Macgyver Moments

[BRC]

Awhile ago one of my paranoia players got into the habit of keeping every random item I put into his possesion, small broken telescreens, busted laser barrels, empty packs of cold fun ect. His reasoning was so that he could "Use them later if he needed too". For the purpose of amusement I allowed him to spend abunch of points and take the hardware specilization Macgyver, essentially allowing him to form possibly useful decives if certain criteria were met.
What are some stories you have about PC's using items or combinations of items in unusual, useful, or amusing ways.

[giblina]

My transmuter polymorphed the first hobgoblin in a large, oncoming group of them into a hippopotamus which completely blocked the hallway and the rest of them couldn't reach us.

I yelled "Hippo Defense Alpha!" right afterwards... there was much spewing of soda

[Diggorian]

More than ten years ago in a Dark Sun game a friend of mine with double Rope use proficiency and weapon improvization (if that's what he had, notice a decade ago) tied a sword to a 10ft length of rope. He swung it around a corner to kill archers pining us down.

I believe he invented whip-dagger, grandfather of the spiked chain.

My paladin used to use concentrate with Detect Evil to function as a kind of Blindsight. Only worked once with a lucky roll to throw a greatsword.

[Leicontis]

I was running a module that involved a barrier of nearly indestructible, unclimbable hedge at one point. There was an item hidden nearby that could cut the hedge, but it was destroyed when the PCs decided to burn the entire estate (a cluster of about half a dozen small buildings). Thus, the biggest treasure horde in the module was hidden on the other side of a wall of foliage that couldn't be cut through, and couldn't be climbed by characters of that level. Their solution? Tie a rope to the halfling, and use him as a grappling hook.

I'm sure I've got other such moments, if I could just remember them - I'll post them as they come to me.

[Superglucose]

Well... I was asked to provide a distraction so my companions could rob a temple blind. So... I set up a massive bomb, blew up a tavern, and started a war.

God I love playing CE/CN characters...

[The Great Skenardo]

Shape stone and a spiral staircase with baddies swarming up from below.
"Well, let's see. It's pretty easy to make a ball of clay, so I'll just make a sphere of solid stone that barely fits into the stairwell. And then shove it."

Similar to "Hippo Defense Alpha!", the warcry was "Gravity doesn't get a cut of the XP for this, does it?"

[bugsysservant]

Well... I was asked to provide a distraction so my companions could rob a temple blind. So... I set up a massive bomb, blew up a tavern, and started a war.

God I love playing CE/CN characters...

Um... Were these related, or did you create back up plans in case a massive explosion/leveled tavern/full scale war wouldn't be sufficient for a simple robbery. Because, if the latter, you are my new hero.

[Joltz]

hmmm. The best thing I can think of is when I was in a small group treasure hunting on the second layer of Acheron.

We'd found a suit of full plate and were about to put it in the portable hole, but it spontaneously animated. Anyway, after a nat 20 grapple check from the armor, the ranger got thrown in the hole. While the other 2 of us were dealing with the invisible imp who animated it, the armor grabbed the hole and ran off.

We followed the passage and shortly found a section of the floor covered in quicksand. I found tracks leading in, and none coming out. Nobody had good swimming skills and I was the only one who could get back out without swimming (but only 1/day). I dove in and searched for the armor and found it, but the hole wasn't there. I ran out of breath after searching for a bit and dimension door-ed back to the top. Naturally nobody else had anything that would help. We decided to tie a rope to someone and go fishing with them. The rope was in the portable hole

So the ranger is sitting in the portable hole thinking he's screwed. He tried opening the hole from the inside but sand leaked in (so he closed it). We're sitting on the path above the quicksand looking through the items we do have trying to find something usable. Then I realized we're on the plane of random junk. I started running around like a kinder looking for rope (all my loot was in that hole too).

Everyone was sitting there thinking we were screwed and I was the one who got the idea that got our loot back and save a party member it was fun.

[Leicontis]

Here's one using spells rather than items:

To set the scene - there's a massive undead army that's recently conquered a neighboring nation, and seems to be bent on world domination. Did I mention the fact that the artifact that the head of said army wants desperately to destroy is in our possession? We're heading to a city that, last time we were there, was on its way to becoming a ghost town. On the road to the city, we evade a troop of skeletons marching the other way. Reaching the city right around dusk, we look in and see only one building illuminated - an inn by the central square.

Geniuses that we were, we walk in. We find the inn empty, and suddenly vampires and spectres start flying into the town square, and calling for our surrender. Turns out the whole city is overrun with undead. Now, vampires have very acute senses, and to make matters worse, one of them had previously dominated a druid from our party, who was now circling overhead as an eagle/owl/something. Oh, and our fullplate fighter is sick to the point of incapacity (absent player) - over the course of that night, he gains the nickname "dead weight in full plate".

Sorcerer in the party casts Invisibility spells on all of us (3.0, so it's 10 min/level), and throws down a Ghost Sound spell to make it sound like we're arguing over whether to surrender or fight. Meanwhile, we slip out one of the back windows (no glass in the windows, luckily). We head to the docks (port city), which are abustle with undead and humanoid servants, loading barges with food (they'd been trading food for iron with their unsuspecting enemies).

The party cleric passes her ring of water walking to the dwarven barbarian, who proceeds to carry each of us over the harbor around the end of the city wall one by one. On the other side, we find vampires waiting and listening for us, as by now they've figured out that the inn is empty. To thwart that, the cleric throws a Silence spell on a rock, and we continue sneaking along. Then comes the swarm of bats, called by the vampires, which behave quite oddly upon encountering an area of magical silence.

Our position again compromised, we ditch the rock as a decoy, and quietly make a run for it. While the vamps are busy searching the silent area for us, we keep running. Next, we notice that the entire city is ringed by camps garrisoned by undead around large fires, to act as a final net. This ring, however, is intersected by a river, which creates an unusually large gap between camps. This time, the cleric burns all her 3rd level slots (at the time, our DM wasn't forcing clerics to memorize) to give the entire party Water Walking, and we bolt across the river and between the camps, finally escaping the city.

An entire army sets a trap specifically for us. We walk right into it, and escape unscathed - one of our more interesting meetings...

[Swordguy]

Man, it's all about 7th Sea today.

The group had found a Syrnith artifact that, when you pushed a button, made a large wheel on the side of the box spin VERY fast, though more mass could make it go slightly slower. We'd figured it would spin at an appreciable rate with up to 4 tons of force trying to slow it down.

Eventually (including after the misadventure mentioned over on the "7h Sea is a treat" thread), we had managed to wreck our groups ship on a reef near the Castillian capitol, and a large number of Castillian Inquisitors stood between us and freedom. The Inquisitors, understanding that we were utterly boxed in (and not wanting to lose any more of thier own people than needed), gave us the night to think it over, and we'd be expected to surrender the thing or die the following morning. The GM intended for us to surrender the artifact and we could always get it back later.

Road to hell, good intentions, etc., etc.

So with night falling, we took that box, and bolted it to a 15' long metal grid from the wreckage of our ship. We grabbed the 4 large wooden spools used to haul anchors and made them into wheels, connected with metal rowboat oar holders and with yardarms for axles. We came up with a rudimentary steering system using the rudder chains to create drag on one side of the thing or another. The artifact box was linked to the rear axle with an extra bit of rudder chain. We built up the planking to 5" thick on the 4-foot high vertical walls, and mounted 5 deck guns firing through gaps in the walls, 2 to each side and 1 in the front, along with swivel guns (deck cleaners) from the ship that we could stand up and fire. A few barrels of powder and about a dozen or so rounds of canister shot later, and with every pistol we could load and carry, and we were good to go.

...

That's right - we built a tank, and proceeded to drive it, the following morning, straight through the Inquisitor camp, blowing up everything we saw along the way. 5" of planking is proof against small arms shot, though we had a scary moment when someone managed to get a shot through the vision slit and knock the driver's hat off. This escapade included wounding with a cannon round and then the running over the head of the BBEG (Darth Priest) who had been chasing us the entire time.

GM was PO'd, by the way.

[BRC]

Man, it's all about 7th Sea today.

The group had found a Syrnith artifact that, when you pushed a button, made a large wheel on the side of the box spin VERY fast, though more mass could make it go slightly slower. We'd figured it would spin at an appreciable rate with up to 4 tons of force trying to slow it down.

Eventually (including after the misadventure mentioned over on the "7h Sea is a treat" thread), we had managed to wreck our groups ship on a reef near the Castillian capitol, and a large number of Castillian Inquisitors stood between us and freedom. The Inquisitors, understanding that we were utterly boxed in (and not wanting to lose any more of thier own people than needed), gave us the night to think it over, and we'd be expected to surrender the thing or die the following morning. The GM intended for us to surrender the artifact and we could always get it back later.

Road to hell, good intentions, etc., etc.

So with night falling, we took that box, and bolted it to a 15' long metal grid from the wreckage of our ship. We grabbed the 4 large wooden spools used to haul anchors and made them into wheels, connected with metal rowboat oar holders and with yardarms for axles. We came up with a rudimentary steering system using the rudder chains to create drag on one side of the thing or another. The artifact box was linked to the rear axle with an extra bit of rudder chain. We built up the planking to 5" thick on the 4-foot high vertical walls, and mounted 5 deck guns firing through gaps in the walls, 2 to each side and 1 in the front, along with swivel guns (deck cleaners) from the ship that we could stand up and fire. A few barrels of powder and about a dozen or so rounds of canister shot later, and with every pistol we could load and carry, and we were good to go.

...

That's right - we built a tank, and proceeded to drive it, the following morning, straight through the Inquisitor camp, blowing up everything we saw along the way. 5" of planking is proof against small arms shot, though we had a scary moment when someone managed to get a shot through the vision slit and knock the driver's hat off. This escapade included wounding with a cannon round and then the running over the head of the BBEG (Darth Priest) who had been chasing us the entire time.

GM was PO'd, by the way.

That is Awsome

This is more of a "right item, right time" situation, but it happened today. As a joke, I make sure my character always has a sandwhich on them.
We are going to a cave at the Behest of a magical university to recover a powerful sheild. The sheild is guarded by a hungry beast (a sirrash or somthing I think. I only got an upside-down glimpse at the monster manual). A clue we had from the corpse of a sailor was that "The armored beasts weakness is a good cook". We approach the beast and our golden tounged diplomat-monk communicates with it. It's very hungry, so we give it, yes, the sandwhich. We manage to get the sheild from it after teleporting back to the university (Via a portal provided by said institution) and purchasing many more sandwhiches.

[Ashdate]

I don't know if anyone remembers the module, it was 3.0, but I think it was called the Sunless Citidal, and there were kobolds and goblins, and this dried up fountain that glowed with faint magic when you cast it. The small traces of liquid begged to be scooped up, but no one brought any way to get it into a vial.

Then one of our players had a great (?) idea: He'll soak it up with his sock.

Well, I guess it was a potion of firebreathing, but none of us wanted to drink it after it'd been squeezed out his foot odors.

- Eddie

[Anxe]

One time I was fighting a bunch of goblin type monsters. Short ugly and not much strength. I was rolling really badly with my longsword, so I just picked one of them up and used it to smash the other ones. Worked very well. Not really a macgyver, but similar.

[Superglucose]

Um... Were these related, or did you create back up plans in case a massive explosion/leveled tavern/full scale war wouldn't be sufficient for a simple robbery. Because, if the latter, you are my new hero.

The full scale war was the incidental part.

Initially I'd hoped the explosion would make people hear the frantic screaming I would be doing... but it never got to the screaming. How sad... I didn't get to pull off my distraction.

And when I said, "Darn, I didn't get a chance to distract them" my DM (because we do alignment on point system) said "Take three evil points and two chaos points" (the maxes are at 5).

As for another one... in order to break a friend out of prison I bought a 'masterwork file.'

Later on in the adventure, we run across a Vampire. The vampire wasn't particuarly hostile, just hungry. So somehow I coated the file with our Brick's blood (emphasis on 'somehow' this is still my CE rogue... ) and bluffed the vampire that it was a 'bloodscycle, and it would quench even the greatest undead urge to feed' or something like that. The vampire began licking the pop, tasted the brick's blood and walked off.

I lost my masterwork file

[Psychosis]

This isn't really as funny as what you guys put up. If anything this was more of a heroic/epic moment.

I'm playing a bard in a Sewer Rats campaign, accompanied by a Paladin (Halfling, no less), Wizard and Rogue. The full deal. Anyway, our murderous little band has managed to pick up a nemesis of sorts in the form of a Hobgoblin Sorcerer. Doesn't sound like much, I know, but he was one tough sonuvabitch. For the longest time the party only reacted to him, receiving missions to thwart his plans after they were well underway. This time, however, we took matters into our own hands and hunted him down. We find the guy and chase him to the disposal chamber (basically The Pit, but with a smaller pit and a visible Sphere of Annihilation on the surface). We fight, and we mop the floor with him since he doesn't have any prepared escape plans. A few minutes of smacking him around, and he drops to his knees to beg for his life. What we didn't know was that this was part of his improvised escape.

While our Rogue approaches to bind his hands, the Sorcerer quickly pulls his Rod of Cancellation from his cloak and hurls it into the disposal pit. As the item is pulled towards the deadly hole in reality, the guy jumps back to his feet and takes off running.

The Paladin runs off after the tricky bastard while the rest of us contemplate our next move. The Wizard, having made his Knowledge check, informs us of what will happen if the Rod touches the Sphere. He is unable to simply pluck it out of the whirlpool with Mage Hand since it has gone under the surface. What's more, we realize that the resulting explosion, even if we do run, will cause extensive damage to the place. This would mean that we not only have to fix the damage, but we would also get screwed on our next few paychecks since we aren't doing an official assignment. That was when the Wizard got an idea.

Jumping into the water, he allows himself to be pulled in and tries to spot the Rod below the grimy surface. After a few rounds he finds that it before it can reach the Sphere. He quickly grabs it and thrusts it in his bag of holding. Next round he hits the Sphere. He is ripped from existence along with the bag, but the Rod does not activate since it is in a separate pocket dimension.

To this day we consider his move to be the coolest thing he has ever done. He saved our ass in more ways than one.

[Irreverent Fool]

We were introducing a couple of new characters into the party via the old "the faceless masses of baddies seem to have captured some like-minded individuals" bit. Well, one of my fellow hostages was a Paladin. He beckoned a spear-wielding kobold closer to the cage he was in and started saying how it would be the right and just thing to do blah blah blah.

Well, the kobold didn't listen of course, so he changed tactics. He told the kobold that he was getting a raw deal and said something to the effect of "Come closer so we can discuss it privately, on my honor as a paladin I will not harm you." The kobold comes closer, the 18-str paladin grabs him and tosses his key to the rogue and the paladin decides he wants to use the kobold's spear in one hand and USE THE KOBOLD AS A SHIELD WITH THE OTHER. His feats were all in shield use apparently.

Long story short, the paladin didn't cause any harm to the kobold. Boy those orcs sure did though.