3.5 Balance Series: A DM's Responsibilities

I've heard it all in games I've played in, games I've DM'd, and games I have nothing to do with:  Such and such is broken.  He broke the game by doing such and such.  He does how much damage on that hit?  Um, you cast both of those spells?

Let's stop with those things I'm sure every DM who has run 3.5 has heard and players as well.  Let's address a few key issues as far as the game itself goes.

• The Game is only Broken as Much as you LET IT BE.  

 You're the DM and that means YOU'RE in charge.  If you do not realize this and use you're power, then your game will be broken in the end and/or PC's will be broken as well.  I'm not saying that you throw the majority of character options out the window and only leave them a couple of choices for a class or a race, I'm talking about you letting them pick and choose from every book, take only 1 or 2 levels in a class before moving onto another (just so they can get a special ability or feat for free) and then end up complaining about it when they kill that epic necromancer you just spent the past 2 hours proof reading for the nights encounter.  There HAS to be a line when it comes to choices and rules, otherwise, you're asking for experienced players who love to optimize and level dip to walk all over any and everything you create to pose a challenge. 

Let you're rulings be known BEFORE YOU EVEN START LETTING THE PLAYERS BUILD THEIR PCS!  This is important.  If you don't let all the rules be known, even if it's a rule that changes after a certain number of levels, you're players will find a way to take advantage of it if they optimize.  If you take care of this before hand and print them out a copy of how the game is going to work and changes to rules, you're going to eliminate that breaking of your game by about 25% already.  This is an important step.

An example:

Lets say you want to run a game in a low magic setting where magic is understood little or not at all by the majority of the population.  Taking this into account and that adventurers themselves are rare and not common folk in ANY world:

1.)  We know that wizards and sorcerers are going to be a dime a dozen.  Perhaps you can only be a wizard once you've attended a wizard acadamy and those who fail a final test are the majority.  This could be a reason why wizards and sorcerers are rare but still be a reason why a group of adventurers has one in their group.  I'd also reflect this in the world as far as the characters actions are concerned.  If that PC uses magic that's obvious (with some sort of visual effect or otherwise) then either those people around him are going to be scared, in awe, or very interested in what has just transpired.  Word is going to spread pretty damn quick about what they did regardless simply because it's rare. 

2.)  Magic items would similarly have to be addressed.  This could be done in a simple way by making them more expensive, but a better way would be that they can't be purchased at all except in a few key locations.  Or if you want magic to be more rare, simply only random roll magic items in treasures that call for them. 

3.)  Spellcasting progression should also come into play.  Wizards could be totally taken out and the only arcane casters are sorcerers.  You could eliminate arcane casting altogether and just make a world with divine magic.  You could eliminate magic items but still have magic weapons and armor available in your world.  There are a lot of different things you can do to get the right feel for you're world.  Alas, this is just one example but my point here is you need to make these rules clear for all your players. 

Keep in mind in this example, you'll need to treat NPC's accordingly as well.  Putting a creature with several spell like and super natural abilities up against PC's with no magic items or spell casting ability at all is a sure way for you to break your group.

• Not Understanding the Rules WILL LEAD to a "Broken" game or character

This kind of goes without saying, but I wanted to put it on here anyways because it's important.  As a DM you need to know how the rules work with each other, what stacks and what doesn't work.  This is THE MAIN WAY players can get over on a DM.  If you are more knowledgable and stick to you're guns, this eliminates game breakage by about 25% as well.  Make notes on encounters about things that may come into play.

For Example:

Let's say your putting a group of PC's up against some undead.  You know you've got a cleric in the party so you need to know all the ins and outs of turn undead.  If you don't, you're screwed and you've just turned a challenging encounter into a boring over kill of a win to your players.  That's NOT what a DM is supposed to do.  Winning all the time and not having anything to worry about in battle isn't fun when that's what happens all the time.  Having a DM who doesn't understand the rules isn't what players want either, especially when questions come up.  It's important for a DM to do their home work.  I believe in keeping game play going and debating rules outside of the table while taking a break, but I don't believe in never correcting your self and letting you're players walk all over you.

I'll STOP right here for now and address other points later in another blog post.  Anyways, just trying to help out my fellow DM'S  Please share, repost, reblog, whatever or ask any questions you wish!

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