Sure most Dm’s play fair,
Most never pull punches unless absolutely necessary,
And some even cast the dice and let them fall where they will….
Some DM’s occasionally allow the gloves come off,
Most DM’s play their NPC’s as challenging as their stats allow,
And some DM’s spread their reputation as a Total Party Killer…..
But all DM’s at some time have been down right evil towards the PC’s
Nasty, filthy evil with great big fangs and smelly eldritch warts!
Yes! You know who you are.
Come on fess up and spill the beans….You know you want to…
Tell us about the time you were really evil towards your unsuspecting players.
I had such a moment last night in the Three Faces of Evil. The party carefully approached the chamber with the waiting skeletons in the Hextorite temple. The players didn’t use the knock code to open the door and so the skeletons had a free surprise round. The scout in the party who was considered a front line fighter steamed into the room on his own, the other party members retreated back down the corridor 5ft, Why? Who knows? I took advantage
So the skeletons got a surprise round they move to surround the lone scout while one went to alert the six waiting cultists and one went to alert the two tieflings.
The evil part
The skeletons attacked but one of them had a really evil purpose to fullfill, it shut the door, locked it and left the key in the lock effectively cutting off the scout from the rest of the party.
More evil
The rest of the party had to spend the next few rounds trying to break the door down, when they finaly got the door down their friend was still alive, barely, however the cultists and tieflings were now joining the frey with one of the cultists untying the padlocked door to unleash the beast, (a Dire Lion in my campaign),
And still more evil
The teiflings then cast darkness on the whole melee, chaos ensued as I removed the minis onto a hidden board so that the players were playing blind. The players really feared for their PC’s lives last knight and we almost had a TPK! Awesome.
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I repent not at all.
Two of my players are husband and wife. In AOW, the wife was a chaotic neutral barbarian/fighter. The husband was a cleric of Heironeous. During the fight with Kullen and gang in the Diamond Lake bar, the barbarian got torqued over Kullen's belittling her (and making passes at her), and she slaughtered several of Kullen's band - two of whom had already surrendered. The cleric just went on like nothing untoward had happened.
So during the three faces of evil, I started inflicting the cleric with headaches (read negatives) whenever he cast spells. This was my way of communicating to the player that his character's conscience was having a hard time with something. By the end of the adventure, these were debilitating, to the point where he was no longer able to sleep long enough to get spells back.
The cleric character went to the chapel at the fort to find out what was wrong with him. The lead cleric there meditated and prayed on the matter, then got back to him with the truth. Some action or inaction on his part stood between him and his deity. He had acted in an unchivalrous way. He needed to deliver the perpetrator to justice before he could consider himself atoned.
That was probably my most evil act as a DM. You want your class abilities back? Turn your wife's character over to the authorities to stand trial for murder.
In the interest of harmony in the home, the cleric renounced his ties to Heironeous and adventured as a fallen cleric for a short time. Eventually I cooked up a deity that lined up better with his morality and the morality of the party.
And still more evil
The teiflings then cast darkness on the whole melee, chaos ensued as I removed the minis onto a hidden board so that the players were playing blind. The players really feared for their PC’s lives...
Before I go into my own darkness, I thought I'd point out one thing. In 3.5 the darkness spell doesn't make thing completely dark. In fact, it creates shadowy illumination. It is just enough for a creature to hide in, but doesn't completely obscure vision.
On second thought, I don't think I'm as evil as you. Last night I did work out tactics for Strahd and replaced some of his spells in Expedition to Castle Ravenloft. I made it so that not only would he hose the party, but it was nigh impossible for them to escape. However I didn't give any tactical ability to mindless undead. That's just mean.
I gave Kyuss an extra 20 levels and 4 more divine ranks.
...and I'd do it again...
I gave Kyuss an extra 20 levels and 4 more divine ranks.
...and I'd do it again...
Awesome. I'm just going to give him Unholy Toughness--a stretch of Unholy Toughness, I know--to boost his hit points up to 1140, and running him as statted. Sounds lazy, I know, but I'm prepping for STAP, so my time is already mega-crunched.
Unfortunately, I've been a pretty benevolent DM, and am regretting it a bit. The most wicked thing I've done was give the three spawns of kyuss in Blackwall Keep's basement an eerie, horror movie-esque element of surprise. Never having faced one before--only seeing the green worms bursting from a poor lizardfolk--they were nervous as they proceeded into the basement. Even under the effects of hide from undead, the spawn, who the two present ones failed their saves, still emitted their fear aura, which panicked two of the three characters, thus alerting the spawn.
The wizard waited at the stairwell, to keep any from escaping, clutching a wand of magic missile amidst screams of his allies. Just as he was about to descend into the room to help, one rounded the bend. Two of the four managed to become infected, though they recovered before the intelligence drain finished them off. One of my favorite fear-inducing encounters.
Instead of giving characters experience for viewing visions in The Spire of Long Shadows, I instead converted that experience into a "bank" of extra Kyuss minions which I added to every encounter within that module. Battling past the top level of Kyuss monsters took four sessions of tactical strikes, and several party deaths.
Before I go into my own darkness, I thought I'd point out one thing. In 3.5 the darkness spell doesn't make thing completely dark. In fact, it creates shadowy illumination. It is just enough for a creature to hide in, but doesn't completely obscure vision.
Yeah i know, thats what makes it evil.
i had done my prep work really well on the tieflings and the darkness spell, i compared 3.5 to 3rd ed and as i had suspected it had changed somewhat. i even read the dragon article on darkness in #322.So when darkness was cast i did described it as magical shadowy darkness, but i wanted a show stopper, a gimick, you know a dm prop, and moving to a hidden board was the answer. i wanted them to experience something fearful about being in the dark. it really did do the trick. i still followed the rules and gave a 20% miss chance and allowed the characters to attack anything that moved passed them or near them for example but it was all roleplayed blind ...or with the players in the dark as you might say
So while the darkness wasn't really pitch black i figured that as one of the characters has the murkey eyed flaw, and the others were suffering from the effects of Taint....(yes i added Taint too...all of the dead people will rise as zombies in 1d4 hours,)and given that it is the eve of the festival of blood, i figured that these shadows were perhaps more shadowy than usual....see im evil
ps my skeletons were mindless, however they do like to keep the door shut and locked it makes for good housekeeping.
In the Apostle Caves, I let the deathtraps affect as many PCs as possible, because hitting one person in Windwalk form with a Targeted Dispel and Finger of Death just isn't as fun as doing it to everyone. I also dimensionally locked Dragotha's phylactery so they had to fight it out with Brazzemal. Finally, I gave Kyuss an undispellable Righteous Might since he had to be Colossal. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHKUdfbi2-Q]
My group was breezing along and not being challenged, so in Library of Last Reort I changed the octopus tree so that it was not only immune to acid, but healed by it, knowing that one of the sorcerer's favorite spells was a maximized acid orb. It was very fun to see the expression on their faces when a spell they thought would do over a hundred points of damage actually healed the same amount. Now I need to find a counter to their new favorite spell - evasculate (both are from the Spell Compendium), which is a killer against high hit point monsters. Any ideas would be welcome.
So when darkness was cast i did described it as magical shadowy darkness, but i wanted a show stopper, a gimick, you know a dm prop, and moving to a hidden board was the answer. i wanted them to experience something fearful about being in the dark. it really did do the trick. i still followed the rules and gave a 20% miss chance and allowed the characters to attack anything that moved passed them or near them for example but it was all roleplayed blind ...or with the players in the dark as you might say
So while the darkness wasn't really pitch black i figured that as one of the characters has the murkey eyed flaw, and the others were suffering from the effects of Taint....(yes i added Taint too...all of the dead people will rise as zombies in 1d4 hours,)and given that it is the eve of the festival of blood, i figured that these shadows were perhaps more shadowy than usual....see im evilps my skeletons were mindless, however they do like to keep the door shut and locked it makes for good housekeeping.
Reading this gave me a warm fuzzy feeling all over.
Before running Ravenloft I photocopied huge sections of Heroes of Horror so that the players would all have easy access to spells, feats, and items to help with taint. I think those copies were never read because by the time the tpk happened, half the party had moderate taint.
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Even though this was a mistake(I wish I could take full credit), it turned out to be pretty evil. In Spire of Long Shadows I tossed the overworm at the party, just after they defeated Kelvos and crew. They ended up fighting the three swords of Kyuss and the overworm(instead of the wormcaller, big mistake on my part!). The overworm ate the wizard and the fighter. The invocations of the worm put the remaining pc's in to the negatives a few times before they could defeat all of those minions of Kyuss. This was a big mistake, but it was one of our most memorable fights of the campaign so far. Maybe I should plan something evil now so I can officially post in this thread :) *Just including the spire in the AP is evil by any DM's standards
I actually did deliver a TPK in 3FoE. But I do not repent of it. That kind of stuff happens in D&D and it was a great session.
I actually did deliver a TPK in 3FoE. But I do not repent of it. That kind of stuff happens in D&D and it was a great session.
I'm not surprised. I expected to get a TPK in that one, too. IMO, it's the most challenging dungeon in the AP for it's level.
In the Champions Belt, I got my party to finish the ritual. :)
To bad they couldn't stop the Apostle before it ate a bodyguard.
Mine almost did the same thing without any prodding from me. They hated Auric so much that they toyed with the idea of Dimension Hopping him straight at the ulgurstasta or bull rushing him at the thing when it broke through the ground. Only the fact that they didn't know what it was or if they could take it stopped them. (Thank the gods for obscure FF monsters that the players don't have memorized)
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My party was overwhelmed in the courtyard of 3FoE by Theldrick and company. Should have been a TPK, but Theldrick being a scheming sort had them tortured near the pool, as two of the party were slowly lowered into the black chilling ooze. One of the players, brand new to the game, was tracking the group, disguised as a cultist and was too scared to act. So the party was reduced by two characters who were fed to the Ebon Aspect, and another party memeber was given a permanent limp from the torture session. They were then all left to be fed to the grimlocks in the caves, yet Theldrick made sure they were conveniently healed and left climbing gear. (He used the party to wipe out his competition.)They still talk about that....and shudder.
The tieflings in 3FoE worked together with the kenku. The tieflings blacked out the maze and the kenku seperated the party by imitating their cries for distress. The party rogue felt something slam into him in the dark so he stabbed it a few times. The darkness lifts and he has filleted the bound and gagged fighter. The last surviving character, a lizardfolk druid, runs to the elevator and is met by the faceless one, theldrick and their minions. The two cultists flip a coin to see which gets to sacrifice him. Faceless wins and chops off his hand and plucks his eye for Vecna. Theldrick then cuts out his heart and tosses the corpse down the elevator shaft.
TPK
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I'm getting ready to start a SCAP with AoW. Vhalantru, the Cagewrights and the Ebon Triad, all together -- and that's just what I can say over the boards so my players don't get too much info. It's taken some creative connections (remember Kazmojen -- the Dwarf/Troll slave trader from the Underdark?... I'll let your creative juices flow on the possibilities of these BBEGs combining their resourses from the beginning. Kyuss is coming!
-W. E. Ray
Last night, my players encountered Telakin in the Hall of Harsh Reflection. The party was greatly hampered by the traps and the use of confusion and slow spells upon them. I then divided the room with a wall of fire. This isolated the party warmage and Telakin on one side, and the party warmage stepped out into the maze for cover. I moved Telakin over toward him, and as he was flexing for a big arcane showdown, I reached over and shut and locked the door...
In my eberron version of the AOW's, we are playing through the encounter at blackwall keep. I've allowed the Faceless One (a changeling) to live, and he has taken the form of Marzena (who the PC's don't know is already dead.) Marzena/faceless one meet with the PC's before they arrived at the lizard folk lair, claiming to have escaped with some of her gear. She has given each of the group a ring of protection and potions of cure moderate wounds and asked them to go rescue the other soldiers and destroy the dragon egg inside (releasing the worms). Of course the rings are really slave rings with the faceless one haveing the master ring, and the potions contain slow worms. And they still don't know marzena is the Faceless One. I havn't yet decided when to spring it on them, I'm thinking about the time they arrive in the Lizard Kings lair, they can see the real Marzena already dead and part of an ongoing feast.
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My first confession: I have fully integrated the Taint rules from Heroes of Horror into my Age of Worms campaign. This has made encounters with evil things much more entertaining. My players have become very concerned about their Depravity and Corrupion scores.
Second Confession: I re-designed Filge as a Dread Necromancer. It made the encounter with him in the Observatory a lot more challenging.
Third Confession: I made Gralak Kur a bard with the Tainted Raver template. This made him fit the Prophet concept a little better and made him scarier, in terms of abilities that could freak out the party.
Fourth Confession: I gave The Faceless One a level of Tainted Scholar, with the Debilitating Spell feat.
Fifth confession: I lined the Maze of Vecna with Blood Rock, also from HoH.
Sixth Confession: I replaced the Ebon Aspect with a large Taint Elemental.
Seventh Confession: Balabar Smenk has become something more than what he was. He is currently stalking the party and making their lives uncomfortable whenever they think they are safe. I won't tell exactly what he is until the party finally deals with him, since I know some of my players check this forum from time to time.