Post/Author/DateTime	Post
WCH 05-15-05, 01:54 AM	1) I just played in a one off adventure, lvl 13, where the end boss was an Adult Green Dragon (CR 13), which is a bit easier than should have been the end boss anyway, but whatever. Notwithstanding, we killed it in one freaking round. 1 round! What happened: my sorc's familiar (a hawk) had invisibility cast on it at the end of the previous encounter. We already had been through this cave (had left and now had to clear it out again since new monsters had taken over), so, knowing the layout, I had the hawk scout it out for me, finding out that there was a Huge Green Dragon in the treasure room (the treasure was there last time we came, and we were forced to leave without getting it, so apparently the green dragon had found it and taken over). Knowing it was there, we were able to sneak up, buff like mad, and devise a plan of awesomeness; two fireballs, two castings of shocking grasp delivered by the hawk, a double 6d6 sneak attack by an invisible rogue 7/temple raider 5 and attacks from a huge fire elemental, two lions (figurines of wondrous power), a raging fighter/barbarian and a dire tiger (Druid wild shape) later, the dragon was quite dead. Managed to get off a single attack -- a tail sweep, to be exact. So, anyone else had any encounters which were supposed to be rather hard, but which the PCs stormed through?
Gilgiga of the Hunt 05-15-05, 02:15 AM	2) OK, for this one I was a player, a Psi Warrior/ Elocator to be percise. For once I win initive in the fight. Exapansion already manifested, I hustle and charge across the room, then with a psionic strike, and a critical hit with my large greatsword (a la exapnsion) kill the Mind Flayer before he can get off a power or the rest of the party can do anything. Leaving five thralls verry confused over what to do. Scrap that BBEG.
Draconae 05-15-05, 02:18 AM	I was running a game at school and my group, about seven boys, were being tested by a Mercane on their combat skills. They were level 5's I think. Anyway, there was a staircase which collapsed and sent you sailing into a Gelatinous cube, a 5 foot wide bridge over a flaming pit with an orc barbarian with a great axe on it, a new kind of dragon, a Lesser Pestilence drake, which was all acid, claws and tail, and a centaur! And they survived all of it. Including the room with the magic staffs of fireball etc, which the idiots then proceeded to snap to see what happened. They survived the ensuing explosions. Even the staff of healing explosion. And to top it all off, they were teleported to a hill giants lair (CR 7) which they flattened. All that, by lvl 5 standards, is completely insane. Beat that.
Solidcobra 05-15-05, 02:28 AM	Situation: Three PCs, each level 12. One druid, one wizard and a rogue, enter the BBEGs stronghold. After slaying their way through his underlings, level 10 barbarian/fighers, lv.10 druids and lv.10 clerics, mostly (aroud 15 total), they, mostly out of spells, face the BBEG. 16 levels of cleric. surprise round. Rogue attack. Rogue wins init, rogue attack. Druid goes second, already in animal form he pounces. BBEG is 3/4 dead. Wizard goes next (yeah. wohoo with rolling a 1 on init), blasting the remaining hit points to kingdom come. Yup. One round. >_< Morale: Never underestimate a rogue, a druid or a wizard.
WCH 05-15-05, 02:50 AM	Wait, why'd they get a surprise round in the boss fight? Shouldn't the cleric have been ready for them, all madly buffed and aware of where they are, thanks to their fights with his cronies? As a house rule (kind of) I'd never allow the rogue to attack twice while the enemy is still flatfooted... that's just obscene. To me, surprise round means that the person surprised just has last initiative automatically, not that you get an entire round for free.
Endarire 05-15-05, 02:51 AM	Never underestimate initiative, especially for ECL12s. -EE
SevenSerpents 05-15-05, 02:53 AM	party, consisting of a samurai, a barbarian and a wu-jen confront the boss of a small dungeon, a sorcerer, in a lowlevel-game. the wu-jen is out of offensive spells, only has her crossbow. the samurai and the barbarian got rather beaten up on the way to the boss and only have a few hp left. the evil sorcerer is waiting on the other side of a chasm. the wu-jen wins initiative, aims with her crossbow (ranged +1 or something) and scores a critical - the bolt goes right through the eye of the sorcerer and he drops dead.
High Octane 05-15-05, 12:48 PM	One of my friends' paladins triple critted a green dragon that was a CR about 4 above him and ended up beating it alone.
Shaken, not Stunned 05-15-05, 01:12 PM	In a campaign with action points, an orc barbarian in my group dove off a <really, really> high cliff (20d6, the only relavent factor). At the bottom, he dumped an action point into a climb check to catch himself one foot from the bottom. He rolled a 20 on the d20, a 6 on the d6, and, with his raging strength, he tied a DC 40. Well, so much for the cr5 cliff encounter defeated by a level three orc in one round.
Meisterbrau 05-15-05, 01:27 PM	Back when they were around 18 or so (i think) my pcs were facing an angry medusa giant scorpion ranger tauric creature (cr 22ish if I remember right) init happend wizard goes first. Fires a prismatic eye spell rolls save or die I roll a one bobs yer uncle and the beast that I was sure would account for a PC or 2 was dead. (the cleric in the group actualy resed the thing so he could fight it by himself but after it got back up with its mighty one HP the wizard dropped it with a magic missile or somthing honking off the cleric (of Talos) to no end).
Rien 05-15-05, 04:20 PM	Why In Gods name would the medusa come back to live if she is resed by the same people who killed her in the first place ?? :confused: sounds strange to me ..
Light of Day 05-15-05, 04:50 PM	Our party of 3 around 7-8th level characters had just found and beaten a black dragon. The fight was the fight was very tough, it was a small miracle we didn't lose a PC. The DM decided to drop a surprise on us on the way out of the dungeon in the form of about 10 trolls, assuming that in our weakened state he'd kill a PC, if not achieve a TPK. Unfortunatly, mr DM didn't realise that my sorceror had been holding back against the dragon and still had a third-level spell slot remaining. And those trolls were awfully cramped together in the small room we found them in. And to top it off my sorceror won initiative. You guessed it, one fireball and all the trolls were down. The fight was over before they even knew we were there. Heck, the fight was over before the other PCs knew the trolls were there. :mage:
Radijs 05-15-05, 05:04 PM	A high level campaign. I had hidden a load of skeletons that where supposed to animate as soon as the wall of force had been dropped. I neglected that they had a greater dispel magic scroll on them. They dispelled the wall and most of the skeletons. The rest was bone dust thanks to the swift actions of a barbarian. Oh well....
Kintaran 05-15-05, 10:41 PM	around 13th level. Four huge mummies. The wizard shrugs, activates boots of 3.0 haste, leads off with quickened fireball. Adds in an Empowered Fireball and a delayed blast fireball. He has Greater Spell Focus (evocation) and is a fire specialist. He fails to roll anything under 3(!!!) and gets a sea of 6s. Drops over 200 points of fire damage after vulnerability and they all blow every save, except for one, and only against the quickened shot. I was expecting a salvo of fire spells, but I thought the cleric and druid would contribute something.
Mirikon 05-15-05, 10:43 PM	I made up a Monstrous Giant Preying Mantis, gave it ice breath and all. The sucker was about 2-3 CR above the party's average level. Damn barbarian with his first init, crit on a greataxe during rage. First attack, first round. Dead.
Paradisio 05-16-05, 01:45 AM	3 level 5 half-janni fighters from sandstorm CR6 Vs 7 party members, level 3-5 Janni charge attacks from behind a dune, hitting one party member. Party moves into a formation and damages one of them. Opponents use enlarge person ability Party kills 2 more. Last opponent attacks. Last opponent dies. @_@ The warmage with energy substitution is really annoying me (another thread on that soon.)
niesl 05-16-05, 07:22 AM	The party had gained entrance to a BBEG's fortified house and had cleared allmost all of the rooms. The headed for the last room, a bedroom with 4 doors with portcullis traps built in the doors. Inside was a half-fiend medusa rogue who had hidden herself. (CR 19, the party was lvl 7). There we're several escaping possibilities and the medusa would let them go in exchange for information or for completing a task for her. The party's necromancer however decides the medusa's books are interesting and walks into the room and takes some tomes. The medusa shows herself and shoots the stealing necromancer, who drops down to -7. (The medusa had a cap on, hiding her petrifying eyes, because she wanted to speek to the party first) The rest of the party arrives and the medusa lowers to porticullis traps manually, shutting the party for her and the dying. She then fires another bolt and another partymember gets damaged heavily. Then the bard (whose player is a newbie) decides to cast hold person. Then the luck is on their side and I (the DM) roll a 1 and the medusa is held. The goliath fighter beats the break DC for the porticullis with ease and proceeds to decapitate the medusa with his enourmous sword. Bye bye BBEG...
FinWolven 05-16-05, 08:53 AM	A long-played, now high-level 3.0 campaign: My half-celestial evocator lvl 15 Vs. Flying, gigantic monster, looked a bit like a stingray, hit points somewhere in the low thousands, CR something nasty with a template or two on it just to give it challenge on our whole team... And us going at it with only me and our druid on the area (my keep was nearby), less then 1/5th of our usual 'party'. Round 1: Fly up to it. It tries to lightning-bolt me, half-celestial immunity. Round 2: Got to range, cast Prismatic Spray. Result: 1d8 rolls 8 = Floating leviathan leaves to a completely random plane. End of Encounter
Venom of the Yuan Ti 05-16-05, 09:05 AM	An Epic one Rouge20 Duelist9, improved feight. VS Balor fighter (CR31) Feingt, sneak attack and crit with +5 holy shockign burst thundering rapier, 4 points off max damadge. Balor fighter down to 12 hp. Wizard maximised magic missles him. DEAD.
Dhar Sedai 05-16-05, 09:51 AM	This weekend I were DM for two people... They were noobs, so I helped them build characters, and let them find themselves equipment, and enchant them like they wanted from the DM-guide (they had only like 70k or something, started as lv 12) I set them up against a CR15 dragon, and two rounds after, the dragon was dead, and they had been hit one time... This was a fight were I had no bad rolls with the dragon, They had only one crit, and they hadn't buffed themselves for the fight (and worst of all...I had forgot giving them the ability bonuses they should get at every 4th lv...)
VirgilCaine 05-16-05, 10:58 AM	Then the bard (whose player is a newbie) decides to cast hold person. Then the luck is on their side and I (the DM) roll a 1 and the medusa is held. The goliath fighter beats the break DC for the porticullis with ease and proceeds to decapitate the medusa with his enourmous sword. Bye bye BBEG... I hate to tell you this, but Hold Person has a target of "one humanoid creature."
Glenn4Moose 05-16-05, 11:39 AM	My just finished campaign had the group storming a heavily populated tower full of goblinoids. With their airship they were able to remove the siege weaponary that would take out the ship and themselves and landed atop the tower. On their way down, they run across 8 or so lvl 12 orc/half-orc barbarians and fighters, all with high con and lots of hitpoints. The party was at lvl 12 also fyi. The two wizards won init, after one losing six of his eight mirrors by the ready actions of the orcs, and took advantage of sudden maximize and fire blast. Lets just say that 12d8 fire damage, maximized is a problem when you have opponents with low dex and just as bad reflexes. Toasted the melee'rs in two actions, no one else had a chance to act. Poor poor orcs :P
Gurthoron 05-16-05, 01:14 PM	Fighting a large group of Paragon Solars with a 30-ish lvl rogue fallen Solar (Dropped lots of Solar abilities so the LA wasn't hideous). The previous round I had done massive damage and thus had a good bonus due to Sado-masochism. A group of 3-4 Solars were hiding in a Prismatic sphere (don't ask me how they fit) to heal and regroup. Bull rush straight through the prismatic sphere, make all the saves. The Paragons couldn't. End four CR 36-ish characters. 3 Rust dragons ambushed our party on the grounds of a hideously high level NPC advisor. First round, they get all 3 breath weapons off. Little damage to the party, but the NPC rolls triple 1's for saves so the DM rules that she died.(No way a lvl-100 ish rogue would die from that, but oh well) Rusting breath also does very little to the items we carried, with the exception of a ring beloved to the sorcerer. Next round- Me and the druid/catlord charge one foe. Dead in that round. Paladin dire charge/smites one. Dead. Sorcerer Eternity of Torments one. Its gone. We killed 3 wyrms (I think) in one round of combat, witha level 20-ish party.
MarkB 05-16-05, 07:16 PM	Our group of 14th-ish-level characters came up against a long-running enemy in a mansion, a female black dragon (I forget the age category, but CR somewhat higher than our party level) who'd been a real thorn in our side previously. She had disguised herself as the female NPC we were there to rescue, but my Cleric had cast True Seeing just before we arrived, so was able to get a warning off, and she didn't get surprise on us. About 2/3rds of the party beat her initiative, and our primary fighter, a gladiator with Powerful Build tricked-out as a wrestling specialist, rushed in and grappled her. On her action, she tried to break the grapple using all her attacks, which left her no time to revert to her natural form. Next round, the gladiator was able to pin her, and three coup de grace attacks later, she failed her Fortitude save and died. At which point, we found out that it can be a little inconvenient (not fatally so, though) to be in the same small room as a big dead dragon when she reverts to normal form.
devinmdp 05-16-05, 10:06 PM	Our party of 3 around 7-8th level characters had just found and beaten a black dragon. The fight was the fight was very tough, it was a small miracle we didn't lose a PC. The DM decided to drop a surprise on us on the way out of the dungeon in the form of about 10 trolls, assuming that in our weakened state he'd kill a PC, if not achieve a TPK. Unfortunatly, mr DM didn't realise that my sorceror had been holding back against the dragon and still had a third-level spell slot remaining. And those trolls were awfully cramped together in the small room we found them in. And to top it off my sorceror won initiative. You guessed it, one fireball and all the trolls were down. The fight was over before they even knew we were there. Heck, the fight was over before the other PCs knew the trolls were there. :mage: I have no idea why a single fireball of 8th level would take down the trolls. Average roll is 28 points of damage, assuming every troll fails its save. That means 10 angry trolls with 35 hit points each left. Care to revise your story? Devin
Paradisio 05-16-05, 10:24 PM	I have a feeling that he toned down the trolls because the party was already worn down, but of course the player assumes he was just trying to TPK them with regular ones :rolleyes:
ChimericalWolf 05-17-05, 03:41 AM	Our group of 14th-ish-level characters came up against a long-running enemy in a mansion, a female black dragon (I forget the age category, but CR somewhat higher than our party level) who'd been a real thorn in our side previously. She had disguised herself as the female NPC we were there to rescue, but my Cleric had cast True Seeing just before we arrived, so was able to get a warning off, and she didn't get surprise on us. About 2/3rds of the party beat her initiative, and our primary fighter, a gladiator with Powerful Build tricked-out as a wrestling specialist, rushed in and grappled her. On her action, she tried to break the grapple using all her attacks, which left her no time to revert to her natural form. Next round, the gladiator was able to pin her, and three coup de grace attacks later, she failed her Fortitude save and died. At which point, we found out that it can be a little inconvenient (not fatally so, though) to be in the same small room as a big dead dragon when she reverts to normal form. able to pin her, and three coup de grace attacks later Sorry, bud, no coupies on the pin, less you didn't tell us sompfin. Not helpless, y'know.
MarkB 05-17-05, 03:57 AM	able to pin her, and three coup de grace attacks later Sorry, bud, no coupies on the pin, less you didn't tell us sompfin. Not helpless, y'know. Um... oops. I'm not sure which of us got the idea that a pinned character was helpless, but that's the way we'd been playing it, though I don't think we killed off any other major opponent that way. I guess we'd managed to collectively miss the "(but not helpless)" clause.
Flushmaster 05-17-05, 05:22 AM	She would be denied her dex bonus to AC though, so sneak attacks would still add on to damage. Another reason for the snarky little rogue to make friends with the big brawler.
niesl 05-17-05, 11:38 AM	I hate to tell you this, but Hold Person has a target of "one humanoid creature." Hmm, that explains a lot. Guess I made a mistake somewhere while writing out that NPC. That'll teach me to change NPC races over and over. :D Guess the NPC's were lucky then.Thanks for pointing it out ;) Another one to stay on topic. DM: 'As the party prepares to rest, two ghostlike appearances slowly close in on the resting site...' Me (Cleric): 'I'll use my last turn check!' *rolls very high* DM: 'The ghosts scream as their souls are returned to the afterlife by the holy energy of the cleric..' Me: (in a very casual tone) 'I sigh and go to sleep'
Apostate 05-24-05, 10:07 PM	I put my party all level 8, against an erenyes. The erenyes, being clever, puts out all of the lights in the room and takes to the air with her bow to begin picking off partymembers. No one can hit her, no one until my wilder walks into the room. He beefs up a death-urge spell. The demon commits suicide. The. Most.Anti-clamatic.Bossfight.Ever.
gavalon 05-24-05, 10:21 PM	My very first time playing. lv 1 Ranger. in a party of lv 4's. Chase a shadowy man into a dungeon, at the end of the dungeon, he stards there as he flips over a mirror, and daemons come out. deamons die pretty quickly, then man vanishes, and in his place is a huge cr 9 or 10 monster. DM: The monster consumes the nearby corspes of the daemons u killed and becomes bigger and stronger. everyone in my party: o crap me: i shoot an arrow, i rolled a 20, now what? dm: roll again, you might be able to do double damage me: i rolled another 20, now what dm: wow, roll again me: geeze another 20, now what dm: ahhhhh.... roll 1 more time me: dang, a 4, do i still get to do damage? dm: no me: but the first 3 hit, right? dm: no, that was only one arrow, as u shot it if went through the monster's skull and took part of its brains through his ***** as he falls over dead... me: uh.... should i shoot it again? everyone was just staring at me
Thomeyis 05-24-05, 11:04 PM	One of the first games I ever played in was a 3-person level 1 game. I was a Halfling Monk, and my two companions were a Human Samurai and an Elf Ranger. The BBEG we were supposed to fight(and lose to) was a mid-level Wizard(Level 5, I found out). About 5 minutes into the game, we see the guy for the first time after hearing of his misdeeds, and the Samurai decides to trashtalk him even after hearing of his abilities. Initiative is rolled, Samurai wins, he charges. Crit. Maximum damage. Dead BBEG. The DM had to stop the game because his plans were ruined.
Need_A_Life 05-30-05, 12:43 PM	I put my party all level 8, against an erenyes. The erenyes, being clever, puts out all of the lights in the room and takes to the air with her bow to begin picking off partymembers. No one can hit her, no one until my wilder walks into the room. He beefs up a death-urge spell. The demon commits suicide. The. Most.Anti-clamatic.Bossfight.Ever. Three options here: A) Made-up B) DM-PC C) Simply weird --- Also Transmute Rock to Lava (Complete Arcane) works great against anything! 20d6/round on a failed save... Better yet, do it on the ceiling to add bludgeoning damage.
Twonky 05-30-05, 01:47 PM	I was running the City of the Spider Queen (a FR superadventure), and at one point, the PCs (all level 13-14), after killing loads of drow and destroying Szith Morcane, decided to rest and craft some items, for about 4-5 months (!). In the meantime, Irae T'Sarran builds up her army and attacks the Dalelands. After she has obliterated several towns by surprise, the PCs confront her and her army together with the Shadowdale's army. The Mage summoned some celestials to help earlier, and when the PCs saw the undead/drow army approach, the mage cast Polymorph on the Orc Barbarian and the Dwarf Fighter in the party, polymorphing them into Stone Giants (there was also a cleric in the party which kept healing them when they were hit by the occasional Fireball or Lightning Bolt, or attacked by the Revenants in the army), and the battle started. The mage, which was flying on a Phantom Steed noticed Irae in the middle of her army, casting several spells. The PCs battled their way through huge amounts of Revenants, and then confronted her, a 20th level drow cleric. She cast Implosion and kept targeting them, but practically no roll they made in that battle was lower than 14-15 (And note that Irae was additionaly beefed up and her saves, stats and items were stronger). The polymorphed fighters hit her fast and hard, and after several rounds of PCs vs. Irae and her army, the PCs managed to kill her, which was very surprising and very cool for the PCs. I ruled that the undead revenant army created by her epic spell was destroyed when she was, and the PCs totally triumphed that day. In retrospect, I think I could have played Irae smarter, but it's too late for that now. That day, the four 13-14 level PCs defeated a CR21 cleric and her undead army (the remaining drow fled).
Morka 05-30-05, 03:28 PM	I came close to hit the home-run once. In a home-brew futuristic setting (with home-brew game mechanic, don't ask), we were sent to a far space station who mysteriously stopped answering a few weeks ago. After clearing all the levels, we finally found the key for the last room where the BBET (Big Bad Evil Thing) was lying. It was some kind of psionic construct. For a more dramatic effect, the DM created two things, in each corner of the room. Those two things were able to fuse together and created the BBET. My character was some kind of swashbuckler, an alien with claws and no rifle. But before leaving, I buyed a few grenades. After scanning the room, we knew there was two "things" in it. I tell the DM: "I enter the room and throw two grenades, one at each corner." DM says it's ok. Each grenade explode near one of the two "things", nearly killing each one. Unfortunately, they were still living; they attacked my character, who retreated, and they were able to fuse into the BBET, healing all their damage... :sad:
WCH 05-30-05, 03:52 PM	I set up a very solid Dwarven defense in their stronghold. After attacking and discovering just how hard AC 33 is to beat, the PCs ran off... and the next day the Wizard scried on the interior of the stronghold to find where they needed to go and cast Dimension Door, completely bypassing all the Dwarves. I was fine with it because it was taking too long anyway, but it just seemed slightly silly.