Worst in game tactical decision you have seen?

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Maybe I'm trying to learn from others before I pull a few off myself lol.

So far I have had Phantasmal Force nerfed maybe correctly by a DM when I thought it would be funny to make a Drow Queen think she had a poisonous spider web stuck over her head.

Our Wizard has set fire to a few things but nothing terrible.

Oh, and there was the immovable rod up the bottom of a Balor which required a natural 20 and wouldn't you know it, said Wizard hit it. Maybe in honor of the audacity and natural 20 combo, the DM even ruled the rod held the Balor in place (the wizard still died!)

What horrible or humorous tactical decisions have you all seen or made?

[Shulk]

My party leader rushing ahead and flipping a lever EVEN THOUGH I told the party that doing so might flood the room we're in, Then being mad at me afterwards when I get mad at him, and not giving me one of his spare healing potions when I have almost no health and no spell slots, and our party THEN refusing to take any long rests.

Life as a bard is really damn hard

[Roshino]

My party leader rushing ahead and flipping a lever EVEN THOUGH I told the party that doing so might flood the room we're in, Then being mad at me afterwards when I get mad at him, and not giving me one of his spare healing potions when I have almost no health and no spell slots, and our party THEN refusing to take any long rests.

Life as a bard is really damn hard

Our half-orcish barbarian with the rage immortality syndrome receives flight during a battle which was us against an ENTIRE garrison of dwarvish soldiers that was expecting us after we used an earth elemental as a siege weapon (long story). He decides to fly sky high and triggers over THIRTY heavy crossbow reactions. It was actually hilarious to see his face during the couple of minutes it took for the DM to roll all the to-hit and damage dice. He went down during his turn lol

[Waterdeep Merch]

Tomb of Annihilation, a scaredy-rogue ended up with the alchemist's jug at the end of that crocodile temple thing. He didn't know what it was, and rather than attempt to find out, he chucked it straight off the ledge, shattering it and endangering all of our lives as the whole temple crashed down on us.

This happened relatively recently. We still send pictures of shattered jars to him. Unforgiven.

[PhoenixPhyre]

I had a character who, at level 2, did the following:

* Walked into the den of a sleeping dire yeti (CR 9) when all the rest of the party said "NOPE".
* Yelled in its ear to wake it up.
* Stood there yelling as everyone else tried to drag him out, with several rounds of "the immensely tall beast stands up, looks at you hungrily, stretches" (and more descriptions of just how screwed he was.
* and then was one-shot by the thing and eaten, messily.

The player somehow thought that everything was supposed to be fought, even after several direct OOC and IC reminders that the world isn't leveled for your convenience.

[Armored Walrus]

The player somehow thought that everything was supposed to be fought, even after several direct OOC and IC reminders that the world isn't leveled for your convenience.

I'm guessing that final IC reminder stuck, though.

[PhoenixPhyre]

I'm guessing that final IC reminder stuck, though.

I did narrate the sound as it shelled his lifeless body out of his armor (he was a Paladin) and crunched through the bones with loud smacking sounds. It was much fun.

His next character did knowingly, intentionally, kick down a door that had obvious animated armor guardians tied to it. Because he liked fighting things and got bored easily. That was a much more doable fight, though. He's gotten better since, though.

[Shulk]

I did narrate the sound as it shelled his lifeless body out of his armor (he was a Paladin) and crunched through the bones with loud smacking sounds. It was much fun.

His next character did knowingly, intentionally, kick down a door that had obvious animated armor guardians tied to it. Because he liked fighting things and got bored easily. That was a much more doable fight, though. He's gotten better since, though.

Imagine that guy as your party leader though.


Anyways, same session as my previous post? We followed a little girl into a sewer and got in an illithid ambush, we got half our party grappled by one octopus. We didn't take a single long rest, and all in all, I was starting to consider being passive agressive and not inform party members of traps which I see anymore. Also, another bad decision? Not letting me torch a massive field of fungal growth with a slide trap going into it.

[Armored Walrus]

I can relate to that second example, though. Why are we playing if we're going to run away from everything?

[smcmike]

Fought a dragon.

The campaign was on its last legs due to inertia, and the DM basically asked us what we’d like to do. We, stupidly, said “let’s fight a dragon.” The monk, in particular, thought it would be cool to punch a dragon in the face. I think we thought he would give us something level appropriate.

After tracking a full-grown green dragon to its lair at the bottom of a lake, we were completely out of ideas. We watched the lake for a long time. It didn’t come out.

Out of sheer frustration and boredom, we lit a bonfire and made a lot of noise. As night fell, we got our wish. Campaign over!

[polymphus]

Characters are on a parapet, fighting a climatic battle against the Big Bad. Lightning cracks around them, and an army of demons bashes at the gates below.

The warlock has a Rust Bag of Tricks. In a tense moment, he reaches into it, pulls out a goat and puts it down in front of him facing the the edge of the wall, then encourages it to charge off the side. It falls into the demon horde, gets knocked prone from fall damage, and is immediately eaten.

I still, to this day, have no idea what he was hoping to achieve with that. It didn't feel like a joke -- he seemed to think it was some big play and I've never been able to figure it out.

[Galactkaktus]

I played with a bard that was hit by Melf's acid arrow and the player said something along the lines of hmm i'll go unconcious at the end of my next turn because of the extra damage from that spell. So when her turn comes up she chose to use the spell tasha's hideous laughter and was happy when the enemy failed it's save only to fall unconcious immediatly after that and therby losing concentration for the spell...

[Tiadoppler]

I can relate to that second example, though. Why are we playing if we're going to run away from everything?

I've got a character in my current game who plays a coward. It's awesome and hilarious (because it's entirely IC comedy, not OOC jerk behavior) so he:

> Runs screaming away from the zombies in front, and ends up facing the flanking force by himself.

> Makes himself a target by pleading for his life (rather than continuing to hide with the rest of the group) when facing an orcish patrol.

> Hides behind badly injured party members rather than risk taking a single hit himself.

[Unoriginal]

Didn't happen in 5e, but I've seen a guy trying to stab a Death Knight with a dagger. When he (the PC) was alone. While in front of the Death Guard's allies. As a Sorcerer.


I've also seen a guy charge an hobgoblin chief alone, then try to escape throw burning arena stands, jump in the moat, and not understanding how the moat killed him "without chief". Notable because it was lvl 1 and literally the first fight of the campaign.

[MadBear]

I had a character who, at level 2, did the following:

* Walked into the den of a sleeping dire yeti (CR 9) when all the rest of the party said "NOPE".
* Yelled in its ear to wake it up.
* Stood there yelling as everyone else tried to drag him out, with several rounds of "the immensely tall beast stands up, looks at you hungrily, stretches" (and more descriptions of just how screwed he was.
* and then was one-shot by the thing and eaten, messily.

The player somehow thought that everything was supposed to be fought, even after several direct OOC and IC reminders that the world isn't leveled for your convenience.

While it seems that he had ample warning, I will say that in my campaigns:

- I don't have many fights that are impossible for the PC's to overcome.
- The reason for this is simply, my group is there to kick back, relax, and be heroes. Nothing screams hero less then. Oh, another encounter, better run from it.

That doesn't mean that the PC's never encounter foes/things that are more powerful then them. I just usually will cut scene is "In the distance as you walk through the fields, you see a dragon larger then any beast you've ever encountered, dive downwards into the murky forest below. You hear an odd sound as fire lights up that section of forest. Breaking through the trees the dragon reappears with two horses in it's talons as it continues on eastward towards the mountains".

I'm not saying your way is wrong (far from it, since you know, different strokes for different folks and all that). But some players don't find games where you need to figure out if the enemy is beatable and to flee if not as fun as a game where you get to knock down doors and kick butt.

(all that said, if they insisted on tracking and visiting said dragons lair, they'll get what they asked for. Which in this case would be fun new characters to make after they're horrible eaten).

[MeeposFire]

IN an ancient Giant's temple there is a giant green glowing smoking door surrounded by the bones of previous humanoid victims my sister has her roguish character just walk up and open it. Did not look for traps just opened the door. She died via wail of Banshee trap. Hilarious but wow none of us could believe she did that I even gave her a second chance to not open it but she went up and did it. Nobody else was paying close enough attention at the time to stop since they all assumed she was going to search since that was one of her jobs.

She had to be reincarnated came back as an half orc with a snaggle tooth.

[BBQ Pork]

(2E) A Hasted Assassin-type Rogue wearing Boots of Speed, running at full tilt during a battle (In the Underdark, with variable lighting) when a Mage was dropping Wall Of Force like it was going out of style.

*smack*
As DM, I assigned damage, and included that he broke his nose.

[DarkKnightJin]

2 examples so far, fairly new player both times.
Our Warlock faced with a Wizard's tower and an arcane alarm he KNEW was triggered.. still thought it was a good idea to go check said tower solo, while my Cleric and the Fighter took a Short Rest to spend some hit dice and catch our breath after a Rug of Smothering fight.

He got whacked and captured by a Doppleganger for his efforts.
Me and the DM sang "Never split the party" for him in honor of this tactical approach.

The second one, same player, same Warlock.
We're on a small island, not on any map. Party comes across a Guardian Naga, apparently a CR10 or so entity. It lets slip that it knows something about the magic item the Warlock is searching for, but it doesn't want to share this info.
This is after our Fighter hits a Nat 20 on a check to engraciate ourselves with the Naga.

Our Warlock decides it's a smart idea to threaten this beast that's over TWICE our level of power woth death. And tries to attack it. Both the Fighter and myself cause the attack to go awry and not strike its intended target, and the Naga decides it doesn't want to talk to us anymore, and leaves.

The Warlock's player did a little Google-fu after the session, and saw the error of his way that time, without getting knocked out.

He's learned that not everything is a fight you can win.. Especially if the rest of the party isn't backing you up.

[GooeyChewie]

We were in a temple, and triggered a trap that caused a giant statue to slide towards us. Think Indiana Jones and the boulder. Our fighter, who admittedly relies on his strength to save him in all situations, decides to run straight towards the two-ton sliding statue and try to hold it back. The DM described his reduction to 0 hit points in gruesome detail, including the sound of his bones snapping.

The DM graciously allowed us to revive the poor fool with a healing potion, though the process left many scars, physical and otherwise.

[white lancer]

In the game I'm DMing, after a long dungeon with several floors, in which multiple PCs were knocked unconscious several times, the druid decided to charge into the room they had great reason to suspect contained the boss fight...as a camel. With one party member on his back and the other half left behind. They made it out of that boss fight, but if a roll or two had gone the other way they would have been in very bad shape.

[Easy_Lee]

I turned into a panther and jumped down a hole, trying to lure enemies away from my hidden allies. It didn't work and I was stuck down the hole for the whole fight solo-fighting two difficult rooms while the rest of the party was upstairs dealing with the first encounter.

I survived because I'm honestly the best ever, but the DM gave me less than half as much XP as the others. Pretty poor decision, all things considered.

[NecessaryWeevil]

Not so much bad tactics as a horrible choice of fights:

Playing The Red Hand of Doom, the party arrives at the Ghostlord's lair and proceeds to smash his phylactery right in front of him. I'm still not sure what they were thinking. "All encounters are level-appropriate fights"? "All liches must die"? Or perhaps "We're bored of this campaign"?

It was more than a TPK. It was a Total World Kill. As the party died around him, the guy who'd smashed the phylactery started smashing the Ghostlord's big eldritch sphere. I don't recall what it was supposed to do, but because they wanted to try a different system anyway, I had the resulting explosion tear a hole in spacetime and dump them into a many-worlds GURPS campaign.

[Kurald Galain]

Yeah, ok. The climatic boss fight at the end of a big dungeon was, yes, a dragon.

At that point, the party rogue decided to let the rest of the group fight while he helped himself to the dragon's treasure.
And after a couple rounds of combat, the party wizard (who was pretty high level and nowhere near out of resources) decided to not cast a spell, but engage the dragon in melee, with his rapier. Which he had absolutely no feats, stats, or class abilities for, just poking for 1d8'ish damage with a lousy to-hit roll.
When this predictably didn't accomplish much, the rest of the party (which were flying at that point and doing serious damage to the dragon) decided to disengage and get out of dodge.
This left the aforementioned wizard alone. With the dragon. In melee range.
Dragon activates power attack. Wizard goes splat in one round and gets eaten.

...yeah.

[Kane0]

Party is surrounded by wights in a confined barrow, we are making a fighting retreat to a narrow passageway so we can get a chokepoint together and take control of the situation. This has been clearly communicated.
One of our two frontline warriors, playing a paladin with a witch/demon hunter flavor, decides that instead of this plan he is going to move towards the group and use his action to get out and read his magic tome, which helps him identify creatures and determine their strengths and weaknesses. The third round into combat.
He lasted 12 seconds.

[Bobby Baratheon]

This is an old 3.5 mistake, but it's funny and applicable enough that I'll share it. Also, it was my mistake :smallbiggrin:
As a cocky young sorcerer, I cast glitterdust on a manticore. This blinded it, which back in the day imposed a %miss chance on its attacks. Being a cocky young sorcerer, I walked up to its face to humiliate it. It attacked me, passed its miss chances like a boss, and rolled 2 natural twenties. My sorcerer went from full health to bleeding out in about six seconds due to pure cockiness. It was a pretty fun session all round.

[Daithi]

I won't go into details, but don't fly real high then get yourself unconscious.

[PhoenixPhyre]

I can relate to that second example, though. Why are we playing if we're going to run away from everything?

That second example was much more understandable. Although maybe next time don't do that if you're the sorcerer and the wizard is next to you (directly between the enemies) and everyone else is at the other end of the room?

The party was going to trigger the obvious trap, they had just planned to do so in a bit more organized of a fashion.

[Armored Walrus]

Hehe, still, I think there's a 50/50 chance I'd fail my Wis save regarding whether or not to repeat that action.

[UnderwaterAir]

My friend continually retaliates against NPC hostile banter with violence.

His latest idiocy in town was to cast geas on a group of drunken nobles.
In turn calling a group of guards to arrest us after the nobles said we cast a spell on them.
Instead of just apologizing and going on our way he then cast geas on the city guard to let us go instead.
That then gets more guards involved and if it were not for my character being a knight we would've been executed for assaulting the city guards and attacking a group of respectable citizens.

The guards took us prisoners and took away all of his gold and equipment leaving him as a level 11 druid with only a dirty sheet to wear.

[ImproperJustice]

A young player, with some munchkinish tendencies playing a Paladin. He refused to ever remove his armor, despite the GM telling him that after a few weeks he was beginning to smell.

We were on a ship, in a storm. We advised him to go below decks but he insisted on staying on deck. He predictably went overboard when the storm got worse.

The entire party joined efforts to try and get him back on board. It was only thanks to the efforts of our female fighter that he kept making sexist comments too throughput play that decided to not let him drown.
He rewarded her kind actions by threatening her life as he had insulted her honor.....

Later he was surrounded by overwhelming opposition. The two casters looked at each other and then centered multiple fireballs on his position.

I suppose his tactical blunder was the almost deliberate campaign of angering the entire party over the course of many sessions.

[sir_argo]

Our half-orcish barbarian with the rage immortality syndrome receives flight during a battle which was us against an ENTIRE garrison of dwarvish soldiers that was expecting us after we used an earth elemental as a siege weapon (long story). He decides to fly sky high and triggers over THIRTY heavy crossbow reactions. It was actually hilarious to see his face during the couple of minutes it took for the DM to roll all the to-hit and damage dice. He went down during his turn lol

I DM'ed a campaign that almost the same thing happened. The party was going in a dwarven stronghold and about to assault a throne room. I told the party to prepare a battle plan, which they did while I went out and got food. I come back and the party is all smiles and ready to go. When the assault begins, the beefy fighter charges in. I didn't understand the tactic and said that might not be a good idea. He insisted it was fine and the rest of the party agreed. He got gunned down mercilessly by dwarven crossbowmen. Later I asked, WTF was that? The other players said they advised him against that tactic but he thought his armor would be enough to protect him. Since he did it despite their warnings, they actually watched in glee as he went down like a chump.

[Wampyr]

The level two sorc with 3 hp left chased a fleeing goblin through a set of doors. The party caught up to him, but not before he had been murdered by the drow wizard that was hiding in that room.

[Blood of Gaea]

While going through a maze, with a few puzzles, they reached a point where they were stumped. While I was thinking of a way to give them a hint, they talked themselves into thinking a pit two rooms back was the next step.

They all jumped in at once and fell to their deaths.

[Laserlight]

My first thought was the 4e barbarian who had a habit of opening a fight by moving, then charging, which often resulted in him being alone in the midst of the enemy while the rest of the party is two moves away.

But then I said No, he was a barbarian and always survived that, albeit sometimes by the skin of his teeth and some frantic healing. So let's think about the 5e archer ranger who moved ahead of the party, into a cave, around a corner, to scout ahead of the party. Archer, you note. He ran into a flood of goblins, climbed a small cliff (instead of retreating), and got knocked down to 0hp. No one could see him or knew where he was. Fortunately he rolled a 20 and woke up, but he then fell off the cliff and back to 0hp again. By this point, though, we had advanced far enough to see him, and didn't let him die. Although I considered it.

But then I said No, that was painful, but not truly disastrous. Certainly nothing to compare to this:


Primeval Thule setting, Red Chains module: The campaign is based in a wealthy city state and its hinterland. A barbarian chieftain hires the party to find his son, captured by slavers. The party decided to send the two halfings (group A, the gladiatrix and her brother, who is the Green Archer's valet / man of business) in to talk to Nafryr (a noblewoman who bought and sold slaves) in hopes of getting a lead on the particular slave they were supposed to find. The other three (group B, consisting of the disguised nobleman known as The Green Archer, plus his friends a druid and a holy slayer) hung around outside in case A needed help. Except Group B got bored within a minute and climbed up on the roof. And then went to the back door. And picked the lock and went in. And found two Lesser Nightgaunts (gargoyles) which had just activated to deal with the intruders.

As B made (or failed) their Sanity rolls and the nightgaunts raised the alarm, group A decided that the time for polite conversation was over. The hot tempered gladiatrix knocked Nafryr unconscious using non-lethal strikes; but the valet carefully stuck a knife in the noblewoman and made sure she was dead ("so she can't say bad things about our master"). Then they fought two gladiators and four guards--a 3xDeadly fight. They took down a gladiator and did about 3/4 of the second gladiator, but the valet was making death saves (and failing).

Group B finally finished off the nightgaunts (and the 60 year old cook, oops) and ran into the house, meeting group A. The druid turned into a giant snake--in a city which hates and fears the serpent cult of Set--and finished off the second gladiator, while the guards ran screaming "Set is upon us! Help!" The Green Archer managed, barely, to get to his fallen valet in time to stabilize him. The other three members of the party quickly ransacked the house for clues (one of them--the illiterate one, to be precise) or shiny / valuable stuff (the other two). They then tried to set the house on fire, and withdrew out the back as the city watch arrived at the front.

If they'd simply asked the noblewoman about the slave, she'd had told them.

The charges were assault, murder, murder by sorcery, arson, theft, suspicion of being Fangs of Set. Due to the Green Archer's stratospheric social status, the party wasn't imprisoned; however, they were fined 1800gp and exiled from the city that was supposed to be the base for the campaign.

[Foxydono]

My party thought it was a good idea to attack a lich at 5th level. Long story short: It was not :p

[Caelic]

While the stealthy members of the party were creeping up on an enemy encampment, from behind them, the party wizard declared "I cast light to terrify the enemy!"

Needless to say, the group sneaking up were NOT appreciative of being silhouetted by the light spell. The fact that the wizard ate seven arrows and went down first was some consolation.

[Tanarii]

Two PCs have recently found an artifact that casts meteor swarm N times a day. From a random roll on a table*, they encounter Bahamut in his lair, with his guardian huge Gold Dragons, lying on an immense pile of treasure. After like two words out of Bahamut's mouth welcoming them, the guy holding the sword interrupts. "Meteor Swarm!"

Multiple fire breaths later, two charred PC corpses.

This was back when dragon breath did damage equal to the dragon's remaining hit points. It was also a junior high school murderhobo-ing power-leveling monty-haul game, so while it was stupid, it's hardly surprising. :smallamused:

*I think it was an table in an official AD&D product with Bahamut on it. But it might have been home brew. edit: found it, AD&D 1e DMG p179, Monster Level X. 10% chance of Dragon, followed by 3% chance of Platinum Dragon.

[MaxWilson]

What horrible or humorous tactical decisions have you all seen or made?

Tactically suicidal decision: a bunch of mid-level PCs (levels 8 to 13ish) choosing to ram and board a neogi deathspider(!) stuffed to the gills with umber hulks(!!!).

Amazingly, they pulled it off. They didn't capture the deathspider like they wanted to but they killed a bunch of neogi, freed some slaves, wiped out the heavy weapons on the deathspider's exterior, and extorted a ransom from the neogi to leave them alone. I was astonished that they didn't all die.

[NecessaryWeevil]

My first thought was the 4e barbarian who had a habit of opening a fight by moving, then charging, which often resulted in him being alone in the midst of the enemy while the rest of the party is two moves away.

But then I said No, he was a barbarian and always survived that, albeit sometimes by the skin of his teeth and some frantic healing.

Wow, were you visiting Canada at the time? 'cause I'm pretty sure I was in that guy's gamestore group (I was the frantic healer).

[Malifice]

I had a character who, at level 2, did the following:

* Walked into the den of a sleeping dire yeti (CR 9) when all the rest of the party said "NOPE".
* Yelled in its ear to wake it up.
* Stood there yelling as everyone else tried to drag him out, with several rounds of "the immensely tall beast stands up, looks at you hungrily, stretches" (and more descriptions of just how screwed he was.
* and then was one-shot by the thing and eaten, messily.

The player somehow thought that everything was supposed to be fought, even after several direct OOC and IC reminders that the world isn't leveled for your convenience.

Some Players just dont get the hint.

Generally only happens the once.

[Spookykid]

A bards charmed wolf ran away, bard chased, party followed a few turns behind.
Bard caught up to wolf waiting for him. One bite later the bard was down, he had 5 hp left. Next round he was being dragged off and being eaten and failing death saves along the way.

[Ellisthion]

I put a Marilith against the party. I had made it clear she was super strong and a serious threat.

The Paladin cast Compelled Duel and ran straight at her.

She shrugged with 6 arms then took him out in 1 turn.

Like what did you expect.

[Arial Black]

So in 2e one player seemed to get bored very easily. He was playing a 12th level wizard who thought he was a necromancer. But wasn't.

When he got a Cloak of the Bat he then monopolised the DM's time by turning into a bat and making attack rolls to catch insects to eat.

Near the start of the adventure we were standing at the dock side waiting to welcome the visiting king. Security was tight. Suddenly, an arrow came out of nowhere and killed the king dead!

We looked around and I saw movement in an upper window of a warehouse. "Assassin!" I cried, and ran toward the warehouse drawing my blade. The wizard, who I expected to cast a 6th level spell or something, ran past me with his non-magical dagger in a two-handed grip. WTF?

After a while we came across a mansion which was surrounded by gardens and had a winding, five foot wide gravel track leading to the door. Probably trapped, we think. The wizard has a good idea (no, really!); he'll cast summon monster and get the monster to go up the path, setting off any traps while we he watches to locate and identify any traps. He insisted that he do this alone and the rest of us were way back down the road.

He had to randomly roll to see which monster he got, and it turned out to be a giant spider. With a leg span of ten feet. Pretty hard to make sure that it walks up the path without stepping on the grass, which was the plan.

So the spider starts to walk up the path/grass when after a few steps it burns to a crisp. Oops. The wizard asks that since he had been observing for the purpose of identifying any traps, does he know what happened exactly? The game has 'non-weapon proficiencies' instead of skills, and the DM asks if he has Spellcraft. "No...but I have Cooking?"

Later, the DM attempted to give him something to do and let him find a magic rod that let him turn into a faerie dragon at will. He was in heaven! He played with it day and night, trying to get the DM to adjudicate all his antics (meaning that the rest of us got bored). Faerie dragons were about one foot long not including the tail, could camouflage their skin like a chameleon, turn invisible at will (why it needs both is beyond me!), and had a breath weapon which worked like a psychedelic drug. He used it to attack my PC 'for a bit of fun'. I responded with deadly force, reducing him to around 3hp. Having 'fun' yet? I hate PvP.

Anyway, later on we sailed to an unknown island. We had to climb a steep, forested hill towards dusk. We came across a trapper, you know those 10HD beasts that pretend to be floor and wrap around you when you tread on them and inject you with poisonous spines? Can be nasty if you're alone or low level, but we are 14th by this time and it shouldn't be a problem. The wizard casts ('wastes', in our opinion) his best combat spell on it: power word stun. Why was he wasting his best spell? The fighters could kill it in one round between them without using valuable resources. Never mind, it's done now, let's just carry on up the hill.

But the wizard wants to stay to cut out some of it's poisonous spines. Why? No reason. Okay, the rest of us carry on walking and you can catch up when you've finished messing about.

In 2e power word stun makes the target stunned for 1d4 rounds. The caster doesn't know the result though; the DM rolls the d4 in secret. But the wizard does know that the maximum on a d4 is, well, four!

Round 1. What do you do? I...stab it with my dagger. *sigh* okay, your non-magical dagger does 1d4 damage. From the previously undamaged 10HD creature.
Round 2. What do you do? I cut out one of it's poisonous spines. Okay you have a spine.
Round 3. What do you do? I cut out another spine.
Round 4. Now, before I ask you what you are doing, you do remember that the thing can only be stunned for a maximum of four rounds, right? Okay, round 4, what do you do?

....Errrm....I stab it with my dagger again.

Thev trapper engulfs him and he's getting poisoned. He cannot escape because he is too weak and he cannot cast spells because he is grappled.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party is out of sight and hearing range, having carried on up the forested hill. The party leader suggests that we better go back and rescue him.

I point out that our characters have no idea that he is in trouble, and no reason to think that a 14th level wizard would have any difficulty with a mere trapper! He said he'd catch up when he's done. He's probably killed it then turned into a faerie dragon again to have a little play.

The leader says that we should look for him anyway.

I say that it's full dark now. You want us to search an unknown forest for a one foot long, flying, camouflaged, invisible faerie dragon...in the dark?

...He wasn't invisible the last time I saw him!

[Twigwit]

We had a Sorcerer who decided it would make an "interesting character concept" to almost exclusively use his turn to Distance his Shocking Grasp cantrip. And yes, he did have Fire Bolt, he just never used it.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

So in 2e one player seemed to get bored very easily. He was playing a 12th level wizard who thought he was a necromancer. But wasn't.

When he got a Cloak of the Bat he then monopolised the DM's time by turning into a bat and making attack rolls to catch insects to eat.

Near the start of the adventure we were standing at the dock side waiting to welcome the visiting king. Security was tight. Suddenly, an arrow came out of nowhere and killed the king dead!

We looked around and I saw movement in an upper window of a warehouse. "Assassin!" I cried, and ran toward the warehouse drawing my blade. The wizard, who I expected to cast a 6th level spell or something, ran past me with his non-magical dagger in a two-handed grip. WTF?

After a while we came across a mansion which was surrounded by gardens and had a winding, five foot wide gravel track leading to the door. Probably trapped, we think. The wizard has a good idea (no, really!); he'll cast summon monster and get the monster to go up the path, setting off any traps while we he watches to locate and identify any traps. He insisted that he do this alone and the rest of us were way back down the road.

He had to randomly roll to see which monster he got, and it turned out to be a giant spider. With a leg span of ten feet. Pretty hard to make sure that it walks up the path without stepping on the grass, which was the plan.

So the spider starts to walk up the path/grass when after a few steps it burns to a crisp. Oops. The wizard asks that since he had been observing for the purpose of identifying any traps, does he know what happened exactly? The game has 'non-weapon proficiencies' instead of skills, and the DM asks if he has Spellcraft. "No...but I have Cooking?"

Later, the DM attempted to give him something to do and let him find a magic rod that let him turn into a faerie dragon at will. He was in heaven! He played with it day and night, trying to get the DM to adjudicate all his antics (meaning that the rest of us got bored). Faerie dragons were about one foot long not including the tail, could camouflage their skin like a chameleon, turn invisible at will (why it needs both is beyond me!), and had a breath weapon which worked like a psychedelic drug. He used it to attack my PC 'for a bit of fun'. I responded with deadly force, reducing him to around 3hp. Having 'fun' yet? I hate PvP.

Anyway, later on we sailed to an unknown island. We had to climb a steep, forested hill towards dusk. We came across a trapper, you know those 10HD beasts that pretend to be floor and wrap around you when you tread on them and inject you with poisonous spines? Can be nasty if you're alone or low level, but we are 14th by this time and it shouldn't be a problem. The wizard casts ('wastes', in our opinion) his best combat spell on it: power word stun. Why was he wasting his best spell? The fighters could kill it in one round between them without using valuable resources. Never mind, it's done now, let's just carry on up the hill.

But the wizard wants to stay to cut out some of it's poisonous spines. Why? No reason. Okay, the rest of us carry on walking and you can catch up when you've finished messing about.

In 2e power word stun makes the target stunned for 1d4 rounds. The caster doesn't know the result though; the DM rolls the d4 in secret. But the wizard does know that the maximum on a d4 is, well, four!

Round 1. What do you do? I...stab it with my dagger. *sigh* okay, your non-magical dagger does 1d4 damage. From the previously undamaged 10HD creature.
Round 2. What do you do? I cut out one of it's poisonous spines. Okay you have a spine.
Round 3. What do you do? I cut out another spine.
Round 4. Now, before I ask you what you are doing, you do remember that the thing can only be stunned for a maximum of four rounds, right? Okay, round 4, what do you do?

....Errrm....I stab it with my dagger again.

Thev trapper engulfs him and he's getting poisoned. He cannot escape because he is too weak and he cannot cast spells because he is grappled.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party is out of sight and hearing range, having carried on up the forested hill. The party leader suggests that we better go back and rescue him.

I point out that our characters have no idea that he is in trouble, and no reason to think that a 14th level wizard would have any difficulty with a mere trapper! He said he'd catch up when he's done. He's probably killed it then turned into a faerie dragon again to have a little play.

The leader says that we should look for him anyway.

I say that it's full dark now. You want us to search an unknown forest for a one foot long, flying, camouflaged, invisible faerie dragon...in the dark?

...He wasn't invisible the last time I saw him!

I'm leaving all that there for context lol.

At first it was an amusing story about an air headed character and I did not know where it was going. The ending wad fabulous though!

Thanks for taking the time to type all that out!

[AureusFulgens]

One of my best stories is from the very first D&D session I ever played, back in sophomore year of college. The party is a few of the people who live on my dorm floor, including my roommate. I'm a paladin (the same character I'm still playing, incidentally - this campaign has run REALLY long), and we have a fighter and two clerics (War and Death). We are first level.

End of the session, we've already had one fight with a band of dubiously-human marauders and a mysterious purple-robed magician with two longswords outside of the city we're staying in. We're on a mission from the king and going north, and we meet a group of three people on the side of the road with six backpacks. So... in classic D&D fashion, the Death Cleric tries to seduce them. With a 9 Charisma. She keeps trying while my 16 Charisma paladin tries to defuse the situation. Then the others are searching in the brush and they find a dead, naked body. Now it's my paladin's turn to be mildly foolish, and he immediately draws his sword and accuses the men of being bandits (incidentally, it later turns out he was right). They're all around our level, so we have a protracted fight with them, and their archer buddy pops out of the brush. Eventually I'm the only one left standing, with everyone else on the ground making death saves.

Here's where the dumb tactical decision comes in. The remaining two bandits are running away carrying two of the backpacks. I try to do the paladin thing and stop to save the War Cleric. But his player (my roommate) tells me, "No, save the treasure!" So I keep running after the bandits. Let's just say that the next session, we didn't have a War Cleric.



But that's only the beginning of our stupidity. Thirty to forty sessions and two and a half years later (I said it was long) we are all seventh level. I am the only member of the original party remaining, and have sworn an Oath of Vengeance; my roommate's new character is a Wizard/Arcane Trickster, and the other two players have long since left and been replaced by a Moon Druid, a Lore Bard, and a Beastmaster/Totem Barbarian. We've gotten into the habit of opening up fights with artillery, normally in the form of casting fly on our Moon Druid and watching her crash into the enemy in the form of a giant elk. This time, that's not an option. We're trying to evacuate a town on the eve of a siege, and the last remaining townspeople are being held by hostage takers who have barricaded themselves in the mansion in the middle of town - and they've taken the druid too. So we're trying to get inside to rescue our friend. We've recently acquired a Bag of Holding from an NPC companion who died, and our DM has ruled that things tend to come flying out of it at high speed. So we aim it at the door and ask for a battering ram. While the druid is behind it. She drops to zero hit points, of course. We manage to save her, but she has not let us forget it since.

(This is also the session where I managed to fall from grace. Yes, you can commit acts so heinous that even an Oath of Vengeance won't hold up. Like having your dire wolf mount try to take bloody vengeance on the hostage takers for killing all the women they had kidnapped, but not checking who you were killing and accidentally slaughtering six fifteen-year-olds. This campaign is largely characterized by everything we do having maximally catastrophic consequences. I was as horrified as anyone else.)



But are we done? Of course not! My roommate's character, the Rogue, has a thing for fire. To the point that he's started worshiping elemental fire (I showed him a picture of Imix from Princes of the Apocalypse, and he just said "yes"). Well, when we're lost, we like to pray to our respective deities for direction. Mine's not listening, of course, and Chislev and Sehanine (the Ranger and the Druid's gods, respectively) don't have much to offer either. So the Rogue... "prays to fire". Rolls high. And a streak of fire lights up several nearby houses in the shape of an arrow pointing south.

That wasn't the poor tactical decision, though. The poor tactical decision is that, later that session, we are traveling through a parched wilderness and need directions again. Rogue thinks it's a good idea to pray to fire AGAIN. Which creates a ninety-foot-wide wildfire that spreads across the grassland. (This is the point when the Ranger and I promptly try to kill him, and are only stopped when the Bard casts suggestion on me to make me stop.)

We're a bit of a mess.



As a bonus, there was a nice moment in the second session of the campaign I run. They had found a mysterious evil magic rock, and they showed it to a stranger they met on the road. He freaks out, snatches it, and spits out a bolt of lightning to destroy it. The Monk in my group is mad at him and decides it's a good idea to slap him in the face. Long story short: he shapeshifts into a lesser blue dragon (well, a "blue dragon wyrmling", but I prefer to skin them as adults who are just small) and knocks out the Monk and the Rogue in the first round of combat with another dose of lightning breath. Again, everyone lives, but that's just because the party has two competent healers.

Yeah. I've seen a lot of poor decision-making in the last three years.

[Justin Sane]

10% chance of Dragon, followed by 3% chance of Platinum Dragon.That sounds like the worst forecast ever.

[Arial Black]

I'm leaving all that there for context lol.

At first it was an amusing story about an air headed character and I did not know where it was going. The ending wad fabulous though!

Thanks for taking the time to type all that out!

Thanks. :smallsmile:

Incidentally, after that every time the DM asks if we have a certain skill, if we don't we say, "No...but I have Cooking!" And it wasn't lost on us that the name level wizard was not trained in Spellcraft!

[Shulk]

One of our DMs made the tactical decision of giving a party with the highest level character being level 7 a deck of many things.

Our massive DND group had to ban that magic item and void it's results afterwards

[Dudewithknives]

One of our DMs made the tactical decision of giving a party with the highest level character being level 7 a deck of many things.

Our massive DND group had to ban that magic item and void it's results afterwards

Kind of similar:

3.5 game, we had a character who was a cleric of Tymora, and he as a person and his character are chaotic to the core.

Every morning to memorize his spells for the day, he had to draw one card.

I think he got the deck at level 8 or 9.

Made it all the way to level 16 when the game fell apart and died.


We also have had multiple people die from trying to dive on the back of a flying monster while on a tower/spelljammer/flying mount and die because they missed completely.

Hallway of Brown Mold, party broken wizard they a fireball to clear it out... went down hill.

Same super broken wizard at level 14 thought the party was taking too long so he just teleported into the throne room of the enemy king of the nation we were invading and did his normal Wizard/encantatrix/evoker/chosen of mystra super fireball that he always did. Learned the hard way what happens when a cocky wizard tries to fight a very powerful psion in their throne room.

Party is fighting a colossal++ sized er... golem for lack of a better term, that was in the shape of a massive flying mithril dragon. Party kills it and it starts it starts to drop. Every person in the party is a caster of some sort or standing next to one. The druid shape shifts into a bird, he wizard grabs the ranger and teleports, the cleric casts D-Door, meanwhile the fighter of the group just looks and says, "Umm guys, you left me."
Party responds with and I quote: "You are just a fighter, who cares."
Fighter had enough HP to soak the 20d6 falling damage, and took an alignment shift from N to NE afterward as he planned the death of the rest of the party.

In Pathfinder, running Rise of the Rune Lords, not sure if this part is in the module or if it was added in by the DM, but a powerful artifact which has a save of like 30 for a will save or you get compelled to take it to a certain location as soon as you look at it. The party monk gets the item and gets controlled, hides the amulet on himself and tries to take it somewhere. The rest of the party notice and try to stop him, only the Warrior of the Holy Light Paladin is close enough to do anything so the Paladin tackles him and tries not to hurt him as he holds him still and gets his backpack off.
He stands up and the party sorcerer asks if the Paladin has the artifact.
Paladin says, "That is a good point, I look in the pack and check."
DM: So you look in the pack to find the amulet. Congratulations, it is in the backpack, now make a 30 will save.
Paladin: "Crap!"

[Tanarii]

That sounds like the worst forecast ever.
Depends if you're a neutral shading to evil murderhobo looking to kill anything for loot, or a group of heroes looking for help on your righteous quest. :smallamused:

[Fayd]

I’ve done two.

First time, I yelled “Suck Bolt V lizard!” to an adult black dragon; she was blind, but had tremorsense, so I thought I was fine because I was flying. I... forgot that in that game dragons could also just ... see magic... so I essentially gave her a line right to my position. Because I didn’t move. I got smote out of the air. Didn’t die, thanks to the Paladin breaking the sound barrier on foot.

Second time, I forgot where an enemy was, walked into it, died, and caused Ragnarök. These things happen.

[Laserlight]

Second time, I forgot where an enemy was, walked into it, died, and caused Ragnarök. These things happen.

Most of these have me shaking my head in commiseration, but on this one I LOL'd.

[Laserlight]

One of our DMs made the tactical decision of giving a party with the highest level character being level 7 a deck of many things.

Our massive DND group had to ban that magic item and void it's results afterwards

Our DM really likes the Deck. Several of our party have the flaw "Makes Terrible Decisions".
Cleric drew twice from it, lost all her clothes and other non magical gear, but gained a magic weapon (tentacle rod). A couple of weeks later, she drew twice more: -1 INT and lost all her non magic stuff again.
A few days later, the barbarian was left unsupervised, drew twice and lost a point of INT (down to 6, "hm...that card didn't do anything", he said) and got a two handed dragonslayer sword, which he literally and immediately took to bed with him.
Meanwhile, the elf ranger had managed to lose his bow, and saw that the cleric and barb had gotten magic weapons, so he decided to give it a try. First card was the one that gets you the enmity of a powerful demon. The second card...was also the one that gets you the enmity of a powerful demon.

[Scripten]

I think my favorite story thus far is the party Ranger "checking for traps"... with his body. So the party is in a dungeon and the Ranger splits off (slightly, I tend to push for larger parties to stick together most of the time) and wanders into a large room with an altar covered in treasure, surrounded by eight large, winged statues. His player looks me right in the eye, says "I know this is a trap", and proceeds to take one step into the room. I bounce back between the party and the ranger over the course of a few more rounds of "I step forward" before I ask the player if they just want to go up to the altar, which of course they do.

So I bounce to the party and then come back to the Ranger.

Me: "What do you do?"
Them: "I take one step onto the altar."
Me: "That's it?"
Them: "Yup."

So of course the Gargoyles come alive and surround the Ranger, pummeling him to the brink of death by the time the rest of the party can rush into the room.

Otherwise my players are usually very cautious and strategic, but this encounter was a doozy.

[Luccan]

In a 3.5 dungeon crawl that, sadly, ended prematurely, I may have accidentally set fire to most of the upper level of a dungeon trying to kill some monstrous spiders... in my defense, I had no options but a wand of burning hands, a spell which very specifically lights flammable things on fire. Like spider webs.

[Sigreid]

Too many to tell. Let's just say my friends are familiar with the phrase "I wonder what x does. You all might want to wait outside."

[Dudewithknives]

This was not in DND but this one killed a game I was running at the time.

Playing Werewolf Old West. from the Werewolf: The Apocalypse books.

Setting:

The group of werewolves are investigation horrible things happening in the Umbra and the rest of the world in a SILVER MINING town that the new major railroad is going though.
Literally there is so much silver in the mines that there is dust of it all over town.

There is an old Native American shaman who tells them the story of "The First Metis" and how his mere presence is so blasphemous that he was locked away inside the mountain of silver and guarded by a sleepless guardian, who can only be freed by the touch of new blood.

2 games later one of the players who is not too bright and a very "Hey, check this out!" mentality finds a old mine shaft covered in runes. He follows it down into the heart of the silver mine.
He is in homid and in homid form so the silver does not instantly kill him.

He finally, by blind luck, and amazing rolls, finds the hidden cave of etched and runic enchanted silver and inside he finds a huge tomb made of the purest silver. Inlaid with moon runes, and wards, inside there is a great roaring of something trapped.

He sees this as he hears a voice in his head that says, "What do you seek?" as he sees a VERY old and blind werewolf holding a tomahawk made of enchanted bone.

Instead of talking to the sleepless guardian he puts his peacemaker and shoots him full of holes, and finishes him off by punching him and breaking his neck.

He walks over to the tomb and leans in to read the runes and listen.

I tell him that he hears roars inside of pure fury and mindless rage, the runes he can not read though, and I ask him what he is going to do.

His answer, while covered in the guardian's blood: "I knock."

Game died.

[willdaBEAST]

In ToA I'm playing a Lizardfolk Paladin, wasn't aware of the extra reach (tactical error on my part) and was bit by an undead t-rex (auto grapple), nearly dead and isolated from most of my party. The wizard in my party chose to fireball the undead t-rex, not being specific about where he aimed it, so the DM ruled that I was within the AOE as well. I failed my dex save, while the undead t-rex passed, so somehow while in its jaws I took the brunt of the fireball. I flavored it by saying that the t-rex threw my character's body at the fireball and then as the concussive blast sent me flying back towards it, caught my character's unconscious body in its jaws again.

[Rotsu]

Worst I have seen? A guy walking into an alchemists workshop and not knowing what the glowing green stuff did - so he drank it. It was potent acid for melting metals and stuff. He then RUSHED to the cabinet of red potions (That he had no clue as the the purpose of either) and drank one of THOSE. It was basically Napalm. He failed his con save to resist drinking liquid death twice, but before he got incinerated and melted inside out he drank one last potion - this one let him breathe fire.

R.I.P. Jorn the Goblin. You lived for maybe an hour. One combat, I knew you for. *Salutes*

[Sigreid]

Worst I have seen? A guy walking into an alchemists workshop and not knowing what the glowing green stuff did - so he drank it. It was potent acid for melting metals and stuff. He then RUSHED to the cabinet of red potions (That he had no clue as the the purpose of either) and drank one of THOSE. It was basically Napalm. He failed his con save to resist drinking liquid death twice, but before he got incinerated and melted inside out he drank one last potion - this one let him breathe fire.

R.I.P. Jorn the Goblin. You lived for maybe an hour. One combat, I knew you for. *Salutes*

That sounds like a video game player. Healing potions are almost always red.

[Fayd]

Most of these have me shaking my head in commiseration, but on this one I LOL'd.

I do my best to entertain. At the time it was very frustrating but looking back on it, I can see some humor.

[Ganymede]

I played in an Adventure League game that was doing the Death House adventure when it happened. I had joined the game because I was running the same adventure and wanted to see how someone else ran it.

The party was in the basement and we were in the room with the mimic door. I knew it was a mimic already because of my previous study of the adventure.

I figured, "I might as well take this bullet" and put my ear to the door. One surprise attack and crit later, my character was killed in a single hit.

[Aranfan]

There is a church with Zombies in it. One guy rolls a 1 to notice they are zombies, so he goes in, but that's not the bad decision. The bad decision is the squishy caster following him in, putting her on the front lines of the battle.

Things go poorly.

[MeeposFire]

That sounds like a video game player. Healing potions are almost always red.

Hmm in Diablo they are red, Baldurs Gate is blue, Dragon Age does not count because poultices are not potions foo.

[RazorChain]

My MMA monk Connor screamed in his irish accent at the warlord of the Orc horde "Why don't you go **** yourself, if you need any help I'll rip off your **** and stuff it up your arse"

That gesture was followed by a roll of initiative....I didn't even have to roll my Performance skill which was the closest skill I could find instead of Trashtalk

[Silkensword]

Commanding a Hydra to flee when it was close to death, allowing it to heal up.
Then as my NPC wizards put a firewall around them to let them short rest, using gust on the firewall in an attempt to "drive the flames to the hydra" although the wording of the spell is that it extinguishes flames, allowing the hydra to attack them

[Afrodactyl]

I'm currently DMing storm kings thunder. At the battle of Bryn Shander as the giants fine tearing through the gates, my party all decide to flee for another gate. Fortunately the fighter had a "wait, my character wouldn't let these people die" moment and turned around to charge at the trio of frost giants.

He was then dunked into the floor by the first giant and thrown into the side of a building, knocking him unconscious. Fortunately the cleric and the ranger turned back for him and the Wizard remembered that he could fireball things from a distance. Somehow they didn't all die.