Summary

  • Dungeons & Dragons is not balanced for PvP, leading to unfair advantages and disadvantages.
  • PvP can lead to real-life conflicts among players, making the DM's role as mediator challenging.
  • Running PvP can be time-consuming, exhausting for the DM, and distract from the main narrative of the game.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons, since its inception, has🅰 always meant to be played as a cooperative roleplaying game. Some DMs and players, however, will fall into the vile temptation to engage in something known as PvP, or player-versus-player combat. Like so many other 🐲good ideas that came before it (eating an entire sleeve of Oreos for one), the decision to try out PvP often has dire consequences.

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However, if you're still lured by PvP's siren song, look no further than this list. I'm going to try to do my very best to persuade you to av🦩oid PvP at all costs. DMs and players, you've been warned.

10 𝄹 Balance Issues

Don't Upset It

A student being punished at Strixhaven in DND.
Detention via Wizards of the Coast

The first and most important reason DMs need to avoid running PvP is because, quite frankly, Dungeons & Dragons is not balanced for PvP in any way, shape, or form. The way 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:different classes interact with one another in combat can create some very unfair advantages for some and some disadvantages for others.🔴

For example, classes like monks that have stun abilities can often take wizards or bards out of the fight completely with one hit. Plus, obviously, players don't have things like Legendary Actions or Resistances that can be used to balance these kinds of fights. Overall, if you're considering running PvP, just know you're gonna 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:have to tweak rules to make the game actually balanced.

9 Intraparty Conflict ಞ

Fight, Fight, Fight!

A four person adventuring party with a dragonborn, elf, gnome, and human attempt to cross a river.
An Adventuring Party by Viko Menezes

When you're running PvP, whether canonically or non-canonically, it can be very easy for the players to turn on one another. I🧔t's easy to feel like someone's picking on you in combat, or that somebody else has an advantage thanks to the magic items they have.

When this happens, players can very easily start fighting above the table just as much as they are in-game. This is, obviously, not great for DMs to ౠhave to litigate. If you think, as a DM, it'll be fun to run PvP, just know you'll more often th෴an not end up having to calm players down.

8 🐭 Rules Lawyering 🤪

Point Of Order

A wizard studying a magic book in DND.
Magic Spellbook via Wizards of the Coast

The rules of Dungeons & Dragons are just that: rules. As a DM, you often have the final say in how something works. However, when it comes to a player's ability to do something against another player, this becomes far harder to🐓 litigate. Players in PvP will often start to rule lawyer and advocate for themselves to be able to do something that might make the PvP unfair.

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When a player advocates for themselves against an NPC or adversary, the experience is quite different. But when a player is arguing, they should be able to use a spell a certain way against another player; the stakes get a lot higher. This makes the w🍬hole table feel tense.

7 Playerไ Death 🐠

Now What?

Three adventurers gather around a burning funeral pyre in Dungeons & Dragons.
A Time of Sorrow by Alexandre Honoré

This next reason is mainly for non-canonical PvP one-shots. If players are fighting one another in PvP in a canon game, you're going to have to hope and pra📖y that nobo🌊dy's actually trying to kill each other, and this should be avoided at all costs.

However, in a non-canonical one-shot, player death can sometimes be the only way 🍬to tell 'who won.' However, when a player dies, they're often left out of the rest of the session. This can prove extremely boring and frustrating as a player, and this adds pressure on the DM to find some other way for them to keep playing.

6 🅠 Canon Ramifications

There Could Be Dire Consequences

A player character casts a protective ward in front of their party in DND
Intellect Fortress via Wizards of the Coast

If the🐈 PvP is happening in a🌺 canon situation, the consequences of PvP can escalate really fast. Players might suffer fatal wounds, lose magic items, and more. This can prove extremely frustrating as a player, especially if you're not the one escalating or initiating the PvP.

If you're absolutely hellbent on running PvP, I would highly encourage you to make it a n𝔍on-can🌄onical one-shot. At least, in this way, if everything goes horribly wrong, at least it's non-canonical and you can start fresh next session.

5 🦩 Endless Combat 🍎

Are We There Yet?

The Minotaur of Baphomet stalking his pray in DND.
Minotaur of Baphoment by Brian Valenzuela

This next reason g⛦oes back to the issue of balance with PvP. Because PvP isn't balanced correctly in fift𓆉h edition Dungeons & Dragons, combat between players can often go on forever. Dungeons & Dragons 5e is already plagued by long combat. You don't need to make it worse with PvP.

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Of course, some parties and tables are going to be more into long combat than others. So, for this reason, you can gauge if a long PvP session is actually right for you or not. However, most of the time, a five-hour coꦍmbat session isn't going to be conducive to a great DND game.

4 Starts To✃ Feel Personal

I Feel Very Attacked Right Now!

A warrior uses a firearm in Dungeons & Dragons.
Firearms by Chris Seaman

Again, regarding balance, martial classes like monks and fighters might soon discover they have an advantage over s💮quishier wizards and other spellcas♎ters. This can lead to PvP starting to feel very personal.

This tip honestly goes for all Dungeons & Dragons games, even ones that don't include PvP. When things happen in a DND game, it shouldn't be a persoℱnal attack on a player. It should always be about the characters. However, PvP blurs the lines between what's an attack on a character and what's an attack on a player, which can lead to a lot of anger and angst.

3 ꦺ Hard To Run ♎

The DM Has A Point Of Exhaustion

An assassin lurks around a corner in Dungeons & Dragons.
Assassin by Viko Menezes

Combat is always the trickiest thing 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:for a DM to run in Dungeons & Dragons. O✤bviously, as a DM, when it comes to PvP, you don't have to make any attacks yourself. But that doesn't mean that PvP isn't hard to run in its own right.

This♐ is because, more often than not, you're going to have to break up arguments, litigate complex rules, and much more. Plus, during PvP, players tend to love to privatel𝔉y ask you questions so as not to give away their strategy. This can prove time-consuming and exhaustive to keep track of, especially when it comes to secret strategies that players want to employ in combat.

2 Can't Keep The Party On Task

Often A Distraction

The Yawning Portal Tavern in DND.
The Yawning Portal via Wizards of the Coast

P🅺vP often feels like a distraction, whether it's canon or not. If the party has a goal they're avoiding with PvP, that can prove incredibly frustrating for a DM. In a non-canonical s🍷etting, it's often hard to justify why the party is engaging in PvP.

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Whet🔯her we like it or not, DND is at its best when there's some kind of narrative element going on. As a DM, it can be hard to narratively justify PvP, which often leaves the session feeling a bit tedious and aimless.

1 ꧂ Supports Targeted

Fun For Some, Not So Much For Others

A cleric attempts a raise dead spell surrounded by glowing white light in Dungeons & Dragons.
Raise Dead by Polar Engine

This last reason goes back to PvP feeling personal and balance issues. It's easy for support classes to feel like they're merely there to lift the other players. This never becomes more apparent than i🐲n PvP, especially if you're playing a battle royale scenario.

While paladins can usually make do, clerics and bards can often get the short end of the stick in PvP, particularly clerics. While there's no reason a cleric build can't be designed for PvP, most normal clerics often have more of a support build. If you ๊are going to run PvP with a cleric, try to find a way to justify why they might tweak their build to make it more balanced.

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Original Release Date
1974
Designer
🔴 E. Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson
Player Count
2+