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Swiftest
2010-04-13, 01:10 AM
This just happened not two hours ago, but it may be my best moment ever in D&D, so I had to share it with you all:

Our party of 4 was just returning from the Old Temple to Hommlet in our Return to Temple of Elemental Evil Campaign. We're level 5. We'd just finished kicking some serious hobgoblin rear end, and we were feeling good. Then what should step out onto the road in front of us but two FREAKING DIRE BEARS. The DM must have been angry. Now our party is somewhat nicely optimized for a core-only-plus-srd party (I'm a whirling frenzy wolf totem barb/fighter soon-to-be horizon tripper wielding a spiked chain, we also have a conjuration specc'ed rapid summoning domain wizard and a tricked out druid and a 24 ac fighter/rogue in full plate). Nevertheless, we're pretty damn scared as we (well, everyone but the druid) understand that this is a VERY tough challenge. We've used a significant number of our spells and most of us have taken at least some damage already (healing resources are light at the moment).

The normally strategic-minded wizard wins initiative and chooses to "ready an action to cast web if they make any aggressive move towards me" and then fails to take his action when the first bear charges our rogue. The rogue had also readied an action to attack the bear if it came within melee range, but our DM ruled that ... dire bears have 10 foot reach. Nevermind that this is directly contrary to what the monster manual says -- none of us are going to argue mid-combat. The rogue gets hits and grappled without a prayer of escape. Our druid spends the round wild empathying (his first time ever playing 3.5 D&D, he thought he had a chance of success since we hadn't yet taken a hostile action and stubbornly refused to listen to our entreaties), his companion charges upon his obvious failure, and I rage out and charge (probably not the best move considering). The wizard webs the other bear on his next action, and then the rogue takes a full attack/grapple action from the bear yet miraculously lives! He misses his one attack, however.

Next round the wizard stinking clouds the bear/rogue, and of course the bear makes his save and the dwarven rogue doesn't. Then the rogue goes down instantly to the very next dire bear claw swipe. The bear continues to full attack, taking out the druid's animal companion. I beat on the bear (full attack with whirling frenzy, upwards of 40 damage done), the druid -- realizing that wild empathy is a trap -- chooses to wildshape, and the next round the bear targets me and bam, I'm grappled and things are looking very bad. I'm at 3 hitpoints and the next hit from the dire bear is sure to fell me. The bear hits me on a 4 or higher. The druid will go down like a sack of potatos and a TPK is sure to follow. I can't even win a grapple check to draw a light weapon and my chain is useless, nor can I escape the grapple (the bear's check is ridiculous). The wizard would help, but he's occupied like 80 feet away preventing the other dire bear from escaping the web and massacring us all by keeping it busy with the last of his low level summons.

At this point pretty much everyone thinks we're doomed. What do I do? You guessed it, I beat the living crap out of that silly dire bear with my regular gauntlet, whirling frenzy style. Massive minuses to hit. Two hits later, one dead dire freaking bear. I punched it to death. At level 5. Without even being proficient in unarmed strike. The other players were very impressed and there was much rejoicing.

The other bear we were able to take apart at range with judicious use of caltrops, summons, and the sacrifice of the druid's (healed for a very brief span) animal companion + many arrows. The DM claims that the encounter was ecl 9, which would be true on paper except that he gave the bears 10 foot reach ... which imo should add at least one to the ecl if not more. Even the rogue stabilized at -7 and survived. It was INTENSE. Certainly the closest we've come to a TPK yet this campaign. Fun times =). Anyone else have any recent Crowning Moments of Awesome?

Btw, what do you all think would be a fair ecl for 2 dire bears with 10 foot reach that start on a flat road 80 feet from the party? Neither group was caught by surprise.

CockroachTeaParty
2010-04-13, 01:14 AM
One time, a player was in the jaws of a T-Rex, and, lacking a light weapon, punched it in the eye.

Not sure if it really made a difference or not, but it was similarly epic.

awa
2010-04-13, 01:32 AM
i have a somewhat similar story although the beast in question was not as powerful my nezumi ranger 1/ totemist 1 has been captured and forced to fight what i must assume was a leopard solo. During the fight i get pounced and dropped into the high negatives but ive got rage claws shaped so am still conscious and i bite out the cats throat for the win.

Trekkin
2010-04-13, 01:55 AM
I've got one. Our party of four fifth-level characters is walking through a forest and we hear nearby movement, so I, being the quietest, pop over and look to see thirty half-sheep half-orcs merrily tromping through the woods. Last time we faced two of these things, it took two astral constructs and a forest fire to stop them, so I decide to take the initiative and Minor Create enough poison to knock them all out without a fight. The poison is created at 3000 doses per enemy, and then the DM decides:

1. It only took out twenty of them.
2. The wind is blowing it towards my party.
3. The remaining TEN are running ahead of the cloud.

So now, as I in my Fine-sizedness sit urge my Soulspark Familiar mount to fly faster, an elven rogue, Petal bard, and human Tome of Fiends warlock who can't use Eldritch Blast because for some reason it always causes forest fires are dealing with a roiling cloud of poison and ten seriously ticked half-orcs. During this fight, the rogue is dropped into negative hit points and brought back up by the bard three times, the warlock Webs most of the half-orcs and most of my constructs in place, starting another forest fire is pondered and abandoned, and the rest of the party makes many saves vs. poison as the warlock tries to burn smoke away (I'm Warforged and immune). The bard and rogue fail. We end up winning with nine dead, one Fascinated and subsequently grappled and beaten into unconsciousness, two of the party on time borrowed from Delay Poison, and twenty unconscious half-orcs who will start recovering Strength soon. Four are tied up for later interrogation and sixteen are simply attacked to death.

We found out later that we were never supposed to have attacked them.

But still, twenty CR 2 orc variants on one power point...

Lycanthromancer
2010-04-13, 02:08 AM
Err...psionic minor creation is (D)ismissable...

One standard action would've gotten rid of the cloud.

Kaun
2010-04-13, 02:26 AM
For some reason i thought of this. (http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=real_men)

Zen Master
2010-04-13, 04:16 AM
My savage, face-painted, javelin-tossing, poison-using halfling ranger rides a giant (as in completely normal) white ape. He has an aberrant dragon mark that allows him to cast obscuring mist. Both he and the ape have blindfight.

... that's it. It's Gorilla (and halfling) from the Mist.

Iferus
2010-04-13, 04:41 AM
My biggest Crowning Moment was a one-to-one fight. My opponent was the son of the goblin king that held my party captive; a level four barbarian with far too expensive armor. I was a level four goliath Crusader. The first four rounds, I missed. I was at minus one hit point if it weren't for my Steely Resolve. What happens? I roll a critical hit. With my goliath Greathammer, that's a x4 multiplication. I did over a hundred damage, and my DM just said: You cleave the poor bastard in two. With a hammer. I got healed for two hit points due to my stance, so I just stood there, alive and victorious.

Flail_master
2010-04-13, 08:52 AM
My biggest Crowning Moment was a one-to-one fight. My opponent was the son of the goblin king that held my party captive; a level four barbarian with far too expensive armor. I was a level four goliath Crusader. The first four rounds, I missed. I was at minus one hit point if it weren't for my Steely Resolve. What happens? I roll a critical hit. With my goliath Greathammer, that's a x4 multiplication. I did over a hundred damage, and my DM just said: You cleave the poor bastard in two. With a hammer. I got healed for two hit points due to my stance, so I just stood there, alive and victorious.

HAHA thats amazing! you can probably quite safely call that your crowning moment :P

i am yet to do anything quite so epic yet

Lycanthromancer
2010-04-13, 09:17 AM
ECL 16 game, my first time with this particular group. I (a non-optimized cleric) was the only one with appropriate WBL (since I'd just made my character), while most of the rest of the group was stuck with, at most, a +1 weapon (though one player had multiple greater artifact items, which should've tipped me off as to the quality of the DM and the game).

We were sent off to find and destroy a lycanthrope-like monster that was attacking and killing people in a nearby forest; what the advisor to the king neglected to tell us was that it was the fully-powered avatar of Malar, god of savagery and lycanthropy. At level 16. This wasn't a test, it wasn't a fight we were supposed to flee from; he fully expected us to be able to kill a being with divine ranks, 20 outsider HD, and 20 levels in multiple classes.

Seriously, I mean, WTF?

Had I made an optimized wizard build I could very possibly have taken it down, but I didn't, and I couldn't. Lucky for us, Malar merely toyed with us for a few rounds, and didn't use its divinity to utterly annihilate us in the first round. The paladin in the group (the one with near-epic WBL who accompanied a group with ECL 3 wealth) managed to get off a natural 20, followed by a natural 20, followed by...you guessed it: a natural 20. The group played by the rule that 2 20s in a row auto-killed if the 3rd roll hits, and since nobody could even hit the bastard on anything except a natural 20, this is the ONE AND ONLY means we had at our disposal of actually winning.

And you know what happened? The DM was so hacked off that we killed his precious encounter so quickly that he added a contingent true resurrection which brought it back to life, at full HP.

But do you want to know what the real WIN the paladin earned that day was? He used the last wish on his ring of three wishes as follows: "I wish my next strike is as accurate and potent as my last."

So he killed a fully-realized god. Twice. In 2 rounds.

Never, EVER play with Anthony Krones. Ever. He's a bad DM and he's also a bad person; he'll lie to you and betray you personally, like he's done to every other friend of his I know. Seriously, he's an evil person.

AtwasAwamps
2010-04-13, 09:18 AM
The following exchange happened to me recently in a game.

“Okay, AA, your character is going to be in town for about three weeks while waiting for the rest of the party. What do you do?”

“Well, I’m going to do what a good person like my character would do…help out, care for the town, use my limited healing to care for the sick, so on and so forth…”

“Okay. Now, back to the rest of the…”

“Also, I’m going to wrestle a bear every day in the town square.”

“…what?”

“What? I’m a Champion of Gwynharrawyf. I am a terrifying example of pure unadulterated angry goodness. I am going to wrestle a bear every day to keep in shape.”

“What.”

“So do I roll survival to find these bears or what? I’ll buy some rope and lead ‘em back to town so that we can wrestle and then when we’re done wrestling I’ll release them back into the wild.”

“What.”

“What’s the DC on finding a bear?”

“…Back to the rest of the party.”

Darastin
2010-04-13, 12:07 PM
A friend of mine, playing a paladin in an AD&D 2nd Ed. game, managed to get his armor destroyed (not that difficult under 2nd Ed's ridiculous Item Saving Throws rules) - and he had to fight a nasty white dragon the next day. So he entered the fight armored with nothing but a sweater made of some kind of reindeer hair.

And he prevailed.

Which is not as impressive as it sounds - AC was irrelevant vs. dragons those days because it was capped and, as they got a bonus to hit equal to their age category in addition to their THAC0, dragons hit anything on a roll of 2. There was no Power Attack, so the dragon didn't deal a single point of additional damage compared to a fully armored PC. We figured that it was actually beneficial to fight such nasty beasts unarmored, since their breath weapon could easily destroy the valuable armor.

We called this glitch in the rules the Reindeer Sweater of Dragon Slaying.

Just my two Euro-cents;
Darastin

~LuckyBoneDice~
2010-04-13, 12:49 PM
In an epic Dragon-based Campaign, I, a Strongheart Halfling Monk, punched a rust dragon to death with a single flurry of blows. (The Dragon killed the warforged, and rendered everyone else uselsess, because nobody had a weapon, and by homebrew, casters cant cast spells without a "conduit" which was metal in both the cleric and wizard's cases)

Ravingdork
2010-04-13, 01:00 PM
Yes. Yes I have.

Ernir
2010-04-13, 01:22 PM
My Goliath Paladin grappled a bear to death at ECL 2. He's badass. :smallbiggrin:

(Yes, it was only a black bear. Hush. I'm still proud.)

Djinn_in_Tonic
2010-04-13, 01:31 PM
My Orc Barbarian (without unarmed combat) once soloed a Triceratops (CR 9) with his bare hands at ECL 7. He then dragged the unconscious beast back to camp, and insisted on keeping it as a pet.

theMycon
2010-04-13, 01:33 PM
Not exactly, but I have had a permanently blinded, disjunction'd, Str-damaged to -3 (and moving only because someone took pity to cast Bull's Str) monk punch out the high priest of some unpronouncable demon-god. (Along with her Sorc-18 cohort, a couple mid-high class demons, and probably a dozen soldiers I frankly ignored 'til they triggered my AoO's.)

~LuckyBoneDice~
2010-04-13, 01:37 PM
My Goliath Paladin grappled a bear to death at ECL 2. He's badass. :smallbiggrin:

(Yes, it was only a black bear. Hush. I'm still proud.)

-Insert Stragled Chicken joke here-

jpreem
2010-04-13, 01:52 PM
ECL 16 game, my first time with this particular group. I (a non-optimized cleric) was the only one with appropriate WBL (since I'd just made my character), while most of the rest of the group was stuck with, at most, a +1 weapon (though one player had multiple greater artifact items, which should've tipped me off as to the quality of the DM and the game).

We were sent off to find and destroy a lycanthrope-like monster that was attacking and killing people in a nearby forest; what the advisor to the king neglected to tell us was that it was the fully-powered avatar of Malar, god of savagery and lycanthropy. At level 16. This wasn't a test, it wasn't a fight we were supposed to flee from; he fully expected us to be able to kill a being with divine ranks, 20 outsider HD, and 20 levels in multiple classes.

Seriously, I mean, WTF?

Had I made an optimized wizard build I could very possibly have taken it down, but I didn't, and I couldn't. Lucky for us, Malar merely toyed with us for a few rounds, and didn't use its divinity to utterly annihilate us in the first round. The paladin in the group (the one with near-epic WBL who accompanied a group with ECL 3 wealth) managed to get off a natural 20, followed by a natural 20, followed by...you guessed it: a natural 20. The group played by the rule that 2 20s in a row auto-killed if the 3rd roll hits, and since nobody could even hit the bastard on anything except a natural 20, this is the ONE AND ONLY means we had at our disposal of actually winning.

And you know what happened? The DM was so hacked off that we killed his precious encounter so quickly that he added a contingent true resurrection which brought it back to life, at full HP.

But do you want to know what the real WIN the paladin earned that day was? He used the last wish on his ring of three wishes as follows: "I wish my next strike is as accurate and potent as my last."

So he killed a fully-realized god. Twice. In 2 rounds.

Never, EVER play with Anthony Krones. Ever. He's a bad DM and he's also a bad person; he'll lie to you and betray you personally, like he's done to every other friend of his I know. Seriously, he's an evil person.

Now thats a smart paladin :D. Epic move.

John Campbell
2010-04-13, 01:53 PM
I've never punched a dire bear to death, but I did once kill a wyvern by head-butting it. While it was flying with me held in its claws. And then Tumbled away from the ensuing dragonoid crash unscathed.

Ossian
2010-04-13, 02:42 PM
A beast once attacked the farm where my PC was spending the night. We though of a wild bear, and all NPC got stuff like pitchforks and torches. Of all the 50 ppl in the SAD party I was the one that bumped into the beast. It was not a bear, it was a "winged fell beast". I need to specify that the farm was in Ithilien, middle earth....

Arrow tickles her, sword is in the house (I thought it would be a BEAR). So she closes in and what do I do? Punch her. Ok, so the hit scores a critical, which in the 1d100 is resolved on the special table for "Large creatures". Roll a 10 or something. -20 because my fists sure were not enchanted. Final result

"+10 HP inflicted, the weapon snaps, you are unarmed". Which interpreted means fractured hand, and a very confused fell beast. Musta have scared her cause the bastard flew away :smallbiggrin:

Saintjebus
2010-04-13, 02:48 PM
I once attempted to bite a sewer monster. With my mouth. and then managed to intimidate it from inside it's own mouth(Because biting something which has a bigger mouth than your body is doomed).


(otogy...something. We called it a poo monster).

Lycan 01
2010-04-13, 03:00 PM
Last week, in just one session, my level 1 Half-Orc Bard convinced a seemingly normal statue (which was actually going to be a mini-boss) that it didn't exist. Then, shortly thereafter, I defeated a Succubus by seducing it. Long story... :smallamused:

Panigg
2010-04-13, 03:23 PM
Beholder + Naga.

Party is done, except my dwarfen cleric, who has taken the brunt of the beholders attacks. Due to my high will and fort saves, however, only a couple of those got to me.

So, I'm still standing, the naga just died to our rogue, who lost his last HP and was at -1.

The beholder, just a couple of scratches.

I searing light the bitch, critically. 76 Damage. It died and I stabilized the party. :)

Jeff240sx
2010-04-13, 04:43 PM
My level 12 Battle-Sorc/Swiftblade was pushed by my DM (his idea, I swear) to arrange a coup in my group. So the result was 4 level 11/12s vs. me, in a bar.

It was a Beguiler, Duskblade, Ur-Lock and Swordsage. Each was pretty specialized in their field via min/maxing (not quite optimized, and tier3 toons).

So the fight was about to start, and I cast a quickened Haste just before initiative, and won it easily (+10 helps).

I cast Wall of Force on the party, knowing my DM allows a reflex save to jump out of the way. The Swordsage and Duskblade rolled out, the Lock and Beguiler trapped inside. The two stood up and moved closer to me.

I case Arcane Fusion for Bite of the Wererat (+8 Dex) and Grease on everyone. The swordsage used his round closing on me and the Duskblade fell down.
I grappled the Swordsage and won, the Duskblade came over on his round and made a quickened True Strike'd, Power Attacking, Arcane Striking, Vampiric Touch having channeled Greataxe attack on me. He rolled a 1, and missed.
The Swordsage tried to get out of the grapple and couldn't. The Beguiler failed to dispel my wall, and the lock sat there (maybe a cleric buff on himself?).

Next round I cast Dimensional Anchor on the Swordsage so he couldn't Shadowhand Hop out, then used my Belt of Battle for my standard action back. I summoned my Feycraft daggers via Crystals of Return. I drove each dagger through him for 1d3 + 5d4 arcane strike + 8/4 dex damage, severely wounding him and pinning him to the wooden bar floor.

The Duskblade made a standard attack with (swift) Sure Strike, Arcane Strike and Vampiric Touch channeled via Greataxe. That pile of damage missed due to the Swiftblade's 50% miss chance.

The Beguiler felled my wall with Dispel, and the warlock attacked me with a boosted Eldritch Blast, which was deflected with my immediate Wings of Cover.

I cast Arcane Fusion for a Wings of Flurry + Shocking Grasp for 15d6 on the Duskblade, severely wounding him to the point he dropped his weapon and kneeled.
So I spent my move action trying to talk sense into the Lock and Beguiler.
The Beguiler responded by casting Legion of Sentinels around me, knowing that I took the Dragon Magazine flaw "Brash", stating I take -6 AC on AoOs, and couldn't avoid AoOs or use the full-withdrawal action. She failed to realize mobility was a pre-req, giving me -2AC.
The warlock's blast was again deflected with Wings of Cover.

I walked up to the Warlock, brashly, and took 6 AoOs from the field while withdrawing my weapons. 2 hits landed. Then I used my last Belt of Battle charge for another move action, and proceeded to lay 6 attacks into the warlock, each with +1d6 skirmish damage (BAB of 11/11/6/1 + TWF/ITWF), dropping the Lock immediately.

The Beguiler was going to use Versatile Spellcaster to access the next level spells and lay Overwhelm (save or KO) on me. The DM said "You're probably either scared or mad enough to go nova and just lay into him with something more powerful."
So she sac'd a ton of spellslots and cast a level 9 spell granted via Arcane Disciple to cast Monsterous Thrall on me. Luckily my spell miss-chance kicked in, and the spell never got to me.

I flourished my weapons, smiled, and kicked my Anklets of Translocation on, and hopped in front of her. I asked if she was finished, and would like to tend to the wounded, or continue as we were.

From that point on, the DM hasn't tried to pit me against my group ever again.

sofawall
2010-04-13, 06:50 PM
My level 12 Battle-Sorc/Swiftblade was pushed by my DM (his idea, I swear) to arrange a coup in my group. So the result was 4 level 11/12s vs. me, in a bar.

It was a Beguiler, Duskblade, Ur-Lock and Swordsage. Each was pretty specialized in their field via min/maxing (not quite optimized, and tier3 toons).

So the fight was about to start, and I cast a quickened Haste just before initiative, and won it easily (+10 helps).

I cast Wall of Force on the party, knowing my DM allows a reflex save to jump out of the way. The Swordsage and Duskblade rolled out, the Lock and Beguiler trapped inside. The two stood up and moved closer to me.

I case Arcane Fusion for Bite of the Wererat (+8 Dex) and Grease on everyone. The swordsage used his round closing on me and the Duskblade fell down.
I grappled the Swordsage and won, the Duskblade came over on his round and made a quickened True Strike'd, Power Attacking, Arcane Striking, Vampiric Touch having channeled Greataxe attack on me. He rolled a 1, and missed.
The Swordsage tried to get out of the grapple and couldn't. The Beguiler failed to dispel my wall, and the lock sat there (maybe a cleric buff on himself?).

Next round I cast Dimensional Anchor on the Swordsage so he couldn't Shadowhand Hop out, then used my Belt of Battle for my standard action back. I summoned my Feycraft daggers via Crystals of Return. I drove each dagger through him for 1d3 + 5d4 arcane strike + 8/4 dex damage, severely wounding him and pinning him to the wooden bar floor.

The Duskblade made a standard attack with (swift) Sure Strike, Arcane Strike and Vampiric Touch channeled via Greataxe. That pile of damage missed due to the Swiftblade's 50% miss chance.

The Beguiler felled my wall with Dispel, and the warlock attacked me with a boosted Eldritch Blast, which was deflected with my immediate Wings of Cover.

I cast Arcane Fusion for a Wings of Flurry + Shocking Grasp for 15d6 on the Duskblade, severely wounding him to the point he dropped his weapon and kneeled.
So I spent my move action trying to talk sense into the Lock and Beguiler.
The Beguiler responded by casting Legion of Sentinels around me, knowing that I took the Dragon Magazine flaw "Brash", stating I take -6 AC on AoOs, and couldn't avoid AoOs or use the full-withdrawal action. She failed to realize mobility was a pre-req, giving me -2AC.
The warlock's blast was again deflected with Wings of Cover.

I walked up to the Warlock, brashly, and took 6 AoOs from the field while withdrawing my weapons. 2 hits landed. Then I used my last Belt of Battle charge for another move action, and proceeded to lay 6 attacks into the warlock, each with +1d6 skirmish damage (BAB of 11/11/6/1 + TWF/ITWF), dropping the Lock immediately.

The Beguiler was going to use Versatile Spellcaster to access the next level spells and lay Overwhelm (save or KO) on me. The DM said "You're probably either scared or mad enough to go nova and just lay into him with something more powerful."
So she sac'd a ton of spellslots and cast a level 9 spell granted via Arcane Disciple to cast Monsterous Thrall on me. Luckily my spell miss-chance kicked in, and the spell never got to me.

I flourished my weapons, smiled, and kicked my Anklets of Translocation on, and hopped in front of her. I asked if she was finished, and would like to tend to the wounded, or continue as we were.

From that point on, the DM hasn't tried to pit me against my group ever again.

Slight quibble. You used swift actions multiples times in at least one round, maybe two (need to check rules).

Still, Swiftblade+Dice love make that an awesome moment.

John Campbell
2010-04-13, 07:11 PM
I once attempted to bite a sewer monster. With my mouth. and then managed to intimidate it from inside it's own mouth(Because biting something which has a bigger mouth than your body is doomed).


(otogy...something. We called it a poo monster).

Otyugh.

My same character that killed the wyvern with a head-butt punched out an otyugh on a different occasion.

comicshorse
2010-04-13, 07:21 PM
In a TORG game ( yes I know that dates me) a hard-boiled detective type under the influence of Possibility magic punched out a stegasaurus ( though he did have a knuckle-duster)

Eldariel
2010-04-13, 07:31 PM
Have not. In fact, I've very rarely ended up fighting with weapons other than my own; few times in various tests and sometimes improvising on low levels. I have, though, beheaded a Dire Wolf in one hit on level 3 (martially at least the most memorable event in my D&D experience):
That was quite lucky, not to mention, awesome. Among the more satisfying experiences in the campaign, and it's been a fun campaign. It was actually in the LMG I'm writing a journal on right now; Sublime Way Ranger (basically Ranger with martial maneuvers over casting, and some delayed class features) with Greatsword.

We are beset by a Dire Wolf; quite a scary beast especially at the level. It's doing a good job munching one of my companions after successful Hit + Trip. I give it all I've got: Move up to the beast and Rabid Wolf Strike with full Power Attack on it. Roll a 20. Critical threat. Confirmation? 7. 3 Str + 4 Rabid Wolf Strike = +7. Dire Wolf's AC is 14. 24 damage to Wound Points sends it straight to 0, and one failed Fortitude-save means a very dead Dire Wolf. There was much rejoicing.

Jeff240sx
2010-04-14, 08:26 AM
Slight quibble. You used swift actions multiples times in at least one round, maybe two (need to check rules).

Still, Swiftblade+Dice love make that an awesome moment.



So the fight was about to start, and I cast a quickened Haste [surprise round]... initiative.
Round 1
I cast Wall of Force on the party.

Round 2
I case Arcane Fusion for Bite of the Wererat (+8 Dex) and Grease on everyone. The swordsage used his round closing on me and the Duskblade fell down.

Round 3
I grappled the Swordsage and won.

Round 4
Next round I cast Dimensional Anchor (standard) on the Swordsage so he couldn't Shadowhand Hop out, then used my Belt of Battle (swift) for my standard action back. I summoned my Feycraft daggers via Crystals of Return (free). I drove each dagger through him for 1d3 + 5d4 arcane strike + 8/4 dex damage, severely wounding him and pinning him to the wooden bar floor (full attack).

The Beguiler felled my wall with Dispel, and the warlock attacked me with a boosted Eldritch Blast, which was deflected with my immediate Wings of Cover. (immediate action)

I cast Arcane Fusion for a Wings of Flurry + Shocking Grasp for 15d6 on the Duskblade, severely wounding him to the point he dropped his weapon and kneeled(standard).
So I spent my move action trying to talk sense into the Lock and Beguiler.
The Beguiler responded by casting Legion of Sentinels around me, knowing that I took the Dragon Magazine flaw "Brash", stating I take -6 AC on AoOs, and couldn't avoid AoOs or use the full-withdrawal action. She failed to realize mobility was a pre-req, giving me -2AC.
The warlock's blast was again deflected with Wings of Cover (immediate action).

I walked up to the Warlock (move), brashly, and took 6 AoOs from the field while withdrawing my weapons. 2 hits landed. Then I used my last Belt of Battle (swift.. you got me) charge for another move action, and proceeded to lay 6 attacks into the warlock, each with +1d6 skirmish damage (BAB of 11/11/6/1 + TWF/ITWF), dropping the Lock immediately.

I flourished my weapons, smiled, and kicked my Anklets of Translocation (swift)on, and hopped in front of her. I asked if she was finished, and would like to tend to the wounded, or continue as we were.

You got me. I did an immediate before my turn and a swift on my turn. I've marked my movements, and apparently 6 people all missed it.
The worst that would have happened was a ranged eldritch blast may or may not have hit me (50% miss chance) for 5d6 of my 95hp :D

oxinabox
2010-04-14, 08:48 AM
I ran appocliptic 3.5/pf game last year.

the PCs started as members of a slave/food race, (all the civilised races, including orcs were slaves/food of a new race known as Croem - like Large Boar People)
they escaped, but weapons we things they had only heard about in old stories, even most of the Croem they saw were poorly armed (turns out that was cos the slave guards were low class)

But upon escaping they had to hunt for food
they level up abit, cam across other escapes (like 3),
the party was a bard1/ranger1/druid1 and a halfling monk 3.
When hunting the monk would regularly charge bears (dire and otherwise)
And mercylessly pummel them to death with his tiny fists.

TheCountAlucard
2010-04-14, 11:48 PM
Back when I was Essence 3, my Dawn Caste out-grappled a master of Jade Mountain Style. Does that count?

Zach J.
2010-04-15, 12:10 AM
I don't have any epic stories yet, but I usually make sure that my fighters have Improved Unarmed Strike just in case they need to kill something with their bare hands. Especially if they're elves. All elves should know a little kung-fu.

Lycanthromancer
2010-04-15, 12:15 AM
I don't have any epic stories yet, but I usually make sure that my fighters have Improved Unarmed Strike just in case they need to kill something with their bare hands. Especially if they're elves.Fixed.

Especially baby ones, when there are robes to be fabricated

DueceEsMachine
2010-04-15, 01:29 AM
I had a dragonslayer character in 2nd edition (a kit from the council of wyrms kit I think) - anyways. Long time ago.

Through the course of his career, he'd gotten all the way to 16th level, which in our group was something outstanding, since we had something of a douchebag Dm who would kill you if you didn't declaire that your character relieved themselves first thing in the morning. His reasoning? You'd hold it until your bladder exploded and you died. :smallannoyed:

Anyways. The group was reclaiming a castle from a dragon that had decided it looked like a cozy home, and my character was running point. First room of the dungeon, he runs straight into a group of 5 hell-hounds. Not a big threat, but enough to wear him down a little, right? Wrong. I win initiative, and proceed to roll 4 natural 20's in a row, then a 19 for my attacks, promptly making the room look like a giant blender before the rest of the party has even had a chance to make it through the door.

The rest of the run went very much the same, until we made it to the last encounter with the Great Wyrm Blue dragon flying at us on the castle battlements.

Emboldened by my previous success, I make a running leap and attack this thing as it is diving right at us, using the a special class feature that lets me sacrifice my own hit points to deal an equal amount of damage to the dragon. My reasoning? If I was going to die - (99% chance) - I was going to do it in style.

So the Dm, humored by my actions, describes the scene like any good death scene in a movie, going into exquisite detail. The slight breeze that carries the scent of freshly blooming flowers from the feilds below, the glint of the setting sun flashing off of my blade, and the massive, dripping jaws of the Primordial beast, rushing towards me at unearthly speeds.

And I roll my attack. 20. The whole group shouts as they see it, and I calculate the damage, smiling as I see the Dm's grin fade. I single-handedly destroy the dragon, and go crashing to the ground as it still manages to snatch me in it's mouth while I plunge my sword deep into it's brain. The Dm decides to roll all of the falling damage I would take from the distance and debris ect. - which turns out to be enough to reduce me to 1 hp. Staggered and bleeding, I crawl out from the rubble, dust still settling to the gawking stares of my comrades.

Yeah. That was the single coolest moment for one of my characters.

Edit: removed foot from mouth.

The Vorpal Tribble
2010-04-15, 01:34 AM
Always the other way around for me. I ran a game where a player using an orc barbarian in full plate was taken out by a rooster.

Eldariel
2010-04-15, 02:29 AM
Edit: On a note about the original question - I'm not sure what the total Encounter level would be for 2 dire bears - I'd have to guess somewhere around 9-10, but considering even one should be a difficult challenge for a group that size, you might want to talk to your Dm about what put him in the mood to kill your characters.

It might be frustration, who knows, but a Dm that throws a fit and tpks the whole party because things didn't go how he planned usually finds himself short of players in a hurry. I don't know the exact circumstances, but just my 2 cents worth.

CR for two of a creature = CR+2. So two Dire Bears is CR 9; within the capabilities of the party. As a rule of thumb, ECL+4 is going to be a 50/50 battle to death for a party; anything less than that means the party is still favored. But due to the nature of these creatures (animals with low intellect), it's not quite that hard either. They're fair brawlers, but that's about it.

Torvon
2010-04-15, 04:46 AM
Yesterday, group level 3:
warlock, rogue/scout, cleric, and me, barbarian/fighter (charger).

Last room of a dungeon that lasted for 3 full days of playing, we were really sick of it and wanted to end it quickly. So we went in.

8 Hobgoblins, and 3 bosses (one weird rogue claw dwarf wit a funny grappling poison beard; one hobgoblin boss; one AC monster with w8+10 damage).

Usually, warlock casts enlarge person on me, and on a charge I do around 3d6+2d6(feat)+12 with a power attack. We did not have enlarge person scrolls left though.

Now, this was an encounter where I could not charge (lots of stuff in the room), and things started going bad. I missed the first 3 oder 4 melee strikes (with a +11 to hit ...), and luckily did not get hit myself (really low AC due to medium armor and rage) for a couple of rounds. Otherwise, I guess I would have easily killed 1 boss and all the lower mobs.

The hobgoblins started attacking us, the grapple-beard-dwarf disappeared into the shadows, and the other bosses started charging me.
The fight went for a couple of rounds, the warlock managed a color spray on 3 normal Hobgoblins and sent 2 to the floor.

Now the invisible dwarf thing appears, and crit backstabs the Warlock (full attack, 2* claw + 1 beard). He goes down to 2 Hitpoints. Next turn, that guy uses Foul Blight (or something), and hits all of us.

Warlock rolls a 27 on his will save, and due to being neutral, he only takes 1/4 damage. Survives due to taking a healing pot.

I take 1/2 damage, cleric and rogue take full damage.
The DM rolls ... 28 damage. On level 3. Right.

The Cleric goes down, -7 HP, which is bad. The Rogue goes down, -11 HP. Dead.

So it's me and the warlock against 3 hobgoblins and 3 boss monsters. Warlock has nothing left, except for acid breath thingie, but misses all 3 boss monsters (20+ saves rolled for all 3).

He can teleport 5 times per day as immediate action, and survived quite a bit by just teleporting. I took around 85 damage in 3 rounds, but due to utter cure moderate wound potion abuse (3 potions ...) I always managed to get up from around 5 hitpoints to 20 or so. I cleaved the **** out of the Hobgoblins, killing 2 each turn (don't have greater cleave ...).

In the end, it's just the hobgoblin boss left, and the other badass AC boss with the huge weapon. I have 3 hitpoints, the rest of the party is on the floor.

One has taken some damage, the other has not. I decide to try to kill the weaker one, go for full power attack, and actually manage to roll a 6 and 6 on my 2d6 (!!) greatsword -- to kill the bastard. Everybody was screaming :p ... that was the most important roll of my career.

And well, on the cleave I rolled a 20. 44 damage, baby :p
Now, in retrospect, THAT was the most important roll of my career!

We managed to resurrect the Rogue, but it's going to cost us ...

ta-ta
Torvon

Nightson
2010-04-15, 05:05 AM
Edit: On a note about the original question - I'm not sure what the total Encounter level would be for 2 dire bears - I'd have to guess somewhere around 9-10, but considering even one should be a difficult challenge for a group that size, you might want to talk to your Dm about what put him in the mood to kill your characters.

It might be frustration, who knows, but a Dm that throws a fit and tpks the whole party because things didn't go how he planned usually finds himself short of players in a hurry. I don't know the exact circumstances, but just my 2 cents worth.

Well, an inexperienced DM going by what the encounter rules say might have been tricked by that into thinking the group could handle that.

Swiftest
2010-04-15, 05:19 AM
Great story Torvon! Many other good ones here too. Regarding the DM, I think he knew we could handle it -- he actually expected a little more out of our wizard who is pretty well built for core + srd (I take partial credit) at level 5 and is more than capable of locking down 2 dire bears alone for some time provided they start clumped. Unfortunately I think he had already cast his 2 glitterdusts for the day or neglected to replenish them (we came back to gaming after a couple month long break and nobody was exactly certain who had what memorized when etc). I found out after that he also had a scroll of summon monster 3 he was keeping in reserve which could've totally swung the fight into easy mode as well.

To add to my question, don't you all think that dire bears with 10 foot reach would add to the ecl to make it above 9? I'd think so, given that their reach was a critical advantage in their favor -- our wildshaped druid and our full plate non-tumbling rogue both had to suck AoO's if they were foolish enough to close with the beasties.

WildPyre
2010-04-15, 05:21 AM
A had a wizard who at level one with no spells left, barely clothed and with a makeshift quarterstaff killed two out of the three wolves that had all but killed the other two party members. (the third wolf was thankfully dropped before I had to resort to mage-fu)

On another instance, at a higher level but before the level one encounter (long story)... well the rather sizable party I was in encountered a green dragon, and thanks to some bad rolls, and less than stellar tactics of some players... well lets just say the party was either dead, about to be dead, or completely hosed. Luckily just prior to that I'd learned and memorized the spell "Phantasmal Killer". Beat the SR, and the dragon rolls remarkably craptastic for BOTH saves. *WHUMP* dead dragon. Needless to say I got first pick from the horde for that one.

DueceEsMachine
2010-04-15, 08:44 AM
Okay - well, I'm not the best at gauging a CR - so I withdraw my former remarks. Like I said - I didn't know all the details.

As far as the 10 ft reach, while bothersome, it sounds like it was actually a pretty good move by your Dm to confound your party, at least with the way they're built. Maybe he was trying to get you to think outside the box to win the fight, or foreshadowing later enemies who will have reach. I don't know, and I don't want to sound judgemental on accident again, so I'm done speculating. I don't think it would be enough to increase the challenge rating though.

Anyways - I apologize if my previous post seemed harsh on your Dm. I was tired and not thinking straight. On a more important note - it seems like your question has brought out some very entertaining stories of awesome encounters, so kudos! :smallbiggrin:

Myou
2010-04-15, 09:12 AM
Not quite to death....

http://www.onemanga.com/Hajime_no_Ippo/230/12/

Swiftest
2010-04-15, 12:30 PM
Hehehehe, I was wondering when someone would post the Takamura bear knockout =X. Ippo ftw!

~LuckyBoneDice~
2010-04-15, 01:20 PM
Once, a Dire Werebear (think Giant who became a CE Werebear) faced down my Monk/Warlock, who channeled his eldritch blast into his fist (hideous blow), making it deal massive damage (utterdark blast) into a single punch. needless to say, he died from one focused punch that was all Mike Tyson in his grill

Hurlbut
2010-04-15, 01:33 PM
I wrestled a giant anaconda to death with a 2nd level nordic shaman (barbarian/scholar) in Conan RPG. :smallcool:

Just_Ice
2010-04-15, 01:56 PM
I had a friend whose animal companion tore out the throat of an Otyugh while inside it.