Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Tiran 07-19-05, 01:45 AM	This is a topic for the most memorable 1 vs 1 fights you've been in. Mine just happened tonight. Im an 8th level dwarven fighter, decked out in hand crafted masterwork spiked full platemail, a variety of masterwork weapons, all made from this special ore the dwarves of the dm's homebrew world have access to, versus this Elven mage who one of the other party members (8th level elven fighter) ran off with, which during their escape, my characters girlfriend to be killed. So my character, believing my friend to be under some sort of enchantment, is ****** off at her so very much (i'm planning on him giving him into his rage and multiclass as a barbarian) So we meet up underground. She's on an elevated spot, takes out some chains and throws them towards me and starts casting a spell. I move towards her, quickdraw my crossbow and fire it. I hit, but don't interrupt the spell. She casts this spell from the book of vile darkness which causes the chains to become incredibly scary and able to be directed towards me, to grapple, and deal lots of damage (there were a bunch of them). I ran for it, but got held by the spiked chains of death. I took over half my health in a couple of rounds. Actually, that was a stopping point for that session, and we just finished it tonight. Anyway, after this week of wondering what the hell was going to happen. The mage, getting cocky, decides to play around and taunt me, since she thinks I can't break out. Well, after taking another 20 damage or so (I was down to around 30 out of my original 108) Anyway after a couple rounds of being taunted, My characters incredibly ****** and tries one more time to break out. The dice were with me and I rolled a 20. With Improved grapple and an 18 Strength, thats higher than the Mage could do even with her chains of death, which scares the crap out of her. I perfect 20 the roll to land on my feet (these chains had me grabbed all over the place) and I quick draw attack the *****. And... another natural 20. I confirm the critical and although I roll a 1, its still 15 damage with a +4 strength and x3. (we just multiply it instead of rolling 3 times, saves a bit of time) She's so shocked she stumbles backwards off a small pit (6ft so no damage) I laugh and jump off afterwords body slamming her. With all my equipment, im over 400 pounds and with spiked armor, thats a good 3d6 damage. She's coughing up blood, but still able to fight. What we landed on was an incline, so I rolled off of her, although didn't go down all the way. Anyway after that, we get up, she gets first initative, and she decides to wrap a chain around me. I decide to not waste time breaking out of it and just armor spike slam her. Deal damage. She's a bit scared at this point and uses a chain to lift herself up and I take the oppurtunity to grab her ankle as she's rising. I make the grapple check and she's now got a chain bringing her upwards, but not quickly due to the several hundred pounds of dwarf and steel. I make the next few rounds worth of rolls to keep holding on, although I fail one round, but due to quick reflexes I grab on with the other hand and slam my spiked gauntlets into her ankle. She loses grip of the thing and we fall, and roll down the incline, taking some damage from the fall. We land after a bit, into a shallow underground stream. Due to iniative she's already up and moving to get the hell away from me. I quickdraw and hit her with a crossbow bolt. She stops and prepares some spell. I spend the round reloading. She taunts me, and instead of wasting a turn firing, I decide to drop the bow, quickdraw my axe and charge. With one last attack, I roll another natural 20, confirm the critical and deal 36 damage for the kill. This somehow releases the spell which caused some chains to shoot forward and did exactly enough damage to knock me out. Ahh that was a kick ass fight. I turned around a possible character death to completely kick the crap out of that mage and avenge my characters dead girlfriend. Luck of the dice is an amazing thing.
Gurthoron 07-19-05, 10:08 AM	In one campaign we were on our path to become dieties, and one of the events was a tournament battle thing. A couple of us had good ones: Faerie Dragon Rogue/Sorc/Ur-priest was fighting a monk something. The monk specialized in speed and stealth. After a couple drive bys by the monk, she managed to cast her epic-level bucket spell over his head. The bucket dropped a random object (D100 list) with a little at first level, more at second, etc. doubling each round. She then forcecubed the guy. He was stuck in a force cube filling with some kind of acid (can't remember exactly) and what does the dragon do? Conjurs paints and starts making pretty pictures on the outside of the cube. The monk finally got out using a special monk ability, but was finally finished off by spell and bucket. Fallen Solar Rogue gatecrasher versus a dracolich spellcaster. The damn dragon started the battle by using an epic spell that traded it with this nightmare abomination thing, with the ability to scare the bejeesus out of people. Fortunately for me, I had exceptional will saves. A long painful battle later and I was facing the dracolich again (it returned when the nightmare died.) I was at about 1/6 hp, and couldn't use my sneak attack against the lich. So I decided to say screw it, and dumped a full back of holding (250 lb) full of enhanced alchemists fire (3d6 per lb) on him. Ended the fight rather swiftly.
DeathMagus 07-19-05, 11:31 AM	Well, I was walking home from a 7-11 one night with a gallon of milk when I heard a rustle to my right. This punk from the alley had pulled a knife and was about the rush me. When he was about 2 feet way, I smashed the gallon over his head to blind him and kicked his feet out from under him. Oh wait... Did you mean the coolest one-on-one my character has been in? Had to be the duel between my 8th level BBEG and an 8th level dwarven rogue.
SodaGuy 07-19-05, 11:39 AM	Wait..... there are Dwarf girls!??
Callista 07-19-05, 12:09 PM	Certainly there are! Just ask any teenage dwarf male... My best 1-on-1 fight would have to be the first time I played a level 20 spellcaster... I was playing a Mystic Theurge, and up until now, the best spellcaster my DM had seen was a level 14 Bard. So, being a Neutral Good healer type, my character goes to investigate an odd sort of illness which causes the usual flu-like symptoms (CON loss), and then turns the victim into an odd sort of cocoon. As I stood there examining the creature, the cocoon started to wiggle, and my character backed off. Out of it came a really weird-looking creature (I don't know what it is to this day; my character missed her Knowledge roll), and my DM had the usual "I've just sprung an evil monster on you" grin on his face. I checked my spell list, and said one word: "Forcecage." (The 1500 gp material component is really no problem for a 20th level caster... and my character, being NG, wanted to save the sick man's life, if she could.) The DM's mouth dropped open, I saw him scanning up and down the list of monster abilities, and he said, "Uhh... I guess you just won." I grinned and told the healers who had called me in to help with the sick guy that I and my friends would be back in a day or so to help restrain the whatever-it-was permanently... until then, we were going to figure out what had caused the illness. That was interesting. :) And needless to say, my DM has figured out how to deal with high-level magic since then.
DM-Vigilance 07-19-05, 03:33 PM	One time when I was on the player's side of the screen, I rolled up a Psychic Warrior (3.0) with some so-so stats. Nothing too flashy, and he was about level 7 at the time of the incident, if I remember. We were high-tailing it out of a cavern complex after accomplishing some appropriately chaotic good deeds, and we weren't expecting the ambush- a sure sign that it was inevitable. Umber Hulk. The bad boy pops out of the ground, and before you can say "Holy Gorilla Beetle!" the whole party had failed their saves vs. the beast's confusion attack. Except me. I know the bloody bugger is gonna retreat into the ground and then proceed to tear us to shreds whack-a-mole style, so I figure I gotta stop him. He dives for his pit and as I'm about to go in after him, I realize that I really don't want to suffocate to death if the bug decides to just seal the tunnel. So I made the gambit: Me: "I Grapple then." DM: "Huh?" Me: "Grapple check. C'mon." DM: "You don't have improved grapple. You do know what this monster is, don't you?" Me: (Shrugs, rolls a d20) DM: (Funny face) "What did you roll?" Me: (I don't even remember. Something good, I guess.) A little later... DM: "sigh... Okay, you pull the thing out of the ground and flip it on it's back." Needless to say, I got lucky. I proceeded to get really lucky as I wrestled with the thing for about five rounds. The bug almost had me a couple of times, but ultimately I pinned the thing (I was more surprised than it was, I'm sure) and the rogue regained his senses and sneak-attacked the thing to death, promptly taking credit for the kill; the DM not knowing whether to scowl or laugh all the while. To this day whenever any of us DMs and an umber hulk shows up, we are prepared to watch at least one brave PC test their mettle in an Umber-Hulk wrestling match.
Elrana 07-19-05, 04:58 PM	Not quite the BBEG, but a fairly nasty henchman thereof, swashbuckler duellist had already killed one of our party in a one on one, so everyone was surprised when my mage decided to challenge her. I believe the general belief was here comes dead mage. She had silly, silly dex., mine wasn't too bad either and I had a magical sword that gave me a +2 to certain rolls when defending the elven people (which I was at that time) as well as a permanent +4 to dex. so I managed to beat her initiative. DM: What are you doing then, she's about forty feet away and you get to attack first. Me: Er, I think I'll cast a spell, I move forward to within thirty feet and make a ranged touch attack (don't remember the roll). DM: Okay, you hit. Me: Fort save please, DC lots. DM: Oops. She automatically fails, rolled a 1. Me: Oh, shame, she can take 30 d6 damage from disintegrate. DM: Erm no, she probably can't, go on then. (I dole out damage.) Me: How does she look? DM: Disintegrated! I love playing spellcasters. There are many other tales I can tell about him. He was the mage who always had the right spell at the same time (so long as it wasn't conjuration or enchantment of course, he was an evoker after all!). Ten levels of Mage of the Arcane Order will do that for you! I love that class! :)
Ilikan Holyaxe 07-19-05, 06:18 PM	okay, I was a level three telepath, I was going one on one with a kobold... first and second rounds were 2d10 mind thrusts, a DC that the kobold only had a one in 10 chance of succeeding. He passes both saves.. he hits me, I suggestion him to not wanting to fight, making a point of telling him we will not kill him to remove any negative penalties due to unreasonability of the statement. He passes... I try again, and again, he passes both. In the end I got fed up and killed him with my sword... in one round. Anyways, after this, the only time I had used my power points, except to establish a +5 inertial armor, and I had only one power point left which I usually hold in reserve for sustenance (elan)... After the session the dm did some math and I looked at his dice rolls (he records ones he thinks are impressive, to prove he did not fudge them.) the kobold made a 1 in 100 000 chance. *cries with resurfaced memories*
obrysii 07-19-05, 06:55 PM	We were in a tournement in our Evil campaign, and our Half-Vampire rogue had just lost in a one-on-one duel with a Dwarven Fighter/Dwarven Defender. The next day, my character, a Bullywug Hexblade 4/Talon of Tiamat 3 (at the time, I believe) was called into the ring to fight him. It was a long battle, with my character returning comments to him like he had to the Half-Vampire ("You call that a hit? My mother used to hit me harder than that!") and in the end, my character won. Barely. It was memorable because both characters had a disturbing number of HP (the Dwarf: Around 90; My character: around 120).
SeidonVanDolf 07-20-05, 04:09 AM	My coolest low mid-low level one-on-one battle was my 7th level fighter/wizard half-emerald dragon and his fighter companion and a vampire and his buddies. (I know I said one-on-one and it was just bear with me a second.) It took two rounds to kill the vampire's goons but in those two rounds the vamp had knocked out the fighter lady who was my half-dragon's companion. So it was just me and him. The vampire was a duelist from another realm in need of banishing (to do this he must be reduced to -10 hp) who could wield a rapier like a beast and I was more of a fighter at the time who dual-wielded elven slimblades. We spent the next several rounds dancing around each other, both just nicking each other. Then all at once he scores a critical hit on me and lunges at me. The half-dragon sputters blood and looks down in numb surprise to see the vampire's rapier plunged into his chest to the hilt. The vampire made a comment about how he was not so equally matched after all. The half-dragon coughed as the vampire put his foot on his chest and kicked him off the blade throwing him to the ground. Then he storms over to deliver what he believes will be the killing blow. He turns the half-dragon onto his back and prepares for that death attack but loe he had been bluffed into thinking my half-dragon was stunned. My fighter reacted swiftly plunging his blades to the hilts in his chest. The vampire staggered back stunned but still hanging on the blades. He smiled as his body faded to mist and he disapeared but not before he could whisper, “Touché, my friend. I look forward to our rematch and next time it will be on my terms…” My character is still looking over his shoulder for that guy to this day. It may not sound very spectacular but it was a splendid battle to be a part of and one that my DM and I still talk about today and it happened nearly four years ago.
StandardIdiotPC 07-20-05, 05:40 AM	The coolest duel in my experience was in an oriental campaign. My samurai had to face a Ratling Ronin in a duel of quick draw to first blood. My character won the duel but when the duel was over the Ratling was so mad about losing he pulled out a hand crossbow and shot me in the shoulder with a human bane crossbow bolt. He tried to turn invisible run but we caught him and killed him.
Kalanth 07-20-05, 06:28 AM	My coolest duel thus far would be between my Psion (Shaper) / Urban Ranger and a Warforged Fighter. I was clearly out muscled and overmatched on paper, and it showed in the fight as the Warforged beat me into a bloody pulp. Having the one thing the forged was after, I did what any sensable person in Sharn would do in this situation. I boldly leapt from the bridge into an elegant swan dive, making sure to drink my potion of feather fall during the last round of the fall to ensure my safety. That left behind one angry warforged, let me tell you. Sad thing is, with the two weapon fighting and two fancy homemade weapons (+1 Crysteel Handaxe of Sunder / +2 Frostblade Shortsword), I still did no damage at all to the forged. . . Damned adamantium body.
Bonzai 07-20-05, 12:19 PM	I had a great one with my rogue, who was actually a rogue 4/wiz 5/ invis blade 5/ Shadowsong Infiltrater 4 at the time. The party was investigating an assasination, and the band of assasins felt threatened enough to do something about it. Long story short, the party was seperated, so each of the assasins could try to take us on 1 on 1. My Rogues opponent was a bard/assasin. In some ways he was the opposite of my character. My Rogue was very plain looking, a bit of a loner, and hated killing. He had his own code of conduct. He would steal, and be paid to steal, but never from the poor or hard up, and he would do his best to minimize the deaths. He had grown up living on the streets, and became an excellent catburglar at an early age. He had no choice as he was an orphan and would starve otherwise. He was smart however and wanted to change his life, and actually had dreams of becoming a wizard. His dreams came true when he was accepted as an apprentice by a kindly old wizard. However, it only lasted a few years, as the Wizards senior apprentice framed him for stealing something, and he was forced to leave. The experience left him bitter and disheartened. So he went back to what he knew best. Stealing was his job, and it was never personal to him. If some one tried to stop him, he would get away, or incapasitate them, and only would kill if left no other alternative. In fact he only carried a single weapon, a very heavily enchanted dagger (ended up being a +5 dagger with Spell Storing, dispelling, and returning enhancments). The Bard on the other hand was extremley good looking, and relied on his looks and the general good will shown towards bards to get close to people. There he would kill them, or use his charm abilities to have their best friends kill them for him. He was a master of disguise, and had a ring of the chameleon as well. He enjoyed killing, and loved mentaly torturing his victims. Anyways, the Bard had ambushed the rogue several times over the last several days. The bard could pretend to be almost anyone, and the rogue, who was some what anti social anyways, was extremley paranoid. He could be walking down the street, and suddenly the old lady that he just passed has a rapier in "her" hand and is trying to death attack him. Fortunatly, he survived all the attempts. Anyways, the rogue was sent to investigate the family crypt of one of the victims, as they needed to find out if a ring was missing from the victim. The rogue had a feeling that he was being set up, so he moved in very cautiosly. Sure enough, the Bard showed up and a game of cat and mouse began. After a few skirmishes, where one would find the other, attack, and try to hide in the shadows, they began to engage in earnest. The bard used several spells during the fight, and my rogue used a few of his spells. A great moment was when my Rogue cast burning hands right into the Bards handsome face. The Bard was furious, but healed himself shortly thereafter. However, the fight drew the attention of a pack of ghouls that were lairing in the lower reaches of the crypt. Since there were a lot of them, the bard offered a short truce till they disposed of them and could resume the fight at another time. My rogue agreed. They fought, back to back against maybe 20 ghouls. After killing about 2 of them, my rogue used the spell that causes an opponent to be distracted (forgot the name, but it is in complete arcane), and sneak attacked the bard in the back, and delivered an arterial strike. He then was able to escape back out of the crypt and hid near the entrance. The Bard dispatched the ghouls, but was slowly bleeding out and had taken a few wounds in the process. He had used up most of his spells, and was unable to heal himself. When he exited the crypt my Rogue sneak attacked him again, and the fight continued. Eventually, he reached 0 hp, and collapsed. His last words were "You said we had a truce", to which my rogue replied, " I lied", just before delivering the coup de grau. It was a memorable fight, RP wise it was a very hollow victory for my character. He knew he had no choice but to kill the bard, or he would have had to watch his back for the rest of his life. Even further, he used some dirty tactics to win. He couldn't help but feel that his soul had been sullied some by it.
Bruunwald 07-20-05, 12:59 PM	This one was quick but had a long set up: The dwarf fighter in our campaign got separated underground from the rest of the party and was captured by derro. He was taken to a fortress and held prisoner while the high-level derro sorcerer in charge tortured him for days (red hot pokers, thumbscrews, demands for information, the rack, healing then more pain - the whole works). When the dwarf's wife came looking for him, she was captured as well and held in the fortress, and used as leverage against our dwarf friend. Finally, the party came looking for him. The dwarf was brought out to the courtyard where he was made to fight a dragonne in one-on-one combat for the amusement of the derro throngs. He killed the creature, then attempted an escape - naked and armed with only a battleaxe! They bombarded him with magic and crossbow bolts. Amazingly, he made it to the gate and through it with a single hit point left! The party were waiting on the other side and covered his escape. Later they regrouped and went back to rescue the lady dwarf. Long story short, they succeeded but had to retreat in a hurry, leaving many derro dead, but the sorcerer alive. During all of this, the party uncovered an alliance between the derro and a cult threatening the realm. So it was no surprise when the derro were part of an attack on the nearby village some weeks (game time - a year-and-a-half real time) later. Leading the derro arm of the attack was the sorcerer, riding a wyvern through the air. The psion managed to stagger the creature, bringing it down through the roof of a large building. The sorcerer was hurt, but operable. Amidst the rubble, he and the dwarf finally faced each other, both shouting the other's name with various declarations and threats. Then something crazy happened: the dwarf got the upper hand within the first two rounds, and basically just decimated the derro beyond description. Though the final duel didn't last long, everybody was extremely satisfied. The dwarf had waited so long for his vengeance and had suffered greatly at the hands of his tormentor. It was somehow fitting that he make such a quick and final end to him.
Jonrea 07-20-05, 01:07 PM	I like this one since it should never have worked: I had been playing a lvl 1 monk, and I was with a party that was all lvl 1. There was a druid (and his wolf), a ranger, and a sorcerer along with me. To our left was some woods and to our right was a river. We were just walking along when the DM told us we saw a bear-like creature with feathers instead of fur and the head of an owl 100ft. away that hadn't noticed us yet. Mr. Druid Knowledge's of Nature to find out that it is an owlbear. Since we were all new we didn't know anything but that this couldn't be a good thing. Obviously, we run. Actually, I declare that I (a monk) am going to jump across the river (15ft. wide). When I roll and make it, everyone else decides to run into the woods. Thanks a lot guys. Naturally, the owlbear took notice of us once we started running and decided to run after us. It gets to the spot where we originally saw it. I get out my sling and hit it with a bullet, since I feel safe across the river (though I was told the owlbear just shrugged off the bullet). It then tries to swim the river and gets halfway. Alittle scared now, I keep firing bullets at it until it gets to my side of the river. I then try to jump the river again, but only make it 2/3 of the way across. The bear tries to swim back, but only goes 3 feet (its feathers were waying it down), so I manage to get out of the river and fire at it again. It continues to swim after me, but doesn't get too far. Greatly fatigued now (and my bullets taking their toll), the bear sinks from visibility (there was five foot deep visibility in the river). I just sat there waiting for it to pop up again, when lo and behold! it arises from the depths and breaks the surface, my next bullet misses, and it swims halfway. I miss again, the bear goes under again, and the DM gets the MM to see how long it can hold its breath. About 30 rolls from the DM later, and he tells me I see bubbles pop up in the middle of the river. I get 850xp, and level up to the grand ol' lvl2. Somehow I don't think a lvl1 monk is supposed to singlehandedly defeat an owlbear.
cloud04 07-21-05, 08:37 AM	Mine would be in a homebrew. At the point it happened, the DM was making us do this and that to get information about this chick named kira (who turns way later in the campaign out to be a red dragon). Well my Gnome Bard (lvl 3) got captued and then tortured by this rich evil noble dude which the party was told by this bartender to have a ring that the bartender wanted in order to gives us the information. Well the DM was being a jerk when I went up to the door and knocked to see if anyone was home, well the door opened and a butler appeared. I was going, ****, to quickly get out of there I came up with a wonderful idea, I asked a if a person lived here, that me and that person were friends, well i came up with a complete random name.... Tom Berryfoot or something like that, well this is were the DM became a jerk and said that the person lived there, I went **** again. After the person realized that I was a random, I got captured and tortured. Then that guy came to me to make a deal.... If I killed the bartender, he would tell me what the party needed to know. So after I get released with my stuff back except for my money (which was thousands!!!) I knew I had to do something, so I told the party what happened and they were all good, same with me, so murder was out of the question. Well after a long debate my Bard left and went to the Bar with the bartender guy. I was the only customer. The bartender asked what I want and I asked him if he wants to do a drinking contest from the Thirdshelf (earlier when the party came here, I got a drink from the thirdshelf up and was in a comma for a week), well the bartender agreed seeing he was way bigger than me and if I payed (I was broke and he didnt know it), so we flipped a coin and I lossed so I had to drink first, well this is were the duel begins! As the bartender was getting the drink from the thirdshelf, I casted tashas hidious laughter on him, he failed his save. I jumped off the stool over the counter on top of him drawing my +1 shortsword on the way. I started stabbing at him dealing damage, I kept stabbing him for three rounds until the laughter wore off, well, he stood up, I got an AOO and hit him, while he was standing up he drew a greatsword from underneath the bar (DM being cruel again). This is where the hacking begins. I keep hitting him over and over but hes still standing and I realize, oh crap hes tough. So I run for it! I almost made it through the door before he grappled me. Then my Ranger friend showed up (he followed me) and tried to free me by tugging me loose. well it was useless as for the bartender started yelling for guards and the ranger fled to go tell the party. Well, I was arrested and put on trial, the wizard in the party was my lawyer. I was found guilty of atempted murder and found to be crazy. I got hung the next day. The DM then told me that I fought a LVL 2 Commoner / 4 FIGHTER!!!! and he had 8 hitpoints left to my 13! man that was a fun fight!
weretouched 07-21-05, 11:55 AM	Funny and sad. I played a blink dog rogue in a lvl 20 1 on 1 duel. My friend is an oriental adventures samurai(with all of his bonuses on katana). As the fight goes i eventually manage to construct a nest in the uppermost area of the arena out of imovable rods. After a while the samurai actually gets annoyed and throws his katana at me. Hitting and impaling me. of course next i dimension door right up onto my nest and remove the sword... At this point he commited hari-kiri with his unmagical wakizashi.
Gruffmug 07-21-05, 11:36 PM	I had a fight in evil game that I was in in 2.0/3.0 hybrid I was in. I was playing a bardic blade converted over to 3.0 verus a fighter in full plate. The other PC wanted control of the keep as tired of taking my orders as I was high Cha PC. We were about level 9 at the time. I stood no chance in a head battle against and knew it. The power attacking brute would sliced clean through my chain shirt. But I had an Ace and improved (innatiative) and thug. I went first with a +10 to my dex and told him "told move and Die" He charged. I threw 3 poisoned ninja stars at him with huge sorpion venom on it. Make 3fort saves. He failed all 2! He fell in an armored heep unable to carry the weight of his plate mail. I walked to him smiled and said you are stronger but I am a leader because I plan ahead then I coup de graced him. The other PC's agreed I was in charge after that display. Gruffmug