I do get my sadisitic jollies from these posts myself, I must agree.

I do get my sadisitic jollies from these posts myself, I must agree.

I just read this journal. I've been grinning from ear to ear.

I've been on the receiving end of a Killer DM in the past, many many sessions spent rolling up new characters as previous favourites got turned into Monster Munch.

I, on the other hand am more benevolent, and don't seem to have many confirmed kills. Although twice recently, I managed to drop two PC's to 0hp, only for their intelligent comrades to use good tactics and save their miserable hides.

Must try harder.

I just read this journal. I've been grinning from ear to ear.

I've been on the receiving end of a Killer DM in the past, many many sessions spent rolling up new characters as previous favourites got turned into Monster Munch.

I, on the other hand am more benevolent, and don't seem to have many confirmed kills. Although twice recently, I managed to drop two PC's to 0hp, only for their intelligent comrades to use good tactics and save their miserable hides.

Must try harder.

Meomwt, your players will ultimately appreciate you for sincere and honest cruelty, and will be thankful that you are their beloved GM:) They may not tell you so, but rest assured, their 'Tears of JOY' will tell you so:D To do anything less is to let those poor souls down. So please, WIPE THEM OUT, ALL OF THEM!

Today’s twenty-third session of the Killer Age of Worms campaign, was one of the most WONDERFUL days in my GM’ing career. There were SEVEN (7) Player Character FATALITIES during today’s session. I have been told by the author of The Library of Last Resort, (Mr. Logue), that he prides himself on being a “serious role-player.” The adventure however is laden with encounters that are absolutely lethal on the player characters. So much for “role-playing” and my EIGHT players present today asked me to pass along their most unwelcome and pissed-off regards to the author, Mr. Nick Logue:), which I do with pleasure:) Thanks, Nick...
We began our joyful and happy afternoon with the first fatality happening right out of the gate. One of the player characters, who in the last game session managed to offend Prince Zeech during the banquet was given poison during the evening, failed several saving throws, and was later murdered in his sleep by an assassin sent by the Prince, as none of the other players made listen checks to hear the assassin sneak into his room and do away with the Rude and Boorish PC who deeply offended the honorable Prince Zeech. That will teach ‘em to have good manners :D
The PC’s soon thereafter visited with Lashonna and went off to find the Library of Last Resort. During the encounter with the Octopus Tree, the PC Hexblade was BEATEN to within an inch of his worthless life, and grappled. Then, the PC Drow Cleric/Sorcerer/Mystic Theurge (played by a player who is in his 50’s and very shrewd & no-nonsense) then Fireballed the Octopus Tree and in the process INCINERATED the PC Hexblade, who died horribly:D. Naturally, I laughed hysterically. I thought for a minute that the Player of the Hexblade was going to leave the game, but he quickly recovered:) The PC’s then went on to defeat the Octopus Tree who went down bravely, after trying to unsuccessfully Bluff the PC’s into thinking it was dead before trying to sucker them close to get some easy attacks on the PC’s. The tree didn’t fool the PC’s and died as a result…

The first ‘Test of Tilagos’ was truly priceless. The PC’s located Krathanos the titan and attempted to begin a dialogue with him. All of their conversation involved getting the belt from him. I allowed them to do this several times before I deemed that Krathanos’ rage and insanity got the better of him. The player of the Drow Cleric/ Sorcerer/Mystic Theurge assumed that (as he was the last PC to irritate the titan) he was going to be the first to get screwed. I allowed wisdom to prevail, and used my surprise action to instead send Turin the Mad’s Cleric packing with a Maze spell. Turin would not escape the Maze and return for 11 rounds as it turned out, and arrived just in time to start Resurrecting dead player characters:D

The following round, the PC’s threw a few attacks at the titan to little effect. One of the PC’s (a fighter, played by a female player) asked me if she would survive at least 1 round if she engaged the titan in melee. I said “sure.” Well… The titan charged her PC Fighter BEFORE she even had an opportunity to begin melee with him. I declared a Power Attack of 20, and rolled a NATURAL 20 to hit :D:D:D I immediately began Screaming with Laughter:) The damage in question was 4d6+27+power attack 20 (30 damage due to a two-handed wielded weapon) x3; and dice rolled indicated 210 HP damage. The fighter having roughly 150, and at full strength, was killed in one sickening, pulverizing, CRUSHING hit. Just Priceless:)

Immediately following the death of the PC fighter, the PC Warlock (who is only an occasional player in the group, and probably wondered why he was present today…) fired off a Fireball that failed to breach the titan’s Spell Resistance but scorched several of the Gargoyles nearby who were merely spectators of the event. On their subsequent action, several of the gargoyles fired multiple arrows at the low HP/low armor class PC Warlock, and he was turned into a pin cushion and Killed:) :) :) The gargoyles then took no further action in the remainder of the fight.

On the following round, the PC Rogue/Sorcerer laid into the titan with a Sonic Orb and critical’d the titan doing 60 or 70’ some hit points of damage. No problem. Mr. Titan then dropped a Meteor Swarm on Mr. Rogue/Sorcerer’s head for 125 HP damage, leaving him at 0 hp. The PC Rogue/Sorcerer on his next action used a magic item to guarantee him a critical hit, and did another 60 or 70 HP damage to the titan, fell to Negative 1 HP, and fell over. The PC Elf Wizard who had been whittling away at the titan trying to get spells in through the titan’s Spell resistance, moved over to try to cure the PC Rogue/Sorcerer. On the following round, the titan BLASTED the PC Elf Wizard with a Chain Lightning spell, removing about half her hit points, and ELECTRIFYING the unconscious PC Rogue/Sorcerer, putting him at about NEGATIVE SIXTY (60) HP, and turning him into a piece of electrified BACON, Killing him instantly:D:D:D

Eager to try to finish off the wounded titan, the ever-brainless PC Hexblade charged the titan. That’s right, he charged the titan. I had All the Players present stop and give our friend and esteemed colleague a round of golf claps & applause for his sheer act of bravery/stupidity in the face of almost certain death. He did damage the titan, reducing the titan to about 100 HP remaining. The titan then proceeded to plaster the Hexblade for 174 HP, leaving him at Negative-5 HP. At that point, there were only three remaining active PC’s present (not counting Turin the Mad who was Mazed and trying in vain to escape). The PC Elf Wizard grabbed the Rogue/Sorcerer’s remains and fled. The Drow Cleric/Sorcerer/Mystic Theurge bravely ran away also. The final PC, the Dwarf Cleric snuck down into the titan’s underground chamber (I created an underground chamber for him to rest in underneath the keep.) The titan believing the event was over, then STOMPED on the PC Hexblade who was bleeding & unconscious at -5 HP, crushing him into toe jam and Killing him, for the SECOND time TODAY:D:D:D The titan then went down into his underground chamber to get some brandy to celebrate with. The Dwarf Cleric had positioned an open Bag of Holding by the ramp down to the underground chamber. When the titan walked by it, the PC Dwarf Cleric tossed in a portable hole and slurped the titan out into the Astral Plane; and thus the PC’s won the encounter, and recovered the titan’s belt.

After raising all the slain PC’s, the PC’s then went off after the Elder Night Twist in the Doomshroud Forest. Two PC’s failed their Will Saves against the crushing despair and went running off to visit the Night Twist. The Player of the PC Rogue/Sorcerer was now using a Half-Minotaur monstrosity, Barbarian 7/Frenzied Berserker 7, and he raged, frenzied, and charged my beloved tree. Not withstanding the incredible amount of damage the Half-Minotaur could dish out, the Twist could do even better. As the half-minotaur had an AC of only 10; I power attacked for 20 and after 6 attacks had done over 300 HP to the half-minotaur, who was only kept alive because of his frenzied state. The half-minotaur then killed the Night Twist, but when he stopped his frenzied rage (to avoid attacking other party members), he being below Neg. 10 HP, DIED immediately:D:D:D

So good friends, a TRULY MEMORABLE afternoon. Join me next time, when the Nightmare Beast gets his crack at my Cognitively Challenged PC's. Until then, please treat your players to a similar dose of death and destruction, and enjoy your weekend :D

Good friends and fellow Killer GM's, I did neglect one important piece of information in my last post: Our grand total of PC Kills for the campaign is now at FIFTY-TWO (52)!!!!!:D Have a great week everyone:)

SEVEN! <Howls of mad laughter> Good tally, oh evil and malevolent one! However, I simpy have to say how sickeningly amazing that stunt with the Haversack and the Portable Hole happened to me.

Moy kudos to the dwarf who is now, no doubt, top of Mr Killer DM's hit-list.

Sigh, if only my players would let me get away with this sort of stuff! My games are tough, and player characters who think stupid and fail to use teamwork and tactical planning tend to be the ones who get killed off occasionally (I let the dice fall as they may, but tend to make an exeption if it looked like a PC was about to be killed by bad luck rather than poor planning). But SEVEN character deaths in one session? Thats more than in my entire thirteen month long last campaign (course my guys were much lower level so werent taking such big hits).

Seven is beautiful isn't it. Almost brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it now. It's days like this past Saturday that make d&d great. Especially in a player friendly game like mine:)

I have usually found that low level adventures, say 1st to 5th, and high level adventures, around 15+ are where you rack up your biggest body count. Probably why mid levels are most players' favorites (including mine when I am a player rather than a GM). At high levels, there are numerous ways to take a character out in short order, and it doesn't take as much luck now to waste a PC, as it has these last 4-5 months of mid-level campaigning. I suspect many more casualties are to come...:D

Seven is your lucky number!

Seven is your lucky number!

9 and 10 are nice too. I might even go so far as to say that 11 or 12 are quite nice as well.

*Chuckling*

Yes, I remember this session rather fondly - I did my level best to cajole the Titan into coughing up the belt, but alas, to no avail.

It was sheer beauty to watch the hexblade get turned into mulch twice in one session. The one-hit-squish of the fighter was also priceless.

And yes, I have already advised our beloved Killer GM on ways and means to dispatch the Frenzied Berserker's anti-magic field generating body armor. I do so love that 3.5 has the hardness and hit points of armor in it, unlike in 3.0 ... tsk tsk ...

Personally, I'd have to audit the character sheet (of the hexblade) in question were it to surface in a game I run. But, as the player is not exactly packing the sharpest knife in the drawer for some reason, Allen is content to simply, and repeatedly, kill the character over ... and over ... and over ...

Guess there are times when having the primary healing character also serve as the primary mouthpeice of the party (since the dwarf with no name was double-crispified a few sessions ago due to a pair of well-placed Flame Strikes) is not the best idea after all ...

Looking forward to tomorrow Allen. I am eager to get Healer Bot 2.0 smooshed, or even better, to watch the others get turned into toe jam of one stripe or another. If the latter, alignment changes will be contemplated ... well, mostly kidding, probably not.

Maybe. That's an awful lot of schwag ...

Turin

Calavingian wrote:

I do get my sadisitic jollies from these posts myself, I must agree.

I'm glad you both (Teemuu & Calavingian) enjoy the thread. One of the players in the game (Turin the Mad,-who also posts on this thread from time to time) will begin GM'ing Savage Tide after I finish AoW. Turin has not yet informed me if he intends to run a more benevolent-style game, or will opt for a sadistic-style game similar to mine, in an effort to challenge my number of PC kills for the overall campaign. Hopefully he won't, and I'll be spared a taste of my own medicine...

As far as the Savage Tide, which I am finding immensely enjoyable as a prospect to GM - especially for this crew - I plan thus far to 'plug in' additional published adventures into the main campaign arc. First up is the lovely gem of the Barrow of the Forgotten King. If I can find the sequel adventure, I'll add that in too. I considered the Gates of Slaughterguard as well, but it thus far is more self-contained and thus not a particularly ideal adventure to attempt to mix into the Savage Tide. Of course, sometime in the next few weeks our copies of the lovely Expedition to Greyhawk Ruins should arrive. From what I've gathered of the recommended levels for the module (8 - 13), the party members should have thier own ship at that point and thus be able to sail to the nearest port city directly, disembarking to be disembowelled within those lovely ruins. Between the Savage Tide and the Ruins that should keep them fat and happy and spice things up.

I've noted some of the ... oh, flaws, shall we say, of the bulk of the group, and have already compiled a rough draft of 'introductory material' to dole out to the players at the beginning of the campaign.

More on that, of course, once the Savage Tide is going to be considered in play proper.

And as per another comment by our beloved Killer GM, the easiest kills nominally can be attributed to low and high levels ... largely due to *pouf you're dead* effects. (Sleep and thus follow-up coup de gras at low levels, literal death effects at high levels.)

Hrm ... enough of a ramble for the moment...

SEVEN! <Howls of mad laughter> Good tally, oh evil and malevolent one! However, I simpy have to say how sickeningly amazing that stunt with the Haversack and the Portable Hole happened to me.

Moy kudos to the dwarf who is now, no doubt, top of Mr Killer DM's hit-list.

Sigh, if only my players would let me get away with this sort of stuff! My games are tough, and player characters who think stupid and fail to use teamwork and tactical planning tend to be the ones who get killed off occasionally (I let the dice fall as they may, but tend to make an exeption if it looked like a PC was about to be killed by bad luck rather than poor planning). But SEVEN character deaths in one session? Thats more than in my entire thirteen month long last campaign (course my guys were much lower level so werent taking such big hits).

I rather think that, after discussing it with Allen, we give the player of the bold dwarven cleric kudos for dusting off such an old trick to get rid of the bad guy in question. Allen was nice enough to conveniently have the belt around the titan's waist fall to the ground after being slurped off to the Astral Plane rather then be lost with him - probably ending the campaign prematurely. Or at a minimum, greatly exacerbating the difficulty of dealing with the end-game BBEG's.

Personally, I give that player, who is fairly new to the table, his proper respects. He has played enough to have a good idea of what he is doing, and is savvy enough to act swiftly to keep his character alive. Between him and Allen, I am hopeful that they will not undertake leadership roles within the campaign arc to come, or the body count will have no chance to achieve the stack of body bags figuratively accumulating in the Age of Worms. In many ways, he plays smarter than the oldest (literally) player at the table, who seems to have a predisposition towards not thinking through with his character concepts.

What tends to get both of us irritated are the one-trick pony characters, such as the Frenzied Berserker wearing armor that generates an anti-magic field by command word. Or a hexblade investing thier few feats into two-weapon fighting ... a waste of a semi-core class.

I am in complete agreement with you regarding player character deaths due to stupidity and failure to implement teamwork and tactical cooperation. As has been amply demonstrated throughout this campaign journal - and I suspect will equally well be demonstrated in the future years - the leading cause of PC death in my opinion still often remains attributable to player stupidity. At low levels, something as simple as a club on your character sheet can literally mean the difference between life and death in a battle with skeletal critters as a simple example.

I just read this journal. I've been grinning from ear to ear.

I've been on the receiving end of a Killer DM in the past, many many sessions spent rolling up new characters as previous favourites got turned into Monster Munch.

I, on the other hand am more benevolent, and don't seem to have many confirmed kills. Although twice recently, I managed to drop two PC's to 0hp, only for their intelligent comrades to use good tactics and save their miserable hides.

Must try harder.

As a side example, one of the semi-regular players pestered me into running him a solo-game on an off day in the GURPS campaign I've run on-again off-again over the past 2 or 3 years. He knowingly, in the modern age mind you, went haring off after a newly-revealed pack of werewolves of unknown capabilities alone, 2 hours' drive from the nearest significant population center. It took four hours' real time, but he finally became wolf kibble as a result. The worst part is, as a character of Catholic belief, he suicided out rather than stand and be eaten alive, by werewolves loosely modelled on White Wolf's deliciously malevolent Black Spiral Dancer clan of Garou. {Attach all necessary copyrights and yadda yadda's here.) Since he didn't have explosives, well, the only critter he killed was himself.

And the other players want to go find him ... ^_^

meomwt wrote:

.

Killing characters is easy. Doing so as fairly as possible, while keeping them entertained enough to come back for more, is the trick.

... ^_^

Naturally, my goal is to waste more PC's than Turin can when it is his turn to run Savage Tide. While the additional adventures/side treks may give him an advantage, Turin is ultimately a little less sadistic towards the cognitively challenged members of our humble gaming group. I expect it will be close however when all is said and done following Turin's campaign to come.

I am thouroughly looking forward to comparing the new body counts. I have to agree that I am dazzled and amazed by the fact you have managed to kill so many PCS and not only avoid loosing any players BUT ACTUALLY RECRUITING MORE!.

If I believed for one solitary second that I would be able to pull off such a feat I would be running a similar campaign even now.

Turin, I am not in the least bit surprised that it is the younger players who are actually thinking clearly and using the smarts god - or the DNA lottery, whicever you prefer- gave them. In my experience many older gamers have gotten themselves into the "kick the door down, roll dice, kill the monsters mentality" and simply cannot adapt to a more challenging game where players are expected to rely on tactics -not simply brute force and a benevolent DM- to win the day.

I am lucky enough to play in two groups. The one in which I am a player is populated by veteren, thinking, tactical players who fight well as a group and understand the value of teamwork and good planning. I dont think its a coincidence that the group in question consists mostly of published fiction writers and one gaming professional.

My other group on the other hand,the one in which I DM, is made up of vetern players who wouldnt know tactics and teamwork if a Manual of Leadership fell out of the sky and struck them on the head. Despite my coaxing and provididng useful examples of "how you can make tactics work for you."

Younger players on the other hand, quickly seem to grasp the concepts that are required for sucess in one of my campaigns. For example, I was almost deleriously excited the first time one of my younger players - in only his second ever session- re-invented the concept of the 10ft pole (or more acurrately rediscoveredit for himself). This same player has now equipped his character with such useful devices as hammer and nails, caltrops and *pinch me* a wooden club following an incident with a rust monster in which he at least had the sense to snap his ten foot pole in two and start laying into the thing with a pair of clubs!

Not only that, he actually stopped the older, more experienced players (who have somehow managed to forget all of these elementary aspect of basic adventuring) from charging into the centre of a room packed full of zombies rather than sensibly placing the toughest fighters in the doorway with the healers and archers behind.

And, oh, bliss of blissfulness, he has even introduced the concept of using reach weapons so that the guys in the second rank can get involved in those tricky 10ft wide corridor encounters as well.

But why the heck is it my newest player who has grasped these basic elementary straegies? How can my older more experienced players possibly have forgotten the value of such things. Just the other day I heard one of them complain that glitterdust was a crap spell. Glitterdust? Crap?

Just to proove my point and to actually get them thinking about spell choice, I had them encounter two goblin sorcerers protected by a phalanx of spearmen. One used solely more-or-less single target or small radius damage spells such as magic missile, burning hands (which I still reckon is the second or third best 1st level spell in the game) and scorching ray. The second, on the other hand, used only charm person, ray of enfeeblement, sleep and glitterdust spells.

Following the encoutner, after the battered 4th level characters finally fled from a fight they claimed was "unwinnable", I asked them which of the two sorcerers they felt was most effective. The silence was deafening.

Now all I have to do is hit then with an ambush by a bunch of kobolds perched upon a high ledge atop a cliff face. If that doesnt persuade them all to start carrying missile weapons, nothing will.

I am thouroughly looking forward to comparing the new body counts. I have to agree that I am dazzled and amazed by the fact you have managed to kill so many PCS and not only avoid loosing any players BUT ACTUALLY RECRUITING MORE!.

If I believed for one solitary second that I would be able to pull off such a feat I would be running a similar campaign even now.

Turin, I am not in the least bit surprised that it is the younger players who are actually thinking clearly and using the smarts god - or the DNA lottery, whicever you prefer- gave them. In my experience many older gamers have gotten themselves into the "kick the door down, roll dice, kill the monsters mentality" and simply cannot adapt to a more challenging game where players are expected to rely on tactics -not simply brute force and a benevolent DM- to win the day.

I am lucky enough to play in two groups. The one in which I am a player is populated by veteren, thinking, tactical players who fight well as a group and understand the value of teamwork and good planning. I dont think its a coincidence that the group in question consists mostly of published fiction writers and one gaming professional.

My other group on the other hand,the one in which I DM, is made up of vetern players who wouldnt know tactics and teamwork if a Manual of Leadership fell out of the sky and struck them on the head. Despite my coaxing and provididng useful examples of "how you can make tactics work for you."

Younger players on the other hand, quickly seem to grasp the concepts that are required for sucess in one of my campaigns. For example, I was almost deleriously excited the first time one of my younger players - in only his second ever session- re-invented the concept of the 10ft pole (or more acurrately rediscoveredit for himself). This same player has now equipped his character with such useful devices as hammer and nails, caltrops and *pinch me* a wooden club following an incident with a rust monster in which he at least had the sense to snap his ten foot...

And short of superior invisibility, Glitterdust is the next best thing to Invisibility Purge - without the likelyhood of revealing any invisibility-dependant party members, and available at a far lower character level to boot. It is even better as an opening gambit spell in some ways, especially from a surprise round action.

The older player I specifically refer to however, is not tactically deficient insomuch as he is generally inclined to want level adjustment races and idiotic class combinations. His current character is a drow paragon-cleric/sorceror/mystic theurge of poor spellcasting ability. In the current group, there are several members who come across as thinking they know the basics of the game ... and don't.

I would recommend at least minor xp bonuses to your new and creative player. Such are a treat - and they do often think more than they react, as they are often eager to not become self-propelled field rations.

Depending on party level, make the kobolds 3rd or so level ninjas, and have them pepper them with *poisoned* arrows... ^_^

Naturally, my goal is to waste more PC's than Turin can when it is his turn to run Savage Tide. While the additional adventures/side treks may give him an advantage, Turin is ultimately a little less sadistic towards the cognitively challenged members of our humble gaming group. I expect it will be close however when all is said and done following Turin's campaign to come.

I do so look forward to watching characters that do not bother to heed the several pages of advance advice I plan to dole out drown in thier own heavy and medium armor, for example...

And I suspect you are correct, having more encounters yields more opportunities for messy demises of player characters - hopefully in good fun.

If you haven't caught it my friend, the Savage Tide between about 10 or so reported campaigns has racked up over 150 player deaths in the first chapter alone. Time will tell if our group alone will equal that number.

I do so look forward to those first precious sessions...

Today’s Twenty-Fourth session of the Killer Age of Worms campaign saw FOUR (4) Player Character FATALITIES. That brings us to a total of FIFTY-SIX (56) PC deaths for the total campaign through the Library of Last Resort (almost completed).

Today the group of eight players defeated the Nightmare Beast Harrowdroth, taking some damage, but only one PC even came close to death, but unhappily, he lived:(

In the second encounter the group went looking for the fourth objective, the feather of the Roc, and Darl Quethos and his friends were waiting. The eight PC’s present today were 14th and 15th level characters. Due to some qualities of some of the PC’s, I elected to substitute a Human Fighter (level 15) with a bastard sword for one of the tiefling monks (level 15), and a half-ogre/half-clay golem fighter/barbarian for the Cornugan Bateezu.

I had four of the five villains hidden in several shallow 3 foot deep pits underneath the body of the Roc, in order to draw the PC’s close enough so that I could start Imploding them via Darl Quethos (none of the NPC’s were a wizard or a capable ranged combatant, so I figured getting the PC’s close was the right thing to do.) The Efreet and his mount were both invisible and starting beating on Turin the Mad who had moved in to get a good look on things. On their reoriented actions, the villains began emerging from the roc and began slugging it out with the PC’s. Nothing of consequence happened in the first round of combat. In the second round, the Monk and Efreet teamed up to Wish a Mass Heal on the bad guys to patch them up after the PC’s big opening salvo scored significant damage on the bad guys. But before the second round ended, Darl Quethos IMPLODED the PC Elf Wizard, ending her afternoon on a very messy note:D:D:D

The PC’s then gained the upper hand, with the PC Deathmaster (Dragon Compendium book) Enervating the Tiefling Rogue for 4 Negative Levels. The PC's then wised up and focused fire on the Efreet. The group’s archer (played by the player who’s Warlock character died messily last week) finished off the Efreet, and things were not looking good for our beloved bad guys:(
Immediately thereafter however, things took a moderate turn for the better:) The Tiefling Monk raced sixty feet and dropped a Quivering Palm on the Deathmaster PC who had enervated him, and the PC Deathmaster blew his DC 16 Fort Save and DIED MISERABLY:D:D:D. Yes folks, I thought he'd make that saving throw for sure, but as you all know, a Killer GM must take chances. And today, a few paid off:)

One of the PC’s is a Half-Minotaur Barbarian/Frenzied Berserker who is toting a Anti-Magic Field granting magic item around, that he paid over 100,000 gold pieces for; he does a ton of damage, and is driving me (the GM) INSANE. In order to give the player of the said ridiculous character some difficulties, I elected to substitute the Cornagun Bateezu for a Half-Ogre, Half-Clay Golem Fighter/Barbarian (Monster Manual 2) that had a 36 Strength Score (40 something when raging/frenzying) and was immune to piercing and slashing attacks, thus he laughed at the PC Half-Minotaur’s Greatsword attacks. The goal of the Half Clay Golem was to Sunder the Half-Minotaur’s armor that granted his Anti-Magic field and retire that piece of crap magic item to the scrap yard, permanently. UNFORTUNATELY, I failed on FOUR CONSECUTIVE opposed Sunder attempts, before I said screw it, and had the half-Clay Golem attack the Half-Minotaur PC normally, quickly doing 300+ HP damage to him. The Half-Minotaur Player was tipped off to what he needed to do by another player, (blast you Kyle), and he then pulled out his great club and literally beat my Half-Golem into pieces. However, when he subsequently came out of his frenzy, he was below Negative 10 HP, and died instantly:D:D:D:D:D My only regret was that he didn't take a few of the other PC's with him before he went...

After the fall of the Half-Clay Golem Fighter, things looked bleak for Quethos & Company. But before Plane Shifting out with the Human Fighter and the tiefling Monk in tow, Darl Quethos dropped a Destruction spell and SNUFFED out the PC Archer:), who looked quite pissed at me, after surviving a previous Implosion attempt, the round before, in which he needed a Natural 19, and rolled a natural 19. Happily, he did NOT roll a needed Natural 17 or higher against the Destruction spell and promptly turned into a pile of black and greasy bile on the ground:D Quethos then hit off a Quickened Plane Shift and he and his two surviving comrades bailed out, giving the PC’s the win for the afternoon.

That’s where we halted things for today. I still haven't entirely decided on whether or not to use the "Dream Encounter" that is a likely TPK waiting to happen. We’re back again in two weeks. Please do join me then everyone! Many more entertaining PC deaths yet to come for your reading entertainment:D

Two WEEKS!!! How can I possibly survive the wait?

I think Turin, that the lesson I`m trying to impart could best be pulled off with your standard gardne variety 2 hp kobolds. If I actually give em class levels the pcs will just shrug off thier nasty experience and put it down to the power of their opponents rather than poor planning on their part. I WANT to make it clear to them that even horrendously weak creatures like kobolds can kick the crap out of player characters that dont THINK!

On the other hand, I would be most interested to see your five page basic tactics guide. Perhaps my own players would benefit? Would you be kind enough to post a copy on the sight so that I can have a look at (i.e plagarise -dammit, how do you spell that word? We dyslexic writers are a sorry lot) it for my own use?

I know, I'm playing rules cop again, but you can't sunder armor. I have to say, given someone permanent antimagic sounds insane.

From the PH:
Sundering a Carried or Worn Object: You don’t use an opposed attack roll to damage a carried or worn object. Instead, just make an attack roll against the object’s AC. A carried or worn object’s AC is equal to 10 + its size modifier + the Dexterity modifier of the carrying or wearing character. Attacking a carried or worn object provokes an attack of opportunity just as attacking a held object does. To attempt to snatch away an item worn by a defender rather than damage it, see Disarm. You can’t sunder armor worn by another character.

From the PH:
Sundering a Carried or Worn Object: You don’t use an opposed attack roll to damage a carried or worn object. Instead, just make an attack roll against the object’s AC. A carried or worn object’s AC is equal to 10 + its size modifier + the Dexterity modifier of the carrying or wearing character. Attacking a carried or worn object provokes an attack of opportunity just as attacking a held object does. To attempt to snatch away an item worn by a defender rather than damage it, see Disarm. You can’t sunder armor worn by another character.

Russ, I dont have my rulebook handy, so can you tell me if that last part written in bold is actualy a quote from the rules or simply a summation of your argument?

Frankly, it seems strange to me that you wouldnt be able to directly target armour with the object of making unusable or else damaging in it such a way as to hinder the man wearing it.

Also, if you cant attack armour worn by another character, why are there rules for striking an item worn by another character? It seems to make little sense to be able to sundar an opponents Amulet or hat, but not their armour.

I think then, regardless of what the rules say, I would allow Pcs in my campaign to make sunder attacks vs worn armour. Hmmmm. I`m gonna add it to the house rules tonight as soon as I get home.

Two WEEKS!!! How can I possibly survive the wait?

I know, I'm playing rules cop again, but you can't sunder armor. I have to say, given someone permanent antimagic sounds insane.

Congratulations and best of luck for the 3rd of Sept.

<snip>
To simply "Ban" his item from the table, in my mind, equates to him 1-up'ing me, and me having to resort to pulling the "I'm the GM, and I say so line" which I try and avoid when possible. It will be much more satisfying to outwit this clown, and beat him at his own game. And if I can't manage that, I doubt his character will survive the encounter with the Mother Worm, in Kings of the Rift, who's main danger to the PC's in an Extraordinary ability, which is not affected by the anti-magic field. And if he can make up to 8 consecutive DC 41 Fortitude saving throws with no magical bonuses to help him, then I'll swallow my pride and read him the riot act...

who's main danger to the PC's in an Extraordinary ability, which is not affected by the anti-magic field. And if he can make up to 8 consecutive DC 41 Fortitude saving throws with no magical bonuses to help him, then I'll swallow my pride and read him the riot act...

Gentlecritters,

In response (as having to do less than anything regarding Mr Anti-Magic Field body armor Frenzied Berserker Half-Minitaur [deliberately mis-spelled] ) I will relay the following information:

The anti-magic armor is a deliberate choice taking advantage of the wording of the sunder rules prohibiting sundering of armor (but not shields). Frankly, it is ridiculous to make such a prohibition when it is quite believable that one of the ways a major hostile armored humanoid/giant combatant derives a hideous AC is from thier body armor. If I can whack every other object on thier person, it is quite clear I can chop thier armor as well. It already has hardness and hit points. Given how weapons and shields are handled by way of opposed attack rolls (via the sundering rules), I would house-rule body armor is the same. Since magical armor and shields receive ridiculously higher levels of hardness and hit points for the same enhancement bonus as compared to weaponry, this should easily level out under normal, non anti-magic field circumstances. (If not moreso, since magical armor is cheaper to upgrade than magical weaponry. And why don't shields count as magical weapons for costs ? They take no slot ...)

The FB in question provided my character with the command word to deactivate the anti-magic field in question to facilitate resuscitation and/or healing once he snaps out of the frenzy. Without that, he has no way to be returned from a messy steaming pile of hamburger. Due to the command word function, he can receive fly spells et al until he turns on the field (during which time magical effects upon him are of course suppressed).

Now, generally speaking, the player of this monstrosity expects to die in pretty much every fight. Due to (very) lenient house rules regarding character death, he doesn't particularly worry about keeping the character alive - he just wades in and starts chopping.

Two WEEKS!!! How can I possibly survive the wait?

I think Turin, that the lesson I`m trying to impart could best be pulled off with your standard gardne variety 2 hp kobolds. If I actually give em class levels the pcs will just shrug off thier nasty experience and put it down to the power of their opponents rather than poor planning on their part. I WANT to make it clear to them that even horrendously weak creatures like kobolds can kick the crap out of player characters that dont THINK!

On the other hand, I would be most interested to see your five page basic tactics guide. Perhaps my own players would benefit? Would you be kind enough to post a copy on the sight so that I can have a look at (i.e plagarise -dammit, how do you spell that word? We dyslexic writers are a sorry lot) it for my own use?

It isn't really a 5-page guide to basic tactics so much as a 5-page 'Dummies Guide to the Savage Tide' cooked up to give them (with some modicum of cerebral activity) a fighting chance at doing certain things throughout a large bulk of the campaign arc. This is based upon the original e-mail I sent out to the lot in order to attempt to minimize the inevitable ensuing body count.

However, as we 'speak', it looks like I may well very soon be starting up a Savage Tide campaign. At which point I will be happy to post a truncated version of that guide as the preliminary post for that campaign thread. Best guess at the moment is for the first posting or two to happen within the next week or two.

This will give me TWO Savage Tide campaign blogs once Allen's beloved Age of Worms concludes sometime probably in November this year. It will be interesting indeed to see the comparisons between the two groups. I didn't make a blog/thread for the RHoD mini-campaign - but I had a rather sizable group of bodies in that at one point that wound up with a not-quite-concluded module and a body count of somewhere around a dozen. (Oddly, Allen has a fondness for remembering body counts...)

And as another point of being at times too literal in the interpretation of the rules for various feats and things, a rather rude demonstration of the Arcane Strike feat was brought to bear in this past session by the Hexblade (He Who Dies Most).

In short, he took advantage of the free action aspect of the feat's text and channelled all but one spell level from his repetoire into his paired weapon-and-shield on a leap attack trick, tacking on enormous attack and damage bonuses for that one attack sequence.

Personally, my inclination is to use the feat to - at most - channel one spell into the effect per weapon and then use the feat's benefits. Does anyone have any advice regarding the 'spirit' of the feat rather than the literal letter of the feat ? As things stand, for those who are aware of the latter stages of the Savage Tide, there are certain critters who have this feat and an ungodly amount of spell levels with which to channel into thier melee attack sequences. Even though I am a player in this campaign, I am 'on deck' to run the Savage Tide afterwards, and I fully plan to gut his character(s) like so many fish with these beasties.

While the letter of the feat does an excellent job of conveying the intent behind it, some times it doesn't quite 'catch'. This is one of those feats that could readily lead to an all-arcane-capable party that literally plows its way through any encounter after 8th level by the simple expedient of Voltronning thier way through the fight.

A Hexblade with this is bad enough ... an archmage after a Tenser's Transformation ... or a duskblade ...

I am just grateful that they (so far) have not made an equivelant feat available for divine spellcasters.

I know, I'm playing rules cop again, but you can't sunder armor. I have to say, given someone permanent antimagic sounds insane.

From the PH:
Sundering a Carried or Worn Object: You don’t use an opposed attack roll to damage a carried or worn object. Instead, just make an attack roll against the object’s AC. A carried or worn object’s AC is equal to 10 + its size modifier + the Dexterity modifier of the carrying or wearing character. Attacking a carried or worn object provokes an attack of opportunity just as attacking a held object does. To attempt to snatch away an item worn by a defender rather than damage it, see Disarm. You can’t sunder armor worn by another character.

Math would roughly be 6 x 11 x 2000 x # (the multiplicative number appropriate to the duration of the vanilla anti-magic field spell), or a base cost of 132,000 multiplied by the duration-based value. I rather suspect that an anti-magic field's duration is not measured in hours and that the sneak thus slipped his item in under the radar.

In short, a re-learned lesson in permitting players to just blindly come up with thier own magical items.

In short, he took advantage of the free action aspect of the feat's text and channelled all but one spell level from his repetoire into his paired weapon-and-shield on a leap attack trick, tacking on enormous attack and damage bonuses for that one attack sequence.

Turin the Mad wrote:

In short, he took advantage of the free action aspect of the feat's text and channelled all but one spell level from his repetoire into his paired weapon-and-shield on a leap attack trick, tacking on enormous attack and damage bonuses for that one attack sequence.

A character can only take one free action per round, which means that he could only channel one spell into the Arcane Strike per round. The PHB is quite clear on this fact.

" Free actions do not take any time at all, though your DM may limit the number of free actions you can perform in a turn. "

The type of free action that is limited in the PHB is casting a quickened spell, which was reclassified as a swift action when the concept was introduced. (This reclassification was also - I think - broadly applied to any spell that is cast as a free or quickened action, such as Feather Fall.) Since, as far as I am aware, there is no errata regarding the Arcane Strike feat being reclassified by action type, the wording of the Arcane Strike feat stands.

Of course, the operative phrase is from above is " ... though your DM may limit the number of free actions you can perform in a turn. "

Sadly Fatespinner, you are not quite correct. (PHB pp. 144 - 145)

And yes, the term 'free action' was reclassified as 'swift action' I believe in the Expanded Psionics Handbook and has stuck ever since.

Joy of Joys.

My new campign starts on Wedensday night (as oppossed to the semi-regular game I`ve been running with my "equipment and tactically challanged group" once in a while). It should be a regular weekly game, set in the world of Eberron, with a world shattering storyline and the borrowing of ideas and often whole adevntures from various publishsed sources.

Basically it was designed to be run in my own campaign world, incorporating a published adventure series which fits rather nicely into into the background of my world and its previous apolcyptic storylines.Ive been building it for the better part of twenty years now, but the players are much more familiar with Eberron and dont seem to be too keen on playing in my own "theres no such thing as raise dead or resurrection" sword and sandles game world. Pity, I had hoped the recent release of 300 would have inspired them/gotten them into the mood for a setting where real men fight with spears. But evidently not.

Anyway, enough thread-jacking. Just thought I`d mention. Dont expect a Turin or Alex scale bodycount though. Im somewhat more merciful than they are :)

Hoping over to read the Savage Tide journal now :)

My first child is due to arrive in the 2nd week of September

Allen Stewart wrote:

My first child is due to arrive in the 2nd week of September

My best wishes that all goes well in September. Due dates are not all they are meant to be: both of my bundles of joy were two weeks late and had to be induced. Ah well.

To respond to multiple posts from above:

My thanks to Turin the Mad for his comments regarding the Sundering of armor and the presence of the anti-magic field armor in the campaign. You summed it up well and I won’t belabor my readers by piling on to what you’ve already stated.

I sincerely hope Schmoe, that the PC in question will not even make it to the mother worm, but a part of me does, and if so, I will laugh maniacally as he dies horribly.

Thank you Calavingian and Meomwt for the well wishes.

I hope readers of this post will give Calavingian's new campaign thread a read. It is my sincere hope that he has been adequately inspired from the wonderful accounts of brutality found throughout this thread, and will then proceed to mercilessly butcher his Player's Characters twenty-ways-to-Sunday for months or years to come. They'll forever appreciate you for it. Mine do:)

Turin, I had not even considered the notion of Godparents. I’ll need to give that some thought…

I think Turin adequately answered Tessius’ question also, that the character in question must de-activate his armor before receiving any type of spell, curative or otherwise.

I hope readers of this post will give Calavingian's new campaign thread a read. It is my sincere hope that he has been adequately inspired from the wonderful accounts of brutality found throughout this thread, and will then proceed to mercilessly butcher his Player's Characters twenty-ways-to-Sunday for months or years to come. They'll forever appreciate you for it. Mine do:)

Although it might not be clear from the text, (and I probably should have emphasised it more), one character, Ruz, has already burned an action point to prevent himself from bleeding to death due to a nasty wound. A good start if you ask me. But I`m already starting to think that 5 Action Points is way too much at first level. Especially if the PCs decide to horde them for when they need to be stabalised :(

I stumbled upon this thread and must say it warms my heart to see others believe as I do when running adventures. I always have found both as a player and DM that most of the fun comes from the feeling of death lurking around any corner and behind every door. It is simply not exciting to know the party will always win the day whether one uses amazing tatics, or merely kicks in the door and smash face. I look forward to the next post of mayhem and massacre.

I always have found both as a player and DM that most of the fun comes from the feeling of death lurking around any corner and behind every door.

Which is exactly why I am so dismayed by the nature of Eberron and its action point system. Okay, it DOES encourage heroic, pulp-action style play, but I feel it loses something in the way of impending danger. However, given the fact that the characters start with 5 of those damn action points at first level, I am thinking that I can afford to take off those kid-gloves I put on the other night and start getting a little bit more brutal.

Although that being said, the final encounter for the evenings seven first level character was about EL 7, so if they had chosen to be stupid and put up a fight rather than negotiate, I`d have mulched them regardless. I only need one of them to survive in order to continue the campaign, after all.

I stumbled upon this thread and must say it warms my heart to see others believe as I do when running adventures. I always have found both as a player and DM that most of the fun comes from the feeling of death lurking around any corner and behind every door. It is simply not exciting to know the party will always win the day whether one uses amazing tatics, or merely kicks in the door and smash face. I look forward to the next post of mayhem and massacre.

Calvingian, rest assured. With most players, it is only a matter of time before their luck runs out and even the best players get crushed. And then at that point, all bets are off. Just have one character repeatedly raised and you then have open season on all their carcases, repeatedly.
I'm NOT a fan of Eberron, but I will keep an eye on your thread, and I'm laying odds that by 7th or 8th level, it turns into a bloodbath.

James Glaw wrote:

I always have found both as a player and DM that most of the fun comes from the feeling of death lurking around any corner and behind every door.

I could not agree more, which is exactly why in my own home-brewed campaign world, the characters lack the safety net of raise dead and ressurection magic.

Carry on!

Oh, it should indeed become a blood-bath around then. Thats when the characters get to take part in their first actual pitched battle!

And indeed, Fatespinner, I like the Iron Kingdoms setting as well, but many of my players hate the idea of guns in their game almost as much as they hate the idea that bronze spears are still the weapon of choice for most sensible warriors in my own game-world.

Oh, it should indeed become a blood-bath around then. Thats when the characters get to take part in their first actual pitched battle!

And indeed, Fatespinner, I like the Iron Kingdoms setting as well, but many of my players hate the idea of guns in their game almost as much as they hate the idea that bronze spears are still the weapon of choice for most sensible warriors in my own game-world.

Of course, to put a needle in thier craw, you could certainly instigate that the special materials in your game world are bronze derivatives or are otherwise alloyed with bronze in some form or fashion. Or even better, that magical bronze is dubbed orichalcum (or some other ancient pseudo-alchemical name), thus being sought after above all others.

A method of demonstrating how devastating shield-and-spear can be - outside of the "300" movie - is with some careful selections of feats. Perhaps your legion of koboldish doom can provide that demonstration ?

There is a reason a Quiver of Elhonna can hold half a dozen spears ... you can throw five of them, then ready the 6th (and most powerful) for dispatching charging foes. Tack that on to the dozen, dozen-and-a-half javelins and five dozen arrows that same item can hold, you suddenly have a very capable warrior. Plus of course a good old-fashioned implement of dismemberment and coup-de-gras...

James Glaw wrote:

I always have found both as a player and DM that most of the fun comes from the feeling of death lurking around any corner and behind every door.

I could not agree more, which is exactly why in my own home-brewed campaign world, the characters lack the safety net of raise dead and ressurection magic. I find it encourages more tactical play and roleplaying rather than the "kick the door down" mentaltiy. As an added bonus EVERY combat, even the minor random ones, becomes all the more exciting with the knowledge that, in this game world, there are no second-chances.

Which is exactly why I am so dismayed by the nature of Eberron and its action point system. Okay, it DOES encourage heroic, pulp-action style play, but I feel it loses something in the way of impending danger. However, given the fact that the characters start with 5 of those damn action points at first level, I am thinking that I can afford to take off those kid-gloves I put on the other night and start getting a little bit more brutal.

Although that being said, the final encounter for the evenings seven first level character was about EL 7, so if they had chosen to be stupid and put up a fight rather than negotiate, I`d have mulched them regardless. I only need one of them to survive in order to continue the campaign, after all.

I do not allow Action Points in the current AoW campaign, nor have I ever allowed them as a GM. The bad guys don't get them either. I have even refused to use them as a player under other GM's who do allow them.
I would be getting robbed of far too many PC kills with Action Points in play. A word to all would-be Killer GM's, HOLD FIRM, don't allow the Action Points!