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Feb 1, 2013 -- 10:25PM, Optimism wrote:

Alright, here's the scenario at level 8:

We have Ouran the Fighter. Due to a lucky assassination pulled off by the party rogue, he now boasts a slightly bloody set of plate armor. This is in addition to a magical shield found a few levels earlier. This gives Ouran a total of 87 hit points, 20 AC and a potential 4d6 damage reduction each round. He is not the smartest, wisest, fastest, or most charismatic fellow, but he is a living tank.

Next, we've got Neralin the rogue, boasting a some dragon leather armor and having a nice fallback defense once per round in Artful Dodger. She scouts, ambushes, picks locks, cons suckers, and steals...for the good of the team, of course. Since she cannot use her damage dice defensively, Neralin is often pumping 4d6 damage behind the deadly strikes of her dagger each round, effectively eliminating a medium to low-threat target per round. Defensively, Neralin has 56 hit points, 17 AC, and one oncoming attack that she can impose disadvantage upon.

Rounding out the group, there is the wizard, Balst. In a moment of weakness on our DM's part, as well as a session of whining by Balst's player,  we were given a quest that rewarded Balst with a Cloak of Shielding at its end. Other than this, Balst has begun to come in to his own as a spell-slinging demigod that wizards inevitably become, often completely obliterating hordes of lesser enemies and crippling greter targets every round. Sometimes more, depending on if he has prepared a Haste spell that day. His defenses are 39 hit points, 16 AC with Mage Armor up, and a ubiquitous slathering of Mirror Image Spells. On top of this, he reserves the right to hug Ouran's waist in order to take advantage of his ally-defending maneuvers.

Here's the problem:

My DM has begun to pick on Neralin, almost exclusively. Since Ouran is basically immune to melee assaults, has great defense against ranged attacks, and has a bag of hitpoints just in case an enemy spellcaster shows up, our DM feels that he has no real incentive to attack him. Balst, his player being the prude that he is, NEVER goes more than five feet from the tank, and basically owns 3d6 of Ouran's damage reduction via Shield Block or whatever that maneuver is. As a result, Balst is only targetted when is seems like Team Monster has a reasonable chance of laying the beatdown on him.

That leaves Neralin. Although she has mad-decent AC for a light-armor user, and can basically secure one dodge every round, the DM has picked her out as the most viable target.

It usually goes down like this...
DM: "You're scouting ahead?"
N: "Yep. Neralin stays limber, lightly padding along the forest floor in a stealthy gait." *rolls* "26 total for stealth!"
DM: "Cool. You notice that the floor is becoming a bit gummy as you move further in. You are ambushed by spiders. They sense anything moving on their web and bypass your stealth completely."

or maybe...

DM: "You're setting up camp for the night. Who takes first watch?"
N: "Neralin immediately volunteers, noting the weariness etched in the faces of her companions. She climbs up a nearby tree, situating herself 40 feet above the ground."
*a few rounds of roleplay pass by before we are ambushed*
DM: "It looks like owlbears, four of them that you can see. Three of them rush up the tree at Neralin, taking advantage of her solitary position."
N: "Hehe, she's really high. It's going to take a while-"
DM: "They're bears. They know how to climb. All three take swings at Neralin."

So yeah. As a 4e kid, I get why DM would do this. Mechanically speaking, Neralin has the poorest defensive features when pitted against more than one opponent at a time. We all learned this when she all but soloed Talabrina Duskryn a couple levels ago in a one on one duel. So we never really encounter lone enemies any more, and foes come at Neralin in groups of no less than two at a time to burn through her one reaction and pelt her. Because Neralin is the trap-monkey, scout, and trap-diffuser, she is also constantly isolated and at risk of environmental hazards.

DM also sees Neralin as a "high priority" target, since without her the party would lose their greatest tool in bargaining, social interactions, trapsmithing and basically anything dexterity-related.

In the end, it's just...very discouraging. It feels like I'm being punished for exploring, for trying to aid my party, and for NOT hugging the defender. It's escalating, too. Neralin went to fill up a bloody waterskin in the river, and the DM threw a 5-headed Hydra at her with a Surprise Round. A Surprise Round. Five 15-23 damage attacks with advantage, just because she walked twenty feet away from the group to fill their waterskins. Should I just stop flippin' doing anything fun? Switch to a bow and walk alongside Ouran and Balst in a neat bloody little line, waiting for a fireball?

What would you do in my position? I tried asking the DM, but he's a math guy. If there is not some sort of advantage to not picking on Neralin, he sees no reason to stop. Defender-player is on my side, but he's better friends with the wizard-player and is basically wizard's personal shield. Should I just see if this stops?

Does being a useful skill-monkey pain a target on my back?

Your DM is meta-gaming. I won't go much more beyond that because everyone else seems to have covered anything else I would say. 

Just politely remind your DM that, though he, the RL person, knows the situation, that doesn't mean that every creature under the sun/moon/stars knows all about it.  

Feb 14, 2013 -- 4:12AM, mr_virus wrote:

Call their bluff. Ask, "is that monster acting on knowledge it could not possess?". Alternatively if the owlbear suddanly has a climb speed when it didnt before say "sweet, we're going to get bonus XP for that buffed monster!".

Asking about the acting out of knowledge possesed is one we throw around a bit in our games as well. It's basically the most polite way to say, "are you sure you aren't full of crap right now?" As long as the DM has a decent reason, it's cool. But if they don't there is usually some deliberation and a compromise made.

I like that getting bonus XP for a buffed monster line. Never heard that one before. I like it.