the wind.


If it was me, I'd go for heavy undead + constructs, and become undead along the way. If they think they can throw you aside so easily, then bring the towers down around them.

Drag it out and make it bloody :smallamused:

onthetown
2010-05-07, 09:41 AM
...Really, I don't see what could have happened differently other than pressing him for the information you were due with the Knowledge-checks (as my DM doesn't allow takebacks, I always make sure to make the DM explain in detail what kind of a trap was found, what information was derived and so on)...

Throughout the whole thing, up until her trial, I pointed it out a couple of times and the DM always agreed (or did that "Mm..." thing). "It's nice that it's only banned to the other two Orders," or, "She's completely within the law, at least," or things to the effect of that. During the trial, when the Head of her Order pointed out that it was illegal, her only argument was that their own god had taught it to her and told her it was completely legal. Later on, the DM had Daddy Archmage reprimand her by saying, "It's illegal for all three Orders and you know it." He usually gives me all the information I need to proceed, so I was a little taken aback by his blatantly hiding information that my character apparently knew but I didn't. And, you know, the fact that he told me the exact opposite for my character's knowledge.

To be fair to him, during the trial it looked like she was just going to get off with a slap on the wrist because he realized I was starting to get fed up with all the things that didn't add up. I told him I'd be okay with her being expelled from the order, for the sake of preserving the last bit of logic we had left in the session. If they're calling her out on ignorance, then might as well punish her as ignorance should be punished. The only way I saw her getting just a slap on the wrist is if Nuitari stepped in, but he didn't so I figured, "Well, time to see what I can do with this." I'm still trying to figure out how my formerly lawful character decided to get around the "forbidden magic" part for the damage control this whole thing has caused me to have to do with her.



Drag it out and make it bloody :smallamused:

Oh, I can do that with a bard, trust me. :smallamused: I'm leaning more toward neutral evil than true neutral with her.

DragoonWraith
2010-05-07, 10:08 AM
Yeah, I think if it was intended to be a way for the character to go out with a bang, it should have been run by you at least somewhat first, and no matter what you should have known that your god was lying to you about the legality issue, if the character knew (and she should have). That's bad.

Anyway, another neat trick on Sublime Chord is to pick out PrCs that lose a spellcasting level at 1st - if you take them before Sublime Chord, you don't really lose anything. Sand Shaper (Sandstorm) will net you a sweet 43 spells known (including half of the +4 enhancement bonus to an Ability spells as 1st level spells), War Weaver will make you the best buffer in existence, Malconvoker's really sweet for summoning (see Lyric Thaumaturge or Arcane Devotion [IIRC] for getting Summon Monster III), etc.

Telonius
2010-05-07, 10:21 AM
Thought ... vile spells. We're talking about BoVD, correct? Mindrape is a spell in the BoVD. Nuitari is an archmage who pushed you in that direction. But Nuitari is also not a fool. If you get caught, he needs plausible deniability. So he tells you it's illegal, then Mindrapes you to believe you heard him tell you it was legal. He can truthfully say that he told you that it was illegal.

onthetown
2010-05-07, 10:37 AM
Thought ... vile spells. We're talking about BoVD, correct? Mindrape is a spell in the BoVD. Nuitari is an archmage who pushed you in that direction. But Nuitari is also not a fool. If you get caught, he needs plausible deniability. So he tells you it's illegal, then Mindrapes you to believe you heard him tell you it was legal. He can truthfully say that he told you that it was illegal.

That sort of works, but I don't think the DM would be on board with it because Nuitari was busy parading my girl around like a prized horse. He had his moments where he got her to do some pretty horrible stuff, but he always made it worth it for her to go after whatever it was; in this case, there was just a big chance of failure and a small chance of gaining controllable power. To add to that, the god is also lawful evil. There's only once in the main storyline of Dragonlance that he betrayed his cousins, and it didn't upset their magical balance of the world. Provoking her to use forbidden magic does upset it, especially if his own Order is against it.

I'll take him wanting to cover his tracks for when she inevitably screwed up, but the 3 months of studies would have shown her right away that she shouldn't be doing this, as Dragoon said. Our campaign works that character knowledge is player knowledge, so I should have known about that part as well...

Dragoon -- what do you mean about giving up spellcasting levels to get more spells with Sublime Chord?

Greenish
2010-05-07, 10:43 AM
Dragoon -- what do you mean about giving up spellcasting levels to get more spells with Sublime Chord?He means taking the first level of a caster PrC that loses the first level of casting progression before you enter SC. Getting more spells is a feature of the Sandshaper class, it adds a boatload of spells on the spells known list for spontaneous casters.

erikun
2010-05-07, 01:44 PM
I'm afraid I'm not following the names for everyone involved in this. You didn't specify if Nuitari is the archmage, deity, or even the paladin involved, so it's a bit difficult to get a clear idea of what is happening.

Still, the problem is that either a Lawful Evil Archmage or a Lawful Evil Deity lied to you? And this is a surprise? :smallamused: Do you know if your DM is planning something further for this character? Because it sounds like either the perfect lead-in for the I-am-the-only-one-you-can-trust evil path or turning the character into a BBEG.

If the DM has pretty much written the character out of the situation, though, that does feel a bit too harsh. Then again, I'm not sure if it is entirely unfounded. You mentioned yourself that you prefer consistent roleplay; would it make sense for the Order to keep a mass murdering wizard on staff? And really, falling to taint doesn't sound that different than dying. I would assume that your characters don't get a free Raise Dead from a passing cleric every time they die; falling into the trap of a LE deity and ultimately paying the price sounds quite similar.

onthetown
2010-05-07, 02:49 PM
I'm afraid I'm not following the names for everyone involved in this. You didn't specify if Nuitari is the archmage, deity, or even the paladin involved, so it's a bit difficult to get a clear idea of what is happening.


Sorry; the lawful evil god is Nuitari. Her father is the archmage. The paladin is unrelated at this point. :smalltongue:

Yes, I understand that it was appropriate for her to be kicked out of her Order (in the end, during the trial, I pushed the DM in that direction because he was only going to give her a slap on the wrists), but he set me up in a situation where I either had to ignore my character's... well, character, or roleplay as I would normally with her. He knew I wouldn't take the first option and basically planned out her fall, telling me he knew exactly how it was going to end the minute I chose to let her pursue vile magic. To ignore that temptation wouldn't be consistent with her.

As I said, it's like the paladin situation some players find themselves in where their DMs want the paladin to fall and set up situations that they can't get out of without ignoring the paladin's lawful good alignment.

However... She is making out to be a kickass bard. :smallamused:

Riffington
2010-05-07, 03:50 PM
Yeah, it sounds to me like Nuitari set her up because he was afraid of her (or someone who was afraid of her asked him for a favor). She's powerful and ambitious, and setting her up like that was a clever trick.

I'm not certain from what you've said that she would necessarily have noticed the legality. She had the personal assurance of someone she trusted implicitly, and probably wasn't asking other people (for fear they'd steal her idea or her book)

Had you not remade your character (retcon?), you should certainly seek some revenge... though obviously right now a deity might be above your abilities.

One Step Two
2010-05-07, 03:50 PM
You're being punished for speaking too many languages? Because the DM can't do his recurring villain? He can't think of a way to make people that can communicate fight?

It's a number of small things, the campaign world is harsh on magic as a whole, so everyone in the party made compromises. We didn't start at 1st level, but during chargen I lost the ability to have a familiar at 1st level because magic wasn't advanced enough. So I asked for something more akin to Bardic Knowledge for a wizard to represent his deep learning potential and knowledge of lost lore, which was allowed. So along the way I maximized my diplomacy to go with my lingual prowess, and became the party face. Every time we encountered a new race of creatures, I demanded to my party leader the chance to communicate to them in hopes of making alliances because, to quote my character:
"We are dealing with a situation that is foreign to us, but they find all that we are learning as common knowledge."
The net result was the ability to talk our ways out of fights, and make alliances with things that while not hostile, would have ignored us.
As for the Mummy emissary... well while my GM doesnt use the actual Diplomacy rules, but rolling natural 20 twice in a row is enough to make him decide that I was especially glib.

In fairness I made my deal with the devil to save the party, I was expecting a somewhat climactic death as I betray the Lich who put us in that position, only to have my heart torn out by the amulet. But the difference between my GM and Riyoukaze's is atleast mine has open intent to vape my character, and he is giving me the chance to work my way around it, otherwise he wouldn't have told me. Unless he's vindictive enough to make me squirm.... which he is. Crap.

onthetown
2010-05-07, 04:07 PM
Riffington -- I'd like to think that spending 3 months digging up any information she can to study a subject would cause her to find out where it's legal and where it's not, especially since it's such a specific subject. She didn't trust her former god by any extent of the imagination, no matter how much he may have done for her. :smalltongue:

Riffington
2010-05-07, 11:31 PM
How?
We know that the subject is known to very few (because she didn't know about it beforehand, and she's exactly the kind of person who would have).
So where is she discovering all this info? From dark books or demons, which focus on "how". Legality is usually not discovered from the dark books, but from asking regular people... but those regular people haven't heard of it. So who was she asking who knew about it and cared about the legality and was trustworthy?

onthetown
2010-05-08, 07:29 AM
I told the DM she was finding out everything she had to about it and going wherever she had to. This also includes Daddy the Archmage, who she spoke to several times. All he did was express disgust in it and warn her against it, then berated her because she knew it wasn't legal. The DM agreed with his character at that point and told me she would have known, despite never telling me what she knew beforehand. In other words, somehow my character knew but I didn't. I'm still trying to wrap my head around all this.

El Dorado
2010-05-08, 08:05 AM
Maybe the DM was running it like your character knew but didn't care. If she's taken every opportunity to acquire dark power, would she let a little thing like "the law" stop her?

Eldariel
2010-05-08, 08:09 AM
Maybe the DM was running it like your character knew but didn't care. If she's taken every opportunity to acquire dark power, would she let a little thing like "the law" stop her?

That's not a DM's place though; it's not the DM's decision what a character does or does not ignore. That's precisely where the player's control lies and if DM takes that away, the players might as well quit playing and start listening to his grandeur story.

onthetown
2010-05-08, 08:17 AM
She would have given it up and moved on to the next way of getting power. She wouldn't have done it if it was going to have enough legal drawbacks to get her expelled from the Order -- the Order of High Sorcery was the most important thing to her. She's given up opportunities for power a few times when they've proven too risky.

Talking around the subject with the DM (who still avoids it when possible, but I can dance around it without any problems) clues me in that he wanted her to get a taste of her own medicine. He doesn't particularly like evil characters, so he's trying to push her up to at least neutral. He knows lawful evil and lawful neutral are my favourite alignments to play, so... I don't really know what to think about this. And it's been clarified that yes, he knew exactly how he was going to make it end (her either being killed or expelled, unless I fought him on it).

At this point it's less about what information she should have been given and all the minor details, and more about that the DM is basically strong-arming me out of a character I enjoyed just because he decided he wanted to have a nice little good and neutral party. (She's hardly interfered with the quest, and the one time she did we took care of it; it's in her interest to save the world, since she doesn't want to die.) He's done the pushing around thing before with other players, in-character as this was. Talking to him about it is near impossible -- apart from his little avoidance tactics, he also practically lives by the whole "I'm the DM and I'll do what I want, you're playing in my game" method.

Am I the only person who thinks that a DM can only go as far as his players will go, or is that too democratic for D&D?

I won't be able to get back to this until tonight (more D&D -- oh boy), so I'm hoping there will be lots of interesting opinions...

Vizzerdrix
2010-05-08, 08:32 AM
Don't take this the wrong way, but his way of thinking leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Hope things work out for you, but in all honesty if he wanted an all good game he should have been up front about it from the start.

jindra34
2010-05-08, 08:39 AM
Am I the only person who thinks that a DM can only go as far as his players will go, or is that too democratic for D&D?


This is a core fact in all Co-op roleplaying games. It stems from the fact that you can't DM without a party and you have no way to make the party stay.

Tiki Snakes
2010-05-08, 09:29 AM
I kind of fail to see how being decieved by your God, your Father, your allies and your peers can turn you towards good. Let alone taking from you all the hopes and dreams you had been working towards.

I think the apropriate response is to Burn the World, frankly.
Admittedly, not the mature response, but that's beside the point. :smallwink:

2xMachina
2010-05-08, 10:03 AM
Sublime Chord + Ur-Priest + MT and go to town with them.

krossbow
2010-05-08, 10:24 AM
eh, seems like a fairly decent case of evil is not a toy (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvilIsNotAToy) to me.

and its not like gods of evil people are known for saving failures; more often then not they kill them themselves.

Kish
2010-05-08, 10:26 AM
At this point it's less about what information she should have been given and all the minor details, and more about that the DM is basically strong-arming me out of a character I enjoyed just because he decided he wanted to have a nice little good and neutral party. (She's hardly interfered with the quest, and the one time she did we took care of it; it's in her interest to save the world, since she doesn't want to die.) He's done the pushing around thing before with other players, in-character as this was. Talking to him about it is near impossible -- apart from his little avoidance tactics, he also practically lives by the whole "I'm the DM and I'll do what I want, you're playing in my game" method.
He should have told you he'd prefer it if you played a good or neutral character. Or told the group as a whole that evil characters were no longer allowed. Or...

Something that didn't involve making your character act like an out-of-character moron so he could, apparently, tell himself that he hadn't actually rigged your character's destruction when he had.

Drogorn
2010-05-08, 12:00 PM
Why are you rebuilding the character? If you're going to change it to that extent, just start a new one. Sir Stickuptherear, the Lawful Stupid paladin. Since that's apparently what the DM wants. He can even having fun screwing him over and making him fall!

CrypticOcean
2010-05-08, 12:23 PM
He should have told you he'd prefer it if you played a good or neutral character. Or told the group as a whole that evil characters were no longer allowed. Or...

Something that didn't involve making your character act like an out-of-character moron so he could, apparently, tell himself that he hadn't actually rigged your character's destruction when he had.

Indeed. What your DM seems to do is give you the illusion of choice and control. It would seem more constraining to ban certain alignments from the game, however, since he crafts events to go along the path of your character's forced redemption, he ends up confining you even more.

Especially since the method he attempted to use to lean your character towards good or neutrality would be more likely to drag her deeper down into depravity. If everyone she trusted betrayed her, what other thought would she have other than revenge, considering her outlook? And doubtlessly the depths she is willing to plunge to are even more vast than they were before. At least, that is what I would assume would happen, if she were free to do what her character would actually do. Which the DM seems intent on not allowing to happen, at this point, at least.

Giving an evil PC (who was cooperative and put time and effort into making their character interesting) their "comeuppance" is a terrible reason to harm another person's character. Imposing one's own moral views onto other people ends up being terrible news for the DM and the Players. Such self-righteous behaviour is rarely fun for the people who do not fully agree with what morals are being imposed, or for people who just want to play without having to worry about being punished for taking an action as their character that neither they nor the DM would normally take (Other than the obvious repurcussions that would normally arise from such an action, within reason).

Not to be rude, but I do hope that this controlling behaviour of his does not extend out into other facets of his (the DM's) life. People who feel the need to impose their morals upon the game as the correct and definite way that people should act, and punishes people who do not act according to these morals, usually have issues outside of the game. D&D gives you a great amount of power in crafting situations that you find ideal, making it very effective escapism. While everyone needs an escape from the stress of daily life, when it comes to the point that someone imposes control on others due to a feeling of powerlessness outside of the game...it rarely is good for anyone.

Flickerdart
2010-05-08, 01:14 PM
This does sound like a wonderful chance to indulge in the deep end of the alignment pool. Chaotic Evil Wizard/Ur-Priest/Mystic Theurge gets you double nines, and then...use your imagination. :smallamused:

Heatwizard
2010-05-08, 02:20 PM
The way he made it so clear that it's not illegal, and then turns right around and puts you on trial for it, driving home that you should have been aware it was...sounds like the start of a plot point to me. Sounds like the dm is dodging questions when spoilers would be involved with the answers, as well.

I guess he COULD have just been lying to you to get what he wanted, but that just seems so...unimaginative.

onthetown
2010-05-08, 08:55 PM
This is actually the end of a long line of plot points for her. We tend to focus on different characters for periods of time, and it's been her time for awhile now. It was a great way to turn the focus to somebody else ("go out with a bang" sort of thing, except that she's still in the party), if he had thought to talk it over with me like we do for all the other characters' plots.

I agree -- he should have just told me to avoid evil characters in his campaign, but he liked my sadistically evil drow priestess of Lolth last campaign. Apart from that, well, this campaign was led in by the last one: these are the kids of the other heroes. We've known for a long time that this character was going to be lawful evil and he's been completely okay with it up until a few weeks ago, where he's been constantly asking, "So is she ever going to find solace? Turn neutral? Maybe even good? Could your paladin try to save her soul?" etc, etc. She's sure as heck never going to find solace now, slim chance of turning neutral, worse chance of turning good, and my paladin understandably hates her guts so I doubt there'll be any saving.

And... make a completely new character? After this big of a screw-over to me? What fun would there be in that? :smallamused: He's stuck with the enchantress, now; same character, different class.


Why are you rebuilding the character? If you're going to change it to that extent, just start a new one. Sir Stickuptherear, the Lawful Stupid paladin. Since that's apparently what the DM wants. He can even having fun screwing him over and making him fall!

I do have a Lawful Stupid paladin. She's killed the enchantress before when she thought she was hindering the quest, but it was actually the paladin's own jealously and being upset that she was being forced to adventure with the enchantress. Was another story session and that time I actually chose for those events to happen, and it gave me a chance to put paladin on some redemption quests. I put the two of them together whenever I get the chance. :smallamused:

onthetown
2010-05-08, 09:44 PM
Update:

I confronted the DM online, blatantly, about the whole thing since he was so good at getting around the subject IRL. I didn't mention any of the parts where he was completely railroading me and everything else that's been mentioned here; I just wanted to know the most confusing part of it, which would be the conflicting information given that turned my enchantress to act bafflingly out of character. He's apologized and claimed DM Screwup. I'm not pressing for a motive to the whole thing, as I can draw quite a few conclusions on my own and I'm not at the point where I really care why he did it anymore. At the moment we're really just trying to do damage control.

We figured that the people she spoke to about it were Nuitari, the Head of her (former) Order, and her father the archmage; not to mention the countless hours she spent studying before she was able to cast the spells.

Nuitari: We took the Mindrape idea. It may be a little inplausible and we don't really know why he would want to risk destroying the balance of magic and possibly putting his Order in danger, but it's not the characters' places to question the gods. In short, it works.

Head of the Black Robes: We've branched off from the typical DL setting and Willim took over the Black Robes in our campaign. Willim is completely insane and therefore not to be trusted. He might have forgotten to mention it to her. Or, if she prompted him by saying Nuitari told her it was "legal", he probably would have just happily agreed. I love Willim.

Her father: The only explanation we could come up with for her lawful neutral father (who has been fiercely protective of her in the past) to want to watch his eldest daughter turn into a monster and destroy her life is that his deity told him not to interfere. It works, especially since said deity is Mystra and he happens to be a Chosen of Mystra. I guess we're taking a, "Don't interfere with other worlds' magical happenings," stance here.

Since she went to the books last, we assume she didn't go searching for legalities because she trusted that Nuitari wouldn't want to potentially endanger the Order.

Alright, she can handle Nuitari betraying her and Willim being a nutcase. But the one person in the world she actually trusts (trusted) was her father, who has gone above the orders of Mystra on occasion to protect her.

Since she's now a bard, I can't have her be lawful evil anymore... frankly, I don't think she would be after all this, anyway. But I don't think it's enough to be chaotic evil, which I've played before. Nor do I think she's going to swing up to true or chaotic neutral. And no, the paladin still isn't going to be saving her soul anytime soon.

So, I'm playing my first neutral evil character... :smallamused:

Hobs
2010-05-18, 02:14 PM
sorry, was inundated with finals and just got to finish reading this thread. don't think a week counts as necromancy.

i just wanted to say that i know it sucks to get railroaded into losing a character you've had for a long time, but from the DM's point of view, perhaps he was just shooting for a good story and just handled it poorly.

reading it, it sounded like a good story to me.

BrainFreeze
2010-05-18, 04:09 PM
Fast forward a few weeks and she's standing in front of the Conclave, answering for her crimes and whatnot. She throws herself at the mercy of them, trusting in her god. Who is silent. The Head of the Black Robes proceeds to tell her that vile magic is banned from all three Orders -- what? Even if Nuitari was bold-faced lying to her, she spent over three months just studying the subject on Krynn. Wouldn't she know that it was banned from the Orders, including her own? All three Heads of Orders expelled her (I think the only reason they didn't execute her was because I tried to convince the DM that I could somehow turn this around), effectively banning her from using magic on Ansalon, and warned her that if she ever came back she would be hunted and killed. Through it all, Nuitari didn't say a word and still has yet to contact her. If he ever decides to.


Ok, there really is no reason to make a new character at this point. Think about it a bit from a character perspective.

The Head of the Black Robes has obviously done more favors for Nuitari then you have, else he most likely wouldn’t be the head of the Black Robes. On top of this he has his daughter that is gunning for his job so he has to find a way to remove her from competition. He does this by allowing her to use vile magic, which is allowed within the Black Robes, then when she falls and goes crazy he brings her to account for her crimes as he is required to as a leader of the tower. Being her father he has her banished instead of killed because of some sense of feeling toward her. Also he would call in a favor from Nuitari in order for all this to go over.

In the end the Head of the Black Robes has succeeded to saving his Daughter's life, removing a threat to his position and convincing the rest of the tower that vile magic is not practiced by the Black Robes. Nuitari has succeeded in gaining another Black Robe through the new child, and either paid back a favor to the leader of the Black Robes or gained a favor he can use to call in almost anything.

Your left now with a character that has had her ties to her family and home cut while her God remained strangely silent. Perhaps a period of self reflection is in order, or plotting for revenge in the near or far future as she returns to tear her manipulative father from his position of power.

It really seems like an excellent way to continue the story and it would be a shame if you gave up on the character at this point.

onthetown
2010-05-18, 04:27 PM
Ok, there really is no reason to make a new character at this point. Think about it a bit from a character perspective...

I'm surprised this thread got re-awakened... Time for an update, then.

I'm not making a new character - as I said earlier, I was turning her neutral evil and taking up bard because it has a bit of past history for her. Neutral to accommodate the class and because she's lost faith in the laws that she followed so closely before, and evil because... well, who wouldn't be after that?

Unfortunately, the DM has ruled her true neutral because she's had too many alignment shifts... Totally not true. She's been established as lawful evil with lawful neutral tendencies throughout the entire campaign. I'm not fighting the point, though, since she's doing beautifully as a bard (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=152673) (now with sublime chord) and I can tend her toward neutral evil as it is. Her entire personality isn't going to completely shift in a few weeks, after all.

Admittedly, looking back on this thread... I'm not nearly as angry as I was before. The play was a little awkward with the DM leading me into the trap and it was pretty underhanded, but I like that character too damn much to let it get in the way of playing her. It's turned out to make her even more interesting than before.

I'll elaborate a bit on the bard thing: We know by now that her father is an Archmage. He had an apprentice when the bard was younger (who happens to be her cousin) and paid all attention to the apprentice and none to the bard. It was very obvious that the reason he gravitated to the apprentice was because they were both wizards. The bard was supposed to branch into a music apprenticeship when her schooling was finished (they're in a sort of arcane school system, six years of basic schooling and then you specialize); instead, when she was at the age to specialize, she chose to take a wizarding apprenticeship to impress her father. Then she realized the amount of power she could get through being a wizard. Then her father started actually being interested in her. And so it began.

Now, since she thinks she's screwed up so badly at being a wizard, she's gone back to music for her solace. Retrained as a bard, and with the recent level gain she took sublime chord. So she can still get back some of what she lost as a wizard. :smallbiggrin: This has actually worked out quite well for her, and she's much more content and in her element. It wasn't much of a jump since she was an enchantress, anyway.

But, yes: she's still plotting revenge, and she's looking at this career change as just another angle to achieve power. :smallamused:

Tiki Snakes
2010-05-18, 10:49 PM
Just remember, those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. Keep your eye on that ol' DM of yours, and get clarification on everything. Write it down, and hold him to it, or something. :smallwink:

onthetown
2010-05-19, 07:21 AM
Oh, don't worry... I can usually pull fast ones on him after he's done something like this... The "Bards ftw" thread was my way of getting back at him with the character he tried to screw over. Five hour adventure turned into five minutes with my brand new bard settling into her class. :smallbiggrin: