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[NullForceOmega]

Definitely find a new DM, that's just bad.

[UXLZ]

Yeah, cut this guy loose. Just do it. Every single game of his I've heard about sounds like it's full of obvious wish fulfillment (goddess thing, bard, Solar), main character-itis (Solar thing), absurd reasoning and plot holes (Dafuckasmodeus?), ridiculously bad balancing (Yes, my character does indeed get +12 to all stats, inherent proficiency with all weapons, 4 attacks per turn with no penalty and the ability to cast a Wish at-will that is based off of intention rather than precise wording, there are no side-effects and no chance of it being rendered unusable forevermore. They are also immune to all negative status effects, death magic/necromancy, Radiant and Necrotic damage, have resistance to all other damage and three times per encounter upon reaching 0 health they are automatically restored to full HP with all abilities restored.)

That guy is just really fucking bad, 'swat I'm sayin'.

[Draignean]

Draignean: As far as I can tell, the Wizard dude was his last character (the DM). There's the Bard DMPC, and the Wizard NPC/DMPC. As I said, overt and obvious wish fulfillment.

Yeah, I've seen Flyme's DM pop up in the thread before. Chroist. THE DM IS NOT A PLAYER. You can have a short period of time where you're with the party as an ally figure, but if the players aren't suspicious of you the whole time then you're doing your job wrong. There should always, no matter what, be a price for the DM's help.

E: He ran a low-level campaign once. It was also bad. His DMPC could go from a level 7 bard to a solar, the most powerful angel in the game. At will.

He also threw us up against a half dozen ropers, which can each perform six touch attacks in a round, which each deal 1d6 strength drain. Was almost a TPK.

He was never good at balance. One player quit after losing his character three times. Twice in one session, even.

I recall reading about that. That campaign doesn't count as low level. That's a low level campaign in the same way that only doing heroin on the weekend is going clean. Who the hell gave him the idea that it was good idea to run a DMPC? I've never, ever, seen an actual DMPC done well. I've seen some pretty awesome "Of course I'm your friend, how many times have I saved your life now? By the by, can a borrow a half cup of your immortal soul? I need to polish my god-simulacrum.", but never a full on player character. Kind of defeats the purpose when you already know what's going to happen.

Draignean: As far as I can tell, the Wizard dude was his last character (the DM). There's the Bard DMPC, and the Wizard NPC/DMPC. As I said, overt and obvious wish fulfillment.

E: How the fuck did he justify that? (The Solar thing.)

He was the son of a god. The campaign was about us stopping his evil twin brother, who was also a solar.

He described it as a fantasy version of Mass Effect. Except we lost, because we couldn't find allies.

Everyone we were supposed to recruit were irredeemably evil, and were put down because of it, so we lost because we had too little support.

Nnngh. So, you had to recruit irredeemably evil creatures, that would likely get a better reward if they turned your little insurrection in, because...?

It's a little cliche and reeks of point to point combat gameplay, but a chain of powerful good creatures who are already locked into their own power struggles and need you to take out the irredeemably evil creatures would still be better. Hell, make it easier to assassinate the good creatures so that the party can gamble on evil keeping its word and helping them, that at least mitigates the necessary plot rails for that game.

[Neonivek]

Everyone we were supposed to recruit were irredeemably evil, and were put down because of it, so we lost because we had too little support.

There is like... a good story in there... if a good DM was writing it.

You have to save the world but everyone who can are just evil vile beings... so you either don't compromise and thus you have to deal with the results... or you do compromise and have to deal with vile evil beings as a result.

[NullForceOmega]

I agree with neo, great idea, bad implementation, really, really bad.  It sounds like your DM has some decent ideas, but has no clue how to implement them without railroading.

Edit: or turning it into an extremely fetishistic thing, dear hells.

[flabort]

Well, the reading of the story in Green Text format is horrifyingly gripping. The GM has his own moments of "OK that was clever", but for the most part it's complete bullshit like everyone's saying, and I would refuse to play with a GM like that, or even a player like that.

That's beyond wish-fulfillment, that's just plain psychopathic lack of filter and he's obviously never learned to control his fetishes. At this point, I'd invite him out for a camping trip, rent a helicopter and fly out to an island in the middle of an extinct volcano, only when he's setting up his tent you fly away and leave him there.

[UXLZ]

Yeah, definitely. Hell, I'd be interested in the one if you were simply working for the Solar-dude, rather than him being a f**king DMPC, and it turns out he's not so good, and the other guy isn't so evil after all...

Lots of Gray morality! EVERY WORLD IS THE WITCHER'S WORLD!

[wierd]

Indeed. There's all manner of ways in which to deal with evil soul sucking NPCs.  Some are more comical than others.

Say for instance, in order to do XYZ great wild thing the DM has in mind, you need the assistance of a demonic entity. They simply have NO MOTIVE to help you at all, and every motive to see you fail miserably-- but may still offer to help you, to try and trick you into a contract that they can collect on.  This hubris can be their weakness, if used right.  Things like that.

[Draignean]

Everyone we were supposed to recruit were irredeemably evil, and were put down because of it, so we lost because we had too little support.

There is like... a good story in there... if a good DM was writing it.

You have to save the world but everyone who can are just evil vile beings... so you either don't compromise and thus you have to deal with the results... or you do compromise and have to deal with vile evil beings as a result.

Trouble is you have to come up with a reason why the forcing of good aren't getting in the ring. Going by 3.5, if you've got a renegade Solar, pretty much every one of the celestial beings is going to be ready to wreck SOMEONE's face. I don't know about Pathfinder, but in D&D you can't usually invoke the "We must preserve the balance!" card, since clerics run around pulling celestial/infernal creatures through holes in the sky like they were saltwater taffy.

So, essentially, to make a good campaign, you've got a find a way to hamstring every powerful good entity in the world, but still keep the world from seeming like it was fucked BEFORE your demi-god started trying to bend it over. Which would require a considerable amount of cunning.

I agree with neo, great idea, bad implementation, really, really bad.  It sounds like your DM has some decent ideas, but has no clue how to implement them without railroading.

The man fingered his goddess.
He fingered his goddess.
Goddess. Finger.

Some decent ideas, perhaps, but that's kind of like saying that the blood spatter from jack the ripper's knife made some artistic patterns while he was butchering prostitutes.

[NullForceOmega]

I'm just going to say, if the goddess was okay with it, then there is no problem here (other than feeling the need to include it in a campaign that doesn't have sex as a core concept.)

Generally (and excising the clearly fetish crap) speaking this doesn't seem to be a bad campaign idea on paper, but I'm sure that with this kind of DM the game is a non-stop flaming train-wreck.

[Eric Blank]

Some decent ideas, perhaps, but that's kind of like saying that the blood spatter from jack the ripper's knife made some artistic patterns while he was butchering prostitutes.

In terms of non-objective modern art paintings, they would fit right in.

[hops]

He'd be hailed by the art students worldwide, because the prostitutes were actually bees, which he was stabbing with his corn, the corn being a metaphor for fire which Anansi stole from Beelzebub in order to populate Mars with talking guns.

[wierd]

Devil's advocate--- Fingering the goddess may not actually be off limits, given the right context.  Is she a lascivious slut of a pleasure goddess, for example? 

Really, you cant interject sexual biases against religious practices, if you want to avoid having "McDeity" type pantheons.

[UXLZ]

Really, my main issue with it (assuming all the players were 'kay with sex and stuff in the campaign) is the fact that it was between two NPCs, and one of them was his previous character (the wish fulfillment stuff.)
Also, like, why?

[NullForceOmega]

Not even questioning that point UXLZ, the event was clearly past the sanity horizon, I'm only pointing out that if the goddess did not take issue with the interaction, then it was technically 'fine' within game context.  It's just insanely out of place and doesn't appear to add anything to the story or narrative.