Worst-Case Scenario - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Worst-Case Scenario

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
Centauri
May 29, 2013 12:05:35 Your DM has planned out a detailed encounter, with the intent of challenging your character in several ways. You are so interested in seeing this encounter play out, that you do not do anything to avoid it, mitigate it, negate it, (even though you could) or argue that it's unfair or impossible by the rules (even though it might be), and despite the fact that if your same group were to play out this exact encounter 100 times, the party would lose 75 times.

What does that encounter look like?
What does "losing" the encounter look like?
You're willing to play the encounter because it's cool, but why does your character accept such a high risk?

If you can't think of answers to those questions, lower the risk of failure until you can, then answer those questions and tell me what the risk is.
#2
Beldak_Serpenthelm
May 29, 2013 17:30:11 My character: a rogue who prides himself on his ability to tell when people are lying to him.

Setting: the party are travelling in a country ravaged by vampire attacks, and they become allied with a vampire hunter that teaches them which weapons and combat techniques work best.

Event: they run into a woman (who is confirmed to not be a vampire) who accuses the vampire hunter of murdering her mother in cold blood. The fact that she conveniently forgot to mention that her mother was already turned into a vampire - and the hunter can't defend himself since he doesn't know who she's talking about - before the hunter found her is enough for my rogue to believe her totally and become suspicious of the hunter, wondering if he uses his prestige in the area to victimize mortals with impunity.

Combat: when she invites a very nasty pack of vampires - revealed to be from her late mother's cult - into the house where the party is staying the night and makes it clear to the pack that nobody who dies is to be turned, my rouge is absolutely furious at himself for falling for her decpetion so thoroughly and is absolutely desperate to make sure that the hunter isn't killed by the rogue's own stupidity.

The vampires attack the most (in)famous hunter first, not wanting to worry about the smaller, less confirmed threats (PCs) until their boogeyman is dead, and the woman reveals herself to be an extremely powerful spellcaster by turning invisible and flying above the melee.

If the hunter dies, my rogue in particular will never forgive himself for "helping," and the vampire population would get even bolder in their future attacks knowing that one of the greatest champions is dead.

If the party doesn't draw the fight outdoors to put more distance between the attackers, having the vampires (and PCs) in one place means that: 1) the spellcaster can react more quickly to specific vampires needing help quickly, such as "Haste" wearing off; 2) the spellcaster can guarantee that her "Mass Inflict" spells can help as many vampires and hurt as many PCs as possible; 3) the PCs are hesitant to use AoEs that they themselves can be hurt by, whereas any "Mass Cure" spells would be countered quickly.

If they hurt the spellcaster enough, then she will probably teleport out and let the vampires take care of themselves, but then they might be able to kill more of the party while the attacks are focused on the spellcaster in he first place.

(For vampires that assume gaseous form near-death) If they can make the fight last until morning (with some DM-informed "cut-scenes" to avoid too many turns worth of mostly running), then the vampires would die with no chance of making it underground in time, but the PCs might not last that long given the vampire's superior healing, and perhaps should "settle" for trying to injure the vampires enough that they flee in desperation.

#3
Centauri
May 30, 2013 13:02:01 Nice.

If there were, say, a 75% chance of the hunter dying would you still find that encounter worth engaging it? What if it were 90%? What if it were 100%?
#4
DaBugbear
May 30, 2013 22:44:16 I'm playing a dwarven paladin of the All-Father, and an overwhelming force of Orcs is incoming. The party, who has been hired to scout incidents of missing loggers in the area, fight a retreat, flooded by more and more reinforcements as the encounter drags on.

We come to a place on the map that allows a single individual to blockade the area long enough for the rest of the party to escape. As the defender, I leap at the opportunity to bottleneck this area Spartan style, knowing that I have no chance to survive, but the death will be epic and heroic in all the most classic ways.

I get to stand Indiana Jones style on a swaying rope bridge, immune to Bull Rush attempts to knock me off, until I drop to single digit HPs, at which point I use my next turn to attack my last enemy, then Action Point Daily the rope bridge, dropping us all into the Chasm of Doom!

Maidens cry soft tears at the memorial service. I roll up an Evil Tiefling Warlock next.
#5
Tevish_Szat
May 30, 2013 23:04:03 I'd go with a true Last Stand... a scenario where everything has gone to hell so it really is just a matter of makign the grandest exit possible.

It's the end of all things -- the party has failed repeatedly to stop the advancement of an Elder Evil -- doesn't matter which one really, so I'll just say Cthulhu for the sake of argument. With the Abomination in the world at full strength, there is no hope of thie plane surviving. At this point, I'm playing a good-aligned character and probably not a rogue. The last encounter, last hope left: Refugees are fleeing through a portal to "not here" as the bad guys lay siege to the last bastion of civilization. I defend the outer walls with careful tactics, but the numbers of the enemy are limitless, forcing me to fall back ever closer to the portal. NPCs helping out die, and the enemy's faceless mooks are slowly replaced with bigger and stronger servitors of the green guy. I throw every resource I've got at the unlimited tide, but eventually Big C himself shows up. At that point there's only one option: Use my last unimpeded action to destroy the portal so the refugees can't be followed and vanish down Cthulhu's gullet struggling the whole way.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Centauri May 29, 2013 12:05:35	Your DM has planned out a detailed encounter, with the intent of challenging your character in several ways. You are so interested in seeing this encounter play out, that you do not do anything to avoid it, mitigate it, negate it, (even though you could) or argue that it's unfair or impossible by the rules (even though it might be), and despite the fact that if your same group were to play out this exact encounter 100 times, the party would lose 75 times. What does that encounter look like? What does "losing" the encounter look like? You're willing to play the encounter because it's cool, but why does your character accept such a high risk? If you can't think of answers to those questions, lower the risk of failure until you can, then answer those questions and tell me what the risk is.
#2 Beldak_Serpenthelm May 29, 2013 17:30:11	My character: a rogue who prides himself on his ability to tell when people are lying to him. Setting: the party are travelling in a country ravaged by vampire attacks, and they become allied with a vampire hunter that teaches them which weapons and combat techniques work best. Event: they run into a woman (who is confirmed to not be a vampire) who accuses the vampire hunter of murdering her mother in cold blood. The fact that she conveniently forgot to mention that her mother was already turned into a vampire - and the hunter can't defend himself since he doesn't know who she's talking about - before the hunter found her is enough for my rogue to believe her totally and become suspicious of the hunter, wondering if he uses his prestige in the area to victimize mortals with impunity. Combat: when she invites a very nasty pack of vampires - revealed to be from her late mother's cult - into the house where the party is staying the night and makes it clear to the pack that nobody who dies is to be turned, my rouge is absolutely furious at himself for falling for her decpetion so thoroughly and is absolutely desperate to make sure that the hunter isn't killed by the rogue's own stupidity. The vampires attack the most (in)famous hunter first, not wanting to worry about the smaller, less confirmed threats (PCs) until their boogeyman is dead, and the woman reveals herself to be an extremely powerful spellcaster by turning invisible and flying above the melee. If the hunter dies, my rogue in particular will never forgive himself for "helping," and the vampire population would get even bolder in their future attacks knowing that one of the greatest champions is dead. If the party doesn't draw the fight outdoors to put more distance between the attackers, having the vampires (and PCs) in one place means that: 1) the spellcaster can react more quickly to specific vampires needing help quickly, such as "Haste" wearing off; 2) the spellcaster can guarantee that her "Mass Inflict" spells can help as many vampires and hurt as many PCs as possible; 3) the PCs are hesitant to use AoEs that they themselves can be hurt by, whereas any "Mass Cure" spells would be countered quickly. If they hurt the spellcaster enough, then she will probably teleport out and let the vampires take care of themselves, but then they might be able to kill more of the party while the attacks are focused on the spellcaster in he first place. (For vampires that assume gaseous form near-death) If they can make the fight last until morning (with some DM-informed "cut-scenes" to avoid too many turns worth of mostly running), then the vampires would die with no chance of making it underground in time, but the PCs might not last that long given the vampire's superior healing, and perhaps should "settle" for trying to injure the vampires enough that they flee in desperation.
#3 Centauri May 30, 2013 13:02:01	Nice. If there were, say, a 75% chance of the hunter dying would you still find that encounter worth engaging it? What if it were 90%? What if it were 100%?
#4 DaBugbear May 30, 2013 22:44:16	I'm playing a dwarven paladin of the All-Father, and an overwhelming force of Orcs is incoming. The party, who has been hired to scout incidents of missing loggers in the area, fight a retreat, flooded by more and more reinforcements as the encounter drags on. We come to a place on the map that allows a single individual to blockade the area long enough for the rest of the party to escape. As the defender, I leap at the opportunity to bottleneck this area Spartan style, knowing that I have no chance to survive, but the death will be epic and heroic in all the most classic ways. I get to stand Indiana Jones style on a swaying rope bridge, immune to Bull Rush attempts to knock me off, until I drop to single digit HPs, at which point I use my next turn to attack my last enemy, then Action Point Daily the rope bridge, dropping us all into the Chasm of Doom! Maidens cry soft tears at the memorial service. I roll up an Evil Tiefling Warlock next.
#5 Tevish_Szat May 30, 2013 23:04:03	I'd go with a true Last Stand... a scenario where everything has gone to hell so it really is just a matter of makign the grandest exit possible. It's the end of all things -- the party has failed repeatedly to stop the advancement of an Elder Evil -- doesn't matter which one really, so I'll just say Cthulhu for the sake of argument. With the Abomination in the world at full strength, there is no hope of thie plane surviving. At this point, I'm playing a good-aligned character and probably not a rogue. The last encounter, last hope left: Refugees are fleeing through a portal to "not here" as the bad guys lay siege to the last bastion of civilization. I defend the outer walls with careful tactics, but the numbers of the enemy are limitless, forcing me to fall back ever closer to the portal. NPCs helping out die, and the enemy's faceless mooks are slowly replaced with bigger and stronger servitors of the green guy. I throw every resource I've got at the unlimited tide, but eventually Big C himself shows up. At that point there's only one option: Use my last unimpeded action to destroy the portal so the refugees can't be followed and vanish down Cthulhu's gullet struggling the whole way.