1001 Bad Ideas [Archive] - Wizards Community

1001 Bad Ideas [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Shinikama
04-19-08, 01:24 PM Since everyone seems to be on a "1001 blah blah" kick right now, I thought I'd start this one.

In a Modern campaign, our DM let a character start with connections to the military (this is the mistake). We were planning on storming the house of this vampire lord, expecting minions of all sorts to come flying at us.
The military guy and the group's pyrokineticist went off and huddled in the corner for a few minutes, then came back grinning. They asked the DM if they could requisition some supplies from an old military friend that weren't exactly... legal. The DM had them roll a Charisma check. Result: 23. The DM says they can have X amount of dollars in stuff. They requisition 35 White Phosphorus grenades. For those of you who don't know, this grenade creates a huge fireball that leaves objects relatively unscathed. The pyrokineticist walks into the house with all 35 grenades on his chest, waits for the minions to swarm, and pulls the pins simultaneously. I believe the final damage was somewhere around 800, and the character was immune to fire. We walked into the now-vacant house and killed the vamp, who was much easier without his precious servants.

Feel free to post any of your mishaps and misadventures here, but I'd really like to see the things that make you look back and say "that was really stupid of me."
Kelvros
04-19-08, 03:02 PM We had a paladin use his sword of wishes to wish an Archlich to be dead...Not well thought through:eek:
Dragonsblood
04-19-08, 03:09 PM This Tuesday my PCs plan on bullying the Ghostlord (lich) into ending his support for the Red Hand of Doom (a Ghostlord I boosted a bit because there are 5 PCs). They're level 8 and the Ghostlord is CR 14. I really can't see any less than one PC death, and quite possibly a TPK. They have 5 charges on the staff of life, but that's not going to do them any good with antilife shell up...

[edit]I forgot to mention, they plan on dangling his phylactery in front of him...
iserith
04-19-08, 03:12 PM My players were investigating the barrow of a dead barbarian king, a place loaded with traps. By way of the path they took through the dungeon, they ended up entering a room "the long way around" such that they bypassed a trap, which consisted of a sealed ceramic vase precariously balanced above a closed door. When the door opens, the vase is supposed to fall and break, apparently releasing something. In the center of the room was a large locked chest.

The PC rogue recognized that it was indeed a simple trap and took the vase off the door frame. He then tried and failed repeatedly to pick the lock on the chest. The PC monk suggested that the vase might contain an acid capable of eating through the chest since it was meant to be a trap and all. Everyone thought it was a reasonable plan after discussing its merits.

The rogue smashed the vase over the chest. It contained burnt othur fumes (Inhaled DC 18, 1 Con/3d6 Con). The rogue died.
CmdrCorsiken
04-19-08, 03:37 PM Our party needed money. So despite my PCs numerous protests, we went in search of creatures known to have a lot of treasure -- yes, we went dragon hunting. Being close to the 'Whithered Heath,' well-known home to many dragons, we looked there first, and found what we needed -- a huge hoarde guarded by a really big dragon. The party barely survived, in fact, my character did not....

Sufice it to say, I'll never buy that book "Dragon Hunting for Fun and Profit"
WarColonel
04-19-08, 05:46 PM Jumped on the back of a wyvern, kicked the rider off of it, and then proceeded to ride said beast. Which wasn't tame. Had no rigging of any sort. Had no ranks in Ride. And the wyvern ended up dieing the next round, about 120' above the ground. I survived, yes, and did end up break the neck of the mage I fell onto, though 1 hp ain't really a lot when you're level 11.
darkfenrir
04-19-08, 09:38 PM First I should tell you about my current party. It consisted of 4 characters: Paladin 8th lvl, Cleric 8th lvl, Fighter 8th lvl, and a Rogue 7th lvl.
* (Note: 3 of the 4 are using platemail, and 2 of which have tower shields.)
They come to the crest of this 25ft cliff that overlooks a stormy sea. They fail their spot checks and dont notice a creature lying in wait under the water and send the rogue down to scout since hes the only one who can climb. He starts climing down and the creature eplodes from the sea, knocking the rogue into the stormy ocean, a DC 20 swim check. The rogue is doing fine but the rest of the party wants to get in on the action and the fighter and paladin decide it will be a good idea to both take wait actions to jump together on top of the creature to hurt it. So I allow it, consult the damage by weight chart and have them roll touch attacks, which they fail and fall into the stormy ocean. The two rust buckets quickly find out how impossible its going to be to swim in a stormy sea and then try to hastily un-don their armor which is going to take well over 20 rounds. As bad of an idea as it was for the two tin cans to jump into the sea I couldnt just sit by and let them die, so I had the cleric cast freedom of movement and save the blokes.
darkfenrir
04-20-08, 12:46 AM The rogue smashed the vase over the chest. It contained burnt othur fumes (Inhaled DC 18, 1 Con/3d6 Con). The rogue died. LOL
darkfenrir
04-20-08, 12:48 AM This Tuesday my PCs plan on bullying the Ghostlord (lich) into ending his support for the Red Hand of Doom (a Ghostlord I boosted a bit because there are 5 PCs). They're level 8 and the Ghostlord is CR 14. I really can't see any less than one PC death, and quite possibly a TPK. They have 5 charges on the staff of life, but that's not going to do them any good with antilife shell up...

[edit]I forgot to mention, they plan on dangling his phylactery in front of him...

You should def try and make the Lich sound intimidating at the chance of a TPK so they can think about turning coat and running away :eek:
Shaggy_Shaggs
04-20-08, 01:13 AM Starting a fire and forgetting about it.
Starting a fire and then getting into combat and being too busy to deal with it.
Starting a fire.
Having possessions capable of being used to start a fire.
Having possessions that are flammable.
Arguing about how best to put out a fire someone else started, rather than actually doing anything about the fire.
Standing sort of near a fire.
Looking at fire.
Mentioning fire in a meaningful way.
Mentioning fire in an offhand way.
Mentioning anything else in an offhand way when it's obvious to everyone you're thinking about fire.

They don't yet call me "Smokey", but I'm not sure why not.
Another_Poet
04-20-08, 01:40 AM Letting the party's LE sorcerer get his hands on five wands of Summon Undead IV right before a would-be dramatic battle.
Dragonsblood
04-20-08, 03:54 AM You should def try and make the Lich sound intimidating at the chance of a TPK so they can think about turning coat and running away :eek:

When they were researching his location, the NPC sage told them the Ghostlord destroyed an entire city. Did that phase them? HAH! Their response was, "OK, so he's powerful, but so are we and we have the staff of life!" I've given them every hint I can think of. Every NPC they've talked to said the Ghostlord is dangerous. They rolled knowledges and I told them he's at LEAST a level 11 caster who can permanently paralyze you with a touch. I fear that their problem is video games; they think everything can be beaten (even though my monsters TPKed them twice on previous campaigns when they acted stupid...)

If they actually go through with the bullying act, I plan on having him open with finger of death (a level 6 spell for blighters) on the fool who holds the phylactery and not stopping until he regains his phylactery. After he picks it up he'll ignore the other PCs until he can hide it. If they don't run at this point, they deserve to die.
Evil DM Mk3
04-20-08, 06:58 AM The party are on a vessel that they have good reason to believe is a Lithid time ship. In order to power such a ship the Lithids would need an imprisoned entity of massive power that had control over time, most likely an Abomination.

They reach the control room.

They hit a large red button.

Not if you have no idea what it does.

What happens next is immaterial, you never hit large red buttons. But for the record, they released the Abomination. They managed to kill it, but the entire party where down in single figure hp.

Plus they now had no way to force the Lithids back...
Degausser
04-20-08, 08:08 AM Okay, so back in 2nd ed, I was in a group that ran Planescape, which culminated in the Modron march Pre-planned adventure as one of the last adventures.

Now, for those of you who don't know, The Modron March ends with the party grabbing an ancient, superpowerful weapon of the gods (the Wand of Orcus) and destroying it so that Orcus (who is trying to . . . uh . . . I guess regain power is the proper wording) can never have his plans fulfilled. Lucky for us, there is a ring circlet, about head-shaped in diameter, that was built by other gods SPECIFICLY to destroy the wand of Orcus by winking it out of existence.

Okay, backstory over, we find the circlet, and our ridiculously idiotic fighter puts it on her head. Which is fine . . . until she grabs the wand of Orcus and gets the almost irrististable urge to bring the two together (Magical compulsion.) Which she immediately does.

While the Circlet is still on her head.

The Circle winks everything out of existence, the circlet, the Wand, the FIGHTER!

It took two wish spells to get her back.
Jeibo
04-20-08, 11:34 AM i was an elf rogue in an evil 4-man party.

We were fighting against another party, and though it was going pretty well, the 2 opponent casters managed to dominate our dwarf fighter and our sorcerer. Made them fly in full speed straight up till fly ended.

As i spotted both of them falling, i use my boots of fly to go save the sorc. On my way there i went too close to the fighter (who had Int 6 btw).

BAD IDEA: the dwarf grappled me and started holding me below him, so that with me as a cushion he would survive the fall.

After laughing for 30-40 minutes, the game went on, with me trying consecutive escape artist checks while falling from the top of the world.

I did finally make the check, got the other two resurrected using their money and kept the rest plus some more of their items.

However the dwarf almost ended that campaign right there, with all 3 of us dead. Why? just because he knew how to Roleplay :D :D
iserith
04-20-08, 12:12 PM Okay, so back in 2nd ed, I was in a group that ran Planescape, which culminated in the Modron march Pre-planned adventure as one of the last adventures.

Now, for those of you who don't know, The Modron March ends with the party grabbing an ancient, superpowerful weapon of the gods (the Wand of Orcus) and destroying it so that Orcus (who is trying to . . . uh . . . I guess regain power is the proper wording) can never have his plans fulfilled. Lucky for us, there is a ring circlet, about head-shaped in diameter, that was built by other gods SPECIFICLY to destroy the wand of Orcus by winking it out of existence.

Okay, backstory over, we find the circlet, and our ridiculously idiotic fighter puts it on her head. Which is fine . . . until she grabs the wand of Orcus and gets the almost irrististable urge to bring the two together (Magical compulsion.) Which she immediately does.

While the Circlet is still on her head.

The Circle winks everything out of existence, the circlet, the Wand, the FIGHTER!

It took two wish spells to get her back.

I ran that module twice, plus Dead Gods. Easily among my favorites. Nice to see I'm not alone.
Atheus
04-20-08, 04:38 PM 1. rigging a series of torches together so that when one burns nearly out, it lights the next in line...and then using that system (and a carrot) to entice the mule pulling the party wagon to continue on through the night while we slept (gnomish barbarian and halfling fighter)...needless to say we awoke to the wagon hurtling through the trees engulfed in flames.

2. the party tank was being swarmed by scarabs and the kobold sorcerer cast ray of flame(fire...whatever its called). the tank had no prayer of making a reflex save and he proceeded to burn to death...and the scarabs had enough fire resist that the spell never harmed them.

3. deciding to take a trip to the positive energy plane when you don't know exactly how it functions.

4. trying to grapple a sort of construct spider thing and having it 20, 20, confirm.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Shinikama 04-19-08, 01:24 PM	Since everyone seems to be on a "1001 blah blah" kick right now, I thought I'd start this one. In a Modern campaign, our DM let a character start with connections to the military (this is the mistake). We were planning on storming the house of this vampire lord, expecting minions of all sorts to come flying at us. The military guy and the group's pyrokineticist went off and huddled in the corner for a few minutes, then came back grinning. They asked the DM if they could requisition some supplies from an old military friend that weren't exactly... legal. The DM had them roll a Charisma check. Result: 23. The DM says they can have X amount of dollars in stuff. They requisition 35 White Phosphorus grenades. For those of you who don't know, this grenade creates a huge fireball that leaves objects relatively unscathed. The pyrokineticist walks into the house with all 35 grenades on his chest, waits for the minions to swarm, and pulls the pins simultaneously. I believe the final damage was somewhere around 800, and the character was immune to fire. We walked into the now-vacant house and killed the vamp, who was much easier without his precious servants. Feel free to post any of your mishaps and misadventures here, but I'd really like to see the things that make you look back and say "that was really stupid of me."
Kelvros 04-19-08, 03:02 PM	We had a paladin use his sword of wishes to wish an Archlich to be dead...Not well thought through:eek:
Dragonsblood 04-19-08, 03:09 PM	This Tuesday my PCs plan on bullying the Ghostlord (lich) into ending his support for the Red Hand of Doom (a Ghostlord I boosted a bit because there are 5 PCs). They're level 8 and the Ghostlord is CR 14. I really can't see any less than one PC death, and quite possibly a TPK. They have 5 charges on the staff of life, but that's not going to do them any good with antilife shell up... [edit]I forgot to mention, they plan on dangling his phylactery in front of him...
iserith 04-19-08, 03:12 PM	My players were investigating the barrow of a dead barbarian king, a place loaded with traps. By way of the path they took through the dungeon, they ended up entering a room "the long way around" such that they bypassed a trap, which consisted of a sealed ceramic vase precariously balanced above a closed door. When the door opens, the vase is supposed to fall and break, apparently releasing something. In the center of the room was a large locked chest. The PC rogue recognized that it was indeed a simple trap and took the vase off the door frame. He then tried and failed repeatedly to pick the lock on the chest. The PC monk suggested that the vase might contain an acid capable of eating through the chest since it was meant to be a trap and all. Everyone thought it was a reasonable plan after discussing its merits. The rogue smashed the vase over the chest. It contained burnt othur fumes (Inhaled DC 18, 1 Con/3d6 Con). The rogue died.
CmdrCorsiken 04-19-08, 03:37 PM	Our party needed money. So despite my PCs numerous protests, we went in search of creatures known to have a lot of treasure -- yes, we went dragon hunting. Being close to the 'Whithered Heath,' well-known home to many dragons, we looked there first, and found what we needed -- a huge hoarde guarded by a really big dragon. The party barely survived, in fact, my character did not.... Sufice it to say, I'll never buy that book "Dragon Hunting for Fun and Profit"
WarColonel 04-19-08, 05:46 PM	Jumped on the back of a wyvern, kicked the rider off of it, and then proceeded to ride said beast. Which wasn't tame. Had no rigging of any sort. Had no ranks in Ride. And the wyvern ended up dieing the next round, about 120' above the ground. I survived, yes, and did end up break the neck of the mage I fell onto, though 1 hp ain't really a lot when you're level 11.
darkfenrir 04-19-08, 09:38 PM	First I should tell you about my current party. It consisted of 4 characters: Paladin 8th lvl, Cleric 8th lvl, Fighter 8th lvl, and a Rogue 7th lvl. * (Note: 3 of the 4 are using platemail, and 2 of which have tower shields.) They come to the crest of this 25ft cliff that overlooks a stormy sea. They fail their spot checks and dont notice a creature lying in wait under the water and send the rogue down to scout since hes the only one who can climb. He starts climing down and the creature eplodes from the sea, knocking the rogue into the stormy ocean, a DC 20 swim check. The rogue is doing fine but the rest of the party wants to get in on the action and the fighter and paladin decide it will be a good idea to both take wait actions to jump together on top of the creature to hurt it. So I allow it, consult the damage by weight chart and have them roll touch attacks, which they fail and fall into the stormy ocean. The two rust buckets quickly find out how impossible its going to be to swim in a stormy sea and then try to hastily un-don their armor which is going to take well over 20 rounds. As bad of an idea as it was for the two tin cans to jump into the sea I couldnt just sit by and let them die, so I had the cleric cast freedom of movement and save the blokes.
darkfenrir 04-20-08, 12:46 AM	The rogue smashed the vase over the chest. It contained burnt othur fumes (Inhaled DC 18, 1 Con/3d6 Con). The rogue died. LOL
darkfenrir 04-20-08, 12:48 AM	This Tuesday my PCs plan on bullying the Ghostlord (lich) into ending his support for the Red Hand of Doom (a Ghostlord I boosted a bit because there are 5 PCs). They're level 8 and the Ghostlord is CR 14. I really can't see any less than one PC death, and quite possibly a TPK. They have 5 charges on the staff of life, but that's not going to do them any good with antilife shell up... [edit]I forgot to mention, they plan on dangling his phylactery in front of him... You should def try and make the Lich sound intimidating at the chance of a TPK so they can think about turning coat and running away :eek:
Shaggy_Shaggs 04-20-08, 01:13 AM	Starting a fire and forgetting about it. Starting a fire and then getting into combat and being too busy to deal with it. Starting a fire. Having possessions capable of being used to start a fire. Having possessions that are flammable. Arguing about how best to put out a fire someone else started, rather than actually doing anything about the fire. Standing sort of near a fire. Looking at fire. Mentioning fire in a meaningful way. Mentioning fire in an offhand way. Mentioning anything else in an offhand way when it's obvious to everyone you're thinking about fire. They don't yet call me "Smokey", but I'm not sure why not.
Another_Poet 04-20-08, 01:40 AM	Letting the party's LE sorcerer get his hands on five wands of Summon Undead IV right before a would-be dramatic battle.
Dragonsblood 04-20-08, 03:54 AM	You should def try and make the Lich sound intimidating at the chance of a TPK so they can think about turning coat and running away :eek: When they were researching his location, the NPC sage told them the Ghostlord destroyed an entire city. Did that phase them? HAH! Their response was, "OK, so he's powerful, but so are we and we have the staff of life!" I've given them every hint I can think of. Every NPC they've talked to said the Ghostlord is dangerous. They rolled knowledges and I told them he's at LEAST a level 11 caster who can permanently paralyze you with a touch. I fear that their problem is video games; they think everything can be beaten (even though my monsters TPKed them twice on previous campaigns when they acted stupid...) If they actually go through with the bullying act, I plan on having him open with finger of death (a level 6 spell for blighters) on the fool who holds the phylactery and not stopping until he regains his phylactery. After he picks it up he'll ignore the other PCs until he can hide it. If they don't run at this point, they deserve to die.
Evil DM Mk3 04-20-08, 06:58 AM	The party are on a vessel that they have good reason to believe is a Lithid time ship. In order to power such a ship the Lithids would need an imprisoned entity of massive power that had control over time, most likely an Abomination. They reach the control room. They hit a large red button. Not if you have no idea what it does. What happens next is immaterial, you never hit large red buttons. But for the record, they released the Abomination. They managed to kill it, but the entire party where down in single figure hp. Plus they now had no way to force the Lithids back...
Degausser 04-20-08, 08:08 AM	Okay, so back in 2nd ed, I was in a group that ran Planescape, which culminated in the Modron march Pre-planned adventure as one of the last adventures. Now, for those of you who don't know, The Modron March ends with the party grabbing an ancient, superpowerful weapon of the gods (the Wand of Orcus) and destroying it so that Orcus (who is trying to . . . uh . . . I guess regain power is the proper wording) can never have his plans fulfilled. Lucky for us, there is a ring circlet, about head-shaped in diameter, that was built by other gods SPECIFICLY to destroy the wand of Orcus by winking it out of existence. Okay, backstory over, we find the circlet, and our ridiculously idiotic fighter puts it on her head. Which is fine . . . until she grabs the wand of Orcus and gets the almost irrististable urge to bring the two together (Magical compulsion.) Which she immediately does. While the Circlet is still on her head. The Circle winks everything out of existence, the circlet, the Wand, the FIGHTER! It took two wish spells to get her back.
Jeibo 04-20-08, 11:34 AM	i was an elf rogue in an evil 4-man party. We were fighting against another party, and though it was going pretty well, the 2 opponent casters managed to dominate our dwarf fighter and our sorcerer. Made them fly in full speed straight up till fly ended. As i spotted both of them falling, i use my boots of fly to go save the sorc. On my way there i went too close to the fighter (who had Int 6 btw). BAD IDEA: the dwarf grappled me and started holding me below him, so that with me as a cushion he would survive the fall. After laughing for 30-40 minutes, the game went on, with me trying consecutive escape artist checks while falling from the top of the world. I did finally make the check, got the other two resurrected using their money and kept the rest plus some more of their items. However the dwarf almost ended that campaign right there, with all 3 of us dead. Why? just because he knew how to Roleplay :D :D
iserith 04-20-08, 12:12 PM	Okay, so back in 2nd ed, I was in a group that ran Planescape, which culminated in the Modron march Pre-planned adventure as one of the last adventures. Now, for those of you who don't know, The Modron March ends with the party grabbing an ancient, superpowerful weapon of the gods (the Wand of Orcus) and destroying it so that Orcus (who is trying to . . . uh . . . I guess regain power is the proper wording) can never have his plans fulfilled. Lucky for us, there is a ring circlet, about head-shaped in diameter, that was built by other gods SPECIFICLY to destroy the wand of Orcus by winking it out of existence. Okay, backstory over, we find the circlet, and our ridiculously idiotic fighter puts it on her head. Which is fine . . . until she grabs the wand of Orcus and gets the almost irrististable urge to bring the two together (Magical compulsion.) Which she immediately does. While the Circlet is still on her head. The Circle winks everything out of existence, the circlet, the Wand, the FIGHTER! It took two wish spells to get her back. I ran that module twice, plus Dead Gods. Easily among my favorites. Nice to see I'm not alone.
Atheus 04-20-08, 04:38 PM	1. rigging a series of torches together so that when one burns nearly out, it lights the next in line...and then using that system (and a carrot) to entice the mule pulling the party wagon to continue on through the night while we slept (gnomish barbarian and halfling fighter)...needless to say we awoke to the wagon hurtling through the trees engulfed in flames. 2. the party tank was being swarmed by scarabs and the kobold sorcerer cast ray of flame(fire...whatever its called). the tank had no prayer of making a reflex save and he proceeded to burn to death...and the scarabs had enough fire resist that the spell never harmed them. 3. deciding to take a trip to the positive energy plane when you don't know exactly how it functions. 4. trying to grapple a sort of construct spider thing and having it 20, 20, confirm.