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View Full Version : Heroic Last Stand..... NOT!!!



big teej
2010-08-28, 05:46 PM
greetings members of the playground, I have recently had an experience with a gaming group and am curious if this happens often.

this thread is dedicated to those of us who went for a "go on without me!" moment, fully intending to die and look like a complete badass (even if it was offscreen) and then, through whatever reason, be it the party spoiling your plans of glory, being smooshed by the uber demon chasing you as a free action, or what have you. this is a thread about "go on without me" moments that flopped...

I give you my experience with this.


first. that oh so lovely plot exposition.

the campaign has entered a 'horror phase' for 3 sessions, where the party must escape a small town that seems to have everything on the evil side of the alignment spectrum attacking it.

I am playing my planeswalker barbarian of khorne, Cog Skulltaker.

my party had proceeded t hrough a fair part of the town, and now we simply had to make our way through the medieval version of an apartment complex, and we were off scott free.

as we enter the building a left for dead tank ogre zombie, begins to chase us. we decide to light the house on fire and bolt (thank God for 40ft per round) so anyways, we're bolting, my barbarian doesn't even stop to engage his foes, he smacks down any between him and the next door and keeps booking it.

so we get to the very last section of the "not an apartment complex"

and the tank finally catches us.... due to a taking a few crits, My barbarian has a grand total of ..... I believe it was MAYBE 7 HP, between 3 and 7... and is enraged, so I decide I'm going to throw myself at this hulking undead monstrosity and either A) get reallly luck and roll 2 20s... or hold him off just long enough for the rest of the party to escape.

so what happens?
I run up to the zombie hulk and take a swing with my axe.... and scored a hit!!! a glorious bloody hit!!!

next in intiative? the half orc fighter with a compensation blade.

HE runs up and attacks the ogrethingy as well!!!

followed by the party rogue!!! and the NPC BARD!!!

after the ogre was dispatched. (after rendering my barbarian unconscous and nearly devouring the fighter) we proceeded to sneak past the remaining zombies and leave....


so my barbarian's blaze of glory go on without me moment was completey derailed by an overly loyal party. oh well :smallsigh:

(I say 'overly loyal' because a) the party had just met IC about an hour before this, and b) I stated OOC that I was perfectly okay with giving my "life" to hold him off)

so ..... what of your "go on without me" moments?

Soranar
2010-08-28, 06:16 PM
Go on without me, I'll hold them back (heroic Paladin doing his thing)

vampire shows up

charm, I roll a 1 on my saving throw

turns me into a vampire

I end up killing every last one of my old teammates... so yeah the campaign suddenly changed into our Chaotic evil characters playing as vampires

Tech Boy
2010-08-28, 09:47 PM
Go on without me, I'll hold them back (heroic Paladin doing his thing)

vampire shows up

charm, I roll a 1 on my saving throw

turns me into a vampire

I end up killing every last one of my old teammates... so yeah the campaign suddenly changed into our Chaotic evil characters playing as vampires


You, my good sir, are a winner.

Grommen
2010-08-28, 11:52 PM
Go on without me, I'll hold them back (heroic Paladin doing his thing)

vampire shows up

charm, I roll a 1 on my saving throw

turns me into a vampire

I end up killing every last one of my old teammates... so yeah the campaign suddenly changed into our Chaotic evil characters playing as vampires

Man I hate it when that happens. :smallbiggrin:

Grommen
2010-08-29, 12:00 AM
We have a saying up on the wall where we game.

"I got this!"

It would be the famous last words of just about every player in the campaign, if not for the rest of the players doubling back to save the day.

"I got this" actually means "I ain't got a snowballs chance in the hells, but I'm goen in anyway."

The last dude to make a Heroic Last Stand (well ok he was possessed and making the Heroic Last Stand for the other side against the party), went out like a trooper. He was then promptly washed away by a title wave of pure evil and lost in a "Bottomless pit of doom". Latter the party found an honest to the gods "Book of Vial Darkness". They disposed of the book by opening a portal to the bottomless pit of doom and tossing the book in.

Man will the party be pissed when they find out that he is the BBEG behind all the stuff that has been happening lately, and he possess the Book of Vial Darkness. :smallbiggrin:

Yukitsu
2010-08-29, 12:49 AM
No, but one of my rogues once said "You guys stay here, I'll go on without you." In the ensuing confusion as to the order of what I'd just said, I escaped while my party was thrown in jail.

I did have a "last standish" thing where my character was the squad's superior officer. I ordered the rest of the squad sans our staggered communications officer to go get the jeep, and hauled the guy behind me as I pistolled everything that was trying to get up the hill to us. Doesn't really count, as the jeep came in and saved the day fairly quickly.

WeeFreeMen
2010-08-29, 01:41 AM
Well. First some backround...

The campaign setting was Diablo-esk / Horror / Survival
My character, Augustus Cornelius Terranus (dubbed "Augustus the Train" by the party) was a Monk/Shinto Monk. He was pretty much the "Party Paladin" and was LG. Our party was defending some town, for whatever reason, located within the outer layer of Hel.

The Last Stand!
Augustus and friends had fended off the last wave, I proposed we take the fight to "the Heathens" however upon stumbling into their camp we soon learned, we don't "got this" We actually stumbled upon one of Hels generals! (Freakin A man)
My monk, who fought for justice, asked the party to run and evacuate the village to save them from their imminent doom. After some colorful RP to the death general, I initiated my Dokan Zu (sp) dis-allowing both of us to use spells and Spell like abilities. The fight was now a Fist vs. Massive Axe, I went all out, blowing all my 1 trick ponies and items. Now your asking.. where does the fail come in? I managed to out-right Kill the "Death General" after rolling all "hits" then.. my DM turns to me. You "defeated" the general, now you see a small figure walk out of a tent golf clapping. He congratulates you on your victory.. over his illusion. My Face = :smallfurious:+:smallyuk:^:smallredface: I then proceed to get slaughtered by the Army while the General continues his slow clap.

That has forever been a thing in the group since then, whenever your character does something completely awesome yet fruitless or pointless everyone just stares and golf-claps.

</Story>

DragonOfUndeath
2010-08-29, 04:35 AM
Well. First some backround...

The campaign setting was Diablo-esk / Horror / Survival
My character, Augustus Cornelius Terranus (dubbed "Augustus the Train" by the party) was a Monk/Shinto Monk. He was pretty much the "Party Paladin" and was LG. Our party was defending some town, for whatever reason, located within the outer layer of Hel.

The Last Stand!
Augustus and friends had fended off the last wave, I proposed we take the fight to "the Heathens" however upon stumbling into their camp we soon learned, we don't "got this" We actually stumbled upon one of Hels generals! (Freakin A man)
My monk, who fought for justice, asked the party to run and evacuate the village to save them from their imminent doom. After some colorful RP to the death general, I initiated my Dokan Zu (sp) dis-allowing both of us to use spells and Spell like abilities. The fight was now a Fist vs. Massive Axe, I went all out, blowing all my 1 trick ponies and items. Now your asking.. where does the fail come in? I managed to out-right Kill the "Death General" after rolling all "hits" then.. my DM turns to me. You "defeated" the general, now you see a small figure walk out of a tent golf clapping. He congratulates you on your victory.. over his illusion. My Face = :smallfurious:+:smallyuk:^:smallredface: I then proceed to get slaughtered by the Army while the General continues his slow clap.

That has forever been a thing in the group since then, whenever your character does something completely awesome yet fruitless or pointless everyone just stares and golf-claps.

</Story>

words cant describe how much that sucks and pwns at the same time (i dont even know what emoticon to use)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jpreem
2010-08-29, 05:01 AM
Sounds like a DM railroading -" No you were not SUPPOSED TO WIN this encounter. So hmmmm it was all an illusion."
I suggest disbelieving air some next time. You cant ever be sure.

dsmiles
2010-08-29, 06:19 AM
Background:

2e AD&D, playing a Drow Fighter/Magic-User. Escaping from a red dragon's lair (back when dragons used to be mean. The dragon had already killed the Dwarven Thief, and has nommed on the rest of the party to a great extent.

"Go on without me, I'll hold off the rampaging ancient red dragon!"

This actually sounded more like ("mmpfffmm mmm mppmm mmppffff!")

And, boy, did I ever...Too far for DimDoor, so I Teleport up onto it's back, or so I thought. BAM! Straight into the dragon's left ventricle! (Ever seen a dragon die of a massive coronary? Neither have I, I was dead.) To which the party's barbarian dropped an F-bomb, and said, "Holy *bleep*, would ya look at that!"

So, yeah, I held off the dragon, but it was probably the funniest use of teleport I've ever seen.

Stompy
2010-08-29, 06:37 AM
Background: DnD 3.0. My friends manage to screw up the game before I joined, and so it (too) is a vampire CE game. I make a monk (the DM didn't care about the alignment mismatch) and we were going against the BBEG, level 20 cleric Kathryn. It's her on a throne, with summoned IX minions, in this fight, and it is going south.

Heroic Last Stand: I decide that the coolest, awesomest, best thing I could do was this.

Activate boots of haste
Tumble past 3 very big elementals
Run half a football field
Jump over a blade barrier surrounding her
Grapple her

I was rolling around 15 for everything needed, my friends are cheering me on, and I get into the same "space" as Kathryn. I roll to touch, then to grapple, rolling high as well.

NOT!: It turns out that Kathryn could not be grappled. This was because she was an illusion. The next round she casts destruction on me (still against RAW but my DM didn't care much for it) and outright kills me dead.

I later found out that she had the trickery domain, and that the mislead spell is a :smallfurious:. Same with the time stop it rode in on.

jpreem
2010-08-30, 01:39 AM
Seems to be a certain theme with illusions don't it.

DragonOfUndeath
2010-08-30, 04:14 AM
its the easiest to hand wave with so it is used more

horus42
2010-08-30, 03:15 PM
Go on without me, I'll hold them back (heroic Paladin doing his thing)

vampire shows up

charm, I roll a 1 on my saving throw

turns me into a vampire

I end up killing every last one of my old teammates... so yeah the campaign suddenly changed into our Chaotic evil characters playing as vampires

Something similar happened to me in a game of Scion once. I told everyone to go on without me, and instead of being killed, I was captured, tortured, and brainwashed into serving the Titans. The story ended with me coming back and systematically killing each of my former allies off one by one until the last one left finally figured it out and got to me first.

AtwasAwamps
2010-08-30, 03:20 PM
::gets out his own horn::

::tootles it::

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150139

Snake-Aes
2010-08-30, 03:35 PM
Seems to be a certain theme with illusions don't it.

Would be much easier to simply put her under Freedom of Movement.
DMs around the world really should think a little more about what their bigbads do when they are actually concerned with the possibility of being in a bad place(hint: the competent bigbads do prepare for such eventualities)

The Glyphstone
2010-08-30, 03:37 PM
The solution in these cases is to start disbelieving everything, AFGC-style.

Esser-Z
2010-08-30, 03:39 PM
::gets out his own horn::

::tootles it::

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150139

Thank you for linking this. I'd lost my bookmarks. Really love this story--sums up what a Paladin is very well.

chiasaur11
2010-08-30, 03:55 PM
The solution in these cases is to start disbelieving everything, AFGC-style.

The proper response is "You disbelieve. Suddenly the truth comes to you! You Just Don't Exist. You're a fictional construct. All your Action Doctors and dramatic speeches of "Kiss Me, I'm Dying" mean less than nothing. Tear up your character sheets. The Game is Over 2. And now we can sit around doing nothing. I bet you're Thrilled to be Here.

Choco
2010-08-30, 03:57 PM
Would be much easier to simply put her under Freedom of Movement.
DMs around the world really should think a little more about what their bigbads do when they are actually concerned with the possibility of being in a bad place(hint: the competent bigbads do prepare for such eventualities)

I don't know if that would help much. Illusions are a convenient scapegoat, but I have seen players accuse the DM of railroading EVERY TIME they get outsmarted by an enemy. If the enemy had actually prepared for something the PC does and escapes or wins the fight, then OBVIOUSLY the PC was meant to lose from the start and the DM is railroading. This is especially funny when they use the same tactics over and over against intelligent enemies...

Tiki Snakes
2010-08-30, 04:02 PM
The proper response is "You disbelieve. Suddenly the truth comes to you! You Just Don't Exist. You're a fictional construct. All your Action Doctors and dramatic speeches of "Kiss Me, I'm Dying" mean less than nothing. Tear up your character sheets. The Game is Over 2. And now we can sit around doing nothing. I bet you're Thrilled to be Here.

No, really. the proper response is to agree not to try and screw over your party with Illusions at every opportunity. :smallwink:

Snake-Aes
2010-08-30, 04:02 PM
I don't know if that would help much. Illusions are a convenient scapegoat, but I have seen players accuse the DM of railroading EVERY TIME they get outsmarted by an enemy. If the enemy had actually prepared for something the PC does and escapes or wins the fight, then OBVIOUSLY the PC was meant to lose from the start and the DM is railroading. This is especially funny when they use the same tactics over and over against intelligent enemies...
I hate those types of players.

big teej
2010-08-30, 04:02 PM
::gets out his own horn::

::tootles it::

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150139

I'm jealous, you win the thread.. XD (until further notice)

however, I must admit, I am intrigued, can I get a link to this "inevevitable conflict" thread?

also
despite my talent at being overly verbose, I do not have the words to express how awesome your paladining is =]

I haven't gotten around to playing a paladin yet, but when I do, I'm directing people to that if someone asks me 'what type of character are you shooting for?'

Snake-Aes
2010-08-30, 04:05 PM
The proper response is "You disbelieve. Suddenly the truth comes to you! You Just Don't Exist. You're a fictional construct. All your Action Doctors and dramatic speeches of "Kiss Me, I'm Dying" mean less than nothing. Tear up your character sheets. The Game is Over 2. And now we can sit around doing nothing. I bet you're Thrilled to be Here.

This was actually a plot point in a webcomic. The group had to cross a huge chasm and the mysterious guide was being very cryptic about how reality is not what it looks like, even messing with spacetime by reaching into the next frame and so on.
In the chasm the barbarian has an epiphany and suddenly feels very sad. "I can see now...how to cross this chasm." And he shifts the perspective so the frame is at ground-level with the chasm's borders in a lateral view, and he proceeds to walk on the frame's bottom.

herrhauptmann
2010-08-30, 05:28 PM
This was actually a plot point in a webcomic. The group had to cross a huge chasm and the mysterious guide was being very cryptic about how reality is not what it looks like, even messing with spacetime by reaching into the next frame and so on.
In the chasm the barbarian has an epiphany and suddenly feels very sad. "I can see now...how to cross this chasm." And he shifts the perspective so the frame is at ground-level with the chasm's borders in a lateral view, and he proceeds to walk on the frame's bottom.

You mean like this? (http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0459.html) (well sorta)

devinkowalczyk
2010-08-30, 10:08 PM
Hasnt happened yet, but I am sacrificing all my hp and dropping myself to -44 (out of -45 in 4e), all my healing surges, and all my spells to stop a Red Dragon God of Fire from being released while simulatenously releasing 4-6 ancient wyrm kings...


Hopefully it goes well!

Snake-Aes
2010-08-30, 10:14 PM
You mean like this? (http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0459.html) (well sorta)


http://www.magiasebarbaridades.com/tiras/realidade/meb394.gif
http://www.magiasebarbaridades.com/tiras/realidade/meb395.gif

Jack Zander
2010-08-30, 10:30 PM
We have a saying up on the wall where we game.

"I got this!"

It would be the famous last words of just about every player in the campaign, if not for the rest of the players doubling back to save the day.

"I got this" actually means "I ain't got a snowballs chance in the hells, but I'm goen in anyway."

This is funny, because "I got this" is my personal line in our group as well. I've only ever said it when we are royally screwed and it looks like there is no hope of winning the encounter with all our party members surviving, yet I have some brilliant (or sometimes just insane) plan. It always elicits groans from the other players, though my plans have worked every single time so they have started to trust me now.

For example, I was playing a samurai in an OA campaign and we were storming an earth spirit fortress by sheer force. The earth spirits seemed endless (two more would show up each round) and eventually I fell unconscious. Our shaman heals me back up to 3 HP and then the cavalry comes. There is a horseman with a spear or lance who looks ready to charge. We are surrounded by these earth spirits and none of us could take charging damage from a horseman without likely dying. I stand up and say, "Don't worry, I got this." Then I tell the DM that I ready a partial charge action to be taken if the horseman charges. The Shaman immediately starts cursing at me for wasting the healing he so graciously bestowed upon me in the previous round. The DM rules that we meet halfway and both charge, that I get the first attack because my action interrupted his, but that he does get an AoO on me because of the reach. He of course misses and I down him in one hit before he gets to hit me for his x4 charge damage. This was entirely dumb luck of the dice. I didn't have much of a chance of surviving.

Another example: I was playing a Jedi in SWSE with another player being a noble who is mostly support but also Force sensitive and has a few Force powers. We were all being destroyed by a dark side marauder with a vibroax who took me down to less than 10 life fairly fast and messed up the noble after I fell back. The scoundrel is pretty terrible at combat and was blasting at him and missing every round with his pee shooter pistol. I say, "Wait, I got this. [Noble], delay until after I go." He looks at me and says, "Really? you think we have a shot? Okay, I delay." I tell the DM that I use a Force point and activate Skilled Adviser, giving the noble a +10 to his next skill check. Then I tell him to use a Force point and return Force Grip to his Force suite (we had both spent all our Force powers during the beginning of the battle). He Force Grips the guy and rolls a natural 20 for a Use the Force check of something like 45. The DM ruled that we did some sort of Force Grip combo, both choking him at the same time and immediately crushing his windpipe in (I'm pretty sure he died from the damage, but even if the DM used Rule of Cool there he had little chance after that attack as all he could do is a swift action every round provided we maintained the attack.

But that's all off topic. I've also had failures of last stands. One of our early campaigns involved fighting a tavern full of freshly changed wererats when we were all unprepared for it (no silver weapons). I think we were supposed to run and as a defensive monk build (one of our first campaigns, don't be harsh) I told everyone to flee while I jumped into the center of the room. Most everyone ran upstairs and jumped out the window, but the stupid barbarian thought I needed to be saved, so he ran after me. The massive number of wererats quickly tore him to shreds (though he did kill one or two first) and all I could do was shout, "Noooo!" Obi-Wan style while defending myself and slowly making it to the front door where I slid out, slammed it behind me and shook my head to the rest of the party who was waiting for me, signaling the death of a friend and what my character took as his failure.

Then something similar happened with this character when the DM wanted to end the campaign. We were faced off in an open field against two monsters (I don't even remember what they were) which were incredibly overpowered compared to us. This became obvious after 1 round of combat so I told everyone to flee, that I would hold them off as long as I could. Well they quickly tore me to shreds and my death bought the party exactly one round. The monsters had a higher move speed and overtook them almost as fast as they took me. Kind of a lame last stand there.