Player is not satisfied with difficulty /u/Beduel DnD: Roll for Initiative!

Writing to get some perspective.

A player just left a campaign of mine because he felt it was too difficult. Which normally I wouldn’t argue with, but I don’t feel is warranted in this case and I wanted to hear some opinions.

Preface: Normally I use ability checks to decide whether players are succeeding or not in something. Anytime it makes sense to me and there are stakes, I resolve the scene with ability checks. I dont ask for multiple ability checks unless we are in a tense situation, like combat. Out of combat/with fewer stakes I need one ability check per meaningful interaction. No trivial tasks, only with actual stakes and where failure can be interesting or can result in a expenditure of resources. I have already explained this to my players.

One example.

Fight scene, fully rested. The only fight of the session. 2 players: bard, sorcerer and 1 npc: paladin. We rolled for stats, so they are all above the curve. Level 6.

They are sleeping in a cart with a couple horses. One of the player is on watch duty. Rolls perception: 6.

I describe a flame arrow hitting their cart. The cart is on fire. 6 bandits approach. Initiative is rolled, no surprise round because I didn’t want this to be too difficult.

This fights has a couple gimmicks.

I explain that we are starting with 2 fire tokens on the cart and each turn they are increasing by one. If they reach 5, the cart is destroyed. They can put out the fire removing one token by spending an action and rolling a slight of hand check with difficulty 12. With zero token the flame is completely put out. They can also use ice/water magic (only slots, no cantrips, meaningful for transmute spells) to put out the fire without having to roll, removing multiple tokens based on the level of the spell.

Once the fire is put out, the two horses are scared by the fire and need to be calmed down with an action and an animal handling check, difficulty 13, or they will run away. Once that is done is just the bandits.

So 6 bandits total, +fire gimmick +horse gimmick.

They were able to put out the fire completely by the second turn and kill most of the bandits by turn 3 and save the horses.They took some damage: around 20 point of damage the bard and around 9 the sorcerer, 8 the paladin.

They win, they are able to capture one bandit but two bandits escapes. The sorcerer, who kept complaining throughout the fight, states that those were too many ability checks and everything is too difficult and he’s not enjoying himself. I tell him that we already discussed this and I’m open to discuss difficulty again after the session, but it didn’t feel too difficult to me. He leaves the call.

I’d like to keep the post relatively short so In case you need more context I’ll edit or reply.

Opinions on this?

Writing to get some perspective.

A player just left a campaign of mine because he felt it was too difficult. Which normally I wouldn’t argue with, but I don’t feel is warranted in this case and I wanted to hear some opinions.

Preface: Normally I use ability checks to decide whether players are succeeding or not in something. Anytime it makes sense to me and there are stakes, I resolve the scene with ability checks. I dont ask for multiple ability checks unless we are in a tense situation, like combat. Out of combat/with fewer stakes I need one ability check per meaningful interaction. No trivial tasks, only with actual stakes and where failure can be interesting or can result in a expenditure of resources. I have already explained this to my players.

One example.

Fight scene, fully rested. The only fight of the session. 2 players: bard, sorcerer and 1 npc: paladin. We rolled for stats, so they are all above the curve. Level 6.

They are sleeping in a cart with a couple horses. One of the player is on watch duty. Rolls perception: 6.

I describe a flame arrow hitting their cart. The cart is on fire. 6 bandits approach. Initiative is rolled, no surprise round because I didn’t want this to be too difficult.

This fights has a couple gimmicks.

I explain that we are starting with 2 fire tokens on the cart and each turn they are increasing by one. If they reach 5, the cart is destroyed. They can put out the fire removing one token by spending an action and rolling a slight of hand check with difficulty 12. With zero token the flame is completely put out. They can also use ice/water magic (only slots, no cantrips, meaningful for transmute spells) to put out the fire without having to roll, removing multiple tokens based on the level of the spell.

Once the fire is put out, the two horses are scared by the fire and need to be calmed down with an action and an animal handling check, difficulty 13, or they will run away. Once that is done is just the bandits.

So 6 bandits total, +fire gimmick +horse gimmick.

They were able to put out the fire completely by the second turn and kill most of the bandits by turn 3 and save the horses.They took some damage: around 20 point of damage the bard and around 9 the sorcerer, 8 the paladin.

They win, they are able to capture one bandit but two bandits escapes. The sorcerer, who kept complaining throughout the fight, states that those were too many ability checks and everything is too difficult and he’s not enjoying himself. I tell him that we already discussed this and I’m open to discuss difficulty again after the session, but it didn’t feel too difficult to me. He leaves the call.

I’d like to keep the post relatively short so In case you need more context I’ll edit or reply.

Opinions on this?