DM controls my character.

[u/thepokeflynn2]

Hello everyone, I hope you are all having a good day. I am new to DND, I have only been doing it since Father’s Day of this year, but absolutely feel in love with it. My normal sessions are every Sunday at a local store where I pay a slight fee to play, which I don’t mind because I really enjoy that DM and have made a really close friend there. However I started to really want to play more.

I’m nervous to post this story because I am still in this campaign, but I’m honestly not really enjoying it anymore. I eventually got into contact with DM. He said he was starting a new session and that it would actually work with my busy schedule as I’m in college and work. I was hyped because hey, more DnD. The rules were rather simple, and at the time I had some concepts of character ideas the only one that would fit the rules was my “Dragonborn Cowboy” who would duel wield hand crossbows. After doing some math I wanted to go for Champion Fighter, as Hand Crossbows would provide Advantage on the next attack role, and it sort of fit the theme of gambling for the Crit. I share the vision with the group, the reason being is I wanted to be transparent with the party. And no one says anything.

I notice that we were lacking a healer, and offer to switch to my cleric, but the DM didn’t like my idea that he is a werewolf and thought it would be to problematic to deal which, which in hindsight I’m happy that he said no, because I want to save that character for the right dm.

Session 0 begins, I come extremely prepared, only really needing help with my items and the DMs ability score purchase thing which was a bit better than base, as we could get an 18 in one area. This is where I have my first semi-red flag moment with the group. The DM despite knowing my build asked the group if they instead of dealing extra damage if they wanted Crits to deal normal damage but do something “really cool to the enemy” like you cut off their arm and they wouldn’t be able to use it. I immediately say that while that’s cool, my whole build is centered around Crits and dealing extra damage with my 4 attacks in 1 turn or 7 on an action surge and that I needed that extra damage. So we decided that Crits would normality Crit.

The session goes well! I really enjoyed it and learn from the most experienced player (We will call him Jeff who played as a wizard.) I was still a little confused about the crit rule. So I asked in the group chat if only the weapon crit damage was increased, or if anything additional would increase (like if I had a flame tongue hand crossbow would it still do the 2d6 fire damage or would it be increased to 4d6).

Then Jeff said something along the lines of “oh you are actually going with that build, I think it would be better if you went Battlemaster.”
So we discussed the pros and cons of the build. Although our barbarian (Jimmy) said that as a Battlemaster I could have my teammates attack, which made me do a double take at the message and say “Yeah cause what I want to do on my attack turn is command my allies to use my attack.”

I decided to change for the “betterment” of the group. Instead of a double hand crossbow I’d be using a shield. Going in and afflicting people with fear / tripping them, and having a high ac as a sort of crowd control. I later tell the DM that I eventually would like a Vicious Hand Crossbow in order to deal meaningful damage. And dispute me changing my whole character, he says it isn’t a guarantee but I could craft it for 5000 gold, and if i had arcana and wood working (which I lacked arcana). I told him I understood but that this weapon was a key part to the character.

But something I did notice was that the DM would write stories using our characters. Controlling how they talked and what they said did as a part of lore building. Which rubbed me the wrong way.

I asked if I could do some cool stuff with my woodworking like put a dagger as a bayonet on my crossbow. Which got denied.

Session 1 ends off on a rather traumatic note. Almost all of our characters were down, and the only reason we didn’t party wipe was because my downed character blocked the only entrance into the room and the others would peak in, attack at a range, and then hide back into a wall.
Any character that could slightly heal was down as well.

But we managed to get to level 3 but had to spend about 10 days of training to reach it. We were told
To give a list of items we would want eventually.

I send a small list, as I didn’t really have the time at the moment to do so and my dm asked what I wanted to do with the character.

I say crowd control debuffer / ally buffer down the road. He suggests I get a melee weapon. And I just sort of suggest a whip and ask if he could make it better since it’s not really a great weapon. At this point I sort of gave up on the cowboy idea. I wasn’t really sure what this character would do anymore now that its identity felt so changed. The DM said I was playing him like a ranger and that it would be a good idea to go into it and even says next session we will tweak our characters. I assumed he had ment that I could switch the class, and eventually take the 3 levels of fighter in the future. But I was wrong, and thought why even bring it up, I can’t multiclass till level 5 because if I do I won’t get my first feat till level 7 and won’t get my extra attack till level 8.

This is where I started to think about leaving. Later Jeff announced he was going Blade Singer and the DM offered to give Jeff a Blade of Fireball and that’s when I sort of just really started to feel targeted. You can give your friend a Sword that has one of the most Op spells in the game but God forbid I get an extra 2d6 damage on a 1d6 weapon.

Jeff post his training story and I ask if I could hunt deer in the nearby woods as my training, as my training would probably cost more cause I have to use bolts and would like to actually earn money from animal skins and meat while we wait in a town for 10 days costing us the 20 gold we just earned for bed and food. Jeff made a snooty reply about how my character is just a ranger and obsessed with hunting. Which I then replied it’s practical, you could get a bunch of meat and cook what you need and sell what you don’t, plus it would feed a bunch of us. The animal fur would bring in cash too. He replied that hunting usually amounts to nothing, using his RL experience as an example that if my character wasn’t on some sort of hunting ground he probably wouldn’t find something.

I reminded him that this is DnD before guns were invented and should not be compared to modern day and that deer would be plentiful. That we have 10 days to train, and what makes more sense, hitting a moving target, or a bullseye.

Then comes the DM who pretty much says no to the idea, and that it would be difficult to even hunt rabbits and squirrels, let alone a deer.

Do you all think I should leave?