I DM for a group who I brought through LMOP and the party was whisked away to Ravenloft for Curse of Strahd (we are approaching a year in now). The parties bard and barbarian convinced the Burgomaster (with whom they were on good terms) to allow them to question his son Victor about some recent happenings around the town of Vallaki.
Victor, ever the spoiled nobles son, was not too forthcoming and through the door to his study told the two party members to get lost. Not wanting it to end there both players goaded victor to keep the conversation going, to get as much info as possible. That is until the bard insinuated that rumor was that he had perhaps been less than gentlemanly to the daughter of one of the other noble families in town.
Nat 20 on the roll to insult.
I tell my players that I need to go look at Victors statblock… and he has polymorph…
Victor throws open the door to his study turning the bard into a bunny. Who decides when he rolls a -2 on a self imposed intelligence check that in his new bunny form he will just dash back towards the trap door they came up through. Roll for athletics check to go down the ladder.
Nat 1… so -4
Now usually I don’t do ‘critical fall damage’ but -4 demands that (and the smiling faces of my fellow players all agree that this is the right move).
DM here. My players were facing down a group of bandits. After whitening them down to the last survivor they started to question him on the bandit's lair. Nat20 on Intimidation. They got everything including the map. What a story moment. #DDBStyle
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Junior Dungeon Master in Training
---------
Learning the ropes is hard. So always remember to give your party rope before they head out.
First time DMed Lost Mine of Phandelver for friends. I wanted to make the final fight a bit more interesting and had the villain be betrayed by Lolth as he failed to kill the party in the temple of Dumathoin. Spiders dragged him to the ceiling, and everything went pitch black, the mine howled in anguish and Dumathoin's statue seemed very, very angry that his site got desecrated. What was supposed to happen was that the final boss came back for a stage 2, and I had a little surprise prepared for the party: If they noticed the statue's eyes were missing and somehow got to replace them, the god of the mine would grant them his boon - to forge heroes one last time in the heat of battle in the lost mine. Basically, a long rest. My friends were so worn out that they would have wiped, and they had no idea what to do. The fighter just started meditating, the ranger tried to claw her way out through the webbed doors, and the wizard... well, he just said "I have an idea, might be stupid tho." and looked at the statue while a Drider was lowering itself from the ceiling, silently twitching.
I was the DM. I didn't want to TPK my friends at the final fight. But it would happen, if the dice said so.
The wizard looked at the statue.
Perception Check: 19.
"The eyes are missing, and the statue looks grim and vengeful."
Religion Check: 20.
"You know what to do."
I got my narration of the mine coming back to life one last time. And they absolutely SLAYED that Drider with fresh spells. A worthy finale. Just trust the dice.
I was relatively new to a roleplay-heavy homebrew campaign, run by an exceptionally talented DM who I am very lucky to still play with (this was about a year and a half ago). This campaign was already a year in the making when I was invited to join, so I got to begin at level 8. This was my first serious go at D&D, and I created a wood elf monk.
Unbeknownst to me when I designed my character as an elf (not that I would have written her to be any other way), the major conflict of this campaign was that a powerful empire of humans was seeking to conquer the world, dominating or exterminating all of the other "inferior" races on their way. This human empire had a special brand of hatred for elves in particular, but no one except humans escaped the empire's iron fist. The empire was ruled by an obscenly powerful tyrant who I'll call King A, and although relationships between Empire and the rest of the world's nations were cold and uneasy, no war had officially broken out yet.
Jumping into this campaign a year after it started, I completely skipped over the helping-innkeepers-find-their-stolen-treasure, saving-little-Timmy-from-the-well stage of the story. I missed all the low-stakes stuff that most D&D campaigns begin with, although I've been told that it was littered with incredibly orcestrated slow-building tension as Empire grew stronger, quietly tightening their grip on the world. On my first session, our half-elf rogue was very nearly murdered by Empire assasins (who rogue used to work for, but that's another story). By my third or fourth session, our party had SOMEHOW managed to get an audience with King A himself. I have no idea how, because being so new I had absolutely no clue what a pivotal moment of the story this was. I just knew that everyone at the table, besides the DM and one other brand new player, was nervous out of their minds.
We arrive at the hall where the meeting will take place. We go through the process of trying to hide weapons in our clothes (except me, for monk reasons) and most of us are granted entry without trouble. This is everyone's first time meeting King A in person. Our DM does a truly phenomenal job scaring us all half to death with his roleyplaying, and tenion at the table is unbelievably high.
This is when the dice roll to end all dice rolls happens. Half-elf rogue, on a hunch, decides halfway through the meeting to roll a perception check on the room. She does not trust that King A will allow any of us to leave alive; none of us are human, and obviously he is not the diplomatic type.
She rolls a nat20. Plus whatever her expertise gave her, it was an insanely high number. And she sees something that the DM later told us we were NOT intended to see: a bunch of assasins creeping through the room, coming steadily towards us with daggers in their fists.
Now the reason we were not supposed to see this, is because they were not here for us. They were here for a beloved NPC, a court wizard, who was also in the room. But half-elf rogue could not know this. And of course, with no other choice, she announces their presence and combat begins.
If combat had stayed only between us and the assasins, then everything could have turned out okay. And for a minute, it did. Until another party member, a rough-and-tumble warforged gunslinger, took a shot at King A himself. And all hell broke loose.
King A unleashes legendary actions on us that our level 8 party had never seen before. If the court wizard npc had not teleported us out of the hall two rounds in, we all would have died.
And the kicker: shooting that one bullet at the king officially began the war between Empire and the rest of the world.
Our poor DM had to scrap pages upon pages of notes, because we had progressed the story weeks ahead of schedule. In an instant, we all went from locally known adventurers-for-hire to legendary heroes, and Empire's most sinister of foes. All because of one fated perception check.
DMing a groups 1st dungeon and a player thought it'd be a good idea to dive into a pool of poisonous water to stab the enemy rather than sit back and let his ranged teammates deal with it. He got a nat 1 on a CON save then got crit by said enemy. Time skip, two party members start a fight in the adventures guild, cause property damage, and get demoted because of that. Now they have to go back to the dungeon where the same player with his new character dies by being pushed into the same water and rolls a nat 1. #DDBStyle
#DDBStyle I will never forget. My whole party is down throwing death rolls vs a witch who was badly wounded. Then somehow I get my nats 20 and recover 1 hp, when I opened my eyes the witch was eating the cleric. I stand UP as sneaky as I could. And attack her with my bow, and used all my available skill set and score another nats 20s and killed her with a perfect crit bypassing his total health by 1 hp. Then I carried all my party members out of the dungeon and save them all. Most epic reaction I had in the game. Screamings everywhere.
My five year old wanted to play a knight, I let him play a fighter in dnd. He had an encounter with a Black Dragon (BBEG) that used his breath attack on the low level knight before flying away. My son rolled a nat 1 for dex save. That's when I realised that this would kill him. Before I had the courage to tell him he picked up the dice said "I can reroll it because I'm lucky" In creation I had given him the Lucky feat. I didn't even remember that, but my five year old did! He rolled a nat 20 that I rulled that his knight avoided the whole attack.
The young green dragon in Thundertree was supposed to scare my players and as a beginner DM I was actually afraid it might kill one of them, so I was glad the guide suggested making it flee at half health. Then two of my players rolled 20s in one round, rolled really high on their criticals and they actually managed to kill a young green dragon (as it was fleeing). My players felt amazing after that and it felt epic and completely earned for them.
I was still new to 5e, and we were exploring Thundertree as part of LMoP. My blade bard goes barreling into the ruined tower with no perception check. This of course results in the adolescent green dragon almost landing right on top of me. In one round he almost drops half the party and I’m the only one who manages to avoid heavy damage. I start flourishing and its defensive flourishes the whole way. For the next two rounds I manage to fend off the dragon’s physical attacks while my party retreats to the outside of the tower urging me to beat feat my self. To the sounds of groans from the other players at the table I stay in melee. The ranger starts providing ranged support from cover while the druid casts “cure wounds” on the unconscious glamour bard. Next round I use my last defensive flourish to buff my A/C, and I roll a 1 on my inspiration d6. With my A/C back to a more normal level the dragon promptly bites me. Nearly unconscious and alone in melee Things are looking bad and everyone at the table is expressing sorrow at the impending death of my character. This is when the ranger crits. revealing that there is a damage threshold for the dragon to break off the encounter, effectively saving my bacon. It was a perfect blend of danger and triumph, taking the situation to the brink and pulling it off through the luck of the dice. #DDBStyle
It first session in 5e in hoard of the dragon queen, the brave adventures head out from the keep to secure the safety of two families while the dragon cultists lay waste to greenest. Dave's with a squad of kobolds we the out heads back and laughed as we charged in, only to be kicked upside down by pack tactics. #DDBStyle
My Players were fighting a giant tree monster as well as a demon with a petrification ray. The sorcerer had cast Mirror Image, then been petrified, all the mirror images were turned to stone. The Tree monster made 3 attacks that all hit and would have shattered the sorcerer into a thousand pieces. 3 hits in a row his rolls succeeded and the images were smashed instead of him.
Oh theres plenty. Dances with dice decide many fates. Id say the most recent was a simple roll with very dangerous consequences if i messed up. a simple jump across a cracking platform, 3 mile drop into a realm of torture and suffering if i missed :^) #DDBStyle
Rogue/warlock changeling: infiltrated, alone, into a high society party related to the BBEG & started gathering info with lucky persuasion checks. BBEG showed up unexpectedly and started suspecting me. I role-played for my life and... NAT20! He believed me! #DnD#DDBStyle
My party, the merry band of mercenaries known as the Raven Company, have been coasting above the continent between sky islands on their airship. One fine day in amidst the clouds, a bounty hunting open hand monk boarded the ship. One of my player's last words as he was sent overboard to fall thousands of feet was "We really need to invest in parachutes!" #DDBStyle
Picture this. The 1st level party is being ravaged by goblins, and my Elven Wizard has only a dagger & zero spells to defend against the last 2 enemies. Two natural 20s later however... 🥳#DDBStyle
In a fight, all of my fellow players were doing very very bad. One was on his deathbed, another two were trying to run away with a few HP, it was not looking good. Then, I shot Magic Missiles at two different enemies, hit one with a nat 20, and saved our teammates from passing out.
Thornix Wardrake my Gold Dragonborn Paladin of Bahamut was stacked with stats in all the right places. Built to deal massive damage with holy smites. however In one session during an encounter with some pathetic goblins a flurry of 5 Nat 1's resulted in the holy avenger dealing no damage at all. #DDBStyle
Let me take you back to the year 2010 during 3.5 days of old. I was playing a Ranger during the siege of a castle. The ruler casted Blade Barrier and I thought "I can make the reflex save" Sadly I failed the save took 68 damage. Needed to make a massive damage save. Rolled the die and the table went silent as the DM removed my token from the battle map after telling him "I rolled a 1" my heart sank along with the shock that hit the six other players at the table
There are a fair few but the one that comes to mind is a combination of bad rolls of both DM and player. It was my first time DM'ing a homebrew campaign for close friends. I really like homebrew monsters so the players were facing a dandelion (and lion made of flowers and grass) while trying to retrieve some flowers. The Gnome Rogue, admittedly one of my favourite characters backstory-wise, went ahead to scout and had bad luck as a natural 20 hit her. Almost max damage and the was down, nearly a one-hit kill. Good roll on my side. She fails her first death save but everybody thinks, no big deal we get there in a few rounds to help her up. The next rounds, no one with healing can reach her yet and she makes another death save. Natural 1. She is dead. Her death resulted in a player going beserk and killing the dandelion. They buried her with honors and during a break we whipped up another character that was introduced moments later. #DDBStyle
So this one happened quite recently.
I DM for a group who I brought through LMOP and the party was whisked away to Ravenloft for Curse of Strahd (we are approaching a year in now). The parties bard and barbarian convinced the Burgomaster (with whom they were on good terms) to allow them to question his son Victor about some recent happenings around the town of Vallaki.
Victor, ever the spoiled nobles son, was not too forthcoming and through the door to his study told the two party members to get lost. Not wanting it to end there both players goaded victor to keep the conversation going, to get as much info as possible. That is until the bard insinuated that rumor was that he had perhaps been less than gentlemanly to the daughter of one of the other noble families in town.
Nat 20 on the roll to insult.
I tell my players that I need to go look at Victors statblock… and he has polymorph…
Victor throws open the door to his study turning the bard into a bunny. Who decides when he rolls a -2 on a self imposed intelligence check that in his new bunny form he will just dash back towards the trap door they came up through. Roll for athletics check to go down the ladder.
Nat 1… so -4
Now usually I don’t do ‘critical fall damage’ but -4 demands that (and the smiling faces of my fellow players all agree that this is the right move).
So 4d6 fall damage.
6, 6, 5, 4 = 21
Our bard will be remembered fondly.
#DDBStyle
DM here. My players were facing down a group of bandits. After whitening them down to the last survivor they started to question him on the bandit's lair. Nat20 on Intimidation. They got everything including the map. What a story moment. #DDBStyle
Junior Dungeon Master in Training
---------
Learning the ropes is hard. So always remember to give your party rope before they head out.
First time DMed Lost Mine of Phandelver for friends. I wanted to make the final fight a bit more interesting and had the villain be betrayed by Lolth as he failed to kill the party in the temple of Dumathoin. Spiders dragged him to the ceiling, and everything went pitch black, the mine howled in anguish and Dumathoin's statue seemed very, very angry that his site got desecrated. What was supposed to happen was that the final boss came back for a stage 2, and I had a little surprise prepared for the party: If they noticed the statue's eyes were missing and somehow got to replace them, the god of the mine would grant them his boon - to forge heroes one last time in the heat of battle in the lost mine. Basically, a long rest. My friends were so worn out that they would have wiped, and they had no idea what to do. The fighter just started meditating, the ranger tried to claw her way out through the webbed doors, and the wizard... well, he just said "I have an idea, might be stupid tho." and looked at the statue while a Drider was lowering itself from the ceiling, silently twitching.
I was the DM. I didn't want to TPK my friends at the final fight. But it would happen, if the dice said so.
The wizard looked at the statue.
Perception Check: 19.
"The eyes are missing, and the statue looks grim and vengeful."
Religion Check: 20.
"You know what to do."
I got my narration of the mine coming back to life one last time. And they absolutely SLAYED that Drider with fresh spells. A worthy finale. Just trust the dice.
#DDBStyle
Okay so I have a story. #DDBStyle
I was relatively new to a roleplay-heavy homebrew campaign, run by an exceptionally talented DM who I am very lucky to still play with (this was about a year and a half ago). This campaign was already a year in the making when I was invited to join, so I got to begin at level 8. This was my first serious go at D&D, and I created a wood elf monk.
Unbeknownst to me when I designed my character as an elf (not that I would have written her to be any other way), the major conflict of this campaign was that a powerful empire of humans was seeking to conquer the world, dominating or exterminating all of the other "inferior" races on their way. This human empire had a special brand of hatred for elves in particular, but no one except humans escaped the empire's iron fist. The empire was ruled by an obscenly powerful tyrant who I'll call King A, and although relationships between Empire and the rest of the world's nations were cold and uneasy, no war had officially broken out yet.
Jumping into this campaign a year after it started, I completely skipped over the helping-innkeepers-find-their-stolen-treasure, saving-little-Timmy-from-the-well stage of the story. I missed all the low-stakes stuff that most D&D campaigns begin with, although I've been told that it was littered with incredibly orcestrated slow-building tension as Empire grew stronger, quietly tightening their grip on the world. On my first session, our half-elf rogue was very nearly murdered by Empire assasins (who rogue used to work for, but that's another story). By my third or fourth session, our party had SOMEHOW managed to get an audience with King A himself. I have no idea how, because being so new I had absolutely no clue what a pivotal moment of the story this was. I just knew that everyone at the table, besides the DM and one other brand new player, was nervous out of their minds.
We arrive at the hall where the meeting will take place. We go through the process of trying to hide weapons in our clothes (except me, for monk reasons) and most of us are granted entry without trouble. This is everyone's first time meeting King A in person. Our DM does a truly phenomenal job scaring us all half to death with his roleyplaying, and tenion at the table is unbelievably high.
This is when the dice roll to end all dice rolls happens. Half-elf rogue, on a hunch, decides halfway through the meeting to roll a perception check on the room. She does not trust that King A will allow any of us to leave alive; none of us are human, and obviously he is not the diplomatic type.
She rolls a nat20. Plus whatever her expertise gave her, it was an insanely high number. And she sees something that the DM later told us we were NOT intended to see: a bunch of assasins creeping through the room, coming steadily towards us with daggers in their fists.
Now the reason we were not supposed to see this, is because they were not here for us. They were here for a beloved NPC, a court wizard, who was also in the room. But half-elf rogue could not know this. And of course, with no other choice, she announces their presence and combat begins.
If combat had stayed only between us and the assasins, then everything could have turned out okay. And for a minute, it did. Until another party member, a rough-and-tumble warforged gunslinger, took a shot at King A himself. And all hell broke loose.
King A unleashes legendary actions on us that our level 8 party had never seen before. If the court wizard npc had not teleported us out of the hall two rounds in, we all would have died.
And the kicker: shooting that one bullet at the king officially began the war between Empire and the rest of the world.
Our poor DM had to scrap pages upon pages of notes, because we had progressed the story weeks ahead of schedule. In an instant, we all went from locally known adventurers-for-hire to legendary heroes, and Empire's most sinister of foes. All because of one fated perception check.
DMing a groups 1st dungeon and a player thought it'd be a good idea to dive into a pool of poisonous water to stab the enemy rather than sit back and let his ranged teammates deal with it. He got a nat 1 on a CON save then got crit by said enemy. Time skip, two party members start a fight in the adventures guild, cause property damage, and get demoted because of that. Now they have to go back to the dungeon where the same player with his new character dies by being pushed into the same water and rolls a nat 1. #DDBStyle
#DDBStyle I will never forget. My whole party is down throwing death rolls vs a witch who was badly wounded. Then somehow I get my nats 20 and recover 1 hp, when I opened my eyes the witch was eating the cleric. I stand UP as sneaky as I could. And attack her with my bow, and used all my available skill set and score another nats 20s and killed her with a perfect crit bypassing his total health by 1 hp. Then I carried all my party members out of the dungeon and save them all. Most epic reaction I had in the game. Screamings everywhere.
My five year old wanted to play a knight, I let him play a fighter in dnd. He had an encounter with a Black Dragon (BBEG) that used his breath attack on the low level knight before flying away. My son rolled a nat 1 for dex save. That's when I realised that this would kill him. Before I had the courage to tell him he picked up the dice said "I can reroll it because I'm lucky"
In creation I had given him the Lucky feat. I didn't even remember that, but my five year old did!
He rolled a nat 20 that I rulled that his knight avoided the whole attack.
The young green dragon in Thundertree was supposed to scare my players and as a beginner DM I was actually afraid it might kill one of them, so I was glad the guide suggested making it flee at half health. Then two of my players rolled 20s in one round, rolled really high on their criticals and they actually managed to kill a young green dragon (as it was fleeing). My players felt amazing after that and it felt epic and completely earned for them.
#DDBStyle
I was still new to 5e, and we were exploring Thundertree as part of LMoP. My blade bard goes barreling into the ruined tower with no perception check. This of course results in the adolescent green dragon almost landing right on top of me. In one round he almost drops half the party and I’m the only one who manages to avoid heavy damage. I start flourishing and its defensive flourishes the whole way. For the next two rounds I manage to fend off the dragon’s physical attacks while my party retreats to the outside of the tower urging me to beat feat my self. To the sounds of groans from the other players at the table I stay in melee. The ranger starts providing ranged support from cover while the druid casts “cure wounds” on the unconscious glamour bard. Next round I use my last defensive flourish to buff my A/C, and I roll a 1 on my inspiration d6. With my A/C back to a more normal level the dragon promptly bites me. Nearly unconscious and alone in melee Things are looking bad and everyone at the table is expressing sorrow at the impending death of my character. This is when the ranger crits. revealing that there is a damage threshold for the dragon to break off the encounter, effectively saving my bacon. It was a perfect blend of danger and triumph, taking the situation to the brink and pulling it off through the luck of the dice. #DDBStyle
It first session in 5e in hoard of the dragon queen, the brave adventures head out from the keep to secure the safety of two families while the dragon cultists lay waste to greenest. Dave's with a squad of kobolds we the out heads back and laughed as we charged in, only to be kicked upside down by pack tactics. #DDBStyle
My Players were fighting a giant tree monster as well as a demon with a petrification ray. The sorcerer had cast Mirror Image, then been petrified, all the mirror images were turned to stone. The Tree monster made 3 attacks that all hit and would have shattered the sorcerer into a thousand pieces. 3 hits in a row his rolls succeeded and the images were smashed instead of him.
#DDB Style
Oh theres plenty. Dances with dice decide many fates. Id say the most recent was a simple roll with very dangerous consequences if i messed up. a simple jump across a cracking platform, 3 mile drop into a realm of torture and suffering if i missed :^) #DDBStyle
Rogue/warlock changeling: infiltrated, alone, into a high society party related to the BBEG & started gathering info with lucky persuasion checks. BBEG showed up unexpectedly and started suspecting me. I role-played for my life and... NAT20! He believed me! #DnD #DDBStyle
My party, the merry band of mercenaries known as the Raven Company, have been coasting above the continent between sky islands on their airship. One fine day in amidst the clouds, a bounty hunting open hand monk boarded the ship. One of my player's last words as he was sent overboard to fall thousands of feet was "We really need to invest in parachutes!" #DDBStyle
Picture this. The 1st level party is being ravaged by goblins, and my Elven Wizard has only a dagger & zero spells to defend against the last 2 enemies. Two natural 20s later however... 🥳 #DDBStyle
In a fight, all of my fellow players were doing very very bad. One was on his deathbed, another two were trying to run away with a few HP, it was not looking good. Then, I shot Magic Missiles at two different enemies, hit one with a nat 20, and saved our teammates from passing out.
#DDBStyle
Thornix Wardrake my Gold Dragonborn Paladin of Bahamut was stacked with stats in all the right places. Built to deal massive damage with holy smites. however In one session during an encounter with some pathetic goblins a flurry of 5 Nat 1's resulted in the holy avenger dealing no damage at all. #DDBStyle
Let me take you back to the year 2010 during 3.5 days of old. I was playing a Ranger during the siege of a castle. The ruler casted Blade Barrier and I thought "I can make the reflex save" Sadly I failed the save took 68 damage. Needed to make a massive damage save. Rolled the die and the table went silent as the DM removed my token from the battle map after telling him "I rolled a 1" my heart sank along with the shock that hit the six other players at the table
#DDBStyle
There are a fair few but the one that comes to mind is a combination of bad rolls of both DM and player. It was my first time DM'ing a homebrew campaign for close friends. I really like homebrew monsters so the players were facing a dandelion (and lion made of flowers and grass) while trying to retrieve some flowers. The Gnome Rogue, admittedly one of my favourite characters backstory-wise, went ahead to scout and had bad luck as a natural 20 hit her. Almost max damage and the was down, nearly a one-hit kill. Good roll on my side. She fails her first death save but everybody thinks, no big deal we get there in a few rounds to help her up. The next rounds, no one with healing can reach her yet and she makes another death save. Natural 1. She is dead. Her death resulted in a player going beserk and killing the dandelion. They buried her with honors and during a break we whipped up another character that was introduced moments later. #DDBStyle
Final death saving throw. Two successes, two failures. Player had beacon of hope on them so they got to roll with advantage... two nat 1s. #DDBStyle