This just floated across my facebook wall, and I thought I would share it with everyone.
This got me thinking - what are the most awkward and/or epic fumbles you have ever seen at your tables.
One of my personal favorites was during last Encounters season (during the playtest). We had come upon a tower deep within the frozen tundra. Entering in at the ground floor we quickly identified the levitation circle in the center of the tower with minor experimentation.
One of the PCs (a L1 wizard) stepped into the circle and levitated to the second story. At which point they said "I hope there is nothing dangerous up here" and cast the Light cantrip. They were suddenly blasted with a cold-based attack (I am not sure exactly which one). Failing their saving throw they took lethal damage in a single hit (the attack dealt 2x their maximum HPs in damage, with 3 points left over). Plummeting to the ground dead as a doornail, my Mountain Dwarf Enchanter (playtest version) took one look at the frozen corpse of their former ally and said:
"I'll take the stairs".
Not so much a fumble as a very interesting and memorable death. The most recent one in memory.
Kalani - Somehow that same picture made its way to LinkedIn. (Not sure how that helps people look for a new job.)
I ran a Testament-based one-shot for a grade-school class. Goal: be Israelites and beat up Goliath's brother. The Barbarian player decided he was going to bow-and-arrow the enemy. He rolled a 1.
I said, "You hold onto the arrow and shoot the bow at him. It wobbles forward into the next square and falls to the ground. (You can pick it up at the beginning of your next turn.)"
To my considerable surprise, several years later he wrote a short ruleset for an RPG - based on his experience with me! He still remembered and enjoyed recounting the tale.
This one is not from personal experience, but a story I read on the Internet (so it must be true! ...right?), and not so much an awkward fumble, as the hilarious result of an incredibly unlikely series of crits and fumbles. But here goes.
A barbarian, a psion, and an evil cleric were fighting a demon. In the process of the battle, the barbarian gets hit and is reduced to -9 hitpoints. The barbarian is still up, due to diehard, but the demon was outside of a single move action. The GM flavors the hit as having removed the barbarian's scalp, exposing his brain. The psion chooses this moment to comment that "This is why I kill things with my brain." The barbarian looks over his sheet, noting the feats Great Fortitude, Endurance, and Diehard. The barbarian decides to throw his brain at the demon. The GM is exceptionally unhappy at this, finally giving in if the barbarian rolls an incredible fort save. *Nat 20*. GM relents, and asks for an attack roll. *Nat 1*. GM: "Okay, who is in the line of fire other than the Demon?" Psion shakily raises his hand. GM: "Roll an attack roll." *Nat 20* *Nat 20*. Evil Cleric: "Are we still playing the 3 nat 20s is an instant kill?" GM: "Yep." *Nat 20* Psion: "You killed me!" Barbarian: "With my brain."
I really like the OP. Seen it before, but it always makes me chuckle. (Especially the part about thinking back to how they met -- "A different time, to be sure...") 
This happened last session.
The party is locked in combat with two shambling mounds. They kill the first one, but the second is in a position where only the bard is next to it. On the mound's turn, it crits the bard once and hits with its second slam, dealing 30+ damage, but the bard is confident. "Heh, didn't even take half my hit points! I got this you guys." (Hill dwarf with 18 constitution grants a lot of HP for a 7th level character).
Then I say "It has a secondary effect when it hits with both slams. It engulfs you and begins dragging you into the murky water from whence it came."
The player's eyes widen. "Uhh... Guys? On second thought, I'm going to need some help with this."
The rogue and barbarian quickly put together a plan in which the barbarian will throw the rogue at the shambling mound's head, in order for the rogue to do an epic Death From Above attack. The barbarian readies an action, and the rogue's turn comes up. "Okay, what do we have to roll to do this?"
"Dude, this is such an awesome idea I don't even care. He throws you. Make an attack roll." I say.
The rogue nods, grinning. "Okay guys, brace for epic!" He rolls. Everyone leans in, breath catching in their throats.
Natural. One.
The entire table bursts out laughing as the rogue immediately does a double face-palm and begins cursing into his hands.
"Okay... you swan dive gracefully past the monster while the rest of the party wonders what, exactly, you were attempting to accomplish with this."
The story ends on a happy note. On the next round, the rogue was able to swim down and hack away the last of the mound's hit points, rescuing the Bard, but his epic failure will not soon be lived down.
3E game. Party is a Rogue/Shadowdancer. Paladin, Ranger, Dwarven Defender.
Come across some Yuan-ti in a shack. Dwarf decides he wants to test his sneaking ability. In full plate. Before anyone can stop him, he's next to the window peeking in. He fails his Move Silently miserably, and the Yuan-ti obviously hear him. They cast Entangle on the plants around him. His hands, wielding dual axes are now pinned to his chest in an X fashion, blades at his next. On his turn, he tries a STR check. Natural 1. Given where his arms and weapons were, I say "Roll for damage on yourself." Crit 20. Mouths drop and laughter ensues. "Ok, roll again!" Crit 20. WTF?!?! At this point we're all dying in laughter. "One more time!" Crit 20.
Now no one is laughing, as the Dwarf slit his own throat.
5e: The Fighter, Rogue, Barbarian and Wizard are attacking a keep. They kill one of the Goblin sentinels out front, while the other flees back inside and closes the door. The walls are (somewhat) short (15') and the Fighter wants to throw the dead goblin inside one of the windows/over the top of the roof as an intimidation tactic. Seems kind of goofy, but whatever.
- First STR check is a natural 1. "With a great heave you throw the goblin....like, a foot in the air as he unceremoniously hits the ground just in front of the wall."
- Undeterred, the Fighter attempts again. The Wizard, at this point is protesting that they are letting them muster their forces inside.
- Second STR check is a natural 1. "As you go to pick the corpse up to throw it, it slip on some blood and land face-first into the goblin's open wound. Your face is now covered with stinking Goblin innards"
- STILL undeterred, the Fighter wants to try one last time. At this point, the Wizard states he is walking back into the forest away from this.
- Third STR check is a NATURAL 1. "Ok, so you throw the goblin and it's now stuck on the lip of the wall. It's hanging there, unseen by the goblins and now thoroughly out of your reach"
Then half-a-castle's worth of monsters attacked the PCs at once. The Fighter is the first to go down, in a hail of arrows as they burst open the door. near where he through the goblin earlier. As he's struggling for life, I roll behind the screen. 1-10, the goblin falls on him. 11-20, it stays up there. I rolled a 1. The Fighter wasn't pleased.
Lucky for him, the Wizard was able to use Flaming Sphere to great effect and save him at 2 Death Strikes (one of which caused by a falling goblin corpse...)
shpelley wrote:
Dark_Stryke wrote:
ChrisCarlson wrote:
Odd, but okay. Whatever makes you and your players happy is exactly the right thing to do. More power to y'alls.
Back when my group was playing Living Forgotten Realms, we had an encounter involving some Zombies. These zombies have an ability where they explode when they are critted by an attack. So, my fighter is next to one and she crits it. The explosion causes blindness if it hits and it did. The blindness is save ends. At the end of my turn, I roll to save, I fail. Next turn comes around, some more bad guys are ambling about and on my turn, I continue to fail to save from blindness. On my third turn, I finally make the saving throw from blindness! There is a zombie right next to me. The next guy whose turn is up is the Rogue. He moves up, stabs the Zombie and crits it! My fighter goes blind again. -sigh-