Just a rather funny way of accomplishing a mission. Had to share.

[darthspader]

So my group was playing a game earlier today. Our group is small so we run gestalt. The party is:

Me: a cleric/synthesist. A quirky roleplay i developed was that the main caster has no control over the eidolon when it’s summoned, and the two have independent personalities that don’t have memories of the others actions. Sort of a hulk/banner or jekyl/Hyde thing. The catch: if the main guy takes damage and fails his save, he involuntary summons the eidolon portion (the normal ritual). - fun but a quirk I didn’t really think out properly and had plans to change characters. (This had caused issues in previous sessions)

A dawrf Paladin fighter. Tanked up in fullplate and pretty much immovable object.

A sorcerer rogue

So we enter this dungeon cave thing trying to track down an evil cult. We get past the first few encounters pretty easy. The next room is a larger one, and we get attacked by 8 cultists. They get the drop on us, and congregate in a nice bunch right in front of us, blocking the door into the room essentially. My turn comes up and I decide to try some battlefield control. Even the odds and maybe make things easier for the pally and rogue. So, I cast acid pit. Right under the cultists. However a small problem.

The dwarf is on the “slopes edge”. In my haste to get as many of the cultists as I could I didn’t see the dwarf was at risk, and didn’t realize he had crap for reflex. (Which he promptly failed)

No problem, I’m right behind the dwarf, and still have an action. DM let’s me attempt to grab the dwarf and prevent him falling.

Awsome! I make the grab ...... then we realize the dwarf, in full gear including Adamantine fullplate, is about 300 pounds total.

I’ve got a strength of 7. (Heavy load like 70pounds)

He starts pulling me in with him.

Reflex to let go..... results in a 4.

So 3 of the cultists go in, along with the dwarf, and me. 5 characters, in a 10x10ft (4 squares) hole, with 5 feet of acid at the bottom. Turns out the cultists have mink levels and don’t care about the fall, the pally just shrugs and heals himself. Me.... full damage.

Save to not summon eidolon.... failed. I’m now out of the fight, flailing about for the ritual for 6 rounds. In a pit of acid. On top of angry cultists.

Up above, the rogue decides to help and uses glitter dust to blind the remaining cultists. As a result they all end up falling into the pit with us.

(See rules for squeezing and having too many people for not enough squares, combined with underwater fighting)

So now, there is me, thrashing about like a possessed fish out of water. A dawrf totally submerged in acid, and 7 cultists who can’t do anything but squirm in the acid. All while glitter falls from above ..... this was turning into something out of s penthouse forum special.

Eventually the cultists all succumbed to the acid, the dwarf between lay on hands and his massive con easily managed the 8 rounds of acid submersion. I took a bunch of damage but the pally kept me ticking. After my “ritual” completed - and the spell ended my now very confused character climbs out of a mess of dead melted cultists, a slightly smoking dwarf, all of us covered in glitter and shame....

That was by far the “weirdest” way I have ever solved or beaten an encounter. Not a single attack roll was made by anyone, it lasted 7 rounds, and all we could do was just .... marvel in disbelief at the absurdity of it all.

And then the rogue suggested “what if I had added dancing lights to this? Then we’d have a party!”

[Val'bryn2]

The answer isn't Dancing Lights. Keep casting Flare, you can make it different colors, so you basically have a rave going on.

That was a fun read, glad it worked out for you.

[zza ni]

Grease~?

[nosig]

mad monkeys?

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateMagic/spells/madMonkeys.html

[darthspader]

Has anyone else had an encounter that should have been normal but due to weird craziness go a total other direction? Would enjoy hearing about it

[Heather 540]

darthspader wrote:

Has anyone else had an encounter that should have been normal but due to weird craziness go a total other direction? Would enjoy hearing about it

Not really crazy so much, but definitely funny. The party consisted of a halfling Hunter/Rogue (me) and her boar companion, a human Rogue, a bearkin Fighter, a dwarf Fighter, and a Barbarian of unknown race.

We were sent to a haunted woods to fetch an item. We had 2 big rules - stay on the path and run if you hear rattling chains. We get to the haunted house in the woods and just barrel on through it to find the item. There was a coffin in the basement, and we set a rock on top of it instead of opening it. On the way home the path twists and turns so much that the dwarf just basically goes 'Screw this,' and leaves the path, hacking his way through the foliage. We chase after him and hear this growling. We also see a pair of glowing eyes in the bushes. The dwarf throws a bottle at it and rolls not only a ranged attack, but an Intimidate check. The creature runs away.

Then we hear the chains. Everyone starts to run away except the dwarf. The ghoul (I'm not sure that's what it was, it was an undead type creature with chains.) catches up to him and they start fighting. The rest of us realize that the dwarf has been left behind and we turn around to help. We get there a few turns later and promptly beat it up.

It did not help that the ghoul had been trying to grapple the dwarf with its chains and kept failing. By the time it had succeeded, the rest of us were there. It did manage to drain about half the dwarf's HP once the chain was wrapped around him. Problem was, the dwarf is the group's tank and half his HP is higher than everyone else's full HP. The GM then tells us that we had taken a scenario that should have been at least 2 sessions and beaten it in an hour. All because of the dwarf.

[haremlord]

A long time ago we were playing a 2E adventure, the Rod of the Seven Parts.

In it, you get a piece of the rod and, with it, you can locate the other pieces. We get to one of the first dungeons and fight an umber hulk in the first room. After killing it, one of the players (who's playing a necromancer) animates the hulk. He then takes the piece of the rod and asks what direction.

GM: The rod points down and to the left.
Player: I order the hulk to start digging.

Due to the way the dungeon was designed, we were able to dig straight to the final room. The GM started flipping through the book.

GM: Okay, this one says if you don't meet these monsters in this room, you meet them in this other room, but you bypassed that so... Okay, you are in the final room.

We basically turned a scenario that should have taken a day or two of consistent adventuring to two encounters that took maybe half an hour. :D

[Katisha]

This was in a PFS game, so most of the players didn't know each other before (or after) this game...

I was running a bit of an over-the-top Face character... and so I check with the rest of the players if it was Ok for me to just "Talk our way out" of the encounters. They say "no fighting is ok" so...

First mission: We're given a mission to ambush a shipment just outside of town. We want what's in the wagon, and aren't real concerned with how we get it. Normally this would be an excuse to just "murder-hobo" the encounter, but my PC does things on a different path...So I turn to the other players and say, "let's just walk right up, tell them we're with the 'Home Office' here to pick up the shipment, and walk away with it."

Several players chuckle and say "yeah, sure..." figuring it's a novel way to start a fight. One player even insists on hanging back in the woods and getting ready for the fight. He's a fighter rogue after all...And here's what we do.

Spells cast prior to the encounter:
Aura of the Unremarkable and Glibness

...and so we walk plainly down the road from town to the camp site. We have some GREAT In Character Role Playing for 10 minutes or so game time...getting to know the guards and how they were set up to defend the shipment. "Great job you guys have done! We'll take it from here. I'll be sure to mention you in my report - how exactly do you spell your name? M-O-O-K-#-4? Great! oh, do you think you guys can hitch the wagon up for me? And my guards and I will be on our way and you can get some well deserved time off."

The Saves for the Aura were DCs 22+, and Bluff rolls (Taking 10) 60+.

The player in the woods responded "60 WHAT?" when I gave the judge my bluff number. So I told him "Well, I could take 20 and get a 70+, but I'm only 7th level so I can only do that once per day...and we might need it later". I even tipped the mooks each with a token good for a "special service" in the local house of easy virtue... and departed with names and descriptions of all the Aspis Agents in the transport detail...

Later in the game the same player was shocked when I took 10 on a Perception check and got a 12... esp. after I explained that it was a class skill and I had a rank in it. "Yeah, this PC is built for social settings."

[nosig]

In PFS I often run "re-playable" starter scenarios for beginners (with some old hands mixed in)

spoiler for Fallen Fortress:

I can recall one time when I ran Masters of the Fallen Fortress and the PCs were really stomping the monsters... and we had several dog lovers at the table (the scenarios starts with an encounter with rabid dogs). No body wanted to be killing someone's pet! Then they encounter the body of a dog - with a collar on it with "Fifi" or something like that on it.

So... I put a food dish (with the "pet"s name on it) in one room (the Bad Guy's pet shocker lizards room) and several of the PCs felt real bad about that combat. They have even ensured to stabilize the critter... (at that point I hear the fun comment from the table "Does all the monsters in this scenario have NAMES?!?")

That set the tone for the entire evening!

Great fun!

[YogoZuno]

Create Pit and it's brethren are just ripe for hilarity. I recall one encounter with a Shaitan monk, where a player cast Create Pit under it, having not identified it as a Shaitan. The Shaitan fell in...and then promptly climbed right back out, and started throwing the party into the pit. I believe he threw in 3 out of 5 of the party, all of whom discovered none of them had rope or any means of flying. The fourth party member, the wizard who had created the pit, stayed flying out of the Shaitan's reach, burning him as fast as possible, while the fifth party member, a paladin, dueled the Shaitan. The rest of the group flailed about in the pit, trying to figure a way out, and failing. Of course, the pit reached the end of it's duration just after the Shaitan fell.

I do also recall a certain PFS scenario (no spoilers) where a hastily-cast Acid Pit caused the death of a captive and helpless Venture Captain...nice rescue!

[Kimera757]

Sometimes the best offense is a summoned minion. Why take the risk?

My party consists of a brawler (me), Unchained summoner (the face of our party), wizard (evoker), alchemist, and cleric of Calistra, the latter of whom is really into the sex as well as revenge aspect, and has loads of social skills. We are 2nd-level and playing Second Darkness. I understand that the DM has been making it harder, or otherwise modifying the adventure.

Slight spoilers ahead. My character (with some buffs, which is probably cheating) won a contest of unarmed combat against Wulfar, a level 2 or 3 barbarian. This impressed the arena master to hire me as a thug. Said arena master hates our boss, so this wasn't going to work out very well. Said arena boss tried to kill our boss with an imported monster, and I had to put on an impromptu disguise to help kill the monster while not letting the arena boss know I wasn't really working for him. The alchemist stole the show; my main contribution was dashing past the (then-dazed) monster to shove a healing potion down the cleric's throat.

In what should have been an unrelated incident, we found about a cleric going missing in the mountains. She was last seen in town by some hobos, so we went to talk to one of them, a youth. The youth refused to talk, and when I attempted to persuade him to talk by hanging him out a window, we ended up fighting the whole bunch of hobos (they were actually her kidnappers) and we ended up killing all but two of them, and revived their dog. (Most of the hobos were dazed by Color Spray, but the youth rolled two confirmed crits, dropping the wizard and cleric!) "We're taking your dog!" I shouted after we won. The dog owner and the youth were taken prisoner, and told to guide us to the cleric. Also we got excited when we found the cleric's treasure, including a scroll of Shield of Faith (+3), giving us hope that she could cast Create Food and Water and so survived... and also putting a relatively high-level cleric into our debt.

But I told the arena boss about this, suggesting our boss was sending forces to get treasure. The intent was to lure them into an ambush.

So into the cave we went. There's a forty foot drop into the cave system (no convenient mouth) so we tied up a rope to something and down it, our only way out. (The NPC cleric, higher level than us, was stranded after being tossed down this drop.) We left the two hobos up top, but took the dog with us. MISTAKE. Well, not the dog part. That was well-done.

We found a will-o-wisp, and due to some failed skill checks got some things wrong. We thought it was undead and so our cleric could kill it with Channel Energy. Nope. We thought it was insubstantial. Nope. Our wizard hadn't prepared Magic Missile because it's worthless at 2nd-level, and it turns out the monster has enough hit points that a bunch of Magic Missiles would not kill it anyway. All we had were some bombs that were never going to hit, and some iron pots from the class kits. The entire party (including the summoned celestial pony...) gave me aid another to make a touch attack so I could grapple the thing into an iron pot. I took a lot of damage before that worked. The will o wisp is, I believe, a CR 6 monster, with amazingly high AC and CMD, due to its incredibly high AC. It has a Will save of +9, which isn't unbeatable but it will resist the wizard's Color Spray most of the time.

At which point the dog owner shoved the youth down the pit and started pulling out a knife to cut the rope. The alchemist (using a potion of Monkeyfish) and my brawler climbed up the rope, hoping to hold onto the side of the hole if the rope got cut. We could not make the trip in only one round! The summoner summoned an eagle to distract the hobo. It worked! The hobo rolled poorly (failing to hit the inanimate rope), so we managed to get up there, and let the alchemist do away with him.

The new cleric was out of spells, and not intent on following the Calistran path of revenge. We camped overnight and walked off the next morning, with spells of Protection from Energy and Bulls Strength prepared, just in case the will o wisp got away. The will o wisp got away. This is because Wulfgar and a bunch of guys (eight in total), including a named crossbow ranger, ambushed us. It wasn't the best ambush; we were 40 feet above them, but they had lots of ranged attacks when we didn't, had the advantage of numbers, and they were in cover. Wulfgar climbed the cliff after us, only to be critted by a bomb and dragged into our grasp. Then we "surrendered", giving them an iron pot of treasure. Kerrzzaapp.

I think the DM was getting tired by this point, because the will o wisp was relatively easily shoved back into the pot (I still needed lots of aid another). I had a bunch of buffs to make it a bit easier (Bull's Strength, Protection from Electricity), but I don't understand why the will o wisp didn't run away when it realized I was now immune to electricity. It had a speed of 50 feet. Ah well. We hypnotized Wulfar into saying he and my character had won the battle and were bringing back the treasure, with everyone else tragically dead. I wanted Wulfar to do the talking as I had poor social skills, and it would look suspicious if I came back alone. Of course, there was a ranger who could contradict my story. (I know I'm missing some part of the story; we actually had to hypnotize Wulfgar twice!)

The ranger got away. Wulfar and I made it to the arena boss's site, but the boss and ranger were talking. It was clear the jig was up. Wulfgar was loyal, but of course not me. I took the lid off and ran like the wind. We don't know if that guy is still alive, but if so it won't be pretty.

[KingGramJohnson]

We accidentally talked our way out of a massive boss battle.

The party consists of a slayer (me), a synthesis summoner, a rogue, and a paladin. I'm playing an Aasimar with an 11 in CHA and little to no social skills (he's pretty because of his angel blood, but not good at talking to people), I am in no way the face of our group, but I have a knack for talking people into or out of things, and that's been pretty consistent throughout the game.

Our group has been playing for over 2 years in a homebrewed campaign. From early levels (we were level 11 when this happened), there was this wizard/vampire who has caused us problems. He enthralled our paladin's girlfriend, and he's been trying to get her back since the beginning of the game. We finally tracked him down and were going after him. hopefully for the last time. We literally spent five sessions tracking him down and looking for him, going through layers of ancient dwarven ruins inside an active volcano, where his fortress was, we nearly died several times.

We finally found him and fought our way to him, got into the room were he and his minions were, it looked like an epic boss battle that would truly test our party's strength. When we entered, the wizard/vampire said, "Why are you breaking into my home? Just leave me alone." Then the GM asked us to roll initiative. As we rolled, I had my character say, "Look, we just want to get his girlfriend back, tell us how to reverse her enthrallment and we'll leave." I mostly said it as a joke, knowing he wouldn't go for it. The GM just paused for a moment and said, "Okay, okay, I'll do it."

The party could not believe it. I asked the paladin if that's what he wanted to do, he said yes. The vamp gave us what we needed to save his girl, and we were true to our word and left. The GM gave us the XP for the encounter and our next level and told us he didn't expect that, and that the vamp did just want to be left alone.

So, we avoided a big boss battle just because I said something off the cuff, it was kind of crazy.

[Slim Jim]

I killed myself once by deliberately jumping into a pit, because I had a stellar Jump score and figured I could get right back out again. Hey: it'd worked before, and was a great way to avoid getting mobbed while on-point.

What I didn't hear from the party wizard is that he had leveled up and was casting a much more deadly and deeper kind of pit than I was used to.

[Tweedle-Dum]

Long time ago in an Living Greyhawk game my PC voided a combat encounter without actually noticing... it went something like this.

The party needed to hurry across town to a certain square in the slums. As we cut thru some alleys my (Socially inept) wizard is approached by a "homeless street person" - and before the individual can say anything my wizard thrusts some coins on him and says: "Which way is 'Target Square'"?

Unknown to me the beggar has the tactics of "stealing anything that might be sold/traded for food..." and would normally try to stab, grab and/or run. And I just gave him some coinage. More than he expected to make in mugging me. So, without saying anything, he takes off down a different alley. Whereupon my Wizard calls to the rest of the party "This Way!" and takes off after him. The party then sprints into that side ally - leaving several other wannabe muggers standing around wondering what just happened...

The original street person, with a knowledge of the slum, easily looses the party in the twisty alleys. So my Wizard pulls a few more silver and pausing only briefly waves it at the next slum alley inhabitant with the question, "Which way is 'Target Square'"? Said individual points vaguely in a direction - so my PC tosses the coins their way and jogs into the next ally. This continues two or three times until one of the "helpful citizens" realizes that they can make more money by actually jogging along with me and just collecting coins at each intersection... We did eventually get there, though it might have been the long way around.

Oh! and we totally missed the mugging/ambush by "homeless street persons". And because we hadn't killed any of the muggers, we all earned a boon called something like "Friends of Poortown" where we got bonuses to Gather Info checks in the Slums.