When attempting to connect to a SQL Server 2014 or SQL Server 2016 using SQL Server Management Studio 2012, you may encounter the following error:

Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio

An exception occured while executing a Transact-SQL statement or batch. (Microsoft.SqlServer.ConnectionInfo)

Additional information:

VIEW SERVER STATE permission was denied on object 'server', database 'master'. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 300)

Apparently, this is a known bug when using Management Studio 2012 to connect to a newer version of SQL Server: https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/791630/cannot-view-properties-of-database-when-using-db-owner-account.

The solution is to update to at least SQL Server Management Studio 2014 (12.0.4213.0 or newer should work).