Issues with the GM

[Altharon]

Hope this was the right place to put this. Anyways.

Hey everyone, I've come into some conflict recently with my GM in our Pathfinder campaign and was looking for what other people thought as this is really bothering me.

So some quick background. We've been playing this Pathfinder Campaign since the Summer and I've been friends with the GM for a few years now. For the most part the campaign was fine, and a lot of fun. Eventually the character I was playing(a Paladin at the time) had a bad run in with a Ogre and a club and died.. I suppose I can live with that.. So I made a new character.. I decided since Ultimate Combat had just recently come out to play a Ninja. This was fine at first.. I had even more fun as this character to be honest, sneaking around.. Having invisible without being a spell caster, and plenty of fun Sneak Attacking. As time went on my GM would complain about both the invisibility and the sneak attack.. And this is where the problems begin.

Just to put it out there.. The rest of my group is a Sorceress, a Barbarian/Rogue, and a Bard.. All three of them can do some of the skills if not most of the skills I am good at.. Just as good if not better than me at times.. And even with that said.. Our GM doesn't put a whole lot of opportunity for me to really make use of skills I would be good at such as Disable Device or Stealth.. So I pretty much have come to rely on my Ninja tricks to go invisible to deal damage. So.. What's the problem?

Over the past few months my GM has effectively neutralized the only thing I really had going for my character in this campaign.. Which was my moderate(compared to the Barbarian/Rogue) damage potential.. I have not been able to sneak attack more than once in the past 3-4 months because our GM constantly throws monsters that are immune to sneak attack(and are not specific to the campaign's story, just random encounters), have some way around my invisibility/stealth... Or makes up some random excuse for why I can't get my sneak attack bonus.. "Oh you are invisible and you rolled really high for your attack roll? Well this guy somehow jerks out of the way!".. The real problem? He let's the Barbarian/Rogue sneak attack.. Heck he doesn't even try to nerf him at all like he has to me even though the Barb/Rogue hits for over 35 damage before sneak attacking on just one hit(At levels 8-10) something I couldn't even dream of without having any Sneak Attack damage.. Not to mention he is also a far more durable character.. I've had a near death experience because of some of these things in almost every single sessions(and as I said about my party composition we have no dedicated healer class)because I am a squishy melee character... and seem to get hit more often than anyone else..

Normally I was fine with there being some logical excuse for why I can't.. But now it has gotten to the point where for some tenuous(at best) reason I can't do jack squat.. And when I bring it up in anyway to my GM he just ignores me.. Then.. whenever something I get excited about happens or I acquire due to leveling.. He always likes to make offhand comments like "Oh well there are plenty of ways around that." Making me feel like an idiot for getting my hopes up that I could 'ever' actually start being useful.. It has gotten to the point where all this is absolutely ruining the game for me and I can't even bring myself to RP(which the other players have begun to comment on).. I'm not really having any fun anymore and I am now purposely trying to get my character killed just so I can play something more useful or quit the campaign because I feel so worthless to my party and have no hope of it getting any better.. He doesn't do anything like this with any of the other characters and it's frustrating me to no end..

Thoughts? Is it just me?

I should also add.. As with all my near-death experiences.. My GM also won't let me die. In fact the session we had the other night I died.. But the GM felt the need to nerf the damage enough that I was barely alive so he wouldn't "feel bad" about killing a player.

TL;DR - GM nerfs me specifically, but no other characters and it has gotten to the point where I am trying to commit suicide in combat on my character because I feel so useless to the party and the setting at large.

[cranewings]

Characters like the ninja and summoner come off as splat book cheese (even if they aren't) that a player would only pick if he is trying to get something over on the gm (even if he isn't). Your GM obviously thinks your character is stupid so just make a different one. Just show up at the next game and tell everyone that the ninja returned to his clan. Don't even ask the gm. Just make the new character with the same experience and tell him what's happening. He will probably be happy.

[Mikaze]

cranewings wrote:

Characters like the ninja and summoner come off as splat book cheese (even if they aren't) that a player would only pick if he is trying to get something over on the gm (even if he isn't). Your GM obviously thinks your character is stupid so just make a different one. Just show up at the next game and tell everyone that the ninja returned to his clan. Don't even ask the gm. Just make the new character with the same experience and tell him what's happening. He will probably be happy.

NO.

If the GM can't respect the players enough to be upfront with his irrational class hate and arbitrary player-specific nerfs, that GM isn't worth playing with, let alone catering to.

OP, talk to your GM and group (calmly of course) and explain that you really are not having fun and why. Whatever happens, the result should tell you whether or not you should bother continuing with this specific GM. You may have to look around for another group. You will find one, take heart.

GM-perspective here, this is an incredibly immature and unfair way to run a game, and absolutely disrespectful to the players. This is middleshool behavior at best.

[cranewings]

This is one side of the story. Maybe this player posting the OP is aggravating and needs to get on board with the game that is being run.

[estergum]

cranewings wrote:

This is one side of the story. Maybe this player posting the OP is aggravating and needs to get on board with the game that is being run.

Based on the information as presented thats a pretty big reach.

And if true then the GM need to stop being so passive aggressive and find a better, more open way to deal with the issue.

Of course the player has to deal with the issues openly and honestly as well.

Perhaps the other players can be the moderating voice?

[Dark_Mistress]

Taking what said at face value. It sounds like the GM either has a problem with the class. In which case you should just ask to play something else. Or they have a problem with you, in which case you need to find a new group. Either way you need to talk to them one way away from the group. Explain yours problems and how you feel in a non confrontational manner. Depending how the GM reacts to this, if they don't seem to agree. Then ask to make a new character one you will enjoy, if they balk at that. Then find a new group. I have seen GM's play favorites or target players they don't care for. Not for a long time but I have seen it.

I played with a group briefly where one guy was allowed to do seriously anything. Others where grudgingly allowed to follow the rules and one guys character died and I kid you not every game session and from what he said it was always like that. I left that group after 3 game sessions.

[Lord Snow]

OP, do any of the other players at the table notice a problem as well? I remember GMing a game once where all of the players told me during a ssession that they noticed my adventures are cruel to rouges (most traps and non-combat encounters relied more on roleplaying and puzzle solving than on high dice rolls, so the rouge barely had space to excel and feel better than the other characters). I took what they said to heart and chaged things a bit.

Maybe if the rest of the group feels like you do, that will help showing the GM that there is a problem... provided he is the kind of person who is willing to listen, of course. If he is not, he will just feel like you "turned evreyone against him".

[Altharon]

@Cranewings - I would hardly consider myself aggravating out of game or in game. I never argue with the GM and hardly ever argue with any of the other players. Of course this is my side and yes there will be some bias as I feel like a victim, and quite frustrated about it all too. And if I was I don't see why he can't just contact me outside of the game or after a session and talk to me about it.

@Lord Snow - The closest I recall to any other player making any comment about it was the other night when I made an off hand comment about it which the GM ignored, but our Bard just commented "Yep". The others of course could just as easily not notice what is going on.

@Everyone - I will try to talk to the GM when I can. It's encouraging to receive some support and hear some similar stories.

[Jerry Wright 307]

I can understand if the GM has a problem with the concept of invisibility at will combined with sneak attack. I have a problem with that.

But it sounds as if there is a personal conflict in the works, here. And personal conflicts should never be played out using the game as an arena.

I think you have every right to be upset, and I agree with Mikaze. You should confront your GM outside the game and get whatever the problem is out in the open.

[Tequila Sunrise]

Yep, talking to the DM helps more often than anything else.

And if it doesn't, see how ridiculously crazy you can get before he kills your character. Demand unreasonable reward from the king...after seducing the princess that your party just saved. Walk naked into a dragon's lair, claim godhood-trapped-in-mortal-form, and then demand obeisance. Bonus points if your death wish somehow saves or benefits the other PCs.

If you're still not having fun, walk away.

[TOZ]

Drop him like a rock.

[Mikaze]

Throw him to the grouuuunnnd.

[GM Elton]

Has anyone asked the GM in question what was going on?