Favorite DM moments when dealing with players.

[Barbarian Horde]

Content is restricted to PHB 1 PHB 2 for player creation. I ask a new player to submit his sheet. What I end up looking at on his character sheet was zero content from both sources. Everything was homebrew everything from Dandwiki.

Honestly I didn't know what to say, he was so hyped about his character till I removed like 99% of its abilities.

[Uncle Pine]

I have a player notorious for rolling really low on d20s pretty often, and note that I mean that more than half his rolls are below 6. Years ago, after a couple of adventures in which he consistently missed almost everything despite me not having optimized the monsters' AC in any way, he asked me to build him a character that could hit everything, even if that meant to deal pitiful damage. I decided to build him a Warlock so that he could aim for contact AC of ~10 (most of the time lower than that) while doing respectable damage too. Cue the longest streak of nat 1 I've seen in all my life, as well as 2 and 3 of course.

He's improved since then, so now he either rolls above 15 or below 7.

[atemu1234]

My players were trying to divide up money for pizza. I was broke. One asked me how I was paying, another replies, "He's the DM. He pays in sanity."

[Vhaidara]

Pine, I really thought you were going to say he was rolling d6s.

Honestly, I love my players. They had such terrible system mastery when they started, that I literally had to handhold through creation and early levels (literally, "what's my bonus" kept coming up). Now, they've learned, and I've been able to expand the universe they are in to allow free character swapping and they're bringing me builds almost faster than i can critique them.

this must be what parents feel like.

[ZamielVanWeber]

I have a player notorious for rolling really low on d20s pretty often, and note that I mean that more than half his rolls are below 6.

I have a player whose average roll is about 17-18. We don't know how he does it. It is different dice that we give him and we watch him roll. Of course he once nat 1'd a save vs finger of death (1st roll of the battle). Minimum he needed to pass? 2. Still his ability to crit spam with a +1 scythe is unreal.

[atemu1234]

Pine, I really thought you were going to say he was rolling d6s.

Honestly, I love my players. They had such terrible system mastery when they started, that I literally had to handhold through creation and early levels (literally, "what's my bonus" kept coming up). Now, they've learned, and I've been able to expand the universe they are in to allow free character swapping and they're bringing me builds almost faster than i can critique them.

this must be what parents feel like.

I know the feeling. But I never want children.

[jiriku]

Years ago, I sent the PCs to assist a low-level group of adventurers on an archealogical expedition in a jungle temple. The first party had found a large, valuable statue that was too heavy for them to move. Now, the PCs did not know this, but after sending the request for aid, the group had opened up a new level, released a monstrous extraplanar guardian, been sieged by it during the night, and ultimately been wiped out with only a scattering of survivors fleeing terror-stricken into the jungle. The original party was TPK. En route, my PCs find some mouldering skeletal remains, bootless and with a dislocated ankle, at the bottom of a 20' escarpment. It's the body of one of the adventurers, killed after tripping on a root in the dark and falling off the cliff while fleeing in the middle of the night.

One of my players takes a look at the scene, thinks for about a minute, and then completely Sherlocks the entire setup, intuiting every single damn detail of the entire thing. I had not written this down anywhere nor shared it with anyone, so I know he didn't cop my notes -- he just figured it all out, from that one skeleton, not even having seen the dig site yet. It was brilliant.

[Threadnaught]

Pine, I really thought you were going to say he was rolling d6s.

Silly Keledrath, you can't roll 7s and 15s on a d6.


You can on a d100. :smallamused:



My favourite moments are when I give my players enough rope to hang their characters and they use it to style a fancy noose. And the times where I'll create a given scenario and they'll throw in everything they have, while I panic and look for ways to cheat by adding more than I allowed myself, it turns out they fail to get what they wanted anyway.
They're not stupid, nor are their characters unoptimized (except that ******* Druid's characters). They also try to use their in character abilities in unusual ways to get the most out of what they can do. If my players enjoy a challenge, I win. If they don't autowin roflstomp an encounter and are forced to put thought into their actions, I win even harder.

If that ******* Druid also does something impressive. Too many Gazebo moments.

[Vhaidara]

Silly Keledrath, you can't roll 7s and 15s on a d6.

I meant until then

[Threadnaught]

I meant until then

You're no fun. :smallfrown:

[Shoat]

I love it when players can see beyond the established tropes of creatures and manage to discover whatever troubles/motivates a supposed 'monster' instead of just slaughtering it (since I despise the 'alignment: always X' line in every creature entry and often ignore it).

In my first campaign's first session that resulted in them freeing the (forced into servitude) guardian of the first dungeon and recruiting him as an NPC instead of destroying him. Any stereotypical 'hero' would have been like '****, it's a skeleton, smash it!', but my players actually held back, observed and cared for what it had to say for itself (of course they were careful, still).

Recently I was pleasantly surprised when the players managed to get a peaceful resolution in a conflict between a small human village and a gnoll settlement. I had prepared for both outcomes, but expected the more violent one when 2/4 partymembers (the two who knew more about d&d and the 'usual' lore of what gnolls are) immediately were like 'yeah, gonna go slaughter some monsters'. Luckily the character who was the most naive and innocent also happened to have the fastest overland movement and found the gnolls first, initiating diplomacy and avoiding their slaughter.

I hope that, down the line, they'll treat other apparent villains the same way (questioning why the villain was doing what he was doing and whether he's actually a villain) and also figure out that the same can be true the other way around for some apparent good guys (who may not be through-and-through good after all and might end up doing some backstabbery).

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

I got to watch a TPK when every member of the party - four people - rolled natural 1s to save against Wail of the Banshee.

That was basically in the first combat encounter. Everyone switched sheets with the person across the table from them, changed the name, and that was the new party.

[Pex]

The DM of my previous group, his smile. Seriously. It's that moment when I figure out what his game plan is. It could be benign and helpful to the party, but he likes to have intricate events that don't mean much individually yet when you put them all together you can see the pattern. I get that Aha! moment, mention it, then he gives me this beaming smile. One I fondly remember was when another PC was powering up a Campaign Plot Point magic item he didn't even know he was doing it. It was called the Lantern of Faith. To power it up required the PC to embody the Seven Virtues. Generosity was easy because the PC was always generous, and the first Virtue he embodied. It was when I commented out loud of a great act of Loyalty he demonstrated that it all clicked, and there was the DM's smile.

[Bullet06320]

I had an entire party about to be slaughtered, partially thier fault, partially my fault for making an extremely hard encounter, the party rogue, was at 0 hps after being crited on twice and for his partial action all he could think to do was sing the state farm jingle “like a good neighbor, State Farm is there”
the entire table just stopped dead, and looked at him, I so wish I had video of that moment.
after a min or so, I just yelled to everyone to get out of my house, we calling it a night now. it was good place to stop anyways
the next session resumed exactly where we left off, after thinking on it, I devised a plan. I made the rogue roll a perform sing check, which he passed, simple DC 10. that's when a mercane popped in, and time stopped except for the rogue. the mercane said there is a mistake in the paperwork, it appears you don't have a policy with us, but I can refer you to a sales agent if you would like purchase a policy from us.
the whole table bursts out laffing, now in our world we have multiversal insurance agency that sells policies to adventurers, lol

[Uncle Pine]

Pine, I really thought you were going to say he was rolling d6s.
Sometimes I wish it was like that.


Another one I experienced, this time as a player, happened when we were clearing an underground cave complex of a tribe of lupins. Boss battle: the lupin chief is surrounded by a magical impenetrable glowing sphere, doing a ritual that summons other lupins every 2-3 rounds out of 3 magical portals around the sphere. We kill some mooks and then one of the other players realizes that we can enter the portals by sticking an arm into one. As I was playing as "the Great and Powerful Korg" (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?195049-Help-Me-Be-Annoying-with-a-Barbarian-Wizard) (a half-orc Barbarian with mental abilities scores of 8 or lower with 2 ranks in Spellcraft and a bunch of crazy magic items and Fearless Destiny who thinks he is the best Wizard there is), the following exchange occurs:
Me - Wait! You listen Korg: you smash big flying magic crystal at the end of long corridor from which wolves men come out! (Note that we had no hints on the content of the portal, I was simply spouting things about magical random improbable stuff like every powerful "Wizard" does)
Everyone then looks at me in a really weird way. Especially the DM.
Other player 1 - What the hell are you talking about? What corridor? What crystal?
Other player 2 - And why should the lupins come out of the crystal?
Other player 3 - Dude, you watch too many films.
I shrug and we move on. So the player enters the portal, only to find himself at one end of... a long narrow upward slope between two cliffs. A floating red crystal pulsing with power can be seen at the end of it. During the following round, a lupin is summoned by the crystal.
And this is why I am no longer allowed to spoil the DM's plot. Even by accident. :smallamused:

[gooddragon1]

I have a player notorious for rolling really low on d20s pretty often, and note that I mean that more than half his rolls are below 6. Years ago, after a couple of adventures in which he consistently missed almost everything despite me not having optimized the monsters' AC in any way, he asked me to build him a character that could hit everything, even if that meant to deal pitiful damage. I decided to build him a Warlock so that he could aim for contact AC of ~10 (most of the time lower than that) while doing respectable damage too. Cue the longest streak of nat 1 I've seen in all my life, as well as 2 and 3 of course.

He's improved since then, so now he either rolls above 15 or below 7.

Dragonfire Adept. Should have built him a dragonfire adept. The breath weapon forces a reflex save. He doesn't roll anything but damage (okay, maybe incorporeal miss chance but that's about it).

[GreyBlack]

Dragonfire Adept. Should have built him a dragonfire adept. The breath weapon forces a reflex save. He doesn't roll anything but damage (okay, maybe incorporeal miss chance but that's about it).

And I'm sure he'd still miss somehow.

OT: My DM is currently running us through the Temple of Elemental Evil (adapted to Pathfinder). One of our players decided to try and run an Antipaladin. Fairly early in the adventure, there is an encounter with a low level cleric, 2 gnolls, and a butt ton of skeletons. Rather than kill the Cleric, the antipaladin decided to grapple her, convince her to join the party, and begin using her position in the cult towards his own ends. He currently is using her as a cohort (and consort), and taking Vile Leadership. Our DM was completely unprepared for a player deciding to try and recruit the cult rather than destroy them, but rolled with it mercifully.

The antipaladin also decided to sacrifice the party cleric (not the cohort) for some sweet armor, but that's another story.

[Vhaidara]

The antipaladin also decided to sacrifice the party cleric (not the cohort) for some sweet armor, but that's another story.

This is why friends don't let friends play antipaladins: self preservation.

[fishyfishyfishy]

Here's something from a thread I made a while back.


In my most recent game session one of my players did something totally unexpected, and not 100% supported by the rules. It was so great that I had to work out something.

The PCs recently defeated an old enemy of theirs in combat. This enemy was a Lich Druid. They managed to track down and retrieve his phylactory as well. This is where the interesting bit happened...The Artificer asked me "can I use my Retain Essence feature to destroy the Phylactory?" :smallamused: "Yes you can" I say. "Cool, I'm going too use the XP to enhance my sword with some new properties" he says. :smallbiggrin:

I talked with him separate from the group and we decided that the soul of the Lich would be imbued in the sword making it an intelligent item with the personality of the Lich. He's excited because it's much more powerful than he hoped for and I'm exited because this just screams for exploration.

Anyone have any similar stories?


Thread link (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?403455-When-your-players-hand-you-a-big-juicy-plot-hook-on-a-silver-platter) if anyone is interested in reading it. Word of warning: it may be necromancy to post there.

[Talar]

So I was running RHoD for some people, and the one player was running a factotum, who for some reason had a cape of the mountebank, and some goblin bane arrows. He developed this tactic of Dim Dooring next to goblinoid casters and such and using the arrows as melee weapons in a grapple. Essentially going "SURPRISE ARROW TO THE BACK!" (Yes I know RAW this was not quite possible, but I allowed it cause I run dim door more along the lines of older editions) Anyway, he went to this particular well once too many times. In the fight with Kharn, who I had restatted, he tried this trick with Kharn cause no one was really getting to him in anyway. The look on his face when I had Kharn cast Benign Transposition with a nearby Skullcrusher Ogre was priceless as he realized he was now 20 feet in the air holding onto an ogre.

In that same campaign, the look on the party wizard's face as I told him the amount of damage the Razorfiend did to him was great, it was their first encounter with them too, and as a sidenote I love Greenspawn Razorfiends.

[bean illus]

((one time at band camp))

One of my boys was about 8 years old and learning the game. I think we were in 1st level, and he always loved to play half-orc barbarians back then.

In the midst of a hit-n-run skirmish (that the party could have avoided) with a hundred orcs outside the cave, and the party doing a fairly good job of using the terrain to keep the mob channeled all on one side of the party. The dwarf cleric already dead.

The barbarian slips, and falls off the cliff into the river (which i sorta manufactured to avoid a TPK). He looks around and sees some rocks and some fish. Says "I'm hungry" Then spends a round swinging his great axe at the fish (who have a very low armor class, and fall to his rage). lol

The remaining party members take the hint and jump into the river, where they then float downstream and fight a few orcs that followed and escape.

[Kurt Kurageous]

If you want more of something, reward it. Less, don't. My most memorable and best DM lived by this rule.

DMG 5e pg.260 (and other systems as well) uses the word "defeat" as the verb that triggers the XP reward. Loosen up your definition of defeat some.

Consider a defeat to be a state where one side contested another using abilities/feats or just plain good role playing skills, resulting in an end to the contest. This would mean you could award full or partial XP any time you use a skill that is actively opposed by a NPC/monster. Such as:

Haggling and buying below market price. Honorably evading your pursuers. Negotiating an unlikely truce.

How much XP? Made up on the spot. Need a rule? Could depend on the estimated permanence of the defeat (from the defeated party's perspective) times the loss level of the defeated. Baseline case death is 100% permanent (can't raise yourself) to losing 100% control of yourself. From there, we can go down to losing foreseeably forever a valuable item/ability/asset for less XP.

So negotiating a 20% discount below expected selling price is 20% of the percentage value of the item times the seller's inventory times the seller's XP value if you had just murdered them.

So much for staying in topic.

(Kurt casts Improved Insignificance on self) >>..bwip..<<

[Keltest]

My favorite things for players to do are creative an unusual strategies.

For example, one session saw the party ambushed by orcs. One player was in the middle of combat when he suddenly shouts, in character...

"Wait! Im worth more to you dead than alive!"

It confused the heck out of the DM, who decided that the poor orcs, being of lesser intelligence, would have no idea what to make of that and would be stunned for a couple rounds trying to figure out what the heck he was doing.

[illyahr]

When I DM, I frequently run the game based on Rule of Cool/Funny. I will frequently reward my players with outcomes that should not or could not be possible if they come up with a creative way to solve an issue.

I will also penalize them with ridiculous outcomes if they act stupidly or seriously botch their rolls.

At one point, a player was using a spell that allowed him to swallow an opponent whole. Another player was throwing an enchanted dagger at another target and botched the roll so I decided it ended up getting swallowed by the first player.

It was a returning dagger.

Players: :smalleek:
Me: :smallamused:

[Keltest]

When I DM, I frequently run the game based on Rule of Cool/Funny. I will frequently reward my players with outcomes that should not or could not be possible if they come up with a creative way to solve an issue.

I will also penalize them with ridiculous outcomes if they act stupidly or seriously botch their rolls.

At one point, a player was using a spell that allowed him to swallow an opponent whole. Another player was throwing an enchanted dagger at another target and botched the roll so I decided it ended up getting swallowed by the first player.

It was a returning dagger.

Players: :smalleek:
Me: :smallamused:

So wait, what? Did it come back covered in magic stomach juices or something?

[illyahr]

So wait, what? Did it come back covered in magic stomach juices or something?

Let's just say that, with the current spell being what it was, the dagger kept going. :smallamused:

[Keltest]

Let's just say that, with the current spell being what it was, the dagger kept going. :smallamused:

Oh. Eww. Also, ow.

[Flickerdart]

I got to watch a TPK when every member of the party - four people - rolled natural 1s to save against Wail of the Banshee.

That was basically in the first combat encounter. Everyone switched sheets with the person across the table from them, changed the name, and that was the new party.
This is why I don't like using SoDs/SoLs - either it does nothing, or some of the players don't get to play for that session (outside of favourable circumstances like paying the revivify or break enchantment tax).

My favourite DM moment was when my PCs infiltrated the necromancer's lair posing as dark clerics, and continued the charade for the remainder of the campaign because he turned out to be a genuinely nice guy who just happened to have a bunch of undead skulking around.

[LoyalPaladin]

I've got two moments that I hold dearly to me.

The first, one of my players was playing a lawful neutral samurai. He was fighting an illithid and had been grappled, he looks me in the eyes and says "If I stab myself through with my blade, will you guarantee me a Natural 20 double crit on the monster as an immediate action." I laughed and said "Only if you take a Natural 20 double crit in the process." Which at our table is essentially a table for rolling two 20s in a row. Now let me preface this a little. I was being a total devil, this monster had 3 hit points left and had taken a huge beating. So he rolls the double crit on the illithid and himself, without any hesitation! He gets "Puncture heart, immediate death." on the illithid and "Spine ruined, left side of body totally paralyzed." That was a proud day for me as a DM. My players finally learned to role play with honor.

My second, was actually done by my little sister. She was playing a changeling barbarian named Sonya Graysong in a version of Ravenloft meant for level 15ish. After fighting a lich, armies of undead, and a dracolich the party was nearly dead. They had three unconcious players, one dead, and two barely standing. So as per usual, Strahd is watching from the distance. I have them roll the spot check and she rolls a Nat 20 for a total of 32, so she sees them. My little sister, says "I charge Strahd." and the whole table erupts. The half healthed Changeling was going to fight Strahd. After much yelling the table quiets down and I have Strahd engage in a murderfest, or so I thought. She gets up there, beats initiative. Rolls two Nat 20s on her first attack that she power attacked for 10. I laugh because undead don't take critical damage. But she just keeps going. 2 more Nat 20s and Strahd is down to around 20 health. So he gets his turn, rolls a 1. Loses all his attacks. She gets to her turn. Two more Nat 20s. Boom. Gaseous form, Sonya wins. That is the only time I have seen six natural 20s in a roll.

Moral of the story? Players never cease to amaze me.

[Der_DWSage]

A while ago, I ran an E6 campaign through the World's Largest Dungeon. Some of the monsters were kept mostly the same, so that there were things to legitimately fear and avoid-but one of them the party wanted to kill was the Rakshasa. And to that end, they'd found a book that happened to detail his weakness. 'Only a weapon made of Sandalwood, blessed by the divine and piercing the lion's heart can end the cruelty that looms in the heart of these cruel flesh-eaters.'

This was immediately followed by them going through half the things they'd found in the dungeon beforehand-a king's bed of sandalwood that they broke down for spears and crossbow bolts, a weapon rack that teleported and blessed equipment, going to the Fire Giants to use their tools to finish the weapons...a culmination in many of the things they'd learned and acquired. Just one of those moments that felt great, to me.

[Kurt Kurageous]

I've got two moments that I hold dearly to me.

The first, one of my players was playing a lawful neutral samurai. He was fighting an illithid and had been grappled, he looks me in the eyes and says "If I stab myself through with my blade, will you guarantee me a Natural 20 double crit on the monster as an immediate action." I laughed and said "Only if you take a Natural 20 double crit in the process." Which at our table is essentially a table for rolling two 20s in a row. Now let me preface this a little. I was being a total devil, this monster had 3 hit points left and had taken a huge beating. So he rolls the double crit on the illithid and himself, without any hesitation! He gets "Puncture heart, immediate death." on the illithid and "Spine ruined, left side of body totally paralyzed." That was a proud day for me as a DM. My players finally learned to role play with honor.

My second, was actually done by my little sister. She was playing a changeling barbarian named Sonya Graysong in a version of Ravenloft meant for level 15ish. After fighting a lich, armies of undead, and a dracolich the party was nearly dead. They had three unconcious players, one dead, and two barely standing. So as per usual, Strahd is watching from the distance. I have them roll the spot check and she rolls a Nat 20 for a total of 32, so she sees them. My little sister, says "I charge Strahd." and the whole table erupts. The half healthed Changeling was going to fight Strahd. After much yelling the table quiets down and I have Strahd engage in a murderfest, or so I thought. She gets up there, beats initiative. Rolls two Nat 20s on her first attack that she power attacked for 10. I laugh because undead don't take critical damage. But she just keeps going. 2 more Nat 20s and Strahd is down to around 20 health. So he gets his turn, rolls a 1. Loses all his attacks. She gets to her turn. Two more Nat 20s. Boom. Gaseous form, Sonya wins. That is the only time I have seen six natural 20s in a roll.

Moral of the story? Players never cease to amaze me.

What makes me sad is that it seems that epic improbability in die-rolling (1.56 x10^-6) is what made this memorable, whereas it might have been just a sad story otherwise. My heart says that moment was the time for a DM to make a lifelong player out of the youngster by allowing some unknown special demigod or god to take pity on her. That DM rolls the "results" behind their screen, ignores the dice while describing epic unexpected outcomes, and guarantees a memorable session and a lifelong player.

I mean no offense, and I know I'm out of turn. But we are playing a fantasy game, after all. Please don't slay me for saying so.

[Draco_Lord]

What makes me sad is that it seems that epic improbability in die-rolling (1.56 x10^-6) is what made this memorable, whereas it might have been just a sad story otherwise. My heart says that moment was the time for a DM to make a lifelong player out of the youngster by allowing some unknown special demigod or god to take pity on her. That DM rolls the "results" behind their screen, ignores the dice while describing epic unexpected outcomes, and guarantees a memorable session and a lifelong player.

I mean no offense, and I know I'm out of turn. But we are playing a fantasy game, after all. Please don't slay me for saying so.

I don't understand your point. The PC did the insane rolling, and won! That is awesome for them! I mean, if they didn't roll like that, who knows what would have happened. But they did, and should have the win. (Even if as a DM i'm always sad when my villains did like that.)

[Kurt Kurageous]

I don't understand your point. The PC did the insane rolling, and won! That is awesome for them! I mean, if they didn't roll like that, who knows what would have happened. But they did, and should have the win. (Even if as a DM i'm always sad when my villains did like that.)

I agree, 6x20 is awesome. Awesome luck. And it's a good story. But the DM needed that luck as much as the players. DMs should never rely on luck to move the story.

Somewhere in some suburban spare bedroom, the playes and DM are gathered around a beige card table surrounded by empty pizza boxes, red Solo cups, and three liter soda tankards. Voices are hushed. It's the finale, but it looks like a TPK is inevitable. One player is on their phone (PC dead) texting the cleric PC, the players controlling the 'casters are down to 'trips and looking at spell descriptions vainly for an answer. The rogue PC is looking for the exit, PC of the cleric is figuring out who they might be able to carry behind a rock to cast last CLW, etc. Suddenly, the(probably) inexperienced player running a supporting cast member in possibly their very first session declares they will put it all on the line to save the day with a +1 shortsword. Gales of laughter and knowing looks are exchanged. Undaunted the lass looks defiant at her big brother, the DM, who...

That's the story, that's the moment, that's my point. Why risk blowing such an epic moment with a game mechanic (rolling dice)?

[Uncle Pine]

Moral of the story? Players never cease to amaze me.

No! No! NO! Moral of the story is fumble rules get players on wheelchairs and kill your awesome BBEG! DON'T use fumble rules!

[Draco_Lord]

I agree, 6x20 is awesome. Awesome luck. And it's a good story. But the DM needed that luck as much as the players. DMs should never rely on luck to move the story.

Somewhere in some suburban spare bedroom, the playes and DM are gathered around a beige card table surrounded by empty pizza boxes, red Solo cups, and three liter soda tankards. Voices are hushed. It's the finale, but it looks like a TPK is inevitable. One player is on their phone (PC dead) texting the cleric PC, the players controlling the 'casters are down to 'trips and looking at spell descriptions vainly for an answer. The rogue PC is looking for the exit, PC of the cleric is figuring out who they might be able to carry behind a rock to cast last CLW, etc. Suddenly, the(probably) inexperienced player running a supporting cast member in possibly their very first session declares they will put it all on the line to save the day with a +1 shortsword. Gales of laughter and knowing looks are exchanged. Undaunted the lass looks defiant at her big brother, the DM, who...

That's the story, that's the moment, that's my point. Why risk blowing such an epic moment with a game mechanic (rolling dice)?

Ah, gotcha. More of a "If Things Were Reversed" Kind of situation. Fair enough.

[LoyalPaladin]

I agree, 6x20 is awesome. Awesome luck. And it's a good story. But the DM needed that luck as much as the players. DMs should never rely on luck to move the story.
I agree that DMs should never design their plot to rely on luck. Strahd only attacks if directly interacted with. So that is entirely a player based choice. Luck would have been if I threw Strahd into the battle after they died and said "Good luck!"


<awesome sub plot>
This made me grin. I should probably point out that my sister is not exactly new to D&D. Sonya was her third character.


That's the story, that's the moment, that's my point. Why risk blowing such an epic moment with a game mechanic (rolling dice)?
I sort of disagree here, not to kindle an argument. But that is the sort of moment that should have killed them all. They were against all odds and had no chance of a victory. But luck and tenacity won them the day. That changeling had a pretty nasty body count to begin with and she wasn't showing signs of letting that number stop as she began to swing her +3 Large Heavy Flail. I'm not a ruthless DM, but my players know that I don't pull my punches with monsters. I think it is important for D&D to lack certain safety nets. If I saved them every time they tried something epic, then why would they not go crazy all the time?


No! No! NO! Moral of the story is fumble rules get players on wheelchairs and kill your awesome BBEG! DON'T use fumble rules!
Hahahaha.

[Kurt Kurageous]

No! No! NO! Moral of the story is fumble rules get players on wheelchairs and kill your awesome BBEG! DON'T use fumble rules!

You are right, I bow to your wisdom. (Snicker, giggle, chortle) I never liked fumble, means 10% of die rolls (combined with auto hit for 20) are not skill based.

[DJroboninja]

Just last week, the party encountered a huge, berserk water elemental in an underground ruin. The elemental was wrecking them with slam attacks, left and right, when the druid asks: "...can I use summon nature's ally to summon a shark inside the elemental?"

The table went silent.

Maybe the elemental should have blocked line of effect. Maybe the shark being inside of it would only hinder the party, not help them. But I didn't care, I thought it was the best idea ever and totally ran with it -- the following round, the elemental was filled with glowing green light and a giant shark popped into existence and began snapping its jaws and tearing the creature apart from within, while the party did their best to strike at the elemental without hurting their new shark buddy.

Easily one of the highlights of the campaign so far, and I have the sinking suspicion that "can I summon a shark in it?" will be the party's go-to combat maneuver for the foreseeable future...