The DM Sadism Thread

[atemu1234]

So, DMs, Players, lend me your eyes.

We need a thread for all the absolutely sadistic things DMs have done either to you, or you have done as DM, or sadistic things you plan on doing, or the like... I'm definitely not mining for ideas, why do you ask?

[GilesTheCleric]

I added nonassociated class levels to my advanced creatures, and used by-the-book CRs.

But in all seriousness, I gave a player a weapon that, on a crit, dealt a 10' radius sonic aoe for 1/4 of attack damage (wielder immune to said effect, of course). Good thing it was a greatclub that the ubercharger decided to wield, close quarters or not. His poor party-mates...

[sjeshin]

I'm currently working on a one shot adventure that forces the PC's to play as commoners. They will be trapped in a necromancer's "dungeon lab" with many of his experiments having just escaped. The only goal is to live and escape. They get to pick their skill points and the one weapon they are profficient with. There will be tons of magical items for them to scoop up on their route, but without really creative use they will probably just get ripped apart by undead. The real cruel gravy is the room with a shallow pool that has a dark tentacles from one of the monster manuals with the grave touched ghoul template slapped on it.

[FocusWolf413]

People in groups I play with keep pissing off powerful people/organizations. I usually end up sending assassins after them, as is standard. They usually tail the party for a while and I leave enough clues, but they don't take the necessary precautions. I've had them collapse dungeon entrances behind the party, steal their items and replace them with trash, or poison healing potions.

[atemu1234]

I mentioned it on another thread, but there was a druid who was close to his Raccoon Animal Companion. He was captured by a band of goblins (chaotic evil). They tied him to a tree (he was low level), took his squealing animal companion, and put it in a cage. They then proceeded to lower the cage into a barrel of alchemical acid. Slowly.

Yeah, I'm a jerk.

[(Un)Inspired]

I had a DM who would drip hot wax across my chest.

[Geddy2112]

I was in a 2rd level party, and the DM threw a hangman tree at us resulting in a very quick TPK. As a DM, I threw a nereid at a party and ended up controlling every character sans the female for almost an hour.


I had a DM who would drip hot wax across my chest.

I think your talking about a very different type of "Dungeon Master"...or an interesting use of "unnatural lust"

[Flickerdart]

They then proceeded to lower the cage into a barrel of alchemical acid.
Really? A barrel of acid? Where every pint costs 10gp?

A standard raccoon is about 22 inches long. Assuming your raccoon is about half as wide as he is long, and adding two inches on every side to account for the cage, you need a barrel roughly 4500 cubic inches. Full of acid. That's 155 pints, or roughly a freakin' fortune for a pack of low-level goblins.

Looks like the most sadistic thing your GM did is gratuitously murder verisimilitude.

[Threadnaught]

Optimized Epic Level Tier 1 Characters.

One has already met the PCs and paid them to investigate some disappearances related to Ragnorra. The other Elder Evils incoming shortly, it's a massive cluster**** and once the Elder Evils are gone, the players will notice how I've turned the world against them. :smallamused:


I am literally going to use the world against them, not the nations or people, the world.

[The Great Wyrm]

You could subtract the volume of the raccoon.

Anyway, the acid might not be as concentrated as the PHB acid, or something like that.

[Spore]

I had a DM who would drip hot wax across my chest.

This took a turn for the unexpected.


Really? A barrel of acid? Where every pint costs 10gp?

And there we have the RAW dudes showing up.

1) Prices are subject to change. I can guarantee you that Salt from the Dead Sea is vastly cheaper if you shop in the town right next to it rather than hundreds of miles away.

2) If the troupe has a - particularly sadistic - Alchemist, this is also possible. After all, while producing acid in an medieval environment is a tedious task not many people actually have need for that so the market is quite rare for such commodities.

My DM was unintionally sadistic. I once had a rogue which I loved. Due to my inability to master the system and the tendency of my DM to stick to the books and roll on every occasion as much as possible he not only was a womanizer with terrible social skills, a fighter whose main quality was not guile or dexterity but sheer endurance and an even worse thief and pickpocket.

My DM proceeded to let the world react in the most plot armor-y way possible. If I fell down a bottom-less pit, I landed on the bottom with 1d6 falling damage. When I hurt a child while stealing a bow instead of banishing me from the important plot dwarven city, they cut off my fingers. When I released a fire elemental from a magical trap guarding a shop whose owner betrayed me and continued to burn up city guards and houses alike, the governor and head of the guard both said nothing. When he jumped through a not particularly hard to go through blade barrier, I rolled a 1 and almost got killed by it (where the Paladin got through unharmed).

I basically tried to actively kill my character in the most incharacter way possible but my DM blocked these attempts in every way possible.

On the first night on the replacement character my Half-Elf got turned into an Goblin (killed then reincarnated). It IS a pretty weird campaign for me.

[Lurkmoar]

An old DM of mine sprung an encounter with a powerful dracolich that was trapped deep underground in the ruins of a temple. It couldn't move past the enclosed circle, but it could talk. Offered us great wealth and magical items if we released. We declined and beat feet when it tried to charm us into getting out. Everyone made their will save and high fived around the table when the Druid asked the DM, "Why did you move my animal companion miniature?"

The draolich charmed the companion, had it break the magic circle and when freed, didn't take kindly to us snubbing him. We got stomped pretty bad with just the bard player and me making it out.

And then the bard asked "Wait, if the builders were stupid enough to let charms go through the trap, how did they get clever enough to trap the dracolich in the first place?"

The DM didn't have an answer, but just laughed. I suppose that laugh was all the answer we needed.

[Flickerdart]

1) Prices are subject to change. I can guarantee you that Salt from the Dead Sea is vastly cheaper if you shop in the town right next to it rather than hundreds of miles away.

Ah yes, the infamous Acid Mines of Goblin Forest. How could I forget?



2) If the troupe has a - particularly sadistic - Alchemist, this is also possible. After all, while producing acid in an medieval environment is a tedious task not many people actually have need for that so the market is quite rare for such commodities.
So these goblins now have a spellcaster? Not to mention an alchemist's lab, which costs 500gp. Plus a bunch of goblins whose only job is to move around this extremely heavy barrel for the sole purposes of dunking small animals.

It's just all so pointlessly contrived.

[Spore]

I could start to explain how an Alchemist isn't defined as a spellcaster and how you could make chemical solutions without an alchemy lab but I won't derail the thread further.

[RedMage125]

So...my players got captured, freed themselves, got their gear back and proceeded to move further into the prison.

They were unaware, but they had accidentally stumbled onto the rest of the cabal of devil-summoners that they had encountered a few levels ago.

They go into a dark corridor, bringing their everburning torch with them. They found a short hallway with 3 dungeon cells on either side.

On their right, something Large floated up to the bars quickly, bumping into the bars. It was a beholder, with its central eye gouged out and sewn shut, and all eyestalks cauterized.

Across from the beholder was a mind flayer with a scar on his forehead. He'd been operated on, and while he was still intelligent, he had not the power to command even a rat.

Next to the mind flayer was a medusa, who had been blinded and her head shaved.

Across from the medusa was a lich. His name was Bernard, and he was a historian who had extended his life into undeath to become the ultimate dispassionate historian. He mostly just wants solitude. While he COULD break out, his captors have his phylactery and his spellbooks.

Next to Bernard was a nymph who was so badly scarred she would not show herself.

And in the last cell, across from the nymph, was an ettin. One head had been surgically removed. As you may know, each head of an ettin has its own personality, and they frequently talk to themselves. When questioned about what happened, the ettin said "Morg and Torg will...Morg will crush wizards who did this".

My players were aghast at me, a couple of them had eyes shining with what looked to be a hint of tears. They were like "Dude, you're sick."

On the other hand, they also said "I never thought anyone could make me feel sorry for those kinds of creatures. You're a sick puppy, but good job."

I'm pretty proud of that.

EDIT: on the acid-using goblins. If you're going to insist on knowing how they got it, there's any number of low-CR slimes that do acid damage. The goblins could have one in a barrel that they harvest acid from.

Jut a thought.

[dascarletm]

Suppose the goblin tribe really loved acid, like they were obsessed with it. This isn't even a tribe though, just a standard band of goblins of around 60. There is three 3rd level sergeants and one let's say 4th level leader to be nice.

I probably wouldn't give npc wealth to the 60 regulars, but you bet the sergeants and the leader will get NPC wealth. 2,500gp for sergeants and 3,300 for the leader.

Using your calculation we nee 155pints, or 1550gp. Let's say they're really stupid and really like doing this (totally within goblin fluff) so they wan to buy 400 pints. That's 4000gp. Each sergeant and the leader drop 1000gp from their total WBL on the acid. Less equipment for them, but boy is dipping things in acid fun!

[Story]

Permanently turning one character into a Hill Giant, in a low op level 4 party. Say good bye to balance.

[lytokk]

So...my players got captured, freed themselves, got their gear back and proceeded to move further into the prison.

They were unaware, but they had accidentally stumbled onto the rest of the cabal of devil-summoners that they had encountered a few levels ago.

They go into a dark corridor, bringing their everburning torch with them. They found a short hallway with 3 dungeon cells on either side.

On their right, something Large floated up to the bars quickly, bumping into the bars. It was a beholder, with its central eye gouged out and sewn shut, and all eyestalks cauterized.

Across from the beholder was a mind flayer with a scar on his forehead. He'd been operated on, and while he was still intelligent, he had not the power to command even a rat.

Next to the mind flayer was a medusa, who had been blinded and her head shaved.

Across from the medusa was a lich. His name was Bernard, and he was a historian who had extended his life into undeath to become the ultimate dispassionate historian. He mostly just wants solitude. While he COULD break out, his captors have his phylactery and his spellbooks.

Next to Bernard was a nymph who was so badly scarred she would not show herself.

And in the last cell, across from the nymph, was an ettin. One head had been surgically removed. As you may know, each head of an ettin has its own personality, and they frequently talk to themselves. When questioned about what happened, the ettin said "Morg and Torg will...Morg will crush wizards who did this".

My players were aghast at me, a couple of them had eyes shining with what looked to be a hint of tears. They were like "Dude, you're sick."

On the other hand, they also said "I never thought anyone could make me feel sorry for those kinds of creatures. You're a sick puppy, but good job."

I'm pretty proud of that.

EDIT: on the acid-using goblins. If you're going to insist on knowing how they got it, there's any number of low-CR slimes that do acid damage. The goblins could have one in a barrel that they harvest acid from.

Jut a thought.

I have nothing like this, but I am saving it as this kind of thing could really really help in a game at some point.

[Nibbens]

A 5 foot wide hallway with ten doors on each side.

It took my players close to an hour to decide how to handle it.

Edit: and there were no traps on the doors. Just their own belief that there was.

Edit#2: I'm of the camp that traps should be hinted at so your party should figure them out, not just "oops, surprise! You take XdX damage." So these bad habits were learned from previous DMs who didn't think like this. When they found out there were no traps in this situation - we almost had a table flip.

[Spore]

My players were aghast at me, a couple of them had eyes shining with what looked to be a hint of tears. They were like "Dude, you're sick."

Your description didn't faze me in the slightest. There are two options which both can be true.

1) Your rendition and atmosphere on the table were top-notch and your timing on point.

2) Or I am just a sicko who enjoys this stuff.

Ironical punishment is the best.

[Zubrowka74]

Giving the party a magical sword of fairly high power. An intelligent sword. With speech capabilities and controlled by the DM. And an obnoxious personality. Let's just say the process of sneaking up on someone or having an audience with someone important were forever changed in this game...


Suppose the goblin tribe really loved acid, like they were obsessed with it. This isn't even a tribe though, just a standard band of goblins of around 60. There is three 3rd level sergeants and one let's say 4th level leader to be nice.

I probably wouldn't give npc wealth to the 60 regulars, but you bet the sergeants and the leader will get NPC wealth. 2,500gp for sergeants and 3,300 for the leader.

Using your calculation we nee 155pints, or 1550gp. Let's say they're really stupid and really like doing this (totally within goblin fluff) so they wan to buy 400 pints. That's 4000gp. Each sergeant and the leader drop 1000gp from their total WBL on the acid. Less equipment for them, but boy is dipping things in acid fun!

I picture a tribe living in a volcanic area. Hawaiian goblins? They have mad fire-bombers and an "alchemist" that knows where to find a seemingly endless supply of highly-acidic water (volcanoes do this). He gets burned a lot doing this but it just adds to his disfigured "charm".

They'd go through a lot of barrels each years though, as the wood would dissolve...

[Deox]

Ran a game where the party was traversing an underground passage which lead to a chasm. All magic was acting strangely (Wild Magic Zone) There was a stone bridge going across, but was covered in muck / grease / slippery goo. The Radiant Servant of Pelor (whose family had been killed by undead, then raised before his eyes) falls off and tries to cast a Feather Fall. Unfortunately, the feather fall didn't activate as planned and after plummeting to the ground, realized he was seeing things differently.

His normal vision was changed to be able to read heat signatures. After informing the party, another member noted he was a priest who hates the undead but could no longer see them.

[pbdr]

Tomb of Horrors. Only a sadist would inflict that on players.

[GilesTheCleric]

Tomb of Horrors. Only a sadist would inflict that on players' hordes of summoned creatures.

Ftfy. Animal cruelty is really just the worst. I mean, they don't even have an int of 3 or above, how are they supposed to begin to wrestle with the existential angst of the horror that the GM has placed before them? That's the real crime, I think, taking away their capacity to fear, to wonder, to love.

[Vinyl Scratch]

Allowed me to play a CW Samurai. (It got worse)

[Segev]

I let them find an obvious tomb of some ancient, long-dead tyrant wherein any human could make unlimited Wishes as spell-like abilities.

The party was too terrified of what I might do to make any. And they tortured themselves about it.

[Eldonauran]

I had run an NPC rogue character through with my players (a goblin, of course) who was a bit mentally unstable but loyal to a fault. He found a deck of cards in a pile of loot from a dragon the group killed and proceeded to 'challenge' the rest of the group to a game of 'War'.

Yes, it was a Deck of Many Things. Everyone made it out a lot better off than they went in. The atmosphere was delicious once the magic started happening and the player caught on to what the deck was.

[Selion]

I had a mindflayer swap his mind with a PC (the true body of the mindflayer was tied to a table in a secret room). I said to the player what happened and then i let him play the mindflayer with the rest of the party unaware.

[Buufreak]

Giving the party a magical sword of fairly high power. An intelligent sword. With speech capabilities and controlled by the DM. And an obnoxious personality. Let's just say the process of sneaking up on someone or having an audience with someone important were forever changed in this game...


http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/souleater/images/3/39/Excalibur_Render.png/revision/latest?cb=20141205042152

[XionUnborn01]

Our party spent three months worth of real gaming sessions inside an illusion created by a demigod of some sort.

I remember the confusion and anger we felt when we came over and he handed us character sheets that were two levels lower without our new feats and such. He did put us just below gaining a level and allowed us to keep the skillpoints and a few things but the investment and everything made us all want to snap his neck.

I can't complain too much though, my Lumi Cleric went on to become Arch enemies with an Infernal. Turns out that an artifact we found and destroyed was owned by him and our group consisting of my Lumi Cleric, an Ogre Half Dragon Barbarian, Demi Lich Wizard, Human Knight, and Human Druid were instantly not friends with him. The game eventually ended with a showdown on a demi plane that held a giant crystal that was the origin of life and the planes and the Lumi managed to barely escape the plane after the infernal had set off some bomb thing that consumed everything in it's path and I managed to seal off the plane and prevent the destruction from spreading. In the process, the Lumi's holy symbol was transformed into the now Crystal of Origin for the planes and I lived on, eventually ascending the being an emissary for Pholtus then eventually he stepped down to pass on his power to me.

Now every good cleric I play with that DM worships my Lumi, assuming it makes sense of course.

[ZamielVanWeber]

I had a boss encounter that was a dread mummy death master 9 controlling a mummy, alongside a death knight crusader 8 controlling 4 ghasts. Paralysis galore!

[yakri]

Well, my current main BBEG is a thousand year old pompous undead elf Lord masquerading as a reincarnation druid with an artifact that gives him restoration once per week. the players have killed him twice already, and pretty soon I'm going to let them track down and destroy his respawn point.

except when they do it's just going to bring him back to true life allowing him to lose some vulnerabilities and start reincarnation properly instead of reforming at this horrible blood tree he I currently trapped inside (currently they have actually been fighting meat puppets and he's been respawning in as per a lichs philactory).

he's a Gestalt druid/wizard.


I thought that was pretty dickish when I came up with the concept.

[Cruiser1]

My players were aghast at me, a couple of them had eyes shining with what looked to be a hint of tears. They were like "Dude, you're sick."
As a gamer, my immediate thought on reading this was is the party 13th level? If so, then just have the Cleric cast Regenerate on the six monsters, which will fix all their problems. If necessary also cast Heart's Ease (BoED) to cover any psychological damage. You should now have a bunch of powerful NPC allies with a variety of useful skills. :smallsmile:

[illyahr]

I made a door at the end of a hallway. The "handle" was trapped to make a fireball go off everytime someone tried to manipulate it. Push, pull, twist, didn't matter. Fireball. Ironically, no one decided to make a search or even a spot check to notice the slightly concealed lever in the wall next to the door. They instead burned through three lengths of rope, a 10-foot pole, and half their HP trying to figure out how to manipulate the trap trigger to open the door.

[dascarletm]

I made a door at the end of a hallway. The "handle" was trapped to make a fireball go off everytime someone tried to manipulate it. Push, pull, twist, didn't matter. Fireball. Ironically, no one decided to make a search or even a spot check to notice the slightly concealed lever in the wall next to the door. They instead burned through three lengths of rope, a 10-foot pole, and half their HP trying to figure out how to manipulate the trap trigger to open the door.

"I roll a search."

"I roll a disable device."

[bekeleven]

A while back one of my parties found an old, disused passage into hell. They were stopped shortly into hell by a devil that explained he was late in filing the forms to close the portal, and that he could kill the party but that would require even more paperwork, so he'd just give each of them a wish if they left the way they came and never mentioned it.

I let the party talk themselves out of taking any wishes... I don't want to say if they made the right call or not, but he sounded pretty on the level.

[jjcrpntr]

A 5 foot wide hallway with ten doors on each side.

It took my players close to an hour to decide how to handle it.

Edit: and there were no traps on the doors. Just their own belief that there was.

Edit#2: I'm of the camp that traps should be hinted at so your party should figure them out, not just "oops, surprise! You take XdX damage." So these bad habits were learned from previous DMs who didn't think like this. When they found out there were no traps in this situation - we almost had a table flip.

I don't use traps very often, but when I do I like to throw a small spear trap at them. Does a little damage but they spend the entire time in the dungeon/castle/cave or whatever second guessing everything they do. It's nice because otherwise they act without thinking and bad things happen, then I feel bad. Because i'm nice like that.

[Lathund]

This one player once wanted to buy a Healing Belt. Which our DM allowed him, of course, only... well, Healing Belts were in short supply in the town they were in, but there was one trader who had one for sale. At a rather steep price. Well, the belt was bought, but for months, it was never being used. Until this one moment when it's really necessary to get some extra healing in - and it turned out to be a belt of baleful polymorph. Targetting the one who activates it. Mid-battle.

[DeltaEmil]

I could start to explain how an Alchemist isn't defined as a spellcaster and how you could make chemical solutions without an alchemy lab but I won't derail the thread further.Unfortunately, for whatever dumb reasons, in D&D 3.5, all alchemists must be spellcasters, because only spellcasters can craft alchemical stuff. Futuristic goblins from the modern ages could use the d20 modern Craft (chemistry) rules, however. FUTURE SCIENCE!!!

[Spore]

Today I learned that I can cast spells because I can create hydrochloric acid from household chemicals. Imma wizard! :smallwink:

[vasharanpaladin]

I have, alternately, chafed under splat restrictions (of the "I can't possibly be bothered to read anything so I'll go with the knee jerk" variety), and been sickened by players refusing to play intelligent characters or stealing items. Sometimes both, in that latter case.

Which brings me to my favorite bout of sadistic pleasure: The potion of inflict light wounds. All but identical to its curative counterpart, if you don't have a way to identify potions, and worse than useless unless you're healed by negative energy. That said, it really was their fault for drinking a potion they found in a lich's lair... :smallbiggrin:

[A Tad Insane]

Unfortunately, for whatever dumb reasons, in D&D 3.5, all alchemists must be spellcasters, because only spellcasters can craft alchemical stuff.

Shouldn't anyone with ranks in craft(alchemy) be able to craft alchemy stuff? I know only spellcasters can take brew potion, but that's different.

edit: *notices little 1 by alchemy* huh, that's both weird and kind of dumb

[illyahr]

Shouldn't anyone with ranks in craft(alchemy) be able to craft alchemy stuff? I know only spellcasters can take brew potion, but that's different.

By RAW, you need to be a spellcaster to put ranks into it.

[DeltaEmil]

By RAW, you need to be a spellcaster to put ranks into it.It's even dumber. Anyone can put ranks in Craft (alchemy), but if you're not a spellcaster, you cannot ever create an alchemical item, even if you had over 23 ranks in it.

[RedMage125]

The Evil DM side of me is very pleased with all the comments and feedback on my example.


As a gamer, my immediate thought on reading this was is the party 13th level? If so, then just have the Cleric cast Regenerate on the six monsters, which will fix all their problems. If necessary also cast Heart's Ease (BoED) to cover any psychological damage. You should now have a bunch of powerful NPC allies with a variety of useful skills. :smallsmile:

They were 11th (I remember, because in the fight that followed, the wizard used his-I-just-acquired-this-and-am-excited-to-use-it Disintegrate spell). Also, I don't allow BoED.

This game was YEARS ago, more than 10, truth be told.

And there was a bit of denouement. They managed to let the monstrous prisoners go with the elven ones (didn't mention them, separate cells), via the diabolists' variable keyed portal (which they keyed to Arvandor). The elven gods did take pity on the monsters and healed them. The ettin and beholder actually aided the Alliance the players were working for, out of gratitude and a chance for revenge. The mind flayer returned hime, but repaid the favor and saved the PCs when they were ambushed by mind flayers several levels later.

Bernard returned to his studies.

[General Sajaru]

When I DM, I like to use the word "seem":

Player: I use Sense Motive to see if that guy is lying.
Me: Well, he seems to be telling the truth.

Player: I roll Spot to see if there's a monster lurking in the bushes.
Me: There doesn't seem to be anything there.

Player: I'm going to use Search to check the door for traps.
Me: It seems to be trap free.

[Marlowe]

I inflicted Malak'ai's Neutral Evil dwarf fighter with a suit of Adamantine plate armour that was bright pink and white with an embossed pattern of hearts and flowers, that played "Stars and Stripes Forever" whenever he tried to move silently, that played the theme tune to "Happy Days" every time be committed an evil act, and "Oh fortuna" every time he did something good.

At level 3.

Also, don't ask him about Paladin Keith.

I also once gave a low-level party a +5 travellers outfit glamoured to look like an extremely revealing chain-mail bikini. Although, in my defense, I wasn't expecting any of them to actually wear it.

Needless to say, I should have known better.

[bekeleven]

When I DM, I like to use the word "seem":

Player: I use Sense Motive to see if that guy is lying.
Me: Well, he seems to be telling the truth.

Player: I roll Spot to see if there's a monster lurking in the bushes.
Me: There doesn't seem to be anything there.

Player: I'm going to use Search to check the door for traps.
Me: It seems to be trap free.

I do the exact opposite.

"I roll spot... 4."

"The building is absolutely deserted."

"I haven't even opened the door yet!"

"..."

[The Evil DM]

A group of characters was crawling through a kobold warren, tunnels only 2.5 feet high. At one point the group split and pack of koblods was able to isolate an archer. Severely disadvantaged, while on his hands and knees the archer was reduced to zero hit points as party members worked to move in and assist. By the time the rest of the party arrived, the Archer was still alive, but the kobolds had chewed off and eaten his fingers.

[Andezzar]

But in all seriousness, I gave a player a weapon that, on a crit, dealt a 10' radius sonic aoe for 1/4 of attack damage (wielder immune to said effect, of course). Good thing it was a greatclub that the ubercharger decided to wield, close quarters or not. His poor party-mates...Why is the BSF using the weapon before someone has identified it? Such recklessness needs to be punished.


Giving the party a magical sword of fairly high power. An intelligent sword. With speech capabilities and controlled by the DM. And an obnoxious personality. Let's just say the process of sneaking up on someone or having an audience with someone important were forever changed in this game...Enserric or Lilarcor?

[RedMage125]

When I DM, I like to use the word "seem":

Player: I use Sense Motive to see if that guy is lying.
Me: Well, he seems to be telling the truth.

Player: I roll Spot to see if there's a monster lurking in the bushes.
Me: There doesn't seem to be anything there.

Player: I'm going to use Search to check the door for traps.
Me: It seems to be trap free.

Lol. I have a phrase my players learned to dread in regards to Sense Motive..."You trust him implicitly".

Also, whenever a player requests to roll Sense Motive, I roll a Bluff check behind my screen, no matter what. And I tell my players this, as well as that my houserule is that anyone who believes that they are telling the truth has a +40 circumstance bonus on Bluff checks.

Also, after I had players act differently on Search checks for traps depending on what they rolled, I started making those rolls for them. If they want to Search for traps, they give me their Search mod, and I roll behind the screen. So when I tell them "you find no traps", they act with confidence. Instead of "I found no traps, ut I rolled a 4, so there still could be a trap" vis "I rolled a 19 and found no traps, let's open it".

[Killer Angel]

When I DM, I like to use the word "seem":

Player: I use Sense Motive to see if that guy is lying.
Me: Well, he seems to be telling the truth.

Player: I roll Spot to see if there's a monster lurking in the bushes.
Me: There doesn't seem to be anything there.

Player: I'm going to use Search to check the door for traps.
Me: It seems to be trap free.


I do the exact opposite.

"I roll spot... 4."

"The building is absolutely deserted."

"I haven't even opened the door yet!"

"..."

Combine those with check rolls made secretly by the DM, because players shouldn't be sure how good "their" roll is.

[Andezzar]

Combine those with check rolls made secretly by the DM, because players shouldn't be sure how good "their" roll is.IIRC the rules do not really support making the rolls for the players.

I usually just give them the net result. E.g. "You do not find traps." It is up to them to decide whether that means that there indeed are no traps or they just did not discover those that are there. The same goes for Sense Motive/Bluff. "You find no clues that he is lying."

[Killer Angel]

IIRC the rules do not really support making the rolls for the players.

Well, for some skills yes (Disguise, srd says that the check is made secretly, so that you can’t be sure how good the result is).
And this kind of foothold is all a sadist DM needs. :smalltongue:

[GilesTheCleric]

Why is the BSF using the weapon before someone has identified it? Such recklessness needs to be punished.

Oh no, they identified it first. Then continued to use it. :smalleek:

I did later give them a (cursed) ring of three wishes (the wishes were granted by an evil djinni who would pervert the wishes to serve his own purposes [he opposed most of the mortal gods, which the players were mostly supporting, though some of his goals lined up with theirs]. Luckily they knew better than to use that.

[Inevitability]

5e, but still something that people should know.

The party had just slain a dragon, with everyone pretty excited about it (they'd never killed one before). Being proper PC's, they immediately started to gather up its hoard. This revealed a bunch of various coins, a +1 sword, a +1 longbow, a potion of Gaseous Form, a +1 leather armor... and a Dress of Armor (mechanically bracers of armor).

The only one in the party who would mechanically benefit from them was the monk. The male monk.

I swear he nearly threw a book at me.

[Madara]

My players have continually looted dead companions without paying any sort of respects. I'm making the loot from those bodies the cursed equivalent, which includes a Bag of Devouring.

[the_david]

I made up this encounter of a Gray Render adopting the party. He brings them meat on a daily basis and he protects them in a fight. (Make sure to describe his rending as gorey as possible.) When the party has grown attached to the Gray Render, they'll find the rended body of a young elf at their campsite.

I've never used this encounter though. I don't know if I should, because it's pretty bad. I've got 2 more ideas for a Gray Render encounter and they are not nearly as sadistic. (One being a farmer offering a few silver pieces to free his sheep from a big monster with the party finding the herd blocking their way to the next dungeon after they refuse to help, the other being a bard using a Gray Render to become the new crimelord.)

[RedMage125]

5e, but still something that people should know.

The party had just slain a dragon, with everyone pretty excited about it (they'd never killed one before). Being proper PC's, they immediately started to gather up its hoard. This revealed a bunch of various coins, a +1 sword, a +1 longbow, a potion of Gaseous Form, a +1 leather armor... and a Dress of Armor (mechanically bracers of armor).

The only one in the party who would mechanically benefit from them was the monk. The male monk.

I swear he nearly threw a book at me.

I did something similar. The party had defeated a Kensai, who was from a foreign land (read as: oriental style, he was a samurai). Loot from his body included an Obi of Oni Strength +4. I described it as made of silk with green leaves and pink cherry blossoms all over it.

The paladin took it, and promptly got his magical full plate modified with the Glamored property. So I was foiled in my attempt to do this.

[ImSAMazing]

We just defeated a Roc and a Troll hired to kill our party by the main villain. Me(lvl 9 high elf wizard) defeated the troll with ease, but our monk got knocked to 0 HP by the Roc. He stabilised, but the Roc was flying away cuz I defeated his boss. I was just able to shoot the Roc down with fireball. We were at sea, so the monk fell in the water. He survived, and I was just able to get him above the water before he suffocated, but then a SHARK came by. Luckily I had chosen the spell banishment, so I easily defeated him. Stupid DM ;)

[Dolour]

if you cant crawl out of the acid pit even tho you rolled a 19...
couldnt resist. :p

[Andezzar]

We just defeated a Roc and a Troll hired to kill our party by the main villain. Me(lvl 9 high elf wizard) defeated the troll with ease, but our monk got knocked to 0 HP by the Roc. He stabilised, but the Roc was flying away cuz I defeated his boss. I was just able to shoot the Roc down with fireball. We were at sea, so the monk fell in the water. He survived, and I was just able to get him above the water before he suffocated, but then a SHARK came by. Luckily I had chosen the spell banishment, so I easily defeated him. Stupid DM ;)Was it an extraplanar shark? Otherwise Banishment would not have worked. Weren't you a level 9 wizard? You should not have been able to prepare 7th level spells.

[GreyBlack]

At one point, early game, a character (a gnome summoner) died due to a trap, a pit, and 2 natural ones and a 2, but fairly ambiguously due to the pit. Later on, they found a suspiciously familiar looking gnome corpse floating down the river...

[Spore]

Our DM flung demon summoning vampires at us that threaten to kill two civilians for every minion we kill. Their leader is jumping among three fortresses in the area and we are 6 PCs. So we did what seemt like the sane decision. We gathered evidence and contacted the local authority (standing above the corrupted dukes) to correct the issue. We contacted the ruler of the country to correct the issue.

Who in herself is a tyrannical servant of the archdevil Asmodeus and did not only purge the vampires but established a rule within the country. We're still not sure if our (predominantly good) group improved the situation.

tl:dr Good heroes substituted vampires and demons with devils and devil worshippers. Win?!

[Yasahiro]

I did something similar. The party had defeated a Kensai, who was from a foreign land (read as: oriental style, he was a samurai). Loot from his body included an Obi of Oni Strength +4. I described it as made of silk with green leaves and pink cherry blossoms all over it.

The paladin took it, and promptly got his magical full plate modified with the Glamored property. So I was foiled in my attempt to do this.

I think it would be a waste of +1 enchantment bonus, to Glamor an armor because of it. Obi like that would look cool. ASIA is the country of CHERRY BLOSSOMS. Personally, I'd wear it happily.

[General Sajaru]

Glamoured doesn't take up a +1 enhancement spot though; it's just +2,700 GP to the price of the armor.

[bekeleven]

ASIA is the country of
wait, what

[Demidos]

Preface -- Our DM loves undead, and is great at using all their tricks and abilities to their maximum potential. But he likes bringing back his undead characters (pun intended) a little...TOO much.

The Tale of Kyngos
We had this one very annoying recurring villain --, a homebrewed waterbender who could put up thick walls of ice, heal, and attack, all in the same turn.

We fought her as a...
6th level waterbender (defeated with cohort help)
10th level waterbender (defeated and fled)
10th level VAMPIRE waterbender (defeated, mistformed, and fled)
14th level VAMPIRE LORD waterbender (This was at level 12. It is worth noting we did not have a cleric).

The Tale of Sandro
Another extremely annoying vampiric recurring villain (see where this is going?).

He first ambushed us in a random dungeon crawl. We managed to defeat him and force him to flee in his mist form. Then he came back in a second ambush, killing a PC, but was defeated. Then...We fought him at least twice more, and the party druid was so fed up with the vampires fleeing through small holes that they had predrilled through the combat areas (yes...yes, this is what we had to deal with) that he researched a custom spell to kill the vampire once it had gone into mist form (it sucked all unnatural air-borne particles in a small AOE into a specially prepared flask.)

So we finally killed him too.

======================

Fast forward in the plot -- we have used the soul of the waterbending vampire to power an epic spell (destroying it) and trapped the mist form of the second in high speed winds, which killed it by preventing it from returning to its coffin.

We get sucked into this mad wizard's tower as part of PLOT, and have to battle our way down through the floors.

Guess who shows up. BOTH vampires...with extra templates stacked on. And yes, these are the same two, they're not just copies made by the wizard.

With the druid now dead, we have no way to contain their mist forms, but luckily anything killed within the tower cannot be ressurected. So after some inconclusive skirmishes, we kill both again.

At this point, we are introduced to the construct. The near-indestructible, incredibly powerful construct that can magically absorb people's powers by killing them. Or by appearing out of the nothing in the middle of a tough fight right as we are about to destroy the vampires (each tough enough to challenge the entire party solo) and last hitting the vampires with us being unable to stop it.

.....If that isnt sadism, I don't know what is.

[Yahzi]

Looks like the most sadistic thing your GM did is gratuitously murder verisimilitude.
Best line ever.

I once sent my murder-hobo players to an Orc city so vile they actually swore off evil for two or three sessions.

[Zubrowka74]

Enserric or Lilarcor?

Neither. I was mostly inspired by Excalibur Junior :D

[Inevitability]

Was it an extraplanar shark? Otherwise Banishment would not have worked. Weren't you a level 9 wizard? You should not have been able to prepare 7th level spells.

Let me clarify (I was DM in that case).

It was a game of 5e, where Banishment has replaced Dismissal entirely and is a 4th level spell. In addition, while that edition's Banishment still sends extraplanar thingies back, it also allows you to banish creatures native to the plane you are on to a harmless demiplane. After a minute they are send back, however.

It fits nicely with 5e's philosophy of removing spells only useful against a single kind of creature.

[Ferronach]

A party I was in had just defeated an slain a Tiamat worshiping dragon.
He was a high priest of Tiamat who had on occasion bedded her. (Read teenagers with a teenaged DM...)

All was going well, Tiamat was upset but not enough to punish us for killing this dragon.
The party was looting the hoard and scouring the place for magical iteams as per ususal.
Then the newest player (a big FPS fan) decided to "teabag" the corpse...

Next thing we know, Tiamat raged into the Dragon's lair and proceeded to obliterate us in painful and creative ways.

I suppose we had kind of asked for it but... You know... the DM could have pulled a "Are you sure you want to do that?"

[Elder_Basilisk]

When I DM, I like to use the word "seem":

Player: I use Sense Motive to see if that guy is lying.
Me: Well, he seems to be telling the truth.

Player: I roll Spot to see if there's a monster lurking in the bushes.
Me: There doesn't seem to be anything there.

Player: I'm going to use Search to check the door for traps.
Me: It seems to be trap free.

I guess I'm a little more explicit.

Player: I use Sense Motive to see if that guy is lying.
Me: If he's lying, he's a pretty good liar and you can't tell.

Player: I roll Spot to see if there's a monster lurking in the bushes.
Me: If there's something there, it's hiding so well you can't spot it.
or
Me: If there's a monster there, his hide is better than your spot.

Player: I'm going to use Search to check the door for traps.
Me: If it's trapped, you didn't notice it.

[Ferronach]

I guess I'm a little more explicit.

Player: I use Sense Motive to see if that guy is lying.
Me: If he's lying, he's a pretty good liar and you can't tell.

Player: I roll Spot to see if there's a monster lurking in the bushes.
Me: If there's something there, it's hiding so well you can't spot it.
or
Me: If there's a monster there, his hide is better than your spot.

Player: I'm going to use Search to check the door for traps.
Me: If it's trapped, you didn't notice it.

I like to use the following:

*roll behind screen a few times*
then quietly pretend to talk to yourself and say "Oh My"

Turn to the player and say "You are fairly certain that..."

[atemu1234]

I once put the party in a locked room, with nothing inside it but a strange ebony skull with ruby eyes on a darkwood pole in the center of the room.

Everyone had to roll will saves. Those who failed entered the effects of Rage (and couldn't end it voluntarily), and attacked the other PCs.

Within four rounds, the Warblade had killed everyone but the rogue.

[sjeshin]

This might be more total lack of system mastery / knowledge, but I had a DM that said rounds in his game took 1 minute... 1 round of combat = 1 minute... With no changes to duration of spells, abilities, or how often they can be used. Oh, and undead can't be flanked... (for the +2 to hit, obv they are immune to sneak attack.)

[Spore]

This might be more total lack of system mastery / knowledge, but I had a DM that said rounds in his game took 1 minute... 1 round of combat = 1 minute... With no changes to duration of spells, abilities, or how often they can be used. Oh, and undead can't be flanked... (for the +2 to hit, obv they are immune to sneak attack.)

I hope s/he is very beautiful. :smallwink:

[Bronk]

This might be more total lack of system mastery / knowledge, but I had a DM that said rounds in his game took 1 minute... 1 round of combat = 1 minute... With no changes to duration of spells, abilities, or how often they can be used. Oh, and undead can't be flanked... (for the +2 to hit, obv they are immune to sneak attack.)

Sounds like they were confusing 3.5 rules with AD&D rules for the round thing... I have no idea where the undead thing came from though, so maybe same for that?

[sjeshin]

I hope s/he is very beautiful. :smallwink:

Nope. Left that game immediately. He asked me how long my shield spell had left, "and remember rounds are 1 minute long." That's how I found out.

[Nibbens]

I do the exact opposite.

"I roll spot... 4."

"The building is absolutely deserted."

"I haven't even opened the door yet!"

"..."

While not quite rule kosher - I'm a fan of critical fumbles on some skill checks.

"I do sense motive - rolls nat 1"

"He's absolutely lying, you're 100% certain of it."

Aaaand watch the fireworks! lol.

[Spore]

I have no idea where the undead thing came from though, so maybe same for that?

This is just a typical mistake in logical equations: Undead are immune to sneak attacks in D&D 3.5 therefore they are impossible to flank.

[Fitz]

Ran a game for a realtively experienced group of players though not hardcore optimisers

they encountered a red dragon- the cold spells were all thrown at it and it simply laughed

after a long drawn out battle- it finally let the illusion drop and its hide changed to white

one simple sorcerer spell and the party never took anything on face value in my campaigns for some time.

Fitz

[Petrocorus]

I once put the party in a locked room, with nothing inside it but a strange ebony skull with ruby eyes on a darkwood pole in the center of the room.

Everyone had to roll will saves. Those who failed entered the effects of Rage (and couldn't end it voluntarily), and attacked the other PCs.

Within four rounds, the Warblade had killed everyone but the rogue.

Oh my... This is pure evilness.

How did the rogue survived? Were not there some caster to neutralise the Warblade?

[goto124]

Ran a game for a realtively experienced group of players though not hardcore optimisers

they encountered a red dragon- the cold spells were all thrown at it and it simply laughed

after a long drawn out battle- it finally let the illusion drop and its hide changed to white

one simple sorcerer spell and the party never took anything on face value in my campaigns for some time.

Fitz

Another version:
'Prepare to die, white dragon!'
'You racists! I'm an albino red dragon!'

[sjeshin]

This is just a typical mistake in logical equations: Undead are immune to sneak attacks in D&D 3.5 therefore they are impossible to flank.

This isn't true however. Undead can be flanked. Flanking them just does not grant you the ability to sneak attack them.

[Andezzar]

How did the rogue survived? Were not there some caster to neutralise the Warblade?The Warblade followed the SOP "Geek the mage first" I and did not spot well enough to find the hiding rogue suppose.

[Curmudgeon]

I made the end point of the campaign a visit with a deity, who gave the PCs a simple choice: worship her or die. Just one PC converted, and was rewarded with a +1 divine boost to Wisdom. I killed the rest.


When they woke up from their dream the next day, the other PCs were mightily peeved. :smallfurious:

[bekeleven]

While not quite rule kosher - I'm a fan of critical fumbles on some skill checks.

"I do sense motive - rolls nat 1"

"He's absolutely lying, you're 100% certain of it."

Aaaand watch the fireworks! lol.

Just remember: A significant minority of the time, they're right.

A nat 1 doesn't always mean they're wrong, it just means they utterly failed to glean any information that could help. Besides, then you're keeping your players on your toes.

[Ferronach]

I just remembered this thread from a while back! It has a bunch of good ones :) (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?376849-Your-Worst-Deathtraps)

My personaly entry was:

I once started a game and the party almost wiped in the first session.... Instead of starting in a tavern, they started in a shiny metal room 100*100*100. No it was not filled with 1000 gelatinous cubes! I may be cruel but I am not that cruel XD am i?
Anyways. They had no idea how they got there, who the other people were or why they were there. They all had their gear (seemingly untouched). They all woke up with a DC10 unskilled check to a low humming sound and a faint vibration in the floor.
If they moved within 5 feet of a wall, the wall became the new floor (think of the gravity shifting to that wall). The humming and vibration was the result of the room shrinking by 5 feet a minute.
There were no visible doors or secret ones. Each wall (including the current roof and floor) had "Waste Disposal" written in big easy to read letters on it.

To solve the room all they had to do was jump higher than 5 feet, causing them to slowly float to the centre of the cube (the centre does not move but all six walls do to create the shrinking effect). Once no weight was detected on any of the "floors" the disposal system would reset by teleporting everything in it to a "land fill." This works because the room would compact anything until all walls were within 4 feet of eachother (depending on the compressibility of whatever is in the cube at that time) causing whatever was in it to be pulled in all directions at once by gravity, thus compacting it and causing it to no longer touch any of the walls (can happen with any size of cube provided the substance in it is no longer compressible).

The party finally figured it out with 3 minutes to spare when one of the charcters tried to throw something to another one on a different wall.
It actually turned out to be a very fun room, especially when everyone was running around on different walls looking for a door of some sort.

and then there was this one from a different thread :P

Players fell down a long smooth shaft (ha-ha you dirty minded individuals) They landed in a short tunnel with a door at either end.
At one end was a rotten old wooden door (unlocked).
At the other, was a shiny methal door covered in runes (some magical and some not) that was very much locked.

The party didn't bat an eye and went straight for the shiny door because "better door = better loot"
They went through the door and encountered a colossal dragon that had been chained in that dungeon for a very long time. Needless to say he was hungry and angry and decided to toast and eat the six man party of level 12s....

Had they read the runes on the door they would have encountered a big warning about not entering and such. The unlocked wooden door (they didn't even check to see if it was un/locked) would have lead them to a friendly dwarven village where they were to get their next quest....

I just came to the conclusion that as a DM I am a jerk....

[YossarianLives]

I once had my PCs cross a hallway where everything was a trap. No seriously, everything.


They did not have a rogue.

[Ferronach]

I once had my PCs cross a hallway where everything was a trap. No seriously, everything.


They did not have a rogue.

the whole hallway was one trap or everything and every surface had multuple traps?

[Segev]

I once had my PCs cross a hallway where everything was a trap. No seriously, everything.


They did not have a rogue.

The correct response to this is to find a kobold or goblin and bowl it down the hallway.

[goto124]

Or kender.

[atemu1234]

Or kender.

If your DM allows Kender, that's sadism in and of itself.

[goto124]

I imagined NPC Kender... may still apply though.

[Raidho]

I once ran what my players like to call "the Die Hard session". They had a limited amount of time to find an NPC they were fond of and rescue him, following clues scattered scavenger-hunt style around the city. The places they got their clues ranged from as prosaic as the bad guy had handed some kids playing soccer the clue and bribed them with ice cream to wait for the party, to written in blood inside a burning orphanage.

They eventually realized that the NPC was out at the city mausoleum sealed in a tomb, and their set time limit directly correlated to how much air he had. They were given no clues as to which tomb. When they arrived they split up, and the ranger ran into the villain responsible disguised as a professional mourner. The ranger, who was far too high level for this to work, failed the save against sanctuary and stood there quaking with rage as the villain revealed himself, mononlogued, and then calmly walked away.

When they retrieved their NPC he was still alive but barely, and had a new template applied by the villains.

I know I've done worse but that's my favorite.

[Ferronach]

a new template applied by the villains.

I know I've done worse but that's my favorite.

Which template?

[Raidho]

Which template?

Modified Shadow Creature out of Lords of Madness. I don't have the exact modifications on hand as this was an older campaign and I've moved several times since then. Within the game this was treated as a gradual corruption, and would eventually place any character with the template under the villains' control.

[j_spencer93]

Strangely I think my players would say, The time i made Hercules a bar keep. One had one player who literally assaulted him, when he struck back, the party pounced. Put one through the wall. Stomped on another's head until he stopped trying to cast spells. And the thief tried running away and was hit by a thrown table.
Was really strange, he was meant to help the party but they just wouldn't quit assaulting him. They even tried stabbing him.

Another time would be when a stranger constructed a tower to test their abilities, and when they got to the top the giant player got mad at the trials and tried choking the stranger...who was Asmodeus in disguise. Well since the player wouldn't quit even after being restraint once, i just let all hell loose on them.

One time that was just spiteful, they party was being a bunch of A-holes and just taking anything they wanted. Supposed to be good characters and we were in a norse campaign, well they were also strong and renowned. So i sent a valkyrie to collect them...they were like level 5. A barbarian, a fighter and a kobold sorcerer.

[Ferronach]

Modified Shadow Creature out of Lords of Madness. I don't have the exact modifications on hand as this was an older campaign and I've moved several times since then. Within the game this was treated as a gradual corruption, and would eventually place any character with the template under the villains' control.

how devious of you! I approve :)

[FocusWolf413]

I played a game where the dm made us choose our race and class, THEN roll 3d6 in order.

[GilesTheCleric]

I played a game where the dm made us choose our race and class, THEN roll 3d6 in order.

I really hope that dungeons, lewt, and creatures were also all randomly generated (with no respect to party ECL) to complete the theme? Otherwise, that might be the cruelest thing I've seen in this thread. "Want to be a bog-standard fighter? Well, good luck with waiting until level four to pick up power attack with that 12 str, and you'll never be able to get combat reflexes without a magic item since your dex is 9. But hey, at least you can cross-class UMD like a champ with 16 int and wis, so that makes up for it!" It's like second edition all over again, although at least you're not barred from even taking certain classes at all.

Does rogue become the only viable class in this system? Its damage is all built in, and it doesn't have to have feats with ability score reqs. Losing the stereotypical twf isn't nice, but with natural attacks and snap kick (afb, I think it has no prereqs) that can be replaced.

[RolkFlameraven]

I played a game where the dm made us choose our race and class, THEN roll 3d6 in order.

Not even 4D6 drop the lowest just straight up 3D6? Wow... that's just wow... May I ask just how long that campaign lasted before a TPK or just a massive walk out/book toss?

[Demidos]

I played a game where the dm made us choose our race and class, THEN roll 3d6 in order.

DM: What do you mean you're all playing warlocks?

(You have the DPS clawlock, the BFC glaivelock, the utility/BFC shatter/black tentacles-lock, and the scout/healer/skillmonkey (roles subject to slight changes based on rolls).

Bonus points if you then branch out into the PRC classes that actually fit your rolls (could get some anima mage in there, as well as Hellfire warlock and...this could be kinda fun. Of course it could be done more normal too, but it might be an interesting change of pace if the players agreed to it.)

[j_spencer93]

I do the exact opposite.

"I roll spot... 4."

"The building is absolutely deserted."

"I haven't even opened the door yet!"

"..."

My players are horrible about searching and spotting. They do it at the wrong time. For example, once they decided to search a room, standing outside of it. So all they found was a door, and instead they got angry walked straight in and fell into a trap. They don't understand skills to well.

Another great example, their was a small hole in the door. One clever PC thought it might be a trap so he looked into it, saw nothing. Figured darkness covered trap. Never bothered the door again. It was a freaking key hole to the next level.

Another great one, a player walked up to a door (this temple made the tomb of horrors traps look nice, plus some fun ones) and grabbed the handle.

Another player yelled at him to be careful. He responded what is the worst that can happen, it punch me? Funny thing is, that is exactly what happened.

Personal favorite was them throwing their PC friend into a gate to hell because he was turning into a vampire. Well later they meet the extremely POed fiendish vampire. He did not take to kindly to their "cure".

Another one where honestly i was just having way to much fun with creating animated objects was a minotaur punching this boat to stop a pirate from leaving port. The boat however was magical, extremely magical, and actually the main BBEG. He really didn't know what to do as the boat repaired itself, alerted every NPC on it, and started to fight back.

[FocusWolf413]

That was a really fun game, but it was just brutal. Everyone but the warlock (me) was severely underpowered, and I had a 16 in dex and charisma. The DM was great and everyone was really into it, but someone died every session. It really teaches people to think creatively when they only have 10 hit points at 4th level.

[martixy]

Lol. I have a phrase my players learned to dread in regards to Sense Motive..."You trust him implicitly".
Lol, no.
I've seen DMs make this error time and time again.
Unless the character is under magical compulsion the worst you can do is "you can't find a single reason not to believe him".


My story was... well part stupidity on our end, part DM.

He had us chasing a MBBEG(moderately "big") through several portals.

We caught him. He didn't "manage" to get through the last portal.

We did.
The entire party.
At the same time.
Into an active volcano.

...
The story continued:
Meanwhile in an parallel universe...

[goto124]

My players are horrible about searching and spotting. They do it at the wrong time. For example, once they decided to search a room, standing outside of it. So all they found was a door, and instead they got angry walked straight in and fell into a trap. They don't understand skills to well.

Another great example, their was a small hole in the door. One clever PC thought it might be a trap so he looked into it, saw nothing. Figured darkness covered trap. Never bothered the door again. It was a freaking key hole to the next level.

Both sound like instances of poor DM-player communciation, especially the second one. Why was it described as 'a hole in the door' instead of 'a keyhole'? It would've been obvious in real life, or in a visual medium.

[Deophaun]

Deck of Many Things

Four dead PCs later...

[Rising Phoenix]

My...level 4 party released the elder god Buon (portfolio: nightmares and fever dreams) into reality (he was originally restricted to dreams)

Now they have to save the world from the oncoming apocalypse...but how can they be sure that what they are seeing is real? :smallamused:

[Azoth]

One of my most sadistic streaks had to have been designing a descending 21 floor dungeon that was designed to bring players from lvl1 to lvl20. It was populated almost entirely by kobolds, monsters with the reptilian template, yuanti, and half dragons of the above. When they reached the final floor they had to take on a Great Wyrm White Dragon that was very angry and had been scrying/remote viewing them the entire run down and his personal guard of high level dragonwrought kobolds. The environment was a mixture of rough stone, large deep pools of almost frozen water, and a high ceiling. This dragon was a buff and smash type primarily using spring attack to pop up from no where, use its superior reach to snatch someone, and retreat back into the water/stone while its minions laud down BFC and vision hampering spells.

Another was a chessboard tiled room full of remains. When the entire party entered the room sealed, and the remains animated. The floor also armed. Black tiles were single target Harm spells, and white tiles were single target Heal spells. Let's play a game!

Those are just two that come to mind. I will think of more later.

[Sith_Happens]

my houserule is that anyone who believes that they are telling the truth has a +40 circumstance bonus on Bluff checks.

This does nothing, someone who thinks they're telling the truth doesn't need to roll Bluff in the first place.


5e, but still something that people should know.

The party had just slain a dragon, with everyone pretty excited about it (they'd never killed one before). Being proper PC's, they immediately started to gather up its hoard. This revealed a bunch of various coins, a +1 sword, a +1 longbow, a potion of Gaseous Form, a +1 leather armor... and a Dress of Armor (mechanically bracers of armor).

The only one in the party who would mechanically benefit from them was the monk. The male monk.

I swear he nearly threw a book at me.

http://i.imgur.com/keMbh.jpg

...Or it would be, if it weren't for my own contribution to this thread:

One of my old DMs, just before the final stretch of the campaign, put the Shield of Wonder (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=16583013&postcount=1) and Sword of Copying (http://www.goblinscomic.org/02072012/) from Goblins in the same loot pile. Except the sword had an additional feature, in the form of a switch used to lock it into its current characteristics.

I tried to warn the rest of the party that the Shield was bad news. I tried to warn them that making the sword into a Sword of Wonder and using them both would lead to disaster. But they didn't listen. A few d100 rolls later and we TPKed against the final boss.

[ahenobarbi]

I made a scout (role, not class) nothing extreme (darkstalker, mindsight (30m), +24 hide & move silently at level 13) because I was fed up with our party being on the receiving end of surprise round all the time.

Two sessions later rule changes happen. No more spot/listen penalties for range

[Petrocorus]

I made a scout (role, not class) nothing extreme (darkstalker, mindsight (30m), +24 hide & move silently at level 13) because I was fed up with our party being on the receiving end of surprise round all the time.

Two sessions later rule changes happen. No more spot/listen penalties for range

How did you acquire telepathy? Mindbender?

[Segev]

I made a scout (role, not class) nothing extreme (darkstalker, mindsight (30m), +24 hide & move silently at level 13) because I was fed up with our party being on the receiving end of surprise round all the time.

Two sessions later rule changes happen. No more spot/listen penalties for range

That's not DM sadism, that's a poor sport.

[ahenobarbi]

How did you acquire telepathy? Mindbender?

Yes. It was Lesser Tiefling (stupid elite array) Factotum 8/ Mindbender 1/ Warblade 1/ Champion of Legacy 3 IIRC.

[Curmudgeon]

Yes. It was Lesser Tiefling (stupid elite array) Factotum 8/ Mindbender 1/ Warblade 1/ Champion of Legacy 3 IIRC.
Well, that obviously required a house rule. Mindbenders require Arcane caster level 5th to enter. Factotums have SLAs rather than spells, so they have a caster level but not an arcane or divine caster level.

[ahenobarbi]

That's not DM sadism, that's a poor sport.

He did it so he could get his surprise rounds back (and continue mauling our characters).

[nedz]

He did it so he could get his surprise rounds back (and continue mauling our characters).

That's just poor DMing.

[nintendoh]

I would like to talk about my very first time playing dnd.

Campaign- world was taken over by the church of Orcus and all magic except for mid to high ranking worshippers was outlawed per sacrifice and had managed to boot the other deities and such. Had to rescue the child of destiny from a gladiator pit where he was fighting a brand new PC. A goliath thf.

My first character - dex based hengyokai winged firesouled swordsage. My first time so i got a free template. Think Holo the white wolf... But more foxy. Doesnt know about the resistance.

Why i cried- my buddy helped me make Holo she was awesome to rp. I set up a merchant booth to sell ale to the spectators and get close to nab the boy, winged remember . i was high enough level to 1 to 2 hit the mooks i wasnt too worried. The local cleric of orcus because he was the one true god now decided to interrogate about a coin with the resistance symbol on it. He new the entire parties names and mentioned there was a resistance movement. I maxed tumble plus the dex so i grabbed the coin and tried to escape to the part leader and tell him what i learned. I rolled a 37 on the tumble check and a 30 on the save. One shot one kill. Local cleric aparently = rod of orcus. Thirty minutes in first game. Body is then animated, possesed and used as a bodyguard for a low rank mid boss later. Btw there was a bar counter inbetween me and cleric. Couldnt roll another character sheet cause i was brand new and would have screwed it up. My body exploded via fire flask.

[Threadnaught]

I made that ******* Druid fight a whole bunch of Dire Rats, 81 in total, and had him kill them individually.
After 5 confirmed kills, I just rolled the d20 during and between turns, until I had a confirmed critical for a Rat's attack.

Eventually he managed to kill 17 of them and got fed up. So all the Rats on the ship suddenly died, that ******* Druid's character had used up all of the necessary abilities to finish the combat and received the necessary XP. Encounter Calculator stated 24300, obviously he couldn't receive the full amount and I took great pleasure in pointing it out to him.

[bekeleven]

I made that ******* Druid fight a whole bunch of Dire Rats, 81 in total, and had him kill them individually.
After 5 confirmed kills, I just rolled the d20 during and between turns, until I had a confirmed critical for a Rat's attack.

Eventually he managed to kill 17 of them and got fed up. So all the Rats on the ship suddenly died, that ******* Druid's character had used up all of the necessary abilities to finish the combat and received the necessary XP. Encounter Calculator stated 24300, obviously he couldn't receive the full amount and I took great pleasure in pointing it out to him.

I do not understand what this story is saying.

You didn't like one of your players so you had his character spend an inordinate amount of time on mind-numbing busywork? And then when he got tired of it, you ended the work because he'd "used up all the necessary abilities" to do it? Then you taunted him because you built a poorly designed encounter?

Am I getting the gist?

[Marlowe]

You forgot the bit where the ******* Druid is apparently a Player, since he has a character.

Of course, having an actual Druid turn up as a player would probably be annoying. They're not likely to share their snacks or put in for pizza.

[Andezzar]

Of course, having an actual Druid turn up as a player would probably be annoying. They're not likely to share their snacks or put in for pizza.Shouldn't a druid provide the snacks for the group from nature's bounty?

[Marlowe]

Nature's bounty can stay in the back yard where it belongs. Malak'ai's cat is bad enough.

It keeps catching geckos from the garden and dumping them, alive, under the table in the middle of the session. Just in case anyone needs to know.

[atemu1234]

Shouldn't a druid provide the snacks for the group from nature's bounty?

The fruit of the Mountain Dew tree?

[Segev]

He did it so he could get his surprise rounds back (and continue mauling our characters).

Like I said: sounds like a bad sport.

Though, um, if there are no penalties for spot/listen over distance, I can see how that would make it so you don't surprise his encounters anymore (i.e., he didn't think turnabout was fair play), but I don't see how that lets him surprise you any better. You now lack the penalties to spot/listen, as well, so can see them coming, can't you?

[Threadnaught]

I do not understand what this story is saying.

You didn't like one of your players so you had his character spend an inordinate amount of time on mind-numbing busywork? And then when he got tired of it, you ended the work because he'd "used up all the necessary abilities" to do it? Then you taunted him because you built a poorly designed encounter?

Am I getting the gist?

Nah, he'd been on a ship as it wrecked on the western shore of the Eldeen Reaches and spent several days just resting so he could heal up.
Circa started it, but I'm having a tough time trying to put an end to his shenanigans, if they don't mess things up, I'll be able to put an end to his meddling and force the party back together.
That ******* Druid, however, decided to allow the party to fracture into three one man parties, by refusing to travel with MetaMyconid's character, who decided to travel into the Eldeen Reaches to do some hunting.

Once that ******* Druid had used each of his Maneuvers twice, he'd already killed nearly a quarter of the rats, so I ended the encounter there.
I taunted him about the XP, because if I'd broken the rules and given him all the XP, he'd be level 7. Level 1-7 in a single encounter? I'm waiving his and Circa's Level Adjustment because they built their characters within the limits that allowed it, his character was ECL5-ish, Crusader1//Knight1, Half-Celestial Human. The rats only had a 25% chance of hitting him, their chance to deal damage through his Damage Reduction, however, was 0.625%, with Crusader's Strike he literally couldn't lose. Even though he complained about being unable to use Crusader's Strike because he still had other Maneuvers to use.
And he complains about being attacked, when he's the only PC to attack. And that Magic Missile isn't resisted by Spell Resistance and Damage Reduction. And that time he stood between an enemy Raging Barbarian and his target, and managed to get KOd (different character). I changed a poison into a potion of Cure Light Wounds because he'd put himself into a position to be attacked by a magic user, without a source of healing, he complained about how his character nearly died.
When the Elder Evils show up, he'll surely find a reason to complain about them.

If he didn't whine so much about every negative thing that happened to his characters, but focused on being more effective, without having a Gazebo moment (http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/98/Jul/gazebo.html), I wouldn't have enjoyed it so much.