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View Full Version : Worst mistakes you've done as a GM?



Jon_Dahl
2010-04-06, 12:16 AM
Let's share our worst mistakes so that we can all learn from them together :smallbiggrin:

Mine was in D&D 3.5 when I pitted Giant Praying Mantis against my players and misunderstood the Full Attack section. It says "Claws" so I understood it has to be two attacks. But it's not like this at all! I was making way too much damage in a round especially since the monster rolled well. It was TP-annihilation in just two turns, but I did manage to wing it so the monster was killed. However players felt letted down by being soundly beaten in just couple of rounds...

So the lesson of the story: Learn to read {Scrubbed}

krossbow
2010-04-06, 12:25 AM
Giving them a helpful peacekeeping robot/golem and expecting them to actually use it expendably. they were more willing to let each other die than have it be destroyed.

Lycan 01
2010-04-06, 12:35 AM
Level 1 Star Wars Saga space pirates managed to take over a small freighter. I off-handedly made up some loot, like a few tons of spice, several tons of food and medical supplies, and a few pieces rare art and jewelry.

After the session, we looked up the value of these items. I expected a couple hundred thousand, max. Instead, it was a couple million credits.

Oops. :smalleek:

Next session, set a few weeks later, they had hired an army of space pirates and purchased several well-armed vessels. It was more than I expected, and I swiftly realized I couldn't handle running such massive space battles on a fleet level.


I also learned that just because the rulebook doesn't say they can't have something, doesn't mean they should. Again, Star Wars Saga. Jedi powergamer plans ahead, and every time he levels up he knows exactly what feats and powers to buy in order to make his Jedi more powerful. He looks up every rule and loophole, just to make sure its "right" and whatnot.

End result? Level 4-5 Jedi with a +17 Use the Force Mod and several Force Powers which were easily abused, like Force Grip, which was sustainable, didn't use up Force Points to recharge, and had an abysmally easy DC he had to roll under a 3 or so to fail.

He used it to almost destroy the climactic Dark Jedi duel I'd set up for one scenario in less than 3 turns. "I force grip. *rolls* I pass. Now he can only take swift actions, none of which can help him escape. And I can sustain it. Indefinitely. *keeps rolling* Ya'll go on ahead, I got this..."

:smallfurious:

So yeah, sometimes its okay to say "no" to something that the rules are okay with. Especially if the results are easily abused... :smallsigh:





I finally Rule 0'd it and had the Dark Jedi force choke him back, which broke his concentration and allowed the battle to continue. Afterwards, he pointed out that the attack wasn't a swift action, and I broke the rules. I didn't run another SWS game for months... :smallannoyed:

Thankfully, he's learned the error of his ways, and still apologizes to me sometimes for his old powergaming and rules-lawyering habbits. :smalltongue:

HunterOfJello
2010-04-06, 12:46 AM
let an emotional powergamer play a monk (he wasn't a very smart powergamer)



and let someone else do the scheduling for games (they stopped scheduling and the group fell apart)

The Rabbler
2010-04-06, 12:54 AM
probably giving too much help with characters. when I first started DMing, my players had pretty poor characters (our best was a semi-optimized monk (which actually managed pretty respectable damage)). I felt sorry for our wizard who was barely scraping by, gave him a few ideas, and everyone started wanting pointers. Between that and one of them finding out about these forums, my players regularly destroy encounters roughly 6 ELs higher than their average character level.

learn from my mistake.

Eldariel
2010-04-06, 01:09 AM
Running a sandbox world as my first campaign.

GoodbyeSoberDay
2010-04-06, 01:11 AM
I once let a player who was playing a jerk-ish character (who was only partly jerk-ish himself) take very inappropriate actions while interrogating a female prisoner. I should have stopped him OOC, but I was sort of in shock. He never got that far, and later said he was bluffing to pry for information, but I think he was just covering for what he later realized was crossing the line. For once, it was a good thing that the Chaotic Neutral/Stupid Druid's animal companion had a habit of killing prisoners...

Yukitsu
2010-04-06, 01:13 AM
Giving them a helpful peacekeeping robot/golem and expecting them to actually use it expendably. they were more willing to let each other die than have it be destroyed.

Really? I love it when my DM adds those in.

ZeroNumerous
2010-04-06, 01:37 AM
Thankfully, he's learned the error of his ways, and still apologizes to me sometimes for his old powergaming and rules-lawyering habbits. :smalltongue:

Using the Force to directly harm a living being is always worth a Dark Side Point... Sounds like he'd have been NPC'd into being evil very quickly.

Irreverent Fool
2010-04-06, 01:44 AM
Running a sandbox world as my first campaign.

Both my best friend and I did this in High School as we had players coming and going constantly, though we'd only DM for 1-2 at a time. I think it was a great experience. Though we didn't use a codified ruleset apart from the ones we'd made up ourselves, which were pretty open-ended.

My mistake seems to be expecting my players to be heroic.

obnoxious
sig

Dracons
2010-04-06, 01:53 AM
Making legendary weapons that could morph into other forms that were simular.

Like a sword that could be great sword, long sword, bastard sword, etc.

A Lance that could be a spear, glaive, etc.

That wasn't the bad thing. Uh no.

These weapons were sentient, past warriors and travelers of the world they were on.

This too, wasn't the stupid thing.

No. My biggest mistake, was allowing the weapons, to give a enhancement bonus equal to characters level, that they could use however they want, change was a free action.

"Oh? We're facing an evil lich? Ok! Transform to Undead Bane Brillent Energy Holy Disruption!

OH? We're going against an nymph? OK! Transform to Cold Iron Axomatic Outside Bane Unholy!

We need to do damage to Lawful Evil? Ok! Transform Keen Anarachic Holy Flaimg Burst, Icy Burst, Shocking Burst, Acidic Burst!

Yeah.... That wasn't fun. I was so stupid.

Curmudgeon
2010-04-06, 01:56 AM
I was using a module, and I misread its 10' squares as 5' squares. Consequently I had a Large monster that I thought couldn't get out of its room to chase the PCs without using squeezing (double movement cost, and AoOs for moving). They picked it off with ranged weapons way too easily.

Emmerask
2010-04-06, 02:07 AM
My biggest mistake is my current campaign which is a bit too complex with 3 main enemy factions and 3 minor ones with all the plans, counter plans and counter counter plans going on and of course player actions which change things and at the heart of it all is a 2 page long prophecy...

Anyway it takes quite some time to advance the story and think up the different stuff each faction does and what might happen next. Well time to have a showdown with one of the minor factions I guess so that it becomes more manageable with the little sparetime I have ^^

Remmirath
2010-04-06, 02:20 AM
The first AD&D game I ran (I think I was something like eight or nine). Pitted the characters up against a subterranean, evil Storm Giant, and then freely handed out to one of the PCs a crystal that could be attached to a sword that would do an extra 10d10 lightning damage.
This after killing half the party because the Storm Giant was way above their level at the time. Said campaign was also lacking in plot.

I had no frickin' clue what I was doing, obviously. Luckily, that was many years ago. :smalltongue:

More recently, I narrowly avoided throwing a room full of about a hundred githyanki wielding silver swords at the PCs (very large party of 50+ level adventurers - the numbers weren't the problem) ... and obviously, a hundred or so people with five chances each of rolling a natural 20 with a vorpal sword = not good.
Luckily I realised this just as I was finishing up the campaign, and managed to come up with some reasons for most of the ones in that room not to have them.
The encounter ended up being barely won, which was what was intended (it was the final battle of that campaign). The other way around, well ... they probably wouldn't've survived it.

At the moment, I'm starting to suspect my next plot is a bit too complex. I'm having some trouble charting out all the twists and turns. Hopefully it'll come together, though. :smallannoyed:

krossbow
2010-04-06, 02:28 AM
Really? I love it when my DM adds those in.

yes, but when the PC's would rather another PC die than the NPC, things get problematic :smalltongue:

Starscream
2010-04-06, 02:39 AM
When I first started DMing 3.5 games, I didn't understand the LA rules, and got it into my head that character level always equaled CR, seeing as a PC's CR equaled his character level. Makes sense, right?

Yeah, it turns out that a juvenile black dragon is not a good addition to a level 7 party.

Gamgee
2010-04-06, 02:45 AM
Level 1 Star Wars Saga space pirates managed to take over a small freighter. I off-handedly made up some loot, like a few tons of spice, several tons of food and medical supplies, and a few pieces rare art and jewelry.

After the session, we looked up the value of these items. I expected a couple hundred thousand, max. Instead, it was a couple million credits.

Oops. :smalleek:

Next session, set a few weeks later, they had hired an army of space pirates and purchased several well-armed vessels. It was more than I expected, and I swiftly realized I couldn't handle running such massive space battles on a fleet level.


I also learned that just because the rulebook doesn't say they can't have something, doesn't mean they should. Again, Star Wars Saga. Jedi powergamer plans ahead, and every time he levels up he knows exactly what feats and powers to buy in order to make his Jedi more powerful. He looks up every rule and loophole, just to make sure its "right" and whatnot.

End result? Level 4-5 Jedi with a +17 Use the Force Mod and several Force Powers which were easily abused, like Force Grip, which was sustainable, didn't use up Force Points to recharge, and had an abysmally easy DC he had to roll under a 3 or so to fail.

He used it to almost destroy the climactic Dark Jedi duel I'd set up for one scenario in less than 3 turns. "I force grip. *rolls* I pass. Now he can only take swift actions, none of which can help him escape. And I can sustain it. Indefinitely. *keeps rolling* Ya'll go on ahead, I got this..."

:smallfurious:

So yeah, sometimes its okay to say "no" to something that the rules are okay with. Especially if the results are easily abused... :smallsigh:





I finally Rule 0'd it and had the Dark Jedi force choke him back, which broke his concentration and allowed the battle to continue. Afterwards, he pointed out that the attack wasn't a swift action, and I broke the rules. I didn't run another SWS game for months... :smallannoyed:

Thankfully, he's learned the error of his ways, and still apologizes to me sometimes for his old powergaming and rules-lawyering habbits. :smalltongue:
Rebuke is a reaction. Turn his power on him. MUAHAHAH!!!!

Fiery Diamond
2010-04-06, 03:09 AM
Letting one of my players get her way.

No, really. I keep making that mistake, too. Because if I don't let her get her way NOW, I have to retcon all the crap I let her get away with in the past. I'm going to have to figure out how to deal with this.

So, basically, the story is this:

1) I'm running a high-powered gestalt campaign (everyone started out with total ability score combined modifiers of 12-13; I've homebrewed some ways to get skill points and bonus feats/bonus spells based on using up points granted each time you level up (1 point at level up, 3 points for a feat); I'm using a system similar to UA action points on steroids to represent them being chosen by the gods; etc.)

2) I have trouble getting some players. So, eventually I end up with 4 players. One is at least as experienced as I am (she is playing a monk//sorcerer) and isn't really a problem so long as I patrol for spell abuses. The second is a complete novice (he is playing a druid//ranger) and is actually a smart powergamer who causes me a bit of a headache -- he does all kinds of research out of game to find out what his best options are. The third is also a complete novice (she is playing a rogue//ranger) and needs assistance to really do well in combat-she's playing a tank! as a rogue//ranger!-, but is a great roleplayer. The final player manages to talk her way into being in my game somehow. She is a cleric//bard. She is the problem player.

3) Problem player (I'll call her PP for short) is a unique circumstance. She has rather extensive background experience with D&D. She likes to try to find broken ways to do broken things and thinks this is a perfectly acceptable method of approaching the game. She thinks that she knows a lot and that whatever she "knows" must in fact be always 100% the case and she will argue for it forever. She throws fits and tries to make it seem like it's your fault and that you're an ass if you don't let her get her way or tell her that she's wrong.

You can already tell that she's a problem, right? Well, you haven't heard the clincher. SHE KNOWS NEXT TO NOTHING ABOUT D&D!!! Yes, this despite years of experience with it. Despite making up and writing stories set in D&D settings. Despite being an annoying Drizzt fangirl (though she would deny it). Despite all of her attitude of knowing everything and always being right.

I mean, when it takes her five minutes (no lie) to figure out how to calculate her attack and damage bonuses after losing her first character sheet when we've been playing for months even though she still has all the stats with her, she has to look up every spell before casting it to find out its duration, what type of save it has, how long it takes to cast, whether it has an expensive material components, and so forth (and by "before casting" I mean: "Oh, my turn? I want to cast "Spell X" on the bad guy. What? You don't know exactly how it works and everything? Someone give me a book. Okay, I cast it." "Um...I'm pretty sure that has a material component and takes ten minutes to cast." "It does? Oh, crap, I didn't see that. Well ****, I guess I need to think of something else. There goes my broken use of that spell."), when she has to ask how to figure out her save DCs every time I ask her what the DC is for a spell she's casting... there's a problem.

Here's an example of her attempting to "do something powerful": "I cast Sepia Snake Sigil on a flag-sized piece of paper with huge letters on it and wave it in combat." I mean, WTF?

4) Now that you know the setup, here's the problem with PP. In character creation, she decides that she wants to make a character she invented for a story. She's friends with player 3, so she drags player 3 along into playing that character's twin. In her story, the twins are two elven girls (one is a homebrewed elven subrace and the other is a drow...magic rape had something to do with how that happened or something) who have a telepathic link and psychic powers, including the ability to destroy the minds of those who try to affect their minds.

I go, "Sorry, no drow. Sorry, no psionics. Sorry, no destroying people's minds. Let's see how we can represent the other things (such as sharing damage and being able to rez each other or die if they fail to do so) and some of those things in less broken ways than you have listed at the moment." That's mistake number one. I should have just said, "No. Create a character from scratch."

Mistake number two: I let her convince me of some very bad things.
1-Telepathic Link: Can communicate any distance, can feel other's pain (and take .25x damage in NL), use best results for all perception-related and knowledge checks, can see through each other's eyes (including the effects of detect magic and such), cannot be flanked if the other can see, immune to mind-affecting effects unless both twins are affected by the effect.
2-"Can I get some way of casting spells through the link?"
3-"I'm based on the concept of mind-f*ing! Aren't I glorious? I'll put full ranks in diplomacy and then roleplay my diplomacy horribly and say I'm fabulous because I have lots of ranks! Even though you already said that roleplaying was mostly divorced from the skill for your campaign!" ...Okay, she didn't convince me of this one, but she seems to think she did, which is almost as bad.

Mistake number three: Not correcting mistake number two, and so letting the problems compound. The fact that PP thinks that anything that has a will save is a "mind-affecting effect" despite the rules doesn't help.

I'm seriously considering just scrapping all my previous rulings for that and starting over, even though I know it will provoke a hissy fit.

potatocubed
2010-04-06, 06:36 AM
yes, but when the PC's would rather another PC die than the NPC, things get problematic :smalltongue:

I dunno. I mean, if everyone loves the NPC so much then surely they should be able to temper their character death with the thought that "Oh well, I did it for Bob." :smalltongue:

The worst mistake I ever made was a house rule that it was a DC 10 Heal check to tell the difference between someone alive-with-negative-hp and someone dead.

Enter a party with 100% negative Wisdom modifiers and really bad luck on Heal checks.

The most notable unnecessary casualty was the drow monk who had joined the party at the start of that session, and at the end was heaved through a portal to the elemental plane of water along with all the other corpses. Oops.

Optimystik
2010-04-06, 07:28 AM
"So I heard of this great system called Taint you guys can use..."

Yukitsu
2010-04-06, 07:31 AM
yes, but when the PC's would rather another PC die than the NPC, things get problematic :smalltongue:

True. They need to also rather die themselves rather than let that thing die. :smalltongue:

Gnaeus
2010-04-06, 07:39 AM
Viewing the game as a battle between the DM and the Players.

Failing to understand balance issues between the classes.

Assuming that because the party could regularly kill a CR X encounter in 2 rounds, that some particular CR X encounter was appropriate for them.

Asta Kask
2010-04-06, 07:42 AM
Allowing an Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil into a campaign.

DarkEternal
2010-04-06, 07:46 AM
Giving them full health on every level up without the need to roll. When a wizard has 80 health on level 11 it's a bit too much...and the dwarf cleric like 120-140, forgot.

Also, being generally too nice, not slaughtering them on quite a few occassions by saying lower damage then I really did and stuff like that.

Octopus Jack
2010-04-06, 07:52 AM
Owlbear on a party of level 1s and 2s but if they had put any ranks in any social skills then they wouldn't have had to fight it!

PersonMan
2010-04-06, 09:59 AM
A Star Wars Saga game. I was a player, but I know the GM's mistakes. He used a crazy-powerful stat-bonus system(+1 for every 1 above 12) and had no skill point cap. So, I played a Force-focused Jedi, trading out my talents, feats and lightsaber for more force powers, skill bonuses, etc. In the end I had, at level 7, around +45 to Use The Force and knew almost every power in the book. It was great fun, but I utterly annihilated everything we fought.

Hal
2010-04-06, 10:53 AM
Making legendary weapons that could morph into other forms that were simular.

Like a sword that could be great sword, long sword, bastard sword, etc.

A Lance that could be a spear, glaive, etc.

That wasn't the bad thing. Uh no.

These weapons were sentient, past warriors and travelers of the world they were on.

This too, wasn't the stupid thing.

No. My biggest mistake, was allowing the weapons, to give a enhancement bonus equal to characters level, that they could use however they want, change was a free action.

"Oh? We're facing an evil lich? Ok! Transform to Undead Bane Brillent Energy Holy Disruption!

OH? We're going against an nymph? OK! Transform to Cold Iron Axomatic Outside Bane Unholy!

We need to do damage to Lawful Evil? Ok! Transform Keen Anarachic Holy Flaimg Burst, Icy Burst, Shocking Burst, Acidic Burst!

Yeah.... That wasn't fun. I was so stupid.

Oh, custom magic items were what bit me in the backside, too. It's always useful to be as clear on the mechanics of their use as possible, and to consider the ramifications of said use.

Gave my players a horn that would stun people in a cone when blown. Except I didn't clarify the action used to do so, whether there was any defense against the stunning effect, or how long the stun lasted.

The player holding the horn gets locked in a duel with an NPC. The NPC has him on the ropes, when suddenly . . . "I blow the horn."

"Okay, he's stunned."

"I quaff a healing potion, and then I blow it again."

" . . . Okay, he's still stunned."

"I keep quaffing and blowing until I'm at full health."

" I . . . but . . . you can't . . . I mean, c'mon . . . "

Yeah, we talked about how the horn works the next session, but the damage was done.

Sereg
2010-04-06, 11:12 AM
Bask in the glory of my first campaign's ashes!

Wonder at the marvels of how I managed to alow my players to mess up my story so completey!

Ok, so I let them be evil. Also, my step-sister convinced me to let her play as a mind-flayer. Bear in mind that this was second ed. (For those of you who don't know, second ed didn't have LA). Also, to fill out the party, I had a some DMPC's who were basically played as glorified cohorts. Two of them were tinker gnomes. Also, A couple of the characters used psionics (besides the mind-flayer). I allowed them to take over a pirate ship. The pirate ship had a cupboard of random monster summoning (created out of desperation) on board. Also, when they arrived at their destination, I allowed them to hire an army of mercenaries which they proceeded to use to kill merchants and take their stuff.

I think that you get the picture. Of course, I was a serious newb. But, that was quite an epic fail for first time DMing.

Sinfire Titan
2010-04-06, 11:20 AM
Giving them full health on every level up without the need to roll. When a wizard has 80 health on level 11 it's a bit too much...and the dwarf cleric like 120-140, forgot.

Also, being generally too nice, not slaughtering them on quite a few occassions by saying lower damage then I really did and stuff like that.

Did you ever consider throwing an Abyssal Greater Basilisk at them? Because that doesn't care about HP. Seriously, HP isn't the only way to kill things.


My mistake was letting Wish duplicate 3 Limited Wishes, and then allowing those to grant extra feats (via giving the characters more flaws). One character decided he wanted an AC in the 80's, and a Balance check in the -160's.


This was before I became an Optimizer, mind you. Touch Attacks were a mystery to me.

LichPrinceAlim
2010-04-06, 11:49 AM
Lemmie see...

Troll Dire Wereboar Ghoul vs 2 Lightbringer Clerics of Pelor and an Half-Orc Half-Neanderthal Paladin of Heironious = one dead BA troll....

Never mix a boulder with silence in a dungeon where all illusions are silent....

jguy
2010-04-06, 12:15 PM
That last one seems to be a good idea actually...

jguy
2010-04-06, 12:18 PM
I know one my DM made that allowed me to break his campaign. This was my first character, halfling cleric that was built for me to be a heal bot for their campaign. It was poorly built to say the least. Cut to a couple months later where I asked to remake my guy since I knew the rules better and he allowed it. I went the DMM: Persist route b/c it seemed the best except the DM ruled that persist only took FOUR turns since that is how it was written in the Faerun book. I had to write a completely separate sheet just to show his saves, hp, attack, immunities, and AC. Persisting Mass Death Ward broke it the most since we were on the Shadow plane.

Oh, and we got the Shadow template for free since we were on that plane for about 2+ years. Our mobility was insane!

Tinydwarfman
2010-04-06, 12:19 PM
Giving them full health on every level up without the need to roll. When a wizard has 80 health on level 11 it's a bit too much...and the dwarf cleric like 120-140, forgot.

Also, being generally too nice, not slaughtering them on quite a few occassions by saying lower damage then I really did and stuff like that.

That'snot a problem as long as you do the same thing for the monsters. I give max hp to PCs, and double enemy HP.

Ernir
2010-04-06, 12:24 PM
I allowed a PC to return from the dead in a way, that to half the party appeared to be at no cost. I don't think that half of that table has still entirely forgiven me for "favoring" that character's player.

It's going to be OK once the full consequences of that resurrection are known, but damn, there was some bad blood at the table for a few sessions.

Mongoose87
2010-04-06, 12:27 PM
My first time DMing, I didn't realize that you had to ask players for spot checks. Needless to say, things got hung up when no one looked for the secret door out of the castle.

Sliver
2010-04-06, 12:43 PM
My first time DMing, I didn't realize that you had to ask players for spot checks. Needless to say, things got hung up when no one looked for the secret door out of the castle.

But... Secret doors are found via search checks, which you have to make actively unless you are an elf or a dwarf that pass closely to one...

Kylarra
2010-04-06, 12:46 PM
I had a tendency to give out too much loot... :smallsigh:

Scorpions__
2010-04-06, 01:04 PM
In the first game I ran I... Let the party sorcerer 'hold back' the Mind Flayer's tentacles with an unseen servant spell... For so many rounds while the fighter hacked it, they were all like, level 1...

The mind flayer did escape though, and came back later with a better head for game rules.





DM[F]R

Daeric
2010-04-06, 01:13 PM
Came in one of the first games I ever ran, plot blugeoned the players into a city with a sleep spell they couldn't resist and then had one of the horror story DMnpc running around stealing alot of the spotlight.

The joys of youth.

peacenlove
2010-04-06, 01:22 PM
I had a tendency to give out too much loot... :smallsigh:

Me too brother. Had a lvl 7 rogue/wizard/arcane trickster with 7 spelbooks from enemy wizards from 8th to 12th level, 4 +3 or +4 longswords and a LOT of other gear. :smallbiggrin:
Sadly that character was possesed by a greater demon by the sheer stupidity of another player :smallsigh:
("Dont open the box a greater demon hides inside" Players take turns on who will open the box :smallmad:)
To my utter satisfaction at the final battle with far realm entities he asked me in secret to let his demon possess him fully taking with him the party, a city full of aberrations and half of evereska :smallbiggrin:
THAT was a good ending.

RagnaroksChosen
2010-04-06, 01:22 PM
after playing an alternate rules set game of nero in NE. I ran my group against a banchee thinking it would only do dmg and nto kill them out right... Mainly i didn't read the mm entry and was like ok every one make saves...


They all failed and died.
I was then pelted with books before we all laughed. good excuse to start a new game.

Iban
2010-04-06, 01:26 PM
Gave to PCs copious amount of exp for even the simplest of fights. Then gave them a lot of loot for said fight.

And I didn't know that I could advance monsters to make them harder to kill.

Mongoose87
2010-04-06, 01:35 PM
But... Secret doors are found via search checks, which you have to make actively unless you are an elf or a dwarf that pass closely to one...

There was a fairly obvious switch that was shinny enough that it should've provoked a spot check.

Masaioh
2010-04-06, 01:47 PM
Note to self: always give high-level NPCs something that makes them immune to disarm. I didn't know such things existed when i first DM'ed a session, and that led to the entire world being destroyed.

Math_Mage
2010-04-06, 02:01 PM
Note to self: always give high-level NPCs something that makes them immune to disarm. I didn't know such things existed when i first DM'ed a session, and that led to the entire world being destroyed.

Even locking gauntlets won't help if the party barbarian disarms by de-arming. :smallbiggrin:

Radar
2010-04-06, 02:41 PM
Even locking gauntlets won't help if the party barbarian disarms by de-arming. :smallbiggrin:
Ahh... the infamous de-arming device (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070910). :smallcool:

More on-topic:
I have set a scenario up, where PCs were not directly bound to the main events. They were working in the city guard and investigating a theft case (and got a hint on some shady buissness).
What I wanted to achieve: a game world, that lives on it's own and doesn't go into stasis, when PCs are not looking.
What I achieved: PCs wittnesed effects of some crimes, that where quite impossible to credibly figure out -> PCs filled hours with spreading gossip about their sergeant (also a PC - an obnoxious palladin (not because of Lawful Stupid - he was just an uptight noble)).

Dr Bwaa
2010-04-06, 02:51 PM
"I keep quaffing and blowing until I'm at full health."

This person wins :smallbiggrin:

My biggest mistake was to start my first game as GM with 7 people, only one of whom was experienced enough to know what a d6 was. :smalleek:

Eldan
2010-04-06, 03:02 PM
My players found one of the two plot relevant artefacts, the one the plot required them to find. Both artefacts had constantly active powers which influenced the environment around them. So far, so good. My players soon noticed that and ran a few experiments to find out what the power was.

The problem? I had used the powers of the other artefact, which was supposed to the in the BBEG's hands. That way, the players lacked the essential way to solve the case. Of course, no one noticed until two sessions later, when I suddenly wondered why the players couldn't continue.

Dracons
2010-04-06, 03:52 PM
One of my older DM's, (Who isn't allowed to DM right now. If he does, he'll be closely watched and and gauged) had several mistakes, which caused us to say no to him ever DMing.

Such as...


No females in his world. You had to be male. Every NPC was male. Alot of swords were shaped like penises. In a large land area, where we were forced to be, a handshake was to give a blowjob. If you didn't... bad things....
You were repeatedly raped. Your character will fall in love with said rapist. You were basically forced to be gay. We grew angry. He grew angry that we were so closed minded, and insensitive to his sexuality which was (Shock, GAY). He still doesn't get that we're ok with him being gay. (We went to his freaking wedding. I was his best man). We were NOT ok with the rampant sex. It wouldn't have mattered if it was woman. We want to be heroes. Not sucking ***** and being buttraped.

2: His uber NPCS. His rule was that all DMPCs, (which usually had about twice the number of PC's in group) had to be at least ten levels higher, because it was important to the story they all remind alive. Thankfully while he was great at description, (Which is next rant) he was a lousy creator of pcs, monsters. As such, they could be level 100, and we normally could still beat them.

3: He is great at description. that is true. Hell, he has several stories posted, and is getting a book published. However, when he takes twenty minutes to describe a npc's sword, followed by another ten minutes describing the npc's face, we all start falling asleep. He got pissy if we didn't spot a doppliganor in the party. "You should know that Juala Smaot the Fifth has a tiny brown spot under the upper left of his fifth button on his coat! how could you forget!!!" (True story that happened in game)

4: His ability to give up quickly, and get mad at us for doing something that we shouldn't have. case in point, Another player and I were doing a quick sidequest during a game where several players couldn't show. We are good guys, basically paladins, only not because this DM literally had paladins having something up their ass all times, and it wasn't a stick....). We were walking the desert, and came across some bandits. We parlayed with them, agreed to take them back home (We didn't know they were bandits, they just asked for help). So we get them home, and start walking away when we over hear them saying that ok, we're here now, lets go kill these guys, then kill them, burn down the orphan and kidnap the boys to get them as sex slaves". So natuarlly, we turn around and go back towards them. We told them we won't let them do that, and the bandits attacked. We easily killed them. The leader was a bit tough but got lucky on crits. The DM got pissy threw his notes into the fire and started to scream and cry. We got alittle freaked, asked what the hell is so bad.

"You killed the bad guy!!!"

Um... yeah. We kinda had to after that...

"NO! YOU KILLED THE FINAL BOSS!!! YOU AREN"T SUPPOSE TO FOR ANOTHER TEN LEVELS!!! YOU KILLED THE FINAL BOSS AND RUINED THE GAME FOR EVERYONE!! THANKS SO MUCH!!!"

Friend and I blinked.

"Uh bro... you didn't have to tell us that... Make it a different person. Make a cleric raise him. Maybe he makes a deal in hell or abyss to get more power and come back"

We gave him like thirty suggestions. The biggest one though, and one he does to this day to whatever poor players he does managed to snarl in,
"Do not ever put the boss in front of players, saying he going to do all these horrible things, and have him be easily killed"

There several more reasons why he's made other mistakes, but those are the biggest ones he does all the time.

Ilena
2010-04-06, 03:56 PM
I tend not to give enough loot then realize i havnt given the party anything for 4 levels and are like ... hmmmm ....

Though worst mistake .... worst mistake ... hmmm , probably forcing an item on my first group that basicly had no way of getting around, sure there was a will save but when one player tried to stop another player from touching an amulet that i had planned to use to talk to the players in a way of pushing them towards stuff ( ya first game as dm and probably 5ish in dnd :P) that didnt go over well.

Lycan 01
2010-04-06, 04:12 PM
Rebuke is a reaction. Turn his power on him. MUAHAHAH!!!!

IIRC, the Dark Jedi either failed his Rebuke roll, or the Jedi counter-rebuked. Yeah, I'm fairly certain it was counter-rebuked, because IIRC you have to beat the other guy's UTF check, which the Jedi did by more than 10 easily... :smallannoyed:

Lin Bayaseda
2010-04-06, 04:34 PM
In one campain, my players fought the same Demon three times, in various incarnations. First combat, I forgot his Aura of Fear and never made them roll Will saves. After they killed it, I reread its stats, cursed myself, and promised myself to be more careful next time. Second combat, I forgot it again. Third combat? Again. I never had monsters with Aura of Fear in my campains again.

Just_Ice
2010-04-06, 05:10 PM
My mistake seems to be expecting my players to be heroic.



I feel this is a problem with a lot of RPs; this assumption makes DMs cry. Even if I play a pathological lying middle-aged ninja b*****d, I try to give them a heroic bent to work with the story and not against.

Mine was expecting my players to solve a puzzle by using prayer beads as a belt in a gearbox. Granted, it was late, but I was willing to accept multiple solutions and they went through their inventory piece-by-piece. It took them thirty minutes to finally give up.

krossbow
2010-04-06, 05:13 PM
I feel this is a problem with a lot of RPs; this assumption makes DMs cry. Even if I play a pathological lying middle-aged ninja b*****d, I try to give them a heroic bent to work with the story and not against.

Mine was expecting my players to solve a puzzle by using prayer beads as a belt in a gearbox. Granted, it was late, but I was willing to accept multiple solutions and they went through their inventory piece-by-piece. It took them thirty minutes to finally give up.



If murder or setting something on fire won't solve the problem, its not worth your average PC's time! :smalltongue:

Analytica
2010-04-06, 05:56 PM
One of my older DM's, (Who isn't allowed to DM right now. If he does, he'll be closely watched and and gauged) had several mistakes, which caused us to say no to him ever DMing.

Such as...


No females in his world. You had to be male. Every NPC was male. Alot of swords were shaped like penises. In a large land area, where we were forced to be, a handshake was to give a blowjob. If you didn't... bad things....
You were repeatedly raped. Your character will fall in love with said rapist. You were basically forced to be gay. We grew angry. He grew angry that we were so closed minded, and insensitive to his sexuality which was (Shock, GAY). He still doesn't get that we're ok with him being gay. (We went to his freaking wedding. I was his best man). We were NOT ok with the rampant sex. It wouldn't have mattered if it was woman. We want to be heroes. Not sucking ***** and being buttraped.

I have to ask... might this DM by any chance be the same person as the creator of F.A.T.A.L.? :smalleek:

Quirinus_Obsidian
2010-04-06, 06:17 PM
I had a tendency to give out too much loot... :smallsigh:

+1 to that.

I allowed a clericzilla to obtain an artifact that allowed basically the annihilation of anything dead. Overcoming DR (except for epic), spell resistance, etc. as long as he used the item as a weapon (it's a warhammer) or a divine focus for his spells.

Thankfully he has a low STR and does not prepare buffs ... yet...

----------------
Now playing: The Gathering - Shortest Day (http://www.foxytunes.com/artist/the+gathering/track/shortest+day)
via FoxyTunes (http://www.foxytunes.com/signatunes/)

Oslecamo
2010-04-06, 06:19 PM
My first DM:

He didn't notice the charge rules. And we didn't knew them either being newbs. So we end up moving and shooting half the game.

My second DM:

Organization is not CR! 4-8 Digesters are not just CR 6! Really, how did you expect a 6th level party to take 8x8=64d6 of damage and live to tell the tale?

Of course, when we heard about gnoll raids, we should have expected to see whole tribes (aka HUNDREDS of gnolls at a time) facing us off. Damn we were glad when the party's sorceror finally learned how to cast fireball.

Dracons
2010-04-06, 06:39 PM
I have to ask... might this DM by any chance be the same person as the creator of F.A.T.A.L.? :smalleek:

HA HA HA HA! Nope. He'd claim he did though. Back when I was just starting gaming, he kept bragging that he was crowned Wizards of the Coast World's Greatest DM. I was naive. But I started to see that even I knew the rules better then he did. He did however get me confused about Vampire Masquarade, as he would use that with DnD, so for longest time before I got my books, I belived that it was true. When he told me that his crown has been challenge, and he needed a ride to the mall where the wizards of the coast store was to defend his crown against another DM, (How two DM's would do that, I have no idea), I got sick of the bluff. "Really? That store that has been closed for three months now? Or how about that is impossible, since there cannot be a greatest DM since its freaking subjective! Not to mention, three years later, you STILL DO NOT KNOW THE RULES!"

My favorite lie? He told me over and over, that he sent his story to Akira Toryiama, (Creater of Dragon Ball), about how the Saiyan's made robot bodyguards, that are always stronger then the person they are guarding. Vegeta's bodyguard comes to Earth, and forces Vegeta to work out so that he can become more powerful. He swore to me that Akira told him personally, that yes. This is 100 percent canon, but doesn't have time to animate it during the cell saga.

Me, being a huge DBZ nerd fanboy, tore into him badily. That no saiyan would EVER DO THAT. Their freaking pride alone would pervent that. That, and DBZ has been done for freaking years, and the dubs are just now coming. Hell, he never even heard of GT, which was still finished in Japan.


Then, he got stupid with his lies. We were all going to pick up friends girlfriend from work. David, (Dumbass above) told us that he saw said girlfriend at Mcdonalds where he worked that day. We turned to David. "Girlfriend hates Mcdonalds, and is a vegetarian on top of that" He told us agian, he saw her. He even said hi Girlfriend name, where she replied Hi David!". She was even wearing her leather coat she wore through high school.
Friend snapped "You mean the coat she got rid of shortly after high school because of her views on animals?"

I turned to David,. "You do know that we are going to see her, in like four minutes right?" He nodded. "I swear! We'll ask her! I'll even bet you 100 bucks right now that she was there!"

I naturally shook his hand, accepting the bet.

We go in. We ask her. She tells us no. HELL no. She would NEVER eat there.

I ask for my money. He said no.

"No. It was her. She's lying right now!".
He demanded his money from me. He then later admited that maybe it wasnt her. Maybe it was just a girl that looked exactly like her, and had same name. (Its a very very strange name)

Dr Bwaa
2010-04-06, 07:36 PM
*rants*

Most impressive.

I forgot another one of mine (I share this problem with one of my best friends, which is probably why we both perpetuate it)--thinking that anyone but me in my group likes weird puzzles with an obscure solution, or no firm solution at all. I love these things, but some players, I have slowly come to realize, do not. I still use them sometimes, though =P

Icewraith
2010-04-06, 11:46 PM
Seconded on the initiate of the sevenfold veil. Damaging the party got much easier at epic, once everyone started throwing the destroy seed around.

My favorite gm mistake was when the gm of my campaign said something like... "um... and those magic bracers give a +2 insight bonus to intelligence."

Nothing makes a wizard happy like a bonus type that stacks with enhancement, and probably shouldn't exist! I made sure nothing happened to those bracers for the rest of the campaign!

Dr.Epic
2010-04-07, 01:08 AM
Ten owl bears on a party of five level 5's.

krossbow
2010-04-07, 01:10 AM
Ten owl bears on a party of five level 5's.

what? a party of 5 level 5s should be able to take 10 owl bears. You might lose a couple PCs, but it shouldn't be a tpk.

Forever Curious
2010-04-07, 01:25 AM
what? a party of 5 level 5s should be able to take 10 owl bears. You might lose a couple PCs, but it shouldn't be a tpk.

Well, apparently a level 1 rouge and level 1 paladin can be TPK'd by an unarmored, unarmed, FLAT FOOTED level 1 barbarian...true story.

Emmerask
2010-04-07, 02:01 AM
what? a party of 5 level 5s should be able to take 10 owl bears. You might lose a couple PCs, but it shouldn't be a tpk.

Depends really on how they play (is the wizard a controller or does he blast), terrain, and other circumstances (first encounter this day or third already).

And 10 owlbears still have an encounter level of 11, okay the cr system is flawed but it still gives you some impression what the outcome may be.

I can very well see 5 level 5s be killed by those owlbears if they donīt play it very smart controlling them via terrain or spells for example so that action economy is again in the pcs favor.
If the owlbears can surround and close in on the group then this will be a tpk ^^

krossbow
2010-04-07, 02:04 AM
i must be miscalculating it somehow; perhaps i'm remembering how the CR system works wrong, but wouldn't it be stuck between a 9-10 encounter?

sofawall
2010-04-07, 02:11 AM
i must be miscalculating it somehow; perhaps i'm remembering how the CR system works wrong, but wouldn't it be stuck between a 9-10 encounter?

Every time you double the number of enemies, the CR increses by 2. 1 is CR 4, 2 is CR 6, 4 is CR 8, 8 is CR 10. 10 is about CR 10.5.

SSGoW
2010-04-07, 08:55 AM
My worst mistake as a DM? Let's see.... Being a DM! Seriously I wished I never DM'ed past my first campy -_-;;;; Once you get stuck as the DM you don't get to play much after that....

Kylarra
2010-04-07, 09:03 AM
Well, apparently a level 1 rouge and level 1 paladin can be TPK'd by an unarmored, unarmed, FLAT FOOTED level 1 barbarian...true story.Everyone can be killed easily by lucky hits at level 1. :smalltongue: Although how the barbarian was dealing lethal damage on his unarmed is beyond me.

Warclam
2010-04-07, 09:42 AM
Everyone can be killed easily by lucky hits at level 1. :smalltongue: Although how the barbarian was dealing lethal damage on his unarmed is beyond me.

Improved Unarmed Strike? Taking the -4 to hit? Beating them unconscious then strangling them? Stealing one of their weapons? Lot of options.

Dusk Eclipse
2010-04-07, 09:45 AM
Worst mistake.... letting a Paladin conserve his powers after killing a child... yes I did that.

On context, I was DM my first campaing I ran the sample encounter in HoH of the hag with controlled child, the Lawful Neutral (Houseruled in) Paladin killed one of the child (which incidentaly was the npc sister of other player's character and my next plot hook) with a smite.... and since he was Lawful neutral I let him got away with it.

:smallsigh:Cue in discussion in the table, blah blah.. never forget that even if you are neutral killling childs is an evil act.

I don't DM any more and we don't play with the paladin's player so meh it didn't scalated more

Serpentine
2010-04-07, 09:56 AM
Overreaching myself. This is a problem in real life, too, but game-specifically: The original task of delivering a bunch of letters containing keys to an imprisoned succubus to colourful locales would have been a totally adequate campaign. But nooooooo! I wanted a shipwreck campaign! With a whole new continent, with whole new languages and whole new society and whole new races and so on! That takes months in-game to get to the necessary places! Throw in an all-too-frequent change-over of players (due to outside circumstances), and... well, it's not going very far :smallsigh: Throw in DM falling a year behind in honours, and it's not going anywhere...

DarkEternal
2010-04-07, 10:30 AM
Did you ever consider throwing an Abyssal Greater Basilisk at them? Because that doesn't care about HP. Seriously, HP isn't the only way to kill things.


My mistake was letting Wish duplicate 3 Limited Wishes, and then allowing those to grant extra feats (via giving the characters more flaws). One character decided he wanted an AC in the 80's, and a Balance check in the -160's.


This was before I became an Optimizer, mind you. Touch Attacks were a mystery to me.

Yeah, they did meet with a few basilisks, and both times they were petrified(the rogue once, and a ranger the second time). However, again, due to me being nice, there was always a temple/wizard somewhere around with just the right Stone to Flesh scroll around.

That being the second problem, overall being too nice in DM-ing, as in trying to not hide anything, but rather be their "friend" in the game, meaning rolling everything in front of them, telling them stuff that helped them, like the AC of the monster, the health it has or something.

I remember in one particular encounter, they fought a dragon that heard them coming so he cast Mage armor and Shield on him so his AC was 32 or something when the fight started. They couldn't hit him with anything in mid to upper twenties and then they started to get pissed off until I hinted(very non subtly might I add) that the dragon might have heard them coming and protected itself. So what happens the very next round? The wizard casts Dispel Magic.

And allowing them to question everything. "Are you sure that's how it works. Let me check...okay, but why did he attack me and not him, it doesn't make sense!" and the debates went on and on and on.

As Sly would say it, "I am the LAW!" is the appropriate reaction to this, and I just didn't like that approach.

SilverStar
2010-04-07, 10:41 AM
1- Failing to make magic and psionics transparent. The party's psion did.... nasty things to some of my carefully planned encounters. Ever since then, full transparency.

2- Telling a player "Play whatever you want- no, I don't care what its LA is." I ended up with a PC with about six different templates....

3- Prohibiting a character from animating the corpse of a red dragon "because I said so". That made me feel dirty inside, and I've vowed not to do that again if I can help it. I know how much I (when I am a player) am nerfed for no good reason, so I won't do it to others.....

....I'll just compensate in other ways.

4- Allowing a player to test gestalt right after we got Unearthed Arcana, in a party of non-gestalt characters. I scaled up the average CR of enemies by 2-3, and the rest of the group didn't do so hot.

DarkEternal
2010-04-07, 10:47 AM
Did you ever consider throwing an Abyssal Greater Basilisk at them? Because that doesn't care about HP. Seriously, HP isn't the only way to kill things.


My mistake was letting Wish duplicate 3 Limited Wishes, and then allowing those to grant extra feats (via giving the characters more flaws). One character decided he wanted an AC in the 80's, and a Balance check in the -160's.


This was before I became an Optimizer, mind you. Touch Attacks were a mystery to me.

Yeah, they did meet with a few basilisks, and both times they were petrified(the rogue once, and a ranger the second time). However, again, due to me being nice, there was always a temple/wizard somewhere around with just the right Stone to Flesh scroll around.

That being the second problem, overall being too nice in DM-ing, as in trying to not hide anything, but rather be their "friend" in the game, meaning rolling everything in front of them, telling them stuff that helped them, like the AC of the monster, the health it has or something.

I remember in one particular encounter, they fought a dragon that heard them coming so he cast Mage armor and Shield on him so his AC was 32 or something when the fight started. They couldn't hit him with anything in mid to upper twenties and then they started to get pissed off until I hinted(very non subtly might I add) that the dragon might have heard them coming and protected itself. So what happens the very next round? The wizard casts Dispel Magic.

And allowing them to question everything. "Are you sure that's how it works. Let me check...okay, but why did he attack me and not him, it doesn't make sense!" and the debates went on and on and on.

As Sly would say it, "I am the LAW!" is the appropriate reaction to this, and I just didn't like that approach.

Name_Here
2010-04-07, 11:59 AM
My main mistake was setting up scenes that I thought we awesome but the group had no reason to play along with.

For example: I have this idea for a shadow organization who publicly oppose the king for his idiocy, open shirk his laws and at times violently assault his nobles. Really they are extremely loyal to the king, their shirking of the laws changes the order of the country making the whole thing run much more smoothly while the assassinations remove trouble making and disloyal nobles.

Unfortunately I built them up to be too bad while either forgetting to mention the subtle hints or making them too vague. So when my plot called for them to meet the higher ups in the organization I had to railroad them into the meeting, Railroad them through the meeting and finally cut my loses when one of them agreed to the magic procedure that would allow the organization to see through them.

Turned out to be one of the running gags throughout the strip as they either blindfolded and covered the guys ears for every meeting or told the people the met with that the organization knew all about the meeting. Overall I like to think that I learned something from it about taking the players feelings into account when making the scenario, to try and put myself into the player's shoes and think how they would think.

In reality I'm sad to admit I no longer set up scenarios that require the players to step forward instead relying on the have everybody else step back method.

Darklord Xavez
2010-04-07, 12:00 PM
My worst mistake ever: I let a character play a nymph. Just please don't kill me for that.
-Xavez

LichPrinceAlim
2010-04-07, 01:08 PM
and the reason the Silenced Boulder was a bad idea was that they used a listen check and determined it was an illusion. Needless to say, it wasn't...

Another bad call for me was in my now infamous "Off to Grandma's House" plot, which resulted in nearly 50 PCs being killed, and darn near ending Eberron...

Here's the basis:

A creature called the Hag Queen had taken refuge in the forests, secluding herself in a hut in the forest's centre. This was a gestalt game, and she was a Annis Hag Druid 20/Heirophant 5//Wu Jen (Wood) 15/Archmage 5/Dread Witch 5 with a Fiendish Bone Naga for a Familiar/Animal Companion. She was originally the BBEC (Big Bad Evil Chick) for the campaign, but the PCs decided to hire an army and ASSAULT HER HUT. Needless to say, she turned her Familiar Companion into a Colossal ++ Umber Hulk and squashed the advancing army, leaving the party of lv1 gestalt PCs all at 1HP. They ran and were all but wiped out by the king's remaining army, who got mad cuz they wiped his elite army out.

So the PCs hire the warforged (thanks to a PC who was a Warforged Artificer/Fighter) and got the Lord of Blades to fund them. Let's say the second wave fared better, until she summoned 8 Purple Worms....

They after 7 assaults entered a cabin, where the level 22 Gruumsh-Spawn Orc Barbarian/Frenzied Berserker//Cleric of Gruumsh/Eye of Gruumsh ate the pie she gave her, which contained enough Colossal Centipede poison to kill Bahamut, and fell into a coma. She then wildshaped into an Evolved Half-Blue Dragon Red Dragon Great Wyrm and proceeded to go Flemeth on their behinds. The won by a fluke: I at first level gave them a Vorpal Butter Knife, which one player stored, threw, and killed her before the butter knife dissolved into nothing...

bobspldbckwrds
2010-04-07, 02:38 PM
Never mix a boulder with silence in a dungeon where all illusions are silent....

that is beautiful, so very beautiful

randomhero00
2010-04-07, 03:03 PM
Once, early on, my biggest mistake was thinking they actually wanted to play...I prepared around 40 hours of work, planning out the entire campaign. When we met again, they went "Oh, I meant a board game, not a full RPG..." Woops. I still haven't used that custom campaign. I probably will some day though. But by then I'll probably have to redo a lot because I'll forget and those future players will probably want something different.

krossbow
2010-04-07, 03:27 PM
Every time you double the number of enemies, the CR increses by 2. 1 is CR 4, 2 is CR 6, 4 is CR 8, 8 is CR 10. 10 is about CR 10.5.

Gah, i see my error. I was using the bell curve variant of CR (which reduces the base monsters CR by 1 in groups of 4 or more). carry on.

Lycan 01
2010-04-07, 03:31 PM
and the reason the Silenced Boulder was a bad idea was that they used a listen check and determined it was an illusion. Needless to say, it wasn't...

Another bad call for me was in my now infamous "Off to Grandma's House" plot, which resulted in nearly 50 PCs being killed, and darn near ending Eberron...

Here's the basis:

A creature called the Hag Queen had taken refuge in the forests, secluding herself in a hut in the forest's centre. This was a gestalt game, and she was a Annis Hag Druid 20/Heirophant 5//Wu Jen (Wood) 15/Archmage 5/Dread Witch 5 with a Fiendish Bone Naga for a Familiar/Animal Companion. She was originally the BBEC (Big Bad Evil Chick) for the campaign, but the PCs decided to hire an army and ASSAULT HER HUT. Needless to say, she turned her Familiar Companion into a Colossal ++ Umber Hulk and squashed the advancing army, leaving the party of lv1 gestalt PCs all at 1HP. They ran and were all but wiped out by the king's remaining army, who got mad cuz they wiped his elite army out.

So the PCs hire the warforged (thanks to a PC who was a Warforged Artificer/Fighter) and got the Lord of Blades to fund them. Let's say the second wave fared better, until she summoned 8 Purple Worms....

They after 7 assaults entered a cabin, where the level 22 Gruumsh-Spawn Orc Barbarian/Frenzied Berserker//Cleric of Gruumsh/Eye of Gruumsh ate the pie she gave her, which contained enough Colossal Centipede poison to kill Bahamut, and fell into a coma. She then wildshaped into an Evolved Half-Blue Dragon Red Dragon Great Wyrm and proceeded to go Flemeth on their behinds. The won by a fluke: I at first level gave them a Vorpal Butter Knife, which one player stored, threw, and killed her before the butter knife dissolved into nothing...

Do you have the stats for that?


Out of everything in that story, that's the only thing that seemed out of place. Everything else was the usual awesomeness expected from DnD and stupid players. But a vorpal butter knife? That, I'd never think of...

randomhero00
2010-04-07, 03:33 PM
Just thought of another one. More amusing. I made a puzzle, the solution was to drink from a holy artifact. The players were convinced I was pulling an Indian Jones on them and that it was some uber cursed thing. I gave them every hint that it was a good, holy object. They tested it every conceivable way without touching it. Had quite a laugh at the end of it when I told them it was actually as it appeared.

Moral of the story: give things to your players that are too good to be true. Will really mess with their heads :smallbiggrin: