Post/Author/DateTime	Post
silvermist 01-26-05, 10:28 AM	i just finished posting about thirty cases of what pcs really should have learned by now in another thread but the more i think about it for every really stupid thing that players do they usually do something really awesome this thread is to comemorate the best, most amusing, most beneficial/effective pcs have done in your campaign quite often these are the same things that unexpectedly throw a campaign off track but still they are things that deserve to be rewarded 1. one pc got an art item that was a mask and as far as i could tell didnt recognise it as an art item because he never sold it he just carried it around. later he ended up killing an npc in a drunken rage (another less than stellar move). he had the guy reincarnated though and later (of course) ran into him. dm: the dwarf you have been traveling with runs forward to meet the dwarf you see aproaching you. dwarf: brother, we though you were dead... everyone looks at the player in question.... player: i have on my mask 2. the pcs were exploring a pair of druid ruins when they found out there was a basilisk in one area. so they went to the other part of the ruins where the 'boss' figure at the end of the dungeon was an awakened golum sword to protect his (now stone) druid master. long story short the party druid convinced the golumn to fight the basilisk with them. they killed the thing in two rounds. 3. once the party found a cursed cloak that gave you inteligence drain when you touch it. they wrapped it around a stick and went around hitting enemies with it. (all may fear and tremble before the stick of stupid) 4. while exploring a sewer the pcs found (of course) aligators. this is expected. what was not expected was the party ranger who single handedly wrestled one into submission WHILE UNDER WATER 5. while having trouble with close combat fighting one of the players realised (from looking at a map of the dungeon the group had voluntarily drawn) that the walls between rooms were only about a foot thick, knocked one down and seriously changed the odds for the battle 6. some wizards had hired some kobolds to kill the party for them. the wizards were to hide in the bushes and any kobold that got to low hit points they would run out (while invisible) turn invisible and rush to safety. there was supposed to be a decoy but one of the party members did something stupid and got all the kobolds to just swarm the party. however another party member had heard the noise the decoy made and went to check it out. found the wizards, smashed them good. boy that was a quick battle 7. one player found an ooze, so having damage reduction strode into the ooze and slashed it apart from the inside out you guys keep it going...
Shadowmagyk 01-26-05, 10:48 AM	8. I am kind of biased on this, since it was my character (in my first ever game... 2e). edit: My character was a Rogue. The Drow were marching on the surface to take over the entire world. They had already crushed the dwarves, and used their mountain as their base of operations. they were next marching toward the Elven city, where I was an outcast. We convinced the Elven king that the threat was real, and that they had to make preparations to defend the city. We did not realize that the Drow had created gunpowder, and had giants moving monstrous cannons. We heard a tremendous thunder, and a few second later, we saw a huge hole in the city wall, and the Drow, along with their minions, were storming the gates. I, in a rare moment of heroism, ran off... no, no, no... I ran off to the King's aid, and stood by myself, weapons drawn, ready to defend the King. Of course, it wasnt that easy. It is very hard to stop the ceiling from falling on the king after it gets hit with a boulder launched from the cannon. Anyway, with his last breath, he recanted my status in the kingdom, and called me a true hero. Of course, I was by myself, so no one heard that, but... 9. Same campaign, we came across a Wand of Wonder. The Drow made it to the Human kingdom after the defeat of the Elven kingdom, and we had to play catch-up. I think that the DM had some wizards scryiong on us, so when we got to the front gates of the castle, the doors opened, and we saw three smaller cannons pointed at us, with the wicks already lit. The cannons went of in succession, and the party wizard, fortunately, was standing in front of the last cannon, so he used the Wand (what else was there to do), the roll was made, and time reversed one round, so here we are, with the cannons going off again. The wand was used again, and this time time was reversed a full minute (lucky roll, huh?!).
Moon-Lancer 01-27-05, 07:58 AM	10: I personally liked when my character was fighting hollowed beasts, the first action i took was to charge the largest one. A hollowed Lion. I think I hit. Not sure. Anyway after that, the creature did a full attack and hit my character allot. Well after that i was brought to 0 hit point. So i could either run, or attack. Even though my party was far away i attacked the creature, causing my character to pass out. However when he awoke he found he had crit’ed the creature (20, but no extra damage because undead) however he did kill it. It felt very cinematic.
Callista 01-27-05, 11:21 AM	One of my players was playing a halfling bard, and they were attempting to find a wizard who had vanished. When she went to his house and no one answered, she climbed in through the window and opened the door... which was when the furniture (animated objects) started attacking her--seems like the wizard had his own burglar trap! I had written out the orders for the animated objects--"Attack anyone who enters the house, but don't leave the house"--and, by stepping back and forth across the threshold, the bard quickly figured this out. The next few minutes were spent with the character taking crossbow potshots at animated furniture that wasn't allowed to leave the house; and the player thinking about her free XP! I (a very new DM at the time) spent the time repeatedly smacking my forehead against the table...
Tsai_Auron 01-27-05, 11:37 AM	#12 I had a very creative druid in this one game. The party was fighting a giant that was using a huge wooden club. This giant was majorly damaging the fighters, so the druid ran over and grabbed the giants club and used "shape wood" to wrap the giants club around its wrists like manacles. It worked and we killed a giant, because he kept failing to break out of his own club.
Board_Rider 01-27-05, 11:55 AM	13. Although not an excellent PC action for the Party it was great for me as the DM. You see I was growing tired of this certain campaign mainly because of the Party's actions. So when they finally get to the so-called BBEG and he offers them a truce to explain what was going down.....they attack. Save the Rogue who ate the food. So there was a way to defeat this BBEG, the Rogue knew it, but instead of helping he ate a virtual sandwich. They Died. I moved on. Most excellent.
3Man20 01-27-05, 03:54 PM	I'm the type of DM who doesn't like to say "never". If a player comes up with something, I will give them at least some (small) chance of it working, if it is outside the normal actions. So it was... 14. Barbarian character is bashing through a wizard's tower along with the rest of the group. After fighting their way through Orc minions and other henchmen, the enter a room and are attacked by the Wizard's pet vultures. After a few rounds of futility in trying to stop their swooping attacks, the Barbarian successfully reaches out and grabs one (not an easy roll to make), then says, "I want to impale him on my spiked helm.." After the laughter died down, I gave him a pretty small chance of it succeeding, which it did, but not only that, he critically hit the thing on his spiked helm and killed it in one shot. So after the battle I asked him what he was going to do with a dead and bleeding impaled vulture on his head, and the player said, "I'm going to leave it there as a warning to other birds." Not only was it a great idea that actually worked, it furnished one of the funniest moments of the campaign.
Gorgoth The Dark 01-27-05, 04:52 PM	15. In our one game we had a Stoner/druid/herbalist/shifter thing. The druid was always wasted on weed/shrooms (Survival/Knowledge Nature) and other things. The party was attaking an evil keep which housed the operations of a Bane whorshiping cult. Nobody could get through the gates. The druid just takes one drag of his jay, turns into a crow, flies in through the tower window. He then turned back into normal shape. The two guards tried to stop him, but he took onother puff and turned into a rhyno, trampled all the guards and smashed the gate open.
Vaval 01-27-05, 05:11 PM	15. In our one game we had a Stoner/druid/herbalist/shifter thing. The druid was always wasted on weed/shrooms (Survival/Knowledge Nature) and other things. The party was attaking an evil keep which housed the operations of a Bane whorshiping cult. Nobody could get through the gates. The druid just takes one drag of his jay, turns into a crow, flies in through the tower window. He then turned back into normal shape. The two guards tried to stop him, but he took onother puff and turned into a rhyno, trampled all the guards and smashed the gate open. Ummm, thats not a good thing. Really, he should not have been able to do anyof that propery if he was under the effects of the drugs, which he could not have anyway becuase you cannot volentarily fail fort saves (which all posions get, drugs are posions with side effects) and a druid of a level that can turn into a Rihno will never fail one of those saves, your not playing right and you and your player are obscenity removed, the game isnt about just having stupid fun, and if the character was all drug intensive from level 1 he would be so perma fryed becuase he could make all the saves auto he would not have the wisdom score needed to be a druid. Not to mention he would also gain immunity to the effects when he gets immunity to poison.
twad 01-27-05, 08:57 PM	Vaval, they can have all the fun they want. Stop being rude like that. Remember: 3 Golden rules 1- Have fun 2- The DM is always right, and he can do what he want with the game system. 3- Have fun
silvermist 01-28-05, 09:47 AM	16. not that this had any real effect in game but it was funny, it requires a bit of prep first though: - many people are familiar with the little flash video of dancing badgers, including the players in my group - one of the characters in our party is always picking up wierd stuff: plants he finds, rocks, the corpses of things he kills.... - one of these things was a dead snake, which he crited his knowledge check to identify as a snake and decided was a 'rope monster' - anthropromorphic creatures are not so uncomon in my campaign so the party comes to a bar in a wierd forest that is staffed by anthropromorphic badgers player: i walk up to a badger dm: okay player: i offer him a mushroom dm: he declines to eat it player: i pull out the rope monster and show it to him badgers...mushroom...snake?
Morka 01-28-05, 11:36 AM	17. Last year I was playing an halfling rogue with 8 of Constitution, who always kept barely dying. As soon as I got the chance to change character, I created a barbarian with max CON, specialized in tripping (Wolf Totem barbarian from UA). For some reason, I could play him only in one game. So his best fight was against a Fiendish Tyranosaurus. We saw him from a great distance, so the wizard sent him a few fireballs before he could hit us. When he was before us, I tryed to hit him with my Guisarme, but the damned thing has 5' more reach than me. It bit me and grabbed me. Next round it chew me. Next round, it swallowed me. But all this time, the other PCs and NPCs were attacking him, and he was defenseless because his jaw was occupied by me. Once in its gizzard, the beast didn't perform very well, and was killed by the rest of the party. My character exit the gizzard with 4 HP, from a total of 100 HP while raging, and was happy to survive the encounter, claming to be indigestible!
happycows 01-28-05, 12:04 PM	# 18. They were level 8 and the dwarf fighter wanted to kill a bunch of giants as a test of his strength and for the glory of it - off they were! So they are on top of a huge hill or mountain and see the giants sleeping. They were super far far away and the rogue spotted them out with his silly spyglass. So what do they do? All turn get around the gnome to turn invisible, virtue, virtue, psionically charge 1 temp hit point.... jumped off the cliff and layed the smackdown on the giants. The giants woke and spotted them. Initiative. Players stood up safely and laid the smackdown. Good job gnome illusionist for coming up with that idea. They were all buffed up too. Ruined my boss fight... damnit. One was a sorcerer with fireball... I wanted to kill them all those punks. #19 It's okay - their next dungeon had a beholder (dumbed down to CR 11 of course those level 9 punks). All but the gnome and his cohort died... omg I was mad. tricky punk! Before the last area of the dungeon there was a door and everyone buffed up (so i just impromtu a trap and stuck the beholder above the door to get a surprise on them). The rogue disarms the trap and the gnome summons an image and makes that walk in and look around then turn back to them and say, "there's some kind of monster here." So I made them roll a bluff (looked at beholder to find that I left the skills out and randomly gave it sense motive), damn gnome won. Beholder shot the image up they all ask how the ray went and it seemed to come from just above the door. This is too depressing to go on they should've all died those punks
Tembomber 01-28-05, 12:41 PM	#19. One of my players has a most amusing charcter in a CG Half-Orc barbarian with 3 charisma. This player roleplays this really well and gives the others a good laugh now and then. His int and wis are rather high by the way. Now, the story: Party is escorting a deva, underground looking for something of the devas. They get ambushed by a group of darkmantles (flying octopi with the spell-like ability of darkness.) Most members of the group mosey on out of the way, but the paladin and the barbarian in question stay and fight. In the dying moments of the battle, the paladin gets hit and grappled be a baddie (stuck on his head actually) and is rather low on hp's. Barbarian decides to save his buddie and attacks ... knowing full well that he could kill his friend. He rolls ... and crits! ... I have a rule that if you roll a 20 on your confirmation roll, you get to roll again to confirm and increase the crit modifier by 1. And he rolls a 20 on his confirmation roll ... and confirms again. So the damage was: (1d12+Str)x4! and the paladin is shaking in his boots. The barb rolls to see if he hits the paladin or the darkmantle ... and BARELY makes the roll :D ... so when I describe it to them I make it so he actually manages to scrape the beastie of the pallys neck, polishing his armor at the same time ... with a greataxe :D
The_Caitiff 03-30-05, 05:48 AM	*Casts Raise Thread* In one of my campaigns, the players were deep into the plot and about to break in on the last few rooms where the BBEGs were hiding. There were four rooms atop a tower no windows in reach and only one door. If they went in through the door the players would have to fight a few more minions giving the BBEGs time to escape out a window they couldnt reach. PC's decide not to risk losing them (DM was determined to have them flee to be recurring BBEGs), there was vengance to be settled. PC1; Can we tell where the Palemaster (head BBEG) is? DM; Listen Check PC1; 21! DM; He is in a room with three others just a few feet from you, but you will have to go in the door and down the hall to get to him. Stone walls a foot thick tend to do that. PC2 (Me, a cleric 9); Stone walls? A foot thick you say? DM; Yes... Why? PC2; Get ready guys we're about to make an entrance! PCs ready weapons DM; How do you plan to get past the guards without fighting? You cant get there from here. PC2; Stone Shape :evillaugh :dancin: DM; :shocked: :uh-huh: Oooookay, surprise round, what are y'all doing? PC3; Power Attack 9 with my Weapon of Impact (keen for bludgeoning) Maul. Nat 20!!! Crit confirmed...... that'll be 63 damage save vs massive damage DM; 1, the drow pale master is thrown across the room as your mighty maul smashes into the back of his head like a golf club. He leaves a bloody smear on the far wall. PC1; I cast web. "Sorry for barging in unannounced, hope you'll stick around!" DM; *roll* Fail *roll* Fail. The other two drow are stuck in the web.
Carn Vandoril 03-30-05, 06:26 AM	A group of 8 pc's went up against a black dragon (adult). A druid(at just a few hp left) got thrown across the cave by this dragon, damage through 'impact' (4d6) could kill him. *21 So while falling/flying through the air, he casts 'entangle' on the cave wall and ground where he was going to land. It was so brilliant I let him live to fight an other day.
Kukamunga 03-30-05, 06:48 AM	#22 I have a player in my regular group that if he can get away with doing evil while still saving the world he will. He becoming a quite accomplished theif decided that he wasnt going to buy anything anymore and that he was just going to whenver we were about to leave a town he would loot some of the empty homes. Well i didnt like how unballanced this was getting so when they were getting ready to try this again they checked out this one house and they decided that it was all clear they got in and started at it.. well they went upstairs and to their suprise there was some one sleeping up there who just woke up becuse of the noise they were making. To my enjoyment they opted to kill her to keep her quiet. They easly did but not before she screamed. They finished up and left. As they were leaving. Many conserned neighbours who had heard the scream were waiting for them outside. They managed to talk their way past the crowd. But only a few blocks away the crowd found the body and started chasing after them. Long story short the crowd chased after the duo through the town. When the duo met up with the rest of the party the crowd caught up. and to my total suprise the party with the use of a few unorthadoxly used spells and alot of charisma and role playing turned a crowd of bloodthirsty vigilantys into a full fledged militia who were willing to help the players defeat the current big bad... I was shocked haha
MortalPlague 03-30-05, 07:41 AM	#23 During today's session, two of my players opted to retire their characters (who they felt weren't going anywhere) and created a pair of halfling brothers. The group encountered an Ankheg during the night, and they defeated it with little trouble. As the watch went on, one of the halflings (with the help of the elf ranger) carved off one of the larger shells from the ankheg, cleaned it a little, and began using it as a sled. So here they were, the halfling brothers riding along in an ankheg shell sled being dragged behind the ranger's horse (to the elf ranger's amusement). But that's not the end of their ingenuity. The shell later became an impromptu tower shield in a creep across a courtyard while under archer fire. All in all, the shell saw a surprising amount of use and utility. #24 From the same session, and from the same encounter. One of the halflings (Milo by name) is a drunk, and also brews his own stuff. As the ranger salvaged the ankheg's acid, Milo decided that the stuff would go well in a drink. So he eventually traded oil of silversheen to the ranger for a vial of ankheg acid. When he got his hands on some cider, he poured a quarter of the acid in, and attempted to drink it. Had his halfling brother not knocked the mug from his hands, he would've taken much more than 2 damage (rolled one, double for internal damage). All in all, though, an amusing bit of rp. Ankheg Cider, not for the weak of throat.
John Bezo 03-30-05, 10:47 AM	Lots of druids in this list.. And here is another one... About 5 years ago, in the early part of the campaign, the group is sent south to deal with a group of desert raiders working both sides of the boarder. Aster tracking them and scouting them, the group figures out that they can't intercept them before they hit a caravan in the distance but they can get to the nearby hamlet before the raiders get there. So they organize the town folk, start preparing defenses, and get ready. The raiders come down the road and up the dried out streambed, splitting the party in 2 directions. Half the group, with the druid, attacks the lead group of raiders, which has the raider captain and his highly magical sword. The fight is going badly, and the raiders have gone into town leaving their captain to deal with these pests. Which he is doing well.. The ex-ranger/monk is down, the elf fighter/mage is getting her a** handed to her and the only reason the druid is still alive is he turned into a falcon and took off.. No one was upset at the druid leaving, figuring he would just heal up, and return to the fight. But he kept climbing and climbing as the falcon for about 5 rounds. Which was starting to get to the Fighter/mage and the cleric who had joined her. They were almost dead. The druids turn comes up and he waits for the over the table comments to stop about his leaving the other to die. Then calmly turns to me and says he rolls over into a dive, aimed at the back of the raider captain. So he dives and dives, picking up speed the whole way down. All of us are thinking he will pull up and talon rake the captain. No.. He never pulls out, he just nose dives right into the back of the captain with, as luck would have it a Nat 20 for his attack roll. He only had 4 hp left when he did this. He completely obliterated the BBEG, and killed himself in the process. The players and I sat stunned for about 10 seconds then the cheers and laughter started. It was a great use of wild shape and self sacrifice, his action allowed the cleric to heal the monk, then they headed for to the town. Linked up with the rest of the group and drove the bandits off. Saving the towns folk and most of the town.. A true hero... It was so cool... J.
speeblefreak 03-30-05, 02:12 PM	A ninja/thief-acrobat had just entered a metropolis (Calimport) and was hoping to get picked up by a guild. He noticed one guild tower being assaulted by an air monolith, which was carrying several large bags of loot from the tower. The ninja used a cloak of improved blinking to run straight up to the air monolith, hung from the bags one-handed, and used his whip-dagger to slice off the monolith's hand that was holding the bags. The guild hired him on the spot.
Herald@Large 03-30-05, 03:39 PM	I *think* this is: #26: Many years ago, I was playing a 2nd ed game, running an elven wizard with 20 intelligence (special goody from the DM -- long story). The party was out in the desert and had just managed to take out a blue dragon. We were able to divvy up gems & jewelry & magic items in backpacks & such, but this still left a big pile of coins. The DM was chortling and rubbing his hands: here we were in the middle of nowhere with this massive pile of coins and no way to transport them. No pack animals, no wagons, and "town" was several days hike away. I pulled out my PHB & started looking at spells and found one called "Item", which would reduce one object to 1/10 of its former size; you could also opt to make the reduced object into a "cloth-like consistency". The spell specifically stated that a fire *and its fuel* counted as one object, so I asked the DM if the pile of coins counted as one object. He thought it over and said Yes. She had the spell in her spellbook, so one night's sleep later, *POOF*, the pile of coins is now a square of cloth with yellow and white polka dots. At her level, the spell would last 24 hours, so my wizard picked the cloth up and tied it around her hair like a bandanna. Not only did we get the entire dragon hoard back to town, we didn't have to pay any taxes 'cause all the guards saw was this pretty headscarf! I got a *big* XP bonus for that bright idea ... :D
smaugchow 03-31-05, 11:36 AM	My players once put together a great plan for storming a keep. They took days to prepare and watch, stole the passwords by magical eavesdropping (I gave them that spell expecting it to never be used,) mapped the place by locating an old woman who used to be a cook there, they enchanted 3 stones with silence and when they would kick in a door they would scatter the stones then wade in with the fighters. The total opposite of "I kick the door in - what hppens?" And then the twitchy mage launched a lighting bolt (not silenced, fairly enclosed space) at a 2nd level cleric and it all went to hell. :eek: Stupid mage.....