I've only played a couple sessions so I don't have many stories. In my first session, general nervousness aside, my party had to outrun an avalanche in 3 turns I rolled a 1 for a 0 on the first, a natural 20 on the second and a 17. Later in the same game, I was blindsided by a cragcat. Already low on health from a previous fight it was a struggle to stay alive using a luck to negate a killing blow completely while the rest of the party attacked it. I for sure thought my character was going to die in my first game #DDBStyle
After 30 years of DM'ing, I was able to be a player for the first time in a campaign run by my son. In one of the first sessions with the new group (which was already established), my half-orc war cleric unleashed a guiding bolt at an undead beholder - - natural 20! That hit, and the reaction of those at the table, will be a favorite D&D memory of mine for years to come...
#DDBStyle. One moment that made heart go racing, was when my group was escaping a bunch of bugbears after a failed diplomacy of trying to use the bugbears' cavers as a shortcut (the max charisma bard doesn't help if they roll nat 1). At midway through this chase we had to make a jump, everyone made it, some with grace and others by the skin of their teeth, then there was me, with -2 to Strength, all my team giving me bonus to make the jump, I could make as long didn't roll a 5 or lower, *Rolls 1*....... Remembers that I have a Potion of Flying, my heart not only was racing from the fail but the recover as. #DDBStyle
We were playing the Lost Mines of Phandelver as our first campaign. While battling BBEG I had to roll death saving throws for my gnome sorcerer. I had one fail and one success and then I rolled at critical fail... We did win in the end, with only one member standing. #DDBStyle
I've played several games and several different characters but the dice had me going for one of my characters: I was playing a Half-elf Rouge named lucky with a party of a Tiefling Paladin, Dragonborn monk/cleric, Gnome Wizard, and a Half-Elven Warlock. Our Paladin couldn't make it to the session on this particular day and our party were on our way to go investigate some ruins. on our way we found a momma and baby owlbear, our wizard had been wanting one for awhile so we killed momma and took the baby, our mistake. When we got to the ruins we found that orcs had taken over the ruins and laid a trap for a hunting group we saw coming. The fight was close and hard and towards the end of the fight the DM had a Father owlbear show up with some mutated properties... its beak attack caused us to bleed. When my character got hit he went down Immediately... now with bleed I took one death fail automatically. I spent 6 round going up and down because my dice tried their best to keep me alive, I rolled 4 Nat 20s and our cleric used spare the dying once. I then on round 7 with the fight over we stayed in initiative since I was down and bleeding out I took 1 death fail on my turn and my dice decided to stab me in the back by rolling a Nat 1... it's still the quietest I've ever heard our dnd group and still the saddest moments of our campain... #DDBStyle
So my party fought this giant homebrewed Hellhound, who already consumed the Souls of 2 party members. All of us were Melee, no spells or such, and we all had a very high health pool, BUT in the final round (there was a time limit) the party had already taken a lot of damage. Meet us 2 crackheads: Strength 1 (Me, an Orc Barbarian) and Strength 2 (My friend, a Goliath Barbarian). In a desperate attempt to kill the Boss, we asked the Dm to perform a Teamattack. Using our 2 Rounds, Strength 2 threw me high up in the air, so i could stomp on the big doggo. 2 Nat 20`s on the throw (strength check) and the Hit. Dm allowed me to deal 6d6 bludgeoning damage, and the beast was killed, also releasing the souls of the party members. One of my favorite moments :D #DDBStyle
The banshee told the Paladin he looked like a pretty thing, my wife's monk threw a stunning strike on it right before it's turn in the initiative order (I had to scramble to look it up and of course its the one condition it's not immune to) and it failed the save! Series of awesome hits as one big collective group "Nope!" and they took it out just before its next turn. It didn't even have a chance to move or throw a "wail" on them. BBEG for the encounter gone before they even really knew what it was, but it was so perfect I couldn't help but be proud of the group. The dice were speaking loud and clear on that one! #ddbstyle
I was dm and my party was fighting a mouth of grolantor when I down the cleric and right after crit the rogue and almost one shot her as well. Wasnt sure the party was going to make it through that one.#DDBStyle.
I was playing a ranger (archer) with a foul attitude and little time for social pleasantries when the big bad starting monologuing about 600 feet away. A slave-trading, vampire queen with a long list of crimes droning on about something so I shot her. Nat 20. Then the DM reminded me it was at disadvantage for some reason. So I rolled another Nat 20. it did not, unfortunately kill her but it did knock her off the tower she was standing on and shut her up long enough to hunt her down and finish her off. #DDBStyle
As a DM, my blood regularly starts pumping when my players make choices they soon will regret. It was my younger brother's first time playing with our group (and first time in an actual DnD campaign) as we tackled the Essentials Kit (highly recommend for new or young players by the way, it actually brought me to DnDBeyond in the first place). He was going for an athletics-based Aasimar paladin and using material from the new Theros sourcebook, but unfortunately the dice were not with him that night and he couldn't make any of his rolls, even with his proficiencies and bonuses. As my players were entering Butterskull Ranch, they could tell there were orcs still nearby and possibly within the main building of the ranch itself. My brother's paladin took point and decided to roll athletics for a long jump onto the front porch of the ranch (forgoing the old, creaky-looking stairs), and rolled hoping to at least gather attention to that part of the house so half the party could sneak into the other side of the building (there were no rogues among them). Preemptive despair swelled among us as he rattled the d20 in his hand, myself in particular because I knew he was going to be a sitting duck as there were two orcs just on the other side of the front door. If he failed to make the landing and get to the door, he'd alert the orcs to the whole party, or worse, end up in a combat with disadvantage!
He threw the die and we held our breath. BOOM, a natural 20. My brother was stunned with a big smile on his face while his fellow players cheered and I sat back in my chair with relief. I rewarded him with his paladin not only making the jump, but leaping with such terrifying velocity that he overshot his landing and kicked the door straight off its hinges and into one of the orcs waiting on the other side (and causing it to go prone). The other paladin in the party hurried to support him for the combat while the monk and bard were able to sneak around to the back entrance of the house and flank the rest of the orcs inside. #DDBStyle
During a campaign I was playing, the party and we had spent the last six sessions stuck in some nightmarish setting driving us all insane because we could not for the life of us figure out how to get out of it. The DM was trying to throw every bone he could to get us out, but we were just rolling low and it wasn't going very well for us. Essentially, there was a fog outside of this dream-like state of a small farming town, and we finally figured out that we had to run through the fog and pass a series of saving throws to get out. Our druid had finally gotten through the two first savings throws (each with higher DCs), and we were all holding our breaths, hoping he would get us out. And then, final saving roll... And a natural 20!! The table erupted in cheers, and we finally got out of the nightmare town. Needless to say, it was a good time afterwards. #DDBStyle
Our homebrew rule was if you make a call shot roll a d20 nat 20s are success nat 1 epic fail. 2-19 DM would use skill checks and normal rules. Story time, Our party was 2 days exhausted, our Spell casters were out of spell slots and the gnome was making death saves. A roc swooped down and snatched the gnome up preventing us from stabilizing him. Using a call shot I decided to toss our halfling (paladin) at the gnome being taken away in attempt to use his last lay hands and save the party member. The DM warned us the fall would be great enough that even if we succeed the paladin would die on impact. 1st my roll to get the halfling to the gnome, nat 20... BOOM roll 2: the halfling to lay hands on the gnome midflight... Boom nat 20 and an epic HIGH Five! and the gnome now alive (low on hp) call shot to use convince the roc to saftely catch the halfling and return them to the ground using his talk with beast... NAT 20! TPK avoided. The rok even made other appearances later in the campaign since our druid fed it some goodberries by mistake. Druid " I give everyone who just landed a share of my remaining 4 berries" #DDBStyle
The party was captured in the Xanathar Guild hideout under Waterdeep. They decided not to stick around and started breaking themselves and all the prisoners out. As they went for the exit they found themselves in the arena and many members of the guild were there ready to fight. The prisoners and one of the party members (A Warforged Artificer) stayed to fight. The rest of the party climbed out of the arena and made a run for it. After a few rounds of fighting it was just the Artificer, a bandit, and a set of animated Armour that chased him into a corner. At that point almost every hit on either side was a miss. That session was left on a cliff hanger.
In the next session the party (Without the Artificer) made their way to find the mindflayer that lives there. Half way through that combat the Warforged makes it to the room missing an arm.
Our party had been slogging through Barovia for days. We had just finished clearing out a cave of cultists and saved a dozen children from certain doom. Loading the children into our trusty cart for safety we lead the horse carefully down from the cave to the road where we began to discuss our next action. We were close to the village of Krezk, but maybe not close enough to reach it before nightfall. We could try setting up camp for the night... but as everyone knows, camping in the wilds of Barovia after dark can be quite dangerous. As we stood and debated the risks, suddenly the sounds of howls could be heard coming from the direction of the cave we had just cleared. As some of the cultists we slayed were lycans we assumed the worst... the corpses we had left behind had been found and now their brothers were singing the song of revenge. The race to Krazk was on. The bard hopped into the drivers seat of the cart while the paladin, ranger, warlock, and fighter took up the flanks... the howls grew closer as the party struggled to get moving at a realistic pace... as two large lycans emerged down the road behind us with several feral wolves alongside them, the bard (ME) pleaded with the horse to RUN... fortunately this didn't take much because the horse sensed the danger as well and took off at a gallop leaving the rest of the party behind... as the horse accelerated a very large lycan stepped into the road 50 yards in front of the horse and cart full of children... in an attempt to quickly confuse and possibly scare the lycan out of the road the bard attempted to quickly cast an illusion that would place an image if Strahd himself in front of the lycan (this had worked in several different ways in the campaign previously and had become a favorite tactic for throwing things into quick confusion)... and then... the roll... Rolling to see if the illusion managed to scare the lycan away or at least distract it for the horse and cart to go by... the dice came up... 1 ... while it may have been a novel idea that might have had some minor success... the lycan didn't even have time to notice the illusion... however the terrified horse very much did. Veering harshly to the side and bucking into the air to avoid the image now feet from the galloping horse the bard is thrown from the cart... the cart is yanked sideways and begins to tip... another roll... for what you ask?...in all of the rush, the bard had also forgotten the two crates... CRATES... of Alchemists Fire the party had loaded into the wagon... yes, we loaded children into a cart with a bunch of alchemists fire... the roll... 1... I'll let you imagine the horror of what happened next. Needless to say this event drove a firm wedge into the already cantankerous party and nearly drove the bard to abandon his companions and throw his lot in with Strahd himself.
The party I DM for were attacked by a variety of were-creatures. they were all bitten and had to make constitution saving throws. All pass, except for one. He became a wereweasel. The wereweasel stats made for amazing reconnaissance missions through the campaign, that ultimately saved the realm. #DDBStyle
We were playing a homebrew campaign that revolved around our party investigating a plague that was killing off the local peasants. My cleric caught the plague, but we managed to cure it by defeating a manticore and using its venom to create a potion. Later, we discovered the big boss: an otherworldly creature that was kidnapping, experimenting on, and killing some of the peasants in search of a cure for the plague, which got into our realm from its own realm.
It was about to kill us (for science!), but I made a medicine check to explain how we had already found a cure. I rolled a Natural 20, then presented a compelling dissertation on the medicinal properties of manticore venom, including a magical power-point-style visual accompaniment. The monster was absolutely wowed by my presentation, and--considering the matter closed--agreed to stop murdering the locals and to return to its own realm.
My players were in a battle for the entirety of Eberron. A force cage held the Paladin and the monk, the sorcerer was unconscious for the 3rd time, the rogue's soul was trapped in a ring, and the warlock had to get the gem through the portal. Let's Just say we were all on edge! #DDBStyle
I've only played a couple sessions so I don't have many stories. In my first session, general nervousness aside, my party had to outrun an avalanche in 3 turns I rolled a 1 for a 0 on the first, a natural 20 on the second and a 17. Later in the same game, I was blindsided by a cragcat. Already low on health from a previous fight it was a struggle to stay alive using a luck to negate a killing blow completely while the rest of the party attacked it. I for sure thought my character was going to die in my first game #DDBStyle
After 30 years of DM'ing, I was able to be a player for the first time in a campaign run by my son. In one of the first sessions with the new group (which was already established), my half-orc war cleric unleashed a guiding bolt at an undead beholder - - natural 20! That hit, and the reaction of those at the table, will be a favorite D&D memory of mine for years to come...
#DDBStyle
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
Albert Einstein
Nat20 the BBEG of the 2 year season finale with a vorpal sword. Instant kill. #DDBStyle
#DDBStyle. One moment that made heart go racing, was when my group was escaping a bunch of bugbears after a failed diplomacy of trying to use the bugbears' cavers as a shortcut (the max charisma bard doesn't help if they roll nat 1). At midway through this chase we had to make a jump, everyone made it, some with grace and others by the skin of their teeth, then there was me, with -2 to Strength, all my team giving me bonus to make the jump, I could make as long didn't roll a 5 or lower, *Rolls 1*....... Remembers that I have a Potion of Flying, my heart not only was racing from the fail but the recover as. #DDBStyle
We were playing the Lost Mines of Phandelver as our first campaign. While battling BBEG I had to roll death saving throws for my gnome sorcerer. I had one fail and one success and then I rolled at critical fail... We did win in the end, with only one member standing. #DDBStyle
I've played several games and several different characters but the dice had me going for one of my characters: I was playing a Half-elf Rouge named lucky with a party of a Tiefling Paladin, Dragonborn monk/cleric, Gnome Wizard, and a Half-Elven Warlock. Our Paladin couldn't make it to the session on this particular day and our party were on our way to go investigate some ruins. on our way we found a momma and baby owlbear, our wizard had been wanting one for awhile so we killed momma and took the baby, our mistake. When we got to the ruins we found that orcs had taken over the ruins and laid a trap for a hunting group we saw coming. The fight was close and hard and towards the end of the fight the DM had a Father owlbear show up with some mutated properties... its beak attack caused us to bleed. When my character got hit he went down Immediately... now with bleed I took one death fail automatically. I spent 6 round going up and down because my dice tried their best to keep me alive, I rolled 4 Nat 20s and our cleric used spare the dying once. I then on round 7 with the fight over we stayed in initiative since I was down and bleeding out I took 1 death fail on my turn and my dice decided to stab me in the back by rolling a Nat 1... it's still the quietest I've ever heard our dnd group and still the saddest moments of our campain... #DDBStyle
So my party fought this giant homebrewed Hellhound, who already consumed the Souls of 2 party members. All of us were Melee, no spells or such, and we all had a very high health pool, BUT in the final round (there was a time limit) the party had already taken a lot of damage. Meet us 2 crackheads: Strength 1 (Me, an Orc Barbarian) and Strength 2 (My friend, a Goliath Barbarian). In a desperate attempt to kill the Boss, we asked the Dm to perform a Teamattack. Using our 2 Rounds, Strength 2 threw me high up in the air, so i could stomp on the big doggo. 2 Nat 20`s on the throw (strength check) and the Hit. Dm allowed me to deal 6d6 bludgeoning damage, and the beast was killed, also releasing the souls of the party members. One of my favorite moments :D #DDBStyle
The banshee told the Paladin he looked like a pretty thing, my wife's monk threw a stunning strike on it right before it's turn in the initiative order (I had to scramble to look it up and of course its the one condition it's not immune to) and it failed the save! Series of awesome hits as one big collective group "Nope!" and they took it out just before its next turn. It didn't even have a chance to move or throw a "wail" on them. BBEG for the encounter gone before they even really knew what it was, but it was so perfect I couldn't help but be proud of the group. The dice were speaking loud and clear on that one! #ddbstyle
I was dm and my party was fighting a mouth of grolantor when I down the cleric and right after crit the rogue and almost one shot her as well. Wasnt sure the party was going to make it through that one.#DDBStyle.
At the end of a campaign I had a chance to hit the BBEG, but it was with disadvantage. Somehow I rolled two nat20s! #DDBStyle
AWESOME!!!
#DDBStyle
I was playing a ranger (archer) with a foul attitude and little time for social pleasantries when the big bad starting monologuing about 600 feet away. A slave-trading, vampire queen with a long list of crimes droning on about something so I shot her. Nat 20. Then the DM reminded me it was at disadvantage for some reason. So I rolled another Nat 20. it did not, unfortunately kill her but it did knock her off the tower she was standing on and shut her up long enough to hunt her down and finish her off. #DDBStyle
As a DM, my blood regularly starts pumping when my players make choices they soon will regret. It was my younger brother's first time playing with our group (and first time in an actual DnD campaign) as we tackled the Essentials Kit (highly recommend for new or young players by the way, it actually brought me to DnDBeyond in the first place). He was going for an athletics-based Aasimar paladin and using material from the new Theros sourcebook, but unfortunately the dice were not with him that night and he couldn't make any of his rolls, even with his proficiencies and bonuses. As my players were entering Butterskull Ranch, they could tell there were orcs still nearby and possibly within the main building of the ranch itself. My brother's paladin took point and decided to roll athletics for a long jump onto the front porch of the ranch (forgoing the old, creaky-looking stairs), and rolled hoping to at least gather attention to that part of the house so half the party could sneak into the other side of the building (there were no rogues among them). Preemptive despair swelled among us as he rattled the d20 in his hand, myself in particular because I knew he was going to be a sitting duck as there were two orcs just on the other side of the front door. If he failed to make the landing and get to the door, he'd alert the orcs to the whole party, or worse, end up in a combat with disadvantage!
He threw the die and we held our breath. BOOM, a natural 20. My brother was stunned with a big smile on his face while his fellow players cheered and I sat back in my chair with relief. I rewarded him with his paladin not only making the jump, but leaping with such terrifying velocity that he overshot his landing and kicked the door straight off its hinges and into one of the orcs waiting on the other side (and causing it to go prone). The other paladin in the party hurried to support him for the combat while the monk and bard were able to sneak around to the back entrance of the house and flank the rest of the orcs inside. #DDBStyle
Den Erlenkönig mit Kron' und Schweif...
During a campaign I was playing, the party and we had spent the last six sessions stuck in some nightmarish setting driving us all insane because we could not for the life of us figure out how to get out of it. The DM was trying to throw every bone he could to get us out, but we were just rolling low and it wasn't going very well for us. Essentially, there was a fog outside of this dream-like state of a small farming town, and we finally figured out that we had to run through the fog and pass a series of saving throws to get out. Our druid had finally gotten through the two first savings throws (each with higher DCs), and we were all holding our breaths, hoping he would get us out. And then, final saving roll... And a natural 20!! The table erupted in cheers, and we finally got out of the nightmare town. Needless to say, it was a good time afterwards. #DDBStyle
Our homebrew rule was if you make a call shot roll a d20 nat 20s are success nat 1 epic fail. 2-19 DM would use skill checks and normal rules. Story time, Our party was 2 days exhausted, our Spell casters were out of spell slots and the gnome was making death saves. A roc swooped down and snatched the gnome up preventing us from stabilizing him. Using a call shot I decided to toss our halfling (paladin) at the gnome being taken away in attempt to use his last lay hands and save the party member. The DM warned us the fall would be great enough that even if we succeed the paladin would die on impact. 1st my roll to get the halfling to the gnome, nat 20... BOOM roll 2: the halfling to lay hands on the gnome midflight... Boom nat 20 and an epic HIGH Five! and the gnome now alive (low on hp) call shot to use convince the roc to saftely catch the halfling and return them to the ground using his talk with beast... NAT 20! TPK avoided. The rok even made other appearances later in the campaign since our druid fed it some goodberries by mistake. Druid " I give everyone who just landed a share of my remaining 4 berries" #DDBStyle
I didn’t see what you did there.
The party was captured in the Xanathar Guild hideout under Waterdeep. They decided not to stick around and started breaking themselves and all the prisoners out. As they went for the exit they found themselves in the arena and many members of the guild were there ready to fight. The prisoners and one of the party members (A Warforged Artificer) stayed to fight. The rest of the party climbed out of the arena and made a run for it. After a few rounds of fighting it was just the Artificer, a bandit, and a set of animated Armour that chased him into a corner. At that point almost every hit on either side was a miss. That session was left on a cliff hanger.
In the next session the party (Without the Artificer) made their way to find the mindflayer that lives there. Half way through that combat the Warforged makes it to the room missing an arm.
#DDBStyle
Our party had been slogging through Barovia for days. We had just finished clearing out a cave of cultists and saved a dozen children from certain doom. Loading the children into our trusty cart for safety we lead the horse carefully down from the cave to the road where we began to discuss our next action. We were close to the village of Krezk, but maybe not close enough to reach it before nightfall. We could try setting up camp for the night... but as everyone knows, camping in the wilds of Barovia after dark can be quite dangerous. As we stood and debated the risks, suddenly the sounds of howls could be heard coming from the direction of the cave we had just cleared. As some of the cultists we slayed were lycans we assumed the worst... the corpses we had left behind had been found and now their brothers were singing the song of revenge. The race to Krazk was on. The bard hopped into the drivers seat of the cart while the paladin, ranger, warlock, and fighter took up the flanks... the howls grew closer as the party struggled to get moving at a realistic pace... as two large lycans emerged down the road behind us with several feral wolves alongside them, the bard (ME) pleaded with the horse to RUN... fortunately this didn't take much because the horse sensed the danger as well and took off at a gallop leaving the rest of the party behind... as the horse accelerated a very large lycan stepped into the road 50 yards in front of the horse and cart full of children... in an attempt to quickly confuse and possibly scare the lycan out of the road the bard attempted to quickly cast an illusion that would place an image if Strahd himself in front of the lycan (this had worked in several different ways in the campaign previously and had become a favorite tactic for throwing things into quick confusion)... and then... the roll... Rolling to see if the illusion managed to scare the lycan away or at least distract it for the horse and cart to go by... the dice came up... 1 ... while it may have been a novel idea that might have had some minor success... the lycan didn't even have time to notice the illusion... however the terrified horse very much did. Veering harshly to the side and bucking into the air to avoid the image now feet from the galloping horse the bard is thrown from the cart... the cart is yanked sideways and begins to tip... another roll... for what you ask?...in all of the rush, the bard had also forgotten the two crates... CRATES... of Alchemists Fire the party had loaded into the wagon... yes, we loaded children into a cart with a bunch of alchemists fire... the roll... 1... I'll let you imagine the horror of what happened next. Needless to say this event drove a firm wedge into the already cantankerous party and nearly drove the bard to abandon his companions and throw his lot in with Strahd himself.
#DDBStyle
The party I DM for were attacked by a variety of were-creatures. they were all bitten and had to make constitution saving throws. All pass, except for one. He became a wereweasel. The wereweasel stats made for amazing reconnaissance missions through the campaign, that ultimately saved the realm. #DDBStyle
We were playing a homebrew campaign that revolved around our party investigating a plague that was killing off the local peasants. My cleric caught the plague, but we managed to cure it by defeating a manticore and using its venom to create a potion. Later, we discovered the big boss: an otherworldly creature that was kidnapping, experimenting on, and killing some of the peasants in search of a cure for the plague, which got into our realm from its own realm.
It was about to kill us (for science!), but I made a medicine check to explain how we had already found a cure. I rolled a Natural 20, then presented a compelling dissertation on the medicinal properties of manticore venom, including a magical power-point-style visual accompaniment. The monster was absolutely wowed by my presentation, and--considering the matter closed--agreed to stop murdering the locals and to return to its own realm.
We killed it anyway. #DDBStyle
My players were in a battle for the entirety of Eberron. A force cage held the Paladin and the monk, the sorcerer was unconscious for the 3rd time, the rogue's soul was trapped in a ring, and the warlock had to get the gem through the portal. Let's Just say we were all on edge! #DDBStyle