Most nonsensical ban you've played under

[Vhaidara]

Not banning things like ToB or monks, but just weird bans.

My uncle banned Melf's Acid Arrow. The campaign was Core+1 and no one had noticed the Orb of X spells, and he thought that not being subject to SR was stupid.

In retrospect, he really wasn't a very good GM...

[eggynack]

Factotum, not because of anything like extra actions or even iajatsu focus shenanigans, but because applying your intelligence mod to strength and dexterity skills is apparently absurd in some fashion.

[torrasque666]

I think at this point we've banned Miracles. Not because they were OP, but because of the damn Shadowcraft Mage and his Miracling everything. So now NO-ONE GRANTS MIRACLES! MUWAHAHAHAH!

[ryu]

I was once at a table that banned making use of more than one notebook per session. I responded by purchasing one roughly an inch and a half thick and some bookmarks.

[Phelix-Mu]

A DM ruled that there'd be no xp, and anything that called out xp costs would substitute gold for xp at an exchange rate of 5gp = 1xp.

Now, I have no problem with this, per se. The problem is this was combined with a highly RAW-tolerant DM that liked to stick to the printed word, even when he'd altered a pretty elemental expectation of the game (that xp is a limited resource). Throw in that this was a campaign that started at epic and where we were encouraged to optimize, and some crazy stuff became apparent in short order.

The campaign would have lasted much longer if, when we showed him some crazy abuse of the gp for xp thing, that he'd occasionally said "no, that doesn't work." Instead, we basically drowned him in a sea of crazy optimization, to which he pretty much always gave the green light. He put on a brave face, tossing Jenova, DOOM monsters, and Hellgate: London stuff our way, among others. But by the time we got to the WH40K-verse with the Doctor in tow, everything had pretty much gone to pot. I cooked up a psion cohort that had access to an infinite power points loop and ways of generating cash for free, and that was pretty much the game. Oh, and the DWK sorcerer was possessed by a greater daemon of chaos, and got his hands on the TARDIS. That pretty much was instant TKO for the entire setting.

[CIDE]

snip.

Wow, I'm not the only one that had a DM that had the Doctor and 40k in the same campaign! We also had some comics stuff, some anime stuff, and at least one jedi in our's too.

[Phelix-Mu]

Wow, I'm not the only one that had a DM that had the Doctor and 40k in the same campaign! We also had some comics stuff, some anime stuff, and at least one jedi in our's too.

We were supposed to keep universe jumping, with the eventual goal of stopping Cthulu-Tharizdun Gundam thing that decapitated Ao (our original employer in the campaign), before burning the D&D multiverse to the ground. Unfortunately, daemon-DWK sorcerer got ahold of the TARDIS, which was supposed to be our way out of the WH40K-verse. That and no one wanted to get close enough for the daemon to holocaust us, because the DM had rather painted himself into the corner by making the holocaust mechanics totally game-stoppingly overpowered (no resist, no save, total soul obliteration dead, at a pretty stupidly long range, with no risk to the caster, since the caster was actually a daemon). So no one even wanted to try.

That being said, we still had one caster that had Epic Spellcasting (by the book mitigation included), and my character's cohort had Epic Manifesting. I'm sure if we'd put our minds to it, we could have countered, but we'd also ostensibly taken over an entire planetary assault by some orks (by mind-switching my cohort with the ork boss), in addition to having constructed our own little extradimensional fortress with which to carry around NI people with, if we wished (and the NI fortress was pathetically easy to create...we could easily have created more). Throw in my epic monk/wizard's crew of psi-reformed simulacra sporting sniper guns and stealth armour from Hellgate: London, and we could have probably taken down that daemon. But one of the character's was likely to die, and the campaign had reached the end of it's natural lifespan anyway (DM burnout and all).

Still, good fun while it lasted. I played a very LG monk girl that was determined to do her best to always do the right thing, in a campaign where that was occasionally totally impossible (as when Tharizdun decapitated Ao and we had to turn tail and run, abandoning the rest of the D&D multiverse to Tharizdun's soul-eating cronies). Excellent moral quandries, which are always fun when teamed up with high-optimization potential.

[heavyfuel]

This DM once banned the Ranger because he looked nothing like Aragorn

[Phelix-Mu]

This DM once banned the Ranger because he looked nothing like Aragorn

Whoa. That's kind of harsh.

[Vhaidara]

A DM ruled that there'd be no xp, and anything that called out xp costs would substitute gold for xp at an exchange rate of 5gp = 1xp.

Now, I have no problem with this, per se. The problem is this was combined with a highly RAW-tolerant DM that liked to stick to the printed word, even when he'd altered a pretty elemental expectation of the game (that xp is a limited resource). Throw in that this was a campaign that started at epic and where we were encouraged to optimize, and some crazy stuff became apparent in short order.

The campaign would have lasted much longer if, when we showed him some crazy abuse of the gp for xp thing, that he'd occasionally said "no, that doesn't work." Instead, we basically drowned him in a sea of crazy optimization, to which he pretty much always gave the green light. He put on a brave face, tossing Jenova, DOOM monsters, and Hellgate: London stuff our way, among others. But by the time we got to the WH40K-verse with the Doctor in tow, everything had pretty much gone to pot. I cooked up a psion cohort that had access to an infinite power points loop and ways of generating cash for free, and that was pretty much the game. Oh, and the DWK sorcerer was possessed by a greater daemon of chaos, and got his hands on the TARDIS. That pretty much was instant TKO for the entire setting.

We were supposed to keep universe jumping, with the eventual goal of stopping Cthulu-Tharizdun Gundam thing that decapitated Ao (our original employer in the campaign), before burning the D&D multiverse to the ground. Unfortunately, daemon-DWK sorcerer got ahold of the TARDIS, which was supposed to be our way out of the WH40K-verse. That and no one wanted to get close enough for the daemon to holocaust us, because the DM had rather painted himself into the corner by making the holocaust mechanics totally game-stoppingly overpowered (no resist, no save, total soul obliteration dead, at a pretty stupidly long range, with no risk to the caster, since the caster was actually a daemon). So no one even wanted to try.

That being said, we still had one caster that had Epic Spellcasting (by the book mitigation included), and my character's cohort had Epic Manifesting. I'm sure if we'd put our minds to it, we could have countered, but we'd also ostensibly taken over an entire planetary assault by some orks (by mind-switching my cohort with the ork boss), in addition to having constructed our own little extradimensional fortress with which to carry around NI people with, if we wished (and the NI fortress was pathetically easy to create...we could easily have created more). Throw in my epic monk/wizard's crew of psi-reformed simulacra sporting sniper guns and stealth armour from Hellgate: London, and we could have probably taken down that daemon. But one of the character's was likely to die, and the campaign had reached the end of it's natural lifespan anyway (DM burnout and all).

Still, good fun while it lasted. I played a very LG monk girl that was determined to do her best to always do the right thing, in a campaign where that was occasionally totally impossible (as when Tharizdun decapitated Ao and we had to turn tail and run, abandoning the rest of the D&D multiverse to Tharizdun's soul-eating cronies). Excellent moral quandries, which are always fun when teamed up with high-optimization potential.

I've never been able to put my finger on how to describe you Phelix, but I think I have an idea now.

You're Tippy's fluffy cousin...

EDIT: Quick note since I remembered that some people dislike the immortal Emperor. This is meant as a complement.

[heavyfuel]

Whoa. That's kind of harsh.

Yeah, he had this major beef with the Ranger because according to him, the first time he went to play D&D the description of the game was that it was "high power LotR". So like every fanboy, he went straight ahead for the Human Ranger and was met with nothing but disappointment. Spells? Animal Companion? Two choices of Combat Style, neither of which are like Aragorn's?

He told the story like you would tell a sad one, but the entire table was just laughing by the end of his tale.

[Somensjev]

i had a new DM who'd never played a proper game before, and he retro-actively banned my character from injuring a creature

Spoiler: basically what happened was

Show

"the creature attacks you"
"i get an attack of opportunity since it enters my threatened square"
"No. it's immune to your attacks"

and then later
"i cast a fireball at the creature"
"No. it's immune to your spell"

of course, these bans only effected me, since during the battle i watched others players hurt it with attacks and spells (one even used a fireball)

[Phelix-Mu]

I've never been able to put my finger on how to describe you Phelix, but I think I have an idea now.

You're Tippy's fluffy cousin...

*blush*

I am certainly not an unconditional Tippy fan, but I do greatly admire both the manipulation of RAW that he uses (nigh unparalled in my admittedly limited experience, even if I can't tell if it's legal or not), and the creativity of his Tippyverse model (even if I'm not entirely convinced that it is the *only* logical outcome of RAW in 3e). So this is praise of the highest order, to my ears.

Permission to add your compliment to my extended sig?

[Vhaidara]

Of course. I would not have said it if I did not believe it to be true.

[Sith_Happens]

My first DM banned the Grasping Hook from Dungeonscape, because it was a Zelda-themed campaign and he apparently thought that being able to throw a grappling hook really far was too much like a Hookshot (which he wanted to keep somewhat special). Of course, I immediately pointed him at the Rod of Ropes for being a direct Hookshot imitator with two other functions on top, to which he responded by keeping the Grasping Hook banned and not banning the Rod.

[Somensjev]

My first DM banned the Grasping Hook from Dungeonscape, because it was a Zelda-themed campaign and he apparently thought that being able to throw a grappling hook really far was too much like a Hookshot (which he wanted to keep somewhat special). Of course, I immediately pointed him at the Rod of Ropes for being a direct Hookshot imitator with two other functions on top, to which he responded by keeping the Grasping Hook banned and not banning the Rod.

i.. what?

404: logic not found

[iTreeby]

Today I met someone who banned dwarves. He just really hated dwarves.

[Story]

In 3.5: Traveler's Mount.

Because I calculated that we could go over 130 miles a day via Pony Express, outspeeding the airship that the DM wanted us to take.

In 4ed: Shifting (aka five foot stepping in 3.5 terms)

Because the DM couldn't be bothered to read the Player's Handbook and didn't believe that that rule existed.

[With a box]

I saw a dm that ban bard's cute wound line spell because he think arcane magic shell not get healing spells..

[torrasque666]

I saw a dm that ban bard's cute wound line spell because he think arcane magic shell not get healing spells..

Does he cause them? Or heal them? And are they butterfly and/or mahou shoujo shaped?

[Hand_of_Vecna]

I saw a DM ban, or I guess be mistaken about how something works and then made a impromptu huserlue when proven wrong, Perform working on instrument groups. This was of course after being incredibly condescending to the "stupid" person that mentioned the Perform they had ranks in.

[Hazrond]

I saw a DM ban, or I guess be mistaken about how something works and then made a impromptu huserlue when proven wrong, Perform working on instrument groups. This was of course after being incredibly condescending to the "stupid" person that mentioned the Perform they had ranks in.

ive had that happen before as well

[jaydubs]

1) It wasn't a game, just a LFG post, but was along the same theme of irrationality. The poster started out voicing a desire for a RP heavy game, but by 2 paragraphs in it had devolved into a rant about how cure light wound wands obsoleted clerics. People started asking why he felt that way considering clerics can do other things, and we finally figured out he had never actually played 3.5 or Pathfinder. It all stemmed from some kind of wand related trauma from playing D&D Online.

2) I've had a DM ban autohypnosis because being able to remember things was too powerful.

3) I had a DM try to nerf archery by making it really, really hard to buy any quivers. Edit: Okay, more a semi-ban, but it was just ridiculous that we went into major cities and all the blacksmiths just happened to have sold their last one. Come to think of it, he did the same thing with mules, because he thought inventory and weight tracking was the greatest thing ever.

[Diachronos]

Playing the Marvel superhero card game (basically like D&D but using cards for checks instead of dice) with one DM had him banning any powers that you couldn't "realistically" get from an experimental super-soldier serum. Some of them made sense, like Magic and Darkforce Control, but some were just stupid. He allowed Light Control (basically making light and lasers)... but not Shadow Control, which is kind of the same thing.

He also forced everyone to take limits on their powers that made it virtually impossible to run the ideas we originally pitched to him when rolling the characters. Or at least he did it with mine; if the guy with Kinetic Control can make a gun out of a hollow tube of metal and his finger with minimal effort, I see no reason why it should require the equivalent of several feats to have a miniscule chance of turning your character into water and being able to move yourself around when that's what you dumped literally all of your non-attribute points into...

[ryu]

1) It wasn't a game, just a LFG post, but was along the same theme of irrationality. The poster started out voicing a desire for a RP heavy game, but by 2 paragraphs in it had devolved into a rant about how cure light wound wands obsoleted clerics. People started asking why he felt that way considering clerics can do other things, and we finally figured out he had never actually played 3.5 or Pathfinder. It all stemmed from some kind of wand related trauma from playing D&D Online.

2) I've had a DM ban autohypnosis because being able to remember things was too powerful.

3) I had a DM try to nerf archery by making it really, really hard to buy any quivers. Edit: Okay, more a semi-ban, but it was just ridiculous that we went into major cities and all the blacksmiths just happened to have sold their last one. Come to think of it, he did the same thing with mules, because he thought inventory and weight tracking was the greatest thing ever.

Options 2, and 3 are easily solvable with fabricate. Man I love fabricate.

[AuraTwilight]

I've had a GM ban feats.

Like. The entire concept. From everything that wasn't a Fighter.

His reasoning was that since fighter bonus feats were a Fighter's only class features, no one and nothing else should have feats AT ALL.

It was a....interesting game to say the least?

[Svata]

Bards. Because "they're either useless or broken and way too versatile."

[Curmudgeon]

I had a DM ban everything from Eberron. We weren't playing in any particular setting; people were mixing Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, and Ravenloft content. The supposition was that Eberron stuff was "too strong" — while both the Wizard/Incantatrix and the DMM Cleric stacking Nightsticks were perfectly OK.

[nedz]

PrCs, because they are all flangey overpowered munchkinny non-sense — and then he allowed someone to play an Ur Priest. Eldritch Knight and Enlightened Fist were still not allowed.

[molten_dragon]

I had a DM ban characters over 3rd level once. They were too complicated for her.