Every time my players come up with a solution that I never occurred to me. It happens fairly often.
They actually followed the directions of the little mission handed to them. Bring this person to meet someone. Now I anticipated them killing him and he was ready to kill them, this guy was an unreasonable douche bag. The dice were in their favor... they put my poisoner in a pit and she died! My mage took massive falling damage and was killed before he could get back up and the fighter couldn't hit for anything. And the guy who they were supposed to bring to the meeting was the only one who failed his save so his unconscious body was carried to the meeting by the paladin. Then I had to argue with myself, which was interesting. Well the douche bag was feebleminded for being wait for it... a douche bag and the party was shocked. The part that got me was what happened next. They weren't high enough of a level to fix him and no in town was either. They didn't ask the caster they just took the mindless fool back to town and let the people decide his fate. This man has tormented this town his whole life. He has had people beaten and he tried to kill the party. Well the group went to look though his house for documents and when they went back to town square he was dead. The towns folk had hung him and children were throwing rocks at his corpse. Some of them looked surprised at this. They left him defenseless, alone, and at the mercy of his former victims.
Oh I remember why they did that. It was so they weren't the ones to kill him.
When an encounter is so ridiculously hard that it almost causes a TPK and the only one to survive solos the rest of the encounter...and comes out alive and unscathed.
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Years ago I built a low level haunted castle dungeon where the party had to solve a series of riddles to break the curse and restore the castle to its former glory. No talking utensils or bestial princes; mostly undead and vermin but in retrospect it was not unlike the Disney Beauty and the Beast castle.
Anyway, in the basement was a typical dungeon and a research lab. And behind a concealed door was the castle's library. For the librarian I created a true neutral lich. This was a low level dungeon and the only purpose of the lich was to keep the players out of the library until after they had solved the riddles and broken the curse (which would restore the librarian to life). Also in their way was an infestation of giant ants.
The giant ants freaked the party out. So instead of fighting their way into the dungeon and lab to solve the riddles they dumped any grain, alcohol (in barrels), and fertilizer they could find in the keep and then dropped a flask of greek fire in to the dungeon before locking the doors. Blew the hole place to bits, killed the lich, and burned down the library.
After the smoke settled one of the players looked at me and said, "We figured that nuking it from orbit was the only way to be sure."
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After the smoke settled one of the players looked at me and said, "We figured that nuking it from orbit was the only way to be sure."
While my jaw actually dropped. I think this might go better in the one liners thread
I was the player, 3.5 game and I had 1/2 fey template from a homebrew wiki.
Got caught up into a city where there were so many low level zombies, the attrition and numbers were becoming a threat to my 5th level character. We went into the city's noble district and found a really tall walled estate with some kind of obsideon shock spikes from the top. I ask how much damage each spike does and the GM says 3d4, 1d4 from electric 2d4 from sharp hardened points.
So I had wings, meaning they were no threat. Experimented with throwing a rock at it hard and the glass come out unscathed so I ask... Are those magically hardened? DM yep. Me ok clearing the area, tomorrow we raid the trademsmen district.
DM why?
Me I need some masonry tools.
DM still not getting it... OK!
Later, hey druid you've got wood shape and stoneshape right?
Druid player yep...
Cool 'cause I have craft weaponry.
DM getting it not... (expletive deleted)
I enjoyed my Trident very much.
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Mine was a jaw dropper just on their sheer perseverance and desire to do the right thing. Forgive the length in advance...
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Running a multi-year campaign, where the party was dealing with a behind the curtain BBEG making all sorts of evil and getting factions ramped up for war, the party initially started following the bread crumbs from a missing group of NPC adventurers dealing with the threats prior to the PCs coming onto the scene.
The players found their journals, followed some of their leads all the while they were playing chess with the BBEG (who, where, what and why) and catch-up to his plots and actions. While following these clues they assumed that this prior NPC group was already dead (captured for sure and by this time, more than likely all dead). Most loose ends in the campaign were tied up, the original plots/problems solved and the players moved on - then, out of the blue they decided that now that we have solved X, Y and Z (x10), let's try to find these guys or at least their remains.
I had originally decided that two of the NPC group had survived and were being held hostage at the BBEG behest by a clan of orcs in his service. Beyond that, a half-orc in the group was tricking the other orcs by running a game where he would "interrogate" the badly treated prisoners and they would reveal loot that they secured away. Orcs would go and recover it, so they kept the prisoners alive (if not in bad shape). Of course the half-orc was buying items from his own personal stash of gold (he was a rogue) and placing them for the orcs to find as part of these interrogation sessions. Orcs got the loot, so they were willing to keep the two captives alive as long as they could provide info.
This half-orc double agent had been feeding information to the players on the surface (indirectly/back channels) for months - hints, clues and warnings (so they too would not be "disappeared" by the BBEG agents).
This was one of those side trek quests that DMs may write up in a sandbox campaign that may or may not get used. When they didn't take the bait early on, I just wrote it off that this was material I would just recycle for another game (good guy half orc stats, underground orcish lair, underdark encounters, etc).
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So the PCs pickup an old (throw away and cold) trail I put out their years prior at the start of the campaign, knowing that they are against the clock (overarching story/war issue) and decide to do a 2-3 day run into the underdark to see what happened.
Stocked up on potions so they could stay awake, they braved a crypt that lead to the underdark - fought undead, avoided and fought patrols of orcs and trolls, undead dragon and slew of other bad guys. All at great peril, with zero potential gain with no spurring (in fact, I discouraged them) on my part - they saved the two surviving NPCs from the original group and even convinced the Half-orc to leave (who I was going to have suicide/sacrifice himself in the last fight - they stopped that too).
This was:
- Unforeseen (on my part, at this point I was resigned that this was not going to happen and tbh the subplot fell way off the radar).
- Selfless
- Excellently planned/adapted on the fly (went from recovery to prison break/running battle). Basically a no-rest, no recovery of resources mission.
- Non-stop action (as above, running battle with some stealth). This wasn't a module, this was running a Gauntlet.
- This was a mission of their making, not mine. I had it written out, they made me dust it off and they made it THEIRS.
Ultimately it was a potential zero gain scenario, where at best they were on a mission to find out what happened to a group they never met to recover their remains on a cold lead.
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Chalk this one up to: Player memory/taking notes, doing the right thing and never underestimating your players ability to surprise you.
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A jaw dropping moment for both players and DM. As a player the DM was warned by the two female members of the group if he added shall we call him X to the group they would leave. The rest of the players and myself knew something was wrong. Both members reasons was that X was a male chauvanistic pig with a very low opinion of womenT. he DM was either oblivious or did not care. Or one of those "he can't possibly be that bad" types. Who knows.
Much to the horror of myself and the DM X was as bad as can be. Every female npc he either yelled at. Demanded answers and when they refused X said his character slapped some sense into them. Yes you heard right. We were stunned as a group. The DM reaction was priceless. I think the DM tried talking to X yet he refused to change or alter the way he played at the table.
Next game X shows up again. Our mission was to track a vampire to her nest and remove th threat. So we get to the vampire lair. A abandoned castle or was it keep. We enter were trying to find the vampire when we come across someone doing some housekeeping. X seeing it's a woman decides to interrogate her his way. X also had a way of ignoring everyone at the table as well. So he demands to know where the vampire is. She refuses to tell him. He gets angry and removes his gauntlet to hit the female npc. He does and promptly loses two levels. X is stunned and angered he hits her again and again losing four levels. At this point we were either all laughing or trying hard not to. X finally releasing what's happened rage quits and leaves. Never to be seen again.
As a DM seeing the player running the Gunslinger unable to simple math. He had a hard time totaling both his to hit bonuses and damage. Getting nervous and breaking out into a sweat and everything. Both myself and the rest of the players are shocked and looking at each other having a WTH moment.
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I absolutely love it when the PCs piece together clues about what's going on... and come to a conclusion that's COOLER than what I'd planned.
I usually then change the story to match what the players came up with.
It happens rather frequently. I have awesome players.
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A friend of mine years ago put an odd encounter into a dungeon not unlike yours, memorax; but without as much misogyny. A group of players enter a room filled with a warm fog. They can barely see anything, but they hear running water. The group presses forward unconcerned until they find a curtain from which they can hear the sound of running water behind it.
Giggling the players told the DM that they yank the curtain aside. Behind the curtain they find a very naked and very beautiful woman showering. The woman screams, slaps the three PCs leering at her and yanks the curtain closed. The DM then informs the PCs that they have each lost two levels.
The PCs are stunned for a moment, then yank the curtain aside to find the vampire turning to mist and drifting up through a vent above the shower. On inspection, the water coming out of the shower was unholy water.
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A friend of mine years ago put an odd encounter into a dungeon not unlike yours, memorax; but without as much misogyny. A group of players enter a room filled with a warm fog. They can barely see anything, but they hear running water. The group presses forward unconcerned until they find a curtain from which they can hear the sound of running water behind it.
Giggling the players told the DM that they yank the curtain aside. Behind the curtain they find a very naked and very beautiful woman showering. The woman screams, slaps the three PCs leering at her and yanks the curtain closed. The DM then informs the PCs that they have each lost two levels.
The PCs are stunned for a moment, then yank the curtain aside to find the vampire turning to mist and drifting up through a vent above the shower. On inspection, the water coming out of the shower was unholy water.
The bad part X had enough misogyny in him for several tables worth of players. To this day people still don't beleive me when I mention the story.
What happened in the dungeon is both funny and a bit of a dick move on the part of the DM. Funny in that it's something I can see happening. After a long day of being a BBEG the monster gets to unwind and relax. Only for the adventurers to ruin even that. Bad because level drain in second edition was nasty. If your going to make a funny moment for the players hitting them with two levels of energy drain takes the fun out of it.
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This one is from a campaign I was in years ago and I was no the DM but it was so bizarre it deserves a mention. The DM did definitely have a WTF moment. So, we're fighting Zombies, we're all around level 4 or less. One of the PCs manages to cut a zombie in half. He looks at it and says, is it still "alive"? The DM says "As alive as an undead thing can be, yeah." The PC says, I want to take that stick and tie the zombie to it." The DM says, "um, okay, why?" "To make a weapon. I want a Zombie on a Stick". The DM is just shaking head head "Okay, you can try." the PC rolls two natural 20's. He walked around with a Zombie on a stick for the next 3 or 4 sessions, much to everyone's bemusement.
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I think I've mentioned that, years ago, I converted the Temple of Elemental Evil to 3.0/3.5 and ran a campaign of that to completion. My intent was to convert the Slavers series after that and run it, but that never got off the ground. Anyway, the party had explored the Moathouse, fought Lareth the Beautiful, headed to Nulb and finally came face-to-face with the upper level of the Temple itself. I read the lengthy description, with its crumbling façade, the leering gargoyles, the heavy ironbound bronzewood doors latched tight, the ominous presence of the edifice...all really good stuff.
They look at each other, and then one of them looks back to me. "How much is bronzewood worth? 'Cause we're taking these doors with us back to Verbobonc."
I facepalm, and start doing math. I find bronzewood in the Arms & Equipment Guide, and start running the numbers, based upon how large I suppose the doors are. And when I'm finished, I really don't like the result. They're valuable. Like, a quarter of a million gold pieces valuable. Clearly, they can't have that treasure, so I had to find a way to bilk them out of it. I decided to have the priests of Obad-Hai give them free +1 elemental bane weapons of their choice in exchange for the wood. Free magical weapons with an enchantment that would seem extraordinarily useful, but would barely be used in the Temple. Not a bad trade, really.
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My favorite story comes not from Pathfinder or D&D, but from a home game of Legend of the Five Rings. For those not familiar, you play as fantasy samurai. The campaign was based around the old City of Lies boxed set, which had a TON of characters and adventure hooks. They were all Emerald Magistrates in a corrupt town in Scorpion lands, sort of like being FBI agents in Gotham City. I'd introduced a Dragon shugenja earlier in the campaign to set up this particular story - basically, he was asking for protection, since one of the local gangs was trying to kill him. They ambush the party, asking them to turn him over - turns out it was a revenge killing. The shugenja had some gambling debts he refused to pay, there was a disagreement, and the samurai ended up killing the leader's brother in the fight. He went to the PCs for protection, hoping they'd kill the people for him. They did, and he figured that'd be the end of it.
It wasn't. One of the players stepped up and challenged him to a duel for his dishonorable actions. He tried to back out of it, but there was no having it - the PCs were important enough people in society that their challenge was unavoidable. Fortunately, since he was a shugenja, he had the right to petition for a champion, which meant the duel was postponed for a month. I had further plans for this character, so I had to step up that timetable - it ended up being an enjoyable session, where I brought back another Dragon samurai they'd worked with in the past. Still, I didn't expect it, but I couldn't think of a reason it shouldn't happen.
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They look at each other, and then one of them looks back to me. "How much is bronzewood worth? 'Cause we're taking these doors with us back to Verbobonc."
I have to say, my solution would have been to let them take them, but put a curse on the doors so the moment they are outside of the temple they turn to rotted wood. :)
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In the case of crazy items like the bronzewood doors; they just wouldn't be able to find a buyer. I mean, who'd sitting around with a quarter mil with a need for giant bronzewood doors? Who buys that kind of stuff.
Of course we're still trying to sell...
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Wow, thirty years of gaming, and twenty years of DMing, and I have seen a LOT of jaw dropping moments, both good and bad. Since this is for the good moments, I will stick to that.
I think some of the best are with experienced players who could fudge a bit, or meta-game a bit, but choose not to. One player was playing a tiefling spiked chain specialist in 3.0/3.5. Unfortunately, he died. The party decides to put his body in their portable hole to take back to town and resurrect. They get as far as the entrance to the dungeon when the player whose character died says "Uh-oh!" I ask whats wrong. Turns out he remembered that his character had a belt pouch of holding. Suddenly, the thirty or so potions, and whole bunches of treasure and expensive plate mail in the portable hole are gone, as is his body. I was so impressed. He could have neglected to mention that and I would never have really noticed. As a reward, when his next character died, we brought back the tiefling, saved by his demonic father.
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Did I mention the time our party faced it's greatest challenge ever: A crappy 15' deep pit made by the crazy kobold who lived near town. We were sent to find evidence of the kobold's guilt or innocence in his tiny cave in the hills north of town. Some sheep had gone missing and the villagers immediately blamed the kobold sage. Mr Perfect is running the game, We were all newly recruited militia soldiers. Yep level 1, that wondrous time when a stiff wind off the bad guy's backside can prove lethal. So we get to the place and Munchkin the rogue finds that the entrance is blocked by a 15' deep pit made of loose earth. Suddenly it is revealed that none of us had the foresight to purchase rope. My half orc monk (modeled after the orions from star trek) and Munchkin's ratling rogue easily climb down into the pit but everyone else tumbles in face first since no one else bought climb skill. The lesser drow wizard (fox) is now bleeding out in the pit, and tactical genius the human cleric starts casting healing spells... and doing a horrible job... SO many ones later he is out of spells and the group is just wounded except for the wizard who is stable at 0 HP. Munchkin decides to scout ahead while we try to figure out how to drag the wizard out of the pit. He easily climbs out and starts down the hall while the rest of us argue between leaving the poor guy behind or trying to climb while carrying him. Eventually we decide to climb with him since there HAS to be a healing potion in the loot further in the cave? Right? There always is a healing potion or six? Right? Anyway Munchkin finds out that the kobold isn't home... indeed letters in the desk indicate the sage has been away on business for a week. Meaning the kobold is innocent. BUT Munckin decides to loot the place anyway. Taking everything from loose coins to a tiny stuffed rat. But no healing potions... By now everyone with a few more failed climb attempts causing 1 HP damage each had made it into the cave. We were all seriously wounded except Munchkin the ratling. So... um... now we have to all leave back out across that same pit. Munchkin goes first and critically fails his climb check and hit the pit bottom for a maxed out 1d6+1 HP damage of 7 since his unhealthy self had only 6 HP he is now bleeding out in the Pit of Doom as we were now calling it. To make matters worse we ALL failed the climb check and it was just me and Newb left alive. I start first aid while Newb says "Too bad for them" and loots the party. He then climbs out leaving me behind to tend the fallen. After some abysmal healing checks I have effectively finished everyone else off. I decide to try to catch up with the Orc fighter Newb was playing and fail my climb check and take my last HP of damage... and I am now unconscious in the Pit of Doom so I fail to hear the dying screams of Newb as he encounters the kobold's pet kitty who was VERY upset that someone was trying to make off with her catnip stuffed rat. When I wake up a day later hungry and alone in the pit I notice that the wooden "Sage for Hire" placard at the entrance was 10' long... Later the kobold sage shows up and helps my VERY grateful orion out of his pit and gets her some food. Turns out the kobold was never intended as an enemy... he was intended as the group's ranger guide. So my orion and her new NPC boyfriend head back to town accompanied by his kitty "Orc Bane" as I decided to nickname her.
Moral of the story: It pays to listen to fluff text (where the description of the 10' wooden placard was), AND always buy rope!
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I've heard a story about a TPK caused by a single casting of prestidigitation, cast when the party weren't even there.
So the party are moving through the typical 1st level dungeon, and happen upon a large pile of poo. Being typical teenage players, they proceed to start a massive poo fight.
So what caused the TPK?
About half an hour before the party got there, an NPC caster had used prestidigitation to change the colour of a pile of green slime from, well, green to poo-brown....! : )
So, here's something from this past weekend. I was running a One shot at a gaming Con. We get to the last bit and it's time to confront the BBEG. The little Gnome Skald rolls the highest and says "I'm going to cast charm person on her."
I look at him and say "Save DC?"
"16"
"Okay, the BBEG has a +21 so I can save against this all day as long as I don't roll a 1." Promptly roll a 1...
All my careful planning and a single failed save makes this encounter with the BBEG who is a CR 12 or 13 vs. a bunch of level 10 PCs... This probably belongs in the epic fail thread, but I couldn't find it and my jaw did drop. That so should not have worked!
Watching an entire party get slaughtered by a couple 1/2 challenge rating spiders while the alchemist sat at the bottom of the stairs to the tower because they're rickety and he kept failing basic checks.
Said same alchemist, fed the rogue to a worg, killed a druid by shooting a trapped fox to put it out of it's misery, had to bomb his way out from inside an animate object cauldron and numerous other things, yeah, he kinda got a lot of stories for only a couple of sessions.
Also being the only one with an area attack left when we ran into a swarm, this guy was from encounter to encounter, either the best friend or worst enemy the group ever had.
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I did not participate in the session. Yet the DM had a near TPK without laying a finger on the players. A monster with a aura that if will saves are failed causes insanity. It takes I think three or is it five failed rolls. Try 24 bad rolls out of 25. With the exception of one player everyone else had to roll new characters.
Wow
I did not participate in the session. Yet the DM had a near TPK without laying a finger on the players. A monster with a aura that if will saves are failed causes insanity. It takes I think three or is it five failed rolls. Try 24 bad rolls out of 25. With the exception of one player everyone else had to roll new characters.
haha. One of mine went this route thanks to some bad fish. I tried it, it was delicious, and I passed my fortitude/will save. (don't remember) So I bout some more, ate it later, went rage/bloodlust insane.
I was spectating at the time but it's worth mentioning that the GM's jaw did drop. The party was set with the task of breaking out slaves in a trade house. The GM planned for them to sneak in, pick locks, and get out. What they did was get the rogue/fighter to pose as a slave owner, the kitsune oracle and the stormborn sorcerer to pose as slaves, and the aasimar fighter to pose as a bodyguard. They also drugged the guards at the front gate with really powerful alcohol that lacked smell due to prestidigitation. They got in and with the help of a ninja that was working as a slave incognito killed the man running the place, knocked out the guards, and got out with the slaves.
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I did not participate in the session. Yet the DM had a near TPK without laying a finger on the players. A monster with a aura that if will saves are failed causes insanity. It takes I think three or is it five failed rolls. Try 24 bad rolls out of 25. With the exception of one player everyone else had to roll new characters.
If that is what I think it is, it's been a bane of PCs for four decades.
"Awww, lookit the cuute liddle critter.....uhhh...I MUST KILL. KILL THEM ALL."
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The funny and sad thing at the same time is the DM is not a killer or bad one. Far from it. It was as a bad set of rolls on the players part. Let's be honest 24 out of 25 bad rolls. What are the odds of that happening.
About the same odds as that roll of 5 natural 20s in a row I read about in another thread, I'd bet.
ITT: further evidence that no plancampaign survives contact with the enemyPCs.
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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The final boss is a woman being mind-controlled by basically a brain in a coffee can. The can is attached to the top of a
But instead of that, one of the playes decides to investigate the can itself, climbing up to the top of the portal in the middle of combat.
Player: Is there any way to open this can?
Me: Um, looks like it has a lid...
Player: Okay, I open it.
Me: You see a brain, which looks like it's connected to those cords that are attached to the woman.
Next round...
Player: So inside this can is a brain that looks to be controlling the lady?
Me: Through those five cords, yes.
Player: Okay; I stab the brain.
Somehow, I hadn't seen that coming. Perhaps because the cords are easier to get to than the canister? In any case, it seems the author hadn't anticipated that either, so I had to decide for myself how tough a brain in a can is.
Answer: Not very.
I called it a CdG, and the fight was over without the mind-controlled woman taking a single point of damage (much to the delight of the PCs' superiors and political connections).
Bravo, rogue player!