I recently just began playing D&D with my friends. My friend who is the DM has our game set up in a way that we can drop in and out depending on our schedules. He has set this up as all of us are part of an "Adventurers Guild" that undertakes quests for the guild. I'm not sure if there is an official term for this style of play. Our DM is also quite fond of creating a lot of homebrew rules such as using durability for weapons and armor, a renown and infamy system, and crafting with creature components to make legendary weapons.
Although I do not have much experience with D&D 5e, I have played a lot of DDO and Neverwinter, as well as many many rpgs, mmorpgs. So the classes, and jargon are somewhat familiar. In our first few sessions we played a one shot in which I played a Half Orc Barbarian, which I really enjoyed and excelled at, I think by the end of the three sessions I had over 20 kills. Then our one shot ended and we had to make new characters for the persistent campaign.
As one of the more consistent members of the group (I am currently off work due to an injury) I decided to try and make a character that I thought would be helpful to whatever party was there that week. I was considering making another barbarian because I enjoyed it so much but I wanted to switch it up a bit and try to have a few skills other than "Rage and Smash everything with a greataxe" so I made a Dragonborn oath of vengeance Paladin that uses a great sword.
My thought process was:
I will have heavy armor so I can be a frontline fighter and "tank" if needed.
I will be using a great sword so I can still put out respectable melee damage between that and smite
I will have access to a few useful utility spells that I can change depending on the group
I will have lay on hands so in an emergency I can heal a party member or myself
In theory this sounded great, so I made the character and we began our campaign. We did a few adventures and I am currently lvl 3, and by the end of this weekend's session I will be lvl 4. I have been struggling a lot with this character and I'm not sure if I'm not playing it right, my DM is making his homebrew content too difficult, or if I made a poor decision of what class to play. My character sheet is linked. So to go into more detail.....
Currently at lvl 3 in plate armor (I know I probably shouldn't have plate yet but the DM said I could buy it so I did) I am sitting at 39 HP and 18 AC. When combat starts I go in and attack. I try* to save my smites for bigger enemies and such. For the most part I try to target the biggest threat. I use lay on hands on myself when needed. But I am getting absolutely clapped in almost every encounter, burning all of my spells slots, lay on hands and usually my racial dragon breath too. I am not sure if I built the character wrong or just rolled crap for my hp or if I am just bad.
Secondly, My DM has minimal knowledge of the world of D&D and the monsters within it. Death is a thing in our campain and if your character dies you have to make a new one at lvl 3. In our first adventure we fought some undead, zombies and skeletons and it went fine. However since then he has taken to creating these homebrew monsters which he makes (in my opinion) extremely op. For example on last weeks adventure we encountered 4 these turtle/humaniod creatures that attacked immediately. It was just myself and a bard.
These creatures had:
87 hitpoints each
a reaction that made them resistant to ALL damage types
an attack that did 2d12 dmg that they could use 2 times per turn.
We succeeded barely, he decided to only use the reaction twice before deciding it was too op. However by the end of the encounter I was left with 8hp and absolutely nothing in the way of spell slots, LoH, racial ability. and this was just the first encounter. These types of encounters have been the norm for the whole campaign. A "boss" in our last adventure had a 15ft melee range, multiattack x3, the ability to spawn more enemies, and a aoe stomp that did 34 dmg. The DM has been my best friend for well over 10 years now and after every adventure we do we hang out and talk for a couple hours and usually discuss the campaign. I keep bringing up the the encounters he makes are very very difficult and he keeps saying "I am not gonna take it easy on you guys and baby you". To which I usually reply that there's a difference between a fair encounter and babying us. Last week I tried to bring up maybe he should at least look at statblocks that are rated for lvl 3 or lvl 4 and try using monsters like those, like bandits, goblins, kobalds, etc. He said that was "boring" and he wanted to be creative. I said that's fine, but at least you could use the stats of those creatures that are around our lvl. Then he said, well combat isn't really fun unless it lasts like 4 turns and when I can do like a max of like 43 (I don't really remember) dmg per turn, the monsters need to be tougher than that. I said that's fine but i can only do that dmg once per combat and when there are 4 of them and my average dmg per turn is like 20 ish, that creates a problem. He also says that I am playing my character wrong and that I should move 15 ft into melee range, attack, and then move away 15 ft. I tried to explain that that will open me up to attacks of opportunity and what's to stop the monster from moving 15 ft and attacking me the next turn anyways? I'm not really sure of how else to explain this to him, he seems to think that I'm just complaining because I'm worried about my character dying.
I apologize for how long this is but I wanted to include all the information I thought was necessary to hopefully get some good advice. I would very much appreciate any advice on character building, playstyle, spell choices, or really anything else.
If you’re not having fun find another game to play in
Be more strategic than running in and attacking. Move around so that you can get the most bang from your breath weapon. Then withdraw and make your opponents come to you. If you can get partial cover or get into a bottleneck so that only one opponent can get to you at a time that’s ideal, especially if they have to come at you in a line so you can get 3 of them at once with your breath weapon.
Also remember. Your DM is learning too. He will get better over time.
The biggest red flag here is that your DM's priority isn't "I want my players to have fun." Now, I'm all for challenging players, but the most important metric is "did your players have fun?" You can be very creative with simple monsters, if you read something like Volo's Guide to Monsters or The Monsters Know What They're Doing. Goblins can use their special skills to fight in a certain way. They may change appearance/tactics based on if they are in the woods or a cave. You can replace their weapons with spears, poisoned daggers, etc. There are a number of excellent youtube channels for DMs (Matt Colville, Dungeon Dudes, Web DM, DM lair). All of these will improve your friend's DM'ing, but that won't matter unless he's open to criticism and changing his approach, which it sounds like he isn't. I'd bail on this group if he doesn't want to listen at all, and you can just tell him you're not having fun. There's no reason to waste 4 hours on a game that you don't enjoy. If you want, start your own game to get your D&D fix. You sound like you would be a great DM. They just released a new starter set for D&D which I hear is incredibly good at simplifying the game for new players.
If you’re not having fun find another game to play in
Be more strategic than running in and attacking. Move around so that you can get the most bang from your breath weapon. Then withdraw and make your opponents come to you. If you can get partial cover or get into a bottleneck so that only one opponent can get to you at a time that’s ideal, especially if they have to come at you in a line so you can get 3 of them at once with your breath weapon.
Also remember. Your DM is learning too. He will get better over time.
1. That's fair
2. I do my best with positioning, however most of our encounters so far have taken place in open areas with no cover, bottlenecks, or anything.
I don't expect him to become Matthew Mercer overnight or anything. I just want a bit more balance in the game.
The biggest red flag here is that your DM's priority isn't "I want my players to have fun." Now, I'm all for challenging players, but the most important metric is "did your players have fun?" You can be very creative with simple monsters, if you read something like Volo's Guide to Monsters or The Monsters Know What They're Doing. Goblins can use their special skills to fight in a certain way. They may change appearance/tactics based on if they are in the woods or a cave. You can replace their weapons with spears, poisoned daggers, etc. There are a number of excellent youtube channels for DMs (Matt Colville, Dungeon Dudes, Web DM, DM lair). All of these will improve your friend's DM'ing, but that won't matter unless he's open to criticism and changing his approach, which it sounds like he isn't. I'd bail on this group if he doesn't want to listen at all, and you can just tell him you're not having fun. There's no reason to waste 4 hours on a game that you don't enjoy. If you want, start your own game to get your D&D fix. You sound like you would be a great DM. They just released a new starter set for D&D which I hear is incredibly good at simplifying the game for new players.
Yeah, I'm trying to bear with him for a bit because he seems to really enjoy being a DM. However he has never played as a PC before. We have discussed trying to switch up DMs and I will be DM'ing a game in 2 weeks for our group. He wants everyone to try to dm at least once. I think one of the main things is he is so busy irl right now between work, home repairs, a youtube channel he just started, and a baby on the way. So these adventures are made in like an hour or less. The absolute sheer amount of homebrew content that he wants us to keep track of, like renown, infamy, equipment durability, etc just seems like a bad idea for a bunch of people who have never played d&d before. Every time we have someone new join even if they have played before needs a 30 minute explanation on all the additional systems. I however (being off work for awhile) have unlimited free time at the moment so I have time to do research, create npcs, and make maps. I currently have 2 full quests or adventures made for our game. If everyone has fun we may make a switch to me primarily being a DM. I am really hoping he enjoys being a PC more than a DM.
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I recently just began playing D&D with my friends. My friend who is the DM has our game set up in a way that we can drop in and out depending on our schedules. He has set this up as all of us are part of an "Adventurers Guild" that undertakes quests for the guild. I'm not sure if there is an official term for this style of play. Our DM is also quite fond of creating a lot of homebrew rules such as using durability for weapons and armor, a renown and infamy system, and crafting with creature components to make legendary weapons.
Although I do not have much experience with D&D 5e, I have played a lot of DDO and Neverwinter, as well as many many rpgs, mmorpgs. So the classes, and jargon are somewhat familiar. In our first few sessions we played a one shot in which I played a Half Orc Barbarian, which I really enjoyed and excelled at, I think by the end of the three sessions I had over 20 kills. Then our one shot ended and we had to make new characters for the persistent campaign.
As one of the more consistent members of the group (I am currently off work due to an injury) I decided to try and make a character that I thought would be helpful to whatever party was there that week. I was considering making another barbarian because I enjoyed it so much but I wanted to switch it up a bit and try to have a few skills other than "Rage and Smash everything with a greataxe" so I made a Dragonborn oath of vengeance Paladin that uses a great sword.
My thought process was:
In theory this sounded great, so I made the character and we began our campaign. We did a few adventures and I am currently lvl 3, and by the end of this weekend's session I will be lvl 4. I have been struggling a lot with this character and I'm not sure if I'm not playing it right, my DM is making his homebrew content too difficult, or if I made a poor decision of what class to play. My character sheet is linked. So to go into more detail.....
Currently at lvl 3 in plate armor (I know I probably shouldn't have plate yet but the DM said I could buy it so I did) I am sitting at 39 HP and 18 AC. When combat starts I go in and attack. I try* to save my smites for bigger enemies and such. For the most part I try to target the biggest threat. I use lay on hands on myself when needed. But I am getting absolutely clapped in almost every encounter, burning all of my spells slots, lay on hands and usually my racial dragon breath too. I am not sure if I built the character wrong or just rolled crap for my hp or if I am just bad.
Secondly, My DM has minimal knowledge of the world of D&D and the monsters within it. Death is a thing in our campain and if your character dies you have to make a new one at lvl 3. In our first adventure we fought some undead, zombies and skeletons and it went fine. However since then he has taken to creating these homebrew monsters which he makes (in my opinion) extremely op. For example on last weeks adventure we encountered 4 these turtle/humaniod creatures that attacked immediately. It was just myself and a bard.
These creatures had:
We succeeded barely, he decided to only use the reaction twice before deciding it was too op. However by the end of the encounter I was left with 8hp and absolutely nothing in the way of spell slots, LoH, racial ability. and this was just the first encounter. These types of encounters have been the norm for the whole campaign. A "boss" in our last adventure had a 15ft melee range, multiattack x3, the ability to spawn more enemies, and a aoe stomp that did 34 dmg. The DM has been my best friend for well over 10 years now and after every adventure we do we hang out and talk for a couple hours and usually discuss the campaign. I keep bringing up the the encounters he makes are very very difficult and he keeps saying "I am not gonna take it easy on you guys and baby you". To which I usually reply that there's a difference between a fair encounter and babying us. Last week I tried to bring up maybe he should at least look at statblocks that are rated for lvl 3 or lvl 4 and try using monsters like those, like bandits, goblins, kobalds, etc. He said that was "boring" and he wanted to be creative. I said that's fine, but at least you could use the stats of those creatures that are around our lvl. Then he said, well combat isn't really fun unless it lasts like 4 turns and when I can do like a max of like 43 (I don't really remember) dmg per turn, the monsters need to be tougher than that. I said that's fine but i can only do that dmg once per combat and when there are 4 of them and my average dmg per turn is like 20 ish, that creates a problem. He also says that I am playing my character wrong and that I should move 15 ft into melee range, attack, and then move away 15 ft. I tried to explain that that will open me up to attacks of opportunity and what's to stop the monster from moving 15 ft and attacking me the next turn anyways? I'm not really sure of how else to explain this to him, he seems to think that I'm just complaining because I'm worried about my character dying.
I apologize for how long this is but I wanted to include all the information I thought was necessary to hopefully get some good advice. I would very much appreciate any advice on character building, playstyle, spell choices, or really anything else.
My character sheet: https://ddb.ac/characters/79868825/psMo8B
Thank you for the read and any advice you give
-Baltazur
I have two suggestions.
Also remember. Your DM is learning too. He will get better over time.
Professional computer geek
The biggest red flag here is that your DM's priority isn't "I want my players to have fun." Now, I'm all for challenging players, but the most important metric is "did your players have fun?" You can be very creative with simple monsters, if you read something like Volo's Guide to Monsters or The Monsters Know What They're Doing. Goblins can use their special skills to fight in a certain way. They may change appearance/tactics based on if they are in the woods or a cave. You can replace their weapons with spears, poisoned daggers, etc. There are a number of excellent youtube channels for DMs (Matt Colville, Dungeon Dudes, Web DM, DM lair). All of these will improve your friend's DM'ing, but that won't matter unless he's open to criticism and changing his approach, which it sounds like he isn't. I'd bail on this group if he doesn't want to listen at all, and you can just tell him you're not having fun. There's no reason to waste 4 hours on a game that you don't enjoy. If you want, start your own game to get your D&D fix. You sound like you would be a great DM. They just released a new starter set for D&D which I hear is incredibly good at simplifying the game for new players.
1. That's fair
2. I do my best with positioning, however most of our encounters so far have taken place in open areas with no cover, bottlenecks, or anything.
I don't expect him to become Matthew Mercer overnight or anything. I just want a bit more balance in the game.
Yeah, I'm trying to bear with him for a bit because he seems to really enjoy being a DM. However he has never played as a PC before. We have discussed trying to switch up DMs and I will be DM'ing a game in 2 weeks for our group. He wants everyone to try to dm at least once. I think one of the main things is he is so busy irl right now between work, home repairs, a youtube channel he just started, and a baby on the way. So these adventures are made in like an hour or less. The absolute sheer amount of homebrew content that he wants us to keep track of, like renown, infamy, equipment durability, etc just seems like a bad idea for a bunch of people who have never played d&d before. Every time we have someone new join even if they have played before needs a 30 minute explanation on all the additional systems. I however (being off work for awhile) have unlimited free time at the moment so I have time to do research, create npcs, and make maps. I currently have 2 full quests or adventures made for our game. If everyone has fun we may make a switch to me primarily being a DM. I am really hoping he enjoys being a PC more than a DM.