PC's are the enemy and must be punished.why try to punish the character for having a high trait that they've clearly worked hard for? Nothing annoys me more than DM that seems to go out of their way to minimize any special ability that I've spent hard-earned points into. It's easy to get into the "us versus them" mindset when DMing, because the DM ends up playing the role of antagonist throughout the gaming sessions. However, a really good DM will shake off the "us vs them" mentality and play to the characters strengths, challenge them where they are weak, and try to make the game session fun for everyone as a whole.
I would, for example, incorporate that trait into your story line planning. Say, the party runs finds a room with no apparent exits, but the druid spots a tiny rune inset in the wall that is very small, and appears to be worn smooth around the edges. Pressing it opens a secret door. Play up how the nobody else would have spotted it. The party is glad to have her along, she has something to brag about, and the story line moves forward.
Just realize that you're not going to be able to incorporate many perception-based challenges to the party, and have them be difficult challenges. However, it sounds like your party is kind of hyper-specializing: each member becoming insanely good at one particular trait that makes them powerful as a whole. This is good for the party--but what happens if they ever get split up? A house divided, and all that. There are other ways to challenge your party rather than trying to take away the good traits that each of them have worked hard to develop.
Hmm, I guess I can be a bit too specific sometimes. Instead of saying a "pressure plate" I could just say the floor looks strange, or that "there are strange seams around the blocks" which could mean a drop or a pressure plate.
As for the Dungeoneering question, it doesn't come up very often so sometimes I let people use it to determine if something is strange about the room (which is a dungeon) and potentially what that might mean, but I suppose that could be too generous. It's just that when you roll SO HIGH I feel compelled to give something.
Also, I totally relented on a puzzle last night when I shouldn't have. There were 8 differently colored gems in a box, and 7 slots on a door. The only other things in the room were the box, a plaque (which had been providing taunts or hints throughout the dungeon), and 2 torches.
They initially tried putting the rainbow order-- which caused the emerald (green) to explode on them, eliminating the 8th gem. They thought they'd gotten the first three right since they didn't blow up and were getting extremely frustrated at the puzzle. The key was to look at the plaque more closely, which said "Oops! Wrong room. Put your blades back." The reason it said this was because there was a fork previously that said <-- Brains Brawn --> and the rooms were switched, so brains went to brawn, brawn to brains (this puzzle). The key was the first letter in each word being the first letter of the color of the gem, where it would be orange, white, red, purple, yellow, black, blue.
Anyway, they were getting frustrated and telling me that my puzzle was retarded because it wasn't a puzzle, it was just guessing, etc. A regular DM would just sit quietly and smile, but I let one of the characters (who'd escaped the other room to come to this one) roll to notice that this plaque started differently than the other room's (the other room's plaque started with "Whoops!" insted of "Oops!"), which instantly gave the puzzle away.
I'm too nice of a DM.
I don't agree with you here. This is forcing the player to play profiler with you more than it is just letting the game unfold and allowing them to use the skills of the character. My old, old game group had problems like this our old GM's puzzles. I was playing a dumb fighter, but I was way better at the kind of puzzles the GM would come up with than the person playing the wizard with 28 int. Kind of defeats the purpose. It's like obtuse adventure games where logical thinking is second to getting into the mindset of the person who created the puzzle.You want to check for traps with your +17 perception. Alright, what exactly are you looking for? I didn't accept, "I search the room for traps with my eagle eyes." Furthermore, if your traps are easy to find, place them more carefully.
I miss my paladin, who ran into this running gag where she'd always be at a ball when shit went down... and being a paladin of Sune there was no way in hell she was going to a grand ball in her armor. It finally got so bad that I spent all her money on Summoned Armor because even with her AC of half her level + crappy dex/int she would still insist on tanking. (GOT TO STAY IN CHARACTER OMG)Actually, me too...
Every DM is different. I prefer by far balanced characters than those who min/max. 4th edition easily caters to both. Everything is in character, so I'm very careful with how my players got around to doing things during puzzles and traps. Some characters are very stuck in their ways while I know their player is far brighter than their character (example would be Gusto and his dwarven fighter). I fully expect them to be in character and do what they can, even if they will fail or not. I don't like the "need to win" ideology, I want them to perform the best they can and enjoy the moment.I don't agree with you here. This is forcing the player to play profiler with you more than it is just letting the game unfold and allowing them to use the skills of the character. My old, old game group had problems like this our old GM's puzzles. I was playing a dumb fighter, but I was way better at the kind of puzzles the GM would come up with than the person playing the wizard with 28 int. Kind of defeats the purpose. It's like obtuse adventure games where logical thinking is second to getting into the mindset of the person who created the puzzle.
Then that character's betrayal will be all the more powerful.Yeah, I'm a very nice DM compared to your playstyle. I even made a healbot NPC character to follow them around to stitch up any boo-boos.
We recently added a Leader to the group though, so my NPC might need to leave for a while. But whenever I suggest it they say they love the character. XD
I used to do this all the time to characters with high perception. Fucking awesome for keeping them paranoid.Agree with Dave on forcing active check. Passive should give players the heads up and allow the active roll. Also throw in false alarms. Things look off, "I roll my perception", you can't find anything. BOOM! instant paranoia. You can also have them make random perception rolls. It's a bit cheap, but so is a +15 perception at lvl 4. Also one of two feats on Alertness will catch back up with them later.
As for Dungeoneering, who cares, it's not Disable Device. Booby trap the door from the other side, or pressure plate then entire floor (you know what will happen but can you stop it?). This works great for the perception issue as well. It also allows for betterrailroadingguiding of the players. Directing their choices.
I used to do this all the time.Agree with Dave on forcing active check. Passive should give players the heads up and allow the active roll. Also throw in false alarms. Things look off, "I roll my perception", you can't find anything. BOOM! instant paranoia. You can also have them make random perception rolls. It's a bit cheap, but so is a +15 perception at lvl 4. Also one of two feats on Alertness will catch back up with them later.