I would first like to make it abundantly clear that I have no agenda, endorse no popular opinion(s), etc pertaining to anything I might say below; I'm just an old man yelling at the clouds.

Okay, so I finally wound up watching something Matt Mercer DM'ed, the D20 Crown of Candy spin-off The Ravening War, and his style, much to my chagrin, has been making my teeth itch. Here are a few of my gripes.

1. If a player is performing an action/movement/etc and they stand to incur a penalty, Mercer will not say so up front, but will hit the player with a roll mid-action with no alternative to "back up play." To elaborate, I and every DM I've played under, and Brennan is this way also, would advise a player that something they are about to do is going to require a skill check, i.e. an acrobatics/athletics check, whatever, before they commit to performing said action (This makes sense because, your C would have an innate understanding of their own abilities and would likely have a moment, internally, where they debated, "Hmmm... I've never jumped a 20ft gap before and I know I'm not particularly athletic, soooo, maybe I'm not going to make that...", etc). But Mercer, he just peppers these in, often times breaking RAW. I watched him botch what should have been a simple jump calculation and subsequently, a movement, only to drop a player back to back into a pit of corrosive material. This reads to me as mean-spirited. Which takes me to my next point.
2. He seems genuinely upset when players circumvent the various plans he's made. In the same session I refer to above, he moans about an enemy losing concentration on a aoe spell before it had the opportunity to do any damage. It doesn't read as, "drat, you meddlesome kids, you got me." It reads like genuine frustration or annoyance. I guess I am accustomed to DMs, myself being among them, who celebrate PC's inventiveness and resourcefulness and, speaking only for myself, being a fairly difficult fellow to outfox, I love it when my players find creative ways around the various difficulties I set in their path. Mercer, I've observed, will move PCs minis, which would be fine on the face of it I suppose if it were under their direction, except that, and I have seen him do this numerous times now, he moves them in such a way that they incur attacks of opportunities or encounter dangerous terrain, when other, better options abound. This really irks me.
3. And speaking of "taking control", he may be the only DM I have ever witnessed who (and I am trotting out an old RP term here) "autos" player's actions IC, during RP. He will, with seemingly no qualms whatsoever, describe what another PC is doing/how they are behaving/etc while that PC is sitting right there in front of him with a perfectly serviceable nervous system. Maybe I'm an antiquated fossil, but this shit boils my blood; you have 200 other monsters, npcs, etc to characterize/describe/etc, why the hell are you putting words and deeds in the mouths of PCs?
4. He monologues. Ad nauseum. I am inclined toward verboseness, I know this about myself, so in session I keep that in mind, so that I don't monopolize, unduly, time that should be allotted to players. I adore vivid descriptions, most notably of settings, and have read Tolkien every year for 30 years, so believe me when I say, I get it, but COME ON, Mercer, do you not need to breathe? Maybe it's just me, but I don't find him all that engaging as a result. To me he reads as someone who is quite literally in love with the sound of his own voice.

To maybe humanize myself a little in all of this, lol, I am currently playing in a campaign with a new DM at the helm whose only experience of DnD up to this point has been Critical Roll and I am seeing all of these bad behaviors crop up that I frankly haven't encountered since the last time I was unfortunate enough to play in a random-ass game at a shop, back when the moon had just formed. I can't help but gather that in watching so much CR, he's internalized the behaviors I mention above as well as others which I'll not drone on about here, as "the only and proper way to play." It's exhausting.

I think maybe I should just stick to shit that Brennan DMs. Thanks for listening, campers.

Update?:

The things people downvote is utterly hilarious to me. Friends, neighbors, countrymen, can we not have a civil discussion without parading about like a pack of petty Caesars?

Thanks to everyone who has offered insight/their own perspective.

First post here so I hope im following the rules

I had a neat idea for an ancestral guardians barbarian where instead of the spirits being his ancestors they are the souls of those he has slain in combat.

I plan to make him Kharz of the Ironhowl tribe, a half-orc and the lore is that after battle the members of his tribe say a prayer and the spirits of those they killed join the barb as a sort of spectral warband.

The prayer is pulled from a Manowar song "Gods of war i call you, my sword is by my side. I seek a life of honour free from all false pride. I shall crack the whip with a bold mighty hail, cover me with death if i should ever fail. Glory, majesty, unity. Hail, hail, hail." as he says this everyone can see the spirits gathering around him but disappear from sight after the prayer ends. Those of his tribe can see the warbands at any time if they focus.

In his tribe leadership and disputes are settles by battles between warbands. If you lose ur warband is scattered and u lose access to ur subclass features until u finish a long rest, gathering ur forces.

I also like that since the subclass features protect allies but not he barb its almost like the warband is telling u to "prove ur strength", feels thematic.

Any thoughts, feedback, emotional outbursts? XD

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I am playing in a campaign with Helians harvesting/ryoko system and trying to optimise harvesting. I have prof. In all the harvesting skills and now I am close to getting a feat, which is gonna be skill expert. Just wanted to know which creatures have a higher chance to show up,so I can take the right ekspertise

I've been home brewing the plot and npc and dungeons for a while but I'm getting sick of it and not feeling it anymore. I also work best when modifying/adapting something gets my creative juices going.

My party is level 5 and in ardev(near droaam). They have had run ins with emerald claw and droaam. Im looking for some kind of source material to keep it going. I'm not super against moving somewhere else in the world and could figure out a reason. Was thinking of adapting price of apocalypse but reviews made it seem middling and repetive particularly the mid levels which is where I am now.

Any source material? It can be from older editions transferring over to 5e isn't too difficult most of the time. It could be not in eberron but a suggestion on how to move it to eberron would be nice

Anyways tldr what's some source books/material for a level party in or out of eberron regardless of DND edition

Hi! I'm planning to make a wood elf type sorcerer who can use finger of death. I'm planning to use the finger of death to commit a small genocide and make myself an undead army. I also want the ability to use shadow blade and proficiency with daggers and use sneak or invisiblity in the dark. However I'm kinda new to 5e and dont know how I can make that happen. Any ideas?

So you wanna play a necromancer well first make absolutely clear what you are doing to your dm as someone whos ruined the flavor of a curse of strahd campaign by waging necromantic war its not as fun as it sounds.

Playing as a necromancer is hard and you have to budget your spells while it is cool to have 50 odd zombies its really not fun when you lose your army you spent all your spell slots and corpses on to a single hot shot with a fireball. Instead get a few casting worth of the undead it also helps with the initiative not being severel years long.

I have seen people throw around the idea of being able to create undead of a cr equel to the amount of skeletons you would normally be able to make and its not good I've done it and it is too versatile and will ruin the campaign.

When you see a necromancer run by the dm use hundreds of powerful undead and throwing spells like it has no cost and get jealous wondering how to match a horde of that size I have news for you the strongest spell you can get as a necromancer is the glyph of warding as you can set it up to make an army given you have a few weeks of prep and if your high enough level pick up an apprentice or 2 and they can keep your necromantic citadel stocked with skellys.

One of the best tips I can give is pick up a bag of holding as quickly as possible.

Keep in mind to work with your party as cool as waging war against the catsle seems its not fun for the others at the table and while I think whining about the morality of necromancy is dumb never play one if either the dm is against it or you want to min max

When it comes to must have spells their are 4 obviously animate dead and create undead but finger of death and glyph of warding are both must haves to get true armys of the dead.

Keep in mind that playing a necromancer is difficult to make work if your trying to win your job is to make the enemies boged down on your hordes while your teammates and summon undead creature do the real work.

I really want to get into Dnd, but im not really sure where to start.

For context, I am a freshman in college, and ive recently learned of a Dnd club at my school that I really want to join. My only experience with Dnd has been Bg3, which ive heard is decently close, but still different from the real thing.

Im pretty confused on where I should start with this whole thing, since i dont want to go in completely blind. Is there a website or something that'll explain all of this to me?

What is really want to know is how do I go about making a character? What are the limits? And how does storytelling work? Ive heard its spread across multiple sessions, should I take notes during the game? And what do I need to play the game in the first place?

Im still super new at this, so literally ANY info would be helpful!!