Post/Author/DateTime	Post
PwnageLlama 04-23-07, 09:31 PM	This is a thread to post your irritation for all storyies that have ended lamly. Example (Although this never accurred): In the final room of a large tomb you find a large rat, who dies in one hit.
KurenaiYami 04-23-07, 09:42 PM	This is a thread to post your irritation for all storyies that have ended lamly. Example (Although this never accurred): In the final room of a large tomb you find a large rat, who dies in one hit. This sounds like my experience in my first campaign ever, the Sunless Citadel. The most anticlimactic moment I had was when we ran a whole "chosen ones" thing, where the two PCs were meant to be the saviors of an entire race, and ended up dying to a Dire Wolf because the Psion decided "I can still go on with four HP, we don't need to rest yet."
Zankue 04-23-07, 09:48 PM	We were doing a one day quest and after going through this long tomb and multiple puzzles, we get to this tomb, an NPC ally turned on us and killed us all, apparently the DM forgot to calculate the divided by four part of the XP and made the NPC a lot more powerful than he should have, TPKed
Omnirahk, half-Rahkshi 04-23-07, 09:58 PM	This wasn't the result of me rolling poorly, but one of my players rolling stupidly well: The party was creeping their way through a long-lost temple to an elder god of madness. They happened across a room containing a blood-stained altar to aforesaid deity. Waiting for them was one of the god's most powerful servants on the material plane: a half-fiend beholder. The party bard won initiative and reached into her bag of tricks for something to distract the beastie with, and produced a badger. She promptly threw the badger at the beholder and prepared to beat feet out of there. Lo and behold, the bard rolls a twenty on the attack roll (I counted the badger as an improvised thrown weapon, of course). On the roll to confirm, she rolls another twenty. As a hush fell over the room, I remember that I had instituted the "three twenties in a row equals instant death" house rule. I asked the bard for another roll. She rolled a twenty. Poor beholder. From here (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?p=12170428#post12170428). Yeah, that's anti-climactic. In a memorable way. Beat that, any of you.
Shatari 04-23-07, 10:16 PM	The first 3.5 game I ever played involved a newbie DM who forgot the old 'divide by four' bit too, and we (a party of brand new first level characters) went up against a level 4 hobgoblin fighter after we went through his much easier minions. It was a TPK, much to the DM's shock. Rather amusing, and it did give me a good warm up from the old 2nd edition rules... Of course, I also did a 'rat in the tomb' bit too, when I ran my first adventure in 3.5 (we just couldn't get the 'Challenging without killing the entire first level party' thing down). The party walked about 30 miles into the desert to clear out an old shrine in a nearby hill. They got waylaid by some gnoll bandits and took a bit of a beating, so I scaled things down just a hair for the actual shrine and put in a bunch of Dire Rats and a wererat. I figured it would be a great way to try out the disease rules, but that was a bit too optimistic concerning the abilities of the rats. The players did a 'kick in the door' approach and the fighter charged the wererat right away. He got a critical and killed it with one blow. The wizard wasted a rat with a magic missile, the cleric killed one with his club, and the rouge and monk finished off the last one in the same round. The only rat who managed to attack didn't even hit anyone... T_T
sloth2052 04-23-07, 10:52 PM	Alrighty..... We had been playing a game for roughly over a year. We had started out at level 5 being slaves to a wizard named Morachi. Well as we escaped the citadel we were confronted with Morachi who had a red dragon with him. Well in the ensueing escape we were all battered terribly and stood our party paladin alone in front of the red dragon. But after a smite evil 20/20 the dragon stood no more. OK that was phase one. After a year of play and countless tombs and all out warfare our party had cornered Morachi in his last stronghold and were battling his army of thousands. We had our own army and eventually made it inside. Well again our party pally stood before Morachi. In his cockiness Morachi told the pally of his plans to summon his demon lord to this world to take it over. The pally attacked instantly and scored a crit with his Lawful Good wizard bane intelegent maul. Well needless to say he died after the 100+ damage he recieved in one hit.
jon19920202 04-23-07, 11:10 PM	Our party is sneaking into a evil clerics stronghold (around CR 6). using several invisibility we sneak into the castle and reach the door of the evil cleric room. The DM pictured this big battle with us kill the cleric in a noisy battle then having to fight our way out through hords of bad guys. Instead I use a combo of spider climb and invisibilty to get to the window and cast deep slumber! he fail his will save and get coup de graced in his sleep. We then sneak back out unnoticed. ta da
Dazzer 04-23-07, 11:43 PM	I once sent an army of 800 orcs against the PC's (9th level) 780 orcs were level 1, 14 level 2, 5 level 4, and 1 level 11 orc blademaster badass fighter dude who I described in detail in a legend lore check, as the ultimate weapons fighter of all time for orcs in this particular country (took me about 20-30 minutes of explanation). Needless to say, I told the PC's he was 3 rows back (since he made an awe inspiring speech to his men before charging the town in question, they could see him) The Barbarian PC said "I jump the three rows...*rolls 18+ mods on jump...makes DC by about 15 points" Ok, I can get to him, it takes me...30ft of move in total...I have 40ft...so it's a move action, I use my standard action to attack him with my SPEAR, power attacking for full, rageahol, I'm a half-orc PC, I have a +4 item of strength, and a non-magical spear. (Did I mention he had highest initiative!) Crit...times three...9th level PC power attacking for full on a two handed weapon... brought my orc blademaster down to around -40 from full in a single blow. (around 100ish hitpoints) 3d8 + 54 + 30 for strength + 6 bard + wizards spell on weapon (about 30ish damage from that). He rolled 17 on his damage... That really hurt my feelings. Another anti-climatic moment! A bard of mine rolled 31 at level 1 on a bardic knowledge check (18 int, level 1, rolled 20, since it was about a crazy magical wizard and my bard loved those stories the DM allowed action point on the roll since I'd been role-playing loving those guys...6. I asked every question I could get away with after that, took me 45 minutes. However, the DM who had built his wizard as super and supreme, kept mentioning things that told my bard this wizard was a jerk, and an a** to everyone he meets...by the end of it the party had heard so many jerklike stories I couldn't convince them to help me find out what happened in the wizard tower for fear of us meeting this total jerk! We instead went to the next village. I was actually very interested in meeting him, since he had super powers and was a jerk (I wanted to know if it was necessary to be a jerk to have them, or if they made him into the jerk, or if it was just an unfortunate co-incidence). Well...I never found out, 4 sessions later, we heard the wizard's tower was actually on fire (invisible fire and smoke...something to do with a spell called darkfire...I never did read the spell though...I think its spell compendium) and it had burned to the ground since we didn't go save it.... poor wizard...he was inside but trapped in his own maze of traps that were randomly exploding from the fire.
Holy_Beholder 04-24-07, 12:02 AM	At least you haven't had your BBEGs taken out with a magical frying pan. At maximum distance with a sneak attack for massive damage and a natural 1 on a save. That was lame(but pretty funny). Although, depending on how frying pan happy your characters happen to be, that might have happened. You should tell me.
AffableDoomwalker 04-24-07, 12:12 AM	The game I'm currently playing in: I managed to ruin a would-be-nasty miniboss encounter for my DM. Being the nice guy he is, my Aasimar Cleric decides he'd like to knock on the door of a barracks (we figured it was a barracks after a general intelligence check, followed by a wisdom check), all I hear is swords unsheathing and a slight whispering. I open the door, boom, total blackness, someone throws in a torch... it disappears into the blackness... So, I cast daylight (I am an Aasimar after all). Now there are three very, very blind, stunned, stumbling Drow Fighters falling all over each other, and one Priestess of Lolth screaming curses at us. The DM counted it as a surprise round... no initiative for the Drow... to top it off, our Half-Orc Monk double-crits the Priestess with his longbow... she was pinned to a stone wall by an arrow through the skull... two rounds after the surprise round, we were looting bodies.
Sathery 04-24-07, 12:26 AM	Near the end of the session, of which everyone could tell it being 2:30 in the morning, the PCs are going to the elven lands to speak with a dead PC's father. One of the PCs, a gwarf (half dwarf half goblin, an abomination created by a kooky wizard that was going to be given to the Dark Glove assassins which the PCs just got done fighting). Anywho, the wizard created Dread Guards to protect the places that he has stayed, he's quite nomadic. Leaving them behind at the ruined castle, the party finds them. 5 Dread Guard in all. This is supposed to be quite a defining moment for Gwarf (yes, that's his name too) seeing as this is where his creator lived for a short time. The party consists of a level 2 fighter, a level 5 cleric, a level 4 monk, a level 4 ranger and a level 1 wizard. Needless to say, the Dread Guard die. Very quickly. Within two rounds. None of the Dread Guard got off a hit. Dammit.
Hsien 04-24-07, 10:52 AM	Ravenloft, the new adventure. After going through very litle trail/turmoil we enetered the crypts. Do to one area, I won't specify as i don't want to spoil the group got scattered. We have a large group, and 2 died, I ended up back at my guild very hurt a few days later, but several ended up pretty much right at Strahd, got surprise and won initiative...game over.
Lykor 04-24-07, 11:22 AM	I think the ending to NWN2 counts as anti-climatic. Not the last boss fight (which was fun) but the followup.
Callista 04-24-07, 04:36 PM	The butler did it.
AffableDoomwalker 04-24-07, 04:49 PM	I think the ending to NWN2 counts as anti-climatic. Not the last boss fight (which was fun) but the followup. True, true. And KOTOR2 as well, even if it isn't D&D.
OravennasBrother 04-25-07, 12:04 AM	Dm has set up a war. Armies massed and moving in to battle across an entire countryside. Bard goes up to opposing enemy under a flag of truce and walks up to their commander. DM did not know the Diplomacy rules. Half Elf, 4th level, Skill FOcus Diplomacy, The Feat which Gives +2 on diplomacy and on other skill, EVERY POSSIBLE DARNED SYNERGY IN THE BOOK. One Diplomacy roll later and the campaign is off. Bleh.
PwnageLlama 04-25-07, 12:13 AM	Dm has set up a war. Armies massed and moving in to battle across an entire countryside. Bard goes up to opposing enemy under a flag of truce and walks up to their commander. DM did not know the Diplomacy rules. Half Elf, 4th level, Skill FOcus Diplomacy, The Feat which Gives +2 on diplomacy and on other skill, EVERY POSSIBLE DARNED SYNERGY IN THE BOOK. One Diplomacy roll later and the campaign is off. Bleh. The DM got OWNED! Wow.
EvilDeathBee 04-25-07, 12:25 AM	My party had found the boss for our campaign, and evil wizard vamp. OUr half orc barb with throw everything threw his 2hand swrd and got a crit, pinning th vamp to the wall. My cleric blasted him with smite evil, and the wizard cast fireball. He immidiatly failed his reflex save, as he was attached to the wall, and was gone in one round. This was the climax of an intensive two month campaign. We had built up to this particular fight for 3 1/2 hours, and I swear I was him tear up a little.
Zyfax 04-25-07, 11:03 AM	Last week, my players encountered a certain miniboss, a beguiler/illusionist gestalt (6-8 players, I have to) megabuffed. Upn seeing him standing on the ground via true seeing, our little cleric decides that moonbolt was a good course of action. maximized. he beat the illusionist's SR and proceded to kill him. I was so irritated that I actually labeled it unvalid. not one of my proudest moments as dm (I would NEVER have done it as a player myself, battles are supposed to last a while). I had to decide that the guy had been using some kind of fake that were standing there, something I technically couldn't have done due to true seeing. (gained through scroll, they are 9th level). I'm still ashamed of myself because of this "nerfing" of sorts, but wizards really should think opver what they put in their books as well. I had no idea the spell existed (something like d4 str-dam/3 caster levels, fort save half). So what say you? is it reasonable to ask players to "hold out" a bit in order to give a more dramatic feeling to combat? (I play/DM in equal amounts, and I wouldn't do such things to my dm if such opportunities arose. really, I mean it)
Adrez Nesnsid 07-09-07, 06:29 PM	:bump:
Gryllmyre 07-09-07, 07:01 PM	I spent a couple weeks populating a dungeon for the characters to explore. One of the first rooms has a stream flowing out of a worked opening. One of the characters blocks the opening with a fastened object. They come back a couple weeks later and sort through all the floating treasure.
OatsMalone 07-09-07, 08:09 PM	Alright, so I'm running a game for 3 ECL 7 characters; specifically, a Drow Ranger 4/Scorpion Wraith 1, a Kobold Sorcerer 5/Dragonheart Mage 2, and a Goliath Warblade 2/Fighter 3/Hulking Hurler 1 (or something like that, he's meant to throw enemies and every weapon possible, and as line attacks, eventually). They're spelunking a cave in Xen'drik where undead reside. After the first door, which the Goliath promptly knocks down with an axe, five wights attacks. I didn't expect it to be a challenge, and it wasn't; I think the drow's scorpion got hit twice. They then find themselves in a long hallway which is at a pretty steep incline, down. The Goliath rips the door off it's hinges and they sled into a wall at the end of the hall. The Goliath takes more damage from the wall than from the wights. At the end of another hall, they come into this room. Magic fog covers the other end of the room, which the kobold clears with a Gust of Wind. They leap over a pit of spikes and find themselves standing at the edge of a 40 ft. long pit of acid. To make matters worse, the spike pit has raised and turned towards them, and is advancing. They have only three rounds until they are propelled into acid. The Goliath hurls the kobold to the other side of the pit with a successful ranged attack, at which point he Benign Transpositions the Drow over to the other side. The kobold is again hurled, and the Goliath activates a cloak which enlarges him (making him effectively Huge) and wedges himself between the walls over the acid, inching his way to safety. In the next room is a Flesh Golem, which I expect to do a lot of damage. See, there are these eight pillars lining the middle walkway of the room; a Flesh Golem can't fit between them, and has to knock them down. So when the Drow attacks him from the other side of the room, the Flesh Golem charges down a pillar and stands poised to barrel through the next to get to the Drow. But then the kobold Webs the Flesh Golem in between the pillars, and they pick it off while it stuggles to free itself. In the last room is a Cloud Giant skeleton. The Goliath picks him up and tosses him into a large bowl of fire (yes, Large), which immolates a portion of it. The rest of the fight consists of it standing up, provoking AttOpps, and getting in two sucessful attacks before it is reduced to powder. All in all, not quite the challenging dungeon I had hoped.
Endarrion 07-09-07, 08:37 PM	D&D: The worst one was when my party (I was the DM) decided to go fight a blue dragon after battling all day. They lasted one round. This one is from a Vampire: The Masquerade game I played in. It was very late (around 2 or 3 in the morning) and my character was in a battle with other vampires. The GM decided to screw around and said, "He punches you in the backside." He rolled a critical. My character ended up in the "mauled" health range. From being punched. IN THE BUTT. That was funny and disappointing at the same time.
Holy_Beholder 07-09-07, 09:29 PM	D&D: There was a large dungeon, and the players decide to poison the stream into it. It should be noted they had no poison, so they spent the next three sessions walking from town to town to get poison. Eventually they poison everyone there, including a BBEG. Sunlit Kingdoms(Its a system I made): One of the players is taken out in one hit by a preteen noncombatant after he ****** her off(insulted a really high quality work of art she made). A little later, there is an opposed attack roll. One of the players decides to hurl one enemy at another. The player is really strong, and rolled maximum possible. I then proceed to roll minimum for the opposed roll. The guy(really important, there was supposed to be a climatic battle) flies into another equally important guy. Agility check to get out of the way, and naturally I rolled minimum again. The odds of that were 1/729 just for the first guy.
Worshiper_of_Moradin 07-09-07, 10:31 PM	I got one. I was running the mod "Wreck Ashore". Well the PC's all get to the end of it they are out side the pirate camp. When they had picked about half of the pirates they decided to finally move in. Well as they start going they are spotted so I said the rest of the pirates line up to shoot them all with their crossbow (I know a little too organized for pirates anyhoo.) The leader of the group had hoped to negotiate with the pirates but unfortunately the knight had other ideas. Leader-"We've come...." Then the knight player used his challenge ablity...... Knight-".....to kick your ***!" Pirate Leader-"ummm....ok fire." Only the knight was left standing. After the first volley. After the next one... not so much.
RobbyPants 07-10-07, 10:42 AM	Back in a one-on-one 2E game I ran, the BBEG was a red dragon. The PC dropped it with a single critical hit before the dragon could act. It was kind of disapointing. So, I had another identically statted dragon come "from around the corner." Was it contrived? Yes. Did it at least give him a challenge? Yes. :P
_Jayne_Cobb_ 07-10-07, 10:57 AM	This is a thread to post your irritation for all storyies that have ended lamly. The city in which our PCs lived housed the Great Library, so we would often spend our downtime there researching old tomes for clues to lead us to new adventures. One such clue inspired us to seek out a long-forgotten ruined city. Upon finding the city we found not the abandoned monster-haunted ruin we had expected but instead a Dark Elf army massing for an invasion. We rode hell-bent back to civilization to raise the warning cry. The authorities thanked us, gave us some cash, and raised their forces and rode off, leaving us behind. "Sod that" said we, and decided to get involved whether they liked it or not. As the human armies rode off to meet the foe, hopefully catching them unprepared, our PCs set out to gather our own army. We traveled to every elf and dwarf settlement we could reach - the PCs all being elves and dwarves - and had some great RP as we begged, cajoled, extolled and inspired them to join our cause. With an army of nearly 10,000 strong at our back we rode off to join the battle. Now if there were any justice in the world, or if the DM had even a shred of theatricality in him, we'd have crested a hill to see the battle joined, our side near defeat, thus allowing us to rush down Gandalf-like to save the day and making us, the PCs, the stars of the show and heroes of the battle. Instead, the battle had not yet happened and the leader of the "good" guys pretty much said "Thanks for the extra troops, now **** off." We ended up just sitting and watching a bunch of NPCs fight it out. Never had I been so disappointed with the culmination of a so-called campaign, or with a DM for that matter.
Zousha_Omenohu 07-10-07, 11:35 AM	After a tedious little quest where my wizard had been sprung from the mini-BBEG's fortress and shuttled a few messages back and forth between two towns, we were heading north and encountered an old lady who told our fortune when we answered her riddle correctly. We went back to town to analyze it, while a few of my companions went back to the old lady to question her. She demanded my presence specifically. When I arrived, she showed by character's father trapped in a temporal stasis spell, and pulled of her cloak, revealing a young male drow who instructed me to recover a couple of powerful gems from an ancient ruin in a dry lakebed. I got ticked off and ended up refusing. So he geased me to get the gems for him, or I would die. We went to the ruins and retrieved the gems, and then after we handed them over to the drow, we found out that these reputedly powerful gems were fakes! FAKES!!!:headexplo I felt like I had been ripped off by a con-man and then the con-man insulted me to my face about it. My DM's stubborn insistence of using the 3rd Edition version of Geas (damage from the geas can't be healed normally), on a level 2 wizard who could have been killed by said geas just because I planned to go past the lakebed to get information from a nearby city, instead of heading straight for the lakebed really got under my skin too.
Phrennzy 07-10-07, 12:07 PM	2nd Edition - Castle Ravenloft. I was a rogue/fighter/mage. Another player had the equivalent of an undead bane axe of throwing. The adventure had been exciting and scary, and finally we found Strahd's coffin. We gathered into the room, and discovered the vampire was hiding invisibily, waiting to attack. Well, we got initiative. The Axe thrower creamed the vampire, everyone else pounds away, and even my crappy multiclass manages to hit Strahd, all before he gets a chance to even act. Reduced to 0 hit points he turns gaseous and flows into his coffin. We pile kindling around the coffin and light it up, burning him to ash. The DM was so angry, that he couldn't think straight on how Strahd might have fled to a different coffin. It was anti-climatic for the DM, but great for us.
Viperninja 07-10-07, 12:44 PM	the funny thing is you all sound like good PCs who know what your doing... or were all extremely lucky. Well. My group were doing an adventure, in which the first mini boss was a young adult blue dragon who had taken up residence in this cave. I had cornered the NPCs and all we thrown into this canal that ran through the bottom of the room. Our rogue/assasin was all that was left having evaded all the breath weapons etc. Then he tumbled over the target and death attacked it... the dragon had rolled a natural 1 and failed...He coup de graced it next turn an leveled up almost three times that dungeon. The funny thing was he was the weakest party member in their group and he was the strongest by the end.
_Jayne_Cobb_ 07-10-07, 01:03 PM	See, this is where a DM needs to know when to ad-lib. If your players drop the BBEG in a single shot then bully for them, but don't let it kill the emotional payoff. When this has happened when I was DMing I simply continue the encounter. When I do this I will not allow them to die or suffer any significant damage or destruction since the encounter, in terms of rules and experience, is technically over. For example, a few years back the PCs were infiltrating a thieves guild. They faced off against the head thief and they just completely owned him. The dice gods were totally with them. However, it had been a tough slog to get there and letting it end so abruptly would've had no emotional payoff, so I just kept going. The rogue retreated to an antechamber where his wife - a sorcerer, and a few flunkies awaited. Since they had already technically "won" I played it up for sheer cinematic epicness, pulling my punches on tactics and damage in order to give them a satisfying heroic experience. The players never noticed how "lucky" they were getting in terms of light damage against them, all they recall is the massive, epic battle against an intractable foe rather than bemoaning an anticlimactic ending. This may not work for every group or every DM but it has always worked for me and every group in which I have been involved. Thing is, even if the players know that you will do this if you do it well they will never be aware of when you do it.
GhostOfJacK 07-10-07, 01:15 PM	I have a nice crypt going with the BBEG at the end. It was a big place and they were near lvl 14 or close to there. The end room with the BBEG was a huge pit with a pillar of stone maybe 25ft diameter. The pit was 'never ending' and a rickidy old bridge leading up to it. The BBEG on the pillar was an epic mind flayer (game was overpowered for their level). First round, they all run across the bridge (had better Init). BBEG gets one mental attack off on the Psion and drains his Int (I viewed him as the biggest threat). Next round the tank bullrushes the BBEG and pushes him off the pillar. End of encounter. Lame. (Note: I was planning on using Psionic Push to do that the next round. Prolly should have done it the round after they got across the bridge) EDIT: Force Push is a SW thing. Psionic push is the manifestation that I was looking for.
Viperninja 07-10-07, 01:18 PM	I know what you mean, but the blue dragon was the first encounter of this dungeon, also the rogue had been trailing behind for a while now and was losing out on many of the challenges and encounters which the others faced without any trouble when he was afraid to even try.
_Jayne_Cobb_ 07-10-07, 02:20 PM	Note: I was planning on using Force Push to do that the next round. Prolly should have done it the round after they got across the bridge No, what you really should've done was had the bridge be be illusion. ;)
GhostOfJacK 07-10-07, 02:59 PM	No, what you really should've done was had the bridge be be illusion. ;) I love that idea. However, I would be posting this message on this board except with that ending and a note of a TPK.
_Jayne_Cobb_ 07-10-07, 03:34 PM	I love that idea. However, I would be posting this message on this board except with that ending and a note of a TPK. Nah, you jsut make the "bottomless" part of the bottomless pit an illusion too. Really, the PC only fall, say, 20 or 30 feet. The whole thing is designed by the BBEG to prevent anyone getting the drop on him, thus giving him the upper hand in the fight.
GhostOfJacK 07-10-07, 03:39 PM	Nah, you jsut make the "bottomless" part of the bottomless pit an illusion too. Really, the PC only fall, say, 20 or 30 feet. The whole thing is designed by the BBEG to prevent anyone getting the drop on him, thus giving him the upper hand in the fight. That is good...even better than any of my plots. I suppose I was bitter and not really thinking once the insta-killed and adult Blue Dragon earlier. Definitely not a good day for me.
RodinGates 07-10-07, 04:11 PM	The first campaign I played in featured a PC who eventually acquired the scorn of the entire party. He was a human beguiler who through some creative choices broke his character to the point of having a DC 20 save for his cantrips at level 4. He also frequently hoarded wealth from the rest of the party and was quite deceptive (Not to say the two rogues in the party did not have their degree of secrecy). Ultimately some things were frustrating with this character as no one could ever beat his DCs or Bluff checks and so the party really couldn't figure anything out even when lies were a little obvious. Well, eventually the law caught up to the beguiler in the form of a Justicar who was hunting him for a crime he actually didn't commit (Not that we knew that or ever got the chance to learn this, though). Once the Justicar told us to stand aside the majority of the party, Druid, Dragon Shaman, and especially the Fighter, wanted nothing to do with it and stepped aside. So, since I sure as hell didn't wanna fight a high level Justicar with a Beguiler as my backup I too stepped aside. So he gets his ass handed to him and gets hauled off to jail and we never see him again... or so we hoped. The player who was controlling him rolled up a new character who joined our party later and we resumed on our merry way. The beguiler returned, however, while we were aboard a galley headed down the coast and murdered our Fighter while he was taking watch. As we try to find the murderer we learn it is him and corner him only to have him completely mess us up, rob me, and escape the crew of the ship. So as if we hated the beguiler before we absolutely thirsted for his blood now. A lot of time and quests pass without meeting up with him until we storm a wizard's tower and receive help from a Tiefling Rogue whom I believe was sent by friends of mine. He helps us get up the tower and once we reach the wizard and his golem he uses a scroll of Power Word Kill on the NPC Tiefling. He's dead and we scrap with the wizard. We manage to kill him and his pet golem and after the fight search the room only to learn that the Tiefling rogue was actually the beguiler polymorphed. Now understand that we had all thirsted for this guy's blood for quite some time (No Lawful Good characters in this party) and relished the thought of killing this guy, particularly me (As the Fighter he murdered was a close friend) and especially our Monk (Although this hatred was out of character as he was the murdered Fighter). We were hoping for a big battle royale with this guy and instead he ends up taking the Wizard's only Power Word Kill for us. In a way he was almost an hero. Almost. And that burned us up quite a bit.
Lionhearted 07-10-07, 07:50 PM	When my supercharger and my friends FB killed a Old greendragon in the surprise round
Adrez Nesnsid 07-10-07, 07:51 PM	The end room with the BBEG was a huge pit with a pillar of stone maybe 25ft diameter. The pit was 'never ending' and a rickidy old bridge leading up to it. The BBEG on the pillar was an epic mind flayer (game was overpowered for their level). First round, they all run across the bridge (had better Init). BBEG gets one mental attack off on the Psion and drains his Int (I viewed him as the biggest threat). Next round the tank bullrushes the BBEG and pushes him off the pillar. End of encounter. Lame. If the pit is bottomless, and the BBEG is a wizard (he seems to be...), and is high enough in level to have Teleport memorized (this also seems to be the case), then I see no reason why he shouldn't still be around...
green_yawgmoth 07-11-07, 02:00 AM	I once sent an army of 800 orcs against the PC's (9th level) 780 orcs were level 1, 14 level 2, 5 level 4, and 1 level 11 orc blademaster badass fighter dude who I described in detail in a legend lore check, as the ultimate weapons fighter of all time for orcs in this particular country (took me about 20-30 minutes of explanation). Needless to say, I told the PC's he was 3 rows back (since he made an awe inspiring speech to his men before charging the town in question, they could see him) The Barbarian PC said "I jump the three rows...*rolls 18+ mods on jump...makes DC by about 15 points" Ok, I can get to him, it takes me...30ft of move in total...I have 40ft...so it's a move action, I use my standard action to attack him with my SPEAR, power attacking for full, rageahol, I'm a half-orc PC, I have a +4 item of strength, and a non-magical spear. (Did I mention he had highest initiative!) Crit...times three...9th level PC power attacking for full on a two handed weapon... brought my orc blademaster down to around -40 from full in a single blow. (around 100ish hitpoints) 3d8 + 54 + 30 for strength + 6 bard + wizards spell on weapon (about 30ish damage from that). He rolled 17 on his damage... That really hurt my feelings. Gotta ask: Did the PC yell "FOR SPARTAAAAAAA!!" as he made his attack? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v91/yawgmoth/kittyjig.gif
_Jayne_Cobb_ 07-11-07, 10:31 AM	I once sent an army of 800 orcs against the PC's (9th level) That really hurt my feelings. Hurt your feelings? WTF? How in the name of grim holy hell is a PC doing something dramatic and cinematic "hurtful" to your feelings? Stuff like this is what the gorram game is all about!
OatsMalone 07-11-07, 11:27 AM	Hurt your feelings? WTF? How in the name of grim holy hell is a PC doing something dramatic and cinematic "hurtful" to your feelings? Stuff like this is what the gorram game is all about! Bu tai zheng chang de... heh. Rejoice in the crazy, it's much more shiny.
sabrewolf 07-11-07, 05:54 PM	Hereīs one from my game: Medium-to-high (9 - 11 cant recall) level party with 2 npcs up against a dracolich, A'arthax Ash-Wings (that I pumped up with parts from 2 Prcs to make him a dracolych quite sooner and not soo overpowerfull).. After fighting 2 dragon simulacrums disguised as A'arthax a one group of 200 skeletons (weak as hell, i know, but numbers made it fun) they end in a huge cavern with: 2 groups of 200 skeleton, a couple large skellys, some clerics, 3 more simulacrums plus A'arthax himself.. Placed each skelly group on one side with a draco way in the rear plus the last 2 dracos right ahead each on one side of a lava pit. All set for a great mayhen of a battle. Then the two melees charge the lone dragons... I roll and one of them ends being A'arthax.. As the turn went and one readyed-action-breath afterwards, the group have a pile of ash instead of a samurai, due to a roll of 1.. Then checking init I find the wizard was holding action so far, being the only left to act. He considers a moment and decides "what the..?" and tosses desintegrate - here we all know the now revealed true dracolich can only loose if he rolls 1, right?.... :eek: "1" :bigeyes: :weep: ..and next thing that happened was a boss ending scene ninja-gaiden-style..... Granted, was a nice scene when right after the sudden death of a comrade, the enraged wizard puts all his spirit in a retributive strike with a desintegrate that puts the BBEG to a bitter end... but hardly the battle royalle i first planned... I could only salvage it partly by continuing the scene with the rest of the skeletons and simulacrums (2 of them)... And also used up a scene that was for later on (few levels latter) by making the celestial dragon bring the samurai back as Kamui (a celestial, chosen one type thing) - as requested by the player on background. Not 100% anti-climatic, but I sure stood there in silence :bigeyes: for half a minute before my brain rebooted, glued my spiritīs pieces back with duct-tape and pressed the "Play" button on the scene.. Luckly they havent found the phylactery in time and A'arthax escaped with one last group of skellies that were ignored by being on the other side (unexplored) of the dungeon, and shall return for a "take II" of the big battle, hopefully not to fall so quick this time... Untill then, i have to hear them brag ocasionly on his the wizard defeated "single-handed" such a powerfull beast... :P ..that the player knows was by sheer luck..
justin_byrne 07-24-07, 05:07 PM	In my nexy story line the BBEG is gonna turn out to be a gnome
Drow64 07-24-07, 07:22 PM	At the end of the dungeon, the PCs encounter a Hecatonchires. Turns out, it's just looking for directions to the nearest chicken joint.
Thanuir 07-27-07, 01:53 PM	...and then the GM forces his/her railroaded end of the scenario down the throaths of the players.
DrakePD 07-27-07, 02:45 PM	Some time ago I purchased a module and read the thing cover to cover a few times. Started running the module and the players surprised me with the amount of research and divination spells they used. Basically a princess was kidnapped and was being held by the BBEG. The module was well thought out and would take the pc's a few gaming sessions to complete. Well with all the research the players did and divination spells they had performed, they simply (to my total surprise) dimensional folded into the room where the princess was being held by the BBEG, distracted him for a round or two, grabbed the princess and Dim folded back out. End of module.
Bozwevial 07-27-07, 03:59 PM	Our task was to bring back a fallen paladin who had gone evil. Since this task came from a really powerful cleric, dead was fine, as long as we had a piece of the body (or the entire corpse). We had what you might call a blastificer in our party, and my DM wouldn't believe me when I informed him of the 1-metamagic feat limit on the artificer's application ability (he'd only used this exploit on lesser monsters before, and he's kind of weak in a toe to toe fight). But when we come up against the BBEG, the guy whips out a wand of fireball, maximizes and empowers it, and lobs a blast at him, before my warblade could so much as go into a stance. Turns out he had fire resistance somehow, and the DM looks relieved-until the artificer remembers his Energy Substitution feat. He then proceeds to lob a maximized, empowered, acidball (heightened for good measure) at the BBEG. When the fumes cleared, all that was left was a little pile of dust sitting in a smoking crater. Then the wand crumbled into an identical pile of dust that mixed with the BBEG's remains. Not even the high priest could resurrect a half-wand, half-fallen paladin. Needless to say, we got blacklisted by the church and wound up having to go retrieve the components for a true resurrection spell, an adventure the party never quite finished (the DM's revenge, apparently). We just made the artificer make items to sell, then bought the components. That church charged double for spells after that...
Damidar 07-27-07, 05:51 PM	WOD: The party had one vampire and two werewolves. Only one werewolf could fight. The other could talk real well. And the vampire could fight, if he had to. They break into some offices and get the files. On the way out the rear entrance they are met by two vampires. The GM had this whole battle set up, tactics and all the bells and whistles. One of the bad vampires asks the party for the files. The "face" werewolf steps up and rolls really well on his BS skill. The bad vampire believed him and they left. The GM was a tad upset but the "face" got extra xp for talking his way out of a potentially deadly fight.
Dazzer 07-27-07, 06:19 PM	It hurt my feelings because I was wanting to have a 3 round badass fight in which the barbarian half-orc PC would say some cool intimidating things, and the fighter orc NPC would say some inspiring things to his troops like "I will kill the half-blood traitor personally" etc... Instead it was more like I WILL GUT THE LEADER...YOU TAKE THE REST *half-orc to party* *stab* The leader is gutted, lets take the rest! It was climatic yes...and I made it cool described it as awesome, but I thought I could've made it more awesome had it lasted a little longer. Recently my party fought a lich (12th level wizard spec conjurer). They killed him with the help of 4 NPC's (PC's were 10th level). The lich took something like 30 rounds to kill (most of which was the PC's fighting his summons while the lich was trapped behind wall spells and such). In any case, it was disappointing because although they loved the fight, no PC made a cool saying out of it. They just kindof, went "We roll initiative and initiate melee and ranged combat. Let us do battle now.....die lich die!"