Post/Author/DateTime	Post
pmurray@bigpond.com 05-22-07, 11:10 PM	There's a thread on the "What's a DM to do" boad about a new player making dumb mistakes (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=851370) in character. Now, fess up. It took us all a few sessions to learn about searching the chest for traps before opening it. What is your most memorable newbie mistake?
pmurray@bigpond.com 05-22-07, 11:13 PM	Starting with mine: I nearly killed someone else's character that I was given to run, because I was in a smallish (30*20) room with a couple of monsters, and instead of leaving the room and joining the conga-line of death waiting outside the door, I ran around inside the room trying to avoid them. Basically, ignorance of in-game battle tactics and movement.
BloodSpill 05-22-07, 11:14 PM	Attempting to intimidate another PC. I learnt how barbarians get intimidated by halflings.
Tyraxus 05-22-07, 11:16 PM	Heh, I tried to pick a fight with the captain of the town watch. I think I remember the words "I can take him. If he was as tough as us, him and his guard buddies wouldn't need us to go check out the cave," coming out of my mouth. This was before I realized that eight of anything, even level 1 warriors, could kill you as a level one swash.
Sareld 05-22-07, 11:23 PM	DM: "As you open the vault door, you see a masterfully crafted shortsword hanging on the opposite wall. Its blade has a very strong blue glow to it; you are not in doubt that this weapon is magical." Me: "And impractical. Im a rogue, I wouldnt carry a glowing sword around even if someone paid me to do it. How unstealthy would that be? I take as many gold coins I can from the vault and run." DM: "But... uhm... fine then. You get 542 GP. Write that down on your sheet."
WarColonel 05-22-07, 11:52 PM	I was caught... playing with myself... in Pelor's church. Well, Pelor ****** me off, and I already warned the DM my character was going to do it!
On_the_wings_of_TPK 05-23-07, 01:29 AM	We were sent to deliver a letter proposing peace detween two nations. We run into a ranger along the way and he takes the note, and switches it with a piosoned fake. We take the fake the fake to the leader of nation B, and he reads it, gets offended, and then dies. (The pioson on the note.) I figure that the guy from town A was setting us up, so i take the pioson note, and the dead leaders signet ring. I was going to re-seal the note with the leader of town Bs signet ring and give to town As leader as an official reply. Later that night our room is searched by the watch and we're found with the signit ring, charaged with treason and ahnged int he morning.
_Jayne_Cobb_ 05-23-07, 11:14 AM	There's a thread on the "What's a DM to do" boad about a new player making dumb mistakes (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=851370) in character. Now, fess up. It took us all a few sessions to learn about searching the chest for traps before opening it. What is your most memorable newbie mistake? Well, my first experience playing D&D - and I do mean first, it was literally within 5 minutes of the start of my first game - was the opposite. We were exploring some ruins when we come across a large dais, surprisingly free of debris. The other PC (there were only 2 of us) climbed on top of it. The DM asked if I followed suit to which I answered "Hell no!" It was, of course, a trap. :D
_Jayne_Cobb_ 05-23-07, 11:15 AM	We were sent to deliver a letter proposing peace detween two nations. We run into a ranger along the way and he takes the note, and switches it with a piosoned fake. We take the fake the fake to the leader of nation B, and he reads it, gets offended, and then dies. (The pioson on the note.) I figure that the guy from town A was setting us up, so i take the pioson note, and the dead leaders signet ring. I was going to re-seal the note with the leader of town Bs signet ring and give to town As leader as an official reply. Later that night our room is searched by the watch and we're found with the signit ring, charaged with treason and ahnged int he morning. That is six kinds of awesome. :D
Nor'Morgwae 05-23-07, 04:59 PM	This was back in 2nd ed. First time playing, 15 minutes into the game we find the dungeon entrance. As we open the doors the rest of the party moves out from in front of the doors but not me. Nope, the level 1, d4 hp mage stands his ground. I was dropped dead with a single crossbow bolt. A little bit later (might even have been the same character, I don't remember) I was a necromancer, still level 1. Well, of course I blow my 2 or 3 spells for the day really quick and I'm left with nothing to do. I grab a chair and rush a zombie. As I recal he didn't live long either.
Gworraent 05-23-07, 06:13 PM	Evoker wizard Banned schools. Abjuration and Transmutation :rolleyes:
ranewen 05-23-07, 06:41 PM	i was given a set of armor with ethrealness... did i use it when i should have? oh hell no.. i only got one use per day.. so we're fighting this white dragon.. my character is in single digits. did i go ethreal? no, rather the dragon ate me.. ATE me.. there wasn't enough left for the cleric to bring my character back :weep:
Pyro_Azer 05-23-07, 07:24 PM	I managed to do two stupid things in the same session. DM: Youfid a locked small chest. Do you want the rouge to opn it? Me: NO. JARM SMASH WITH AXE!!!!!!!!! DM: You slice it in two. Inside was a very fine and valuable cloth which is ruined now. Second One. Me: Search check! *Rolls 1*. DM: You find a severed arm. Me: I'll take it. Later I walked into a town with the arm tied to the outside of my backpack...
Xavorin 05-23-07, 08:44 PM	I managed to do two stupid things in the same session. DM: Youfid a locked small chest. Do you want the rouge to opn it? Me: NO. JARM SMASH WITH AXE!!!!!!!!! DM: You slice it in two. Inside was a very fine and valuable cloth which is ruined now. Second One. Me: Search check! *Rolls 1*. DM: You find a severed arm. Me: I'll take it. Later I walked into a town with the arm tied to the outside of my backpack... Both are awesome. I can't say that I've had any experiences, since I've only played one character... and that character died in the first bit of combat... This is a group-mate's dumb thing but I'll post it for him. Note that I am a 7th level scout. We were fighting a bhargest and something else. Initiative is rolled, and the bard ends up going before the warmage. Then, totally out of the blue, the bard says, "I use Fascinate on the warmage." The warmage fails his save, and is fascinated. The rest of the party, including me, are trying to hold off these two monsters. Not the monk, though. The monk tried to kill the bard and failed. Miserably. So the next round the bard casts Suggestion on the warmage, and suggestions him to detonate an Empowered Flameburst in his square. The DM allowed this. Now, every single person involved in this fight, including the monsters, were grouped in a roughly 5 square by 5 square square. They all take damage, and the monk and I fail our saves and are killed. What's worse is that the next morning I realized that an Empowered Flameburst would have been a fourth level spell for the warmage, and the warmage could only cast third level spells... So then the ex-monk and I were forced to roll up new characters, when ours hadn't even done anything. (I had dealt 9 damage to the bhargest and the monk had dealt like 7 damage to it. That doesn't really count as anything.) Our characters didn't even last one session. I think that counts as a bit of stupidity on the bard's part. Come to think of it, though, this was not the bard's first time playing. Our group's been around for at least six months, and the bard's been in it from the beginning.
TMX 05-23-07, 09:26 PM	Not DnD, but WFRP, but still... I put on the recently deceased lich's hat.
Thubby 05-23-07, 09:47 PM	i played a 3.0 core bard as my first character, and used my songs 24/7 while marching through a dungeon. does that count? took 5 cards from a deck of many things (ouch)
blade_runner 05-23-07, 10:12 PM	d20 Modern: Ok, my PCs were fighting some skeletons in a museum, and one was about to come around a corner in front of one character (who knew the skeleton was coming). Does the character ready an action to shoot it with his Desert Eagle? No, he readies an action to Chuck Norris roundhouse kick it in the face. I was nice that time and ruled he kicked the thing's head around backwards, but next time his foot's going right through the ribcage.
On_the_wings_of_TPK 05-23-07, 11:19 PM	I was DMing for this guy. It was his very first adventure. At the time he was playing a 1st level 3.0 ranger... The party was exploring some caves looking the princess that was kidnapped by a bunch of Kobolds. They manage to alret, and **** off the kobolds, (casting light on the paladin). The whole party runs out of the caves, and heads for the woods. Except for the ranger. He decides to climb a tree near the opening of the cave, and hide in its branches. Which he succeeds on admerbalely. When the Kobolds come streeming out. he decides to shoot the leader with his bow. He hits. Then: Player: "I wanna get out of the tree now." Me: "Oh don't worry about that, you'll be out of the tree soon enough". *rolls kobold counter attack, about 1/2 of the 30ush hit. Then rolls damage. Around 40-50ish, then rolls falling damage 5* "Youhit the leader squarely and he falls down. The tohers turn and begin shooting at you. From the peppering of bolts you take 45 damage. after dieing, you fall out of the tree, and land in a heap, taking another 5 pionts subdual." "Everyone else you here some kobold shoting, and thud."
phoen777 05-23-07, 11:41 PM	My second or third level Ranger in my first real game: "I walk up to the cloaked figure in the middle of the creepy dungeon room and say hello." Hi, Medusa! :P
pmurray@bigpond.com 05-23-07, 11:53 PM	"I walk up to the cloaked figure in the middle of the creepy dungeon room and say hello." Hi, Medusa! :P OMG - our barbarian took the hood of a creepy hooded (bound) female. My monk and one other player saved. Luckily, by that stage he was immune to poison so replaced the hood by feel, ignoring the nipsies.
Nall_The_Azure_Guardian 05-23-07, 11:56 PM	I guess this really doesn't count because I was in the group that did it as a player and not a dm but its still good. We were first level, it was my first time playing a wizard and we were going after some goblins that attacked a caravan. The entrance has a pit trap and we fall in, no big deal. After the pit and a few goblins we're hurt pretty badly so we retreat to rest. Returning to the cave we find new guards posted outside, kill them, and the fall in the same pit trap which has been recovered. We managed to kill the boss and everyone is nearly dead. Now granted my friend who's DMing has a bit of a sick sense of humor but we all knew that in advance. Long story short the pit was recovered again, and for the third time we fell into the same hole.
Omnirahk, half-Rahkshi 05-24-07, 12:25 PM	We're working through the big city in Hell - on a secret mission. DM has us roll spot checks and I notice a subtle disturbance in the air in one place - some invisible creature is watching us. I manifest Energy Missile (sonic). And I provoke a Pit Fiend. Note: we're level 14 and this wasn't meant to be combat. Party memebers: :censored: Pit fiend! Run away! one of them: No! Just offer the guy who attacked him. I find myself surrounded by my party members with their swords at my throat. They end up forgiving me when I one hit kill a cornugon. But then I write "Dispater Sucks" on Dispater's tower . . . Then I blow it up with a sonic boom (free fall + freedom of movement) to catch the falling cleric. Then I trigger the alarm and Dispater himself catches us. Oh yeah. Real smoothe.
skeeter_dan 05-24-07, 07:01 PM	My second character (the first lasted only a few sessions) was an elf ranger whose favoured enemy was elves. Long story. The "stupid" thing he did in character was voluntarily making a will save to resist being teleported to safety when surrounded by wraiths. But it was all roleplaying and it turned into a cool plot point; he ended up coming back as an intelligent undead by DM fiat.
happy_fuzzy 05-24-07, 11:17 PM	My 1-2 level druid(cant remember) was rude to a bar maid. guess what? he got OWNED. Well she really just pushed him out but you get the idea Turns out she was a level 16 monk, oh well
WilwarinAndamar 05-25-07, 02:09 AM	First ever gaming session: Our party came across an orc encampment. Two orcs were keeping watch while 8 others slept. The Rogue, without letting the rest of us know what he was doing, went to search around the camp to find a vulnerable spot. DM: "OK, [Halfling] what do you do?" Me: "I fire my crossbow at the guards." Everyone else: :eek: :confused: :mymy: DM: :blink: Uh, OK. Roll to attack. Me: *rolls twice for two attacks* DM: "You hit one orc in the arm and the other one misses. They now know exactly where you are." Everyone else: *headdesk*
Empirate 05-25-07, 08:08 AM	This was non-D&D, but we just laughed so hard... I played a Saracen fighter who'd been taken prisoner in the thrid crusade and converted to christianity. Not too bright, but good with his Scimitar. We needed to get out of a town quickly, quietly and with a cart full of smuggled weapons. One knight is the official leader of the group. Knight tells me: "Rashid, you distract the guards, we get our stuff and the cart. Whistle when the guards are distracted from the gate!" Short time later, I whistle. Group runs up, pushing the cart and carrying all our equipment, only to find me with a whistle in my mouth, blood-spattered, standing over the remains of four watchmen, duking it out with the last. I spit out the whistle: "They arrre diss-trrrackted. Rrrun!" They run, I kill the last guard. Later, the knight asks me: "So, Rashid, now you've got a little explaining to do... WTF was up there???!!!" Me, unfazed: "Aye diss-trrrackted them..." Not life-threateningly-stupid, but typical of my beloved Rashid...
Drag0nUL 05-25-07, 08:52 AM	This happened in my first D&D campaign ever. My first character was a cleric of Pelor(one of his domain was sun, can't remember the other),with some incredible stats(beginner's luck; since the moment I found out what those 6 sets of 4d6 that you roll before you make a character really do I have never got another set of good stats:( ). He had something like 17 12 14 11 17 16. During my second session, having just reached level 2, we meet a vampire(he was actually the BBEG of the campaign, and we did know it at that specific time) .I roll my knowledge(relicgin) check and find out he is an undead. Since clerics were supposed to be good against undead, I charge him(no turn or anything like it). Since a vampire is min CR 7 you can imagine the outcome. Not dead though, just dropped into negatives. You might think this would make me a bit wiser. You are wrong;) The following happened around level 7 or 8, while we were in the tower of the said vampire. Lacking a rogue, my cleric, who leads the way, ends up on the bottom of an 100 ft. pit with poisoned spikes, but survives. He takes off his full plate, heals himself to full HP and proceeds to climb back up(no ranks in climb whatsoever, but some astounding dice rolls). He is now alone and armorless(the rest of the party already got slaughtered/dominated by the vampire while I was at the bottom of the pit). Instead of running, I choose to start opening random doors through the tower. Behind one of them I found a mummy lord. Run? No way. Fight? Hell yeah. I cast consecrate. He uses his slam. Big damage but made my save vs mummy rot. I greater turn undead. Natural 20. Useless of course, but the DM houserules that by the power of Pelor I destroy it. I get xp for one full lvl. up, full heal and all spells back. I keep going at random through the tower, and finally get to a wizard working for the vampire. Instead of using anything my cleric is really good at, I proceed to grapple him and try to throw him in the 100 ft. pit that I had fallen into earlier. Attempt to drop him. He makes his balance check, steadies himself on the edge of the pit and phantasmal killer. Grapple and try again. Same result. This happened about 4-5 times until he finally failed his balance check and goes down sending another phantasmal killer my way.
Vacerious 05-25-07, 10:57 AM	When my friends and I started playing in high school, one of our first adventures featured us fighting a small camp of kobolds. So, we beat them down, and we knock out and tie up the last kobold and strap him for info. After this, we knock him out again and stuff him in a sack and start heading into town to go find his leader and kill him. Needless to say, the kobold wakes up and commences to start jostling around in this sack and is creating needless attention to our characters. So, we did what any other logical set of adventurers would do: We dragged him into a dark alley and commenced to beat the crap out of him in broad daylight. The town guard gets pi$$ed, but I manage to talk them down and turn the kobold in to them. Later, we're in the equivalent of a suburb, and the party barbarian uses his portable ram on the door. It was still near the middle of the day when he did this. And there were no Hide or Move Silently checks. Just a huge, muscle-bound guy and his three buddies going "Heave-ho!" and smashing a wooden door to splinters. Fair to say, the town guard gets pi$$ed again, and by the time they respond, the house is on fire with our PC's standing conveniently outside. My character gets captured, but manages to escape the grapple. The town guard shoots him down with crossbow bolts.
Xavorin 05-28-07, 08:41 PM	When my friends and I started playing in high school, one of our first adventures featured us fighting a small camp of kobolds. So, we beat them down, and we knock out and tie up the last kobold and strap him for info. After this, we knock him out again and stuff him in a sack and start heading into town to go find his leader and kill him. Needless to say, the kobold wakes up and commences to start jostling around in this sack and is creating needless attention to our characters. So, we did what any other logical set of adventurers would do: We dragged him into a dark alley and commenced to beat the crap out of him in broad daylight. The town guard gets pi$$ed, but I manage to talk them down and turn the kobold in to them. Later, we're in the equivalent of a suburb, and the party barbarian uses his portable ram on the door. It was still near the middle of the day when he did this. And there were no Hide or Move Silently checks. Just a huge, muscle-bound guy and his three buddies going "Heave-ho!" and smashing a wooden door to splinters. Fair to say, the town guard gets pi$$ed again, and by the time they respond, the house is on fire with our PC's standing conveniently outside. My character gets captured, but manages to escape the grapple. The town guard shoots him down with crossbow bolts. This made me laugh, reading it...
Zandolit 05-28-07, 09:29 PM	I did not make any particularly interesting mistakes as a new player, just sort of the generic not knowing how to do stuff, not knowing how things work, etc. I was pretty cautious as a new player. Now that I'm more experienced, I am less so. Therefore, I made my big giant "newbie mistake" in the last game session (although to be fair, none of the rest of the party saw the issue till too late either.) All through the campaign, an NPC had been traveling as a party member. We finally met up with our main villain, and it turned out he had shared a mental link with the NPC that the NPC was not aware of, and thus the villain knew our location and everything we were doing and saying. The NPC wanted to be on our side but was compelled to act on the villain's behalf instead. The villain offered us the ultimatum that we had to work for him or die (we were unable to harm him directly because we also had mental connections to him-- we did eventually get rid of him but it took some creativity.) He said we had to convince a group of people we had previously talked to that they should come work with him, or he would kill them. My character got all huffy and demanded we be allowed to hold a party meeting... without the party member NPC. (We didn't blame the NPC for what was happening, but we also couldn't have him blabbing back our plan.) The villain allowed us to do this because he'd threatened to kill those people if we left and we didn't want them to die, and he knew we couldn't harm him, so he figured letting us have a private meeting wouldn't make any difference in the situation. The party decided that we would agree to what the villain asked and go talk to the group of people, but that we would tell them the truth and ask for their help-- not to join the villain's army, but to attack him because we couldn't harm him. (None of them was that powerful individually, but we figured they could basically just mob the guy.) Up till that moment of the attack, we would pretend we were going along with the villain's plan to trick him into thinking there was no danger and letting the people get close to him. The party went to talk to the group of people, and they agreed to our plan since the villain was threatening them too. It was a solid plan. Everything seemed to be going well. Then... the players all had a realization of what we'd done. Because we were so used to traveling with the NPC before we knew about the mental link, we didn't think to leave him behind when the party was going on this mission. He was there. And the villain was hearing everything we said via the mental link. Not only did he now know our plan, but he knew we were double-crossing him and wouldn't trust us again. The party just kind of looked at each other like, "How did we not think of this, and how are we possibly going to recover this situation?" It turned out that the NPC had succeeded on his Will Check, so the villain didn't know what we were doing after all since the NPC had managed to hide it from him, but it was only due to a freakishly good roll on the NPC's part. If he'd rolled badly, our entire plan would have fallen apart and we would have been significantly disadvantaged... all because we'd brought the mind-linked NPC along out of habit. Total newbie mistake... in spite of the fact we aren't new. We actually didn't end up going through with the plan anyway because a better opportunity to off the villain presented itself in the meantime. (He had captured a very powerful and generally fairly benevolent being, and that being was extremely unhappy with him for it. My character used a ploy to be allowed to talk to the being, and then offered to release it in exchange for it eliminating the villain. This solution proved mutually agreeable, and we both held up our ends of the bargain.) Still... we almost really messed everything up with our mistake. And I felt dumb. Especially since my character had a 20 Wisdom. Sheesh. :P
Shan_TheBabau_Burke 05-28-07, 10:34 PM	I grabbed hold of a mimic and stuck fast. Hilarity ensued. Fortunately my steadfast companion, (an NPC, it was a solo campaign) helped me get loose. So I thought, aha! My character was carrying lots of tindertwigs to light torches and cigarettes so when he came upon the next box, he threw his last tindertwig at it. It stuck and we left it alone. Well, our torch burned out and I had no tindertwigs, nor did I have flint and steel. So I went back and tried to retrieve my last tindertwig...