Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 volcanon2 Sep 13, 2009 1:03:22	About a number of things.   1) I'm probably undiagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, so as a consequence I'm not a terribly charismatic person. I've mostly got it under control, as it seems to apparently go away as one ages (me = young adult), but again, at times I might either sound sarcastic when I don't mean to, or say something slightly off-kilter (never anything like "I'm going to kill you all"). Unfortunately, DMs see this and ignore my 18 charisma and all of the sudden nobody, even NPCs I've never met are almost by default hostile to me. Why can't a non-charismatic person play a social character? I'm never going to get good at RPing a social character if my stats are utterly ignored. It was so bad in one game a guy with 5 CHR became the social character. 2) I wanted to blast a door with eldritch blast (4th, but 3rd is the same principle). DM was adamant I couldn't. Why can't he just say that the door is too sturdy? Insert long and pointless rules arguement which doesn't budge DM at all. 3) I want to shoot at some "mysterious ripples" in a pond in a cave. No can do - I can't even target bloody ripples? You can shoot an arrow at anything you want. Again, I would have been completely satisfied if he'd just have said "the water gets choppy but nothing happens" and even better if it makes the monster attack or something. Its not like I'm wanting to overplay "rule of cool" and have everybody get mashed or something. I've had all of these problems in multiple games. Is it just bad luck or something?
#2 Cyber-Dave Sep 13, 2009 1:09:12	I would find a new DM if I had to start dealing with any of those situations. The treating your 18 CHA character like he had no CHA because of your real life social skills is a huge NO-NO. Speak to your DM. Explain the problem. Tell him its ruining the games fun for you. If it doesn't change, leave.
#3 salla Sep 13, 2009 1:17:38	To point 1, that's what skill rolls are for. To points 2 and 3, targetting objects with powers is listed as a DM's decision in the DMG, but there's really no reason to disallow it, unless you were targetting something with, say, a psychic, poison, or necrotic power; I can see objects not being affected by those.
#4 bronski113 Sep 13, 2009 2:31:05	As for the first part I would just pull the DM aside and let them know basically what you posted here.  See if they'll rely more on the roll of the dice and your character's score in their social skills rather than you as a person.  They may not realize that and may not realize they are penalizing you for something you can't always help.
#5 morgrum Sep 13, 2009 9:10:20	As for the first part I would just pull the DM aside and let them know basically what you posted here.  See if they'll rely more on the roll of the dice and your character's score in their social skills rather than you as a person.  They may not realize that and may not realize they are penalizing you for something you can't always help.   Furthermore you could point out that the people in your party with strength 18 most likely don't have that carring capacity in real life. If their characters don't get penalised because their players have a lower strength in real life, why should your character be penalised because your real life charisma happens to be lower than that of your character.
#6 i_roll_ones Sep 13, 2009 16:55:23	Speaking as someone else with roughly 8 charisma, I can sympathize as this has happened twice to me, and is a very annoying form of 'GOTCHA DMing'. Aha, you have muttered, therefore, I will penalize your PC! The DM facilities the High INT (Sorry, but I doubt many people other then Stephan Hawking have 20 or higher INT on these boards or many games) and High STR, so why not the high CHA? I don't understand why DMs are never willing to help provide hints and tips to these players so that they can play CHA, and yet provide answers to riddles or uses of STR outside of battle. Talk to your DM, and tell him that you feel he is ignoring your character abilities. If he doesn't budge, either consider rerolling to make charisma a dump stat, or just plain leaving the game. As for the other issue, ask when you can eldritch blast. Which pact did you take? He might think fey pact only affects senient beings, as fey are tricksters and illusionists or something.
#7 volcanon2 Sep 14, 2009 18:40:37	I guess I will talk to the DM. I did already, since he and one other guy thought I was being sarcastic or something (its weird, I can do voices as a DM fine, but as a player, *apparently* I come off as sarcastic when I'm trying to sounds like a hero... lol). I'm infernal melee warlock. Not a hexhammer but similar. I think he might be hung up on the text that says "target creature"... but then standard ranged has the same text and you can bloody well shoot an arrow at a wall if you want. It seems just so hugely idiotic to me. I talked it over with another group I have and we all agreed he should have just said "ok you singe the door" if he didnt want me to ruin his damn door (even though nothing happened) or something. Ya know, being ineffective is better than being forbidden, in a way (I just really hate 'no' in this context).
#8 dragonsblood Sep 14, 2009 18:57:05	It's gotta be bad luck. I can't say you have bad DMs, but they're definately in the wrong on your points. I know the rule about spells and objects, and while by the RAW your DMs are correct, quite frankly it's a rediculous rule that should be ignored. It's up there with dwarves being better mounts for dragonborn than horses are (heavy load doesn't slow a dwarf). Skill use has been a problem with my DMs as well. I'm in two games. The more experienced DM is too set in his ways and won't listen to the complaints and suggestions of his players. Or he will listen and berate us for daring to question his authority (I'm exagerating a little bit, he's not that bad). The newbie DM refuses to read the books and learn how skills work, and he's being mentored by the experienced DM unfortunately, though at least he's trying to incorperate social skill rolls.
#9 volcanon2 Sep 14, 2009 23:05:03	Worse is that everybody and their dog nerfs intimidate, even though in actual practise it's pretty useless even if people were in fact actually following it RAW. Thing is, I guess, I have a hard time speaking "in character" as when I try to everybody think I'm being a **** on purpose?? And then I stop trying and get docked for "not even trying to RP". Its a vicious cycle. I've only really had one DM who didn't totally thrash me on this front.