| Whytecraft |
I understand that the DM interprets the rules to run his game as he sees best but what happens when he is inconsistent, changing them on the fly to enforce his wishes. As a player aren't the rules there to protect us? Isn't it our story too?
My party recently returned to the Mage Tower, the solitary establishment of its type, in hopes of obtaining a potion for a quest. While there my character a level 4 Wizard asked if she could join the Mage Tower. The initial answer was that she would have to undertake a two year apprenticeship which was obviously the DMs way of saying no as that time period was unfeasable for both my party and our current quest line. So knowing from our previous experience that all the other apprentices were very young and inexperienced with access to only the most basic of spells I argued logically that I was beyond an apprenticeship in terms of power and experience. He conceded that they could test me which consisted of first a written exam which was simulated with three knowledge rolls. I did very well with a spellcraft 27 planes 28 and nature 28. The second was a duel. Now based on doing well he determined that my opponent for the duel. A wizard who had access to level 4 spells and was at least 3 levels my superior. He started with Lesser Globe of Invulnerability which completely invalidated anything my level 4 wizard could do. He then followed by altering spells to suit his needs eg he cast Burning Hands and when I pointed out I was in its area of effect he replied with "oh well its a line then, you're getting hit". While I was able to prolong the duel with invisibility I, obviously, inevitably lost. To top it off the wizard spat on me after beating me.
Losing is one thing but why bother with a farce of a duel when he had obviously already made up his mind that I couldn't win and/or join the Mage Tower. A house rule eliminating a spell is one thing but making them do whatever he wants whenever he wants I feel violates the rules that are in place to protect the player and the game. How can I play my character and pick my spells knowing that I can be invalidated at a whim. What made it worse was that I was basically punished for reasoning, role playing and rolling well in my areas of speciality. Am I wrong to feel this way? Would you consider the DM within his rights? Why bother playing if just to tell the DMs story