Oh i do have one specific moment which left was carved in our hearts forever. tldr: A dramatic battle that left five adult men weeping.
In our TOA campaign, me as a DM, the group lad my homebrewed Frost giant villian, along with 2 frost giants and 2 winter wolves into an ambush. In the ambush, they set up plant growth with the giants in the middle, and a wall of fire which dealt impressive amounts of dmg (it deals its dmg twice in a surprise round.. ikr?), and killed the two winter wolf before the fight began. The giantess villian ordered the two giants to circle the plant growth and reach them from the sides, while she is willing to take blows as they approach the party's flank, or if they get the focus, she will go for the offensive. The flow of battle went to the direction of dealing with the 2 giants first, while the party's (only) tank, the barbarian, will prevent her approach. She was a pact user, so using her spell slots, she downed all party to low hp very soon, so they were in big trouble right at the start. Her spells were down, but she still had Eldritch blast as legendary action, and while the barbarian went fully on defensive, his hp didn't hold... Now, any healing on a downed character gets him back into the fight, so it reached a point where the party struggled only to keep their comrade in life. After the party downed the flanking giants, while struggling to keep their barbarian comrade alive... it reached to a point where the boss was really low on hp, but here is the crucial moment: The barbarian just got up, but the boss's legendary action is up, she keeps moving forward, but the damn persistent wall of muscles keeps on getting up... So she will use her Eldritch blast, again, she has 3 beams and +10 to hit, so anything above 7 will hit, i roll the dice in front of my players, who are already out healing at that moment: 1 on the first... 1 on the second... 1 on the third... The table went insane, they felt it a sign from heaven, it reached the point where the boss turn was up, with only 1 hp left(I let them know that for tension sake)! She used 2 melee attacks, 1 to down the barbarian, and the 2nd to make him fail two death saving throws. It was the next player's turn, who somehow missed with a 5 and a 1. On her last breath, the giantess used her eldritch blast to rip the barbarian in two, but kept his better half able to speak his final words to the party.
We ended that session with a funeral, everyone spoke their heart out. We had our hearts broken that night. Five married men on their guys night, crying together over a fallen pc.
So, at the start of the campaign (Tales of the Yawning Portal), we were talking to an old man NPC. Because the DM didn't have a name for him, I dubbed him Buckets. Later, the whole party started making Persuasion checks to get him to join our party. Our cleric got a nat 20. Sadly, the DM said that Buckets refused to join our party, but hinted that he would turn up in our time of need.
We also got a horn to call a Young Dragon to our aid from some kobolds some time later.
Now, we all died when fighting the BBEG. I was the last one to start death saves. But, with my dying gasp, I was able to watch as Buckets came riding in on said dragon and burned the entire underground forest area that was the arena to the ground, along with the severely wounded BBEG.
Then, we were all Resurrected, and it was revealed that Buckets was actually a deity in disguise. If it wasn't for that nat. 20, we would've been dog food.
In my groups first game of tyranny of dragons they were making their way through Greenest on thr way to mill. On the way they ran into a group of bandits. Using the darkness our cleric of protection attempted to bluff thier way past with a 0 in CHA. He rolled a nat20 and made it passed. After dealing with the mill ambush they came to the same bridge snd attempted the same trick, rolling a nat1 this time. Combat ensued and 3 of 4 characters went down. All that's left is drahonborn druid, who had been hiding in the brush sniping the raiders from cover. Seeing her friends go down she switches tactics, casting charm person on the biggest raider she can see and scream "Hold" in draconian ahe went onto persuade the raiders into keeping this group a live for questioning. She was eventually confronted by one of the cultists of tiamat and attempted to bluff her way, scoring the second nat20 of the night ending with the cultist using his own healing magic on the group! #DDBStyle
Around a month ago. I'm running Curse of Strahd and taking it sloooow. so. 20 sessions in we are at the Old Bonegrinder, and the Party is already broken, hopeless and generally in tatters. Everyone loves it. So far, all fights were more or less victorious, as you can certainly call "survival" a victory. One party member was resurrected by the Strahd himself in exchange for Irina's dead body (long story).
They were tired, but content. Broken, but alive.
And then, after victorious battle with hags, Cackling Fever kicks in. Everyone starts laughing madly. It's all fun and giggles, when one of the characters (all players were fine with it) decided to push another from the stairs!
Oh what a joy! They all laughed when he fell. They all laughed when medicine checks failed. They all laughed after first nat 1 on Death Save.
Everyone stopped laughing after second nat 1 on DS.
Now they carry the burden of killing a friend in their hearts, and they carry his dead body with hope that he can be ressurected.
And well, its the Curse of Strahd, so let's be honest. He will be. :) #DDBStyle
Once I ended an entire campaign early due to the most improbable chain of rolls. Our DM ruled there would be critical fails, and there was a table of consequences. There was also a house rule stating that breaking any magic item would result in a very big explosion (I don't remember the damage it dealt, but it was more than 10d6). So, we were escorting a princess from one kingdom to another and on the road, we were attacked by some sort of aberration. We start combat and after a few turns, I roll a 1 with one of my magic scimitars, the DM let me roll for the next attack with the other magic scimitar before rolling for my critical failure. I rolled another 1. So, now I roll for the consequences. Both 1s, so both magic swords break. Then, just to determine how bad the explosion was, the DM asked me to roll a d100, ruling that 1 would be the least terrible outcome and 100 being the worst. It was the first 100 I ever rolled. So we all exploded and nearly died, the princess included, and the whole story derailed so badly we had to halt the campaign.
At I hope all this near impossible chain of rolls help me win something nice :D #DDBStyle
I was playing a futuristic campaign and the battle was getting scary for the players. One person beside me decides he's going to use a slingshot bomb to try to repel some enemies and give us some time to escape. He winds up his throw, rolls the dice, and CRIT FAIL!
A sad chuckle came from the DM as he didn't want his PCs to die. He gives him another chance to made a DEX save and recover so the bomb doesn't kill him. CRIT FAIL AGAIN! The rest of the party did get away but that poor guy's sacrifice was why the rest of us escaped. #DDBStyle
The moment my DM asked me how much HP I had left, having just failed a Dex save against the BBEG. My first ever character, Atlas the Celtic inspired Dwarf bard. Disintegrated. Brutal, but I still loved it. #DDBStyle
You are a demilich, trapped under a net. You ever wanted to be a lich, or even a necromancer. Your brother forced you too. And now you're under a net, trapped in your own lair, feeling your own sanity drip away from you. You hear footsteps and chance asking for help. And to your surprise, you get a reply. You look up to see me, a tall hairless tabaxi, leaning over you. "Friend of Trinket?" I ask, "Promise to no do a hurt?"
Beyond me is a paladin, a gunslinger, a wizard. In their eyes are trust, and amusement. And agreement. You are going to be freed. You agree, no hurt. Yes. You are a friend. The net is removed and you are embraced. "Have a home for you! Many friends. Trinket is dead too you know, and they are friends of Trinket, so friends for you too!" You try to explain that you are fading, that you are losing yourself, but I will not hear it. "Fade with friends."
You show this strange group where your hoard is, gold upon gold upon gold, glimmering gems and magic artifacts. The group is thrilled and grateful, and take you to a strange house ruled by a vampire, home to ogres and spectres and other folk that could be called monstrous. This group of adventurers fights and begs and pleads for your place here. And you will never forget it. Friend of Trinket. #DDBStyle
#DDBStyle - I was playing a Ranger during The Forge of Fury. During our battle with the Black Dragon, I used the Giant Killer reaction to roll a Nat20 & launch an arrow & end our battle victoriously.
I was playing a sheltered Druid that had never seen a city before. After saving my party deep in the wilds they took me to the city to rest and resupply. The party split and I wondered into an abandoned mansion. I looked into a wardrobe looking for items and Gold. It was a mimic. Am intense battle commenced. The whole party watched as I continued to roll 1 and the DM kept rolls 20s. My heart was pounding every roll. I died quickly. I was so upset as I had spent so much time on the character and his back story. No one knew where I was so no one came to save me. I rolled a barbarian later came back and hacked the mimic to bits.
third season of pathfinder like; We've solved one ultra specific mystery and there was a Deck of many Things (but only one player got the deck because we solved but didn't see what was in that object). The person which got wasn't "friendly" with me then he asked to me: "Want to play cards?", and me: "Of course"(My caracter was card addicted). I rolled moon - 20 - (we modifed the deck and instead of 1d3 wish spells we selected one wish but that didn't had limits) and wished that the world never existed.
Playing in our Narrative Therapy Game, the whole party was down and my Hexblade attacked the big boss expecting to get his butt kicked. With his glaive and as a final last ditch move he cast Banishing Smite and used his last pact spell slot to Eldritch Smite as well and rolled a Natural 20. Instant "How Would You Like To Do This" on the BBEG #DDBStyle
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Check out my Disabled & Dragons Youtube Channel for 5e Monster and Player Tactics. Helping the Disabled Community and Players and DM’s (both new and experienced) get into D&D. Plus there is a talking Dragon named Quill.
I once had a player get thrown from a cliff in her sleep. She rolled a series of 1's & 2's that resulted in her getting impaled on a tree branch on the way to swan dive face planting on the stone valley floor hundreds of feet below. Welcome to the character creation process. #DDBStyle
My party had been collecting these artifacts, bones of a dead entity, that gave perks and wild magic. My character had three of these and had some bad wild magic instances already where the entity would take over in an animalistic way. My party had found another and refused to give to my character. So, while they were sleeping I tried to steal the item. Rolled low and two of them found me. Our fighter goes to shot me to incapacitate me to stop me. I call on the entity to help and roll a crit failure on will save and my DM says the following. "You feel your soul leave your body and find yourself floating in a black abyss. But your body keeps going. Richter (our fighter) sees your eyes turn pure black." Richter shoots me twice and hits me with his great axe, it does nothing. I then proceed to rip the fighter in half. #DDBStyle
In the middle of a HB campaign, my fellows and I, all level 7, encountered a very mad flesh golem with "Albert" carved into his chest, that our "wonderfully perceptive" group (barbarian, rouge, ranger) mistook for a zombie while lost in a small wooded area next to a quarry. Luckily for us, the dice gods were in our favor... sort of.
It is SUPER easy to hit a flesh golem, but pointless when not a single person in the group has a magical weapon, and the only magic spells our ranger knew were useless in this situation.
Our group spent about 8 rounds doing literally nothing to the golem except making it angry. Our very supportive DM never let on that we weren't doing any damage, just kept giving us the "Ooof" and "Ouch" reactions as we dealt out a substantial 0 damage.
The only thing keeping the DM from throwing her laptop through the wall was that we couldn't damage the golem, because (thank you D&DB dice gods!) she never rolled an attack higher than 11 the entire encounter.
We ended up just running off, the barbarian sticking back for a single round, just enough to let the rest of us get away.
When we finally reconvened at our intended destination, we recounted our tail to a local innkeeper while requesting a room.
The DM being "funny" put that whole encounter together on the spot just to make a stupid Bugs Bunny referenced joke...
"You should have taken a left at Albert's Quarry." - Unnamed Innkeeper, that our group will surly smite in a few levels
Was DMing a homebrew snow adventure with an adult white dragon at the end. It had created a lair up in the mountains over a lake. Causing risky terrain to move around on and a very open field for the dragon to fight in. It was a little even for a while, but after getting the breath weapon back 3 turns in 4, it was VERY dark for my players. They witled down the dragon but it was very much going to be a TPK. All but one were in single digit HP, and at least one was unconscious. The wizard that was unconscious rolled a Nat 20 on the death save, popped up, shot a fireball and was just enough damage to kill the dragon. It was such a cool moment and an AMAZING turn of events! Such a cool fight staring death in the eyes!
Oh i do have one specific moment which left was carved in our hearts forever.
tldr: A dramatic battle that left five adult men weeping.
In our TOA campaign, me as a DM, the group lad my homebrewed Frost giant villian, along with 2 frost giants and 2 winter wolves into an ambush.
In the ambush, they set up plant growth with the giants in the middle, and a wall of fire which dealt impressive amounts of dmg (it deals its dmg twice in a surprise round.. ikr?), and killed the two winter wolf before the fight began.
The giantess villian ordered the two giants to circle the plant growth and reach them from the sides, while she is willing to take blows as they approach the party's flank, or if they get the focus, she will go for the offensive.
The flow of battle went to the direction of dealing with the 2 giants first, while the party's (only) tank, the barbarian, will prevent her approach.
She was a pact user, so using her spell slots, she downed all party to low hp very soon, so they were in big trouble right at the start.
Her spells were down, but she still had Eldritch blast as legendary action, and while the barbarian went fully on defensive, his hp didn't hold...
Now, any healing on a downed character gets him back into the fight, so it reached a point where the party struggled only to keep their comrade in life.
After the party downed the flanking giants, while struggling to keep their barbarian comrade alive... it reached to a point where the boss was really low on hp, but here is the crucial moment:
The barbarian just got up, but the boss's legendary action is up, she keeps moving forward, but the damn persistent wall of muscles keeps on getting up...
So she will use her Eldritch blast, again, she has 3 beams and +10 to hit, so anything above 7 will hit, i roll the dice in front of my players, who are already out healing at that moment:
1 on the first... 1 on the second... 1 on the third...
The table went insane, they felt it a sign from heaven, it reached the point where the boss turn was up, with only 1 hp left(I let them know that for tension sake)!
She used 2 melee attacks, 1 to down the barbarian, and the 2nd to make him fail two death saving throws.
It was the next player's turn, who somehow missed with a 5 and a 1.
On her last breath, the giantess used her eldritch blast to rip the barbarian in two, but kept his better half able to speak his final words to the party.
We ended that session with a funeral, everyone spoke their heart out.
We had our hearts broken that night.
Five married men on their guys night, crying together over a fallen pc.
This. is why I love DnD. gn folks.
#DDBStyle
In the lost mines of phandelver campaign. our party was losing until the chained-up half orc nat-20'd his chains #DDBStyle
So, at the start of the campaign (Tales of the Yawning Portal), we were talking to an old man NPC. Because the DM didn't have a name for him, I dubbed him Buckets. Later, the whole party started making Persuasion checks to get him to join our party. Our cleric got a nat 20. Sadly, the DM said that Buckets refused to join our party, but hinted that he would turn up in our time of need.
We also got a horn to call a Young Dragon to our aid from some kobolds some time later.
Now, we all died when fighting the BBEG. I was the last one to start death saves. But, with my dying gasp, I was able to watch as Buckets came riding in on said dragon and burned the entire underground forest area that was the arena to the ground, along with the severely wounded BBEG.
Then, we were all Resurrected, and it was revealed that Buckets was actually a deity in disguise. If it wasn't for that nat. 20, we would've been dog food.
#DDBStyle
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Tried to kill my level 6 players with two young dragons. 7 rounds, zero breath recharges. Needless, dragons got owned. #DDBStyle
In my groups first game of tyranny of dragons they were making their way through Greenest on thr way to mill. On the way they ran into a group of bandits. Using the darkness our cleric of protection attempted to bluff thier way past with a 0 in CHA. He rolled a nat20 and made it passed. After dealing with the mill ambush they came to the same bridge snd attempted the same trick, rolling a nat1 this time. Combat ensued and 3 of 4 characters went down. All that's left is drahonborn druid, who had been hiding in the brush sniping the raiders from cover. Seeing her friends go down she switches tactics, casting charm person on the biggest raider she can see and scream "Hold" in draconian ahe went onto persuade the raiders into keeping this group a live for questioning. She was eventually confronted by one of the cultists of tiamat and attempted to bluff her way, scoring the second nat20 of the night ending with the cultist using his own healing magic on the group! #DDBStyle
Around a month ago. I'm running Curse of Strahd and taking it sloooow. so. 20 sessions in we are at the Old Bonegrinder, and the Party is already broken, hopeless and generally in tatters. Everyone loves it. So far, all fights were more or less victorious, as you can certainly call "survival" a victory. One party member was resurrected by the Strahd himself in exchange for Irina's dead body (long story).
They were tired, but content.
Broken, but alive.
And then, after victorious battle with hags, Cackling Fever kicks in.
Everyone starts laughing madly.
It's all fun and giggles, when one of the characters (all players were fine with it) decided to push another from the stairs!
Oh what a joy!
They all laughed when he fell.
They all laughed when medicine checks failed.
They all laughed after first nat 1 on Death Save.
Everyone stopped laughing after second nat 1 on DS.
Now they carry the burden of killing a friend in their hearts, and they carry his dead body with hope that he can be ressurected.
And well, its the Curse of Strahd, so let's be honest.
He will be. :)
#DDBStyle
Once I ended an entire campaign early due to the most improbable chain of rolls. Our DM ruled there would be critical fails, and there was a table of consequences. There was also a house rule stating that breaking any magic item would result in a very big explosion (I don't remember the damage it dealt, but it was more than 10d6).
So, we were escorting a princess from one kingdom to another and on the road, we were attacked by some sort of aberration. We start combat and after a few turns, I roll a 1 with one of my magic scimitars, the DM let me roll for the next attack with the other magic scimitar before rolling for my critical failure. I rolled another 1. So, now I roll for the consequences. Both 1s, so both magic swords break. Then, just to determine how bad the explosion was, the DM asked me to roll a d100, ruling that 1 would be the least terrible outcome and 100 being the worst. It was the first 100 I ever rolled. So we all exploded and nearly died, the princess included, and the whole story derailed so badly we had to halt the campaign.
At I hope all this near impossible chain of rolls help me win something nice :D
#DDBStyle
I was playing a futuristic campaign and the battle was getting scary for the players. One person beside me decides he's going to use a slingshot bomb to try to repel some enemies and give us some time to escape. He winds up his throw, rolls the dice, and CRIT FAIL!
A sad chuckle came from the DM as he didn't want his PCs to die. He gives him another chance to made a DEX save and recover so the bomb doesn't kill him. CRIT FAIL AGAIN! The rest of the party did get away but that poor guy's sacrifice was why the rest of us escaped. #DDBStyle
The moment my DM asked me how much HP I had left, having just failed a Dex save against the BBEG. My first ever character, Atlas the Celtic inspired Dwarf bard. Disintegrated. Brutal, but I still loved it. #DDBStyle
You are a demilich, trapped under a net. You ever wanted to be a lich, or even a necromancer. Your brother forced you too. And now you're under a net, trapped in your own lair, feeling your own sanity drip away from you. You hear footsteps and chance asking for help. And to your surprise, you get a reply. You look up to see me, a tall hairless tabaxi, leaning over you. "Friend of Trinket?" I ask, "Promise to no do a hurt?"
Beyond me is a paladin, a gunslinger, a wizard. In their eyes are trust, and amusement. And agreement. You are going to be freed. You agree, no hurt. Yes. You are a friend. The net is removed and you are embraced. "Have a home for you! Many friends. Trinket is dead too you know, and they are friends of Trinket, so friends for you too!" You try to explain that you are fading, that you are losing yourself, but I will not hear it. "Fade with friends."
You show this strange group where your hoard is, gold upon gold upon gold, glimmering gems and magic artifacts. The group is thrilled and grateful, and take you to a strange house ruled by a vampire, home to ogres and spectres and other folk that could be called monstrous. This group of adventurers fights and begs and pleads for your place here. And you will never forget it. Friend of Trinket. #DDBStyle
#DDBStyle - I was playing a Ranger during The Forge of Fury. During our battle with the Black Dragon, I used the Giant Killer reaction to roll a Nat20 & launch an arrow & end our battle victoriously.
#DDBstyle
#DDBStlye
I was playing a sheltered Druid that had never seen a city before. After saving my party deep in the wilds they took me to the city to rest and resupply. The party split and I wondered into an abandoned mansion. I looked into a wardrobe looking for items and Gold. It was a mimic. Am intense battle commenced. The whole party watched as I continued to roll 1 and the DM kept rolls 20s. My heart was pounding every roll. I died quickly. I was so upset as I had spent so much time on the character and his back story. No one knew where I was so no one came to save me. I rolled a barbarian later came back and hacked the mimic to bits.
third season of pathfinder like; We've solved one ultra specific mystery and there was a Deck of many Things (but only one player got the deck because we solved but didn't see what was in that object). The person which got wasn't "friendly" with me then he asked to me: "Want to play cards?", and me: "Of course"(My caracter was card addicted). I rolled moon - 20 - (we modifed the deck and instead of 1d3 wish spells we selected one wish but that didn't had limits) and wished that the world never existed.
#DDBStyle
Playing in our Narrative Therapy Game, the whole party was down and my Hexblade attacked the big boss expecting to get his butt kicked. With his glaive and as a final last ditch move he cast Banishing Smite and used his last pact spell slot to Eldritch Smite as well and rolled a Natural 20. Instant "How Would You Like To Do This" on the BBEG #DDBStyle
Check out my Disabled & Dragons Youtube Channel for 5e Monster and Player Tactics. Helping the Disabled Community and Players and DM’s (both new and experienced) get into D&D. Plus there is a talking Dragon named Quill.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPmyTI0tZ6nM-bzY0IG3ww
I once had a player get thrown from a cliff in her sleep. She rolled a series of 1's & 2's that resulted in her getting impaled on a tree branch on the way to swan dive face planting on the stone valley floor hundreds of feet below. Welcome to the character creation process. #DDBStyle
My party had been collecting these artifacts, bones of a dead entity, that gave perks and wild magic. My character had three of these and had some bad wild magic instances already where the entity would take over in an animalistic way. My party had found another and refused to give to my character. So, while they were sleeping I tried to steal the item. Rolled low and two of them found me. Our fighter goes to shot me to incapacitate me to stop me. I call on the entity to help and roll a crit failure on will save and my DM says the following. "You feel your soul leave your body and find yourself floating in a black abyss. But your body keeps going. Richter (our fighter) sees your eyes turn pure black." Richter shoots me twice and hits me with his great axe, it does nothing. I then proceed to rip the fighter in half. #DDBStyle
Two death saves failed and my turn is coming up....panic time! #DDBStyle
In the middle of a HB campaign, my fellows and I, all level 7, encountered a very mad flesh golem with "Albert" carved into his chest, that our "wonderfully perceptive" group (barbarian, rouge, ranger) mistook for a zombie while lost in a small wooded area next to a quarry. Luckily for us, the dice gods were in our favor... sort of.
It is SUPER easy to hit a flesh golem, but pointless when not a single person in the group has a magical weapon, and the only magic spells our ranger knew were useless in this situation.
1st: Cure Wounds - Good Berry - Jump - Detect Magic - Hunter's Mark ** 2nd: Lesser Restoration - Locate Object
Our group spent about 8 rounds doing literally nothing to the golem except making it angry. Our very supportive DM never let on that we weren't doing any damage, just kept giving us the "Ooof" and "Ouch" reactions as we dealt out a substantial 0 damage.
The only thing keeping the DM from throwing her laptop through the wall was that we couldn't damage the golem, because (thank you D&DB dice gods!) she never rolled an attack higher than 11 the entire encounter.
We ended up just running off, the barbarian sticking back for a single round, just enough to let the rest of us get away.
When we finally reconvened at our intended destination, we recounted our tail to a local innkeeper while requesting a room.
The DM being "funny" put that whole encounter together on the spot just to make a stupid Bugs Bunny referenced joke...
#DDBStyle
Was DMing a homebrew snow adventure with an adult white dragon at the end. It had created a lair up in the mountains over a lake. Causing risky terrain to move around on and a very open field for the dragon to fight in. It was a little even for a while, but after getting the breath weapon back 3 turns in 4, it was VERY dark for my players. They witled down the dragon but it was very much going to be a TPK. All but one were in single digit HP, and at least one was unconscious. The wizard that was unconscious rolled a Nat 20 on the death save, popped up, shot a fireball and was just enough damage to kill the dragon. It was such a cool moment and an AMAZING turn of events! Such a cool fight staring death in the eyes!
#DDBStyle