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Garian
2009-04-12, 12:35 PM
Everyone has them so post away.

One of my favorite moments was when my 3rd level party encounter a 10ft by 10ft endless pit with no way around. The halfling Rogue cralled across on a extending pole that could hold up to 50lbs. All other of the Charactars being medium had no chance of crossing this way.
Until the party wizard cast "Summon Monster I" and brought a Fiendish octopus who grabbed both sides to let them cross over the pit. I was expecting some creative way of getting over, but not that.
Best use of Summon Monster I ever.

A horrible party of 2 rogues :smallyuk:, 1 bard and 1 wizard. We could not sneak up on the Goblin cave because it was in the center of an open field.
So we used an illusion spell at the same time everyday for two weeks of different adventurers attacking the goblin cave entrance. Until the guards became so use to it that when we attacked for real, it giving the party the use of Sneak Attack we wanted.

Garian
2009-04-12, 01:30 PM
Another great moment was the discovery of this: http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Pun-Pun_(DnD_Optimized_Character_Build)
Under the assumption some of the ability's and monsters do exist, this is an awesome build.
You could do it at level 1 if you summoned Pazuzu and asked to be turned into a Sarrukh.
Love the idea but would never curse a DM with having to DM such a monster.

Deth Muncher
2009-04-12, 03:03 PM
Everyone has them so post away.

One of my favorite moments was when my 3rd level party encounter a 10ft by 10ft endless pit with no way around. The halfling Rogue cralled across on a extending pole that could hold up to 50lbs. All other of the Charactars being medium had no chance of crossing this way.
Until the party wizard cast "Summon Monster I" and brought a Fiendish octopus who grabbed both sides to let them cross over the pit. I was expecting some creative way of getting over, but not that.
Best use of Summon Monster I ever.

A horrible party of 2 rogues :smallyuk:, 1 bard and 1 wizard. We could not sneak up on the Goblin cave because it was in the center of an open field.
So we used an illusion spell at the same time everyday for two weeks of different adventurers attacking the goblin cave entrance. Until the guards became so use to it that when we attacked for real, it giving the party the use of Sneak Attack we wanted.

See, that's the kind of lateral thinking that makes DMs hate you. Why not just be like every other adventurer, only concerned with the killing of things and less with the creative solutions to problems? Or defaulting to trickery! Real heroes charge in headfirst, without fancy Buff spells or Sneak Attacks.

Baalthazaq
2009-04-12, 03:17 PM
See, that's the kind of lateral thinking that makes DMs hate you. Why not just be like every other adventurer, only concerned with the killing of things and less with the creative solutions to problems? Or defaulting to trickery! Real heroes charge in headfirst, without fancy Buff spells or Sneak Attacks.


I'm gonna guess that, and any response you ever give to the contrary, is sarcasm.

Edit: Nice trap! I salute you. :)

Keld Denar
2009-04-12, 03:25 PM
From a current PbP game.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5980842&postcount=207

That is all...

/thread

chiasaur11
2009-04-12, 03:32 PM
See, that's the kind of lateral thinking that makes DMs hate you. Why not just be like every other adventurer, only concerned with the killing of things and less with the creative solutions to problems? Or defaulting to trickery! Real heroes charge in headfirst, without fancy Buff spells or Sneak Attacks.


For what it is worth, Minsc and Boo agree with you.

Shadowbane
2009-04-12, 03:46 PM
My 20th level Auradin (paladin variant that I made) named Timir Randock facing down TWO balors with only his pegasi mount, Dawn.

He was also wielding a +5 Holy lance named Gungnir, and I rolled suspicious number of 20s. Spirited charge was...useful.

Another one would be when we fought a skull lord and two cloud giant zombies. The wizard nuked the room and killed the skull lord with Meteor Swarm (nuking our ranger and rogue as well, mind you.) I walked and I laid hands on the remaining giant. Used up 5 HP of my Lay on Hands. Killed it. (Same game session.)

Vorpal word
2009-04-12, 04:23 PM
I think I've already posted this on similar threads:

I was DMing a 1st level party the star of which was "Grukk", an orc barbarian with Strength 21 (when not raging).

The group walks into a cave filled with kobolds and comes to a bridge defended by six kobold spearmen. The idea was that the party simply shoves the puny kobolds off the bridge into the stream below for easy XP.

Instead, Grukk walks up to the nearest kobold and swings his greataxe while raging (adding "Grukk Smash!" as a battle cry)

And gets a natural 20 against a 4 hp kobold.

And hits on the crit threat.

And rolls 11 damage.

And gets 11x overkill (10 based on damage, plus the kobold failed the massive damage save).

Incidentally, said barbarian has recently smashed right through a city gate while escaping the place (it was a wooden portcullis, he killed it in one shot unarmed and riding a heavy warhorse). Which gave me an adventure hook since a tribe of gnolls used this to invade the city. :)

That just about sums it up!

kjones
2009-04-12, 04:32 PM
Everyone has them so post away.

One of my favorite moments was when my 3rd level party encounter a 10ft by 10ft endless pit with no way around. The halfling Rogue cralled across on a extending pole that could hold up to 50lbs. All other of the Charactars being medium had no chance of crossing this way.
Until the party wizard cast "Summon Monster I" and brought a Fiendish octopus who grabbed both sides to let them cross over the pit. I was expecting some creative way of getting over, but not that.
Best use of Summon Monster I ever.


Just for the record, you can't actually summon aquatic creatures in a non-aquatic environment. I might have allowed this anyway, since it was cool, but there are good reasons for this rule, so violate it at your own risk.

Garian
2009-04-12, 04:41 PM
Just for the record, you can't actually summon aquatic creatures in a non-aquatic environment. I might have allowed this anyway, since it was cool, but there are good reasons for this rule, so violate it at your own risk.
Are you sure? I can't find any rule against it. It just says you may summon this creature in an aquatic environment. Does magic not work in water or on land? You may not want to summon a dire rat 100,000 leagues under the sea, but you could. At least as far as I can tell. :smalltongue:

MeklorIlavator
2009-04-12, 04:44 PM
Are you sure? I can't find any rule against it. It just says you may summon this creature in an aquatic environment. Does magic not work in water or on land? You may not want to summon a dire rat 100,000 leagues under the sea, but you could. At least as far as I can tell. :smalltongue:

The specific line is this one:

Creatures cannot be summoned into an environment that cannot support them.
Found in the Summon Monster 1 description.

Apoc Golem
2009-04-12, 05:17 PM
There are just too many to choose from.

I'll go with my first Gnome Punt. We were a fairly low-level group (3rd, if I recall). I was playing a rather surly ranger (very backwoods-ish type) and the gnome bard would constantly follow me around asking a stream of obnoxious questions ("What's that?" "What are you doing?" "Where are you going?" "Why are you using an axe?" "What's your favorite color?" "What are you doing now?" "What are you doing now?"). I finally got so irritated I kicked her. Natural 20 on an unarmed attack. According to the DM, I punted her 30 feet down the corridor of the dungeon. Were there an NFL team in D&D, I think the ranger could have made it in as the kicker. :smallbiggrin:

I'll admit this choice of action had more than a little to do with the player. She purposely chose to play a gnome so that she had a reason to be that irritating. I have no regrets. :smalltongue:

Garian
2009-04-12, 07:00 PM
heh, First Gnome punt.

Zaq
2009-04-12, 07:13 PM
This wasn't so much a single incident as a series of them that led to an epic plot derail. (This is, for what it's worth, the campaign I'm DMing right now.)

So my concept of the world was that arcane and divine magic cause bad bad things to happen (called magical backlash, because we couldn't come up with a better name). Other magical things (psionics, pact magic, shadow magic, incarnum, etc.) are totally cool, but "normal" magic is really dangerous and illegal. The PCs were a party of special ops police force (the Royal Forces Eldritch Division, or RFED. Name chosen on purpose.) assigned to sniff out and stop illegal magic use.

This went well for a session or two, but then they were sent to investigate some strange and twisted plants attacking people in the national park located in the middle of the city (no doubt the result of some kind of backlash). Despite being warned not to, they kiiiiiinda set the forest on fire, then fanned the flames with huge gusts of wind trying to put it out. The entire city (well, 73% thanks to the d% roll) goes up in flames, causing massive panic and destruction. Did I mention that this is the capital city, and the largest city in the country? Yeah. So the PCs sit in on an emergency meeting by the RFED higher-ups in which they agree that, as a result of the state of emergency, they can recruit a high-level incarcerated magic user to stop the flames. I basically sit back and let the players discuss how to do this, and they hit upon the brilliant idea of allowing the naive baby treant druid they met (he was just spontaneously created a day or two ago, from magical backlash) in the forest to cast a scroll of Control Weather that they confiscated from a magic item smuggling ring. So they meet the treant and tell him to cast this scroll to put out the flames, promising him immunity from legal repercussions, and then they leave.

They forgot to tell him to stop.

So for two or three full days (I forget the exact caster level of the scroll), torrential rain covers the whole of the city, putting out the fires but flooding the entire city, leading to even greater citywide destruction and chaos. Imagine the 1871 Chicago Fire being followed immediately by Hurricane Ike. (Not quite Katrina, perhaps, but Ike at least.) Directly thanks to the actions of the PCs. Wait, there's more.

So the PCs, seeing their city in ruins and the government agency for which they work destroyed, round up as many civilians as they can and try to lead them out of the city into some kind of better situation. They have some tribulations on the way out of the city (taking care of about 200 refugees when there's not an ounce of help to be had is... difficult), but are doing fairly well. Suddenly, though, they're walking across what they knew used to be a gently hilly plain when they notice that they're above the cloud line. With no memory of having climbed any sort of mountain. The very geography of the earth had changed under their feet without their notice as a result of the enormous backlash caused by the 6th-level spell that they caused to be cast. Using their maps now was about as helpful as, to use a Zelda metaphor, using a map of the Light World to navigate the Dark World. Things are similar if you kind of squint, perhaps, but everything's changed. So what do my players decide to do? They decide to found a new town on top of the mountain. They argue, very convincingly, that a brand new mountain created literally minutes to hours ago would have huge amounts of untapped resources, and since I mentioned that there was a forest on the lower part of the mountain, they argue that there's food and water to be found there. Stunned, I agree, and they take a year off in game-time to set up a brand new town and get it settled.

They recently received word that, about a month after The Incident, the city was beset by several forces trying to capture it in its wounded and defenseless state, and that the two biggest factions vying for dominance are an enormous force of sahuagin and a group of illithids (and their thralls). Currently, they have decided to leave their town and try to reunite the entire country (which naturally fell into chaos when the capital fell... the modern concept of a nation has not been invented, after all) to build an army big enough to be capable of driving these two huge forces out of their capital city. The party leader (an Exaltedly good type) has declared himself a duke and plans on becoming king of the new country that results from this reunification.

So yeah. From an urban police beat game to a refugee scenario to nation-building and army raising. All as a result of what the players wanted. I just went with the flow. You can see why I couldn't limit this to a single incident.

Apoc Golem
2009-04-12, 07:32 PM
Wow. Just.... wow. That's awesome.

Froogleyboy
2009-04-12, 07:57 PM
Well... I got one. Its not funny or anyting but i enjoyed it.
I was grounded for my grades so it was my last day playing. We were battling a mindflayer lich and his Cyclops minions. one cyclops had a +3 great sword so i cast " quickend poly-morph any item" and transformed and transformed the sword to a goblin. I then cast "control monster" (i think) and commanded the goblin to come to us. on my next turn (right before the goblin transformed back to a sword) I said "Now my friends, I shall be with you for every battle" and used "true mind switch" on the goblin and i transformed into a +3 sword which the team fighter grabbed and began fighting with. I did this so my character would leave with a bang. (and the fighter got a +3 sword)

Apoc Golem
2009-04-12, 08:01 PM
Now that's the way to go out!

Lycan 01
2009-04-12, 08:16 PM
O_____O That sounds like an interesting game...


An angel teleported me and my party into a sealed room full of mushrooms because I had cut in line to see the DM and ended up hacking down his office door and threatening to kill him if he didn't put me and my party back in the dungeon and let us get back to the freaking game instead of some contrited and arbitrary romp through Monty Python references and 4th wall destruction. Well, in my annoyance with the angel, I attempted to light it on fire by throwing a gallon of latern oil on it and then hurling my torch at it. Well, the DM ruled that the angel teleported away, and all I succeeded in doing was lighting a bunch of mushrooms on fire. I don't recall exactly what I said, but I think it was a question involving the flamability of magical mushrooms? It seems I finally annoyed the DM to the breaking point. Apparently, the sudden ignition of several hundred reactive fungi inside of a small room with magically sealed doors resulted in a massive increase in pressure...

Which culminated in what could only be described by our DM as a nuclear blast. Best self-inflicted TPK ever. :smallcool:


The sad thing is, that is exactly how it happened... :smalleek:

In my defense, it was not my fault - the DM was just that bad. On minute I'd been leading the party through a dungeon, the next we'd been sucked down a drain by an unseen force and asked to wade through a sewer infested with crap-throwing French Knights in order to find the Holy Grain. That is the part where I lost my patience...

This moment gave rise to perhaps my best RPG moment ever, too. Me and the party had been passing notes. After he explained the TPK explosion to us, me and the other 2 players stood up, and I pointed an accusatory finger at him and explained that by democratic vote, I had been elected to be the group's new DM.

And I've been the DM, GM, and Keeper for all of my (2) groups' games for over a year now. :smallbiggrin:

Olo Demonsbane
2009-04-12, 08:26 PM
Thats hilarious.

Assassin89
2009-04-12, 08:26 PM
I once made a comeback against a group of goblins. In that session, only two players were present (me, a human cleric and a warforged healer), meaning that a DMPC was necessary. When the group got to the camp where the goblins were, the group waited for several goblins to leave. I then summoned a celestial badger, which lured out a few goblins. Before the fight, I suggested that both sides put down their weapons, but as the warforged made a successful sense motive check, a fight was imminent. The DMPC took out many of the goblins, including the half-fiend leader, with a rifle. When I was reduced to negative hitpoints due to several goblins attacks me when I went towards the enemy, one goblin move onto me. Once the healer made was able to successfully cast a cure spell, I was able to attack the goblins. I started with the goblin on me, and killed it. Next turn, I was still prone, but as getting up would provoke an AoO, I attacked a goblin and killed it. The remaining goblin retreated, but it was more likely the gun than my attacks.

In short, I took out two goblins while prone.

D Knight
2009-04-12, 10:27 PM
my first epic moment was with my first D&D character. it was my first mod and i own with a crit slicing a fake priest in half. it was fun i wish i could go do it one more time.

Baalthazaq
2009-04-12, 11:45 PM
Level 1 Arctic Orc Ranger. Greataxe. Critted a wolf. Max Damage. 76 points of damage. He had 1 left before I hit him, taking him to -75. 3D6+Str+P.Attack+Bard+Marshal+Favoured Foe on a two handed weapon x3.

Hopefully that'll end the brute force stories. I'll be back with some better stories after my meeting. ;)

Lycan 01
2009-04-12, 11:50 PM
Please tell me your DM explained that in an awesome way... Like, that your sword ripped open the fabric of reality, and screeching tentacles writhed through the rift and pulled the wolf into another dimension... or something like that.

I did something like that once...

First game of DnD I ever DMed, and one player climbed a tree to scope out a group of kobolds on a nearby beach. Well, one random Magic Missile crit later, and a Kobold Minion in a boat was hit in the nose for waaaaaaay more than the 1 HP he had.

I explained that his head essentially exploded. :smalleek:

PrismaticPIA
2009-04-13, 12:19 AM
David Vs. Goliath

level 1 human Cleric offs an ogre at 40 paces with Magic Stone and 5 "20's".

elliott20
2009-04-13, 12:24 AM
unarmed triple natural 20 rolls against the BBEG, resulting in an instant death.

http://img.youtube.com/vi/HbuW2h9kTUU/1.jpg

It was just like that. So beautiful it brought a tear to my eye.

Baalthazaq
2009-04-13, 12:41 AM
Please tell me your DM explained that in an awesome way... Like, that your sword ripped open the fabric of reality, and screeching tentacles writhed through the rift and pulled the wolf into another dimension... or something like that.

Well, even though I say "Greataxe" she allowed me a Club with Greataxe stats.

She explained it as the entire party (Including the rogue up in a nearby tree) being coated in blood and fur as it exploded.

We're still in that campaign btw. I now have cleave, sunder, and combat brute. I'm used to playing the talking characters, so I wanted to go the complete opposite route and am playing a Chaotic Good version of Thog, named Lumm. Int 6, Cha 6, Wis 10, Str 23, Con 14, Dex 12.

I cannot make bluff checks (Flaw).
I cannot put ranks in diplomacy (So D20-2), but I get a D20+8 on diplomacy vs children. (Trait).

Baalthazaq
2009-04-13, 01:02 AM
Another awesome moment in Brute Force mixed with clever from the rest of the party.

My party and I (a Hengeyokai(Sparrow) Tattooed Monk) were fighting a guy at the top of a waterfall. The guy charged our rogue who stepped back and purposely fell, taking the guy back with him.

Followed by activating his featherfall item sending the guy down 100ft. He survived the fall only to have me declare "I jump down after him".

He lands, stands, and gets critted by my Flying Kick + Iron First + Tiger Tattoo + Empty Handed Master Monk dealing D20+3D8+D6+2 x 2. Crunch. I rolled low on damage though, only got a total in the 40s.

***************************
Same character, while in sparrow form, was attacked by a cat because my DM thought it would be funny to give my character a demeaning end after pulling much of the above. I turned around and Flame Breathed the cat. (Dragon Tattoo is fun).

***************************
Same character was asleep in one of the other player's pockets in bird form. There was a scuffle (many vampires), and the party were trapped, while one of the party was outside being drained. My "ally" takes me out his pocket and throws me out the (still closed window), allowing me to save the drainee.

The Vampires had mind controlled the Paladin and the Fighter. Took the Paladin to be drained, and told the fighter to guard the door to block the rest of the party. The rogue turned into one of the Vampires and convinced the fighter to step aside using a hat of disguise. (Not RAW, but allowed by DM).

The mage went to the top floor and jumped out the window + featherfalled. Noticed he was about to get killed, and spiderclimbed straight back in the building. When the Vampires Spiderclimbed with him, he greased the building.

I had to fight the Vampires pretty much on my own.

********************
Same character:
Step 1: We came across some suits of armour.
Step 2: We attack them because we're sure they'll come to life. (Detect Magic)
They do, but we beat them.

We met a woman behind one of those prison style doors with the sliding hatch to talk through. She gave us a quest we didn't like. She was obviously a witch of some kind.

They knock on the door a second time, she opens hatch, we give her a piece of our mind, she fireballs through it. "Leave or you'll be in trouble!"

We knock again, she opens, the party launch me (in sparrow form) through the hole. "Haha! Now who's in trou... ". There are 2 Flesh Golems in the room with her.

So now there is much noise in the room. I'm using my skill tricks and tumbles to run up the wall, across the ceiling, and to the other side, trying to find a safe spot to no avail. Meanwhile the party try to break down the door, no go.

They run back, pick up the "suit of armour" and use it as a battering ram to bust the door open but I still need to survive what the DM says is going to be about 5 rounds.

I notice other doors in the room, so I run through one, shapeshift and hide (Yay for fine size bonuses to hide!). I sneak back out as the party comes back in, and as she turns to face them, I turn back into regular form, and do the exact same thing I did to the waterfall dude. Death from above, massive damage, and being a mere mage, she has low HP, dead and we can deal with the golems.

I really liked that campaign. :) I died in the final battle with Strahd. (Ravenloft Campaign), but we won in the end.

My first ever DnD character too. :D

Baalthazaq
2009-04-13, 01:16 AM
In a game of Warhammer Fantasy:

In the first session we found out that I looked a lot like a fairly important noble, (someone mistook me for him) and I noted this down. Augustus Leiman. This was never used again.

6 months later in real time, we are trying to stop a powerful necromancer who happens to belong to a prestigious family. We try getting in and whatnot but are stopped. We have totally screwed up being incognito. It has all gone horribly wrong.

The Necromancer's mother approaches us. "Why are you here?"

The other talker in the group starts to speak. I interrupt him.

"Manfred, can't you see this is the lady of the house? Keep to your place!"
"My sincerest apologies milady, I'm still training the poor wretch. My name is Augustus Leiman, and I am here to ask for your daughters hand in marriage."

After some more wrangling and lucky Bluff checks, we were then given rooms, let inside, and we allowed to meet my prospective bride, where I shot her in the face.

Dienekes
2009-04-13, 01:32 AM
My first campaign I played in. Star Wars d6. Now, I never liked my GM as he had a tendency to play DnD based campaigns in a Star Wars setting. However, it allowed for some interesting events to occur. Such as my completely un-force sensitive Barabel with an unusually large vibro-sword being able to one hit kill the most powerful Sith in the galaxy (could make Palpatine look like a wuss) by charging at him and yelling.

And I also killed some plate-armored (yeah, Star Wars now had magic plate armor, the guy was literally called "The Black Knight") by throwing a rock at him.

Zocelot
2009-04-13, 10:07 AM
This was a fourth edition campaign, and Player A was playing a Beastmaster Ranger. They had just used a power that let them and their beast companion each make an attack. I, the DM, decided to go get a Coke before they used the power, so I left the room. As I came back, the Player B player told me "Oh man, you just missed it. Player A just rolled 2 natural twenties in a row". It's incredible that one of my players got so lucky, but I missed it because I was just out of the room.

TheCountAlucard
2009-04-13, 10:35 AM
"Oh man, you just missed it. Player A just rolled 2 natural twenties in a row". It's incredible that one of my players got so lucky, but I missed it because I was just out of the room.

You must really trust your players. Wow. Not that that's a bad thing...

Leon
2009-04-13, 01:00 PM
Great Ball of Fire

last session we killed a Mummy Lord who we were meant to flee from, we would have fled had the stubborn spartan paladin and slightly loopy dwarf not stayed to fight it despite the urgings of the sphinx that was there. Pally and Fighter engage and do tiny amounts of damage while the sphinx dishes the damage strongly but starts to suffer at the hands of the Lord.

the Sorceress engages with some spells at max range to a minor effect and the monk heads back a little way to be ready to collect whats left of the paladin and fighter once they fall.

My Archivist recalls that the Mummy would be flammable and heads back down while prepping a torch, stops briefly at the monk to advise her of what i was doing and would she mind my camel.

meanwhile the sphinx is looking in a really bad shape and the 2 PCs are still not doing much, Combat Librarian into the fray, missing a few times and finally hitting for a small amount of damage but not setting it on fire.
At this point the sphinx goes down and i save it with a close wounds, she realizing that we were not going to flee and that it was possibly a do or die situation now for her let loose a ear shattering sonic attack that inconvenienced the Mummy greatly (and deafened the pally).

Staggered by the attack somewhat the Lord killed the sphinx with a massive blow to its head and turned its attention to the paladin.
This was going south quick, i needed a accelerant to help with my attacks and the Sorceress responded with a critical oil strike (no damage, just a saturated target)

Next round of combat resulted in a flurry of misses from everyone except the Archivist who struck true with his flaming brand (1d4+5+Unspecified Large number) resulting in a great explosion of flame, the Lord staggering back screaming a curse at the Archivist before succumbing to the intense fire.

sombrastewart
2009-04-13, 01:30 PM
Good story here:

We played in a short little campaign that was basically Braveheart with orcs and such. They were making things worse between the Scots and the English. Given the above, I decided that I couldn't resist and made a Warblade with a greatsword that had maxed out ranks in Diplomacy, but we were level 2 or so.

First, we took down some English raiders and took three +1 longswords from them and found villagers that we diplomacy'd to stand and fight, and with three rolls, the GM told us they all stood tall and fought off the English.

Regardless, we took off after a batch of orcs. On two occasions, my Warblade made his way into the batch of orcs, used Steel Wind and butchered the orcs before falling into negative HP, by which point it was a mopping-up action. This happened over and over again, to where he became known as the fire and forget missle of the group.

SOdhner
2009-04-13, 02:35 PM
This isn't actually from D&D obviously, but what the heck:

Running a RIFTS game, I decided I should be more descriptive - I realized that I tended to gloss over everything that wasn't important, and I wanted the players to have to think about what was and was not relevant. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Here’s how the game went down:

They were told by some psychics that something bad was going down at a nearby lake. They needed to investigate, and the town would provide them with any supplies, vehicles, etc. that they might need. They were joined by an NPC.

1. Arrive, notice strange glowing pink portal at bottom of frozen lake.

2. Not having a handy way to go underwater, look around.

3. Explore nearby cave, awakening bear. As they were all armored a regular bear would normally be no threat, but of course they sent the unarmored defenseless NPC in first.

4. Attempt to use First Aid on the NPC, although the only person with the skill has it as it relates to HIS race – a giant bug-thing. Not so much use on a human.

5. Shrug, hope the bleeding will stop, and look around some more.

6. Become fixated on offhand description of boulder that, from one angle, kinda sorta looks like a face.

7. Spend roughly six hours (in game) digging around rock, chipping away at it, examining every inch of this stupid boulder.

8. Ignore repeated hints that the boulder isn't important at all.

9. Run back to town for supplies (to better mess with the boulder) while leaving the heavily injured NPC leaning against a tree in the snow.

10. Work on the boulder some more. At this point it's been well over an hour of real-world time.

11. Get frustrated and angry, and yell at me because they've tried absolutely everything and this game is stupid and what the hell are they supposed to do with the boulder?

12. Remember the GLOWING PINK PORTAL IN THE LAKE.

13. Run back to town to grab the little sub, still leaving the bleeding NPC in the snow.

14. Go to load everyone into the sub, only to find that the NPC has been dead for hours and is now frozen solid. GO TEAM!

Thajocoth
2009-04-13, 03:17 PM
4e. My character: Hank L. Biter - Halfling Rogue - 3'10", 75lbs
Speaks Common & Giant.
Hangs out with a tall Dragonborn Fighter & a tall Dragonborn Warlord.

I believe we were level 13 for this.

So, we climb down this wall right into a fight. A flock of gargoyles and something with a ton of mouths. We go right for the mouths, and it doesn't get 2 turns. Then we start taking down gargoyles. 3 left... They're bloodied. They fly up onto some ledge and turn to stone. The dragonborn climb up & try to hit them with their weapons, but are unable to pierce the stone with them. I climb up and try to pull one. Realizing what I'm trying to do, on their next turn, the gargoyles take off, a few squares from the edge. We're 30 feet up. The fighter & I each leap off the wall, grab one, slam it into the ground and stand over it while it's prone. (Athletics to jump, make a grapple attack, acrobatics to position them under us to take 1/2 of our fall damages instead of just their own. The fighter's boots let him not fall prone. Acrobatics to reduce my already halved fall damage on me, and I had something that let me get up from prone as a minor.)

Redux
2009-04-13, 05:28 PM
My favorite two moments in D&D occurred when I first played as a character and as a DM.

It was during my second game we were in a temple with a water theme. we ended up trapped in a a room with an Acid gel had attacked up as was slowly taking over the whole room. all of our artacks were useless. I, a Orc Barbarian named Krunk had only a great axe that was doing terrible damage. so as we back up to the wall I remembered the pretty balls that made the boom sound (thunder globes) I had with me. I had killed a horse the day before by making it eat one. So I used my limited wisdom score to come up with the idea to make the blob "eat" one as well. So Krunk run into the blob wall an slams the globe into the blob causing an explosion that kills the blob and nearly takes krunk's arm with it as well.

My second favorite was during the first game I was DM. As anyone knows that your first time you likely really went at it trying to make it as challenging as possible. Well for mine I was pretty upset because they figured out quite a few of my traps quickly or without much thought at all. but my proudest piece, the "boss" a level 9 Ice Wizard was what I was waiting to use. I thought it would be cool to monologue before we fought but as I was talking our monk goes " I run up an grab the wizard" Totally shocked I was like can he do that? the other player who was our usual DM told me he could. So after a quick int. roll that I lost my wizard was tackled, pinned and killed before he even got off a single spell. in my anger I TPK the party with a ice dragon to get even..

Fizban
2009-04-13, 06:10 PM
Until the party wizard cast "Summon Monster I" and brought a Fiendish octopus who grabbed both sides to let them cross over the pit.

Aside from summoning an aquatic creature on land, which has been pointed out, I fail to see how a small sized octopus with only 12 strength helped them cross a 10' gap. Giant octopus, sure, but even if the small one could reach that far, it couldn't hold them up. That said, octopi bridges are awesome, I salute your ingenuity.

Zocelot
2009-04-13, 06:58 PM
You must really trust your players. Wow. Not that that's a bad thing...

I don't see how it's any different than how they trust me enough to not fudge rolls behind the DM screen. They would have won the encounter anyway, so they had no need to lie to me.

Baalthazaq
2009-04-13, 11:59 PM
Aside from summoning an aquatic creature on land, which has been pointed out, I fail to see how a small sized octopus with only 12 strength helped them cross a 10' gap. Giant octopus, sure, but even if the small one could reach that far, it couldn't hold them up. That said, octopi bridges are awesome, I salute your ingenuity.

I usually allow some leeway for ingenuity. I find it makes the game more... heroic? Realistically swinging from a chandelier is hard, and you're likely to break it if you jump on it from height, but hey it's a movie staple so why not let him have it as a charge or give a bonus D6 damage to encourage it rather than simply giving him a tumble/balance/climb check for no benefit?

Also, strength 12 is fine for helping the party across, it's the size that's the problem. (12 is above the human average. Can you lift 130 lbs over your head? Pick up 260 lbs?)

herrhauptmann
2009-04-14, 02:13 AM
2nd edition: Party wizard (very protective of friends) kept wanting to have 'gloves of missile snaring' for several roleplay reasons.
He finally gets them around 8th level after a tough fight, and DM goes "Hey chad, think fast" and tosses a hackey sack to him. Chad reaches out and snags the sack just before it hits the ground and DM goes: "A small ball of red light the comes in from a 2nd floor window. Tyr (chad) looks up at it, then dives and catches it just before it hits the ground in the center of you, and he took 10d6 fire damage directly to his hand. "Chad your wizard loses his left hand, and gains bonus XP for saving the life of the entire party."

Until we could get him a spell to regenerate that, he had to make arcana checks at a penalty in order to cast, and some spells were flat out impossible (like Burning Hands, stated as needing 2 hands to cast). However, each fight that he passed 4 consecutive checks, he'd gain double XP. 6 would give x2.5, and 8 checks would have given him triple. Only ever got as high as 7 though.

Still, by the time we got his hand regenerated, he had gained almost 5 levels to our 2.

It took quite a few sessions to get that hand repaired, but he gained almost

J.Gellert
2009-04-14, 06:31 AM
A horrible party of 2 rogues :smallyuk:, 1 bard and 1 wizard. We could not sneak up on the Goblin cave because it was in the center of an open field.
So we used an illusion spell at the same time everyday for two weeks of different adventurers attacking the goblin cave entrance. Until the guards became so use to it that when we attacked for real, it giving the party the use of Sneak Attack we wanted.

Something like this has happened in history- in the Peloponnesian War between ancient Athens and Sparta, in one of the naval battles. One fleet would sail every day to face the other only to turn back without a fight. After a while the enemies were so tired of this routine that discipline had plummeted, and when the attack came for real they were caught unprepared and defeated.

I don't remember which side did it, however... I think it was Sparta.

Heads_or_Tails
2009-04-14, 07:41 AM
Ah, wild magic, such fun, such awkwardness.

The party were coming up against the big bad of the campaign, a scheming wizard who had taken control of most of the country. Player A, the wild mage was, as befitting a wild mage, chaotic neutral, and befitting a player who had confused chaotic neutral with jerk, he was about to screw the party over.

For the upcoming battle he had informed the big bad of their plans, and had convinced the party that he had a foolproof plan, that he would cast a spell specifically designed by the resistance in the country that would kill the big bad (long story.) Anyway, the betrayal comes in the final battle.

Player A passes note to DM: cast invisibility spell instead

Player A: NOW! See what happens to my enemies! (Casts spell)

(Predictably) Wild Surge (DM::smallamused: Player A::smallconfused:)

Result: Roll 4 more times, all effects apply (DM::smallsmile: Player A::smallconfused:)

Results: Music plays in background, Target sex changes, All cloth on target turns to dust, Target knocked unconscious. (DM::smallbiggrin: Player A::smallconfused:)

Spell Cast! Result: Big Bad now an unconscious naked female. With some romantic music playing in the background.

Party: :smalleek:

Gamgee
2009-04-14, 07:54 AM
DMing a Star Wars KotOR campaign.

Okay so the group was in an incredibly old mandalorian base that they found on Dxun. It was built around the time the mandalorians were bitch slapped by the Sith and working for them. The Miraluka goes blind and insane from a dark presence once they open these gigantic twenty feet thick Mandalorian Iron (strongest substance in the universe) doors. I had no idea they could get it open, and a critical 20 was th eonly thing that got them in. The door was guarded by four modifed blaster cannons that could fire on autofire. You would thing this would just scream "STAY OUT OR DIE!!!!" but apparently it didn't.

So I had a backup plan that there was some really nasty droids in there. I mean nasty, they were equiped with ancient Sith warswords not only capable of reflecting damage back as a lightsaber does, but also absorbing the force essence out of a living being if they manage to stab and pin it for a full round. The droids also have immense energy shields like tower shields granting them cover so it was nigh impossible to kill these things. I thought it was befitting of the end of the equivalent of a movie.

So the party and the Mandalorian NPC's start firing and all the shots just get reflected back and sometimes even back at them. Finally the droids close in and stab one of the Mandalorian NPC's and kills him. What little damage had been done to the droid was now fully healed. It was at this point it was one of those Gandalf moments.

PC1: This is a foe beyond all of you. Run!
Everyone else: Flee

So it took like two hours in real life, but near the end the party soldier was down to 1hp and he was at the -10 on the condition track. I knew it would be the droids last attack so I rolled against the poor soldier. Maximum Damage! Not only that a critical 20! I think the damage dealt to the poor fool was something like 70 something damage. So I described it somewhat like this.

"As you limp away to try and get out of the blast the droid reacts with lighting speed and the next thing you know you can see your guts in front of you hanging on this crackling dark energy sword. You think you can smell your own guts burning from the power of the dark energy."

They managed to save him. Barely.