I allow and encourage imaginative use of spells and abilities as a Macguyver-style one off (shoot a fireball at the cliff to start an avalanche! Action Surge to rescue the drowning puppy! Harness Ki in social situations, etc.) But if a player thinks they can get a permanent imbalance over the other players by exploiting some rare combo of rule mechanics then they've got another thing coming. I've got a particularly nasty experience waiting for the first person to try to Wish for another Simulacrum...
Don't you think it's a little disingenuous to say "I encourage players to break the rules whenever I think the outcome would be cool, but they better not get too clever playing within the rules"? The only thing you mentioned that comes close to being a problem is Healing Spirit, and that's not a rules exploit; the spell itself is broken as published. The rest are either non-issues, working exactly as intended, or have significant drawbacks. The Conjure Woodland Creatures Pixie trick or Sorcerer/Warlock spell slot trick don't even work.
The players that like combos like Polearm Master with a quarterstaff and shield aren't trying to be malicious, being effective in combat or finding rule interactions like that is just fun for them.
Of course I don't think it's disingenuous, particularly since I expressly said this is with the players agreement. The two classes of situation I describe are completely different, and not related to the outcome being cool, but to the amount of imagination used in their generation and the temporary nature of their bonuses. This is part of my philosophy that the rules exist to serve the creation of the story, not the other way around. If someone exploits the written rules to become unsuitably, ongoingly, too powerful for the story as it is currently running then there are three options: change nothing and risk the game getting dull, remove the offending power bonus, or amend the story by changing the enemies in reaction to the players' powers. Now maybe I'm being selfish, but I'm also of the opinion that I've got enough on my plate running the game and telling the story, that I don't need to add running an arms race against one of players while trying to balance combats for everyone else too - and then trying to backform the story to explain why all the giant rats are gone and you're fighting ghosts now (this is clearly an oversimplified example).
Permanent free attacks all over the place, permanent double of yourself daily with all your spells, near free healing - these are things I choose to play without. Creativity within our outside the written rules will be rewarded, but I'm not signing up to an arms race. Other DMs surely enjoy that more than I do, and some players won't want to play in the sort of game I run. This is the nature of things.
Permanent free attacks all over the place, permanent double of yourself daily with all your spells, near free healing - these are things I choose to play without.
Well yeah, but limiting feats or multiclassing doesn't solve any of those problems except for the Life Cleric + Goodberry combo which isn't even that good (higher level spells > more out of combat healing), and single-classed Life Clerics can still Regenerate for ten times the normal amount.
Permanent free attacks all over the place, permanent double of yourself daily with all your spells, near free healing - these are things I choose to play without.
Well yeah, but limiting feats or multiclassing doesn't solve any of those problems except for the Life Cleric + Goodberry combo which isn't even that good (higher level spells > more out of combat healing), and single-classed Life Clerics can still Regenerate for ten times the normal amount.
No, not completely, sure (I personally don't limit feats generally, but variant humans are out). I have a general house rule: "If you think you've found a feature or combo which more than doubles the effectiveness of something else for no additional cost, then you probably haven't. Let's talk about it." that applies to Life Cleric by the coverall assumption that the feature adds 3-11 HPs to a spell, and never *multiplies* a spell by 3-11. Three extra Goodberries. +9 to initial regeneration healing (and the +1 per turn can last for an extra 9 turns if they care). It's not a challenge, and it needn't be a disappointing process for players - providing we are all in agreement from the start about what we are doing and why. It's just how me and my friends play it, and in my opinion for us it results in a more "cooperative story telling" activity and less of a hack and slash video game simulator.
Permanent free attacks all over the place, permanent double of yourself daily with all your spells, near free healing - these are things I choose to play without.
Well yeah, but limiting feats or multiclassing doesn't solve any of those problems except for the Life Cleric + Goodberry combo which isn't even that good (higher level spells > more out of combat healing), and single-classed Life Clerics can still Regenerate for ten times the normal amount.
No, not completely, sure (I personally don't limit feats generally, but variant humans are out). I have a general house rule: "If you think you've found a feature or combo which more than doubles the effectiveness of something else for no additional cost, then you probably haven't. Let's talk about it." that applies to Life Cleric by the coverall assumption that the feature adds 3-11 HPs to a spell, and never *multiplies* a spell by 3-11. Three extra Goodberries. +9 to initial regeneration healing (and the +1 per turn can last for an extra 9 turns if they care). It's not a challenge, and it needn't be a disappointing process for players - providing we are all in agreement from the start about what we are doing and why. It's just how me and my friends play it, and in my opinion for us it results in a more "cooperative story telling" activity and less of a hack and slash video game simulator.
I would rule that taking the first Polearm Master opportunity attack breaks the Tunnel Fighter defensive stance, so no more opportunities attacks.
The player is mixing to fighting styles, something has to give.
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How does the player have 2 feats at level 3?