Post/Author/DateTime	Post
vardock 05-14-07, 02:48 PM	What is the biggest stunt you pulled on your fellow PC's or the players in your game? Mine was in a recent game. they were tracking a bunch of marouders in a cave. they came to a pool of acid with a bridge over it made by a Dark Way spell, just as the second person was crossing it the Githyanki Beguiler who cast the spell dismissed it's invisibility and waved good bye the the crossing cleric and ended the Dark way spell, plunging the Cleric into the pool of acid, which happened to be inhabited by 3 16HD huge Acid born Sharks.
CCS 05-14-07, 04:31 PM	The single biggest "stunt" I've ever pulled on my players came not in a D&D game, but in a Vampire LARP. That ENTIRE game turned out to the dream/nightmare of a slumbering elder vampire NPC in a table top Vampire game I was running at the time. Early in the week I'd run the table top game with one group (a mix of several of the LARP players and a few others), then on the weekend I'd turn around and run the LARP for 30+ players. Only towards the very end as several plot threads began converging in the LARP did my crossover players begin to realize the two games were connected.....And that their Tue. night characters were responsible for some of the stuff that had been happening on the weekends. A few other players figured this out as well. Though since they weren't involved with the other game they lacked the reference points needed to make all of the clues make 100% sense.
Jshock_75 05-14-07, 09:48 PM	What is the biggest stunt you pulled on your fellow PC's or the players in your game? Mine was in a recent game. they were tracking a bunch of marouders in a cave. they came to a pool of acid with a bridge over it made by a Dark Way spell, just as the second person was crossing it the Githyanki Beguiler who cast the spell dismissed it's invisibility and waved good bye the the crossing cleric and ended the Dark way spell, plunging the Cleric into the pool of acid, which happened to be inhabited by 3 16HD huge Acid born Sharks. Did they have frickin' laser beams on their heads?
IRememberCecil 05-14-07, 10:00 PM	Did they have frickin' laser beams on their heads? Or chainsaws? Or maybe laser-chainsaws. EDIT: I can actually contribute to this thread. It's late, though and I have a biology test on Wednesday (finals, so there's a lot of studying I have to do). I'll try to give a story this week.
CryoSilver 05-14-07, 10:03 PM	Check this out (http://boards1.wizards.com/showpost.php?p=10036297&postcount=3)
DragonBringerX 05-14-07, 11:59 PM	Check this out (http://boards1.wizards.com/showpost.php?p=10036297&postcount=3) wow...just wow. :bow: thats freakn awsome. Anyway, as for the OP, hmmm... lemme think. I had one where these low level players where in frostfell had to cross a rather large (ok freaken huge) frozen lake. Once they where half way, a remorhaz (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/remorhaz.htm) came up from under the ice. because of its body heat, it started to melt the ice immediately. The lake breaks up, and the players start to fall through into sub-zero temperatures. fun fun fun for everyone...but them. LOL :devil:
Escef 05-15-07, 06:23 AM	When 3e came out, I wrapped up our usage of 2e with a big dimesional phenomenon, and explosion not too far away that knocked them all cold. When they came to, the PCs found themselves in the distant past, where one of the PCs originally came from (he'd been kept in stasis fopr a thousand years). They traveled about for a while, and eventually fought a demon that had previously inhabited the PC from the past (it was placed in stasis with him). When the dimensional phenomenon occurred, a pocket dimension (inside the spirit world) formed around this character because he was "soul heavy" (his and the demon's souls crammed in one body). The force of the groups various egos pulled the whole party's psyches into this pocket dimension. When the demon was defeated, the dimension collapsed and the PCs psyche's were returned to their material world bodies, and they came to more or less where the explosion had left them, with about a day's worth of snow on them. And thus, I was able to test out 3e rules in such a manner as that if the group felt the new rule set wasn't working we could wrap up the story arc and go back to 2e.
ItaraKoturo 05-15-07, 07:26 AM	Mine was in a recent game. they were tracking a bunch of marouders in a cave. they came to a pool of acid with a bridge over it made by a Dark Way spell, just as the second person was crossing it the Githyanki Beguiler who cast the spell dismissed it's invisibility and waved good bye the the crossing cleric and ended the Dark way spell, plunging the Cleric into the pool of acid, which happened to be inhabited by 3 16HD huge Acid born Sharks. IIRC, Dark Way is not dismissable (dismissable spells are marked with a (D) next to their duration entry). So unless the Githyanki threw a dispel magic at his own Dark Way spell (a possibility, certainly), it sounds like you screwed the party just to screw them.
_SIN_ 05-15-07, 09:03 AM	Biggest stunt pulled on PC's in game? Let take a look at that first: stunt (courtesy of www.thefreedictionary.com) n. 1. A feat displaying unusual strength, skill, or daring. 2. Something done to attract attention or publicity. Ok, did your 'stunt' display an unusual feat of strength, skill or daring?.... No Did it attract attention/Publicity?.... Kind of - but more likely you've just made your players aware that you have made a '****-up', have screwed them for no reason, and on top of that and came up with a lame, 'nigh-unavoidable' trap! Well done!
Prof. Pacali 05-15-07, 11:42 AM	I don't know if this would qualify as a stunt, but I did once manage to freak out some players with the way I described a monster. It was in my old 2E Ravenloft campaign, just before we converted to 3E, and I was using a storyline based on Phantom of the Opera (which is one of the themes that is statutorily required to show up in a gothic horror campaign, along with the Vampire with a Soul, the Overly Dramatic Darklord, and the Prophesy That Comes True When the NPC Sellsword Slips in the Snow and Breaks His Leg, don't ask about the last one :) ). They finally figured out that the Opera Ghost was in the sewers of Port-a-Lucine, and after summoning the gendarmes, the party descended into the sewers. (The gendarmes served to fill out a party of only two PCs.) The Opera Ghost's lair was guarded by two common broken ones and a greater broken one. For those who've never played Ravenloft, broken ones are the victims of weird experiments, either magical or scientific. I used the stats in the Monstrous Compendium, but I described the broken ones in vivid terms, especially the greater broken one, which if I recall today, was a winged gorilla with a turtle's shell. That fraked out the players, who didn't know what to make of the monster. They fired their guns at the thing, but it had enough hp to stay up, so they freaked some more. Then they heroically entered melee with the greater broken one, and killed it. They were so happy with the defeat of the "winged-gorilla-turtle", that they didn't mind so much when the Opera Ghost played a note on his pipe organ which collapsed a tunnel, allowing the villain to escape and plague the PCs again.
vardock 05-15-07, 11:53 AM	IIRC, Dark Way is not dismissable (dismissable spells are marked with a (D) next to their duration entry). So unless the Githyanki threw a dispel magic at his own Dark Way spell (a possibility, certainly), it sounds like you screwed the party just to screw them. I did not know that. but the spell was about to end anyway, since they took so long to cross it.
kelvinaw273 05-15-07, 12:45 PM	Check this out (http://boards1.wizards.com/showpost.php?p=10036297&postcount=3) So basically, a character tries to jump the pit and the DM says "You're dead." Sorry, if there is something interesting or clever here, I have failed to see it.
Shade_Damara 05-15-07, 02:43 PM	Well he's flaunting his math skills...but other than that. The trap seems a bit assanine and I'm not entirely sure it's even do-able.
LastOfTheEld 05-15-07, 03:12 PM	To me this thread seems like "Who has screwed over their party and wants to brag about it?" Seriously, where is the fun in dying because your DM says so? Sure, if you pull the big red lever you deserve the consequences, but falling in a pit of acid because the bridge disappears beneath you with no way of stopping it? Or dying in a pit trap because you failed a DC 30 spot check? Challenge is fun. Death for the sake of the DM killing a player is not.
ItaraKoturo 05-15-07, 06:09 PM	Exactly. Going up against a dragon and dying in valiant combat while attempting to best it is perfectly acceptable (and even rewarding, should the rest of your party succeed and raise your character later). Being killed because the DM decided "Ahahaha, the game environment and plot, which I have absolute control over, has decided that it is time for you to die! I take satisfaction in this because I am the DM and in my mind my job is to make the players' lives awful!" is really not the way to go about things.
CryoSilver 05-15-07, 06:44 PM	So basically, a character tries to jump the pit and the DM says "You're dead." Sorry, if there is something interesting or clever here, I have failed to see it. I fail to see how it's any different from a trap where you fall into lava, which does 20d6 a round.
Raveni 05-15-07, 08:48 PM	It's not. Neither is particularly interesting or clever. Might as well just ask your players to make new characters if you're going to throw them up against "no save, you die" unavoidable traps. Probably the most interesting death I have ever seen was self-inflicted. In the Red Hand of Doom, the party barbarian thought that it would be a good idea to destroy the Skull Gorge Bridge during the combat, by attacking a weak point the rogue had spotted while scouting. He thought that this might take out a few of the hobgoblins rushing across. Then, failing his DC 10 spot check to realize the bridge was collapsing, he abandons this plan to meet the hobgoblins at the midpoint of the bridge just as it collapses. Good thing the party just picked up a Staff of Life. :)
TheAngryFish 05-15-07, 11:43 PM	I fail to see how it's any different from a trap where you fall into lava, which does 20d6 a round. The lava deals heat damage :P
Always-Late 05-15-07, 11:45 PM	Rocks fell and they all died.
_SIN_ 05-16-07, 06:37 AM	Thinking about it, it's really not the DM's place to pull stunts; doing so only belittles the PC's. When one has complete and utter control over the characters environment & situation, pulling off a feat of exceptional strength, daring or skill is not feat at all. The PC's are the ones whom should be 'stunting'. Not the DM; Unless the DM has personal issues - Maybe lacking in skill, strength or daring?...
criticalstriker 05-16-07, 06:58 AM	I don't know if this would qualify as a stunt but.. I was in a massive game with about 20-30 other people, and I used slight of hand to steal this barbarians nice set of swords... Well, his character freaked and started shaking people down at random. I then proceeded to use my insane slight of hand to slip his swords back onto him as he was shaking some one down... :P
Robert_Fox_Kitsune 05-16-07, 09:16 AM	Hehehe A storyline twist counts as a stunt? I don't like doing mean things that guarentee death for the sake of it The BBEG of the game had a leauteant directing his forces- a half orc bard. As it turns out, this was the SAME prisoner they had met in their very fiurst game. Played all the way to level 10 from 1, and spent most of the time searching for him. Their reactions were amazing, and between his bodyguards, traps, and enemies to hold them off as he tried to escape and gather more ways to kill them, iot was the best BBEG battle we ever had.
kelvinaw273 05-16-07, 10:36 AM	The best ever pulled on me was in a game of Traveller (old Sci-Fi based game from many years ago). Attempting to rescue somebody kidnapped by a cult on a backward planet we though we were doing great gunning down the cultists and trying to shoot out the holo-projector that was generating the image of the slavering demon to scare the gullible locals. Then we found out there was no holo-projector, and the demon started ripping people apart. :OMG! :help:
Warforged Goblin 05-16-07, 01:21 PM	Ok, this was pulled while I was the PC, way back in the day... Let me set the scene: Forgotten Realms campaign. Our party at the time consisted of a human fullblade spellfire weilding fighter, a half-drow rogue with a pet displacer beast, a gnome wizard with a pet displacer beast, a halfling ranger, a dwarf sorcerer with a staff of the magi, and me, the smokepowder-obsessed gnome cleric of Gond. Now, our intrepid band had stumbled across a dwarven settlement who had the good fortune of finding an adamantine mine. However, they had been losing several contingents of miners over the past few weeks and enlisted our aid. We scout, find/kill some duergar, head back and report. Now, due to some miscommunication on the party of the party members, myself and the halfling end up investigating the mine complex. We get captured, tortured (my leg was nearly crippled and my nose was bitten off by the duergar taskmaster), and just barely escape after about a week and a half (Huzzah meld into stone), returning to the party to alert them. The party heals us up and charges into the mine intent on stopping the duergar, especially me with my two loaded pistols, two powder horns, and the 25 pound keg of smokepowder. So, as we enter the mine, the DM has my PC make a Will save, which I fail. Due to the days of torture, my character developed an acute phobia of caves and caverns. Luckily, I make the second Will save to avoid the onset. After some sneaking, we make our way past the enslaved miners and into the heart of the opperation. After some combat, we catch sight of the taskmaster (a cleric btw) jumping into a mine cart and riding down into the darkness. At this point it's me, the fighter, the half-drow rogue, and her pet displacer beast, as the rest of the party got seperated. The DM forces another Will save vs. collapsing into the fetal position, which I fail. The fighter throws me over his shoulder and jumps into the other cart with the rogue and her pet, and start the Indiana Jones-style chase. Now, it should be noted that the DM, having recently picked up Unearthed Arcana, allowed for actions points as discussed therein. As our cart is hurtling down the line, the cognizant PCs hear some odd language echoing from up ahead and watch in horror as the stone floor is shaped over the rails. I roll a Will save, succeed, snap out of the catatonic state, and burn an action point to cast my stone shape domain spell. This goes on once more before the DM has us make an Intelligence check; we're going WAY too fast. The fighter tries the brake, which breaks. He then tries gouging his fullblade into the stone floor to slow us down... which whips him out of the cart and onto his backside. The rogue then has her pet try and grab the walls to slow us down, which ends the same way the fighter's plan did. The rogue, seeing her pet fly out of the cart, jumps and tumbles out after it. This now leaves me, riding a rickety mine cart down into Io only knows what. The tunnel breaks after about a mile or two and I find that I'm in some underground city, teeming with duergar. My Knoweldge check confirms that, yes, I'm in Graklstug. I see up ahead that the taskmaster has had his cart stopped by a cadre of about 5 guards, and more are on there way. So, my cart speeds past them. Realizing that I'm going to die anyway, I hatch a plan. Using my last stone shape, I make a curved ramp that leads me back towards my former tormenter. I stand up, put one foot on my keg of smokepowder, and level my pistol at the barrel; not firing until I see the look of horror on the duergar's face as he realizes what I'm about to do. Smokepowder deals 1d6 per pound when used as an explosive. So, with the keg, the extra loaded pistol, and the two 2 pound powder horns, I light up the Underdark with a 30d6 fireworks display. The ensuing explosion shook the surface and cut off the duergar from the adamantine vein for years. And yes, my little gnome cleric met his god in the only true way he should, being propelled by a massive explosion.
Escef 05-16-07, 02:34 PM	...way back in the day... ...fullblade spellfire weilding fighter, ... a halfling ranger, a dwarf sorcerer ...the DM, having recently picked up Unearthed Arcana... Am I the only one disturbed that "way back in the day" is after the introduction of the fullblade, spellfire, halflings allowed to be rangers, dwarves allowed to cast arcane magic, and action points in the 3.5 Unearthed Arcana? :detect:
illiterate 05-16-07, 03:26 PM	My personal favorite was on a game night that happened to fall on april 1st. Spontaneous Player Character Combustion. 'nuff said. (well, I should add that it was an illusion)
amatulic 05-16-07, 04:26 PM	Regarding this pit trap:So basically, a character tries to jump the pit and the DM says "You're dead." Sorry, if there is something interesting or clever here, I have failed to see it. I agree. It's easy to devise traps that are impossible to survive. They are nice thought experiments, but you couldn't realistically use something like this in an actual game. Your players may be amused the first time such a trap kills one of them off. The second time the DM pulls a stunt like this, the DM may discover his players leaving to find another game run by someone else. The only way I can see such a trap being feasible is if the players had some sort of warning that what's coming up may not be what it seems. Or an NPC gives them all a temporary feather fall item that lasts long enough to survive. Or the trap could be 10 feet deep, doing no serious damage. -A
_Jayne_Cobb_ 05-16-07, 05:02 PM	What is the biggest stunt you pulled on your fellow PC's or the players in your game? Mine was in a recent game. they were tracking a bunch of marouders in a cave. they came to a pool of acid with a bridge over it made by a Dark Way spell, just as the second person was crossing it the Githyanki Beguiler who cast the spell dismissed it's invisibility and waved good bye the the crossing cleric and ended the Dark way spell, plunging the Cleric into the pool of acid, which happened to be inhabited by 3 16HD huge Acid born Sharks. Huh? How is that a "stunt?" :confused:
Salla 05-16-07, 10:26 PM	I've pulled a few, mostly revolving around doors. One, the door was glass, covered with a wooden veneer and filled with acid. "Kick in the door!" *shatterSIZZLE* "Water on the foot! WATER ON THE FOOT!" Another, the door had fake hinges on the PCs side (while actually swinging inward, away from them). They took the hinges off and spent ten minutes trying to figure out why the dang door wouldn't work after they picked the (fake) lock. Another time, I used a door ... it was held in place by iron bars from the adjoining walls that would recede if a pressure plate in front of the door was hit with sufficient pressure. So, when you back up and get a run at it, the door becomes free-standing and when you plow into it, you use the door like a sled down a ramp and into, well, trouble. :)
DreadArchon 05-16-07, 10:47 PM	Check this out (http://boards1.wizards.com/showpost.php?p=10036297&postcount=3) Heh. I got a compendium of traps for use in Mythus a few weeks ago that had like 6 different takes on that trap. I've always wanted to use it in-game, but I'm not the only person in my group who's familiar with Mythus, so I don't think it would work out.
Sotha_syl 05-16-07, 10:55 PM	Check this out (http://boards1.wizards.com/showpost.php?p=10036297&postcount=3) Well. That's certainly a CR15+ Trap at least... Though, I find it extremely amusing. I might use something that's only 10 feet deep and very similar, just for kicks. But yeah, in practical use it's not very nice. It's really funny though, and I think that was the original intent. :D However, I'll tell you how lava is different: It deals heat damage, it's much less complex, it cools over a period of time and thus becomes useless, it deals 2d6 the first round and 20d6 only if the victim becomes fully immersed, it can be escaped much easier than your wall of force/reverse gravity deathtrap, and involves a lot less angry players. I actually put my players up against a small river of magma at level 4 and they did fine, all succeeded their jump checks (DC 15) except one fellow, who now doesn't have functioning legs, but he did roll a 4... He doesn't seem angry, he seems to think he just had a bad accident, which is mostly true.
Escef 05-17-07, 01:58 AM	Huh? How is that a "stunt?" :confused: Maybe this (http://www.lanceradvanced.com/Models/Images/Marauder.jpg) was the kind of marauder he was talking about. (Bears a striking resembelance to a Zentradi officer pod, no? ;) )
Broodmaster 05-19-07, 02:53 PM	The entire campaign was carefully monitored and controlled by the Twisted Runes. By the time the PCs killed the uber-lich (whose phylactery was a single silver piece that was in circulation) the Twisted Runes were pleased that they eliminated a possible rival, thanking them in person before nearly beating them to death. (They could have more use later) After that my PCs have been suspicious of everyone including LG paladins of Tyr.
Satyrus 05-19-07, 09:37 PM	OK first off I'd just like to say I love greed. On that cheerful note my players were exploring a crypt to get a special spell component. This place was not just covered in traps it was laced with 'em. Eventually the spellcaster's started using summoned animals to trigger traps they themselves couldn't disarm or just didn't want to deal with. So they come to this fork in the complex and the wizard uses her bat familiar to explore each of the tunnels and found that they both led to identical chambers with a single chest in each one and a locked door. So they decided to summon a monkey and sent him to the left side while they stayed back. So they sit there for a second after silence and then start yelling "Monkey, monkey!" He answers and comes back. The poor primates then sent down the other hallway and the same procedure follows except for the fact that this time the monkey doesn't answer. So based on previous experience,:devil: they decide to go down the left passageway and when they turn the corner low and behold the chest help platinum and gold unseen by any of the character's eyes. So they immediately start scrambling through their sheets dividing up the loot when I interrupt with "Make a fortitude save." The first response was fact that they all immediately froze followed by the phrase "You suck." God it's good to be DM.:evillaugh