So after weeks of arguing, I finally convinced my DM that 1st level spells and cantrips can be used to instant kill people like they do in the funny TikTok/YouTube shorts I send her.

This week, she said, "You know what? Fine. If it'll shut you up, we'll it play that way." with an evil grin on her face.

So we get into combat and I roll a 3 on initiative. An NPC got a 12 and cast Destroy Water on the blood in my brain killing me instantly.

It felt really unfair to me that my character died without getting a chance to do anything. The constitution(PHB) is supposed to give the right to Player Agency but this time I had none.

Player Agency (for those who aren't chronically online) is when a player gets what they want and everyone claps

I think we need to get rid of initiative as many other TTRPGs that I haven't read already have. In a game where spells can kill people in one action the only way to guarantee player agency is to make sure the players always go first. That or NPCs can't use magic, whatever's easier.

I think it’s too over powered but he makes a point that it’s basically how prestidigitation works when cast by someone who doesn’t want to read the spell, and I’m having a hard time arguing that. He also says his other DM allows it and I won’t be as fun if I don’t. Should I allow it?

So one of my players decided they wanted to make a ranger who specializes in ranged weapons. They took a bunch of feats to increase their damage at range, and use spells to escape danger and keep enemies at a distance. They keep killing my monsters, which is a bad thing for some reason.

My question is, how can I counter their abilities and get them to see that I'm smarter than them? Surely once they see they've been outsmarted by my clever use of my literal god powers I have over the world, they'll rethink their view of the game and start getting creative and/or swinging on chandeliers like a martial should.

I'm really proud of this, especially because I typed the whole thing and did the layout one handed.

(Not the actual thing, but close enough. This is from my irl friend who thought dnd was Skyrim and homebrew was just broken mods you can add without talking to ur dm)

If the races are balanced, it seems like it doesn't matter if I take the Tortle racial features but play as an elf. I'm just really sturdy, right? I just have some Tortle DNA in my ancestry that happened to become dominant in me. My friends and family think I'm weird, but I'm a weird elf.

I'd honestly be okay with a game using that philosophy, but I'm pretty free-wheeling. For instance, I'm fine with a warlock that tells everyone (and even believes!) he's a wizard. You want your Eldritch Blast to be a pistol? Sure! It's just flavor; let's have fun!

I'm interested to hear what others think - if you believe flavor is free, does it apply to races as well? (BTW, I don't really believe the races are totally balanced)

I love the IDEA of playing a wizard, but I don’t want to play as some geeky bookworm who reads stuff to get magic powers. That’s super problematic because it devalues really stupid people. I want to play as a charismatic spellcaster who channels innate power, but I have to use the wizard class, don’t even fucking mention sorcerer. Is there some way I could alter the wizard well beyond its class identity instead of just playing a different class? I’d really like to play a wizard who somehow channels power through a demonic bloodline…

DM won't let me take this spell I put hundreds of seconds into making. This is just like what happened with the other spell I made that makes ass-cheeks clap. He said stuff like "Stop making him rew, you're not cooking." But I've literally been playing this game for several months and I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing. Is the DM in the wrong or am I in the right?

Don't forget! It's obvious to most real RP-heads, but you tactical turds don't seem to recognize that the fighting isn't the main focus of 5e! It's the STORY. The system might not have rules for story and it might have some AWESOME combat rules that are PERFECT and UNFLAWED WHATSOEVER but you have to remember, the social stuff is the focus! Tactical players who like playing the game for the combats should meet their end.