Oops, we made a strategic mistake, what are some of yours?

[MarkVIIIMarc]

oops, after a pc started having nightmares we kept him up so he didn't go mad. Think that was a mistake because then other pc's started getting targeted and the first just gained levels of exhaustion.

What mistakes have you all made?

Especially funny ones.

[mormon_soldier]

We didn't check for a second exit of its lair, so the green dragon circled around and ambushed the party, killing all of our goblin allies.

[leogobsin]

I'm playing as a dragonborn barbarian, and our level 3 party is fighting a hobgoblin who is running away, probably headed to get reinforcements. I can't quite reach the hobgoblin this turn, and in between me and her is our bard, who's taken a few hits. I ask him
"What your HP like?"
He's got 14.
"What's your modifier on Dex saves?"
It's +5.
I take the calculated risk, figure worst case scenario I won't down him in 1 hit, and fire my lightning breath at the bard and the hobgoblin.
Hobgoblin makes the save, bard doesn't, hobgoblin down him with her glaive and runs off out of sight down the stairs.

[Laserlight]

The most amusing mistake the party made was allowing my warlock to be the party bank, although I had made it clear that my lock was ruthless and considered the rest of the party expendable.

When I decided to change characters, my lock "went out on patrol" at midnight and never came back, taking all their cash with him. I had to point that out to them, several sessions later.

[Corran]

This is from my very first campaign back in 3e. From early on during the campaign, we had acquired a small barrel with gunpowder. The masterplans of how to use it? Endless! Each one of us had several suggestions but we couldn't agree on how to use it, so we always saved it for later, to use it when it really mattered. And so we did! You see, ironically, whereas we couldn't agree all the other times, we did agree to take it out of the bag of holding where we kept it, and use it against a red dragon we were fighting! We even gathered all close together just before we lit it and throw it to the dragon, so none of us would be caught in the blast. And that's when the dragon used his breath attack...! Next session we had to escape from the abyss.

[Magzimum]

We didn't bring enough cookies for our DM. :frown:

[DMThac0]

DM: After performing the ritual you hear the ancient mechanism turn and the lock seems to have been disabled.
me: Ok, I perform the ritual in reverse.
DM: When you finish that you hear the mechanism turn again and the lock seems to reset.
me: I try again, this time I want to see what happens if I miss one step. Mind you I'm standing about 15 feet from the door.
DM: A crackle of lightning streaks from the clear sky, you see granite fall from the point of impact, and you hear a terrifying roar. Everyone roll a Wisdom save as you see the snake like form of a Blue Dragon streak out from the crystal that used to be on the top of the tower.

[KorvinStarmast]

Turned left when we should have turned right.
Paladin fell into a 10' deep pit.
Ogres and goblins and zombies converged on us from three different directions.
That didn't end well.

[ImproperJustice]

Faced with a pair of Ogres, my PC won initiative.

He steps forth and shouts: “Behold the Wand of Wonders!”

Creates a 30’ rainbow sphere centered on me and blinds almost our entire party (including myself)......

On the plus side, I now have a catch phrase.

[Arial Black]

“Behold the Wand of Wonders!”

I bet you say that to all the girls. :smallsmile:

[solidork]

My current character is a member of the Watchful Order of Magisters and Protectors, which are essentially the magical police of Waterdeep. I'm a celestial pact warlock working for a Couatl who is tasked with acquiring dangerous magical items and keeping them out of the hands of the populace. To that end, there is a secret vault hidden under the apartment with moderate magical protections.

Anyways, we were investigating the Cult of the Dragon and I chose to show up to a potential Cult run business and investigate as myself, leveraging my membership in an official organization, instead of being my usual paranoid self and using Disguise Self. Long story short, they started investigating me in return and eventually they burned down my apartment and plundered the vault where we were storing the magical macguffins they need to summon Tiamat.

[manyslayer]

It didn't cost us, but our poor guide...

In 3.5 we were level 20+ and had to stop an ancient dragon from ascending to godhood. We were led to her lair by a devil (Tiamat didn't want this to happen and gave us a guide). It took us to a hill overlooking the evil dragon's lair. We knew the dragon had a bunch of fiends of its own. We had come prepared with a 20+ celestial brilliance spells among our 4 characters (2d6 damage to evil outsiders within 60'). We got in, took out our necklaces of celestial brilliance stones and went in. We nearly stopped her but in the end had to retreat, which we did by dimension door (or similar short range teleport, not really remembering now). But we forgot to put the necklaces away again. Our guide looked at our glowing selves horrified for half a second before turning to ash. Luckily we knew the way back.

[SociopathFriend]

Admittedly I can't think of any for me at the moment but that's mainly because I typically play a more passive character so whenever someone else does something wrong I don't think of it as "my" strategic mistake.
And even then sometimes I don't feel justified in it being a 'mistake'. Correct me if wrong but you do not fix a collapsed lung via CPR.

But to name a few that I would have under group conditions:
"There might be something at the bottom of the waterfall." (There was not)
"There's a demon lord- get her." (Ended with death)
"I'll convince the Elemental Prince of Air to not invade our dimension." (He did)
"I steal from the head guard surrounded by other guards- nobody will notice." (They did)
"I can survive that fall." (He did not)
"He's a Sorcadin that's clearly insane from not one but two cursed weapons- we can take him." (They could not)
"How big of an explosion could a sphere of destruction cause?" (Very big)
"Dragon, I will give you my gold if you answer my question." (The dragon decided he didn't want to answer questions)

[RickAsWritten]

While in Barovia, my party comes upon an interesting looking goat pen with magical wards surrounding it. My drunken Forge Cleric dwarf decides that it's a good idea to figure out what these wards are, and casts Identify on one of them. Touches it; it starts wailing like a banshee. Baba Yaga and her hut show up. Everyone dies.

[ReaperChaos]

Not so much as a strategic mistake, but it proved to be a big mistake indeed.

First session, my Vengeance Paladin with his newly formed party were walking through the forest. We were going to a temple to save a woman who was kidnapped by goblins. We reached a river. While the team refilled their flasks of water, I decided to go to the other side of the bank. Despite my heavy armor, the river was traversible, albeit difficult terrain. I reached the shore and then... 4 goblins ganged on me. And their combined damage was just enough to kill me. At level 1.

This character was officially cursed by the Gods, DM made a description about it and all. And I learned that goblins and rivers make a deadlier combination than you think.