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View Full Version : (Any) What Measures A Badass?



AtwasAwamps
2010-04-01, 10:50 AM
One of the things I have done for a 3.5 campaign I’m running is enable the use of the “Badass Universal Substitution Level” (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6527724). I thought it was funny and since every once in a while, something awesome happens in games, definitely worthwhile. Some of my players reacted favorably, some ambivalent, and one is just kind of meh about the idea (he runs a lower-powered game than mine and is a little grumpy that my game is a little more accelerated…though that feeling usually evaporates when he gets to blow things up that he wants to blow up).

But one particular player…ohhhh how he wants it. He wants it bad. At least once a session, he is hunting…HUNTING…for that badass vote. All the players (and on occasion, myself!) are rooting for him. But last night, he did something so wonderously dumb and ingenious that I want to share it. He was…so…very…close.

The party was facing off against an adult Kython. This was the basic adult Kython, with some minor psion support (there was a psion behind it, throwing down a little crowd control and blocking places off with energy walls). The party was level five and consisted of a fighter, an in-your-face style cleric, a healbot/buffbot cleric, dread necro, psion, ranger, and our resident badass-in-waiting, our rogue.

The cleric, fighter, and dread necro were trading blows with the Kython. This was probably there most lethal opponent yet, especially considering this unoptimized group. It was supposed to be a bit of a introduction fight, as the melee cleric and the ranger were new. I figured there enormous action advantage would grant them a pretty solid win, but there were some scary moments there (Bite/Claw/Claw/Claw/Claw is rather a nasty attack routine when its 3d6+3/1d8+1/1d8+1/1d8+1/1d8+1, and that poison was helping nobody. I’d actually rolled it as having a Phase Organ originally and had them reroll, as that would have gone really…really badly). They were doing fairly well, with the battle cleric settling in nicely and getting solid hits in and all that jazz.

Then…our rogue had an idea. An idea that would have netted him one hell of a badass credit if it worked.

Taking a running start, he used his nimble and agile frame to use the armored battle cleric as a ramp (Tumble DC15), and then leap off his shoulders towards the giant Kython (Jump DC 20). Flying through the air, he makes a grapple attempt to stab both his blades into the Kython’s face and ride that sucker like a rodeo bull (opposed grapple check).

He rolls a 19. With his high strength score thank to buffs, he nailed a 29. I roll the opposed grapple for the Kython. The entire table winces in terror as the die spins. It stops. I do some math.

…Kython nails a 30.

As the rogue is snatched out of the air by the Kython’s deadly jaws and tossed aside, prone to the ground next to the beast and poisoned, the player slumped back into his chair, visibly heartbroken that he had come so close. I gave him some damage as his weapons scraped the beast, because it was such a valiant effort.

Even though the effort was a failure, it was agreed that that might have been one of the very coolest things anyone has tried to do in the game so far. The Kython was splattered a few rounds afterwards (the heavily battered rogue actually got himself the killing blow by staggering forward into flanking position and slamming his rapier into the beast’s chest…it was the least stealthy sneak attack ever).

It was really satisfying to watch my players during this. They all had their fingers crossed and they all wanted to see this happen. Even I did. But I can’t make it that easy for them! Badass has to be earned legitimately, and I’m sticking to it. I play by rule of cool and let a lot slide, but when those dice hit the table…you play it where it lies.

Just wanted to share a really fun story and ask you folks if you had any of your own!

absolmorph
2010-04-01, 04:23 PM
I approve of Rule of Cool-based play.
The closest to something that awesome in my game was probably the first encounter. Only one of my players took damage, but... well, I'll just explain it.
The party, at this point, was a fighter, a rogue, a ranger and a sorcerer. All level 1.
The set-up was that some drow had taken over a (friendly) goblin tribe, and forced the goblins to attack the merchants they normally trade with. So, the PCs got hired to investigate, and eliminate the source of the threat.
They get into the cave, courtesy of a few goblins that were watching the nearby road. Four goblins are guarding the little cave just inside.
Two drow come down the hall, but the players have time to react before being noticed. The party's sorcerer uses Silent Image to hide everyone (which, in retrospect, shouldn't have worked, but I let it go). The drow are watching carefully to figure out where the goblins went.
The fighter charges out and takes a swipe at one of the drow. Then two others shoot the drow. That one goes down.
The other drow shoots the fighter. It was almost a crit. The fighter loses 5 hit points. The drow gets hit, realizes he's in trouble and runs off. In the main cave, a cleric, fighter and the archer are waiting. The cleric heals the archer, and the fighter charges (again). He gets hit by the drow fighter. And possibly the archer, I can't remember. He ends up at 0 hit points.
Then the fighter, followed quickly by the archer, die. The fighter charges the cleric. He hits her. She swings, misses. Everyone else is taking pot shots at her, as well. He swings, misses, she swings, misses. An arrow takes her out.
The fighter took out a big chunk of the encounter on his own. And came really close to dying. Fortunately, his luck has improved. He got the first crit last session, bouncing a swing off a wall (He got a 1, then a 20 on the fumble check, then a 19) and decapitating an orc. It was pretty awesome.

Morty
2010-04-01, 04:28 PM
That was indeed a badass moment, no doubt. But I belive such things should happen by themselves and modifying the game in any way to encourage them is silly and unnecessary. It's much better if such a situation just happens, like in the above example, rather than come up because of a houserule, fudged dice or whatnot.

Coidzor
2010-04-01, 05:14 PM
Sadly, my most badass moment was tripping a manticore out of the sky with a combination grapple and trip check. Which was so RAW-illegal it wasn't even funny we later realized after we checked on it after the session.

It was in the redhand of doom adventure/campaign/module, Vraath(Verith?) Keep, and the manticore was hovering above and in front of me so diagonally one up and one over, which we figured with the rules about diagonals meant he was just within my range of my spiked chain, this after he bullrushed me off of the roof after I had managed to roll high enough to leap directly onto the ten feet high roof (though I believe a potion of jump had helped with that). So I did a charge and jump, didn't need to roll very high on my jump check anyway, but the potion I'd taken made it in the bag, made the touch attack easily, and then rolled a natural 10 (and between our strength bonuses, his four legs and flight, and my improved trip, it was dead even except for the rolls) on the strength check to pull it down out of the sky. It quite tense while we waited to see if the manticore rolled worse than I did.

It ended up doing quite poorly, with a natural one or two, such that it landed prone rather than on its feet. I believe the manticore became rather terminally depressed by this fact, even though it didn't take fall damage. This took out the ranged support for the minotaur while the barbarian and paladin took care of him. My group referenced how awesome that was for about 2 months after that.

Trying to think of any other badass moments... and failing.

Godskook
2010-04-01, 05:26 PM
I approve, so incredibly much.

Yukitsu
2010-04-01, 05:37 PM
I built a character to fit that sort of trope, so he gets that comment a lot.

One fight, he literally busts through a wall of fire, sprints up a wall, backflips off of it, and lands a crit on a beholder, with a smite (Complete scoundrel, the whole thing was completely RAW). Killed it instantly, and I asked the DM if I could make that a shot to its main eye. That's business as usual for a D&D character, but the important part came after, which is a lame quip at the end. "Sorry, I thought you'd see that coming."

Another, he's fighting someone who uses ring portals to cast spells at us without exposing much of himself. I readied an action, and shot him in the hand as he was trying to cast something, and with the "called shot" rules the DM was using, wrecked his hand and prevented him from casting any more. My comment was "Nice catch."

It's all about confidence. DM pulled a 20 Baalor fight for us, as our third encounter of the day, when we just entered the Abyss, when we were level 17. My comment on the situation? "Nice of you to all show up for the welcome party. Who wants the first dance? *draws swords*"

Tell him not to worry about trying to be a badass. Just tell him to be completely confident that no matter how bad the situation is, he could get through worse. Have him say it to the enemies face. If he's tough, clever or lucky enough, badassness will follow.

Keld Denar
2010-04-01, 05:43 PM
You know you are badass when you can walk away from an explosion without looking back. Everyone knows that:

Cool guys don't look at explosions. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqz5dbs5zmo)

Arakune
2010-04-01, 06:17 PM
Everyone is a rogue/monk/have that ring?