Post/Author/DateTime	Post
roninwolf1981 11-06-07, 01:01 PM	You guys arn't gonna freakin' believe this (okay, some of you might, but still...). I was gaming over at my friend's house last week when this happened. Our party (we're 8th level) was traveling during the session. The DM had me roll for random encounters. I got one and there was much rejoicing (there's only one other player in the group besides myself, not counting the DMPC and I'm always happy to bogart some XP). The DM flips through the Monster Manuals and eventually breaks out a pair of Cockatrice minis. I'm like "Oh hey, sweet! I've never fought a Cockatrice before!" Then all heck sorta broke loose...the DMPC rolled a natural 1 on his first attack, then got turned to stone on a failed Fort save in the next round. The other attacked my character and rolled a Natural 20. DM rolls again and gets a Natural 20 again. We all held our breath as the DM rolled to confirm the Terminal Threat...and he rolled third Natural 20! My character drops dead as a Cockatrice apparently pecked her right in the eye. Luckily my friend's winged Drow Rogue managed to kill off both the critters shortly thereafter. So...I think my character might develop a sudden fear of chickens, or begin to believe that Cockatrices are capable of delivering some kind of magical death attacks. BTW, I made my Fort save to avoid being turned into a dead statue! (gotta take the small victories where I can find 'em folks! :) ) Anybody else got any interesting/humorous stories along those lines?
RobbyPants 11-06-07, 03:14 PM	Now you see why the DMG gives advice avoiding increasing the effects of crits: it favors the monsters. :P Anybody else got any interesting/humorous stories along those lines? Once I was fighting some goblins and all three of them rolled natural 1s to hit me. Back in 2nd edition, I was trying out the Combat & Tactics crit chart, and after my cousin spend an hour or two making a PC, he got killed in the first fight by having his head cut off.
Shiftkitty 11-06-07, 03:35 PM	We had a bad DM who had it in for the wizard. The wiz6 made a spectacular save against some god-awful, I think it was a greater demon or something that, for no reason at all, had a personal vendetta against the wizard. So the wiz makes his saves against three separate attacks, each time against hideous penalties. While we felt the penalties had been unfair ("Oh, your character's sick today, so his DEX is down by two."), we played it as written, silently vowing to negate the whole session when I took over next game. (That was our SOP for this sort of thing.) After the die were rolled, the DM declared the roll invalid because (get this) they hit the Monster Manual. It wasn't an uninterrupted roll. "Okay," the player said as he scooped up the dice and rolled them gently across the table so as not to hit anything. They all came up safe again. Then the DM pulls out 4 d10s and says that he now has to roll 0001. No explanation why. We all stood up to leave in protest, but the player grabbed the dice and made the roll. We all sat back down, convinced that the player had made a pact with Satan or something. The DM declared that the player was cheating and made him throw again. He made it. The DM quit and I took over to salvage what became a good session. We were in awe of this guy for months. We had never seen anyone roll like that. Then I remembered something about him. He spent a lot of time with my father, who had been a craps hustler in his younger days. Guess who learned how to palm dragon dice? I can't believe I didn't notice what he was doing after that first bogus do-over. I'd seen my father do it hundreds of times, even with the dice we used that night. Now, the player swears his first phenomenal save was legitimate, and as he was as surprised as we were when they first came up, I believe him. The rest he isn't saying.;)
Muddball 11-06-07, 04:08 PM	Halfling luck bonuses aren't just plus 1 to saves. One of the players that i was DM had ended up about 3 levels ahead of the rest of the party thru an incredible lucky streak where he had been the last man standing over and over again. I was simply having the players roll up characters that were the party average. so i decided that i was going to quietly kill off that character... enter the dragon. It was the mother green dragon of a much younger dragon that the party had carved up a campaign ago and were using many of its parts as current magic items. (the halfling in pactular was using a knife and a cape made of dragon bits) outraged that her son had become nothing more then fashionable, she proceeded to lay waste to the inn that the party was sleeping in. The town was small, and all the highest level NPCs in town WERE trying to slow her down, but i had just made her a little more powerful then the entire town, and when the players saw and recognized this, i expected them to flee like smart adventures should. For all but one, this is what they did. The HALFLING, on the other hand, strode out into the middle of the street. with draconic eyes widening, she watched as he came out wearing the specially made cape. it still had the head attached to it as a sort of full headgear mask that you could see out of past the teeth. it was cool and flavorful, so i let him have it as an visually pleasing add on. the halfling, looking up at the huge sized dragon, used ALL of his actions to pull out a leg of chicken/kobold or something, and feed it to the headgear. working the mouth up and down he MOCKED the dragon, "mmmm mommy, this is really yummy!" I did the only reasonably sane thing to do, i moved the figure up and attempted to power attack the halfling out of existence. natural 1. players laugh and turns are had fleeing, halflings turn. he grasps the corners of the cloak and FLAPS them up and down while withdrawing... "lookie at me mommy, i can fly i can fly"... making jump checks to hop up and down while fleeing. she moves up, enraged, wishing her breathweapon was recharged, but the only thing she could do was use her standard action to try and bite him again as soon as he was in range. natural 1 He at this point decides that if fate was going to give him a real chance, he might as well take it. i also decided to see if he could get away by using some NPC spellcasters to take her focus off him for a second. She had to turn and use her breath to waste the spellcasters, giving the halfling time to make it to the local church, where three nuns were in the courtyard hustling people inside. barely outside of her view and her blindsight, he makes a rushed bluff to tell the nuns that the cape he was wearing was magical and would protect them from the acid spiting dragon. they end up FIGHTING over it, playing tug of war while he sprints off to the other side of the building. the nuns are liquefied a round later as the dragon rounds the corner to find two humans riping apart the skin of her son, and she NEVER manages to catch up with the halfing because she keeps having to turn and fight NPCs. I inform the players later that the town has been rampaged completely off the map because of them. and the halfling lived.
Alastar 11-06-07, 07:48 PM	In one of our games, one of our players was playing a vigilante type avenger, who thought that every wrong must go punished. Over the course of our quests, he had become more and more convinced that the mayor of the town and his personnal bodyguard were murderers (short story, they had murdered orc child and women who came seeking refuge). So, he sneaks in the place in the middle of the night, and throught good bluff checks and clever use of the hat of disguise he had. he makes it throught to the bodyguard, and trys to bluff his way throught to see the mayor, who is sleeping. He truly wanted to off the mayor. So then, the player, has a slip of the tongue, mistaking his voicing accents that he has used in the place. (He spoke as a lowborn ''italian'' cook he was 5 minutes ago, instead of the messenger he appeared to be). The Bodyguard sees throught his bluff and pulls out his greatsword, gains initiative, and proceeds to lay waste to the poor level 8 player, with 3 mighty chops of his sword. The bodyguard was a level 13 fighter. Our poor player is down to 5 hit points, but he decides to fight on. He pulls out his military pick, calls maximum power attack, rolls, and gets a natural 20!!! He confirms the threat, and does a wooping 57 damage!! Not enough to down our great man here of course, but still quite impressive! then, we are reminded of the rules for death by massive damage bya nother player. the dm is like, well he fails only on a one. he rolls.... DUM DUM DUM, A ONE!!!! The player had successfully handled a npc 5 levels above him!!! of course the mayor had been woken by the sound and cone of colded the poor dude the next round. BUT STILL!!! At least the exp from that fight offset the level he lost getting raised....
roninwolf1981 11-06-07, 11:29 PM	Here's a question that was also the matter of some debate my last session: How exactly does one pluralize Cocatrice? Cocatrices? Cocatirici? :D
Belkar 11-07-07, 10:01 AM	Years ago (3.0 game; 3.5 wasn't out yet), I was DMing a campaing in a style I vowed never to do again - and haven't. I was fixated on the idea of a "real world" scenario - in terms of encounters. So I created a homebrew world with fixed encounters at fixed CRs all over the place. The PC's were encouraged to ask questions and research, and realized that, hey, a cloud giant lives on that mountain, and you squishy level 2 PC's will die if you go there... Anyhow..., the second session began with these 4 2nd level players learning that a fairly young dragon (CR 12, albeit...) was lairing in a nearby cave. They get the idea in their heads to go after it. They rally townspeople to help them (all of which are killed by traps in the dragons lair - which was convenient, because the PC's couldn't have survived them. Townsfolk canaries... nice...). The long and short of it is that the party finds themselves face to face with a rather amused dragon who is about to eat them. The party cleric rolls a nat 20 on his initiative, and I roll a 1 for the dragon. Oookay. The cleric can do... what? Well, he declared he's going to shoot his crossbow at the beat. I chuckle, and then watch him roll three nat 20's in a row. I'm dumbfounded. The beast is dead - and heroes beat an encounter they never should have fought to begin with (my fault, due to game design, admittedly...), and now have a CR 12 dragon's hoard. This was also a high magic campaign. So they hike their loot to the nearest metropolis and get "magic'ed" up more than any party their level should be. Oh well. I roll with it. Many levels later, when the party is level 16, the ranger in the group gets fixated on the idea of owning this uber-powerful magical bow in the Arms and Equipment Guide. It's totally broken... but it allowed any arrow fired from it to be treated as a type of bane arrow for the target in question - of any type. And if struck, the target had to make a DC 20 Fort save or die instantly. Constructs, Undead, Plants, anything. Totally broken item... and hella' expensive. But published (as this player kept pointing out). Well, it's not an artifact... so it's techinically possibly to create one. Using his original share of dragon loot from so long ago (he saved most of it), along with the proceeds from selling everything he owned (including a manse), he was able to commission the creation of this stupid bow from the most powerful wizard in the land (again, my fault, but the game was so out of control at that point - it was like watching a train wreck, we couldn't stop...lol). Plus, I figure... the challenges they're going to be facing at this level will make a DC 20 Fort save seem paltry easy. Sure enough - next session, they fight a CR 20 Blue Dragon. No one can even hit the darn thing... which ticks them off to no end. No one is rolling the dice worth a dud. Then the ranger pulls out his nifty bow and organizes the others to perorm aid actions - and he rolls really well on his attack. He just hits the thing's AC. Just. Okay, I say... roll your d8 of damage. What about the Fort Save?, he cries... Um... Okay... I say. It had a +37 to it's Fort (or something crazy like that). I roll the d20... and of course... a nat 1. Instant death. Sigh. Next session, the party got lost in the astral plane when they unknowingly put a bag 'o holdin' inside a port hole. I ended the campaign. Good times!
lulzapalooza 11-07-07, 04:31 PM	Is there a natural failure on a save? I don't think so...:confused: I think it might be attack rolls only.
Belkar 11-07-07, 04:51 PM	From the SRD: "Automatic Failures and Successes: A natural 1 (the d20 comes up 1) on a saving throw is always a failure (and may cause damage to exposed items; see Items Surviving after a Saving Throw). A natural 20 (the d20 comes up 20) is always a success."
darkneolink 11-08-07, 12:24 AM	we were playing with some random encounters chosen acording to the level of the party At the end of the first dungeon my party fought a Cockatrice (we called it a "Gallipavo") Now that monster is banned
Cartigan 11-08-07, 01:09 AM	Next session, the party got lost in the astral plane when they unknowingly put a bag 'o holdin' inside a port hole. I ended the campaign. Good times! That is hilarious.
Belkar 11-08-07, 09:11 AM	That is hilarious. lol... not at the time... They were pretty peeved. "What!!! Man, you didn't tell us that guy had a bag of holding on him!!" "You didn't search him! You just threw his body into a portable hole!!" "Yeah... but you knew we would do that!!" "No... I didn't. I expected the wizard to at least detect magic on the yahoo first...!" "Man... this is lame...!" By the next session, they were all excited, reading the Manual of the Planes and such... and were bent on never returning to the material plane... just exploring the multiverse. But after the last session, I was so frustrated that I ended the campaign. [sigh]. Good Times, though... Good Times.
Ranaul 11-08-07, 03:52 PM	Hmmm my players have been ripping through encounters that are about 2 or 3 above the party level. I think thats because I went a little crazy when dishing out loot early in the game so they all have great gear. So maybe a dose of cockatrices could make it interesting. But I have a great story for you guys. We were playing Deadlands d20 and the party was in a graveyard, after I ventured the furthest in, hands reach up from the ground and pin me down. The DM designed it so we would have to work together to get out of the grasp of these skeletal hands. Well here comes another player with his AK-47, he decides that it would be dangerous to shoot the hands so he swings at them with the butt of his rifle. Nat 1. Hits me in the back of the head. I'm almost dead. He then pulls out a Templar longsword. (which happens to be my former character who had died the game before, he was carrying it back to my home to honor my memory) With sword in hand he slashes at the hands. Nat 1. He hits me across the back and now I'm below 0 and bleeding out. One more swing. Nat 1. The DM felt bad and didn't want me to die on three 1's in a row. The sword shatters on a gravestone. The player is now immensely ****** off, and feels that something else must be around that he can shoot so someone else can save me. He asks what else is around. The DM is dumbfounded that the strongest character in the group just gave up on me. So he has him roll a spot check despite nothing else being around. Just as a lark he says yeah, he sees a gazebo. The player responds with "What's a gazebo?!" The DM quickly tells us all not to tell him, so he decides he'll shoot first and ask questions later. Unloading his AK-47 into the small wooden structure, Nat 20. I somehow survived, but the gazebo wasn't as lucky.
roninwolf1981 11-10-07, 11:36 PM	Hmmm my players have been ripping through encounters that are about 2 or 3 above the party level. I think thats because I went a little crazy when dishing out loot early in the game so they all have great gear. So maybe a dose of cockatrices could make it interesting. But I have a great story for you guys. We were playing Deadlands d20 and the party was in a graveyard, after I ventured the furthest in, hands reach up from the ground and pin me down. The DM designed it so we would have to work together to get out of the grasp of these skeletal hands. Well here comes another player with his AK-47, he decides that it would be dangerous to shoot the hands so he swings at them with the butt of his rifle. Nat 1. Hits me in the back of the head. I'm almost dead. He then pulls out a Templar longsword. (which happens to be my former character who had died the game before, he was carrying it back to my home to honor my memory) With sword in hand he slashes at the hands. Nat 1. He hits me across the back and now I'm below 0 and bleeding out. One more swing. Nat 1. The DM felt bad and didn't want me to die on three 1's in a row. The sword shatters on a gravestone. The player is now immensely ****** off, and feels that something else must be around that he can shoot so someone else can save me. He asks what else is around. The DM is dumbfounded that the strongest character in the group just gave up on me. So he has him roll a spot check despite nothing else being around. Just as a lark he says yeah, he sees a gazebo. The player responds with "What's a gazebo?!" The DM quickly tells us all not to tell him, so he decides he'll shoot first and ask questions later. Unloading his AK-47 into the small wooden structure, Nat 20. I somehow survived, but the gazebo wasn't as lucky. I read this and LOL'D!