Bad DM?

As much as I enjoy being able to play D&D, I do have this to say regarding the game with S as a DM.

From what I have been able to understand from reading various blogs or other sources, players of higher levels are supposed to be viewed--in the game world--as exceptional, almost god-like in ability.

Our group is level 18 and, by all accounts, powerful. The party consists of a Genadyeh (half-orc berserker barbarian), Krepsis (dragonborn champion fighter), Papeiros (firbolg druid of the land), Belneras (tiefling eldritch knight), Pinenut (gnome illusion wizard), and K'myr (tiefling trickery cleric).

By all accounts, we should be wiping the floor with almost anything that comes across our path or, at the very least, have some sort of renown or be well-liked by folks. We have none of this from DM S.

Both my husband and I feel the same at level 18 as we did at level 5, the level at which we started on this adventure. Not only this, but no matter what plan we pitch to our DM, whether in advance or on the fly, he always manages to make an excuse as to why we cannot succeed. Want to dig beneath a city? Nope, the city was blessed by the god of its namesake and as such has stone beneath it that extends downward indefinitely. Want to use your gate spell to summon a demon lord into the middle of town to busy the solar so you can infiltrate the castle? Nope, the solar wins without a single dice roll. Want to shapechange into a dragon and fly thousands of feet up to drop boulders onto the city? Guess what? Spears are managing to strike you, "because reasons."

I don't expect things to go our way all the time, but by that same token, things shouldn't be against us all the time either.

My husband and I have already agreed to sit down with him some time before the 2nd campaign starts. The game hasn't been fun in several weeks because of this counter-play; when S announced that our characters had been hired to bring down a government, it was the most excited I'd seen the table in a long while. We were making so many plans, and then backup plans for those arrangements. We came up with strategies and infiltration... every single one of those ideas was countered and every action we took resulted in the loss of a number of soldiers we had been given to help us in our mission. Granted, we were told it was a suicide mission at best, but.... come on. Level 18 for goodness sakes. The concept of, "Yes and...?" does not exist for DM S and it just doesn't sit well with either myself or my husband.

So wish us luck, yeah? We're really excited for our next characters and we don't want them to be bogged down by his pre-scripted baloney.