Wow. Now I see why they say DM is so brutal.

I wouldn't say that's "brutal" so much as "these enemies have slightly more powerful brains than your average goldfish".

So? Even if they are intelligent and powerful, why does he need to roll a will save against fear? Does he have a flaw for that? If not, it seems like the equivalent of saying: "Okay, you arrive at the building. At the front, you see two armed soldiers. Roll to see if you s**t your pants."

Fairly certain he does have a flaw for that.

Well, Usopp does wear brown pants.

Usopp's assorted flaws pretty much DO require him to roll fear saves versus pants-shitting at the sight of an enemy.

Eh, why should this be considered brutal? The fishmen aren't really completely unintelligent monsters, are they?

From what we learn later, they seem more or less on par with humans. So unless it directly relates to their physiology (is their vision not so good, at least above the waves?) then yeah, this seems generous given how DM has been portrayed. She had them see the boat but none of the players.

It's not so much about the intelligence of the fishmen as much as the constant debuffs and hindrances she assigns. The way she runs the campaign, it seems like she's just doing everything in her power to make it harder for the group.

You're being unfair here. Usopp has a flaw that makes him roll a will save against fear in many situations. The other GM made him roll a lot too.

I mean, I'm not defending DM here, but this page simply doesn't show us any brutality.

Yeah, AK mentioned that.

Well, this is certainely not " insane KillerGM logic" brutal, or "Risk of PCdeath brutal"
but making them come across a bunch of fishmen (who are known to be a OP species)right after a trip involving sharks to get one player away, and fanatstic gangrene to keep their best tank (and the player who happen to know best how she DM) weakened...
Basically the whole thing set-up Phil, who is doing this for the second time of his life, and can't go into melee, and Dan against the enemies.

It's also not really fair to complain when Usopp is so cowardly in the actual show. This takes the actions of the show verbatum, so yes Phil is going to be doing alot of rolling.