One of my poor players got knocked out in a fight against a nasty Orcus cleric, the round after the cleric kicked his unconscious body into a blade barrier.
I think this is my favorite. I can just imagine the faint hope that maybe, just maybe, there is some mercy. then, not even a coup de gras, but kicked like some garbage into a blender.
great visual, bravo.
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On the topic of Cursed Items:
I had a rogue come across a skeleton in a dungeon which had a black ring on one of it's hands. Upon pocketing the ring (so the party wouldn't see it) the skeleton crumbled into dust.
Said rogue decided to try it out immediately and was shocked when the ring started to talk to him! The ring introduced itself and informed the character that it would heal him and would cast necromantic spells for him in return for the pain the PC would inflict upon others.
The ring then warned the rogue never to remove it. "It would be a bad thing to do."
Slowly over the next few sessions the rogue, who was having a ball with his new ring, was noticed by the other players as not having much appetite and becoming unhealthily thin and pale. When the other characters finally made the connection to the new ring they tried to talk him in to removing it. He refused, of course, so they jumped him in the hopes of saving him from himself. The rogue fought for all he was worth and the other players eventually had to cut the finger off to separate the two.
The party leaped back in shocked horror as the rogue crumbled into dust... all of his HP had been converted into charges.
Now THAT'S a cursed item!
just came across a similar thread in the gamer life section:
the title sounds promising, and there are some good ideas for taking down powergaming players.
On the topic of Cursed Items:
I had a rogue come across a skeleton in a dungeon which had a black ring on one of it's hands. Upon pocketing the ring (so the party wouldn't see it) the skeleton crumbled into dust.
Said rogue decided to try it out immediately and was shocked when the ring started to talk to him! The ring introduced itself and informed the character that it would heal him and would cast necromantic spells for him in return for the pain the PC would inflict upon others.
The ring then warned the rogue never to remove it. "It would be a bad thing to do."
Slowly over the next few sessions the rogue, who was having a ball with his new ring, was noticed by the other players as not having much appetite and becoming unhealthily thin and pale. When the other characters finally made the connection to the new ring they tried to talk him in to removing it. He refused, of course, so they jumped him in the hopes of saving him from himself. The rogue fought for all he was worth and the other players eventually had to cut the finger off to separate the two.
The party leaped back in shocked horror as the rogue crumbled into dust... all of his HP had been converted into charges.
Brilliant, you don't mind if I barrow this one do you?
by all means... please do!
:D
Well lets see, I am not sure if I am actually cruel to my players but often I mess with them a lot.
Recently had a Wizard use a Sandstorm to DOT some Dinos that were attacking the part. After the fight a ground chipmunk ran up his robes, yelled at him, and then bit him on the nose. Later, the same chipmunk gathered a small army of his fellows and enlisted the aid of a powerful Fairydragon who used a bigsby hand spell to catapult all the chipmunks onto the wizard who was under a persistent fly spell. I had treated them as a swarm and they hit him hard for a lot of damage.
Later on he was asking my Artificer to create a Dreamquest potion. I told him that he needed the blood of his enemies. Guess where they got the blood from?
I also gave this same wizard a Cursed singing sword that basically acts as the group sound track.
I once put a fighter in cursed armor that he couldn't take off. The armor had some cool powers of being full plate but no armor restrictions plus it allowed him to spiderclimb. The curse however was that he could not remove the armor and it cause it to sweat abnormally so he had to drink twice as much armor, to make matters worse the smell from all that sweating cause a stinking could effect of 5 feet radius around his body.
Had a player play a Paladin of Tyr and in a epic fight he slew the material form of Asomedus but before his spirit went back to hell he cut of the Paladin's hand along with the sword, for a souvenir. The player got right uppity about that one until I told him to take a closer look at his God, who also had a hand missing. He got the sword back and eventually a gnomish clockwork hand.
Once I had a the main bad guy rape the NPC girl friend of a Monk that was in the party.
This is also just the stuff that I can remember at the moment.
The best thing I did in this catagory was give them some "bad" magic items.
The first was a cloak and they had it identified and everything. They were told "It will make you feel safe". sure enough, one of them puts it on and feels very safe with it on. Not "invincible", just safe. That character never really took it off after that. He wasn't compelled by any means, he just felt "safe".
The best was a ring that was identified as a ring that will hurt you. So our genius fighter puts it on. Sure enough, he starts taking 1d6 damage a round and cannot remove it until someone finally decides to cut his finger off.
I still catch flack over that adventure but it was more than worth it, even though I cant remember any of the other bad magic items that were handed out.
I've never been deliberately cruel to my players but I already killed one of them off twice by accidents. Both times the same player was playing a monk, both times said monks got propelled from positive hit points right to complete death by critical hits.
I do plan to deal out some cursed items later through our current campaign ^^
Fantasy Hero campaign
PCs uncover a small camp of goblins. Most of the party decides it is best to just skirt around them. The dwarf decides to attack. The PCs easily handle the goblins. Then, as most of the party are about to move on, the dwarf decides he needs to loot all of the goblins. Now, it has been made pretty obvious the goblins had absolutely nothing of value. Even their weapons were of poor quality.So I let the dwarf find a ruby on one of the goblins, which, he promptly hides from the rest of the party. Later, when he has a chance to inspect it more closely, it is nothing more than a glass bauble, but the dwarf is now female. There is laughter and mumbling. I had every intention of letting the effect wear off after a day. However, the party stumbles across another group of goblins. Dwarf attacks. Party kills the goblins. Dwarf loots…again.
I tell him he finds a ruby on one of the goblins and he takes it.
Bauble of Sex Change is now a permanent affect.
Maybe he was hoping for the second bauble to change his sex again, so he would go from female back to male.
In the last game before a college session ended, a trapped pseudo-demi-god-wannabe granted each party member a wish...all cursed, as per his reputation. Think Aunt Clara from Bewitched. I passed the wishes to other GMs in the area with serial numbers filed off. I can't remember all the details, but one player had his wish routed through the Philosophy Dept. He managed to get himself the only inhabitant of an alternate dimension that he couldn't exist in. *Poof*
granted each party member a wish...all cursed
ooh, nice one. Sabotaging wishes is pretty much the highest form of GM cruelty IMHO. In one fell swoop, the GM can tease the player and royally screw them over, and the best part is that they inherently deserve it for wishing (and therefore being greedy and tempting fate) in the first place, so they can't really blame you.
I remember a PC drafting a very careful wish for a fortress which was basically impregnable and very well provisioned, to the point where it was self sufficient. The PC wrote the whole thing out and it was several pages long. The DM looks it over and says very well, your wish has been granted. So the PC goes to claim his prize, only to find out that it was completely overrun with an orc horde. not the cruelest ever, but just painful enough to have the PC kicking himself over and over again during the next dozen or so sessions of yet another orc encounter.
no one has brought up saddling the PCs with a "chronic" NPC yet.
it seems like this is virtually always cruel.
either the NPC is effective and the PCs are irritated that their job is being done for them, or they are useless and the party is irritated that they have to share XPs or, worse yet, have to spend all of their resources healing them, rescuing them, etc.
I'm running a solo game for another player who falls down a pit. 3d6 damage later he thinks about climbing out. Then the ghost appears, posesses him, chews off the PCs thumbs and departs. The ghost sits there having giggle fits as he trys to climb with no thumbs or trys to tie a knot...
granted each party member a wish...all cursedooh, nice one. Sabotaging wishes is pretty much the highest form of GM cruelty IMHO. In one fell swoop, the GM can tease the player and royally screw them over, and the best part is that they inherently deserve it for wishing (and therefore being greedy and tempting fate) in the first place, so they can't really blame you.
I remember a PC drafting a very careful wish for a fortress which was basically impregnable and very well provisioned, to the point where it was self sufficient. The PC wrote the whole thing out and it was several pages long. The DM looks it over and says very well, your wish has been granted. So the PC goes to claim his prize, only to find out that it was completely overrun with an orc horde. not the cruelest ever, but just painful enough to have the PC kicking himself over and over again during the next dozen or so sessions of yet another orc encounter.
no one has brought up saddling the PCs with a "chronic" NPC yet.
it seems like this is virtually always cruel.
either the NPC is effective and the PCs are irritated that their job is being done for them, or they are useless and the party is irritated that they have to share XPs or, worse yet, have to spend all of their resources healing them, rescuing them, etc.
Weren't wish spells only suppose to be 25 words or less?
In any case, with wish spells I don't have to sabotage wish spells because the PCs do that for me.
Player: I wish I was the Ruler of this Country!!!
DM: Granted, you have now been transformed into a 12 inch ruler and you are sitting on the King's Desk.
I remembered a few more gems.
At one time my players had unearthed a brutally powerful spell book of some sort, cant really remember the specifics. Anyway off they go to find the richest mage they can find. Long story short, eventually they find a rich mage, not only rich but powerful, they make a deal, he gets the book and they get gear they can use, and this guy has a lot of stuf,f magic swords with pluses coming out of there a**.... so to speak, and the mage is being generous giving them a great deal :)
The next night the mage and his associates use empowered mass sleep and stuff like that on the players camp, and when they are all sleeping nicely, go in and steal back all there new toys..... I was not a popular GM that week.
I had all my players huddling on the ground like scared children when a massive thunderstorm roll in over them.......and to there great sorrow they where the highest point for miles around, that is until they got on the ground, then there horses got the worst of it.
I have drowned players that insisted on crossing rivers in full plate armour, grappling Scrags are your friend in that instance.
That is it for now......but looking back on the evil I have created in the past, makes me thing that I have gone a bit soft lately, high time to change that :)
Weren't wish spells only suppose to be 25 words or less?
again, AD&D anecdote.
I don't actually have the rulebooks anymore to check the old rules, but I don't think that there was a limit on wording back then.either that or it was a house rule, I don't remember it was sooo long ago.
In either case, I like the story because it is just cruel enough to be memorable and amusing without completely destroying the PC or preventing anyone from making wishes, which are a lot of fun IMHO.
Oh in a few hours my group will be facing off against 3 Will-O-Wisp and 1 shambling mound. The Wisps will continue to buff the shambler with their shock attack while the shambler beats on the PCs. Hmmm lets see each electric attack increases the Con of the Shambler 1d4 so each round it gains 3 to 12 points in Con.
Then the ghost appears, posesses him, chews off the PCs thumbs and departs. The ghost sits there having giggle fits as he trys to climb with no thumbs or trys to tie a knot...
both cruel and unusual.
nice work!
@ItoSaithWebb: I like the Will-O-Wisp idea better than the usual shocker lizards, much harder to take out (even sleep will drop the lizards more often than not)! those things are nasty for mid level parties even without the shambler.
Weren't wish spells only suppose to be 25 words or less?
again, AD&D anecdote.
I don't actually have the rulebooks anymore to check the old rules, but I don't think that there was a limit on wording back then.
either that or it was a house rule, I don't remember it was sooo long ago.In either case, I like the story because it is just cruel enough to be memorable and amusing without completely destroying the PC or preventing anyone from making wishes, which are a lot of fun IMHO.
You know you are correct there wasn't anything in there about 25 words or less. I think it was something I might have picked up either as a house rule or a tip I saw in a Dragon magazine.
Then the ghost appears, posesses him, chews off the PCs thumbs and departs. The ghost sits there having giggle fits as he trys to climb with no thumbs or trys to tie a knot...both cruel and unusual.
nice work!
@ItoSaithWebb: I like the Will-O-Wisp idea better than the usual shocker lizards, much harder to take out (even sleep will drop the lizards more often than not)! those things are nasty for mid level parties even without the shambler.
Thanks. a chap on RPG.net said that the evil rate-o-meter measured me a little higher than the offspring of Cruella De Vil and Sauron, but I am trying to get up to Dogbert genius evil.
However, I won't do evil just for evil sake because it has to make sense for the story. Take will-o-wisps and shamblers, they both live in swamps or bogs, the shamblers are just hungry and feed on flesh and the wisps feed on fear which is generated nicely when the foe seems unstoppable.
I can sum it up in one word that still strikes a nerve with my players... Jarnoth
The campaign started normal enough... standard fare really. Goblin raids on a town resulted in a NPC Mage getting killed. the party investigated and were eventually able to determine the town woodsman (Ranger) had done the deed and framed a small tribe for it. the confrontation took place outside of town and went kinda like this:
Ranger hears them coming and ambushes from up in a tree with Entangle. All of the PCs fail the save, then arrows rain down from the trees.
They eventually win the combat, but can't take him alive.
They find a note on the body referring to a army massing and signed "J"
At this point they hear rumors that the queen of the realm has been kidnapped (or ran away with) her paladin protector. This was just story line fluff at this point.
The party goes to investigate the army mentioned in the note and eventually find it. a PC wizard is brave and uses some kind of shape change to get in and learn the army will be moving on the town tomorrow, and is able to poison the ale of an Ogre on the way out. The town follows the wizard's advice and sets up fortifications in the town square and braces for the attack. The next morning the army rides right into town lead by an Ogre Magi who after looking around a bit and finding the hard core of resistance at the town square... orders the outlying structures sacked and burned.
The wizard, dumbstruck with angry town folk glaring at him, states "I'm not a tactician, I'm a wizard!"
They have to break cover to save what they can of the town and eventually fight the Ogre Magi who with flight is able to stay out of range and rain pool cue sized arrows down upon them. (party is hating arrows at this point). They eventually defeat the Ogre Magi and find instructions on him to meet up with the rest of the army and prepare to attack the capital... signed "Jarnoth"
The party takes the warning to the king who begins ramping up defenses, and tasks them to retrieve his wife from the blackguard that took her. the Kings investigators have tracked them to an island so the party goes out to confront the Blackguard at the entrance of a cave. The Blackguard open dismisses any love for the queen saying that he kidnapped her for his true love, and even if they make it past him there is no way they will save her. Large fight ensues and Blackguard dies, saying that "Jarnoth will make you pay."
The party enters the cave and descends a tall spiral stair into a huge cavern filled with water... the stairs carved into a stalactite which ends on a small island. there is a 5' wide stone bridge barely under the surface of the water leading 20' across to another island where the queen's hand can be seen waving frantically from under a stone covered pit. Glimmering at the bottom of the lake is a horde of gold and items, and one PC spots a break in the surface of the water rippling in a serpentine motion. At this point everyone is thinking DRAGON! So when the 4 Alligators attack they are caught off guard... one PC in heavy armor is dragged off the island and begins to sink like a stone. I allow him to be saved, but not before he spots a HUGE form swimming underwater... Much bigger than the gators.
Their adrenaline still pumping from the gator fight they decide to risk the bridge and make it 1/2 way before Jarnoth's (an old Black Dragon) head breaks the surface on the opposite side of the island and breaths a line of acid directly down the bridge hitting every PC before sinking back into the water. I explain that if they want a reflex save they are off the bridge and swimming. (Every one declines the roll.) They rush across roll the boulder away and grab the queen. on the way back across the bridge Jarnoth leaps over the bridge and splashes down on the other side. The splash makes the party make a reflex save to avoid being swept off the bridge. They make it back to the stairs and begin the long climb battered, burned, half-drowned, and scared to death. Jarnoth surges out of the water to stop them from escaping. The party's ranger has a cracked idea and makes a called shot at the dragon's eye. Jarnoth roars loudly and drops back into the water apparently injured.
As the party heads back to the capitol they keep eying the skies for shadowy forms. They pass the devastation of war where the humans have completely decimated the foe... it was a slaughter. They are lead directly to the throne room and to the king with the rescued queen.
The queen, upon getting close to the king unleashes with a Cone of Cold and drops the disguise.
The PCs defeated the assassin and managed to revive the king who was on deaths door, but to this day wonder what other plans Jarnoth might already have in motion.
My first campaign as a 3.0 GM after avoiding D&D throughout the horrible 2.0 years...
My party (10 characters) encounter thier first Beholder...
I hand;t GM'd a Beholder in 10+ years and reallly didnt reallise how ill-equipped the party was to handle this.
Only one person had a missile weapon.
First Wizard gets disintegrated on Rd 1. Second Wizard gets Hold Monstered. Then used as a TK-budgeoning weapon to hit the other players.
Nothing funnier than watching one player being beaten to death by the unconcious body of his best friend.
Beholder stayed 25' off the ground.
Most of the party just ran around wating for their chance to die.
Ended up with tpk AND one character was disintegrated while holding the magic seal the players had to prevent from being destroyed...
One of the players figured out that the last party member died while the beholder had less than 10 hp left....
They almost won, but instead, everyone died (character death was a first for ost of them) and with no survivors, there was no one to ressurect them....
And the seall was broken and the great evil was free to enter the world (at least I had the theme for the next campaign arc...)
You know, even after the second campaign was over, that beholder is stil around, sitting on a huge pile of money and magic...
And don't forget a classic - monters with PC levels.
Those are just Kobolds... last words before encountering a Kobold ranger crossbow squad.
And don't forget a classic - monters with PC levels.
Those are just Kobolds... last words before encountering a Kobold ranger crossbow squad.
or pun pun ;-)
@gigglestick, nice touch with the wizard clubbing. effective and insulting!
And don't forget a classic - monters with PC levels.
Those are just Kobolds... last words before encountering a Kobold ranger crossbow squad.
Great wyrm, paragon, white dragonspawn, half troll, vampire lord, fiendish, dragonwrought, advanced, kobold fire elemental bloodline sorcerers (is any part of this the famed combo?) who have taken the draconic rite of passage and stacked epic toughness repeatedly.
dms can stack all the feats and templates they wish, even in illegal combinations, players however are not entitled to these goodies without costs that make the above combo unusable. DM Fiat Rules.
except when you are a powergamer, munchkin, or rules lawyer?
I remember a particularly memorable campaign, during which the party's Cleric (asides from charging the rest of the group silver every time he had to heal them) became obsessed with turning the Druid insane. The Druid was specially attached to the animals he brought to help (as any druid would), so the Cleric saw a soft spot there. Four times he managed to turn the events in such a way that the Druid's animals (both summoned and animal companion) got horribly killed. Though I didn't fix the events in his favour, I found it so hilarious that I allowed him to proceed:
1.- The party was trapped inside a pirate lord's fortress. At a certain point, they find an axe-throwing iron golem protecting the pirate's hoard. After numerous attempts, one of the players said that he was sure the golem had to be out of axes; of course, no one dared to approach and prove it. So the Cleric told the Druid -who also had a particular emnity toward constructs- that he could send his animal companion running toward the golem, after which he would immediately cast Sanctuary and make him immune to the axes, just to see how would the golem react. The Druid sent his companion (a war dog). The golem reacted. The axe flew. The Cleric did not cast Sanctuary. The DM rolls a critical hit. The dog gets split in half. Apparently, the Cleric had "received word from his god that he could not use his magic on animal, due to dog-ma (yes, the pun was intended by him. Salt on the wound)".
2.- Several sessions later, the party entered an ancient mausoleum, looking for an object allegedly entombed within. After entering, the heavy iron doors close shut, and they notice the roof is lined with blue-glass windows, so the moonlight going through bathes the interior in the same bluish tone, making it very hard to notice the markings and colours on the floor. They find out that some of the tiles blow up in flames when stepping on them, so they start checking them one by one. Tired by the party taking so long, the Cleric asks me if he can spend a higher-level spell slot to use Create Food and Water and produce a piece of succulent, finely cooked veal. I say yes -unaware of what was coming-, and then he waves the piece of meat in front of the Druid's dog animal companion, asking me if the dog seems affected. I think it seems reasonable, so I allow a Will roll for the dog, which he fails. The Cleric then proceeds to throw the veal to the other end of the mausoleum, making the dog run across all the tiles, making half the place blow up in flames and dying horribly in the process. In a fit of madness, the Druid jumps at the Cleric's throat. The Cleric casts Sanctuary. The Druid fails the Will save. Then the Cleric slaps the Druid -who was bitting his nails and babbling; the player had been steering the development of the character more and more toward insanity- and tells him "This was for your own good... somehow".
3.- The previous episode resulted in the mausoleum's floor collapsing, revealing an old, half-flooded tunnel. The party's Warrior, Barbarian, Sorcerer and Rogue decide to climb down and explore, while the Cleric and Druid are left behind to guard the entrance (the Druid was too shocked, and the Cleric didn't want to get wet). After a rather long time, the Cleric begins to worry about the fate of the rest of the group, and somehow he manages to convince the Druid to summon a bat in order to check the tunnel. The bat flies into the tunnel. Then I tell the others (who had been attacked a couple of times by, you guessed it, giant bats) that they hear the same leathery wing flapping, so the Rogue points his arquebuse toward the sound and, just when a bat shows up, fires. The bat dies instantly. The Druid gets the equivalent of a "Mother Nature B+%+@slap". The Cleric laughs.
4.- Much later, the campaign had progressed into wildly different settings, and so the party found itself stranded in the middle of a desert near the edge of the world. The Druid had obtained a tiny treant as a companion, which was dubbed Bonzai Ent by the group. After a terrible battle inside a ruined temple, the climate of the desert suddenly changes to a freezing snowstorm, and the party tries to fight off the cold by starting a fire. But, woes!, it's a desert, so there is nothing to burn here... "Or is there?", asks the Cleric. He says that he can converse with his god for guidance, and wanders off. Taking the chance that the Druid has walked away from the ruins to check on the strange climate change and perform a ritual, the Cleric manages to paralyze Bonzai Ent while no one was looking, tie it up and wrap it in tattered cloth, and puts him inside some pieces of rock, in such a way that it looks like a bunch of branches. So then the Barbarian comes along and goes "Well, seems your god did his work this time", and takes out his flint and tinder. I make the rolls for the treant to wake up, but fails. The Barbarian succeeds starting the fire. The Druid gets a burning mind-warning, but takes too long to run back. When he arrives, the Cleric had already set up a cooking pot over the fire and was preparing a stew.
This long-running thing ended up with the Druid going insane and becoming a Defiler. You can imagine how proud the Cleric was when this happened. Much, much later, the Cleric -who had amassed a tiny group of followers and had built a shrine to his god- got his punishment after one of his followers brought a chest filled with strange crystals and carelessly opened it, just too late to notice it was filled with something emitting Negative Energy. I start telling him how his skin turns paper-like and his hair begins to wither, when the Druid interrupts me and asks "Does his balls fall off?". So I ask the Cleric for a Fortitude roll. He fails. The party sees how a pair of things come rolling out of the Cleric's robe.
I remember a particularly memorable campaign, during which the party's Cleric (asides from charging the rest of the group silver every time he had to heal them) became obsessed with turning the Druid insane. The Druid was specially attached to the animals he brought to help (as any druid would), so the Cleric saw a soft spot there. Four times he managed to turn the events in such a way that the Druid's animals (both summoned and animal companion) got horribly killed. Though I didn't fix the events in his favour, I found it so hilarious that I allowed him to proceed:
[snip]
Im glad you had karma come back to punch him in the face.
Good storyline, not cruel but highly anticlimatic. Although jarnoths tactics are more common amongst Greens then Blacks +1
The Players didn't find it anticlimactic... maybe I should have just kept that example to my self.
The Players didn't find it anticlimactic... maybe I should have just kept that example to my self.
maybe anticlimactic was meant as "taking the wind out of their sails" ?
I thought it was a great, elaborate, deception, myself.
how did they react when they realized that after all that effort they were just rubes?
sad? stupid? mad?
did they even get it or did you have to explain?
@ Klaus van der Kroft - does your cleric ever GM? that is some pretty creative antagonism going on there. good potential.
I remember a particularly memorable campaign, during which the party's Cleric (asides from charging the rest of the group silver every time he had to heal them) became obsessed with turning the Druid insane...
How'd the cleric know the other guys in the party were attacked by bats, or was it just luck? sounds a bit metagamey.
QUOTE="Klaus van der Kroft
I remember a particularly memorable campaign, during which the party's Cleric (asides from charging the rest of the group silver every time he had to heal them) became obsessed with turning the Druid insane. The Druid was specially attached to the animals he brought to help (as any druid would), so the Cleric saw a soft spot there. Four times he managed to turn the events in such a way that the Druid's animals (both summoned and animal companion) got horribly killed. Though I didn't fix the events in his favour, I found it so hilarious that I allowed him to proceed:
1.- The party was trapped inside a pirate lord's fortress. At a certain point, they find an axe-throwing iron golem protecting the pirate's hoard. After numerous attempts, one of the players said that he was sure the golem had to be out of axes; of course, no one dared to approach and prove it. So the Cleric told the Druid -who also had a particular emnity toward constructs- that he could send his animal companion running toward the golem, after which he would immediately cast Sanctuary and make him immune to the axes, just to see how would the golem react. The Druid sent his companion (a war dog). The golem reacted. The axe flew. The Cleric did not cast Sanctuary. The DM rolls a critical hit. The dog gets split in half. Apparently, the Cleric had "received word from his god that he could not use his magic on animal, due to dog-ma (yes, the pun was intended by him. Salt on the wound)".
2.- Several sessions later, the party entered an ancient mausoleum, looking for an object allegedly entombed within. After entering, the heavy iron doors close shut, and they notice the roof is lined with blue-glass windows, so the moonlight going through bathes the interior in the same bluish tone, making it very hard to notice the markings and colours on the floor. They find out that some of the tiles blow up in flames when stepping on them, so they start checking them one by one. Tired by the party taking so long, the Cleric asks me if he can spend a...
That is to funny, I was laughing so hard.
So I just come back from my session with my group today and came to report the results of my evil deed of teaming up a shambler with three will-o-wisps.
One of the Wisps had a few sorcerer levels and actually disguised the the Shambler as a woman with half of her clothes torn off with an illusion spell. They put on a show of the woman running to the cleric at night who was on the sleep watch and fell for the ruse as it looked like the Wisps kept shocking the girl and the shambler played it up. Long story short it took them a while to figure out what exactly was going on but then started to focus on the Wisps. I will have to say at this point is was hard to restrain my smile every time they questioned why the Shambler would not go down. In the end the shambler was at around a total of 387 HP which must have been at least 80 CON from all the shock attacks in addition I ruled that at this point this was also making the shambler grow because of so much Con and the thing eventually gained Huge Status. At one point as it reached huge status it after securing a grapple on the Druid of the party it proceeded to eat him but thanks to a Ape he summoned, wolf companion and a flame blade on his scimitar he freed himself. The party did well however because none of them died and they managed to kill all the Wisps and finally the shambler.
However I would like to mention that this encounter ended up taking 15 rounds (1 1/2 min game time) but in real time the combat took around 3 hours to play out. Everyone was a little tired after that little excitement.
maybe anticlimactic was meant as "taking the wind out of their sails" ?I thought it was a great, elaborate, deception, myself.
how did they react when they realized that after all that effort they were just rubes?sad? stupid? mad?
did they even get it or did you have to explain?
Thanks for that... I figured it might have been from over simplifying the campaign that took a few months down into one post.
I had the Assassin talk as she fought, and let the truth be known. They felt like complete dunces when they realized how completely manipulated the had been.
I hope you didnt misunderstand I meant anticlimactic in the sense just when the players think everything worked out and they saved the day, it is the exact opposite. You did a great job as A DM nothing cruel at all. You created an elaborate plot and executed it perfectly and set up a recurring villain that the PCS will be constantly looking over the shoulders to deal with. After all the mastermind was an old black dragon so no less could be expected. However I have a question didn't your players have access to divination magic to try and get more information on the situation, or at least investigate further to gather clues, or did they blindly rush off? (I would like to play a session a with you)
The PCs had access to divinations, but did not think about it at the time. I played the tempo pretty fast and heavy so there was little downtime and a constant feeling of urgency.
I hope you didnt misunderstand I meant anticlimactic in the sense just when the players think everything worked out and they saved the day, it is the exact opposite.
That's not what the word "anticlimactic" means.
That's called an "unexpected plot twist", in this particular case, bordering on irony. As in, "How ironic, we thought we were saving the queen, but in reality, we were endangering the king."
Again, that's not what Anticlimactic means.
The players in my group(self included) had a habit of creating story-driven magic items. In some cases they were almost characters in their own right, and they weren't even Intelligent. Some of these items had more backstory than the characters themselves.
The DM of my group had a habit of including at least one monster per major story arc which could destroy every magic item with a single attack/trap.
Needless to say, we were pissed.
But we got over it. Of course every time this happens there's a miniature row, but we love our DM(in his wife's case, literally) so we run with it. We still create items with personality, and he still destroys them, and the cycle continues.
P.S. This thread is giving me some sick ideas for my next campaign. }:O
New here but this one got me having to post :)
The 1 (of many) that leaps to mind was a game I ran where the party were caravan guards. They spot vultures circling in the distance and goto investigate. Find guy at first he looks dead then he speaks with his last breath 'help....malik....temple.' they rush in the direction his now cold dead finger points and find a ravaged temple, as they aproach a woman with 2 children run out spot they PC's and scream. The PC's settle the woman and enter the temple with them to find a seriously battered paladin sitting in a throne like chair. he tells them that they were attacked by monsters and they stole his holy sword and left him near death. When the PC's offer aid he informas them he has the aid of his god and he has been told the location of the monsters hideout. PC's go after said sword.
Once inside one of the players just anounces that his PC's has never go to the toilet 'I must be busting'. (He has these revelations at times and they always end the same way) In this case he relieves himself up a pillar while un-known to him 2 critters (cant remember which) are invisably watching him I cant help my self and have 1 cast lightning bolt at him. You cant imajine the other players reaction as I discribe how he trys to make a reflex save with his pants down LOL.
well they get sword and take it back to the paladin, the woman is handed the sword and proceeds to not give it to the paladin but slide it into the armrest of his throne. 'FREE AT LAST' he shouts as the colour drains from the temple and its occupants revealing the paladin and the woman in all their evil greatness and the 2 children to be her construct guardians. They are then told he will show mercy on them as they have freed him and they have 1 hour before he comes for them they run as the ground around the temple erupts with undead. They are then chased in the day by a dragon the see circling over head and by night by nightmare riding deathknights, they use all their healing to keep the horses alive till they reach safety when just as they reach they town gates the horses drop dead (no more cure light wounds) LOL.
This is just the start but that is for another day. All they can say is WTF he asked for help 'malik in the temple needs help' thats what the guy said. No i tell them he said 'help...mailk...temple. meaning 'Help bbeg malik is in that temple.
i got the biggest reward a DM can get in my opition which was them calling me a 'B@st@rd'. Dont you just love players :)
i got the biggest reward a DM can get in my opition which was them calling me a 'B@st@rd'.
amen.
I bet they were back for more...
O'yes that was over 10 years ago and nothings changed I still try to make it intresting and he still comes up with funny out bursts. I'm with the poster earlier my job is not to kill the players that would be too easy, its to make it enjoyable and memorable.
Another i remeber was I think in the 'city of the spider queen' it wasnt me per say, I was just using what the author had written :) Players are in some water based cults lair fighting the cultist (kuatoa I think) when up pops a fiendish giant squid (their god) and proceeds to grab and with improved grab hold all 5 party members. What should a DM do, well on the next round with all the party still help I had it swim down in to the sea as far as it could go as fast as it could go. TPK! no one could hold their breath for long enough to escape the squids grapple let alone swim to the surface. Lucky for me when I said 'what else was I suppose to do' they all agreed it was the best thing and would have felt cheated if I hadnt.
That adventure was full of evil-ness not only from me and the author but the players who at 1 point killed one of their own to stop her being turned into a vampire (that was their first plan, not rescue her).
P.S my wife has told me if I ever suggest running 'city of the spider queen' again she will quit playing and divorce me LOl.
Not greeting I have to work for mine :) If you get it in greeting i bow down to you :)
Givesme something to work towards :)
P.S my wife has told me if I ever suggest running 'city of the spider queen' again she will quit playing and divorce me LOl.
I completely agree that is one nasty adventure. We had a TPK as well, which actually wasn't based on cruelty, just bad judgment on my part (and bad playing, and bad rolling).
I tried to convert it to 3.5 but wasn't too happy with the result.
it is heavily optimized for 3.0 rules so it meant not only "translating" stat blocks but also changing pretty important NPC strategy and so on.
With my fiddling I ended up making it a bit too tough though. the party never made it out of szith morcane (part I of IV or so), and for some reason wanted to play a different campaign for a while. funny, no one has been begging to pick it up since.