Tales of DM's Grace

[Chester]

A recent thread got me thinking about all the times I've shown mercy as a DM (or the times I didn't).

I recall an adventure in which the party, already weary from battle and having little experience facing high level casters, decided to stand single file in a hallway and open the door to the sorcerer's chambers. They all took a lightning bolt to the face.

They remained in single file as they panicked, having never suffered this much damage at once.

I could have finished the party the next round with a fireball, but I didn't. I cast Mirror Image in the interest of both giving them a chance to form a better strategy and to keep the encounter somewhat challenging. I eventually threw an Evard's Black Tentacles on the two party members who decided to remain standing the hallway while the others found a way to flank around.

I informed the party that this was an example of "DM's grace," and that next time I wouldn't be so nice. :smallamused:

What are your tales of mercy, or lack thereof?

[Crake]

I like that you acknowledged it to your players and informed them that you wouldn't be so lax in the future. I've had way too many cases where DMs have done this time and time again, and it's just frustrating. Enemies are about to kill you, and then suddenly they just go retarded, and you somehow get away. I've been using the term Fat Mall Cop Syndrone for it. I think it's ok once or twice, but if you find yourself doing it too often, perhaps look at your encounters and think about whether you're designing them poorly.

Case in point, my latest gaming session we were fighting some glabrezu in inky black water, no ability to see through it whatsoever. They started off by hiding in the water, just peeking above, but once we noticed them, I dived into the water and using my blindsense just started shooting them. My assumption is that the DM didn't like the idea of me trivialising the encounter because I could shoot them without them being able to fight back (i had freedom of movement on me, so I could shoot without penalty) so he made it so the glabrezu could see through the water. At which point the party just gets stomped, because they hide under the water and just spam their at will SLAs at us without any of us being able to fight back (I got full attacked by one of them and immediately died, so I couldn't at least try and help). Session ended halfway through the fight, with the DM already starting to play the glabrezu as absolute morons, and allowing fiat to start knocking them off one by one. Point is, don't be that guy who curbstomps the party then lets them somehow still come out on top. It's not satisfying, it just plain all around sucks.

[Hellborn_Blight]

so he made it so the glabrezu could see through the water. At which point the party just gets stomped, because they hide under the water and just spam their at will SLAs at us without any of us being able to fight back

What a douche. But just making up that they can see? **** move. I had a DM that got mad at me once and said that my Raging Barbarians rolled 20 crit threat didn't confirm on a 17, then I saw the rogue hit on a 9 and called bull**** on him. Not because he didn't want the big bad guy to die to a single hit, but because he cheated. I asked him what the Ac was more out of shock than wanting him to tell me, and his Response was , "I don't have to F*ooping* tell you." What he did tell me was he didn't want me kill him because I was playing in an noob party and I was taking all the kills (as an unoptimized character type I had never played before). Cheating is bull****, no matter who does it, DM included (and yes, they can cheat). I got a lot of satisfaction a few weeks later when, in a different campaign, he rolled a 1 on fort save from a Balor's Implosion. Goodbye rogue.


I use a measured response with every opponent a party faces. They may not go 100% out of the gate, but if they see what kinda threat the party is, or are a hungry monster, they will kick into gear rather fast. I will admit that I used to feel bad about killing players though, to the point I would derp some bad guys. But I learned that while it's not the same as the cheating that I previously mentioned, it is still cheating. So what I do now is have a nonleathal option for opponents I know could kill them, and that is as far as I go with being being gracious on death. But if they get unlucky or are dumb an goblins kill them, well...here are 3d6's.