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View Full Version : That feeling of doom (UPDATE: He Did It Again)



Felandria
2012-12-23, 06:23 PM
When something good happens To your character.

Like your backstory goals coming true far sooner than you expected or getting new powers?

Now you're thinking, sure, this is awesome, but is the game or the DM about to screw me over royally because of it?

Anyone else ever have that feeling?

Hawkings
2012-12-25, 02:24 PM
Every time my old DM would give everyone tons of goodies we felt dread knowing a giant horrible monster was around the corner and the goodies he gave would be useless against it.

Felandria
2012-12-25, 04:28 PM
Every time my old DM would give everyone tons of goodies we felt dread knowing a giant horrible monster was around the corner and the goodies he gave would be useless against it.

I know the feeling.

My character's backstory is that she loathes the pure elves for how they treat the half breeds.

She has a recurring dream that she is their queen, having grown in size and beauty, she rules them sternly but benevolently as she teaches them that half elves are just as good as pure elves.

That's something that probably never happens, but maybe she makes a little progress by level 20.

We're at level 7 now and the DM just had us activate a gateway using a sword we found in our first quest, my character had to use EP to make the sword fit in the slot and when we activated it, it changed my bloodline and made my size permanent.

And on top of that, we travel to Olympus where we discover her father is Zeus.

So that's...

1. Awesome.
2. Freaking Terrifying.

Sure, I got stronger and such, but now I may as well have a bullseye drawn on my chest and the words KILL ME tattooed on my forehead.

Being a Sorcerer, My AC is crap now (14 and that's WITH BoA and RoP) and I'm a Big target.

Anything like this happen to anyone else, your character gets exactly what they want and it's probably going to cost them their life?

INoKnowNames
2012-12-25, 05:37 PM
There's a Trope for that. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SuspiciousVideogameGenerosity)

USS Sorceror
2012-12-25, 06:50 PM
In our most recent campaign, one of the members of our party is a child of Zeus. Unfortunately, Hera and Hades are doing their best to kill as many children of Zeus as possible. My character should know: He's a cleric of Hades and is obligated to kill any children of Zeus he encounters. Guess who found out their lineage and is now a target for any servants of Hades or Hera not in the know.

Felandria
2012-12-25, 07:30 PM
In our most recent campaign, one of the members of our party is a child of Zeus. Unfortunately, Hera and Hades are doing their best to kill as many children of Zeus as possible. My character should know: He's a cleric of Hades and is obligated to kill any children of Zeus he encounters. Guess who found out their lineage and is now a target for any servants of Hades or Hera not in the know.


Glad you're not in my party, I'd really be doomed.

Outside of the game, someone said my character sounded a bit of a Mary Sue.

Yeah, because being almost thirteen feel tall is really an unquestionable benefit.:smalleek:

I mean, eventually, when I have more defensive spells and items, sure, but in a party without a cleric....

What do you think, am I doomed?

NichG
2012-12-25, 08:15 PM
The reverse of this sometimes happens too, and it can be fun when it does. What I mean is, at character generation you take a flaw or background or whatever the system has that no one in their right mind would take. Something that's just asking for it. Then, the GM sometimes gives you something that lets you have a sporting chance against your fate, which then turns out to be quite a nice boon.

For example, I played a basically mortal character in a 1900s-era White Wolf combined-setting game (I say basically because all the characters started mortal but got to essentially choose what kind of supernatural to become, and I held out and stayed mortal for longer), with a maxed out custom flaw 'Tasty to Supernaturals'. In the GM's hands this turned out to be a 'Mark of the Sacrifice' kind of thing - any supernatural that killed me would get awesome powers. The upside? I eventually learned to control those powers myself. The downside? Well, the obvious one...

Arbane
2012-12-25, 11:28 PM
What do you think, am I doomed?

Start getting every spell and item you can that gives you a miss chance.

Traab
2012-12-27, 01:53 PM
I call that the "This is Too Easy." trope. Think about any action movie you watch where the good guys infiltrate the enemy base. They make it through with no issues, no alarms going off, and are right next to their goal. One of the team says, "This is too easy" and right then a hundred bad guys burst through a dozen entrances guns aimed and ready.

Thats the feeling you are getting. Things are going too well for you and its suspicious. No, whether that suspicion is justified depends on the type of gm you have. He could just want to see everyone get their characters dreams and goals fulfilled somehow because he thinks that is fun. Or he could be the type of gm that likes to set you up with everything awesome only to snatch it all away again.

"Oh COOL! This boss had a +12 Sword of Everything Slaying!"

(One play session later. You may have even gotten to enjoy using your shiny new weapon of unstoppable awesomeness)

"NOBODY MOVE! You are all under arrest!" /the party gets knocked out and wakes up in prison. All their gear is gone and they have to start over with the escape. Never seeing their gear again.

Felandria
2013-01-11, 05:55 PM
So an update on the game.

The next session after the power up, we ended up having five different fights, everything from giants to ghouls to a hydra, this after Zeus was felled by an evil book the gate spit out.

We acquired a great club from one of the giants with runes on it.

Yesterday's session picked up right after defeating the hydra, we found a small hallway, about four foot by four foot, the rogue goes in and sees a crapload of treasure, she reports back, the dwarf goes in first with the rogue behind, we keep me out of the way since if I tried to go in there, I might get stuck, Pooh style and block our escape route.

The dwarf triggers a trap the rogue failed to find, flames shoot out, blinding them both, the dwarf goes unconscious, the trap keeps shooting flames, killing the dwarf.

The Druid and Felandria are attacked by a frost giant and a few worgs.

I start busting out the fire spells, the Druid summons elementals, the rogue manages to crawl out to help, despite my 84 HP, the giant drops me with his great axe, I go all the way down to -19 (My Con is 20), the giant turns to the rogue, swings and kills her.

The Druid heals me, I wake up, rip off a couple jewels from my necklace of fireballs and take out the giant, causing the worgs to poof.

So half the party's dead, I was one point away from death, and we're hurting.

The Druid sends her leaf leshy companion into the hole, it tries to pull the bodies out, but it gets hit by the fire and goes unconscious.

The Druid follows into the tunnel, where she finally figures out that the dwarf's Hammer is what's triggering the trap over and over, she pulls the hammer off the trigger, but get hit by the fire on the way out and drops.

Down to me, I squeeze my way in, find the Druid, heal her, we pull the bodies and the hammer out of the hole.

At this point, we FINALLY figure out what we need to do, I go back in, backpack in hand and start Mage Handing everything I can out of the treasure room, because at this point, we need that money to save our friends.

Among the scrolls is a Raise Dead and we get jewels including enough diamond to resurrect one of them, the Druid restores the corpses, and we raise the rogue (The dwarf OOC said it was the better option).

At this point, we don't know where to go, but we decide it's time to examine the evil book we have to destroy to save Zeus, the Rogue and Druid hide in the hole just in case.

I examine the book and start reading, a black cloud starts filling the room, a tiny imp that has been following the party around appears and demands the book, Felandria disagrees and the imp tries to fight, but one lightning bolt later and it's toast.

At which point the black cloud envelops her and the DM sidebars.

I have to make a will save to avoid abandoning the party and returning to the underdark where I had previously encountered a handsome, powerful vampire named Chance who wanted to make her his bride.

Because, after all, she's a vampire now too.


AND HERE WE GO AGAIN.


First he made me a giant, now I'm a giant vampire?

For the love of Gygax, what is he trying to do to me?

It's like instead of making a Mary Sue NPC to help the party on it's journey, he decided to just make my character one instead.

He keeps making her more powerful and easier to kill, now if I drop to zero, it's game over.

It this all some sort of diabolical plan to do my character in in as gruesome a fashion as possible?

Or is he simply responding to our misfortunes by trying to make us stronger so we don't keep getting killed?

And if that's the case, why would he dump all the responsibility on me?

Doorhandle
2013-01-11, 05:58 PM
So an update on the game.

The next session after the power up, we ended up having five different fights, everything from giants to ghouls to a hydra, this after Zeus was felled by an evil book the gate spit out.

We acquired a great club from one of the giants with runes on it.

Yesterday's session picked up right after defeating the hydra, we found a small hallway, about four foot by four foot, the rogue goes in and sees a crapload of treasure, she reports back, the dwarf goes in first with the rogue behind, we keep me out of the way since if I tried to go in there, I might get stuck, Pooh style and block our escape route.

The dwarf triggers a trap the rogue failed to find, flames shoot out, blinding them both, the dwarf goes unconscious, the trap keeps shooting flames, killing the dwarf.

The Druid and Felandria are attacked by a frost giant and a few worgs.

I start busting out the fire spells, the Druid summons elementals, the rogue manages to crawl out to help, despite my 84 HP, the giant drops me with his great axe, I go all the way down to -19 (My Con is 20), the giant turns to the rogue, swings and kills her.

The Druid heals me, I wake up, rip off a couple jewels from my necklace of fireballs and take out the giant, causing the worgs to poof.

So half the party's dead, I was one point away from death, and we're hurting.

The Druid sends her leaf leshy companion into the hole, it tries to pull the bodies out, but it gets hit by the fire and goes unconscious.

The Druid follows into the tunnel, where she finally figures out that the dwarf's Hammer is what's triggering the trap over and over, she pulls the hammer off the trigger, but get hit by the fire on the way out and drops.

Down to me, I squeeze my way in, find the Druid, heal her, we pull the bodies and the hammer out of the hole.

At this point, we FINALLY figure out what we need to do, I go back in, backpack in hand and start Mage Handing everything I can out of the treasure room, because at this point, we need that money to save our friends.

Among the scrolls is a Raise Dead and we get jewels including enough diamond to resurrect one of them, the Druid restores the corpses, and we raise the rogue (The dwarf OOC said it was the better option).

At this point, we don't know where to go, but we decide it's time to examine the evil book we have to destroy to save Zeus, the Rogue and Druid hide in the hole just in case.

I examine the book and start reading, a black cloud starts filling the room, a tiny imp that has been following the party around appears and demands the book, Felandria disagrees and the imp tries to fight, but one lightning bolt later and it's toast.

At which point the black cloud envelops her and the DM sidebars.

I have to make a will save to avoid abandoning the party and returning to the underdark where I had previously encountered a handsome, powerful vampire named Chance who wanted to make her his bride.

Because, after all, she's a vampire now too.


AND HERE WE GO AGAIN.


First he made me a giant, now I'm a giant vampire?

For the love of Gygax, what is he trying to do to me?

It's like instead of making a Mary Sue NPC to help the party on it's journey, he decided to just make my character one instead.

He keeps making her more powerful and easier to kill, now if I drop to zero, it's game over.

It this all some sort of diabolical plan to do my character in in as gruesome a fashion as possible?

Or is he simply responding to our misfortunes by trying to make us stronger so we don't keep getting killed?

And if that's the case, why would he dump all the responsibility on me?

Have you concidered asking him?

Felandria
2013-01-11, 05:59 PM
He's....less than forthcoming as he grins at me, telling me I just have to wait and see.

Eldonauran
2013-01-11, 06:18 PM
I ... hmph. As a DM, I find it unwise, and ill-advised, to tamper with a character's backstory like that. It feels like he is doing it on the fly.

A mystery, like Zeus being your character's father, is one thing but to actually change your character in mechanical ways from newly acquired information, that should have already been a part of you from the start, just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I feel that a player should be able to create their character's backstory within the guidelines given by the DM, with complete and total control over it. Should the DM want to throw hooks into the story, I think it is important to discuss it with the player, let them know what is going on and make sure the character is unaware.

But, if you are having fun with it, I suppose it is fine.

Felandria
2013-01-11, 06:28 PM
I ... hmph. As a DM, I find it unwise, and ill-advised, to tamper with a character's backstory like that. It feels like he is doing it on the fly.

A mystery, like Zeus being your character's father, is one thing but to actually change your character in mechanical ways from newly acquired information, that should have already been a part of you from the start, just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I feel that a player should be able to create their character's backstory within the guidelines given by the DM, with complete and total control over it. Should the DM want to throw hooks into the story, I think it is important to discuss it with the player, let them know what is going on and make sure the character is unaware.

But, if you are having fun with it, I suppose it is fine.

Well, the giant thing was something the character was striving for, but certainly not at level 7, that's kind of an end of campaign reward thing.

The Zeus thing I'm fine with, we established she never knew her father and there's worse people to have as your dad.

It's throwing the vampire thing on top of it two sessions later while not really giving the rest of the party anything nearly as good that disturbs me a bit.

I mean, if you read the stuff vampires get in Pathfinder, it's pretty badass, but I feel guilty that I've been made awesome while the rest of the party hasn't caught up.

It's not like I asked for all this, I don't want everyone resenting me.

Unless.......


Is he going to make me the BBEG?

Eldonauran
2013-01-11, 07:43 PM
Is he going to make me the BBEG?

:smallannoyed: I certainly hope not.

Turning a player into the BBEG might be fun, but really shouldn't be done without the player's input and the character's agreement (which aren't always the same thing).

Sith_Happens
2013-01-12, 05:46 AM
[Not the rogue] goes in first

Well there's your problem.:smalltongue:

Felandria
2013-01-12, 01:01 PM
No, the rogue did go in first, she just failed her trap check.

So we thought everything was fine.

hymer
2013-01-12, 05:29 PM
Having this conversation with your DM might be more productive than asking the opinion of people who weren't there, you know. :smallsmile:

Doorhandle
2013-01-12, 08:35 PM
Having this conversation with your DM might be more productive than asking the opinion of people who weren't there, you know. :smallsmile:

Same thing I asked her to do. Didn't work.

Felandria
2013-01-13, 01:06 PM
Having this conversation with your DM might be more productive than asking the opinion of people who weren't there, you know. :smallsmile:


Yeah, he's being secretive about it, which is ominous.

Just wondering if anything like this has happened to anyone else.

I don't know if he's toying with me, using me as an avatar for stuff he wants to do or just pumping me up to keep the party alive.

Traab
2013-01-13, 02:46 PM
Its possible he wants to date you and is hoping doing awesome stuff to your character will make you like him? :p

Felandria
2013-01-13, 03:42 PM
Its possible he wants to date you and is hoping doing awesome stuff to your character will make you like him? :p

Let's just say he's on the wrong team for that.

The Glyphstone
2013-01-13, 04:12 PM
Let's just say he's on the wrong team for that.

Yeah, but does he know that?

Felandria
2013-01-13, 04:19 PM
Yeah, but does he know that?


Yes he does, I can assure you it's not that.

Then again, it may be he likes the character, which is fair, since she's designed to be insanely attractive.

Traab
2013-01-13, 08:08 PM
Yes he does, I can assure you it's not that.

Then again, it may be he likes the character, which is fair, since she's designed to be insanely attractive.

An insanely attractive giant vampire? That is just made up entirely of awesome.

Gnomish Wanderer
2013-01-13, 08:37 PM
I'd just ask the DM if he could give the vampirism to the dead dwarf character both for the purpose of keeping the party together and also to spread the cool character focus to more than just your character and keep the party more awesome instead of just your character.

Averis Vol
2013-01-13, 09:56 PM
Can't say I've had anything like this happen to me; probably because all my DM's are constantly plotting against my characters. :smalltongue:

on another note, If he's making you more powerful start playing like a god(insert caster here) and play down your power a bit so you don't overshadow the rest of the group. Maybe give into the urge to go to chance and find someway to trick him into freeing you from your little curse. If it was brought on by a book you should probably be able to find some hokey way around it.

either way, this is interesting, would enjoy seeing how it turns out. good luck.

Guizonde
2013-01-13, 10:26 PM
Can't say I've had anything like this happen to me; probably because all my DM's are constantly plotting against my characters. :smalltongue:


amen to that!

TS, i can't say i'd envy your position much. you're in the dm's crosshairs (which is never good, even when it is). try and figure out why all of a sudden you've become a pirate-ninja-robot-zombie demigod immortal. i don't know your character's backstory, but did you drop any hints of something greater in your background or is this pure dm'ed? you know your dm: try and investigate and threaten to pull the plug on your character if he keeps mangling her story. (bluff it, you might get info)

Felandria
2013-01-14, 08:37 PM
Can't say I've had anything like this happen to me; probably because all my DM's are constantly plotting against my characters. :smalltongue:

on another note, If he's making you more powerful start playing like a god(insert caster here) and play down your power a bit so you don't overshadow the rest of the group. Maybe give into the urge to go to chance and find someway to trick him into freeing you from your little curse. If it was brought on by a book you should probably be able to find some hokey way around it.

either way, this is interesting, would enjoy seeing how it turns out. good luck.


It's possible he's responsible for this in a way.