Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Uratoh 10-28-05, 08:57 PM	Recently I threw my PCs against a Drowned....(MM3, basically withing 30 feet of it is like breathing underwater, cept you start drowning immidiately)and after they all (one of them barely) make their first con check and I describe what it feels like, the sorcerer pulls out Water Breathing, and, well, not trivializes the encounter but takes away the things best trick. Its punches still hurt like heck though. Go figure he'd take Water Breathing in an aquatic campaign ^_^ What are some times your players surprised you with their resourcefulness?
memnochraphy 10-28-05, 09:11 PM	What are some times your players surprised you with their resourcefulness? never. they think it's a good idea to split up in dugeons. that way they cover more ground.
Rabscuttle 10-28-05, 09:18 PM	My biggest surprise came when they were granted 1 wish from a ring of 3 wishes by a greatful king. Instead of using a wish to get some goodies (which is what I expected them to do) they wished themselves to be standing in the same room as the BBEG that they'd been chasing for about 14 months of game play. It put an end to the career of that BBEG.
mrmoot 10-28-05, 10:38 PM	My biggest surprise was when one of them actually paid for his share of the pizza.
Alynn 10-28-05, 11:26 PM	There was a time where they surprised me in a way I didn't expect. First there was a huge battle that wasn't supposed to be that hard (1 level 3 war and 3 level 1 war goblins) versus my five level 5 PC's, the one thing that made it difficult was the web the LBEG cast before he left in a hurry... This turned into a very interesting and tougher battle than I expected. But that's not where they surprised me... That fight took more resources than I expected, so when they encountered the green half-dragon bugbear in the next room (supposidly the climatic battle) I figured it would be kinda disappointing compared to the previous battle..... Boy was I wrong! Once the bugbear materialized in the teleportation circle, the characters freaked out over a large green scaly thing (I love the fact they didn't metagame) and took off running. They were nearly caught in the web they were stuck in earlier, until the sorc torched it with burning hands. They began to clear out when the half dragon exited the room above and turned toward them, they thought since whatever it was couldn't get to them, it was pot shot time, the sorc webbed him, while the others did ranged attacks. Thats when the thing breathed on them... Again remember my players don't metagame, and even though they KNEW what it was, the PC's didn't. The beast then easily broke through the web and moved through it ripping it to shreads with its hands... The PC's did the smart thing... they got the hell outta dodge. They ran down the ramp from the roof (where the catapults were) and remembered the ammo room for the catapults, basicaly 100 pound glass balls of alchemist fire (if broke normally 2d6 flame in 10' radius 1d6 out to 15' and 1 at 20, if launched from a catapult, they do even more) they rolled 5 of the glass balls to the base of the ramp and stood back and waiting for the half dragon to approach, at which point they launched a missile and broke one, which caused a huge chain reaction that decimated the half dragon. I thought it was absolutely brilliant, and it never occured to me that this might happen. However, after I was calculating the blast radius of the balls I realized they never closed the door to the ammunition room, in other words, the 78 other alchemist fire balls ignighted as well, blowing up the room, and part of the building... I had them help me calculate the damage done to the walls of the room (400 some odd damage) which even taking into account hardness was still double the walls HP, eliminating the walls, with 200 damage to spare. Because of the wonderful use of their environment I let them all (in the blast radius, the wizard actually conciously went to the far side away from the ammo, because that thought occured to her, and the palidin was hiding in the arrow room) make a single reflex save or die... somehow they all made it.... After that the cleric had a severe distaste for flames and heat.
Zombie Carl 10-29-05, 07:44 AM	That is very very cool man. The last one I can remember is the Psycho assassin I have was found fighting someone in the street, and the party decided they'd get him this time, and so started in on him. The assassin, not being stupid, ran like buggery, jumping ontop of a market stall and then in through the window of a building. The werewolf monk took it upon herself to give chase, and so a movie-esque chase scene gave way, with players running around the front of the building to see the assassin leap across the 20ft drop and through another window on the other side (you have to love natural 20's sometimes), with the werewolf in hot pursuit. They managed to chase him to an abandoned building, in which a mindflayer was conducting his affairs. It turned out the mindflayer had control of the assassin, so the players killed the flayer, eventually. The assassin then reverted back, with no memory. I expected the evil party to give him a good hiding, but instead they their arch nemesis go without so much as a kick up the ass. Especially as he managed to backstab the ranger for 70-ish points of damage. I guess even amongst the bad guys there is a certain code of honour.
Burrie 10-29-05, 10:31 AM	Last session, the players in my group had entered a small lair underneath a village that concealed the remains of a cult that used to operate there a few dozen generations ago, whom called themselves the Believers. Basically, they were trying to seek redemption for things they did in that time(bit of a long, unrelated story) by creating eternal life through experiments. The result, however, usually were undead, which is not what they sought. After they found out about all of this, they were pretty much talking amongst themselves on what they should do. They had been able to wear the right items that identified themselves as the new master of the cult, so they had a bit of power. The Believers themselves couldn't really see that the players weren't friend or foe, mostly because of what they were. Basically, they weren't alive, they weren't dead, they simply existed. I had prepared a few fun things in case they decided to attack them(a difficult situation, but one that they could've overcome with nice teamwork), but in the end... they started communicating with the one whom they identified as the main priest. What followed was some great roleplaying and discussing with the remnants of the cult... And in the end, they managed to convince them to seek redemption from the gods, rather than search for it. (http://rooc.offtopicproductions.com/Images/QFG/Redemption02.jpg) Overall, t'was another session where the players managed to surprise me once more.
Steel Cobra 10-29-05, 11:02 AM	Actually I play with a bunch of idiots but the biggest surprise for me was i put them up aginst a anceint from Warcraft (like an ent from LotR for those that don't know) and with that the Tinker (like an inventor) took out his trusty grappling hook (which he always manages to miss) shoots it right in the ancients arm and starts pulling himself up it while my rogue is climbing the ancient the old fasioned way. Then it becomes the fighters turn and he looks the tree over and decides he wants to delay his turn. Now my Tauren healer gets down on his knees and starts praying for gods help (what I really do want him to do). so after that I give the tauren a blood halbred after extracting blood outta him it forms into a halbred (his fav weapon) and while this happens my tinkier falls off making my rogue jump and swing to his face and get it with his claws of attack. now its the fighters turn he runs over and grabbs the tinker for small dmg. and the healer and fighter decide to push oer the ancient (both str being HIGH). so they both roll 20s and push him over with the help of their weapons bam he end up on the ground. Lucky rolls and the ancients hands arc cut off and well the rogue at this time takes out his daggers (having 2 wep feat) and stabbs jthe defenceless ancient in the eyes. they finish off the ancient and take thier spoils. At this teamwork I am amazed they NEVER work as a team. The only other time was when I forced them too or else they would die. That gave them some good spoils. -Steel
TheChilliGod 10-29-05, 02:58 PM	Surprises... That time when a PC chased after an assassin in the first session, and asked the guy if he could join the assassin's thieves guild. The surprise: I hadn't even planned for there to be one. But I went with it, made a thieves guild, and the PC overthrew the leader, and claimed ownership of the guild. My first session as a DM. Lovely. That time when the elf sorceress decided to go scouting. With 9 hp total. I should've set up an impromptu trap or encounter right then and there, but curse my low initiative mod for not letting me do that. That time when the half-orc barbarian critted the grick, killing it instantly. Nobody else had the time to do anything at all. Well, it wasn't an important battle anyways, but still... That time when the half-orc decided to toss the unconscious cleric out of a second-story window. One more point of damage on the die, or one failed heal check, and that cleric would have died. That time when, facing the BBEG, the rogue jumped over the 10 ft long gap with the 5 ft high ledge on the far side, while dodging an AoO, and cuts the BBEG to pieces in three rounds. Bit anticlimactic, considering how the BBEG battle was supposed to be satisfactory (as a favor to the player who used to play the BBEG before I confiscated him.) That time when the elf sorcerer stayed behind at a mining camp while the rest of the party walked on to the city about 2 hours away. She stayed so she could sleep. She picked an occupied tent to sleep in. And the population of the mining camp is almost 100% male. Sigh.
tharivol266 10-29-05, 03:33 PM	My biggest surprise was when one of them actually paid for his share of the pizza. man ur so lucky. im just happy that they get their own rides home. especially since it takes like 30 mins to get to the nearest house of theirs. There was a time where they surprised me in a way I didn't expect. um...did u read this out loud to yourself?
Slumber Hulk 10-29-05, 05:48 PM	Players have a knack for focusing on items I don't care about. One bloodthirsty group finished an assault with only 1 kobold left alive. He was terrified but kept trying to attack. They disarmed him and befriended the little freak. So for the rest of the campaign their little mascot kept getting into trouble. Turned out well though, good to have another hook.
DragonDeadite 10-29-05, 06:43 PM	My worst suprise came when I started up a game with my mother as a player (she tought me after all) and I dropped the characters, naked, in the middle of a world and put them up against these lil dog things that I made up for just a fun thing to start off the game with. They had two weapons between the group of 7 and managed to kill the creatures. So my mother steps up and starts telling everyone what needs to be done, from skinning the creatures for clothes to making shoddy weapons with them and everything else. I had full scenerios planned out for them being without weapons and she just RUINED IT! GAH! Guess I should have known! Oh well! Another funny surprise was in a game I was going to surprise the characters with a Displacer Beast, but one of the characters (rogue) ended up getting a surprise round on the Beast (REALLY LUCKY rolls) and proceeded to roll three 20s in a row... that was the last campaign I used instant deaths in.
Ryven 10-29-05, 07:27 PM	I like giving my players seemingly useless items to see if they will surprise me. There was this one time that I remember and still giggle about. I run a game with 7th Seas/D&D rules, but with my own world. Anyway, I they had just come back from the Fae realm (alternate dimension in the Manual of the Planes). Time there passes much slower than on the Material plane, so when they came back, one month had actually passed, and they're bodies hadn't adjusted! I wasn't mean enough to say that they insta-gibbed, but I did leave them with an interesting problem: Their ship had been in port for 1 month without playing the docking fees, and all but 1 of the characters and 1 of the NPCs were all incapacitated from starvation. Luckily, the character that was a rogue, and went to get the scoop. She came back and gave the heads up to the other players, and then my fiancee had a wonderfully absurd idea. One of the NPCs that was with them was a huge Corsair, who my fiancee had just summoned via Bracelet of Friends. Another character always carried a wheelbarrow with him, so my fiancee had himself put into the wheelbarrow, and the rest of the characters were draped on the Corsair to look like they were sitting. (the Corsair had the feats out of Swashbuckling d20 which made him large size, ect.) He had the Corsair wheel him through town to the docks in the wheelbarrow, while the rogue used her ring of invisibility to sit walk just behind the wheelbarrow and make my fiancee's arms move, like he was healthy. My fiancee then proceeded to make bluff checks (he was the diplomacy guy-his Cha based skills were HUGE.) and shout the following as he went through town: "I AM THE PRINCE OF FJORNSTENSEN! IT IS CUSTOMARY FOR MY PEOPLE'S ROYALTY TO BE PUSHED THROUGH TOWN IN A PROCESSION IN A WHEELBARROW, SO STOP STARING! YOU THERE, STOP STARING! YOU SILLY GUINALDINIAN PEASANTS, I SHALL HAVE YOU THROWN IN JAIL IF YOU DO NOT STOP STARING! I NOW PROCLAIM IT DANCING TIME! YES! IT'S 11:05 AM, SO IT IS OFFICIALLY DANCING TIME FOR THE PEASANTS!" It was friggin hilarious. Even with the minuses he took, the commoners couldn't make the sense motive check, and it was so hilarious and absurdely swashbucklery that I let it slide.
Jancarius 10-30-05, 08:42 AM	That time when the elf sorcerer stayed behind at a mining camp while the rest of the party walked on to the city about 2 hours away. She stayed so she could sleep. She picked an occupied tent to sleep in. And the population of the mining camp is almost 100% male. Sigh. Elves don't sleep?
Super_Demolition_Christ 10-30-05, 04:19 PM	Elves don't sleep? they can sleep.
Blackrazorblade 10-30-05, 04:22 PM	Mine was when one of my players was able to make an attack roll with out asking if it was a d20 and then surprised me further by actually having had his cleric memorize spells (normally he just cast whatever he felt like that was of low enough level). That was just the once though....... More seriously, when they bull-rushed a BBEG into a spike pit the fighter had just fallen in, the BBEG was a Monk, but couldn't hold his own in the pit. I never had expected that, i figured that the fighter would fall and the encounter would be more challenging because the cleric, mage and rogue had to take out the monk by themelves while trying to get the fighter out.
Gene2324 10-30-05, 05:10 PM	Elves don't sleep? Before third edition they did. Now they "meditate" which I find is absurd so when I DM they sleep or they die. :D -Gene
Jancarius 10-30-05, 11:36 PM	Well 90% MR to two (three if you count Charm Monster again) was a little silly too. I think the Enchancement bonus and outright immunity to magic sleep is much better. And I've heard that elves can sleep if they choose to (it was given as a specific example of an elf allowing himself to be magically sleeped) but do not need to at any time.
Alynn 10-30-05, 11:55 PM	um...did u read this out loud to yourself? Actually I knew exactly what I was saying. They have surprised me in many way's that I expected... I know it seems oxymoronic, however, I usually know any and all possible avenues of approach they can come up with, even ones that aren't very obvious... They have taken the non obvious approaches, and even though I was prepared for them, I was surprised they did it that way... This was something I wasn't prepared for, hence why I said what I said.
SneakyPetey 10-31-05, 01:44 AM	This happened a while ago... The party in our current campaign found themselves face-to-face with a lich. They had six or seven in their party, but the lich was prepared and had the party on the ropes: One fighter turned to stone, the thief and the monk were being battered by an Ice Storm spell (2e), the party spellcasters did not enjoy much success as the lich was protected by a Brooch of Shielding (no magic missiles, the party's favorite opening attack), the other fighter was relatively ineffectual... Three rounds into the battle, the party had inflicted *minimal damage* to the lich. The fourth round opened with the two most powerful spellcasters in the party aiming lightning bolt spells at the ceiling of the cavern, bringing it down upon the lich's head! My reaction: :OMG! I basically called "time out." I read and re-read the MM, and determined that--while the cave-in would cause no physical damage to the lich--it would be buried in the rubble... Helpless. The party dug through the rubble, found the lich, exposed it enough to be attacked, and let the most powerful fighter stab it repeatedly with his +2 two-handed sword until it was deader than undead. Game over. Needless to say, the two spellcasters received oodles of bonus XPs for their ingenuity...
Jancarius 10-31-05, 02:16 AM	<evil grin> Till the lich reformed a few days later, REALLY ticked off. Side note: 10d6 damage (maximum 60) /2 (30) -8 (22) * 2 (second bolt) = 44 which means the bolts penetrated about 3 inches into the ceiling combined at best. I would have let them collapse the ceiling too, just for thinking of it though. Then when they dug down, they would have foudn nothing. A lich without a contingency spell (or chain contingency, or Elminster's Evasion as level allows) is just asking for trouble.
JStegmaier 10-31-05, 04:10 AM	Another funny surprise was in a game I was going to surprise the characters with a Displacer Beast, but one of the characters (rogue) ended up getting a surprise round on the Beast (REALLY LUCKY rolls) and proceeded to roll three 20s in a row... that was the last campaign I used instant deaths in. In a similar vein, I once had a large battle against a white dragon planned out (the players had really been owning fights against things 1-2 CR above what they should have, so I had them fight something really tough.) The fight went like this: Round 1: * Dragon charges in, breaths, and kills the sorcerer * Swashbuckler charges and attacks, but misses * Cleric moves behind the dragon, attacks and smites him for some damage * Ninja moves off to the side and fires a shot with his bow, missing * Warlock fires an Eldritch blast, misses Round 2: * Dragon does a full attack on the cleric, and does some damage, though it misses many of its attacks and had the damage reduced by the cleric's adamantine armor * Swashbuckler does a full attack. On the first one he rolls a 20, then another 20, then another 20. * Players start cheering and going crazy. The best part was that about two sessions before, the swashbuckler had killed something else (I forget what now) with a triple-20. And no, he wasn't cheating, I saw all of these rolls myself, and they were made with my dice. At the end of that game session, I announced that the Instant-Death variant wasn't going to be used anymore, but instead be replaced with some variant critical rules. Of course, since then no one has every rolled a triple-20.
Messer 10-31-05, 07:18 AM	What are some times your players surprised you with their resourcefulness? Lets see.... I ran an adventure, they did some AWEsome things here. I have watched them botch the most simple things, like, "Fight a Beholder" became a travesty, when the Wizard got angry at the Cleric, and Teleported out, only to get his stuff togeather, and come back in all powered up to kill the cleric, ... after, ofcoruse, the Cleric and Sorceror deal serious, lethal damage to the Beholder, and the Cleric, ofcourse, raises the Sorceror.... However, this is not about thine being idiots, this is about them being clever. Last week, Throwin them into an easy adventure, something they already know all about, and shoutl be able to handle, They walked in, and I handed them their hides... really handed it to them. by the end of the night, 2 of the 3 were dead. ahhhh, but this is about them being good, and working togeather... Supprize, I re-ran the adventure (I run strange 'timed strategy' adventures) and the setting was the same, but they worked togeather, this time, and came in for supprize, and wouldn't you know it, they turned the whole thing into puddy. however, when they stopped working togeather again, they got cained, but, they understand what they are supposed to do now... and I am gald to see them working togeather.... The most supprizing was, now, after 11 months of DnD the bard finally said, "Lets go get'um boys! they wont get away from us this time!" whic was cool, because he is finally focusing on 'RP' and acutally working with the group... I'm just supper supprized that now, after 11 months, I have taken a bunch of 'first time' RPGrs and turned them into actual, "Good RPers" hahhaa... eh... thats my story. now where did I put my beer.... hmmmm
Muddball 11-02-05, 10:46 AM	Seriously supprised.... hummm... easily the greatest supprise was when the party rogue took the job of "looting" way way farther then i ever expected. When one of the PC's died, along with looting the body, he also made a bag of doggy treats out of the druids body. I had to blink several times before i finaly understood what he was staying to me.
silvermist 11-02-05, 11:19 AM	The players had been decimating my evil wizard army so i did what you're supposed to do and gave the wizard army it's own pet kobold army (litteraly a cr 5 army of kobolds - around 25 of them, some with levels) the wizards hide and set up the kobolds in ambush around the party. The wizards are invisible and stocked up on invisibility and heal the wizard plan: have a kobold create a diversion so the other kobolds can ambush the party hide behind some bushes invisible, watch if any kobolds get really smashed up sneak out, turn them invisible, sneak them back behind the bushes, heal them and send them out again. this would have worked great except one of the characters didnt get it that the diversion was just a diversion - once the battle started he went to go check it out. He flew up in the air and around the outskirts of the clearing. when he didnt find anything he landed - right on an invisible wizard. all the wizards died horribly, all the kobolds (now wizardless) ran away.
Oren 11-02-05, 03:51 PM	At the first session of one of my first campaigns as GM I had the players help some town and remove a group of kobolds from its mine. Now the town is busily thanking them for coming to their aid when the half-orc fighter simply says "we want a share in this mine or no deal" I was dumbfounded. It was, I think, the first line his character said in the whole campaign and became a slogan for the party. The most surprised I've ever seen a DM was in a planescape campaign I was a player in. He'd just had our party meet his uber-NPC White Ethergaunt that he was very proud of. In the middle of our discussion someone appears to challenge the NPC to a duel in the city colloseum. Our characters walk there to watch the fight and our half-dragon fighter simply says "gimme all your money, we are betting EVERYTHING, on the Ethergaunt" The DM had a look of both pure horror and frustration on his face, as we knew he couldnt let his new pet die. He ended up only giving us 1.5:1 odds, but it was the easiest 20,000 our party ever made. I think he also made the same expression when our party had found a machine capable of flying in the elemental plane of lightning by absorbing lightning strikes. He had expected us to simply pilot it to our next destination when I got the idea... "hey, those tinker gnomes would LOVE this." Again, another easy few thousand gold for the party.
Earthcrosser599 11-02-05, 03:57 PM	My biggest surprise was when one of them actually paid for his share of the pizza. lmao
Zombie Carl 11-03-05, 11:26 AM	Bard Half-Dragon and a Hill Giant in an arena, 1v1 combat. Bard gets 3 critical hits on the giant and floors him in one turn. Nice one.