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View Full Version : Forgot I could fly moments in rpgs



Togath
2012-11-25, 02:25 AM
Anyone else had this (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ForgotAboutHisPowers) sort of thing happen in an rpg?
Just had this happen to me with a character that can become invisible.
He's a phantom thief sort of character, and I only remembered after I tried to bluff my way past the guards that "wait a moment...I can become invisible":smallbiggrin:. By then though the guards had already grown suspicious(my bluff was that the noble's house I was trying to get to was in danger of being robbed, so partly true, and that I didn't have time to find my identification papers to enter) and had blocked the entrance to where I was trying to go.
Anyone else have funny stories about this sort of thing?

Morithias
2012-11-25, 02:39 AM
One time we have a geslalt fighter-monk attacking skeletons with longswords until he realized 3 rounds in to just punch them.

Badgerish
2012-11-25, 05:05 AM
4ed game, we are attacking in a tavern and the room is set on fire. We defeat the attackers and go to put out the fires before they spread, quick improv skill-challenge.

One of my allies is a Druid with the "Chill Wind" at-will, which does AoE cold damage and forced movement; but when he's fighting the fire, he is trying to smother the flames with a cloak and athletics.

"<druid's name> can't you summon the freezing wind?"
"oh... right. I forgot!"

Totally Guy
2012-11-25, 06:17 AM
Went through an ghost filled crypt. Their incorporeal nature was so bad as half my hits failed but we fought through and emerged victorious but depleted on the other side.

Then I remembered that as a Cleric I could have turned undead and blasted through most of it..

Grim Portent
2012-11-25, 09:16 AM
I have the opposite problem in the Dark Heresy Ascension game I'm in, I always remember I can fly/climb walls/read minds etcetera (Pyskers can do many things) but I never manage to use it properly, only time I used an ability successfully it was to cling to the floor to avoid falling down due to the space ship we were on taking evasive action, it worked, I didn't fall, someone then pointed out my armour has mag-boots and I didn't need to use my power.

I rather wish someone had pointed out the full scope of my mundane abilities and equipment before I risked my life using my powers. :smallannoyed:

Lentrax
2012-11-25, 09:52 AM
Mine was a literal 'forgot I could fly' moment.

I was playing a Dragon Disciple based on one of the old PrCs, and we just leveled during our expedition to the top of a mountain to reach the BBEG. Since I wrote down my level up notes the session before, I didn't review them properly.

I was just conceding my characters death after she was flung from the mountain, and was reaching for the dice to roll a new character, when my eye caught on my notebook where I had scrawled the note: Fly speed.

So a couple of rounds later I burst out of a low hanging cloud with some new wings, and one heck of a breath attack.

Cinematically it was pretty awesome. In RL, not so much.

Loki_42
2012-11-25, 10:42 AM
In a recent adventure, the entire party, including me and the other elf all failed our saves against a sleep spell. We woke up in a prison and just started trying to escape before I remembered we were immune.

Lapak
2012-11-25, 11:51 AM
I've been carrying around a Chime of Opening for most of a campaign that's been running for about five years. It's largely a wilderness campaign and the recurring villains are non-humanoid, so actually coming across a locked door (or chest, or anything) is an extremely rare event. So rare that we always forget that I have a Chime of Opening and spend half an hour or more trying to get past an obstacle that the DM expected would just go something like 'burn a charge from the Chime, move on.'

Then we finally get the thing open, and we'll be moving on, and someone in the group will say 'Wait, don't you still have that Chime?' and the DM will howl with frustration. It's become a running joke, and EVEN SO we still tend to genuinely forget the thing more often than not.

hymer
2012-11-25, 03:43 PM
One of my poor players in a recent campaign lost two or three characters in a row to forgetting what powers his PC had.
He forgot he had a single-use teleport, and got overwhelmed as he held back onrushing enemies while his friend escaped. Tragic, heroic, and utterly forgetful.
He then forgot that his sword had automatic ravages that would have affected the demons that narrowly defeated his next character.
Sadly, I don't recall the third thing, but he thought of that in retrospect too. I believe it had something to do with being turned into a toad (though he got better this time), something the character resented deeply (and was teased with mercilessly, of course).

holywhippet
2012-11-25, 06:02 PM
I've seen the opposite scenario in one case. The party was a bit scattered due to attackers coming from multiple directions and the fighter charged up the stairs after a gobin sorcerer and got ambushed by the sorcerer and a heap of other goblins. The sorcerer cast web on him and then flaming sphere which set the webs on fire.

The other goblins with the sorcerer started throwing weapons at him, and then a few of them closed in to melee range. I looked at this, considered what the DM had said before and asked "Did those goblins just walk into a burning web?". The DM considered the question, realised the answer was yes, and decided they just attacked from range as well.

Adindra
2012-11-25, 10:14 PM
My DM for 3.5 d&d once put my party through a large partially water filled chamber with a gigantic undead worm swimming around killing anything in the water. There were handholds on the walls to easily get across however the water had alot of treasure from previous dead adventurers sitting at the bottom and the party wanted it.

The party consisted of a human swordsage (plus homebrew prestige class), a goblin wizard/archivist/mystic theurge (me), and an elven druid.

because all of our characters had high int we spent a good 4 hours irl time figuring out the exact distance we could cover in the exact amount of time and did some experiments to figure out how fast the worm could move in the water.

all of this ended in a huge plan to get all the treasure by running into the water and swimming the treasure out before the worm could get us. It was a huge success and we ended up way above wealth per level

.....i had unseen servant prepared multiple times that day and didnt realize it until two rooms later /facepalm :smallsigh:

Traab
2012-11-25, 10:14 PM
This is from an MMORPG but I hope it counts. When I played a bard in Everquest, I was forever forgetting that I had an aoe dd ability active at all times. So whenever I would go back to town to sell to a merchant, I would "attack" him and I would find myself turned to paste by the merchant and every guard in clipping range.

This one is from my mom. In World of Warcraft, you get this item called a hearthstone. It lets you teleport back to whatever inn you are bound at. They made it even better by reducing the cooldown to 15 minutes, so you can use it alot. Anyways, I am constantly, CONSTANTLY asking my mother when I see her play, "Why are you walking across the entire map to go back to town? You have a hearthstone!" Its amusing because she gets so annoyed at the long walks, but she just cant seem to recall that she can just teleport back home any time she wants. Bags are full? Teleport and sell. Quests are done? Teleport and turn them in for rewards. Want to go to the capitol city? teleport then fly to the city. Want to go back to the zone now that your business in the capitol city is done? TELEPORT DANGIT!

BootStrapTommy
2012-11-25, 10:18 PM
In a recent adventure, the entire party, including me and the other elf all failed our saves against a sleep spell. We woke up in a prison and just started trying to escape before I remembered we were immune.

The other day during a campaign I had to play the watch dog for a room full of players who kept doing this. And a DM too. Things like "A crit one-shotted him" No he's undead, so he's immune to crits. "I'm flanked." No, you're flying, and thus 10 feet raised above the battle field. "Damn it I missed." You have weapon focus and a masterwork weapon. You hit. "How can I get across the pit." Just because you are wearing full plate doesn't means your too heavy for the Raptoran to carry. "I can't move that far." Yes but you can throw that greatsword. "You fell asleep." No, I'm an elf.

Tychris1
2012-11-25, 10:36 PM
This happened twice with two players in my group.

Player 1: He was an evocation wizard bent on murder, who had kind of udioically decided to participate in a temperamental hostage situation. In the middle of a tavern. Needless to say a few fireballs later and the whole place was ablaze. He was freaking out, panicking to get outside and avoid the fires. He resigned to death and defeat.... Before realizing he was a Wraith and could jist walk through the fires. So he walks outside and is promptly happy and prepared to fight whoever is left. But then he forgets what happens when Wraiths and sunlight mix.....

Player 2: The whole party went through a disgusting swamp to get at some dragons for their corpses. Since I have sporadic moments of cruelty I decided to let them wallow through the sludge and filth (Instead of say pay for a trip across the river, cause they're cheap like that) until they got to their destination.

He was infected with so many diseases I lost track of them.

He began to fret, panicking at the prospect of death, and was further afraid due to the party lacking a healer. As I began rolling for ability damage he paused, looked at his sheet, and remembered he was a scarecrow and thus immune to diseases. Many a life was had.

That was until the Pyrohydra arrived and lit him onfire :smallamused:

DarkestKnight
2012-11-26, 12:04 AM
Mine isn't so much as the party forgetting they could fly as they opted for spectacular destruction.

The party had wandered out of a machine/undead mine and found that a human purist group had set up camp on the exit they took. Huddling in a sphere of invisibility the party decided what we wanted to do. The Ultimate Magus told people that he in fact had a wand of fly, and we could just leave in our little sphere. The party, having given multiple explosives (called cussers as that would be all the time you had for doing if you dropped one by accident.) decided that we wanted to destroy the encampment. what then ensued was a discussion about said cussers. It was also realized that these cussers could be used to create a Yamato cannon of sorts as we could set one in the Psion's extra dimensional pocket or whatever, and shape the blast. The Magus again said that he had a wand of fly, and we should just leave. Thus the party agreed to using our new attempt and monodirectional destruction and promptly knocked down the main gates. And set off the alarm spells. and set off the contingent prismatic wall effect where the gate/wall used to be. and had all the paladins use their detect evil (which was kinda funny as the Magus was the only one who pinged). Sitting in the jail cells later, the Magus again said that he had a wand of fly and we were all idiots. We said that he should have told us that earlier.

Krazzman
2012-11-26, 05:06 AM
We have some minor things like that. "Ah dammit a 14..." do you added our Bard's Song? And remember we are flanking him? And such things.
THe probably most annoying thing was: We are adventuring in the mountains. We manage to climb quite a distance... next level up: next climbing passage I ask... who put any ranks into climb? Rogue raises his hand... everyone else makes a poker face... The Bardlock luckily got herself Spiderclimb so she doesn't need this anymore but at the near 90° climbing section she forgot it... as did I.

Sith_Happens
2012-11-26, 07:39 AM
I'm currently playing a Factotum in a 3.5 campaign and keep forgetting about Cunning Insight (a few times per encounter I can add my Int to attack or damage).

supermonkeyjoe
2012-11-26, 07:50 AM
In a Star wars RPG I was a bothan scoundrel, scoundrels in this particular system got a few rerolls per day due to their ability 'Lucky'. After several massively botched rolls for falling down a very large crevasse (failed the initial reflex, failed another reflex to grab a handhold, failed an attack roll with a grappling spike launcher) I was halfway through creating another character when I realised the scoundrel still had three uses of his 'Lucky' Ability which could have been used on any or all of those rolls.

yougi
2012-11-26, 10:25 AM
I DM this 3.5 game, and I'm not a very detail-oriented guy, more of a look-at-the-big-picture. And, as a DM, I can play 10 different types of NPCs in a single session, so there's no way I know ALL of their abilities by heart. So I got a few...

Planned this whole adventure where the PCs are running after a guy who stole an artifact, and at the end they learn that he's a vampire. Then they all go "How did you run outside during the day then?". Wow, planned a whole adventure around that, never thought of the fact that a vampire couldn't go out in sunlight... My answer: "I can survive in the sunlight, it makes me sparkle."

Now my players are exploring these drow-infested caves, and the bard just got himself a nice wand of fireball, so he's using it on everything he sees. I've completely forgotten drows have SR, you know, their MOST USEFUL ABILITY.

Not so long ago, the PCs were trying to kill a mad scientist kind of guy. They get in his lab, and he's got a Flesh Golem and a LOT of guards. They decide to go down and funnel the enemies in the staircase, to fight them 2 at a time. But before they do that, they shoot a few arrows at the Golem. At some point, after 10ish rounds, one of the players was like "you know, if we keep this position, eventually the Golem will berserk and kill the guy." Oh yeah, riiiiiight... 'Cause I was totally rolling for that, right?

Also, recently, they've fought a Mummy Cleric with a Ring of Counterspells on, charged with cure critical wounds. Obviously, it was downed by the Cleric casting CCW on it and me forgetting about it. Then, the wizard goes "so, detect magic on the loot?", and so I go "the guy had a mace that detects as magical, and a ring... well you know what, it's actually still going. *roll* 22 on Alvin, is that a hit?"

Arutema
2012-11-28, 10:18 PM
I've had a couple.

After a session of PFS rolling terribly, I realized that the shirt I was wearing IRL granted a once per-session re-roll in PFS games.

Another time I borrowed another PC's wand of disguise self to disguise myself as a Ratfolk tour guide. While wearing a Hat of Disguise.

DoctorGlock
2012-11-28, 11:57 PM
Fairly recently in a game of Legend

Took shadow blink, because at will teleport is awesome
Got in a fight in a burning inn, place is crashing down, so plow out through the wall in a painful cloud of splinters, giant spider and terrified guests
The barbarian looks at me and says: "Wait, can't you teleport?"
The DM and the rest of the table look at us both for a moment and just facepalms

lucky9
2012-11-29, 01:45 PM
Long story short: The party is thrown of a tower window by some giants. As we're plummeting to the earth we go through this exact scene. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0443.html) Panicking, going through our combined spell lists and character abilities for a solid minute IRL (our characters falling all the while) we come up with nothing. Wanting to avoid TPK our most gracious DM has a giantess come to our rescue. Later on the long, shameful, journey back to the city I discover two things. 1) a potion of feather fall in my bag. 2) I can cast feather fall.

Slipperychicken
2012-12-02, 03:08 PM
My groups habitually forget they're supposed to add modifiers to add to their d20 rolls. Even when someone says "Roll Charisma" they just roll a d20 and forget the Charisma modifier. They'll have problems mid-high levels.


Playing a level 3 Master Summoner (Pathfinder game), and the party was searching for hidden/secret doors in a cave. So we searched for a bit, then I remembered Earth Elementals pass through stone like it's nothing, so I summoned one and had it scout around, saving us some work. Earth Elementals with Augment Summoning are awesome, especially in a low-level fight.

PlusSixPelican
2012-12-03, 05:40 PM
Recently, as my Advanced Human Cleric (Pathfinder), in preparation to fight a necromancer, I got a surprise round, so I cast Fly on myself. (I was in a subbed domain that grants Fly as a spell). I used my first real round off in the bushes to summon an Aurochs. Next round, my Aurochs goes in, charges, gets a smite off, and just gores a zombie to death. At this point, I remember I can channel them all to bits, facepalm, and run-fly over a hundred feet to get a better shot at hitting the swarm of undead that my party's being crowded by.

(This is where the last sesh ended for time reasons.)

CarpeGuitarrem
2012-12-03, 06:50 PM
You know, I find this really interesting to read through. One: I'm hacking away at several game designs. Two: I'm currently getting into learning about usability engineering. So I can't help but consider what it is about systems that causes such lapses to occur. (Also, how to make it so that players don't do things like this in games I design.)

Carry on, I'm afraid I don't have a legit story of my own, though I am curious what trends follow forgotten abilities. (I'd speculate that "long ability lists" is one of them...)

Kazyan
2012-12-03, 06:56 PM
So we're the big dumb fighters, right. And we fall into this pit, right. So we climb back out, on the wrong side. And I'm like, hey, it's only 10 feet, so I'll just jump across. And the d20 says, "lol". So the other Big Dumb Fighter has to go down and get me, because I'm unconscious now.

...I had the Dragon Wings feat and the Blink Shirt soulmeld shaped at the time.

In my defense, she had a Wisdom of 6.

LadyFoxfire
2012-12-03, 09:11 PM
Our party was navigating a dungeon when we stumbled upon a locked door. A search of the area revealed a switch hidden inside a statue's mouth; The rogue examined the statue and determined that the mouth was trapped. One of our party members was able to regenerate (don't remember what class he was), so he offered to try to hit the switch. He failed his roll, and the statue bit his hand clean off. While he was trying to reattach his hand, the rest of us were discussing our options, and I looked over my spell list and realized that I knew Mage Hand.

Another campaign, our party was hanging out in a tavern when a random Efreeti appeared out of nowhere and tried to kill us. Needless to say, the tavern was blazing merrily by the time the fight was over. I put out the fire with an Ice Storm, which, while successful, did a fair bit of property damage on its own. I totally forgot that I owned a Wand of Fire Extinguishing.

nedz
2012-12-03, 10:28 PM
Our party was navigating a dungeon when we stumbled upon a locked door. A search of the area revealed a switch hidden inside a statue's mouth; The rogue examined the statue and determined that the mouth was trapped. One of our party members was able to regenerate (don't remember what class he was), so he offered to try to hit the switch. He failed his roll, and the statue bit his hand clean off. While he was trying to reattach his hand, the rest of us were discussing our options, and I looked over my spell list and realized that I knew Mage Hand.

Half way through reading this, I was expecting the statue's mouth to contain a sphere of annihilation. I can't think why.

Traab
2012-12-03, 10:52 PM
Half way through reading this, I was expecting the statue's mouth to contain a sphere of annihilation. I can't think why.

Tomb of Horrors flashback?

Slipperychicken
2012-12-04, 01:07 AM
Carry on, I'm afraid I don't have a legit story of my own, though I am curious what trends follow forgotten abilities. (I'd speculate that "long ability lists" is one of them...)

Failing to learn the system. Having a list of abilities as long as your arm which you never look at, buried under two pages of stats next to your laptop.

Ashdate
2012-12-04, 01:25 AM
I watched my party struggle to communicate with each other in the plane of Pandemonium, where the howling wind make verbal communication ni-impossible. The entire time, I'm thinking the warforged warlord has innate telepathy thanks to a feat he took specifically for his character, when is he going to remember it?

(He of course, doesn't)

DigoDragon
2012-12-04, 08:54 AM
Can't think of one personally, but it happens to my players. The Warlock sometimes forgets his Eldritch Chain ability when he's defending himself from a group of enemies all at once. The party rogue forgets he has the skills to build traps and so loses a lot of opportunities to slow down an advancing opponent in a dungeon.

The funniest one was my wife, the party two-weapon fighter who forgot that she indeed had a second sword in her equipment list during a boss fight. After spending a full-round locating it in her bag of holding, she proceeded to roll four critical hits in a row and puree my BBEG into salsa.