So my wife made me very proud

[lytokk]

My wife joined into my 3.5 game this weekend, something she had been thinking about doing, and we finally got her into the game. She's never played any sort of table top before, and her role-playing experience basically extends to world of warcraft. She decided to play a druid, and did not disapoint.

The party had been tracking a group of ogres across the plains, and ended up running into one, who was getting ready to ambush the party. Party spots the potential ambush, everyone gets ready. Rogue sneaks off to flank, psychic warrior buffs up, bard starts singing, druid steps in front of the party, makes it known to the ogre that the party sees him, and offers him a cookie.

The party (wife included) had no way of knowing that the ogre was being "controlled" by a succubus since even the ogres didn't know that. I gave the ogre a few levels in barbarian to make sure he was a challenge to the PC's, he screams, enters his rage and then initiative starts. My wife, rolls highest, and decides to summon an octopus to stand between her and the charging ogre. She summons the octopus to hand him the cookie.

All the raging charging ogre sees is an octopus crawling towards him as he's charging the druid, with a cookie in one of its arms, outstretched in offering. I feel the situation is too strange to not offer the ogre some sort of will save in order to overcome the charm, and then the dang ogre makes his save, all thanks to the fact that I leveled him in barb, and had him get his +2 to will saves from raging.

In the end, what was supposed to be a random encounter, became a situation found out way more information than they were supposed to. And now the party is coming up with ways to subdue as many ogres as possible without killing, with the exception of the head ogre who has the magical amulet that creates and controls undead fueled by an entrapped succubus inside of the amulet, who is mind controlling the ogres. This is all thanks to an octopus with a friggin cookie...

My wife derailed my plotline on her first game of playing. Me, with 10 years of DMing experience, her with 1 day of playing.

I've never been more proud.

[prufock]

Technically you can only summon an octopus in an aquatic environment, but I'm going to skip right past that to "WTF?"

[lytokk]

Technically you can only summon an octopus in an aquatic environment, but I'm going to skip right past that to "WTF?"

thats what I thought, but it had a swim and a regular movement speed, so I decided, ok, well, one way or the other its lifespan is going to be short, either squashed by the ogre or dismissed after handing off the cookie, at which point it goes back to whatever plane it came from, though I suppose Natures Ally summons should work differently than the other summon line.

I tend to let rule of cool trump RAW or RAI, as long as its not a long stretch.

[Bronk]

Cool! It was nice of you to allow her to summon the octopus onto land... sounds like everyone had a fun time!

[Vhaidara]

Give that woman a cookie!

[Red Fel]

I have to agree. That was something between diabolical brilliance and dumb luck, and she scored the jackpot. Kudos to her for her clever plan, kudos to you for allowing it to work, and kudos to the both of you on a healthy relationship.

Kudos for everyone!

[lytokk]

I had forgotten to mention the first encounter. Party is attacked by a single wight, to which the Psychic Warrior runs up to engage, as he's first in initiative. While he is up there, 2 more wights hit the group of the party from the side. Cleric turns undead, causing the 2 flanking wights to flee, but they've used up their entire movement for the round, causing them to flee next turn. My wife decides its a good idea to cast Entangle, centered on the party so the wights can't run away.

The wights at that point, are tied up, trying to flee, and getting picked apart by the party.

She did good, she did really good

[Dawgmoah]

My wife derailed my plotline on her first game of playing. Me, with 10 years of DMing experience, her with 1 day of playing.

I've never been more proud.

Congratulations, you have fallen victim to the Uncertainy Principle. In your ten years of DMing you pretty much either played with folks who already knew how to play and/or were primarily male. Your wife, being completely new to the game, sees situations and events unfolding from a completely different perspective than you are used to. She does things which make sense to her but leave you wondering. And congratulations on getting her to game; my wife tells me she's glad I'm not out chasing skirt and goes back to watching tv....

[Fitz10019]

To avoid further abuse of your plot, you should ban baked goods. "No more leavening!"

[Diarmuid]

Not to play "debbie downer" here, but...

Summoning the octopus (while it may have a non-swim speed, the rules say it can only be summoned in an aquatic setting) simply should not have been possible.

..And giving it the cookie to give to the ogre in a single action seems like more than you would normally be able to do.

Heck, the summoning alone is a full round action and shouldnt have completed until after the Ogre had already gone.

[Juntao112]

Not to play "debbie downer" here, but...

Summoning the octopus (while it may have a non-swim speed, the rules say it can only be summoned in an aquatic setting) simply should not have been possible.

I refute thee thus. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lom5kM4ytaI)

[lytokk]

a quick googling of "how long can an octopus survive out of the water" turned up an answer posted by a research assistant, saying they had to weigh down and fasten the lids to the octopus tanks, since they'd get out in the night and be found in the darndest places in the morning, including behind desks, still alive. So, ROC ended up trumping RAW.

[Fouredged Sword]

Yeah, you have to be careful if you put one in an aquarium. They can and will climb out the top to go exploring if they can, and once out, they can fall of the side and not be able to climb back into the water. This can and will kill them.

That is why a secure top is recommended (with no or very small holes, Octopi can get through a remarkably tiny space.)

[deathwolf669]

I refute thee thus. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lom5kM4ytaI)

Its what the rules say not what youtube and the marine biology say!

I have to agree you shouldn't have let her use the octopus but this was damned funny, gave my other half ideas!

[Juntao112]

Its what the rules say not what youtube and the marine biology say!

Provide, then, a citation of the rules.

[lytokk]

if I hadn't let her use the octopus, chances are she just would have used the monkey. She was only trying to find the least threatening and goofiest thing she could find to stop a raging charging ogre.

[Fitz10019]

You bah-hum-buggers are going about this all wrong. It's 'cookie' that you won't find in RAW material. "How many cookies do you have, when did I authorize that non-standard gear, and where is it listed in your inventory?"

[rollforeigninit]

Huzzah! Congrats on gaming with your wife. I have had a similar privilege forb15 years now.

Good call letting RACSD triumph over RAW. Most women I know will shoot rules lawyers on sight.

[Meth In a Mine]

Your wife has succeeded in doing something I have never been able to do in all my time of roleplaying, and that is bargaining with something outside of my creature type. You clearly married an intelligent woman. :smallsmile:

Cheers

[Vanitas]

Summoning spells don't really work like that (you spend a full round summoning and the effect only happens on your next turn), but that's pretty cool nonetheless.

[Diarmuid]

You bah-hum-buggers are going about this all wrong. It's 'cookie' that you won't find in RAW material. "How many cookies do you have, when did I authorize that non-standard gear, and where is it listed in your inventory?"

To be honest, my next post was going to be if she actually had a cookie listed in her inventory.

It was fun, it was funny...these are both good things. But...interpreting things outside the rules can be a slippery slope. Eventually soneone is going to want to do something "funny" that you're not going to allow, and now you're risking hurting someone's feelings, making someone feel singled out, and/or showing favoritism.

This is not say that fun can't override rules, but generally not in complete ignoring of rules. It's generally better to work withing existing grey areas for things like this.

[Particle_Man]

An octopus has a con of 11. If the octopus is doing stuff, that means it can hold its breath for 11 rounds. That should be long enough for most summon nature's ally purposes.

Besides, that was hilarious. :smallcool:

[Wargamer]

This reminds me of the party I had who were ambushed on the road and the Ranger responds by summoning a squid, which he promptly throws into an Orc's face. The squid successfully grappled the Orc and effectively took him out of the battle while the others got mopped up.

And don't get me started on squid-detonated explosive devices...

[Vhaidara]

Octodad appears early (Octodad is superior to a normal octopus), handoff of cookie is a free action (as per the peasant railgun), and then Octodad hands off the cookie to the ogre.

[lytokk]

To be honest, my next post was going to be if she actually had a cookie listed in her inventory.

It was fun, it was funny...these are both good things. But...interpreting things outside the rules can be a slippery slope. Eventually soneone is going to want to do something "funny" that you're not going to allow, and now you're risking hurting someone's feelings, making someone feel singled out, and/or showing favoritism.

This is not say that fun can't override rules, but generally not in complete ignoring of rules. It's generally better to work withing existing grey areas for things like this.

She had 5 days of trail rations, according to the players manual, those include jerky, dried fruit hardtack and nuts. Now, I've had some civil war hardtack made for me, and from memory, it was somewhat sweet, and resembled cookies crossed with crackers. A barbaric ogre, may never had many cookies in his life, but he has heard about them. A bad cookie is still a cookie, even if its hardtack. Basically, she gave him the dessert from her trail rations.

[Bakeru]

And the "Summoning takes a full round action"-problem could be explained if the ogre was far enough away. Maybe "charging her" was just a colorful way of saying "running towards her from a large distance, taking several rounds to do so". (Initiative and rounds mattered to see how many actions they could get in to prepare for ogre impact)

[Crake]

You can't really be derailed unless you were railroading to begin with. This is less an example of derailing and more an example of tackling a problem from a different angle. Derailing would be if she gave the ogre a cookie, then invited him to tea and breakfast at her cottage on the other side of the country.

[Raimun]

I can see how this would go in an experienced gaming group, with no beginners.

"Ogre Barbarian!"

"Okay, I have a plan. We need an octopus and a cookie."

"Huh? For what? I guess the octopi are good grapplers but the cookie?"

"No, no... it's simple, I give the octopus the cookie and he gives it to the ogre. That will pacify him and we can question him since we don't need to kill him."

"Hahhah... that's well funny. Seriously though, just Summon a cheetah or buff me."