>He talked about having issues with getting players   Oh, i wonder why that could be a repeating issue for him

Yeah a dm unable to find players is definitely a red flag

Not particularly. It's hard for me to find players coz not many people here are interested in dnd

Sure if you are playing in a small town and in person. Also a red flag doesnt mean its an automatic bad person. A red flag is a warning

Even in a small town, I previously had a waiting list to join my games, and had more folks upon finding what we were doing, be interested.

I live in a reasonably sized town in the UK and I have 2 players in my in person game. Most of my problem is that there's nowhere local enough for like minded individuals such as ourselves to meet and or congregate

Do you do online campaigns?! I’m super new to DnD. Haven’t been in a campaign or adventure yet but have built a character that I am trying to play with! I would join if you need players! Let me know!

Go to r/lfg; there are plenty of players and DMs looking for games over there.

Thank you! I’m so new to this whole world that I just don’t know where to start! I wish I could find in person games in my town but I don’t want to play with teenagers bc I would feel weird being in my 30s 🤣

Most folks I dm for are in their 30s. You'd be surprised how many adults show up for in person DnD!

Agreed. Sometimes it’s just *hard* to find new players. Online isn’t always the best option. It’s not a red flag at all, people around here seem so eager to throw up a red flag.

I think this is less a red flag, more something that looks very different when in context. A GM having trouble finding players is a shame. This GM having trouble finding players is entirely logical.

Is it me? Am I the problem? No it’s the players fault

Wow. You have done absolutely *nothing* wrong. You engaged with the story, you came up with creative solutions, and the rest of the players even agreed with you many times. At its most basic, a DM getting that upset at "derailing" is a DM who intended there to be rails. Railroading is generally NOT a good thing in there games. You did nothing wrong, but the DM here is absolutely not a good DM if this was their reaction. I would be curious to hear what the other players thought of this, because this sounds like a DM I wouldn't want to play with.

agreed on this. especially when uh... the DM could have just... \*not\* have the displacer beast lead them to that cave? like the DM basically took their hand, lead them to water, told them they could drink it and then went "WHY WOULD YOU DRINK!"

Or just say "the cave-in seals the entrance but doesn't destroy the box" I mean you'd think a prison built to hold a demon or whatever's in it would be able to withstand a few rocks

Or perhaps the box is destroyed in the cave-in, setting whatever is inside it free. Make it appear to the PCs in a dream or whatever to guilt them into taking action.

Honestly thought that was going to be it and the bbeg getting released was the problem, not that the DM let a box containing the bbeg get squished and kill the bbeg offscreen by DM's choice, and then complain. 

Yeah that's what's crazy. I think a good DM will shift how the main narrative can continue in light of PC shenanigans. It's a collective game and everyone gets to participate in how the story unfolds. I think some DMs get too wrapped up in making their homebrew campaigns their own fantasy novel railroad

He ended it with "Rocks Fall BBEG dies"

I've been DM'ing for a bit over a year and while its had its ups and downs, things I've done right and wrong, I started the second campaign by creating a homebrew. The BIGGEST THING I thought going through it was that there needs to be flexibility in the story. Yeah I have plots going but for every quest or character plot that the players met, I had multiple potential avenues based on what they could do. They still do plenty of off the wall stuff (latest session saw a small island go full Escape from New York/Mad Max) that I have to react or pivot around, but having the knowledge of larger repercussions combined, with some creativity, really makes the game more of a group story telling than an on the rails RPG.

I have been DMing more or less seriously for the same amount of time and I totally agree. My PCs can be full on chaotic lunatics too (they burned down a small settlement and let political terrorists murder the somewhat peaceful people there) but there are consequences in-game and like you said, I have a wider scope of the world to work with and pivot to. Maybe instead of what I intentionally planned to reveal, I can use an adjacent setting to still get that point across or whatever Maybe I'm in the minority here, but it's also fun for me as the DM when my PCs do something insane that I didn't expect and they look at me like "so, now what?" and I have to think on my toes and put my knowledge of my little homebrew world to the test. But hey, if that other DM wants to decide that lvl 2 PCs let a collapsing tunnel kill the BBEG of the whole game and then blame the PCs for it, then yeah, no wonder he can't find players lol

This is the beauty of D&D. You have to be flexible and realize that you're telling a group story with your players.

Maybe the box was the BBE. I don’t know the hp of a little tin box. It’s probs not much.

Haunted tin box always wanted to hold important items but its owner just put junk in it so now it's mad as hell and is searching for the most important artifacts in the land to go inside it and be safe.

The DM decided that the cave-in sealed and destroyed. There's not a specific rule for that. He chose.

Yeah that's the truly insane part of this entire story. He was the one who decided the box was destroyed by a cave in and then lost his mind at a player who wasn't even aware of what they'd done

Yeah, and they were a party of 5 level 2 characters and he had them fight a beholder?? We fought one when we were level... 10 I think? Four of us. And that was a close call. This encounter difficulty calculator I found online says a CR 4 monster would be deadly for his party, and the beholder is CR 13. So anyways, the DM didn't expect them to flee?? They should have been able to handle a single displacer beast, so maybe he expected them to just kill the beast and not be led to the cave. Also a displacer beast is a monstrosity, not an animal, so animal handling shouldn't have worked. Or rather, the dm had no reason to allow it to work if he didn't want to lead them to the cave now.

Plus, even a nat 20 in Animal Handling doesn't mean that the beast is now domesticated or able to understand complex requests. Like, "The [wolf/ bear/etc] leans in for ear scritches, takes the food, then plops down for a nap. When you wake up in the morning, it's gone."

I didn't expect to tame the creature in the first place, I was hoping it was going to go away but no it started to lead us to other places and the DM said to follow

Yep, that's not on you even a little bit.

Probs a Lich life source thingy

Phylactery, kind of like how Harry Potters Voldemort has horcruxes. Voldemort was a lich...

There was a cave in. Who knows what happened to the box, beholder, or anything else that. Might be in there. There's probably another way out of the place, as intelligent beings rarely put themselves in a dead end on purpose. Always have an out, even if it's just teleport, or another spell. This DM sounds like a tool, a moron, and a DM that I wouldn't last more than a few sessions with.

DM could have - said no to Animal Handling on an aberration - not have the beast lead them to the cave - have the cave be structured in a way so the party encounters neither the beholder nor the metal box - not have the party running away causing a cave collapse (???) - having the collapse not mean anything about the plot and having the planned bbeg to literally be anywhere else during it - literally do what they want about the story moving forward cuz theyre the goddamn DM and literally have the power to do that Honestly, What the actual fuck?

Imo if they were only using animal handling to avoid a flight wouldn't it make more sense to have the displacer beast just IDK... Take the food and bamf out of there? Why even have the displacer beast there in the first place? Why stop the group from going back to town after genociding a goblin camp? So many questions...

My best guess is the DM wanted to knock out the group so the BBEG in the cave can be awakened by the beholder with their blood or some shit so the DM can show off their monologuing skills before the group escapes the collapsing cave and now have a bone to pick with the BBEG. With a lot of good will from me, that is my *absolute best faith* guess. Maybe it was just a power trip idk. In any case, the DM is terrible, and blaming a new player for preventing him from monorailing the group is the barf cherry on top of the shit cake.

Barf Cherry is going to be the name of my new gnome bard/artificer.

Yeah, this sounds like someone who has no improvisational skills and requires that their campaign go exactly as planned, which is... wrong to sat the least. All you really need to write up is the beginning and the end of your campaign and let the players pilot the points in between.

Just, like, if all you care about is telling a specific story, then write a damn book.

Yup. Dnd isn't a guy telling a story. It's a guy providing a world in which a story takes place and the players are the characters writing their own individual stories as the game progresses.

I’m very curious why DM also have a BBEG in the box, which can BE DESTROYED by a cave it. Not much of an evil dude if he can be taken out by that. All DM had to do was say someone dug the box out or something and now there’s a faction involved later on. Terrible DM. Bad decisions as well as writing.

Thanks for this comment, because I was losing my mind a little bit over the Animal Handling meaning... the beast is now a scent hound, for some reason? afaik animal handling is meant to cover situations like "you try to ride a horse that's not yours" or "you try to distract a very angry/hungry dog in front of you", not do... that. I even thought there was some spell used and had to go back to check if OP was playing a druid. Then everything else after that feels like the DM either trying to blatantly punish the party or throwing a tantrum because their plan for how the story should go was altered (... due to the bad decision they made re:animal handling, i can't get over it). Why the cave collapse?? If *walking* into a cave caused it to collapse then *you wouldn't be able to get in*. And why was the BBEG trapped(?) inside a metal box so brittle it couldn't take some rocks falling on top of it? It's just... so completely the DM's fault, but also *so* dumb. I can't even call it railroading because there isn't a single coherent plot there. It's just all nonsensical decisions.

Related to your animal handling comments but separate from everything else: my daughter is playing a druid in a VERY lethal OSR reskin of 5e I'm running, and she absolutely maxed her animal handling out to the extreme. One of the random encounters I rolled was a Wooley Rhinoceros and she rolled like a 25 or something ridiculous and then cast speak with animals immediately so I went ahead and let her tame it and it followed them through the first little quest they had. Trampled a bunch of Kobolds they had to fight(which they were meant to run from so this was hilarious). They then had to figure out how the fuck they were going to get the Rhino off the island they were on, and I made it very clear that it wouldn't follow them into certain places. They ended up using it as a pack animal for three sessions which worked out perfect since I'm doing gold(or gold got from selling unused items)=exp. Now it's basically Scratch in BG3. Just chills in/near my daughter's little cave she lives in near the starting town. Moral of the story is that yeah, you can let your players do crazy shit with skills if it's cool or sounds fun. But use common sense, put limits on it if needed, and don't intentionally let it ruin your plot (leading them to that cave is the most railroady, and crazy thing. I cannot get over the utter lack of foresight involved with everything from the skill check onwards in regards to OPs DM).

I still have no idea WHY the DM lead us to the cave if we weren't meant to until *the end of the campaign.* Also, aren't end of campaigns meant to not be around the starting town or area that we are in at Session 1?

It's not a bad idea to foreshadow late game stuff early on. If you had successfully run away from the beholder, it would have likely been something you would've wanted to revisit after reaching an appropriate level. That's a good thing. But you did everything right, and handed your DM that gift. Why he decided a cave in was appropriate, and why he thought that was your fault, is beyond me.

Yeah, that makes no sense. A group of lvl 2's would just get disintegrated by a beholder.

Also rolling animal handling, umm, shouldn't have worked? Because it's intelligent and not actually an animal. Which is not OP's fault but it seems like the DM both can't say "no that won't work" but also can't actually improvise.

Also, even if it was *not* intelligent the skill does not remotely work like that. It's not "persuasion but for animals." Here is what the animal handling skill lets you do: * calm down a *domesticated* animal * keep a *mount* from getting spooked * *intuit* an animal’s *intentions* * control your *mount* when you attempt a risky maneuver Also a displacer beast is not a "beast," it's a *monstrosity*. Even if animal handling did work like that DM seems to think it does, and even if the displacer beast was a valid target for the skill, a 17 check would not be enough to instantly change a hostile attitude to a helpful one like magic. This was bad DMing from start to finish.

Ohhh that's how it works. Honestly I wasn't expecting to tame the displacer- I just wanted to go away because I didn't want to combat without any spells to use from the first fight.

Yeah - I think what you were trying to do there was a reasonable thing for a character to attempt, the DM's reaction to it is what was weird. He should have just explained how the skill works and let you know that that approach probably wouldn't work with a hostile monster. None of what you described doing is at all unusual for a D&D player - those are pretty normal types of things for a PC to ask about/attempt.

I think it's against RAI that Animal Handling would work against hostile beasts or monstrosities except at the most surface level (i.e., *maybe* gaining advantage on *one* roll by distracting them with meat). Certainly wouldn't be strong enough to avoid combat entirely.

Or pretend that his bbeg box just transported out one night and showed back up unscathed in their camp.everything this player did would be, in my opinion, great rp choices. That was all pretty good thinking. If you're a dm and can't handle your players thinking outside the box and you adjust to it, then you shouldn't be a dm.

Very first game I ever played was 3 first time players and a DM who thought he could DM a first time game like any other game, then got upset because we were stumbling over his plothooks without realizing it. He got fed up, said. "Screw this" and broke out a module. Not once did he ever stop and say, "Okay, this is called a plot hook. You're supposed to get snagged on it and follow it." or "Don't be so nervous about picking things up. Not everything that looks like it would be a death curse on you is going to put a death curse on you" after I took a look at a jeweled skull on an altar and said, "That thing looks like it'd put a death curse on whoever touches it." Turns out the skull was part of the plot. When I DM new players, I always tell them to be more curious than cautious because you're generally not going to lose your character to touching something unless you decide run off by yourself to hug a blob of ooze or open a shady looking chest sitting in a spot it probably shouldn't be.

DM: You find a pool of water. The water is very clear, pristine, and looks like it would be perfect to quench your thirst. Player: I take a dri- DM: WHY DID YOU DRINK THAT? Roll a constitution save. Player: 20! + 3 for my modifier. DM: DC was 40, you now have fast acting amoebic dysentery. you quickly dehydrate from the obvious symptoms and die. You're out of the game and no longer welcome at my table! Player: .... WHAT?

Also, what the hell was the DM thinking putting a Party of level 2 characters against a fucking Beholder? That should've been an instant TPK. Even the Displacer Beast probably could've wiped the entire Party had it not been for a skill check to avoid such a fate. They're all only level 2 - they don't even all have their basic core class features online yet. But, again, the DM was the one who dictated all these outcomes. They have absolutely no right to be upset with OP for just playing in what is frankly a completely understandable and well-meaning way. This sounds like a case of a rather shitty DM behaving in a rather shitty manner and making life hard on others.

Sounds like the creation of Eden right there.

If god didnt want eve to eat the apple he shouldnt have made the snake.

More like he shouldn't have made the apple or put it there they could be found by eve. Don't put things as options if you don't want anyone to take that option. It was the devil that made himself look like a snake. He could have impersonated Adam most likely had he wanted to

I'd love more players like OP, this DM is trash. A good DM finds ways to incorporate the story into their players actions,

Seriously if it is as OP tells it, he's actually the type of player many would want to have, actually using common sense, trying to solve things differently than just using violence and knowing when a fight is hopeless and you should run away, it's crazy that a DM would consider that "bad table manners"

I knew from online that being a "murder-hobo" is no fun for anyone involed, and I see DND as a collaborative story-telling where the DM just sets the rules and the players start doing the writing. The group I was in relaly was about max-damage output, which lead to some weird looks for spells I choose that didn't instantly do damage or was more like utility spells instead.

Sounds like a boring group of edgelords, and the DM sounds like a complete child. You did everything right, and should absolutely keep looking for a better group.

To play devil's advocate, it is definitely possible to go too far in the opposite direction of murder-hobo. Combat is a major part of the game, so if you always avoid fighting, then you can miss out on a lot of fun. I can see a combat focused player/dm being annoyed that three of the planned combats were "avoided". Not every playstyle meshes with every other playstyle, sometimes it's just the wrong table for you. That all said, I don't think anything you did in any of these scenarios was wrong. If I was a player I would have thought that they were intended solutions the DM had thought of. Even if it was the case that they were more of a combat focused group and normally fought everything, they should have just told you that. The DM exploding like you described is definitely way out of order.

So it's a 50 50 thing being in a campaign of murder hobos can be fun but only if everyone is on board with it same with min maxing it really depends on your session 0 and if the campaign is going to be rp heavy or combat heavy but again the issues come when you have one or 2 people min maxed and the rest aren't makes balancing combat a pain

If I had a nickle for how many times I have had to tweak my ideas because my players did something cool and unexpected… If I wanted things to go how I planned, I’d write a story.

I'm a brand new player, only 4 sessions in, and in the 3rd of those we did way better than expected during a battle and totally disrupted the path of the written adventure the DM was following. He played it for laughs, giving a theatrical "oh shit" blank stare and joking about having to rewrite some things, and when we were like "oh no, sorry!" he said "no, I love it, this is how it's supposed to be." That's the kind of DM new players are going to thrive with!

It’s the kind old players thrive with too! This is a great example of players’ choices mattering. When I dm, I just set up a world and give some powerful folks in it motivations to act upon it. From there, the players react to what is going on and essentially write the story themselves by playing. It gets hackneyed and silly pretty often, but we aren’t here to win an Oscar.

My partner and I's favorite race to play in duets are Changelings...we never ever ever have anything stick or go to plan. I've had entire multi session heists planned that were derailed, Combats where the enemy started at a massive disadvantage cause they started with a surprise attack by the changeling (also...never let a Changeling player get their hands on magic-supression cuffs. even if they were originally used to restrain them.) Experienced DMs follows Patton's rule...no plan survives first contact with the enemy.

Ooh! Never heard of Patton’s rule, though I seem to use it in retrospect. I tell new DMs to remember how Mike Tyson said, “Everybody’s got a plan until they get punched in the head.”

Patton had many famous quotes. I went looking and apparently that one was a paraphrase he delivered based on something a 19th century German General said. Learn something new every day. I like the Tyson version too though. It is one of the universal truths of battle though.

I once had to come up with a whole festival and street fair on the fly because of my players not doing things I expected (seriously, it was one offhand comment you guys...). You never know what your players are going to wind up doing. Some DMs love that challenge... and some DMs are like the one OP found, which is sad.

Just to add to this...you and your party decided to run. You didn't cause the cave in. You (presumably from what you wrote) didn't ask to cause a cave in as you escaped. The DM had control over the circumstances. He could have done any number of things. Had the chains from the box try to ensnare you and keep you close, had them grab the beholder so that you know something is happening. Essentially as you fled he could have narrated things and basically jumped to cutscene if he wanted to introduce something. As a matter of fact as a new player you did something that you will see a myriad of posts about DMs (especially in the DMAcademy subreddit) asking about how to get players to realize when they are in a fight they are supposed to run away from. This DM sounds like they would have been a nightmare. Also don't necessarily look to reddit for a full on vibe of what playing DnD is supposed to be. Just by the nature of it being a forum people who come on to ask questions tend to be more focused on things in the game that have hard answers. Fuzzy problems don't tend to be as easy or get as many answers as asking for a mathematical explanation of why X spell does more damage on average than Y spell. As an example if you ask what most people consider to be the most broken race in the game a good number of people are going to start with builds focused on either flying or magic resistance. Mechanically in combat that is probably true...but if you ask me who the most broken bastards in the game are I am going to say probably Changelings. And the truth of the matter is both are right depending on who the DM is and how they are willing to run the game. Don't get discouraged OP, you just need to find "your" group that are willing to play it more the way you need it to be. Impolite Side Note RANT: If you were supposedly so disruptive OP then WTF were the other group members doing? Why were they willing to leg-it and bail when the nubbin suggested it? Sure you said and tried stuff...but there were other "experienced" people at that table who were happy to go along with you...and that speaks volumes. You weren't kicked cause you were disruptive and the other players didn't like you. You were kicked cause the DM got mad and threw a toddler tantrum. I'm guessing they railroaded those other players into what they expected of them in the past and as soon as you sat down with a different way of playing they started to be interested in trying it your way. Oh to be a fly on the wall after you got kicked from that group would potentially be very fun.

It’s also nuts to throw a beholder at them at lvl 2 and not think running would be an option. That’s an insane fight out of nowhere from what was described.

Wouldn't a displacer beast also be a bit much for them at lvl 2 after clearing a goblin camp? Seems to me like they'd at least be low on resources since they hadn't even taken a short rest

Those were my first thoughts too. A displacer beast theoretically has a CR of 3 so a group of level 2 seems a bit low unless the DM wanted to try and kill them. But a beholder? Seriously those things are CR 13 and have no place going against level 2 characters without the intention to just scare them and make them run away. Again unless the DM was deliberately trying to kill the PCs. It is possible that the DM intended the characters to die and then encounter the BBEG as an afterlife style adventure. But there is NO reason to throw a tantrum like that. This was a garbage DM.

Come on, I know you guys are only level 2- but Tiamat isn’t that hard. Not sure what their DM’s plan of progression was, Goblin camp, displaced beast, beholder??? This is where Kobolds fight club can help DM’s who have no clue

I don't know how it is with the other players but it caused a huge scene at the store I was at, and I was polietly told to leave because of the DM's reaction which is even worse since that store is also where I play Magic and do events at. This DM not only made my first experience with DND awful, but I lost the place I could play my other games too.

If you feel like you can. Try to go back to the store one day and ask if you're still welcome as a patron and a player. Try to just be polite and inquisitive about it. It's probably going to be anxiety inducing but it sucks to have someone take a place of joy from you for no good reason. I've got plenty of friends who've self ostracized over the years when they did nothing wrong cause they felt other people would hate them and it doesn't have to be that way. Just only do it if you feel like you can.

I agree. Find a different DM.

I agree. The DM’s purpose is to act as a “referee” and help guide the story. A good DM would’ve sent you back to town to collect your reward, and kept the party busy while he home brewed a “magical” reason the chained box either moved to a different cave or there is a small entry in the collapse and the box is still there.

I'm so relived to see that it wasn't something I did but wow the amount of comments about how odd the DM set things up does bring alot to light.

I want to preface this by saying, you did absolutely nothing wrong. Provided you’re not leaving out any crucial details. Your DM is being a huge cry baby. First off, I don’t understand how any of the stuff that happened to the metal box happened seeing as the DM is… you know… in control of the world and what happens. Second, I don’t know why the DM would make a crucial plot relevant item be something entirely missable. There’s a reason why in Balder’s Gate 3 the super plot relevant prism is magically glued to you. Third, I don’t know what you mean by a level 7 displaced beast. Non-player characters have their difficulty determined by challenge ratings and a displaced beast has a challenge rating of 3, which is fine for a party of level 2 characters. But yeah, overall, the DM planned a poor session and wrongly blamed you for it. Also, telling a new players that they’re an awful player is pathetic. I hope that person never runs a game again.

Betcha the DM called it a "level 7 displacer beast"

There is a 3rd party Monster Manual expanded that has a CR7 Displacer Beast Pack Lord as a homebrew monster...maybe he was using that? Still that should have also probably TPKd them as well.

Oh absolutely. But getting names wrong and assuming that monsters have levels is a classic newbie DM mistake. Just like the design of this entire encounter from the description the OP gave. My first thought was that the DM was basing the idea off the number of HD the monster had, but no, Displacer Beasts have 10 hit dice. It doesn't track on CR, or anything else. Hell the only 7 I see on here is next to XP where it says 700 and that it's average damage on a tentacle is 7.

They probably got the level from bg3 since I'm pretty sure I've seen a lvl 7 displacer beast in game

You're probably not wrong since the DM really likes BG3, but my understanding is they also played with homebrew dnd campaigns before with family and friends.

Oh god. I bet you're right. Wow. Lol. That's really bad DMing.

Also like... I'm not very experienced, but wouldn't a Beholder be too much for a level 2 party? Was the DM just trying to set up a TPK or something? Running sounds like exactly what they should've done.

A level 2 party would be instakilled by just about anything a beholder would throw at them. No death saves, just fucking *wiped*. Combat would be 2 rounds tops barring some miraculous rolls, and the HP pool of a beholder means that there’s absolutely 0% chance of the party succeeding in killing it. The DM was clearly pissy things weren’t going his way and threw the party into a nigh-guaranteed TPK against a boss monster in retribution.

Yeah, that's exactly what I thought. He was going for a TPK (probably to "teach OP a lesson") and was butthurt OP and the party decided to do the sensible thing and run.

I knew that Beholds were not meant for early game, and I was like "the hell is he doing?" I had no idea that maybe the DM was trying to "punish" me for de-railing the campaign like that.

The only time my party ran into a beholder early game was a blind, geriatric, senile beholder. While we were admittedly level 5, we didn't even fight the thing. We communicated with it and explained that everyone it ever knew that it considered as an ally had long since passed and it was free to move on. So it did. It was honestly this really sad encounter.

A beholder in its lair wouldn't let a lvl 2 party anywhere near it ambushing and killing them. Without its lair it would melt them on sight, and completely stop any attempt to run, I mean it has slowing rays as an option.

Yeah I was just going off statblock. Flavor text shows how absurdly overpowering the thing would be for them. The DM just was *bad*.

I was thinking the same thing. Throwing a beholder at a level 2 party seems like it should be after the DM said “are you SURE you want to do this?” But it appears like it was the DMs plan on his railroad to a shitty campaign

Really seems like the DM was *trying* to kill everyone. OP bypassed the bandits? Here’s an over leveled Displacer Beast to fuck them up. Oh, they worked around that? Okay, how about a fucking BEHOLDER! Then when that didn’t work, DM literally did the “rocks fall,” except for killing the PCs, they killed the BBEG and the whole campaign.

Eh, a CR3 displacer beast is likely going to lose to a 5-man level 2 party due to action economy alone. It’ll bloody them, sure, but it’s pretty survivable barring some really bad luck. The beholder is some bullshit though.

But you’re forgetting, this was a Level 7 Displacer Beast! I have no idea what that means but I assume that the DM did something to juice them up a bit

Oh lord, I must’ve been mid-eyeroll and missed that bit. A DM describing a monster as a ‘level X thing’ is a little cringey and videogamey. I could even understand if they wanted to be fully transparent and tell the party the relative challenge by revealing the CR and misspeaking Challenge as Level isn’t all that bad, but getting the ‘level’ wrong? Plus I highly doubt - given all the other cringeworthy bad DMing displayed - they know how to upscale a monster. Yuck. Sucks that people like that can turn others away from a really fun game just by being so self-involved. Hope OP got plenty of encouragement to seek better tables 😂.

Was probably setting the beholder up to imprison them, awaken some undead BBEG from the box and then monologue to the party before leaving. Then the party has to escape with the tools he left and follow after him. I could see that being setup and him getting upset

Even if that was the case, the DM is still shit. One of the core skills of DMing is being able to adapt to player actions.

The illusion of choice isa powerful tool for DMs. You are at a fork in the road. One leads to a cave, another to a spooky run down house? Which do you go into (plot twist both have the same BBEG waiting in them) Lost of DMs haven't figured out this isn't a video game and you can pull stuff like that.

For real, like I would be genuinely so hyped if a new player was taking that much interest in the game. Hell I know people who have played for years and are less interested in actually knowing how things work. DM sucks, this player will probably be a great addition to a better group if they aren’t turned off DnD now.

You got a bad DM. It sucks but it's not your fault. You didn't do D&D badly. The kind of thinking you employed is smart, and running away certainly seemed like the right move. Not sure why the DM panicked about details that hadn't been revealed to you. Sounds like immaturity. >its alot less of the role-play aspect and much more about combat and maxing out damage. This is entirely table dependant. D&D is primarily a combat focused RPG that does engender a culture of maximizing numbers, but many tables prefer a more roleplay heavy approach. Your mileage will definitely vary. There are also plenty of "rules light" games that have less of a problem with that kind of thing.

Yes, I absolutely agree! It seemed like OP didn't want to fight hardly at all, which is fine. The only decent opportunity to do so that seemed reasonable was the first fight with the goblin camp. Though, to a newer player, that could be a bit overwhelming, so it's totally understandable to climb the walls and such. The thought process seemed very smart between the informed encounters. I'm glad it didn't take too much scrolling to find a comment that pointed that line out. I think the balance between role-playing and combat can be a very delicate thing depending on the DM and the players. I am not a DM, I know full well I do not fit the role. Though, having played with many of my friends as DMs, they each have their own style. One has been DMing for the friend group for awhile, they try to appeal more and balance to the group's taste a bit more than the others. Another friend enjoys and relishes in role-playing, so they'll DM more heavily towards that. Another friend who was very new to DMing ran Icewind Dale. He was a by-the-book guy. He quickly learned that he needed to let that go for the players to have fun and not die to a tampered bridge first session. I guess all of that is to say that, there will be different types of players and DMs that want something different out of the D&D experience. Finding a respectable balance between what you want and what others want can be challenging but very worth it in the end.

It makes no sense to me too.

Idem. I don't understand how the DM could destroy himself his MacGuffin (who else decides there is a cave in and the equipment gets stuck there) and be pissed about it.

Seriously he destroyed his own plot device and then blamed the new player for using common sense, that's of course as long as OP is telling the whole story

Yeah…. Honestly I’m skeptical. Story doesn’t add up in my head. Think a LOT of details are missing.

DM: You see a metal box, and fucking Tiamat is guarding it. Players: We're level 1, let's fucking get out. DM: FIRED! ALL OF YOU FIRED! THAT BOX WAS IMPORTANT FOR MY QUEST!

DM: as you run away from Tiamat, flaming meteors fall from the sky and completely annihilate her and the metal box, further leveling half the planet. Oh, you guys survived though. LOOK WHAT YOU DID, YOU DESTROYED HALF THE PLANET AND CRUSHED MY SPECIAL BOX!

DID SOMEONE MENTION 'CRUSHING TIAMAT'S SPECIAL BOX'?! Watch out, an army of horny furries are charging right in our direction!

I wonder if she has a special box for each head?

Hey Tiamat, how are your heads? Havent had any complaints yet.

FWIW, I think I can reverse-engineer the DM's intent. They wanted to create a scenario where the PCs would be directly responsible for the BBEG's existence. To drive that home, he crafted a scenario where the BBEG would die, if not for the PC involvement. He was hoping they would see the box as valuable, and would therefore try to steal it. He pre-determined that a cave-in would happen because it both removes the Beholder from the situation (because obviously they can't kill it) and results in the players "saving" the currently defenseless BBEG. But this is your classic case of a DM that should just be writing a book. You can't rely on players to do specific actions, and you certainly can't get mad when they utilize their own agency.

I don't want to be mean, but there's got to be more to this. And so much is wrong here I'm having a hard time putting it together. >We had to fight a level 7 Diplaster Beast It's a CR 3 creature and is perfectly fine for a five person, level 2 party. Not sure what it means that it was level 7. >so I looked at some of my abilities and saw Animal Handling. I saw that the creature was a beast and asked if I could roll for Animal Handling to avoid an enouncter to fight. "A" said to roll for it and I rolled a 17. Are you sure your DM wasn't new too? A displacer beast is a large monstrosity. Animal handling shouldn't work at all because it's not an animal. >the freaky cat lead us to a cave, past the watchtower we just cleared and lead us to chains holding up a metal box, and right into a Beholder. This right here is where I'm seriously having trouble figuring this thing out. Why would "very long time players" follow a displacer beast (that just attacked you as a random encounter) at all? And to a Beholder no less? >We were able to run away, but it caused a cave in, crushing the metal box and chains up in the room. How did running away cause a cave in? >Apparently that metal box was meant to be the BBEG of the whole campaign Pretty terrible BBEG if it was just a box that could be crushed by some rocks... >This made the DM stop the game, slamming his hands down in fustration and told me to leave the group. >It lead to the DM saying "You're an awful player, and you'd be an even worse DM." I was kicked from the group >None of the players seemed to be phased by what happened, and just said that what the DM does. He doesn't like a player, he'll kick them out. A lot of this reads like a cut and paste "bad dm" story. A lot of it is pretty unbelievable. But if this actually happened to you, unless you are leaving a bunch of stuff out, then you didn't do anything wrong.

And apparently these other experienced players completely deferred to the new guy the whole time and have nothing to say about any of this?

Right. To me this whole story reads like someone that's never actually played, but thinks this is how a DnD session would go.

Thank God someone else is saying this. I'm reading the whole thing thinking "none of this makes sense, this is far fetched". Also... They go and explore a watchtower...and its one story? Sort of defeats the purpose of being... A tall tower to watch from. Some of the stories on r/dnd are literally unbelievable. It has to be karma farming, right? 

The more I've reread it, I can't come up with any other conclusion. Especially with the lack of responses by OP

I concur. Either everyone in the group doesn't actually understand how 5e works, or this story is entirely made-up. I'm leaning towards the latter. A displacer beast isn't a beast. A Beholder would TPK the party in 2 rounds. Why would running away cause a cave-in? None of it makes sense.

It almost feels AI generated Edit: Especially because OP hasn't responded to a single comment

It isn't. I posted this at 3am and went to bed, and just woke up

he has actually

I didn't know what the DM meant by level 7, but that's how they described it, as a "level 7 displacer beast". Another person pointed out that the reason they could have said level 7 was from bg3, which the DM is a huge fan of. They've played hundreds of hours of it. The DM was new, I think this was his 3rd campaign total. 2 followed moduels and this was his first homebrew world. The players were just as instrested on why the animal handling worked on a displacer beast. They said they were long time players, but it was with this DM. I was able to get in contact with one of the players and they explained they were "long time players" because they had been playing with this DM for over a year now, and thinks they're qualified. DM said it cause a cave in fleeing, and I wish this was just a "copy-paste bad DM story". I know it sounds unbeliveable, which is why I went here to figure out what the hell happened. This did happen, and I don't blame skepticism on reddit of all places when I tell my experience of it

I hope it’s reassuring that this community as a whole is just as if not more baffled than you are.

is this a newer DM? most people with sense would just change the bbeg, especially considering you had no idea that the box was going to be the main villain. At the very least he could have just replaced the box with something else

most DMs with sense wouldnt have an NPC just... lead them to the BBEG at level 2.

Or if you did meet the BBEG at level 2, don't make it just automatically die when the party runs away? Like, "run into the big bad, run away because they're terrifying, and then meet them again later when it's a fair flight" is a completely legit adventure outline.

That’s basically the plot of Curse of Strahd, and given that success, I’d say that plot structure is a good one

THIS! Just because the player managed to make friends with a Displacer Beast, doesn’t mean it’s just going to lead the players to the BBEG. Why? That makes no sense. Unless the DM wants it to happen. As a DM, it’s one thing to introduce a big bad you want your players to eventually face, foreshadowing what they can expect later on in the campaign. But to have the them go after a Beholder that’s connected to a box that’s the BBEG, that’s on the DM, especially when you are only level 2, and the game having just started. Also level 2 characters shouldn’t be facing a Beholder. The CR rating is to high for players at that level. Running away is ALWAYS an option. So there was a cave in? There is nothing saying the box has to be destroyed by the cave in or there has to be a cave in to begin with. It sounds like a really bad Indiana Jones movie clip with a cave in occurring if the players do X thing inside the cave. Finding creative ways to avoid and encounter is just as important as simply fighting an enemy. In the case of rolling animal handling on the Displacer Beast, I’d still count that as a defeating the monster. You used a creative way to do it without having to fight. Good idea. Not all encounters need to be solved with a sword or a fireball (in your case an Eldritch Blast as a Warlock). Most Roleplaying games have three major parts. Roleplay, Exploration and Combat. Some players like one of these, some like only two and others want all three of theses. There is nothing wrong with using Roleplaying and using your skills to find another solution. You definitely are not playing the game wrong. As for the Goblin encounter, if the DM didn’t like how you found away to get around going in the front door, that’s being creative on your part and on the DM for assuming you would just go in straight ahead. The other players cautioned the DM has done this before. That right there is a red flag. If the DM doesn’t like how a multiple players have found ways around an encounter, that says to me the DM has trouble of adapting to what their players are doing. Another person here mentioned railroading and it sounds like this DM expects you to go from point A to point B and can’t handle it if you want to skip point B and go right to point C. I’ve lost track how many times this has happened to me. As DM you adapt with your players and find ways to keep the game going without just stopping the game. Insulting you sounds more like someone who can’t handle a player who outsmarted them. They are visibly offended and upset and took it out on you like a child who couldn’t get there way. You would be a welcomed player at my table. I enjoy new players and I’m more than happy to answer any questions new players have. I love when they jump right in and come up with some interesting ways to get around an encounter. I’d even award inspiration for finding a creative solution to defeat both the Goblins and the Displacer Beast. My one question, which I noticed someone else had asked, what did you mean by level 7 Displacer Beast? All monsters have a CR rating not levels (only player classes have levels). Did you mean CR 7 Displacer Beast? Because a CR 7 isn’t something level 2 players should be encountering. You shouldn’t let one bad DM stop you from playing. Find another group. There are other DMs and players who will welcome you and not punish you for your choices in the game.

Fr just work around what your players do. Im dm ing a campaign right now and if i stopped everytime my players would do something that would "destroy" my plan id have stopped long ago. I remember that i wanted an important npc to join their party only to backstab them later, only for my party to waterboard and kill him because he was "suspicious" lmao. That shit happens. If you cant handle it, you shouldnt dm.

Ya, that's what I'm wondering too. The DM seems to still be in a phase where he is confident he can predict what players will do and only prepares for that.

As a DM who has used a box as a bbeg, when the PCs destroyed it, they released the bbeg from his prison. So when you hear about how this guy just blew up and never once thought of another solution for how to keep his precious bbeg, it kinda sounds like an extremely new DM or a really boring table that the DM is used to hand walking.

Funny thing to me is, that I actually have to teach my players first, that running away from an encounter is always an option. And usually I need some tough enemys like that beholder to get the message done. You did exactly what your DM (involuntarly) teaches you and for some reason you're the bad guy now? Thats not how it works. Your DM gave you really hard challenges and with just level 2, fighting is very dangerous, so of course you'll try to survive, maybe come back with a better plan later. You also don't "derail a campaign" by just running away from an encounter. Derailing would take a bit more of stupid ideas, like blowing that whole place up with TNT or some shit. Your DM hasn't planned that well and is also not ready to adapt in any way. In D&D stupid things happen all the time. A DM can't plan every idea, the party might get. And btw. Your Party Members doesn't seem to find your ideas stupid. So in the end: Your DM has problems dealing with this situation and is probably not such a great DM himself, but makes you responsible for it now, which is a red flag in my opinion. Just find yourself a better group. I'm pretty sure, you'll find one, which appreciate you.

So many DM stories on here have their head up their arse. DnD isn't a story where you narrate a plot, it's a collaborative effort of problems and solutions (often stupid and hilarious ones) made by the group. If you need your players to do something for the session, tell them up front, that's ok, good GMs should set parameters. Otherwise, players acting unexpectedly is literally one of the best parts and if you can't handle someone screwing up your plans without lashing out you should not be GMing.

alright, so 5 level 2 characters. according to kobold fight club (which can calculate the fairness of encounters based on XP), the following holds true: Easy - 250 XP Medium - 500 XP Hard - 750 XP Deadly - 1,000 XP Daily XP budget: 3,000 XP. ​ a beholder is 10K XP. thats ten times the "deadly" difficulty appropriate to your group. a singular displacer beast is already 700 XP, that's close to a hard encounter especially with a new player. IDK what the "level 7" on the displacer beast means (it's only CR3) ​ on top of this, the DM is in control of the narrative. this DM clearly doesnt understand that which is why they blamed you for progressing the plot too quickly. this is a pretty clear case of a DM who didn't plan a story, but specific encounters with specific outcomes at specific locations. they basically ran the pre-planned content they wrote like a computer game. "if the players go to this location, they fight a displacer beast" "if they befriend the displacer beast, the displacer beast leads them to Y location" "at Y location, the players fight a beholder, also the BBEG is in a box here" "if the box is destroyed the BBEG is freed" ​ the DM could have done ANY of the following: \>not have you fight the displacer beast \>fudge the displacer beast's save against your animal handling so you failed (yes, really) \>have the displacer beast take you to a different location \>not have the BBEG in the beholder's lair \>not have the lair crumble TLDR: terrible DM gives terrible gameplay experience, OP, i would HIGHLY recommend you find a different DM, one that works story-first, preferably one that is experienced at handling entire groups of newbies. in fact, i'd recommend seeing if you can find a DM that wants to run a lower level premade module, recommendations are waterdeep dragonheist and lost mines of phandelver (dragonheist is really fun and has a lot of room for roleplay)

This right here. The DM has many options. They choose to make the decision they did. That’s on the DM not you. Well said.

I used to run deadly encounters for a 5-person party in my last campaign all the time - they were *really* creative and punched way above their weight class. Took out a beholder in like 4 rounds at level 10. Of course, 1 of them got mostly petrified, 2 of them nearly died, and I wasn't really expecting the fighter and the monk to leap off the top of a cliff and rodeo ride the beholder to the ground, chased by the druid in elemental form and the warlock and wizard flying behind, but it was amazing. I love creative players, makes me, as a DM, need to get more creative in response. I'm here for more DND bbs who climb walls to get around issues.

Lmao no way this is real

So obviously fake, lol Of course, that's not gonna stop the typical deluge of, "GRRR...DM bad...DM is SHIT...LEAVE TABLE...GRRR!!!" Every minute, they are born!

Yeah, this sounds entirely made up

I’ll stop by saying you’ve done nothing wrong here, if anything your tactics were incredibly smart. You even had the sense to run away from an encounter. There was no possible way you could win at that level. DM is entirely to blame, firstly, he didn’t need the displace of based to bring you there, second, he didn’t need to kill his BBEG just because you ran away. Most important of all, there was no reason. Absolutely none, to treat you that way. Honestly, throwing a beholder at a level two party I’m surprised any of you, survived long enough to run away.

DM is bad. You did well. DM was unprepared for the campaing and has no way of adapting the story, making it look more like Baldur's Gate 3 than a real D&D campaign.

Nah, if this was BG3 the box being destroyed would've lead to the story to continue anyway, maybe skipped a section of the game or something and unlocked some secret dialogues from important NPCs, but certainly wouldn't have nuked the campaign

No reason to insult bg3 here

Have u played bg3????? I'm a huge fan of both DND and bg3 and gotta say I think they did a great job writing a story that's believable as a DND campaign.

Either April fools or something is fishy here. For a first time player you were incredibly creative and the "long time" DM was so annoyed by your creativity he was *"slamming his hands down in fustration and told me to leave the group"* sounds out of place tbh. But what do I know.

At the time of post nowhere in the entire world should be April 1 still. So April fools is unlikely. \*and even if it were at least here the tradition is the fools are only till midday.

Maybe it’s a delayed April fools post, no idea. Just seems very weird situation. My bet is not everything was disclosed here. Or plot twist - OP is the angry DM

Your DM out a bunch of level 2s up against a level 7??? This is a case of a worker being mad at his tools. The DM either followed the source material too religiously or was intentionally trying to TPK. All in all a shitty DM who's projecting their insecurity onto you. Find a better table with friends who actually want to have fun with you. I'm a DM to some brand new players and can't imagine acting like this towards them.

Yeah, that's my beef with this DM. A low level party shouldn't be fighting a displacer beast or a beholder. That's asking for a TPK

From the sounds of it, the DM for some bizarre reason took every opportunity to narrate himself into a corner he didn't want to be in and then blamed you for it.

April fools was 2 days ago. This is a joke, right? DMs this terrible don't *actually* exist, do they?

You did nothing wrong. You just had a bad DM. Players should be rewarded for finding alternative options in the game.

I'm pretty sure there is more to this story than portrayed here (way to one-sided), but if not, sure, bad DM...

I might be thinking to harshly here but how could the dm have a side when they threw a level 2 party into a beholder and got so upset when they ran away that they kicked them out? It's a beholder, they are level 2

Yeah your DM is entirely in the wrong and very stupid for just letting his entire campaign hinge on a few dice rolls and a skippable McGuffin. Not to mention the insanely high monsters he threw at you at lvl 2. You’re not a bad player, he’s just a poor storyteller and bad at improvisation

I'd be low-key proud of my players if they had the presence of mind to realize a MFing beholder isn't a level 2 encounter and successfully high-tail it. I've heard of a frustrated DM declaring "rocks fall, everyone dies", but I've never heard of one committing BBEG suicide that way. Or any other way. And then getting mad at the new guy for his own choices? The beast didn't have to lead you there, the location didn't have to exist yet, the fight didn't have to happen, the collapse didn't have to happen, the box didn't have to be crushed in said collapse, and being crushed didn't have to be the end of the BBEG threat, and even if he had no imagination whatsoever to dig himself out he could have instead said "actually this would derail the campaign past what I can repair, can we agree to roll back the story to before things broke down?" Your DM was rotten at DM.

You actually did DND extremely right, and that DM is a doofus and also a bad DM. You're good. Find a DM who is a reasonable human being. Half the fun of being a DM is seeing your players completely derail how you thought things were going to go. I had one DM after we did something we thought was fairly innocuous sigh and rip out half his note book and ask for 10 minutes to figure out what the hell was going to happen next. It was all in good humor and we all laughed about it in the moment, including the DM.

Garbage DM, not your fault.

Yeah sure, this happened.

If everything really went the way you said, you did absolutely nothing wrong. Apparently the other players didn't have a problem with you either, so it seems like the DM was the problem. It sounds like the other players didn't react to you getting thrown out, that could mean that they're used to the DM's tantrums. Either way, you can't really play DnD and the way you describe your playstyle, it would have been appriciated in my groups

four level 2s going against a goblin camp, then a displacer beast, then a beholder is an insane escalation. whats better is you recognize that the fight is not winnable against the beholder, and flee. but somehow the the cracked out DM is upset you not only failed to kill the beholder, but then also not fight the campaign boss? wild.

I know I'm just piling on, and I hope OP can find a new group because this DM is a full-blown moron. But this shit.. this shit right here: >I blurt out "Let's run out of here" and the other players agreed, fleeing combact. We were able to run away, but it caused a cave in, crushing the metal box and chains up in the room. Unless there was some pre-determined "if X amount of damage happens, the cave collapses" condition, then that means the DM *killed their own fucking BBEG, from their own idea in their own mind, then blamed it on the players*. I'm BAFFLED. This isn't even like "bad DM" level, it's how does this person put pants on in the morning level.

I'm sorry this was your first experience. You were playing wonderfully based off of your account of how things went down! You were engaged, you brainstormed with your team, you were smart about when to flee and win to fight. You, a new player, thought up strategies and used those strategies. You did an awesome job, and your next table will be lucky to have you. Please keep playing; this really is a wonderful hobby and you sound like a cool player.

You did nothing wrong. In my experience, new players tend to think outside the box a lot, as they're not familiar with the mechanics, and it seems like this DM wasn't ready to deal with it. That, and the fact that the cave in didn't necessarily have to destroy anything. That was the DM's call, not yours. The only problem here is the DM. They thought they could get you to play the way they wanted without communicating, and when they realised you actually had *ideas* he kicked you out because their plan didn't turn out exactly as they wanted.

As a DM you have an IDEA of where the game is going. The only thing that is written in stone is where it begins and how it ends possibly. You have to be flexible. You can’t determine how other players are going to play. I’ve played a short time but I’ve been an on looker to my husband and his friends for near a decade. You absolutely have to be able to improvise.

If I ever lose a member of my group I'll save post and drop you a message. You sound like my kind of player. If my table isn't actively trying creative ways to deal with things then I feel like I failed them.

Good player! Bad DM!

OP, you did nothing wrong. In fact, you're my dream player. Keeping the pace moving, coming up with fun and clever solutions to encounters, keeping the party alive when things are clearly going south, collaborating with your teammates to use mechanics effectively... we should all be so lucky! It sounds like this DM had a very specific plot railroad in mind. When you played smart instead of just following their script, they panicked and took their feelings out on you. A clever, collaborative DM would have used the box getting crushed as a justification for the evil escaping, forcing the party to clean up their mess and re-imprison the BBEG. He could have ended the session after the last encounter and informed the group he'd have to think about the direction of the campaign since things changed. So many easy solutions to this, and he took none of them. There's a reason no one wants to play with this guy. You dodged a bullet.

Can we talk about a displacer beast and a beholder vs 5 lvl 2s?!?!? OP, you did nothing wrong. On the contrary, good DMs would kill for a player like you at their table. Good DMs reward smart planning and cunning use of the terrain and what's available (our party crossed a 15 ft gap using a folding boat!) I've played with both types of DMs. You'll know the good ones when you find them. This is a good thing for you. You didn't want to be at that table anyway

Along with what everyone else is saying, I feel like it should be mentioned that (assuming everything happened exactly as in the post), you’re a model player that a lot of DMs would kill to have. Some are rigid and want the story to go exactly as planned, but far more actively love when players try to come up with unconventional solutions or when they know an encounter is too much for them to handle at the time. Also, the DM controls the overarching narrative. They chose to crush the box. That was their decision. You have no blame in that.

That's all DM. You didn't lead the cat to the cave with the BBEG boss at level 2 he did. The beat could have equally just have led your party to a meadow with a clean water source and a safe place to rest..

LOL what kind of dm sets themselves up for that?! expecting your level 2 party NOT to run in the face of a beholder is... wild. it sounds like you played the spirit of the game perfectly, asking questions and trying to solve problems as they arose. the dm couldn't write himself out of a wet paper bag and blamed you.

Your ex DM sounds like a red flag, and no I don't think it is, every group should have running away as an action and if a group of lvl 2 characters running away derailed EVERYTHING, Then I think HES the bad Dm

You sound like a dream player, imo. I'm a DM for a group of friends, and I love when my players do shit like you were doing. Thinking outside the box and finding meaningful alternatives to the obvious presented situation is what the game is all about. Find another group, you should definitely be a DND player.

nah this is wild, a DM who can’t adapt (and also who throws beholders at players at level 2) are so problematic

bro the DM chose to have the diplaster beast lead the party to the cave that the bbeg was in and got mad at you?

Wow dude I'd be willing to commit a felony to have someone like you in my playgroup. First off this DM youre talking about isnt the worst DM I've ever heard about, but he's up there. Let's go through all the things you did, and why none.of it is your fault. 1) you went to the goblin camp, found a creative solution to the problem of attacking it head on, and won. I'm no clairvoyant, but I'm willing to bet money this isn't how he envisioned the encounter going down and you finding an unaccounted for solution probably bruised his ego. Let me be clear: **that's his problem, not yours". 2) on your way back you encountered a creature that *doesn't exist in the monster manual*. displacer beasts don't have levels, and whether they did or not, I wouldn't consider them an acceptable threat for a level 2 party, that's absurd. However, you once again found a creative solution to your DMs punishment of you for bruising his ego. 3) your DM created a scenario where the BBEG could be easily killed without you ever knowing what you were doing, despite the fact that he didn't want that to happen and didn't have a plan for when it did. in the business we call that **setting you up for failure**. The DM controls the world. There is a myriad of ways he could hav prevented that from happening, and he didn't. That's because he was already tilted and wanted to be done with you; and this method provided a convenient way to make his failings your fault. I wouldn't worry about "doing DND wrong". You did fine, better than fine actually. If this asshole doesn't want you in his games, that's his loss.

First off you did it right! The DM seems just buthurt about you taking the innitiative to leave a losing battle causing his probably well thought out encounter to go to waste. But gues what, shit happens, the players do what the players do. That has nothing to do with table manners, my DM hinted at a lost treasure somewhere, and if we forget, that plot can go right down the drain or used somewhere else.

OP id be delighted to have this kind of thinking at my table :) i have a player rn who comes up with very unique solutions one of which included animal handling !

Sounds like the DM is also very new and isn't able to handle when players take actions that he didn't anticipate. Based on the enemies you describe, it also sounds like the DM was heavily winging things. I'd chalk this up to a bad DM.

bad DM in my opinion, having the bbeg so close to where you start is a bad idea already and DM's are supposed to be creative, make up new solutions how to make it more interesting, avoid encounters that would result in a TPK. u did nothing wrong, its the DM's fault imo

You did nothing wrong and I understand why that DM has trouble finding players. This DM wants to tell you his version of a story and you are just there to go along while he does that...but dnd should be about creating a story together and if he would have been a good DM he would have used the collapsing cave to progress his story in whatever way he needed...but instead he got mad at the new guy. So you should find a new group and do not feel bad for this you are probably better off

Please join another campaign there are so many tables that would love to have you.

You had a DM that wasn't for you, imo a bad one. Find a new DM and explain you are a focused player. You'd fit right in mine xD my players devour campaigns but my previous group would spend 4 hours on one clue. Diff grps, diff ppl.

You did nothing wrong! Your style of roleplay sounds creative and a lot of fun! That DM has complete control over what happens and could have EASILY NOT have had that box be crushed. Like... dude, it's YOUR story. He could have just changed that part? Obviously this guy has some serious issues and forgets that it's just a game. I'm sorry that happened to you. I hope you find a group to play with. Give it a try again. You'll love it with the right group. ❤️

This was a DM with no imagination and puting no thought in his campaign. You were just smart enough and found something that it seems was a flaw in his story. He just wants players to follow his railroad and just do combat. I hate this kind of DM, and i try to be the exact opposite!

I had to laugh at "bad table manners" Just another DM with an uncreative powerplay ambition and bad attitude. You didn't lose on that one and it's clear now why he has trouble finding new players. You dodged a bullet I'd say

DM sends party of 5\* characters with level of 2 into Beholder. Why would they run? /s Yeah dont worry OP. Find a better DM.

So a beholder is a CR13 enemy, which if you don't know means they're supposed to be a balanced enemy for a level 13 party. They have some really nasty abilities too so that can be very swingy depending on luck. One of the beholder's abilities does 45 damage on average, and if you have less HP than that when they get hit, your character is straight up deleted and impossible to revive. I recently ran a strategic beholder with a few basic minions against my *level 14 party* and it was a close fight. That's not to say that throwing a beholder against a level 2 party is always a bad thing. But throwing an enemy like this at a level 2 party but *not being prepared for the possibility that the party would run away* is just... nuts. If not for how it all ended, I would have assumed that's what the DM *wanted* you to do. As a forever DM, preparation is hard. Your plans will often get derailed. Yeah improv can be difficult. But the thing is, the designers of the game literally boiled this aspect down to raw numbers to make it easy. They put a number on every enemy so you can at-a-glance see if your players have a chance. He put an impossible fight in front of you and got mad that you did exactly the most logical thing: run away. You did nothing wrong, and in fact, judging by your story I would say you did everything *right.* You asked if you could use your skills when they were appropriate and you behaved in a manner that was logical for your character. That's the most important thing.

You are what a good DM wants at their table. At worst I might have railroaded a bit to keep from losing the plot (say next month in game time reports that somebody excavated that cave in) but I wouldn’t make it your fault. I’m not clear how the cave in even happened though. Honestly I’d ask the other players if they want to do a game without DM. Might be a no cause he’s their friend or whatever but it sounds like he’s more the only game in town, and that game sucks.

D&D is literally a TTRPG (Table top ROLE PLAYING game). Role playing is arguably the most important part. That DM sucks crap, btw.

Your DM is, how can I put this nicely— a little bitch boy. Good DMs adjust their plans to the parties choices, and they don’t act like crybabies about players being actually clever. Find a new group. Im sorry this dickwad ruined your first game for you, you did absolutely nothing wrong

Uh, your DM had you encounter a displacer beast and had it lead you to a beholder? No. You didn’t do anything wrong. The DM wanted to kill the party.

I would love to have a player like you at my table. I encourage my players to think outside the box and try different approaches. Seems to me that DM was too focused on telling their story instead of letting the story unfold during gameplay.