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Sarquion
2010-11-14, 02:29 PM
I was just wondering after the sessions i had yesterday what you guys have done which either annoyed your DM a lot of just totally surprised him or both.

In the session I had yesterday, A messenger in black studded leather and hood with green trim and a blank white mask called me over. He said he has been watching me and would like me, and the rest of the party if they'd like, to go to the northern kingdoms and talk to "Castien Maldeth" a powerful king one would be wise to not disobey. Normally people would ask the norm questions and seek out this northern kingdoms and this so called "Castien Maldeth". I on the other hand asked this messenger how long had he been following me, he said "I cannot say". So with my weapon already in my hand i attack without the rest of my armour, (I'm a level 4 human fighter and i have a level 4 Cleric of Tiamat with no prepared spells and a level 4 tiefling wizard), Not knowing his guy was a level 12 with atleast 7 levels in rogue. Any way some how we killed him in 5 rounds and only the cleric took damage and it was only 7 from one hit.

The DM looked at me and just said "You don't kill the messenger"
I said "he shouldn't have been following me in an evil campaign"

We instantly boosted to level 5 for our victory (despite not actually technically allowed to get XP from a level 12 encounter)

What story's do you guys have?

Last Laugh
2010-11-14, 02:47 PM
hehe, I cast solid fog centered on the basilisk.... I then buffed my party up and keep lobbing AoE debuff spells into the fog (glitterdust/grease hurrah). he was sad.

Aidan305
2010-11-14, 03:32 PM
Pimped out a tractor with neon glowstrips, a nitro turbo-boost and an extremely large set of sub-woofers.

That was, of course, after winning a bet about being able to throw myself further than two other members of the party could throw me (Nat 20 FTW)

Scoot
2010-11-14, 03:42 PM
DM had a manticore come in and mess up our party. He managed to kill one of our swordsages, and then proceeded to fly away.

None of us had the ability to fly, or shoot any decent ranged weapons, so he thought he had gotten away scot free.

However, we all knew how to jump, and rather well.

We ended up having the other swordsage throw the warblade out of the window of a 3 story building, while the fighter somehow shot the sorcerer upward to the same point. The warblade grabs the sorc's familar, and jumps off of his head to get high enough to throw the familiar on the manticore, where it delivered a shocking grasp, and dropped it.


Now there may have been some twisting of jump rules, but he let it slide,

mostly because he thought we couldn't pull it off.

ExtravagantEvil
2010-11-14, 03:44 PM
Ok, recently, last session, our group had escaped a large mansion filled with home brew undead, by it being destroyed by catapults outside of our control.

Now, the Prince Regeant, a friend of ours (sort of) died, crushed under rock.

Now, we were met by an important individual and have successfully bluffed him into thinking that one of the PC's was pronounced the new ruler by the dying word of the Prince Regeant.

And this wasn't a long drawn out plot either, we just met him, said it and he believed it.

So we managed to bluff ourselves into ruling a nation :smallcool:, or at least are on a fast track towards that.

Dr.Epic
2010-11-14, 03:46 PM
I tricked a king into giving me his signature and used forgery to con shop keepers out of stuff.

Fallbot
2010-11-14, 03:52 PM
DM: Ok, the sword you found is powerfully enchanted. [Just to me] It's one of the swords you trained with as a child, and what's more, it has your real name [that my character has been hiding from the rest of the party] engraved on the hilt. You realise your [crazy stalker assassin] aunt must have left it here to screw with you.

Me: Right. I'm going to wait till the others aren't looking, then throw it in that pit of lava we just passed. I'm through playing her games.

DM: ....buh....wuh....but it's plus two...

(He didn't let me do it in the end. Stupid railroad plot.)

Yukitsu
2010-11-14, 04:16 PM
He has recently said, the only surprising thing I've ever done, was the direct approach. He was a little upset when he learned that the direct approach was a feint for the rest of the party.

Scarey Nerd
2010-11-14, 05:15 PM
I am in Sarquion's group, and I wanted to add something else that happened in yesterday's session:

We were negotiating a reward with the mayor for slaying the demon that attacked the day before, when he was informed that a Yuan-Ti military force had arrived, demanding supplies. He asked the party to deal with the situation for him, in exchange for a larger reward. Myself, a Changeling Rogue with +15 diplomacy and +13 bluff, and the elven aristocrat of the party with +16 diplomacy, rode out to meet with the Yuan-Ti, along with a scribe sent to take notes. Long story short, we gave the Yuan-Ti the scribe and told them we could make sure the city was poorly guarded and they could pillage it as they please.

We then went back to the city and told them what we'd done, enabling them to ambush the Yuan-Ti. This will destroy the Yuan-Ti, netting us a huge reward, and weaken the city so that we can assume control as and when it suits us.

TL;DR: 2 of the party started a war between Yuan-Ti and a city. DM didn't look amused.

GoodbyeSoberDay
2010-11-14, 05:49 PM
tl;dr: The party meat-grinds its way through encounters where we were supposed to flee. Hilarity ensues.

A few years ago I played in an evil campaign with some college friends; it played sort of like a very bloody Shadowrun, as our team of Erythnul worshipers fought against the oppressive anti-evil-church regime by casing good-aligned churches, using divinations to find weak points and good strategies, and then killing/burning everything in a large radius as quickly as possible before GettingTFO.

The DM knew I would optimize, but I was only one of six players, and I was going more for a support cleric (Cloistered/Divine Oracle, focused on divination legwork, save or suck, and party buffs) to avoid stealing the spotlight from the others. He thought he was safe. What he didn't know is that my build advice (which was asked for, mind you) heavily influenced both the sorceress and the archer ranger spec'd to kill our main enemy, the church of Heironeous (and humans if that didn't work). Not only that, but the other three players, who all wanted different types of melee, showed up without completed character sheets, and as I was by far the fastest character-maker, I made three moderately optimized melee machines fitting their respective concepts. I only now wonder what we could have done if we had ToB...

Anyway, long story short, in the second session, after some Recitation/DMM Quickened Confusion and Sculpted Grease goodness trivialized an encounter, a Paladin of Heironeous twice our level with maxed PC WBL (for *his* level) gear shows up. The DM thought we'd flee after our attacks were rendered utterly ineffectual (super high saves, high AC), but the ranger single handedly perforated what was supposed to be the Big Bad Good Guy in three rounds while the rest of the party kept him busy. To his credit, he played by the rules/rolls and let us have the +5 gear of awesome, but he had to take some time off to restructure the whole campaign after that fight.

Later in that same campaign, after a surprisingly non-railroady DM ploy caused the enemy to find all of the church's hideouts, the group was again attacked by a seemingly overwhelming force of mooks, elite guards, and a cleric far above our level. Again the DM thought we would flee. The monk (I know!) basically solo'd the cleric, Doomtide kept everyone standing still for the sorceress to fireball, and the ranger picked off targets of opportunity. Again we cleared out what was supposed to be an impossible encounter, but at least this time the DM was prepared for that eventuality.

Lev
2010-11-14, 05:59 PM
I tricked a king into giving me his signature and used forgery to con shop keepers out of stuff.

Forgery is HIGHLY underrated, since no one uses it, and it's used on both sides of the opposed check.

Callista
2010-11-14, 08:48 PM
Fly+Baleful Transposition on one enemy while directly above a second enemy. 80 feet above, to be precise.

Shan't do it again, of course. It's too powerful for the levels involved, especially since at I could be casting it from 160 feet off the ground. 16d6 damage to two enemies is NOT appropriate for a combination of a 3rd and 2nd-level spell.

I wouldn't have tried it if our level 7 party hadn't got ourselves into an EL 15 fight. At that point I was just thinking, okay, if we're all gonna die, we'll do it with style. (Only one PC actually did.)

Deity
2010-11-14, 09:58 PM
Up until this point the campaign has been fairly typical, a few role-playing puzzles, but the party has simply been plowing through everything kick in the door style, fairly boring stuff.

The DM, wanting to challenge us, or maybe simply wanting to put an end to this style by over doing it sets us up to kill our way through a cave populated by almost a hundred orcs, ogres, goblins, etc.

So when the adventure started I walked up to orc guards, and told them we were here to join their warband.
We bluffed our way to the leader, quickly and quietly assassinated him, and bluffed our way out with most of the dungeon's loot.

The DM was pretty surprised to say the least >_<

hydraa
2010-11-14, 10:11 PM
What was the solid connection used to connect to the first enemy? perhaps had him tied with a rope and flew up?

Callista
2010-11-14, 10:21 PM
We were surrounded by trees, and the target in question was an ooze on the ground--they have horrible Will saves.

I really don't recommend this as a strategy, though. I probably shouldn't have done it, to be honest, and whether the topmost branches of a tree count as a "solid connection" is doubtful... But it's limited in utility anyway. Most things you fight will have way better Will saves than a convenient ooze.

darbythegambler
2010-11-14, 10:32 PM
in a gestalt campaign, the DM sent a green dragon against us. Here's how the rounds go:

Round 1: Dragon drinks a potion and flies straight for me, smack its face with Eldritch Spear

Round 2: Dragon withdraws to drink another potion, turns invisible. What happens?... smack its face with and Eldritch Spear :smallbiggrin: (the DM had forgotten that I had the See the Unseen invocation active) Unfortunately that meant big bad dragon was mad at me :smalleek:

Lev
2010-11-14, 10:39 PM
Double bluffing, make a bluff check on an exaggeration of something true, that way they think the opposite. Low bluff check works better if you are going by RAW, high bluff check works better if not.

chormin
2010-11-14, 10:39 PM
Just the other day we managed to randomly discover the fastest/safest route through his labyrinthine dungeon complex, find and reason with the LBEG and leave unscathed.

We proceeded to be genuinely good at being heroes and figuring out the next few steps of his plot.

AshDesert
2010-11-14, 10:54 PM
Once, when playing a Fudge (http://www.fudgerpg.com/) campaign. It was a superhero campaign, and we were in the middle of our first fight with (what was supposed to be) the big super villain of the campaign. I used my telekinesis to throw one of his minions (the guys we were supposed to take out while he got away) into him, but I rolled a +4 on the Fudge dice (like a nat 20, but a 1/81 chance of happening) and ended up with an overall score Legendary++. I ended up throwing them right out the window of the top floor of a 50 story building. He couldn't fly (he was a Badass Normal, no actual superpowers). The look on my DM's face was priceless.

Tvtyrant
2010-11-14, 11:05 PM
Wagons. I like wagons.

We were part of an under attack wagon train by orcs (lots of them), and I as the party cleric (and tank, everyone else was striker types) decided that the group was going to escape the imminent TPK if it killed us (pun intended). So I had us set fire to all of the wagons and push them down the sides of the hill. The orcs dodged the burning wagons and rushed the top of the hill to find no one there (besides merchants). We had all jumped into one of the wagons and rode its flaming glory away from the fight. I healed us and we ran like heck away.

The White Knight
2010-11-14, 11:14 PM
Me: I cast Freedom of Movement.
DM: Okay. The Awakend Fiendish Half-Dragon Tyrannosaur Barbarian*, after eating all your friends, goes next. It bites you. You take some arbitrarily stupid amount of damage. Make a grapple check.
Me: I win.
DM: Huh?
Me: (points out Freedom of Movement text)
DM: Oh... Wow, that's messed. Okay. Your turn.
Me: I cast Delay Death.
DM: Okay. The lolwtfbbq dinosaur attacks... (grimaces) and crits. How many hit points do you have left?
Me: Don't worry about it.
DM: You take [like double my max hp] damage... uhh...
Me: Ok, whatever. I smite.
DM: Huh? But aren't you--
Me: (points out Delay Death text)
DM: ...I give up.

*This thing was the "animal companion" (yeah, don't get me started) of something like a 13th level Druid. Our DM needs to be firmly put in his place like this sometimes.

Jarrick
2010-11-14, 11:41 PM
I once used Magic Jar on one of the stormlords of Stormreach to bring a simple end to her stuborn refusal to diplomacy. I signed the papers we needed, then picked up my focus gem and used her soul as a material component for a false life spell. I asked the rest of my party to carry my limp "anemic" (high bluff) body outside away from the guards with some yelling in her voice to make it look good. A few minutes later, I walked outside and jumped in front of an oncoming wagon and ended the spell, making it look like an accident.

Evil party + Dread Necromancer ftw!

Cealocanth
2010-11-14, 11:58 PM
I ran a one-shot game with my group the other day. The BBEG battle went someting like this.

Statue Guardian with big ass axe: Intruders! You stand before the gateway to the dwelling of Adalgrim (omnipotent wizard)! Why have you come???

Party leader: We seek to speak with Adalgrim.

SGBAA: Only those deemed worthy may confront the man himself. Only the pure of heart and the strong of arm fall under that category.

Warlock: Let me handle this. Great guardian statue-

SGBAA: What? Your heart is not pure, you are a warlock of evil means, why should I let you of all people live to see the surface?

Warlock: uhh...

Sticktheif: I bet we can take this guy! Let us through or I'll kill you!

SGBAA: No.

PL: Guys...

All we seek is information that Adalgrim has. Is that not a reasonable cause to speak with him?

SGBAA: The puny Halfling just threatened to destroy me. He seems too dangerous to let near my master.

Cleric: Our leader speaks the truth. Why deny us a chance to speak with the man when we have come so far? (Successfull Diplomacy check. Damn!)

SBGAA: I see in your leader's and your heart that you are pure as the stone around us. It's the two psychotic maniacs over there that're the problem.

PL: I promise to assume full responsibility of them within the tower. If Adalgrim dies under his hand, let it be me that is punished.

SGBAA: Very well. discard your weapons unto me, then proceed.

I seriously expected to slaughter that thing and steal the 6th level Axe of Terror. It's a sad day when the last thing I expect if for the party to do something good to the man that had wronged them.

Grendus
2010-11-15, 12:57 AM
In a 3d6 campeign (homebrew game based loosely on the same game GURPS is based on), the DM had created a sphinx to guard the next leg of the labyrinth. She had been littering the cavern with clues for the sphinx's riddle and gave us four guesses(one for each party member), but with three misses and no real idea what the answer was, we decided to take some time to explore the rest of the dungeon.

Now, quick side bar on the sphinx. It had 200 strength (for comparison, my character is the tank of this party with 14, and strength is also your hp), 40 dex, 25 iq, 40 ft/round movement rate, and did a d100+25 damage. It was never meant to be fought. The fatal flaw was it had no ranged attack.

About this time, we're taking stock of our one shot magic items. We have a few scrolls and gems of high level spells, and one good crowd control gem with no saving throw. Long story short, this world ending monster that was supposed to be able to kill a party six times our level was taken down in three rounds. Never got an attack. She was mildly amused. Didn't cause any problems though, since she expected us to guess the riddle. Cutting the knot didn't really change the story.

Volos
2010-11-15, 02:04 AM
In an aquatic campaign, I got in about two hours before any of the other playes. My rouge had been splatted in the last game by the party fighter and a terrible crit fail on a tossing of a huge hammer. So I've rolled up a sorcerer. The DM decides to take the spare time we have to play out how I got to the island city. I'm defending a boat from any threats that may come up. As a 4th level Sorcerer, I'm not feeling too confident of my ability to do this. Soon enough a boat approaches. Long story short, two boats full of pirates. I kill everyone aboard the first and torch the ship for good measure. The second (larger) boat has more baddies and they mannage to kidnap almost everyone off of my boat. I give an ultimatium for them to return the hostages or I will torch their boat and sail away. I crti on my bluff for a 30 something. Somehow that isn't enough, so I proceed to kill and set the boat ablaze. After all of this, I haven't taken a single point of damage and I still have more than half my spells remaining. I've made up for the XP difference between me and the rest of the party and end up walking away with a full load of treasure and a very questionable alignment. He honestly thought he could railroad me into getting captured and sold as a slave to the party.

2-HeadedGiraffe
2010-11-15, 09:03 AM
My punch-first-ask-questions-later half-orc monk (along with the rest of the party) killed a bunch of gnolls and giant spiders outside of a tower. When we went into the tower, we found that the gnolls we'd just killed were guarding all of their children, many of whom were infants. My orc had a moment of conscience, and we took all the gnolls back to my monastery to be raised as members of my order. I have it on good authority that we shifted the future power balance for the whole island that day.

Elves-as-People
2010-11-15, 12:19 PM
Have your character stall obvious plot hooks in order to take care of ordinary, every day needs. It helps establish your character as a realistic individual and always seems to surprise the DM's I've played with.

Gamgee
2010-11-15, 12:33 PM
Me as a noble in Star Wars: Hey can I buy that giant death robot at half price?

DM: Uh your supposed to be picking up a small droid.

Storekeeper: Uh, don't be silly.

*critical 20 persuasion check*

Storekeeper: Okay...

And that's how a level 1 noble had a level 13 giant death robot. I promptly robbed the storekeeper, a bank, and destroyed a police station and framed another player and got off scot free with hundreds of thousands of credits I planned to invest in a company.

Edit
We never did meet for session two. :(

dsmiles
2010-11-15, 12:42 PM
Not so much "surprised" as "made cry."

Back in 2e, we were playing a game where the major threat was a disease. There was a dwarf fighter with an outrageous CON score, a cleric that could cure herself, and me, a disease-immune paladin. Every time he said save versus poison (which was the save for that particular disease) we just looked at him like he was stupid, and said, "No." In unison. Every time.

Frosty
2010-11-15, 01:14 PM
DM had a manticore come in and mess up our party. He managed to kill one of our swordsages, and then proceeded to fly away.

None of us had the ability to fly, or shoot any decent ranged weapons, so he thought he had gotten away scot free.

However, we all knew how to jump, and rather well.

We ended up having the other swordsage throw the warblade out of the window of a 3 story building, while the fighter somehow shot the sorcerer upward to the same point. The warblade grabs the sorc's familar, and jumps off of his head to get high enough to throw the familiar on the manticore, where it delivered a shocking grasp, and dropped it.


Now there may have been some twisting of jump rules, but he let it slide,

mostly because he thought we couldn't pull it off.
Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children homage? :smallwink:

obliged_salmon
2010-11-15, 01:16 PM
DM: Ok, the sword you found is powerfully enchanted. [Just to me] It's one of the swords you trained with as a child, and what's more, it has your real name [that my character has been hiding from the rest of the party] engraved on the hilt. You realise your [crazy stalker assassin] aunt must have left it here to screw with you.

Me: Right. I'm going to wait till the others aren't looking, then throw it in that pit of lava we just passed. I'm through playing her games.

DM: ....buh....wuh....but it's plus two...

(He didn't let me do it in the end. Stupid railroad plot.)

Didn't let you??? I would've given you bonus XP. Talk about interesting, character-driven conflict!

Callista
2010-11-15, 01:20 PM
Definitely. Ditto here. If a player throws away a +2 sword for RP reasons, I'd darn well give him a healthy chunk of XP for it.

Tyrmatt
2010-11-15, 02:33 PM
Surprise for me is generally that my lovingly crafted special and boss zombies who at one point had NAMES (That's how much I cared!), are immediately and brutally slaughtered by any given PC. I've done more damage with a single, basic zombie than I have with all of my customs combined.

I've given up trying to challenge them with cool zombies now. They seem perfectly happy racking up the kills on the basics and throwing grenades at necromancers. Yeah, I let them have way too many explosives but its fun.

Callista
2010-11-15, 02:44 PM
You can re-flavor and re-use things they slaughter without examining. Just sayin'.

Duke of URL
2010-11-15, 02:51 PM
What have you done to surprise your DM?

Flowers, chocolate, and a well-thought out choice of card.

Shademan
2010-11-15, 03:07 PM
Flowers, chocolate, and a well-thought out choice of card.

classy.
I approve

~Nye~
2010-11-15, 03:27 PM
We were fighting an augmented otyugh, which we soon discovered had a weakness to fire, it kept grappling our rogue and fighter, so I dropped incendary grease on it, both the rogue and fighter slipped free from it's grapple. I waited untill they had moved away and I dropped a fireball on it. I sat and watched the fireworks.

2-HeadedGiraffe
2010-11-15, 04:16 PM
Definitely. Ditto here. If a player throws away a +2 sword for RP reasons, I'd darn well give him a healthy chunk of XP for it.

Agreed. This was clearly a character who was willing to give up mechanical advantage because his character would want to avoid the drama that came with it. It's not everyone's style of play, but I think it ought to be appreciated.

TaliaJacta
2010-11-15, 04:23 PM
The level 1 PC wizard was being followed by a level 10 ranger, who was supposed to be a plot hook. When the wizard heard someone behind him, he turned around and cast sleep before even looking to see who it was. Both the ranger and his two lackeys failed their saves and fell unconscious.

The DM had to dish out a lot more XP than she had expected to...

Frosty
2010-11-15, 04:38 PM
The level 1 PC wizard was being followed by a level 10 ranger, who was supposed to be a plot hook. When the wizard heard someone behind him, he turned around and cast sleep before even looking to see who it was. Both the ranger and his two lackeys failed their saves and fell unconscious.

The DM had to dish out a lot more XP than she had expected to...
She also forgot that Sleep only targets up to 4 hit-dice, starting with the lowest HD creatures first. The two lackeys *might* have fallen to the spell, but the 10 HD Ranger can't possibly succumb to the Sleep spell.

KingMerv00
2010-11-15, 05:20 PM
I'm DMing an 8th level party that is on a war mission to find and neutralize a base that is manufacturing explosives. They find the base in the swamp and see an airship outside the base being loaded with bombs. The party decided that their best course of action was to hijack the blimp and bomb the base.

Should have seen that coming. :smallfurious:

This will be resolved this weekend. Fortunately, I have a plan. It is horrifying but fair.

tynger1234
2010-11-15, 05:27 PM
The party had finally made it to the final room of the big villain's keep. The villain and her last remaining cohort are all that are in the room ready to activate the seed of destruction. My paladin leaps at the main villain ready to end her fiendish plot to destroy all of creation.

When suddenly... Time stopped for everyone, but my paladin and Nerull who spontaniously appeared in the room just in time to save the villain. Long story short my paladin had a battle of wits with the god of pestilence and won. Nerull tried multiple times in the session to get my paladin to fall and join him as his most powerful death knight.

I stayed true to my paladin code, atoned the high priesttess of Nerull into a preistess of Pelor and saved all of creation.


Top that

Oracle_Hunter
2010-11-15, 05:46 PM
My players actually decided to pay for the resurrection of a NPC with only the loosest of characterizations :smalleek:

His name is "The Boulder" : a Goliath Fighter whose characterization up to that point was speaking in the third person and not dying in the first encounter. Yes, my Players named him and yes they're fans of Avatar (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Ptitlemxi508a6?from=Main.AvatarTheLegendOfAang) but even so - 500 GP when the party is only LV 3!

He just died again and they insist on resurrecting him a second time! It's mind-boggling!

Also: !

Cuaqchi
2010-11-15, 06:05 PM
His side of the story...

Now my side of that conflict as the second player at the table.

My High Priest of Wee Jas (Archmage/Hierophant/Mystic Theurge) had actually leapt into the Seed of Destruction(SoD) only a moment earlier, attempting to Plane Shift the object out of the dungeon and away from the BBEG. The resultant explosion of diefic energies created a demi-plane in which my character, the original BBEG, and the SoD were trapped hurtling through the D&D multiverse.

So, while the Paladin was doing his thing back talking to a god, I was stuck in a life or death conflict with another Hierophant (The Wizard/Druid One) as we wrestled for control of the world altering entity. What made the fight even better is that I didn't use an offensive spell until like the 5th round whereas he tried everything to take me out quickly. In the end I had burned through things like Spellturning, Deathward, Fire Shield, and a Limited Wish when all that was needed was a Dimensional Anchor before Pelor reached in and pulled me from the item trapping the BBEG and the SoD together, somewhere no one would ever find them.

The really sucky part is player 3's role... As a Fighter/Knight his sole success was pushing the paladin out of the way of the SoD before Nurell arrived...

Frenchy147
2010-11-15, 06:10 PM
It's a long story as to what led to this, but we tied up our fat cleric (who had nothing but a loincloth) a left him in a puddle of urine in the sewer.

Scoot
2010-11-15, 09:26 PM
Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children homage? :smallwink:

I have not seen this but if there is anything even remotely similar to this scene in it,

I think I need to watch it.

The White Knight
2010-11-15, 09:35 PM
Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children homage? :smallwink:

Exactly what I thought, too. I hated that fight scene.

Frosty
2010-11-15, 09:50 PM
My players actually decided to pay for the resurrection of a NPC with only the loosest of characterizations :smalleek:

His name is "The Boulder" : a Goliath Fighter whose characterization up to that point was speaking in the third person and not dying in the first encounter. Yes, my Players named him and yes they're fans of Avatar (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Ptitlemxi508a6?from=Main.AvatarTheLegendOfAang) but even so - 500 GP when the party is only LV 3!

He just died again and they insist on resurrecting him a second time! It's mind-boggling!

Also: !
Well the Boulder is very awesome because he is voiced by Mick Foley aka Mankind...so of course they have to res him!

2-HeadedGiraffe
2010-11-16, 08:55 AM
My players actually decided to pay for the resurrection of a NPC with only the loosest of characterizations :smalleek:

His name is "The Boulder" : a Goliath Fighter whose characterization up to that point was speaking in the third person and not dying in the first encounter. Yes, my Players named him and yes they're fans of Avatar (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Ptitlemxi508a6?from=Main.AvatarTheLegendOfAang) but even so - 500 GP when the party is only LV 3!

He just died again and they insist on resurrecting him a second time! It's mind-boggling!

Also: !

The last game I DMed, my players became attached to several NPCs I had never really planned to do anything significant. Of course, once they decided they cared about those people, I had to have them doing something the next time the PCs were in town.

TaliaJacta
2010-11-16, 03:50 PM
She also forgot that Sleep only targets up to 4 hit-dice, starting with the lowest HD creatures first. The two lackeys *might* have fallen to the spell, but the 10 HD Ranger can't possibly succumb to the Sleep spell.

It was 4th edition. We couldn't find anything in the rules against it.

Flail_master
2010-11-16, 04:03 PM
but even so - 500 GP when the party is only LV 3!


Try 30,000 GP (from value of magic weapons) for level 4's cos of killing THE LEVEL 12 MESSENGER!

tis ridiculous! :smalltongue:

Oracle_Hunter
2010-11-16, 04:34 PM
It was 4th edition. We couldn't find anything in the rules against it.
How the devil did a LV 1 Wizard

(1) Hit the Will on a 10th Level Monster/PC and all his allies?

(2) Manage to force all of them to fail their first saving throw?

I don't want to do the math on that one, but I think we're at a couple of orders of magnitude of improbability here :smalleek:

Shademan
2010-11-16, 04:54 PM
my players shot the plot.... with arrows
they set fire to a mountain, they woke the dragons up 5000 years early
they killed a tavern
they surprise me alot...
I weep alot.

dsmiles
2010-11-16, 05:32 PM
It was 4th edition. We couldn't find anything in the rules against it.

You are correct. In 4e there is no HD limit on Sleep, unless there's another stupid errata I haven't read yet.

2-HeadedGiraffe
2010-11-17, 09:59 PM
Speaking of sleep, my players managed to put a plot-important NPC to sleep twice in the same combat and finally finish him off. To accomplish this, by the way, meant that he had to roll something like a four on two will saves.

He was too important to the story to let die, however (and I didn't come up with a better way to keep him around until it was too late), so I had his superior intervene and get him out of there.

maysarahs
2010-11-17, 10:43 PM
Our party of three were attempting to infiltrate an assassins guilds lavish dinner party and discover the contents of the buildings basements (rumors of investigative worth stuff). The Fighter/War Hulk goes the straightforward way and intimidates/ bribes his way in. The wizard (me) and ranger climb in through the second floor window. I ask the fighter to make his way to the room we are hidden in, and cast magic jar. with me in his pocket, I proceed to enter the guild leader. After some unsuccessful shenanigans in the basement (the DM wanted us out of there) we return to the balcony (for the main event) **** hits the fan (the guild is an evil cult that cloudkills and then raises zombies out of the corpses) and I proceed to jump in and out of the jar into whomever it helps us most at the time. We actually managed to kidnap the boss. Plot obviously derailed, he does some quick thinking and the leader bites on a poison capsule hidden in his mouth.

Fiery Diamond
2010-11-17, 10:44 PM
I'm DMing an 8th level party that is on a war mission to find and neutralize a base that is manufacturing explosives. They find the base in the swamp and see an airship outside the base being loaded with bombs. The party decided that their best course of action was to hijack the blimp and bomb the base.

Should have seen that coming. :smallfurious:

This will be resolved this weekend. Fortunately, I have a plan. It is horrifying but fair.

Only "should have seen that coming?" That's what I would have expected my players to do!

Newbieshoes
2010-11-18, 12:58 AM
Well in the game I'm currently playing...

Negotiated to have a very throw away NPC baddie from the beginning released from prison.


Walked right up to a group of evil druids throwing on buff spells preparing to battle with the party and offered to rent their poison filtering masks of off them. This worked. They assumed we were gonna go with the fighters plan of stabbing them in the face and taking them.


Attempted to rescue the queen by grabbing her and throwing the two of us out of a 60 foot window, as she fled butt naked from her captors. This ended up failing and I was overwhelmed by guards and had to go out the window on my own.

Volos
2010-11-18, 01:35 AM
One time we had week long gaming session. It was the marathon of all marathon games. We did nothing but game. When we ate, it was in character; when we took breaks for use of sanitation facilities, it was in character; when we did anything it was in character. It was quite a feat of gamer acheivement if I do say so myself. By the seventh day we hadn't slept much (scared to die by random encounters), and even though we were supposed to be sleeping in shifts, the DM was ever watchful. The co-DM would give him nap breaks by watching over us with a keen eye. I was the melee guy so I had to stay awake for most of the nights. (CON checks to ramain awake awarded Energry Drinks. Failure meant we had to take sleepytime tea) In the middle of a long roleplay / suddenly combat phase I had fallen asleep. The DM wanted to take advantage of this, suddenly trying to attack me with some spell or some sort. I woke up suddenly and screamed "BLUFF CHECK!!!" tossing my d20 across the table. Everyone was stunned. I had succeeded, so I was able to pretend to be asleep (even though I had actually passed out). I drew my greatsword, used my attack of opprotunity, and destoyed that caster like he was a lowly goblin (or out of line commoner). It was one of my greatest moments in D&D. It is spoken of in myth to this day.

khylis
2010-11-18, 02:47 AM
You DnD Larp? O.o

Scarey Nerd
2010-11-18, 02:56 AM
Quote of pure awesome.

That... Is... So... Awesome!

FelixG
2010-11-18, 05:37 AM
One time we had week long gaming session. It was the marathon of all marathon games. We did nothing but game. When we ate, it was in character; when we took breaks for use of sanitation facilities, it was in character; when we did anything it was in character. It was quite a feat of gamer acheivement if I do say so myself. By the seventh day we hadn't slept much (scared to die by random encounters), and even though we were supposed to be sleeping in shifts, the DM was ever watchful. The co-DM would give him nap breaks by watching over us with a keen eye. I was the melee guy so I had to stay awake for most of the nights. (CON checks to ramain awake awarded Energry Drinks. Failure meant we had to take sleepytime tea) In the middle of a long roleplay / suddenly combat phase I had fallen asleep. The DM wanted to take advantage of this, suddenly trying to attack me with some spell or some sort. I woke up suddenly and screamed "BLUFF CHECK!!!" tossing my d20 across the table. Everyone was stunned. I had succeeded, so I was able to pretend to be asleep (even though I had actually passed out). I drew my greatsword, used my attack of opprotunity, and destoyed that caster like he was a lowly goblin (or out of line commoner). It was one of my greatest moments in D&D. It is spoken of in myth to this day.

You sir win at life

Skavengoblin
2010-11-18, 11:43 AM
It's been so long since I was allowed to be a player, so I can't think of the things 'I' did.

However, on 3 occassions my players have annoyed/surprised me.

1.) When walking through the swamps, they find some writhing snakes emerging from a pool. It ends up being a Hydra, but the ranger had entangled it already. Little did i realize that this Huge sized monster only had a 17 strength... meaning that it needed a 17 to break free... twice, because it moves so stinking sloweven a double move leaves it in the area.
The party of 4, (2 halflings, a gnome, and a human cleric), just shot it to death... despite its fast healing. stupid ranged-focused party members.

I might also say only one of the 4 was above complete novice, and he was not telling them what to do. That ranger thought of it all on her own. Still... why do hydras have such a low strength?!

2.) SImilar story, but this time with a gorrillan (sp?). SHould have broken free. But didnt. ever. would have grabbed the halfling rogue (who had stepped in front of the rest of the party for some reason), and ran away with him. but no. Another encounter without them losing anything besides a single spell and mundane arrows.

3.) With a different group, they are attacked by a young white dragon in their sleep. Only the dwarf was a sleep, the ranger, rogue, and cleric were all awake. SO they see it come over a hill 220 feet away. during its surprise round it flies 200 feet. This scares the cleric, who casts sound burst, hoping to mostly stun it for a round so everyone can get ready for it. FLying 30 ft in the Air + failing the sound burst fort save + party of mellee focused people = crashing to the ground and getting stabbed to death in 2 turns.

Now none of these are THAT amazing. What is amazing about them is they were all brought about by very new players.

Stupid hydras having such a low strength!

Last Laugh
2010-11-18, 12:16 PM
2.) SImilar story, but this time with a gorrillan (sp?). SHould have broken free. But didnt. ever. would have grabbed the halfling rogue (who had stepped in front of the rest of the party for some reason), and ran away with him. but no. Another encounter without them losing anything besides a single spell and mundane arrows.

3.) With a different group, they are attacked by a young white dragon in their sleep. Only the dwarf was a sleep, the ranger, rogue, and cleric were all awake. SO they see it come over a hill 220 feet away. during its surprise round it flies 200 feet. This scares the cleric, who casts sound burst, hoping to mostly stun it for a round so everyone can get ready for it. FLying 30 ft in the Air + failing the sound burst fort save + party of mellee focused people = crashing to the ground and getting stabbed to death in 2 turns.



I have issues with Girallons that come from a particularly bad Dm I once played under (once, a single 30 minute session that was a TPK, He thought that mummy rot drained con every round, and failed to mention what it was that was draining con. Never even let us make saves.)

The second story is awesome and reminds me of the time that the party cleric casts blade barrier in the path of an oncoming dragon, this is when we were all young and noobish and the interpretation of blade barrier at our table was that it would hit larger creatures more than once :smallamused:

Daimbert
2010-11-18, 12:53 PM
I'm DMing an Amber PBF, and my players surprised me in a less "ruined combat" and more "huh?" manner in the game.

I sent them to a Shadow to track down some information about some mercenaries there that might have a link to an object they wanted to find. I described the main street, and mentioned that there were a couple of taverns on that street. To make it clear that the mercenaries were integrated into the town as simply a fact of life, I mentioned that right next door to their heaquarters was a tailor's shop.

I expected them to wander into one of the taverns and start fishing for information. Instead ... they headed straight for the tailor's shop.

So, then, I had to invent a tailor ...

I did get some use out of the character though, beyond using him to steer them back on track, since he's been able to drop information about where to go next on a couple of occasions.

Your Nemesis
2010-11-18, 03:15 PM
I figured out that summoning a 6000 pound earth elemental ten feet above an enemy does said enemy 20d6 damage and the elemental 1d6-5.

Quietus
2010-11-18, 03:22 PM
I figured out that summoning a 6000 pound earth elemental ten feet above an enemy does said enemy 20d6 damage and the elemental 1d6-5.

Sadly, this doesn't work in 3.5, because you have to summon things into an environment that can support them. Air does not support a three-ton wad of rock.

Volos
2010-11-18, 03:26 PM
That... Is... So... Awesome!

Yes, that explains how it has been spoken of only in myth.


You sir win at life

Thank you, I do try my best.

Silus
2010-11-18, 03:38 PM
1. I didn't do this, but a guy in my group managed to negotiate our way into deityhood. To be honest, I was a bit peeved, as I had to retire my character that I spent a week making.

2. My Tiefling Swashbuckler somehow seduced a Giant Crocodile. Not sure how it happened to be honest...

3. Other campaign, my Ork Tinkerer/Binder, thanks to a failed Fort save, got addicted to Crack Cocaine. We were pretty much SOL at that point--our Cleric was out due to poison, our rogue was tripping balls after looking into a portal to infinity, and the Centaur was, well, being a Centaur. So my guy's tripping balls, much to my annoyance, so I decide to get a little revenge on the Assistant DM (The Centaur). He comes up to my character and is all "OMG what happened?", so I turn to the DM and declare that as the Centaur tries to pick my Ork up, I scrape/scoop off some of the drugs from the chest and wipe it on the Centaur's face (Seriously, the Ork was tripping and wanted to "share the good"). One failed Fort save later, and the Centaur was tripping as well. The Assistant DM was, obviously, pissed, but I managed to diffuse the situation with chocolate.

RaveingRonin
2010-11-18, 03:40 PM
I was a truenamer (fixed variety, thank the lord the DM allowed for homebrew). Cause my party couldn't get me to shut up, they assumed I had a ton and a half social skills, so I was elected to barter our services with the local guard captain. So I mosey on over and having the Inattentive flaw, I decided that my character forgot why he was going to talk to the guard captain. The rest of my fellow gamers was out getting food, so they had NO idea what I did.
When they get back, I happily explain to them that I successfully converted the guard captain, the mayor, and about 2/3rds of the towns population to worship Dagon and the Elder Gods as a pantheon. To cement their conversion, we (the towns folk and I) locked the priests to the "false gods" into the church and set it on fire. The DM described the blood slicked streets, the tieflings and other much nastier entities now waltzing about, and I cackle insanely while the party members go slack jawed in horror and shock. Turns out, not having social skills doesn't matter when you roll a natural 20. DM=Suprised. Other Party Members=Freaking Out. Me=blacked out from laughing so hard.

Kaww
2010-11-18, 03:44 PM
One time we had week long gaming session. It was the marathon of all marathon games. We did nothing but game. When we ate, it was in character; when we took breaks for use of sanitation facilities, it was in character; when we did anything it was in character. It was quite a feat of gamer acheivement if I do say so myself. By the seventh day we hadn't slept much (scared to die by random encounters), and even though we were supposed to be sleeping in shifts, the DM was ever watchful. The co-DM would give him nap breaks by watching over us with a keen eye. I was the melee guy so I had to stay awake for most of the nights. (CON checks to ramain awake awarded Energry Drinks. Failure meant we had to take sleepytime tea) In the middle of a long roleplay / suddenly combat phase I had fallen asleep. The DM wanted to take advantage of this, suddenly trying to attack me with some spell or some sort. I woke up suddenly and screamed "BLUFF CHECK!!!" tossing my d20 across the table. Everyone was stunned. I had succeeded, so I was able to pretend to be asleep (even though I had actually passed out). I drew my greatsword, used my attack of opprotunity, and destoyed that caster like he was a lowly goblin (or out of line commoner). It was one of my greatest moments in D&D. It is spoken of in myth to this day.

You sir are a genius. I just laughed so hard I started crying, my sister burst into the room. She thought I was crying and having a heart-attack. I'm still laughing!!!

Sarquion
2010-11-18, 03:54 PM
I was a truenamer (fixed variety, thank the lord the DM allowed for homebrew). Cause my party couldn't get me to shut up, they assumed I had a ton and a half social skills, so I was elected to barter our services with the local guard captain. So I mosey on over and having the Inattentive flaw, I decided that my character forgot why he was going to talk to the guard captain. The rest of my fellow gamers was out getting food, so they had NO idea what I did.
When they get back, I happily explain to them that I successfully converted the guard captain, the mayor, and about 2/3rds of the towns population to worship Dagon and the Elder Gods as a pantheon. To cement their conversion, we (the towns folk and I) locked the priests to the "false gods" into the church and set it on fire. The DM described the blood slicked streets, the tieflings and other much nastier entities now waltzing about, and I cackle insanely while the party members go slack jawed in horror and shock. Turns out, not having social skills doesn't matter when you roll a natural 20. DM=Suprised. Other Party Members=Freaking Out. Me=blacked out from laughing so hard.

HAHAHA nice going
:smallbiggrin:

Kaww
2010-11-18, 04:12 PM
my players shot the plot.... with arrows
they set fire to a mountain, they woke the dragons up 5000 years early
they killed a tavern
they surprise me alot...
I weep alot.

May I put this in my signature?

TaliaJacta
2010-11-18, 04:23 PM
One time we had week long gaming session. It was the marathon of all marathon games. We did nothing but game. When we ate, it was in character; when we took breaks for use of sanitation facilities, it was in character; when we did anything it was in character. It was quite a feat of gamer acheivement if I do say so myself. By the seventh day we hadn't slept much (scared to die by random encounters), and even though we were supposed to be sleeping in shifts, the DM was ever watchful. The co-DM would give him nap breaks by watching over us with a keen eye. I was the melee guy so I had to stay awake for most of the nights. (CON checks to ramain awake awarded Energry Drinks. Failure meant we had to take sleepytime tea) In the middle of a long roleplay / suddenly combat phase I had fallen asleep. The DM wanted to take advantage of this, suddenly trying to attack me with some spell or some sort. I woke up suddenly and screamed "BLUFF CHECK!!!" tossing my d20 across the table. Everyone was stunned. I had succeeded, so I was able to pretend to be asleep (even though I had actually passed out). I drew my greatsword, used my attack of opprotunity, and destoyed that caster like he was a lowly goblin (or out of line commoner). It was one of my greatest moments in D&D. It is spoken of in myth to this day.

You are AMAZING. And that game sounds like so much fun.

RaveingRonin
2010-11-19, 06:39 AM
HAHAHA nice going
:smallbiggrin:

Thanks :smallbiggrin:
Also I am no longer allowed to make Forgery checks. The reason being I surprised the DM in a fashion that led to me being perma-banned from a skill.
Long story short, I shattered a ten thousand year old alliance between the human kingdom and the elven one with one well placed forged letter declaring war (complete with racial slurs) from the humans to the elves. Then (adding injury to insult) with several dozen other forgery checks proceeded to obliterate the elven economy. Not my fault they were silly and used paper money rather then coins
Worth it.

2-HeadedGiraffe
2010-11-19, 08:52 AM
Thanks :smallbiggrin:
Also I am no longer allowed to make Forgery checks. The reason being I surprised the DM in a fashion that led to me being perma-banned from a skill.
Long story short, I shattered a ten thousand year old alliance between the human kingdom and the elven one with one well placed forged letter declaring war (complete with racial slurs) from the humans to the elves. Then (adding injury to insult) with several dozen other forgery checks proceeded to obliterate the elven economy. Not my fault they were silly and used paper money rather then coins
Worth it.

If you'd just paralyzed their economy, you could have done a coup d'état as a full round action.

Gnaritas
2010-11-19, 09:33 AM
Me: I cast Freedom of Movement.
DM: Okay. The Awakend Fiendish Half-Dragon Tyrannosaur Barbarian*, after eating all your friends, goes next. It bites you. You take some arbitrarily stupid amount of damage. Make a grapple check.
Me: I win.
DM: Huh?
Me: (points out Freedom of Movement text)
DM: Oh... Wow, that's messed. Okay. Your turn.
Me: I cast Delay Death.
DM: Okay. The lolwtfbbq dinosaur attacks... (grimaces) and crits. How many hit points do you have left?
Me: Don't worry about it.
DM: You take [like double my max hp] damage... uhh...
Me: Ok, whatever. I smite.
DM: Huh? But aren't you--
Me: (points out Delay Death text)
DM: ...I give up.

*This thing was the "animal companion" (yeah, don't get me started) of something like a 13th level Druid. Our DM needs to be firmly put in his place like this sometimes.

You still go to -x and enter the dying state. So you will be lying on the floor not dying for y rounds before the spell runs out and you die.

This spell is supposed to be used to save an almost dying companion within close range. He will go down, the rest of the party quickly kills the monster and heals the companion that went down.

Callista
2010-11-19, 09:59 AM
Did he have the Diehard feat?

I once played with a group of players who would almost immediately attempt to negotiate with anything I threw at them. They eventually made friends with so many random encounters that I started using mindless undead, constructs, etc., at least one in three encounters just so they'd actually have to fight for a change. Sky-high Diplomacy... *sigh* I should've just given up on it and put them into an intrigue-style game instead.

Somewhere, there is still a kobold who expects the party rogue to become his seventh wife. LONG story.

Shademan
2010-11-19, 10:37 AM
May I put this in my signature?

I shall allow this. fall to your knees and thank me, peasant

Kaww
2010-11-19, 10:40 AM
I slipped and thanked you... :smallwink:

Shademan
2010-11-19, 10:43 AM
I slipped and thanked you... :smallwink:

good man!
who know what those players will do next ):

Skavengoblin
2010-11-19, 10:45 AM
Did he have the Diehard feat?

I once played with a group of players who would almost immediately attempt to negotiate with anything I threw at them. They eventually made friends with so many random encounters that I started using mindless undead, constructs, etc., at least one in three encounters just so they'd actually have to fight for a change. Sky-high Diplomacy... *sigh* I should've just given up on it and put them into an intrigue-style game instead.

Somewhere, there is still a kobold who expects the party rogue to become his seventh wife. LONG story.

Go read this by Rich Burlew
http://www.giantitp.com/articles/jFppYwv7OUkegKhONNF.html

I feel it fixes diplomacy quite well.

Aotrs Commander
2010-11-20, 03:07 PM
Well, I think today's spectacular moment of heroic stupidity definately counts, since no-one saw it coming, least of all the DM! Given how savvy he is, it's a rare achievement to get him looking at me with incredulity like that...

We were playing out Waterdeep Orc Extermination Company game, which is iteslf based on a throw-away line that became a running gag of one our previous parties. The setting is Faerun, in an alternate future to the 4E one, where it all went a bit pear-shaped and most of the gods (et al) got pruned off and general disaters and stuff. The WOECo arose from the wreckage as a group and are basically universally recognised trouble shooters who are sent out to fight monsters and generally be heroic and stuff. The WOECo's official policies can be a bit...strange...considering the who the founding members were (At least one of them, Lord Invagrion, now doubtless a Lich (and my character from the previous era!) is a TN Pale Master who strongly believed in Undead yes, unpeople no; and four out of the six founders were Meilikki worshippers...) My character for this is Shikue Ryushin, a young lad of about 14 or so who is a shinobi (i.e a Monk 2/Cleric 7 with a total reflavouring of spells), heavily based around Naruto (both the show in general and the character in particular.)

Todays' advanture saw us encounerting a strange zombifying magical fungus infestation affecting a local city, and we set off to investigate. Our best lead was that in some unspecified time before the Fall (i.e the aforementioned Going Pear-Shaped) the Kuo-Toa had sealed an entity (whom we guess is the "Scarlet Lord") that had been causing the plague (nominally termed Red Rust). So we set off to find this city. The Red Rust is really nasty stuff, able to infect everything, even Undead. It basically drains your Con (how it affectes Undead we currently don't know) until you die. Then shortly thereafter, you arise with your full skills, plus some stat changes, immunites and new abilities to serve the Scarlet Lord (whoever he is). The stuff makes things regenerate (to an extent) but is vulnerable to electricity (givne the name of the entity we groaned and kicked ourselves when the DM told us that...)

Anyway, we'd dsicovered from a local behir that the naxt stop to the Kuo-Toa city was guarded by a Beholder. And so it was. Just as we stopped to take stock, Shikue was interupped by a drop of unpleasent spilttle landing on him, he looked up to see the beholder decending to ground level. A beholder under the influence of the Red Rust, which just made it much harder and nastier! So, combat started, and the rest of the party started attacking as usual, the three fighter-types somewhat impeded by the anti-magic eye. The Warmage got charmed almost straight away, since she was standing outside the cone. Shikue was just on the edge. I'd allready used all my decent 4th level neems (Wind style: Air Palm (Sound Lance) and Water Style: North Wind Jutsu (Hypothermia), and I'd got mainly buffs or melee enhancers left; none of which would be really useful on the beholder. And of course, we were all worried about the nastier eye rays...

And it was then I surprised the DM, and pretty much everyone, though no-one as much as the beholder. And pretty much made the highlight of the day.

Shikue took a 5' step out of the cone and then used Body Flicker (Knight's Move) to teleport right above the beholder and make a falling Decisive Strike Stunning Fist attack right onto it. The DM was sufficently amused he gave me a +2 Heroic stupidity bonus. I landed a solid smack, taking the AoO (because as I said, there was no way that I couldn't be not provoking one as I was basically falling on it!) which it missed.

However, Shikue wasn't quite done yet. He had so far not used anything other than a Swift Action (5' step being No Action, likewise falling), so I was able to make my second melee attack - which was an attempt to grapple. Which I made. The DM was, for once, caught totally flat-footed by the fact someone was attempting to grapple a beholder...

My plan was to try and grab some of the eye-stalks to stop it using them, as - as one of the players said - by the method of "stop shooting yourself! Stop shooting yourself!" i.e. pointing them at it. The DM generously allowed me to grab three, and told me to randomly roll a D10 to see which ones I had got. And I rolled the Disintegrate, Flesh to Stone and Telekinesis eye, to my triumphal w00t!, since those were the ones I was most worried about!

I then finished my full attack with my final Snap Kick, which, even at the penalty for now attacking while grappled, did some extra damage. (Actually damn, I just realised, I forgot that does double damage too! Stunning Fist was a waste, though, since I'd learned earlier they Red Rust monster couldn't be stunned and forgot in the heat of the moment.)

So, what the party saw Shikue vanish in a flicker of pseudo-motion, to appear directly above astonished beholder, whose eyes widened in comical surprise. He then dropped, hand glowing, plunging down like and avenging angel and an overly exuberant yell to drop fist-first on the creature, despite it's frantic attempts to bite him; and then while still pummleing it, managed to grab it's eyestalks before it had really quite got it's wits together and then trying to crush it to death as it bucked about, cursing it's lack of convieniant appendages...

The gnome illusionst - after wondering for a moment if he'd been hit by one of his own spells - abandoned his idea to use Doomwail (from Relics & Rituals) on it and instead dispelled the Charm on the Warmage, who was at that point, most confused. Dispelling didn't actually help her much in that regard, though...

Shikue managed to hold on for another round, wherein he chose to grapple it for extra damage (had I got any Stunning Fist attempts left, it'd have had a Fiery Fist flaming headbutt instead!), and avoided the Finger of Death ray (which I'd forgotten about). After that it managed to throw him off. The Finger of Death took down the warmage, but by that point, me and the rest of the fighters (and the Warmage's Sudden Miximised Sudden Empowered Lesser Orb of Cold) had managed to whittle away it's last hits - and it was Shikue's final punch that took it down, to his great satisifaction. Too make sure it was completely destroyed, he took another diving leap, with his kunai this time, and spattered it right into it's central eye. And then the sword&board fighter two-by-four'ed the mess to bits with his electrified spiked heavy shield, whack-a-mole style.

It was a particularly satisifying moment for me, since I do occasionally do try this sort of utter stupidity and it usually comes back and hits me in the face. I was totally expecting to miss and plummet flat on my face or at least not grab anything useful...so for it to work so spectacularly was awesome!

(I admit, we may have been technically stretching the rules a bit, but the rule-of-cool definately applied.)

zimmerwald1915
2011-01-21, 04:19 AM
This is not something I did personally, but I don't think the guy in my group who did do it posts here. The party was based out of this one town, and on the outskirts of this town was a gutted magitech factory. Thirty years ago there had been some sort of industrial/magical accident/disaster, which had killed most of the management and workers and left the whole building and the area around it tainted. Every so often, Dr. Hiruna, the son of the factory's owner who disappeared in the accident, would hire teams of adventurers to explore the factory, looking for magitech innovations that might have survived or records of what might have caused the accident and the taint. The party had been making a name for themselves. We had visciously murdered a guy who was basically an evil Fagin: he kidnapped street urchins and turned them into his own personal army. We then found out that children kept disappearing, only this time it was a coven of hags and a Grey Jester operating out of a local carnival that were to blame. They all died in a fire, and we saved the kids. So we'd been making a name for ourselves, and we attracted the attentions of Dr. Hiruna, who hired us to go explore the factory. We were fourth level.

We're deep in the bowels of the factory, in what was once a locker room for workers to change out of their street clothes and into their work uniforms. Don't ask me why this room was in the bowels of the factory: I don't really know. But at the end of it - we only noticed it, and it only noticed us, after we'd been exploring the room for a bit - there was this massive construct. It was Huge, had something like fourteen or sixteen hit dice, had natural armor and damage reduction up the wazoo, had viscious reach via retractable chains, but couldn't really move. Most of the party got the idea to just run past it, and ended up safely in the next room. However, one guy, playing a Crusader (the party was a Warblade, a Duskblade, my Sorcerer, and him), wanted to go toe to toe with this thing. Now, Dr. Hiruna didn't let us go into the factory unprepared. Even though most of the adventurers he'd sent in there died, a few returned with enough sanity left to deliver some kind of report. So he'd given us what he thought would be some useful magitech. My sorcerer got what amounted to a Legend of Zelda hookshot, while the Crusader got a lodestone shield with a magnetic effect that he could turn on and off.

We'd fought smaller magitech constructs in the factory, and they all had big glowing elemental binding crystals at their hearts, powering them. The Crusader asked the DM for a perception check (this was Pathfinder) to find the crystal, and made it. Then he activated his shield and swooped up inside the construct, right next to the crystal. Then, hanging from the thing's carapace, he broke a phial of explosive liquid (think nitroglycerin) over the elemental binding crystal and hacked at the drenched crystal with his sword. The crystal broke open and the thing belched smoke and died. It was awesome.

Other highlights from the factory included pouring nitro and fire onto a greenbound hydra until it died, all while it was trying to push us into vats of acid (the Crusader nearly died in this one, and was saved by the Duskblade), and figuring out that Dr. Hiruna's father had caused the accident in order to turn himself into an undead in a construct's body without using negative energy. That was a good session.

Kaww
2011-01-21, 04:33 AM
Raising the dead also surprises DMs sometimes... :smallwink:

Naeo
2011-01-21, 07:28 AM
During last night's game, my DM has us enter a ruined temple. the first floor in a maze of nothing, like seriously nothing, just walls and torches. no traps or encounters.
so after the hour long boring trek, we reach a flight of stairs, go down, and come into a room that has 5 feet wide holes everywhere, and poles going down them.

We split up, being dumb, and slide down them.

Yuan-ti wrapped around the poles grab the druid and the bard, my thief, having already seen the yuan-ti through my chucking of alchemist fire against the wall, sees it ahead, and lets go of the pole, straight dropping onto the creature's head. Once on a floor, i coat my blade in alchemist fire, toss a log i was carrying onto the floor, and light it to illuminate my darkened room.

Yuan-ti picks itself off the floor, and lunges at me, I dodge, it hits a wall, four more yuan-ti join the fight... they're all gathered around my burning log.

Drink the fire immunity potion i have from a previous fight, then lob three vials of oil into the fire, causing it to explode, and immolate the 5 yuan-ti.

While they try to put themselves out, i proceed to to lob another vial of oil into the fire, catching the two that did put themselves out on fire again. Then proceed to kill the yuan-ti.

Druid and bard are brought to the queen yuan-ti, they ask where my guy is, queen sends two more groups after me, they entire the room with fire burning everywhere from the oil, and see 5 dead members of his clan, and attack me.

...the last 4 vials of oil come out.

come to find out, the yuan-ti were the people we were to talk to for info on our quest.

...but i look damn fly in my new snake skin boots >_>; and i have enough left over to make a pair for both of my companions :D


TL;DR: a burning log can make for an impromptu fireball in a confined space.

Corronchilejano
2011-01-21, 09:18 AM
TL;DR -> I completely broke the DM by ramming every living thing against walls. After defeating three supposedly unbeatable creatures (not in a row), we never played again.

I had a Human Barbarian 1/Fighter 3 with the dungeonscape option that can deals damage by ramming things against walls. The original idea was to have a miner that in the end made mines with his own body. I had extra rage and destructive rage, and fought with a ram (improvised weapon) just to finish the concept. After a while, I decided I'd follow the combat brute way, so I also had Improved Bull Rush. At this point, I hadn't noticed that I dealt damage by ramming people against things, only that I had a sweet +22 against taking down doors and walls while raging. I didn't know yet, but I was the DM's worst nightmare.

Nightmare number 1:
So, during my travels I found boots that not only gave me +30 speed, but also allowed me to change my direction once during this charge. While going through a cave, I confronted this insanely powerfull Sorcerer (at LEAST level 12) that wanted basically to kill me with orb spells. I knew, right from the beggining that her AC would also be ridiculously high (and thus I'd be unable to hit her) and that I was supposed to lose that fight. However, I noticed I could also try to disrupting her concentration instead so she wouldn't kill me in a single hit.

I win initiative so I decide to ready an action to charge (DM allowed readying charges so as long as I didn't move more than my speed). When she is casting her full round spell, I ram her against the wall.

DM: "Ok, so it's a concentration check on DC 20? Big deal... 29".
Another Player: "Dude, roll damage."
Me: "What? What damage?"
Another Player: "You deal 4d6 plus twice your strength modifier everytime you ram someone against an object"
Me: "w00t?"

I began dealing and absurd ammount of damage every time I rammed her against the walls, making her lose her concentration every single time. Then she started flying but the cave roof was so low and my speed was so absurdly high that jumping and RAMMING her against the cave roof became a norm. The DM wasn't happy when suddenly I had no damage and she was already over the 80s. She had to teleport away in the end. Massive ammount of Xp.

Nightmare Number 2:
After demonstrating that I could kill pretty much anything by ramming things together, the DM started being really carefull by placing really STRONG and BIG enemies all the time. By level 8 (Barbarian 1/Fighter 6) I had a woopin' +28 against walls and doors while raging (meaning most doors and walls couldn't stop me) and a monstruos +18 to bull rushing if buffed (enlarge person + bull strength). A dire boar once tried to bull rush me against a cliff and I made it sit down.

Due to the insane ammount of damage I was dealing while charging, the DM decided he'd treat the ramming like a physical attack, and thus damage reduction would apply. We also reached the consensus that, due to this, the damage would also be modified by strength.

We ended up for some reason fighting against a powerfull warrior from a certain town. She was way over our level (again) and was SUPPOSED to be unbeatable. We met her in her office when she suddenly decides she wants to "test our strength". Behind her was her desk.

Me: "Ok, I bull rush her against the wall".
DM: "Ok, Strength check... you only move her 10 feet. Not enough for the wall."
Another player: "DM, isn't her desk like, 5 feet behind her?"
DM: :smalleek:

Damage was already 8d6 + 3 times strength normally, but due to enlarge person it was upped to 16d6 + 24. I dealt so much damage she had to roll for massive damage... and rolled a one.

Nightmare number 3:
After years of adventuring many things happened: I was transformed into a female elf, most of our "nemesis" where dead but now the world was plunging into the abyss (¿?). We had to go to another plane to retrieve a certain artifact we needed to restore the world's balance. By now, I was devoted to "pure strength" and I worshipped the all powerfull Rhinoceros. I had a few cleric levels and a few devotions. I had NEVER used combat brute and NEVER used any other weapon than the ram. We were level 12.

In a city a dwarf gave us a very powerfull hammer to give to another dwarf inside a mountain. On the way there, we passed what was supposed to be the nest of a really powerfull white dragon. While going through caves we met was I can ONLY assumed was a half-dragon ogre with VERY powerful equipment that was supposed to block our way through and was supposed to be unbeatable... obviously the DM hadn't learned a thing.

How does he open his attacks? Well, for once, he caught us by surprise, and the first thing he does is sunder my ram... the ram I had always carried, the very thing that represented me (and my coolest holy symbol). While the mage weakened him and the druid damaged his strength I meteor striked him with all my hatred against a squishy sidekick he had, leaving only a puddle of his friend and him in the floor. Next round he dispels all his strength penalties and heals the damage and he hits me with a single attack, leaving me with only a few hitpoints (he didn't deal a critical or anything, and yet he dealt more than 100 damage).

Me: "Bother this nonsense!. I power attack his rear into oblivion, and I mean ALL OF IT, I don't care anymore."
DM: "Sure... but you're unarmed."
Me: "Nope, I use the holy thingamagig we're carrying. I roll... natural 20! This thing is at least magic right? It's better than nothing... yo mage, what's these things stats anyway."
Another Player: "... that's a +4 holy maul with x4 critical. It's blessed, so that's an automatic critical too since this guy is evil."
Me: :O

I dealt almost 300 damage with a single strike, killing the "guardian" instantly. We left the session and the DM never wanted to play again.

The Glyphstone
2011-01-21, 10:41 AM
Great Modthulhu: Thread necromancy.