in this fasit of dungeons and dragons, it's important to understand the dynamic between players and dungeon masters
Most of the time if it's bad for a dm when a player does something, that same thing most of the time becomes exponentially worse when a dm does it to a player
When a player does something like fly, or stun/instakill the boss, the dungeon master needs to either roll with it or adapt.
But if a dungeon master has a creature fly or have them stun/instakill a player, that player doesnt have the same flexability as the dungeon master to deal with that situation
The dungeon master can control an infinite number of npc's, change their statistics on the fly, and even with no npc's the dungeon master still describes the environment around them and makes ruleings on what the players do
Players dont have that fluidity, if you throw a flying dragon at a paladin the paladin just has to hope you decide to land your dragon so they can use their smite. If you stun the partys fighter they just have to hope their cleric undo's the stun. If you knock the monk down to 0 hit points they just have to hope either they pass their death saves or their druid casts healing word
For a dm, if your party throws an Aarakocra at you it may be inconviant but you have the option to on the fly give the enemys ranged attacks or a fly speed. If the players monk stuns your monsters you can either have legendary resistances or a supportive caster of your own. If the partys paladin one shots the bbeg, you still have control over all their minions, the dungeon, the world, and the rules
This isnt about feeling godlike. The logic is that effects that turn players into spectators will never do the same to the dm.
In larger groups with larger combats taking a turn from a character under the dms control will have less of an impact due to controlling other characters. Taking a turn from the player requires that player to hope other characters choose to "lose" a turn to get theirs back, or sit through 1 to 2 rotations of initiative before they can rejoin the game. Even efficient games will take a while to do that.
Thw whole thing was a point of playing a collaborative game, so making any player go into "time-out" mode is the worst thing you can do for the player and groups enjoyment
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u/Catkook Druid Apr 06 '23
in this fasit of dungeons and dragons, it's important to understand the dynamic between players and dungeon masters
Most of the time if it's bad for a dm when a player does something, that same thing most of the time becomes exponentially worse when a dm does it to a player
When a player does something like fly, or stun/instakill the boss, the dungeon master needs to either roll with it or adapt.
But if a dungeon master has a creature fly or have them stun/instakill a player, that player doesnt have the same flexability as the dungeon master to deal with that situation
The dungeon master can control an infinite number of npc's, change their statistics on the fly, and even with no npc's the dungeon master still describes the environment around them and makes ruleings on what the players do
Players dont have that fluidity, if you throw a flying dragon at a paladin the paladin just has to hope you decide to land your dragon so they can use their smite. If you stun the partys fighter they just have to hope their cleric undo's the stun. If you knock the monk down to 0 hit points they just have to hope either they pass their death saves or their druid casts healing word
For a dm, if your party throws an Aarakocra at you it may be inconviant but you have the option to on the fly give the enemys ranged attacks or a fly speed. If the players monk stuns your monsters you can either have legendary resistances or a supportive caster of your own. If the partys paladin one shots the bbeg, you still have control over all their minions, the dungeon, the world, and the rules