Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Gilgamet 06-08-05, 09:07 PM	I'd like this forum to be a discussion for all of the players - who in moments of sheer genius, did something spectacular to foil their DM's plan. We were in Ravenloft and had just worked through the Castle of Azailin (BBEG Lich). When we made it to the top (we ran screaming away from some difficult encounters) we found the phylactery. We were supposed to return it to someone who was going to destroy it. My party began discussing the best way to trek this thing back down through the castle. Me: This thing has got to be magic, right? PC: Sure. Why. Me: If you are a Mega Lich - you wouldn't create your phylactery out of some weak material, right? PC: Again, sure, why? Me: So I think this thing has got to be pretty beefy. PC: What is your point??? Me: Let's push it off of the roof!!! That way we don't have to fight our way back through the castle with this thing. I can just cast feather fall on us all and we can float down. PC: That just might work. And it did. The DM had planned out our next several gaming sessions working our way back through the castle. The phylactery landed below with a loud thud - and eventually we drug it to safety. :weep: Ah the good 'ol days.
Thorak 06-08-05, 09:22 PM	After seeing a lightning bolt from the storm overhead smash a rampart of the lich's castle; Me: "Hey, that lightning bolt broke stone. Cool." DM: "Yeah..." Me: "I cast Call Lightning." DM: "Uhh, okaaaayy... There aren't any enemies around, you know." Me: "I know. But lightning breaks stone. And I'm tired of wandering through the lich's traps. If I start tearing his castle down about his ears, I bet HE will come to ME." Worked, too. Alternatively, if your DM likes traps, enjoy lateral thinking. Doors and chests connect to the wall in two places. The lock that's holding it shut, and the hinges. It's often easier to disable the hinges than pick the lock, and a lot less likely to be trapped. Only works with doors that open the right way, though, otherwise the hinges are on the wrong side. I ask on every locked door which way it opens, in or out. If it opens out, towards me, that means the hinges are on MY side.
PlutoniumKnight 06-08-05, 09:40 PM	Something that has probobly foiled DM's plans for centuries (exageration). Natural 20's, i once had a goliath barbarian that took out the main BBEG during the final battle in one hit. Confirmed Natural 20 with a Goliath Great Hammer. It beleive i did somewhere in the mid 100's of damage. It was quite fun to look at the DM's face.
Telaria 06-08-05, 10:06 PM	The first D&D character I ever played was, to put it simply, unholy doom on the GMs plans. A high INT wizard, Fianis also suffered heavily from an attitude that she was only adventuring because it was a useful way to find out information. The game was, incidentally, set in Forgotten Realms. So, in our first session, we're riding out in the countryside when we spot 'around 30' dark skinned elves milling around a caven opening. I look over my sheet, and ask what I can roll to figure out what they were. Whichever Knowledge skill it was (probably Arcana), I rolled. Natural 20. Plus my 11 or so skill mod... So, 31. The DM informs that I think these might be 'Drow'. I mildly suggest that I thought it was a pretty darn good roll, and wouldn't I know anything else? 'Well, you've heard they live underground.' I pause, and consider this, than inform him that if this is all the information I have, Fianis decides to ride back into town and round up the local militia. After all, there are dozens of these 'Drow', and I have no idea how powerful they are, and I'm certainly not going to find out by tossing myself at them and firing off spells. The DM stares at me, horrified, but grudgingly admits that it was a logical thing to do, and very in character. We sneak off, and the militia take care of the drow. So much for that storyline. In the next session, evil orcs kidnap some townsfolk, and we go rescue them. The orcs are camped out on a farmstead with two barns, a house standing between them. We send our rogue in, who comes back and notes that the prisoners are in one barn, with a handful of guards, while most of the orcs are in the other barn where they've built a makeshift shrine. Fianis has another brillant idea. All of those orcs are in an old, dry, dusty barn full of... dry hay. So she takes her necklace of fireballs, and goes to toss the biggest one at the barn. The DM flips out, and explains that if I do that, I'll destroy all the loot. I point out that we came here to rescue the hostages, and this will put them and us at the least risk. The rest of the party agrees. So, of course, fireballs away, and the loot melts, burns, or is otherwise ruined, including the religious artifact that was supposed to start us on the next arc of the game. Unsuprisingly, the game pretty much fell apart after this point.
Steel Cobra 06-08-05, 10:47 PM	ok Im a DM so I know. PC:lets just charge at the mindflayer other PC:yeah that might work the PCs were lvl 1 and I was just trying to freak them out because thay kept on saying they were all powerful and well thay all died
Loren Pechtel 06-08-05, 11:14 PM	A small one: The DM loved to make loot we didn't get. One day it was a book of every first-level spell. However, a trap was sprung that dropped a flask of oil of fiery burning (this was 1E). When he described the flask falliing I quickly feather-falled it. It didn't register in his mind right away and he went on with his pre-planned description of the burned book with one spell left before he realized that the book wasn't burned. At that point I got a prize far beyond what he intended and the flask of oil as well. I didn't realize what was really intended, I just realized a trap had been sprung and I saw a way of negating it. There's no way the falling flask could be anything other than bad news.
Flushmaster 06-08-05, 11:39 PM	Players shouldn't want to or be able to "foil" their DM's plans, at least if the DM is a good one and the players aren't jerks. The DM's job is to create a challenging but fair adventure and to plan well enough and be adaptable enough to adjust quickly to any actions by the players. A party of adventurers slowly floating down along the wall of a castle full of bad guys would quickly attract arrows and other ranged attacks (you think those dozens of baddies wouldn't have a couple of sentries posted to raise an alarm?). If it's possible for a PC to acquire a spellbook then don't put spells in it that you don't want them to have access to; yeah, it might be very difficult for them to get but sometimes the player catches something the DM missed, like feather fall or even quick reflexes :P. With a bunch of orcs in a suddenly burning building you'd think that at least one of the survivors of the initial blast would simply grab an armload of loot and run away, knocking a hole in a wall if need be (but I doubt they'd lock themselves in from the outside); if all the orcs in this "climactic" battle die in the first blast then the DM shouldn't have given the party a necklace of fireballs. While these are funny, I'd title it "Amusing DM Brain Farts."
Maerdash 06-09-05, 01:33 AM	Well we're working for a noble to protect him against a guild of assasins, after a couple of hours of gaming the idea that the noble we're protecting is a nobody, just some country squire in a caimpaign were we regularly interacted with royalty and high nobility, so while the party is trying to piece together some info that has US on the hit list I teleport back to the castle where our little noble is. I bluff him into thinking im there to add some security and cast dimension lock, I quickly follow it up with Force cage, then cloud kill and acid fog. "Why would you want to kill me?!" he asks between begging to be freed. "Dont you know?" I ask "YOU'RE the leader of the assasins whos REAL goal is to kill US!" The DM's face was priceless and he had to come up with a all new plot, I kinda felt sorry about that. :D
FreeTheSlaves 06-09-05, 01:59 AM	My players PCs stole the little bad evil girl's (LBEG) stable of horses & now she can't roam freely. I can't really say it has foiled my plans because I only have broad sweeping plans that largely cannot be foiled - nothing hinges upon one single character. How do you foil a refugee invasion, a plague & spontaneous heretical worship? Of course all the above can be thwarted but only with a great deal of effort, and it is yet to be seen if there is a will.
Gilgamet 06-09-05, 08:05 AM	Players shouldn't want to or be able to "foil" their DM's plans, at least if the DM is a good one and the players aren't jerks. The DM's job is to create a challenging but fair adventure and to plan well enough and be adaptable enough to adjust quickly to any actions by the players. True enough - but I didn't mean anything malicious by it. As a DM I have had it happen to me. The guy who taught me how to DM was very concerned with Dungeon ecology. i.e. He wouldn't have a trickle of water coming down the wall if there was no water source. There wouldn't be a living animal 5 layers down in complete darkness in a sea of undead - when there would be nothing for it to eat, stuff like that. So I had an Orc raiding party kidnap the sister (NPC) of one of the PCs. He ran through a field and went into the underground encampment. The party was hard on his heels and eventually reached the opening. The Orcs were working for a group of Mages who wanted them to pillage and loot a profitable trade route - so the dungeon was littered with all sorts of magical traps. Their first encounter was a large spider who had set up shop at the end of a hallway. When the players defeated it - one of my PCs said - 'Wait a minute - the Orc couldn't have come through here - otherwise he would have ran into the spider - there must be a secret door.' He was right. I put one in to deal with the Orc - and the entire party had not searched for doors or traps in 5 gaming sessions. The party got to bypass the 1st 4 levels of the dungeon and go straight to the lower level. So I think 'Brain Fart' is a bit harsh, as a DM I had to regroup my strategy, but I was secretly pleased at the ingenuity of my players.
CzarGarrett 06-09-05, 09:10 AM	My party and I were attempting to force out a well-equipetted and entrenched tribe of hobgoblins from an old tower. We were getting nowhere- the hobgoblins had far too much supplies and we couldn't effectively put them under siege. The DM's idea was that eventually the Hobgoblins would come out, capture the players, and we'd be transported to a new area. However, due to impatience, my character went off into some nearby hills and convinced a pair of Mountain Giants to chuck rocks at the tower for a while, in exchange for a couple of deer and some shiny (yet mostly worthless) gems. The giants threw rocks and destroyed the entire tower, and the scattering hobgoblins were picked off by my party.
dngnb8 06-09-05, 09:53 AM	If you are a good DM, your plans arent foiled, they just change. Some of the more creative things I have done Used the wine skin to hold air for a long underground swim and the helped as floaties since my chacter didnt swim well. Had a character with Bracers of Brachiation. A Paladin was charging on his mount and I brachiated to the reins, pulling the mounts head down stopping the charge. Took some damage for being trampled, but a non charging Paladin was easier to handle. Had a thief who used a Cloak of Bat and Dentures (with sharp pointy teeth) to burgle homes. Too bad she had a stake driven through her heart and her head cut off. Damn townsfolk. Use my rope use skill and iron spikes to create a grappling hook
kam_Islash 06-09-05, 10:29 AM	There was this summoning circle and three women trying to summon something. We saw it with "prying eyes" then teleported in and stopped the ritual. His plan: To summon a Paragon Succubus by the time we walked in...but we teleported in instead. The Succubus would have disguised itself as a Solar and said "No! Dont come closer! Its a trap!" and we, being the heroes that we are, would have gone to save her. She'd glomp the first person she met, squeeze tight, say "See, I told you it was a trap" and start ability draining. ///
The nameles one 06-09-05, 11:05 AM	If my players "foil" something I've done, I would be proud and reward the characters for a well done job. A smart player is always good to have. (Not to mention 4 of them.)
kam_Islash 06-09-05, 11:30 AM	Yeah we must've gotten 1,000 Xp apiece fo rthat one. He rewards that sort of thing: pwning him. ///
robertliguori 06-09-05, 05:53 PM	Heh. I've got one player who I'd swear has telepathy, and a death wish. The players enter a small town. I describe how the thick foliage overhead is moving, after a small comment about there not being much wind earlier. As the party beds down for the night, to get cracking on what has been causing some townsfolk to disappear, this player decides to bed down in a tree. In particular, he chooses the tree that's a web point for the fiendish monstrous spider that's been munching people. He fails his spot and reflex saves, and is entangled, and bitten and poisoned into unconsciousness. Later on, the party is contracted to find a thief and his wife. The theif is hiding in the docks district, and his wife (whom no one in the town has seen) is wandering the streets, keeping an ear out. This player leaves the party to go the the docks district, and then alternately asks about the thief (openly), and also scouts for the wimmins. He finds one. Regrettably for him, she lures him back to her room and then aids her husband in beating him unconscious. The party's new plan: if they're not sure what to do, wail on him until he falls over. It seems to help.
Faust Ragnarok 06-09-05, 06:12 PM	Once, my DM decided to make an entire session about me, essentially, I had unknowingly broken an oath, and an inevitable (a special one that goes after people who unwittingly break oaths), was going to block our path and we have to fight him. The only thing is I die, and he refuses to fight, or move, or do anything until I come. Well, I laugh for about 2 weeks in the after life before finally consenting to being ressurected, then, just before I get within conversation range of the inevitable, I pull down my pants proclaim: "I will not pee on this rock!", and proceed to pee on the rock. Then, I plead guilty and he takes me w/o a fight to a "court", where I am proclaimed to be "the craziest mf'er ever". Yea, my DM was a little ****** at that one. This isn't the first time something like that has happened, it seems that every time he takes the chance of making something extremely important to the game I screw it up, and I never know before hand either.
VirgilCaine 06-09-05, 06:51 PM	Fianis has another brillant idea. All of those orcs are in an old, dry, dusty barn full of... dry hay. So she takes her necklace of fireballs, and goes to toss the biggest one at the barn. The DM flips out, and explains that if I do that, I'll destroy all the loot. I point out that we came here to rescue the hostages, and this will put them and us at the least risk. The rest of the party agrees. For as smart as you seem to be, why does the wizard have the necklace of fireballs? Give it to the Rogue, who will be the best choice to not blow up with it or maybe the cleric or fighter or something. That's just concentrating firepower with one person who can only do one thing per round. Give it to someone else and they can kick butt and the wizard can too. As for me, I haven't had any yet. Not that I don't expect to--and it's perfectly okay. I just want to challenge the PCs and see them overcome those challenges in exactly the way this thread describes--with quick and logical thinking.
Jaid 06-09-05, 07:17 PM	meh. most of my DMs tend to be of the Shoehorning variety. someday, i'll get a chance... well, other than melting the foundation out from underneath a flying fortress once. it was a lot quicker than actually fighting the people inside =D
obrysii 06-09-05, 07:18 PM	We disrupted our DM's plans when we, as an evil group, managed to get on the good sides of both the evil guilds and the good guilds (ie, temples of good and evil deities, respectively) and then we betrayed both of them, letting the two destroy each other and the city. We got away, at level 6, with 300,000gps and are now infamous due to the destruction we instigated.
Radijs 06-09-05, 07:49 PM	Yea I'm an evil cleric. And we've got a pretty good idea that the chained up dude is undead. "By Nerull! Rebuke undead!" A lucky roll, I command the undead and command it to lead us to the treasure and then order it to lie face down on the ground Coup de graced it SPLAT.
Dragonsblood 06-09-05, 08:02 PM	You can coup de grace undead? Doesn't that go along with the whole critical/sneak attack immunity?
Steelgryphon 06-09-05, 08:44 PM	Unarmed, Unarmord Level 1 ranger. I Took out 3 Normal Orcs (CR1/2 each) 1 lvl 2 Orc Sorcerer (CR 2) 1 lvl 1 Orc Soup Nazi Fighter (CR 1) I got a 24 on my bluff check to make it look like i killed myself with a bowl, no blood, but they bough it. Then when the orc and sorc came to invistigate, i Disarmed the orc of his morning star, then the sorcs AoO caused me to crit and kill him. I then proceded to AoO kill the next 2 normal orcs (combat reflexes) then crit kill the lvl 1 fighter, and normal kill the last orc, who was cowering in the corner. This fight was soposed to kill me, not leave me at 4 of 11hp lol. Needless to say, the dm feeling quite sore, decided to nerf me to no end. Total exp i should have gotten, 1350. Total exp i got. 50 Then there was the other Player with an NPC cleric that got smote by 2 normal orcs and a soup nazi orc lol.
deneb 06-09-05, 09:04 PM	As a dm Iv had some rather odd things happen. 6th level characters new person joins the group playing a pixie.. ya know.. your walkin through the forest and all of a suden your shoe laces are tied kind of pixie... well.. after she had thoughly anoyed all of them on of them managed to pin her. and then stuff her in a bag of familier holding. Oops... party hadent been told yet but the pixie had a bag of holding with her. everyone fails their save and off everyone goes to the astral plane. I had to pause the game for 30 min while I tryed to find a way to bring them all back.... was a lota fun...
Fargren 06-09-05, 09:10 PM	Where does a pixie carry a bag of holding?
Hvitar-Hrafnar 06-09-05, 09:25 PM	My first character, one I sometimes regret killing off in return for a new character because of the situation and imbalance, was a Half-Elven, barbaric Ranger. One time I was with my party on a Galleon we had won from a gladiator pit, in order to sail to the Elves, who at the time we thought would solve all of our problems. My DM planned for pirates to raid and take over our ship. Thanks to my name [Raven] and my watch on the Crow's Nest, I easily foiled it. While sitting atop the crows nest, I saw the oncomining ship. Being stealthy, I waited until it got close enough. The Captain of the Pirates was using alchemist fire to set our ship aflame and force us to abandon it, but luckily I was away from the fire damage. I watched as the captain prepared a massive vial of it, along with some primitive explosives. Luckily, even though I was specialized in melee combat, I had good skill with a bow. The DM's plans were running great: Our ship was aflame, we were dying, and pirates were all around us. Using my bow, I aimed at the explosives/alchemist fire in the captains hands as he prepared it, to use it on us. I rolled a natural 20 from a perfect sniping location just over the captain [Crows nest, and their ship was very close] with my attack bonuses and conditions, I hit the vial. I then rolled nearly perfect on damage. My DM, outraged that his plans were foiled, still followed though with the rules. The concoction in the captain's hands exploded, incinerating his crew, taking out part of our ship, dealing us all massive fire damage, but in the end, blowing the captain and his entire ship up.
Black Kitten 06-10-05, 04:29 AM	Bad DM plans require to be foiled. Now our current DM had a chance to learn some flexibility from me (I never plan much that I cannot control. If I _really_ need something to go my way, I use lvl 9 or epic spells/powers), so we never really foiled a plan. We did on thing once. We were to capture some BBEG and he had some guards standing near him to protect him. So we confront him, but he denies involvement to the plot we were following. So we go back outside to discuss our action, but our super-powerful barbarian stayed inside with the man. Then we re-entered and beated the hell out of all those guys, including the BBEG, who was supposed to escape. My DM didn't care too much, luckily. We also have a knack for cutting short large species by our 'just open fire' tactics. 100+ dmg while you are trying to have a speach is very annoying.
Andrew 06-10-05, 04:44 AM	We have come in search of a lich's phylactery, and the quest has led us to a tower in the center of a ruined city within a vast underground cavern. The tower's walls are magically reinforced, and the imposing adamantine doors are barred from the inside, and beyond the doors, a mighty guardian surely stands watch upon the ground floor. Player: I spider climb up the side of the tower DM: *smacks forehead* Later, within the same session: A blackened stone alter is the resting place for six matching gems. One of these gems is the phylactery, and the others spell your doom, should they be disturbed. Me: I cast Detect Evil and Detect Magic. Which one is it? DM: .... Numerous vile and heinous powerful magical traps are quite obviously intended to activate upon disturbing the gems. Me: I put up Antimagic Field. DM: *smacks forehead*
Radijs 06-10-05, 05:54 AM	You can coup de grace undead? Doesn't that go along with the whole critical/sneak attack immunity? I wouldn't know. I declared to the DM that I raised my scythe and swung it down through the foul things neck.
Black Kitten 06-10-05, 06:31 AM	I wouldn't know. I declared to the DM that I raised my scythe and swung it down through the foul things neck. Some creatures are not affected by the loss of their heads. Many undead are included in that. I'd simply have them take a new assignment that will lead to their deaths. EDIT - The 'death' thingy is on purpose
Sapper2219 06-10-05, 12:06 PM	...the dice do.... We were facing the not so BBEG in the dungeon we were clearing out and happened upon a dragon and his tough little kobald body guard....things didn't look good for us right up to the point the dragon failed his saving throw by one point vs our warlocks eldritch blast (sp) or what ever power it is that sickens things. Losing over half the combat power of the pair made the challenging encounter pretty easy...this is also why I'm starting to feel the Warlock is a bit over powered IMO That power has saved our backsides on more than one occasion, as high powered melee creatures end up vomiting and move away from the encounter area.
CelineSSauve 06-10-05, 10:50 PM	My (old?) DM rolled which things back when we were playing a 'live' game. My character was a half-Drow and I'm 90% certain another Player had it in for her. Anyway, she's innocent and underaged to be out on her own an they're battling in an ancient temple. My lady (a Druid at that point) got hit and was backed up against the alter so this other PC tells her to just step on the alter (covered with arcane marks, mind you...) to get out of the way. Well, lady's blood touches the alter and apparently her eyes glowed red. Not only was that my DMs chance to force my character to admit to her mother's side of the family but the portal to some demonic plane was opened before schedule. We picked up the NPC that popped out of the portal (human) and retreated. Soon after a bunch of good Clerics and Paladins were dying by the dozens and we not linked to it that I know of. The group was broken up after that and the DM was supposed to keep going with me online but hasn't contacted me in a while... Never the less, the dude from the vortex was rather cool and allowed my druid to play doctor for a while. *Cel
Dartanel 06-10-05, 11:31 PM	...the dice do.... We were facing the not so BBEG in the dungeon we were clearing out and happened upon a dragon and his tough little kobald body guard....things didn't look good for us right up to the point the dragon failed his saving throw by one point vs our warlocks eldritch blast (sp) or what ever power it is that sickens things. Losing over half the combat power of the pair made the challenging encounter pretty easy...this is also why I'm starting to feel the Warlock is a bit over powered IMO That power has saved our backsides on more than one occasion, as high powered melee creatures end up vomiting and move away from the encounter area. You may want to look that over again. Sickened and Nauseated are two different status effects. Sickened only gives you -2 to your rolls. Nauseated is the one that reduces you to only move actions.
Sapper2219 06-11-05, 12:37 AM	...but I don't have the CA book, does the power sicken them or nauseate them....hmmm I shall have to find out...
BGTM 06-11-05, 01:41 AM	...but I don't have the CA book, does the power sicken them or nauseate them....hmmm I shall have to find out... Sickening Blast is a least invocation that forces a creature hit to make a fortitude save or become sickened for 1 minute. Noxious Blast is a greater invocation that's identical to Sickening Blast, except the creature becomes nauseated instead of sickened.
Flushmaster 06-11-05, 02:47 AM	Also, sickening blast has an equivalent spell level of 2, so it's save DC is 12 + Cha mod. As you gain levels and foes get higher save bonuses this becomes gradually less and less effective, much like spells such as shhharm person and color spray. I don't think that warlocks are overpowered at all. Yeah, they can do a few things quite well and quite often, but they're extremely limited in what they do. Any overly successful warlock is a result of a DM that is predictable, repetitive, and lacks variety in the challenges that they present to their players.
Zemyla 06-27-05, 03:02 PM	In a 2nd edition Ravenloft campaign, we were roaming through Strahd's castle, when we encountered a trap that caused a large portion of our party to be teleported without our items into a tomb full of wights. I think his plan was to have us run away. However, we are fools and didn't. Instead, my githzerai psionicist/rogue (basically, a pre-elocator elocator) manifested dimension blade on one of his articles of clothing and used it to chop up wights. The rest of the party then gathered the severed limbs (which the DM ruled acted as magic weapons for one round after they were severed) and beat the wights up with them. After a while, they just started grappling wights and using them as melee weapons. After defeating the majority of the wights, we escaped. For the rest of the night, my GM was heard saying, "My god..."
Dragonspirit 06-27-05, 07:39 PM	Hmm... 1. My character, a fighter, along with the barbarian in our group went to confront the archvillan for a 1st level adventure. We began interrogating him, and it broke out into a fight (he was a lvl 5 rogue and should have wasted our puny level 1s [and only two of us at that!]). We took him down in two rounds with some very nice hits. Our parties other members barely survived an encounter with a small boar in the meantime, so needless to say we had some bragging rights for awhile :) 2. The DM has a carefully laid out plan for us to explore, and has not provided us with many clues as to a criminal who has mysteriously disappeared and slaughtered the guards watching him. He did not factor we would use the 'speak with dead' spell on said guards :)
Linthalas Durothil 07-07-05, 04:40 PM	This was awhile back so forgive me for lack of details. It was a ninja campaign, myself and another each at about 10th level were to sneak aboard a ship and steal an item. The plan was to wait until it set sail, row up to it at night, board it... incapacitate any guards needed, take the item, row back. However I decided to poison their food shipments that were being boarded on with a sleeping agent. Needless to say we got the item in record time with no casualties. DM was rather shocked at the tactic and we got some high honors and fame in the clan.
Wenin 07-07-05, 05:16 PM	This is back in 2nd. My character had a staff that attracted all missile weapons/objects towards the staff within 5 ft of it. The DM loved drow and would once busted out a bunch of drow that were meant to capture or straight out kill our party with poisoned darts. We were climbing some stairs or maybe a ladder (it's been a LONG time) in retreat. My character purposely went up last. When the drow started firing, the DM thought he had us, until I reminded him of my staff. Shortly after that incident the DM had a Dragon working with the Drow casting disintegrate spells on the staff every time they encountered it. One such encounter only happened to allow the Dragon a couple of more chances at destroying the staff. Another incident with a different DM..... the game had a huge battle going on with two opposing armies. My character was the general of our army.... the opposing army was winning, which I believe the DM was intending to happen. Our army just succeeded in destroying the enemy's aerial units, but our army was about to collapse. I reminded the DM of the aerial forces I had placed in reserves, which were carrying a strong contingent of archers. Suffice to say the aerial units swooped down out of the clouds that were hiding them and decimated and routed the enemy. In response this DM had the enemy general, stomp my character into the ground and then pick him up and drop him into the nearby ocean..... where he had to remove his magical platemail to stay alive.
Gemstone 07-07-05, 05:27 PM	I keep it simple. The best way I've ever foiled my DM's plan was by dying :D
jameswilliamogle 07-07-05, 06:03 PM	here's a small one: in the last session we ran into an orc chained to the wall of a drow shrine. when i free him, he asks the party for a crossbow. a crossbow? not the morning star dangling from the cleric's belt??? also, he acts totally mongoloidal. anyway, i casually mention "feeblemind," ooc, and as the dm is pursing his lips and shaking his head while looking at me, the whole party goes "yeah, yeah, that's it!" and we spring to get him healed, and sure enough he's a powerful reincarnated-into-an-orc wizard. I dont know what the dm had in mind, but i think that qualifies as one.
4barenbou 07-07-05, 06:21 PM	My group foiled the DM's plans once not by bypassing content, but by forcing him to add more. The barbarian was being a total wuss about opening doors and going first into rooms after he triggered a trap. A previous arguement about this fact ended with my bard being flung headfirst into a tomb and setting off an explosive trap. Naturally, I was giving him a hard time about it. As we approached the last room of the dungeon, I began to loudly berate him as he hesitated before opening the door. Of course, the villains on the other side of the door heard us, so rather than encountering a doppleganger and some guards like the DM had planned, the doppleganger posed as the cleric we came to rescue while a few of the guards escaped with the actual cleric. After the encounter the DM needed an hour to figure how to fix the mess we made.
Arrowhen 07-07-05, 08:00 PM	My DM's plan is to provide us with exciting and challenging encounters. Why would I want to foil those plan? ;)
Valgaav 07-07-05, 08:14 PM	My DM's plan is to provide us with exciting and challenging encounters. Why would I want to foil those plan? ;) well yeah, if you have a good DM... I go to two games a week, one on Tuesday and one on Friday. The Tuesday DM gives us free reign and presents multiple plot hooks an adventure, thinking on the fly and letting us choose what we want to do with our game. The DM on fridays has about half a clue and runs premade adventures, never deviating from the printed page if he can help it. In his game, I'm trying to poke every part of the world to see if I can get it to collapse on illogic. I'm also playing a Kender in Ebberon on fridays because my DM didn't know what they were. :ayyyy!:
Arrowhen 07-07-05, 08:48 PM	The DM on fridays has about half a clue and runs premade adventures, never deviating from the printed page if he can help it. In his game, I'm trying to poke every part of the world to see if I can get it to collapse on illogic. I'm also playing a Kender in Ebberon on fridays because my DM didn't know what they were. If you don't like the way he DMs, then don't play in his games. Don't show up to the game just to spoil it for him. If you don't like a book, do you go to the library and rip pages out of it? If you don't like a movie, do you buy another ticket for it and talk loudly through the whole thing? Do you go to restaurants you don't like just to complain loudly about the food? Players like you are the reason many DMs railroad. They figure, based on past experiences, that their players are going to go out of their way to avoid any kind of plot hook that comes up, so they figure it's easier to just force the PCs to participate.
Valgaav 07-07-05, 09:29 PM	Honestly? It's because there's so little going on here in South Jersey that I'll take whatever I can find. Besides, it's fun to try and unravel a world, especially if you fail. it's like when you get into an argument sometimes: It's fun to see who can come up with the more imaginative insult.
Airsucker 07-08-05, 04:43 PM	Yup. An entire game. I was playing Sigfa, human, female barbarian/exotic weapons master, wearer of the chainmail bikini. We were standing in front of a portal to one of the levels of Hell, and the others were standing around trying to figure out how to prevent the invasion of bad guys to kill the prophesied future paladin. Sigfa started beating on the portal. Eventually the DM rolled a 1 and the portal broke. I guess we were supposed to go through the portal, cause the next week we started new characters for another campaign.
OracleYori 07-08-05, 05:10 PM	Level 4 Wilder- fried the yet to be BBEG- Crystal Spray....nuf said- rolled like 5d4 and rolled all 4s- delt 1 damage more than he had hp in the first round crushed his skull second round- the DM:huh...that wasnt supposed to happen... me:yeah? too fast of a kill eh? dm:yeah...he was gonna appear later...i even had a backstory... me:oh- oops dm: ok, er, let me think of something- He apparently planned that it would be an interesting battle, and both of us would be injured and he had a quickened teleport ring on- too bad he didnt have an action with which to use it-
CorSecJedi 07-09-05, 01:18 PM	My party of a NN wizard, NG-seeking-to-become-exalted ranger, LG-seeking-to-become-exalted monk, paladin, CG barbarian, and myself, a NN ranger, were in a tower with the half-dragon guardian of this tower. The DM is arranging for us to use the teleporting doors in the basement of the tower to get to the next stage of our quest. So, we go down to the basement and see three teleporting doors. One is the one we want, and the DM randomly comes up with ideas for the other two, thinking it isn't important. One door leads to another tower (the one we want), another leads to a grassy plain who knows where, and the third opens up into a temple of Lolth in the Underdark. DM: The half-dragon leads you to the portal of the tower. Monk: What is going on in the scenes from the other doors? DM: The grassy plain is deserted. In the temple, you can see the priestess of Lolth preparing what looks to be a sacrifice. Monk: I charge through the door and using stunning fist on the closest priestess! As I do so, I cry out to the helpless victim, "Fear not! Rescue is at hand!" DM: ... .... You do what? Needless to say, we spent the next 15 minutes waiting for the next action in the fight, because the DM was completely not expecting this to be more than an interesting side note. It ended up that our entire party, not wishing to get seperated, went through the door and wound up journeying through the Underdark for quite some time.
The Livewire 07-09-05, 02:10 PM	back in 2nd edition my bard was our DM's worst nightmare. Encounting a bunch of 'paladins of torm' really duped idiots and clerics of bane. Me: It says that improved phantasmal force has an aoe of 300' and can make sounds, can it amplify speech? DM: Um sure. My bard and my sister's cleric climb to the roof of a nearby building and I used improved phantasmal force to create a 300' tall image of Torm. I amplify my voice to godlike levels. Only one of the poor fools the cleric, disbeleives. My sister (we're hiding behind the illusion) Spiritual Hammer Called shot to the head. *rolls* Natural 20. So from the POV of these guys Torm points and the cleric is knocked senseless by the hammer that flies from his hand. Image of Torm UNBELIEVER Dm had no idea what to do at that point. He agreed to let us get to the boat unmolested if we didn't ask why. Later same game we're at the boat. but we need to push off. My bard is the only one who has ranks in swim (and doesn't wear armor) so I push off the boat. DM: A knight in full plate is charging you on the dock. Me: Cast enlarge on his full plate armor. He falls in the suddenly illfitting armor off the dock and dies. DM OK you turn to get to the boat and you see 5 archers getting ready to fire at you. Me: Feather fall on their arrows (this was 2e when that worked) Running for the boat DM grrrr OK well the boat's too far to jump. Me: Can I pole vault? DM : (Evily) Yes but there's no pole around. Me: Decastave. Creates a 10' pole of force, I vault into the boat. DM: .....
Talinna 07-09-05, 03:46 PM	6 level bard, NG party is standing at the faye crossroads (but we don't know it) getting the snott beat out of them by the guardians.... the bard is to caught up in staying alive to sing :help: so the cleric is the only one to try a dep check on these things and fails (CHA of 14)... nearly dead the party manages to beat the two golums to death (we've now destroyed the crossroad guardians :OMG! ) Anyhow the campagin got snuffed partly because the DM couldn't figure out how to get us to where she wanted us now, partly because the group was falling a part. .... but come on, the one time a bard doesn't sing in combat :banghead:
Aeromus 07-09-05, 05:40 PM	So last night, we enter a Dwarven clans stronghold, to find them all afflicted with a magicial disease. Due to this disease as well as the cleric's of Moradin not being able to cure it the entire clan had cast thier faith in the god away. One lone "cleric" of Moradin, had went insane, and hung the dead "children" from the cieling of the temple, to get them closer to Moradin, and increase his own demonic power and hold of those few Dwarves left un-afflicted That was until my Lawful Nuetral Cleric of Wee-Jas arrived, and animated the "children" to lay waste to this defiling transgresser. Yes. animated zombie children, swarmed the insane demonic preist and the CR 8 encounter was abrubtly over.
Dark_beebles 07-10-05, 02:48 AM	lol oh boy got 100 of foils.... The one i did was I killed a Ancient green dragon with a slaying arrow...dc20 fort or the dragon dies..dm rolled a 1 lol. then he says "well at least you wont find its treasure" being how cocky i was i 1 shotted a dragon!!!! I said can i make a survival check to follow its tracks? Or some magic to follow it because they dont leave tracks. After a debate he said..i guess...So i cast the spell and i rolled back to back 20's on survival to find its cave..the GM was ****** lol. This one my bro did, he was grappling/pinning a lich down with his cleric/Fist of razriel and the rest of the party was trying to fight down his bodyguards. we were losing bad..so he put 2 bags of holding inside each other and ended the last fight. Was pretty lame but it was danm funny at the same time. So the GM rolled random planes that he and the lich coul be ported to..so the GM says higher the better, lower the worse...He rolled and came up 100 on the %. Then looked at the good planes and came out to be one of the 7 planes in heaven (where we were previously). Another one with my bro's char was we were fighting a 18th lvl half fiend fighter, And he was using demon plate..Now there is no way we should have been able to kill him for our party lvl imo. But my bro smited evil and sundered his +5 adamanine fullplate fight off the guy in 1 hit. So his ac went from 36 to 24 (he had a +2 dex is right is went down 12 not 13). GM was so danm upset like....you sob lol was great
Aram al'Castor 07-10-05, 03:32 AM	My party (fighter, paladin, ranger, druid, and myself being a hexblade) were fighting a vampiric warlock and 4 troll skeletons. Our DM had told me this was going to be a big battle and probably last a good part of the night and he had at least partially planned on having the vampire escape and have him become a recurring character. this did not happen. our paladin had basiclly sold his soul for a mace of disruption and took out the troll skeletons in 3 rounds, i had cursed the vampire who then used his scepter to blast both me and then the paladin down my about 35 hp each and half way across the room. the fighter was next to him after succeeding at his first will save of the campaign and I told him to knock the septer out of his hand. he decided instead to attempt to sunder said scepter. he succeeded in doing so and the resulting blast killed the vampire put the fighter into the negatives and the rest of us to about 2-5 hp each. total lenght of the "huge" batte: 4 rounds.
Dark_beebles 07-10-05, 03:37 AM	back in 2nd edition my bard was our DM's worst nightmare. Encounting a bunch of 'paladins of torm' really duped idiots and clerics of bane. Me: It says that improved phantasmal force has an aoe of 300' and can make sounds, can it amplify speech? DM: Um sure. My bard and my sister's cleric climb to the roof of a nearby building and I used improved phantasmal force to create a 300' tall image of Torm. I amplify my voice to godlike levels. Only one of the poor fools the cleric, disbeleives. My sister (we're hiding behind the illusion) Spiritual Hammer Called shot to the head. *rolls* Natural 20. So from the POV of these guys Torm points and the cleric is knocked senseless by the hammer that flies from his hand. Image of Torm UNBELIEVER Dm had no idea what to do at that point. He agreed to let us get to the boat unmolested if we didn't ask why. Later same game we're at the boat. but we need to push off. My bard is the only one who has ranks in swim (and doesn't wear armor) so I push off the boat. DM: A knight in full plate is charging you on the dock. Me: Cast enlarge on his full plate armor. He falls in the suddenly illfitting armor off the dock and dies. DM OK you turn to get to the boat and you see 5 archers getting ready to fire at you. Me: Feather fall on their arrows (this was 2e when that worked) Running for the boat DM grrrr OK well the boat's too far to jump. Me: Can I pole vault? DM : (Evily) Yes but there's no pole around. Me: Decastave. Creates a 10' pole of force, I vault into the boat. DM: ..... :cheer: :evillaugh :clap: :devil: :schemes: :bow: :rofl: :rant: :banghead: :OMG! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: That is the most funny crap i ever heard man. That was great
Earthcrosser599 07-10-05, 04:03 AM	Our party was supposed to find this ancient magical stick buried inside some underground temple. We had a map showing the layout and we saw a bunch of traps and monsters that would give us a hard time. We spent almost an entire session getting our plans together, making up failsafe methods of bypassing everything and ways to defeat every monster, coming up with places to go if we got seperated, that sort of thing. Right before we entered one of the dwarves was like, "Wait a second...someone give me the map." He looked at it carefully and said they had to go back to town. There he bought everyone a shovel or a pick. The party proceeded to the far side of the ground above the temple and spent several days digging into the treasure room from the surface. Not a scratch to show for it! I'm not sure if our DM was more disappointed or amused.
R-man 07-10-05, 09:05 AM	One of the ones that my players did to me a long time ago was in the original Tomb of Horrors module. After successfully defeating the entire module they sent the party mage back to the city of Greyhawk where they had previously been on good terms with the mages guild there (in game storyline). He told the mages guild that he had found a solid Adamantine door 8' by 6' by 2' thick in the Demilichs lair and would be willing to share the wealth of the door with the guild if they would help him in transporting it to Greyhawk. The door was removed by extensive use of the shape earth spell (1st edition?) Thats a lot of Adamantine to have a party get as treasure. Certainly a lot more treasure then anything else in that module.
RavenoftheCrags 07-11-05, 10:58 AM	My DM put a sphinx in to ask this really hard riddle he had apparently made up himself (can't remember what it was). He was really proud of it. I couldn't work out the answer so I cast finger of death on the sphinx and killed it.
jasper 07-12-05, 10:04 AM	I did by accident. The Dm mission was to recover an item from an palace of foreign king. After killing off a patrol we are with in site of the city. Knowing some of players would just charge in and we have 4 hours of combat, I suggested we scout around the city. The scouts found the outlet from the sewer. We enter. Normally we room broom a dungeon. Start a top go in straight line, kick in all the doors and kill. I decide that would be boring and since I was the party caller I would just roll a die at each intersection. A couple of die rolls and 4 encouters later we enter the palace one room and only two guards away from the prize. The dm had count on us either going thru the gates or room brooming the sewers. We bypassed 75% of the encounters. Now my players have done the same to me.
GoofsterStud 07-13-05, 03:28 PM	The DM had a quest about us trying to remove a Disease and I wasn't worried about the disease wasn't taking any penalties for it or nothing... The DM kept looking over my paperwork...then my Paladin learned removed disease and woke up one day and said...we cans top...I've found the cure...we just need rest for a couple days... :-P Now we had no reason to go there...
Leewei 07-14-05, 07:02 PM	PCs enter a mausoleum by day. We see a swirling mist near the ceiling, and the cleric realizes it's a vampire. The cleric whips out a holy symbol and holds it at bay. The rest of us head outside, where the wizard summons thoqquas to destroy the mausoleum's roof. Sunlight = one toasty ex-vampire. PCs come across a passage obviously blocked by a summoned Wall of Stone. Out come the thoqquas. A buddy of mine sees two Huge statues animate and come rumbling towards him to attack. He summons a handful of lantern archons and runs into a door too small to be followed into. The archons fly over the heads of the stone golems and reduce them to rubble using ranged attacks. Okay, they weren't thoqquas due to a tragic accident of birth.
Grath 07-14-05, 10:33 PM	Well, a friend and I foiled our DM's plans... We had just gotten into a town, seeing somebody hanging from a tree with the label 'Murderous Dog' on a sign near the body. We go into the down, interview the mayor, so on. The Avariel (Friend) spotted some claw and bite marks on the mayor's house, so we wander around a little. My character (Fighter/Justiciar with two Manacles of Speed) wants us to go into the large mansion, obviously the largest house in town. First we go in and conduct a proper interview, in which the owner of the mansion seems a little shifty and doesn't have answers to everything. So, later, after he kicks us out, we decide to go back in. The avariel turns himself into a snake, going first. Then I go in, hiding behind a large vase while the butler walks past. Unfortunately for me, the butler spots my foot. I jump out, swinging manacles. I knock the butler out, and then we tie him up. We go around in the house sneakily, finding various treasures (Though the avariel was all "No! We can't take treasure until we know he's guilty!). Then we hear a howl, and see a large wolf running away from the house. We run out of the house, chasing the wolf. We end up in a clearing, and we kick the WEREwolf's ass. Turns out he was the owner of the large mansion, who was forcing the other non-evil werewolves of the town to dig for treasure for him by blackmailing them. We go back, steal the rest of his treasure, and set up camp in his house. The DM then annoyedly says that we bypassed about 90% of the storyline. That... Was a fun game. He told us to take notes. I took one: Armon Bristle is bad.
Ibbins 07-14-05, 11:07 PM	A few times... -The Chancellor asked us to go deal with (kill) some violent revolutionists. We joined them and exiled the Chancellor. -We encountered a temple (the dungeon) made of wood. So we burned it down. It wiped out about 80% of the monsters. -The DM made an extensive adventure of hunting through the forest after some drow. We got some help from the Inquisition to do it all for us, while we went straight to the (near-empty) underground Drow fortress. Of course, my first idea when we received our mission was to burn down the forest, since it worked out so well the previous time, but my fellow party members sort of flipped out when I suggested it.