I mean, there was the "Fireball in a ship's hold full of gunpowder" incident.
But the "rouge stabs and kills the quest giver to steal his ring" thing might have been the stupidest, since the faction we were working for then decided we were traitors, and hunted us down. It wasn't even a valuable ring, it was a ring to mark us as part of the faction we were working with. We all had them, including the rouge.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
He/Him. Loooooooooong time Player. The Dark days of the THAC0 system are behind us.
"Hope is a fire that burns in us all If only an ember, awaiting your call To rise up in triumph should we all unite The spark for change is yours to ignite." Kalandra - The State of the World
The party needs to get down a river, so they need a boat. There are four boats in the town, used to ferry goods and people from bank to bank (there is no bridge).
What do they do? Attack the docks at a time when all four boats are on the other side of the river.
Hiding behind a one-way kitchen cabinet island while the BBEG is watching us. How did this happen? The level 3 Paladin decided to taunt the Boss because he couldn't walk away from a challenge.
While facing off against an Adult Black Dragon, the Halfling Rogue decides that he's going to grapple it's head (nevermind the RAW doesn't allow it due to size) as a last ditch effort for the party to survive...at this point in the round, the dragon has one Legendary Resistance left, and the party is nearly dead (the Paladin is already down). Seeing as he's only trying to grapple it's head, and again, close to a TPK, he's allowed to try, but (for dramatics, not any actual rules) must attempt to get to it first, using Acrobatics with Disadvantage to even reach it, DC 30.
The Rogue has a 20 in Dex and Expertise in Acrobatics, but the party is Level 8, meaning he needs to roll at least a 19 on the lower dice to succeed.
He rolls two Nat 20s.
Now the dragon needs to meet a DC of 14 to not be grappled.
The dragon rolls for a total of 12.
Next round, dragon breaks free and yeets the Halfling away, going straight up, then focuses on the rest of the party.
Halfling Rogue, feeling like he won't survive the fall, plummets right back at the dragon and Sneak Attacks the dragon's neck, which both saves him from dying from fall damage (he spiralled down it like a tree with his daggers) and actually kills the dragon!
Tl;dr: Halfling rogue goes and Leeroy Jenkins in to grapple an Adult Black Dragon, momentarily succeeds before getting yeeted straight up, before slaying it while falling, epic anime style.
Party of 6 L20 PCs attacks Lolth in the Demonweb pits instead of trying to parley. The ranger is off to one side and goes after Lolth while the rest of the party goes before her. The 5 in front do zip except anot her tremendously so she does a TPK on the 5 leaving the ranger on his own.
Had a bard who A) kept trying to challenge enemies to single combat (he was College of Blades) and then got his behind handed to him because he never used any of his spells or abilities B) would go up to creatures that, while not outright hostile were still not friendly and demand that they tell him their stories even while they were obviously angered by his actions C) would pick fights with opponents who weren't hostile because "they're evil" and D) kept trying to be the party's face despite having proficiency only in perform and the party also having a paladin and a sorcerer, both of whom had a higher charisma score than the bard.
Man did he get us in a lot of unnecessary fights.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Trying to get over a defense wall to another part of the city (a wall with a walkway on top), the party decides to ignore the door I clearly described as "It's probably locked anyway" and instead knocks out a guard, ties them to the end of a long rope, throws them on top of the guard walkway on the wall, and uses them as the anchor for them to climb up the wall (and then over to the other side).
Another, more recent time, a town was being attacked by a Vrock at night, and so they decided to set up a trap, with ropes with hooks on the end tied to trees and staked into the ground, netting tied together and set to be dropped on the Vrock, and everyone hiding and preparing attacks. But they forgot any kind of bait. I prompted a few times with survival checks and intelligence checks that they remembered stories of great hunts and whatnot where people BAITED a creature into a trap, and they simply did not catch on until the last moments when it started flying away from their location.
My current group WILL NOT stop splitting up every time we do something. Enter a city? Scatter to the winds, so bad things happen. Cave complex or dungeon? Same thing so when someone comes across a monster that would be easily managed by the group, instead we nearly lose a character before the rest can find them.
During one of our sessions, during an extended campaign, the party was overnighting in a village investigating a zombie outbreak. There was a barn with quite a few zombies secured inside. One Party member, had a self proclaimed "Grand Idea" and seemingly thought in his own words, "well who knows if the one controlling the zombies is a villager, only one way to find out, surely they wouldn’t attack their master!" So he stealthily crept out in the dark of the night making his way to the barn holding the zombies. Ripped the chain barring the doors asunder and, in that moment, tossed the hat of vermin into their field of view activating it at full capacity, sending all the rats the hat could muster streaming towards the village. This immediately got the zombies’ attention and off they went as if the starting shot at an Olympic 100 yard dash had gone off and they did their best impression of track stars, streaming out of the barn. . . directly towards the village and its unawares inhabitants.
Lets say what happened next was carnage.
The rest of the party rallied from their sleep hearing the cacophony erupting around them to save what villagers they could and put down the surprise assault. All while mutter IRL slurs and reactions to what their party member had done. He just watched and took notes of "Suspicious villager interactions" with zombies, all of which were surreptitiously mauled or otherwise gnawed upon by the zombies.
When the dust settled, everyone was pissed, since now the party's gracious hosts were VERY VERy VEry Very upset and holding the group accountable to investigate the outbreak. The member in question just said "well now we know its not any of them..." complete deadpan reaction on everyone else's faces.
The DM gave the party an ultimatum that they need to get their stories straight before the next session, since each of them will be questioned by the remnants of the town guard. He then started a what’s app group chat called "Alibi Alley" and tried talking all the other members into a finely spun tale to get him off the hook. A plan started to form, albeit begrudgingly by the other party members.
The next session began the questioning, and it just continued to go downhill. Everyone else stuck to the facts as it pertained to them and vagaries when it came to the perpetrator. Until the questioning turned to him. Basically, he derailed the plan they had formulated since it really wasn’t going as he’d hopped and changed gears, just outright admitting it and calling it part of the “Grand Experiment” The remaining guards and interrogator were speechless. Ill spare you the colorful detail he went into explaining everything that led to this point, since most of it was, while creative RP, a mishmash of nonsensical shenanigans. Im sure at this point if acquittal due to mental instability was a thing, this was now his primary defense. It was not a thing. . . . and the next session was his trial for sentencing.
Since this is getting a bit breathy, ill share the cliff notes of what occurred. Based on some spectacular roleplaying and with dice seemingly blessed by the gods, quite a number of consecutive high dice roles later, he was going to get off with just loosing one of his horns. (I didn’t mention this earlier, but he was a Tiefling, fighter/shadow sorc) Unbeknownst to everyone else, he had been cooking up a new plan and was going to have none of this losing a horn business. When the verdict was finally delivered, with a smile and a wink, he cast darkness, misty step and invisibility in quick succession abusing quickened and subtle spell from the sorc metamagic options so no one knew what was coming, teleporting out of the courthouse and into the wilderness where he made his great escape.
On that day a number of things happened; the party was FINALLY able to move on from the village that was supposed to be only part of a single session that turned into 3. The player retired that character and rolled a new one. . . . and the party hence forth speaks of that character with a mix of awe, admiration, disgust and most of all in a form of comedic relief and fondness, which is in my opinion one of the most enjoyable parts of playing. Fondly remembering the adventures had in the theatre of the mind.
The DM admits, that he is still out there and may make an appearance as an NPC in the future, with some degree of levity and more specifically a threat that the party may have to deal with. (this could be juicy!!)
If you made it this far, thanks for reading, and hoping I painted a picture that aptly tells the tale of Cale Vari, a strange fellow with machinations only the insane or the genius can fully appreciate.
Trying to get over a defense wall to another part of the city (a wall with a walkway on top), the party decides to ignore the door I clearly described as "It's probably locked anyway" and instead knocks out a guard, ties them to the end of a long rope, throws them on top of the guard walkway on the wall, and uses them as the anchor for them to climb up the wall (and then over to the other side).
Another, more recent time, a town was being attacked by a Vrock at night, and so they decided to set up a trap, with ropes with hooks on the end tied to trees and staked into the ground, netting tied together and set to be dropped on the Vrock, and everyone hiding and preparing attacks. But they forgot any kind of bait. I prompted a few times with survival checks and intelligence checks that they remembered stories of great hunts and whatnot where people BAITED a creature into a trap, and they simply did not catch on until the last moments when it started flying away from their location.
Did you forget that a Vrock has a screech attack that can STUN anyone caught in the blast area? One screech attack is nasty, two or more screech attacks is a Total Party Kill.
Trying to get over a defense wall to another part of the city (a wall with a walkway on top), the party decides to ignore the door I clearly described as "It's probably locked anyway" and instead knocks out a guard, ties them to the end of a long rope, throws them on top of the guard walkway on the wall, and uses them as the anchor for them to climb up the wall (and then over to the other side).
Another, more recent time, a town was being attacked by a Vrock at night, and so they decided to set up a trap, with ropes with hooks on the end tied to trees and staked into the ground, netting tied together and set to be dropped on the Vrock, and everyone hiding and preparing attacks. But they forgot any kind of bait. I prompted a few times with survival checks and intelligence checks that they remembered stories of great hunts and whatnot where people BAITED a creature into a trap, and they simply did not catch on until the last moments when it started flying away from their location.
Did you forget that a Vrock has a screech attack that can STUN anyone caught in the blast area? One screech attack is nasty, two or more screech attacks is a Total Party Kill.
Trying to get over a defense wall to another part of the city (a wall with a walkway on top), the party decides to ignore the door I clearly described as "It's probably locked anyway" and instead knocks out a guard, ties them to the end of a long rope, throws them on top of the guard walkway on the wall, and uses them as the anchor for them to climb up the wall (and then over to the other side).
Another, more recent time, a town was being attacked by a Vrock at night, and so they decided to set up a trap, with ropes with hooks on the end tied to trees and staked into the ground, netting tied together and set to be dropped on the Vrock, and everyone hiding and preparing attacks. But they forgot any kind of bait. I prompted a few times with survival checks and intelligence checks that they remembered stories of great hunts and whatnot where people BAITED a creature into a trap, and they simply did not catch on until the last moments when it started flying away from their location.
Did you forget that a Vrock has a screech attack that can STUN anyone caught in the blast area? One screech attack is nasty, two or more screech attacks is a Total Party Kill.
They can only use that screech once per day.
However, if you have an entire flock of Vrocks attacking your party, then you have multiple needs to save and if the entire party is STUNNED, then it is a Total Party Kill.
If you happen to venture into 'The Dungeon of the Mad Mage' and you make your way (somehow) down to the 12th level or so, you will find a drow fortress that has a flock of Vrocks for its outer defenses.
Trying to get over a defense wall to another part of the city (a wall with a walkway on top), the party decides to ignore the door I clearly described as "It's probably locked anyway" and instead knocks out a guard, ties them to the end of a long rope, throws them on top of the guard walkway on the wall, and uses them as the anchor for them to climb up the wall (and then over to the other side).
Another, more recent time, a town was being attacked by a Vrock at night, and so they decided to set up a trap, with ropes with hooks on the end tied to trees and staked into the ground, netting tied together and set to be dropped on the Vrock, and everyone hiding and preparing attacks. But they forgot any kind of bait. I prompted a few times with survival checks and intelligence checks that they remembered stories of great hunts and whatnot where people BAITED a creature into a trap, and they simply did not catch on until the last moments when it started flying away from their location.
Did you forget that a Vrock has a screech attack that can STUN anyone caught in the blast area? One screech attack is nasty, two or more screech attacks is a Total Party Kill.
They can only use that screech once per day.
However, if you have an entire flock of Vrocks attacking your party, then you have multiple needs to save and if the entire party is STUNNED, then it is a Total Party Kill.
Sure, however, the situation was described as a town was being attacked by a Vrock at night, not a flock. So whether he forgot about the screech or not is irrelevant, there was (likely) never any danger of a screech induced TPK.
Anyway, I'll stop derailing the thread and answer the question: the biggest blunder I've seen was a group I ran for who, after killing an adult black dragon, didn't think to search for it's hoard despite my having given several hints/nudges to do so before heading back to the city.
Second Edition DVD, we reached 11th level and thought we were the badest group on Faerun. We were loaded with gear and our hype was hyper than the moon. We inherited a large parcel of property, only to discover that in the cavernous section was an elder red dragon. We were supposed to stall the dragon while reinforcements arrived, but like mentioned, were high on ourselves. I took the first swipe with my long swords, and the dance begun. We held our own for 3 rounds, making saves etc. but the gods of dice said, sorry Charlie not your day. So from the ultimate high to the lowest of lowest. All but one character died, yup you got it, the rogue with the Dex and evasion, lucked out and escaped with 4hp. Was good for me because I rolled up my most epic character, who I use as my handle on Beyond.
The party are up against a numerically superior, well organized enemy. They learn of a well concealed position and decide (wisely) on a stealth mission. But then insist on bringing their NPC cleric along, despite her protests as to her complete uselessness in stealth situations. And then, rather than look for a better approach, tried crossing an open field, knowing the enemy they were taking on were in the tree line on the other side of the clearing. The open field was trapped and no easy approach, even if they had no stealth issues. The cleric was one shotted by enemy snipers and they barely managed to retreat safely.
How about the dumbest DM move? My DM failed to read or remember the features of my 1st Edition Wild Mage and gave us a Deck of Many Things. Fun fact, in the 1st Ed. the Wild Mage could CHOOSE any result from a randomized magic item 50% of the time. Then of course there is a 50% chance to just randomly draw a good card from the deck. I asked for 10 cards, had several good rolls and ended up with something like 11/13 good cards from that deck.
The look on his face as all this transpired was hilarious!
"Oh, yes. I get to pick again! I think another beneficial magic item will suit me nicely!"
How about the dumbest DM move? My DM failed to read or remember the features of my 1st Edition Wild Mage and gave us a Deck of Many Things. Fun fact, in the 1st Ed. the Wild Mage could CHOOSE any result from a randomized magic item 50% of the time. Then of course there is a 50% chance to just randomly draw a good card from the deck. I asked for 10 cards, had several good rolls and ended up with something like 11/13 good cards from that deck.
The look on his face as all this transpired was hilarious!
"Oh, yes. I get to pick again! I think another beneficial magic item will suit me nicely!"
Which is why I have always said that the command word needed to activate a Wand of Wonder.....is....Ooops!
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Just curious.
mine was probaly "the stew incident" where I was the only person who did not want to eat a strangers stew. Everyone except me was knocked out.
I mean, there was the "Fireball in a ship's hold full of gunpowder" incident.
But the "rouge stabs and kills the quest giver to steal his ring" thing might have been the stupidest, since the faction we were working for then decided we were traitors, and hunted us down. It wasn't even a valuable ring, it was a ring to mark us as part of the faction we were working with. We all had them, including the rouge.
He/Him. Loooooooooong time Player.
The Dark days of the THAC0 system are behind us.
"Hope is a fire that burns in us all If only an ember, awaiting your call
To rise up in triumph should we all unite
The spark for change is yours to ignite."
Kalandra - The State of the World
Possibly the "almost TPK trying to rescue a bottle of BBQ sauce from a ruined city" incident
The party needs to get down a river, so they need a boat. There are four boats in the town, used to ferry goods and people from bank to bank (there is no bridge).
What do they do? Attack the docks at a time when all four boats are on the other side of the river.
Hiding behind a one-way kitchen cabinet island while the BBEG is watching us. How did this happen? The level 3 Paladin decided to taunt the Boss because he couldn't walk away from a challenge.
While facing off against an Adult Black Dragon, the Halfling Rogue decides that he's going to grapple it's head (nevermind the RAW doesn't allow it due to size) as a last ditch effort for the party to survive...at this point in the round, the dragon has one Legendary Resistance left, and the party is nearly dead (the Paladin is already down). Seeing as he's only trying to grapple it's head, and again, close to a TPK, he's allowed to try, but (for dramatics, not any actual rules) must attempt to get to it first, using Acrobatics with Disadvantage to even reach it, DC 30.
The Rogue has a 20 in Dex and Expertise in Acrobatics, but the party is Level 8, meaning he needs to roll at least a 19 on the lower dice to succeed.
He rolls two Nat 20s.
Now the dragon needs to meet a DC of 14 to not be grappled.
The dragon rolls for a total of 12.
Next round, dragon breaks free and yeets the Halfling away, going straight up, then focuses on the rest of the party.
Halfling Rogue, feeling like he won't survive the fall, plummets right back at the dragon and Sneak Attacks the dragon's neck, which both saves him from dying from fall damage (he spiralled down it like a tree with his daggers) and actually kills the dragon!
Tl;dr: Halfling rogue goes and Leeroy Jenkins in to grapple an Adult Black Dragon, momentarily succeeds before getting yeeted straight up, before slaying it while falling, epic anime style.
Party of 6 L20 PCs attacks Lolth in the Demonweb pits instead of trying to parley. The ranger is off to one side and goes after Lolth while the rest of the party goes before her. The 5 in front do zip except anot her tremendously so she does a TPK on the 5 leaving the ranger on his own.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
How about a wizard who casts Fireball to clear out a cloud of stirges in a small chamber while the entire party is also inside the small chamber?
Had a bard who A) kept trying to challenge enemies to single combat (he was College of Blades) and then got his behind handed to him because he never used any of his spells or abilities B) would go up to creatures that, while not outright hostile were still not friendly and demand that they tell him their stories even while they were obviously angered by his actions C) would pick fights with opponents who weren't hostile because "they're evil" and D) kept trying to be the party's face despite having proficiency only in perform and the party also having a paladin and a sorcerer, both of whom had a higher charisma score than the bard.
Man did he get us in a lot of unnecessary fights.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I'm the DM, but the group I DM for has a few.
Trying to get over a defense wall to another part of the city (a wall with a walkway on top), the party decides to ignore the door I clearly described as "It's probably locked anyway" and instead knocks out a guard, ties them to the end of a long rope, throws them on top of the guard walkway on the wall, and uses them as the anchor for them to climb up the wall (and then over to the other side).
Another, more recent time, a town was being attacked by a Vrock at night, and so they decided to set up a trap, with ropes with hooks on the end tied to trees and staked into the ground, netting tied together and set to be dropped on the Vrock, and everyone hiding and preparing attacks. But they forgot any kind of bait. I prompted a few times with survival checks and intelligence checks that they remembered stories of great hunts and whatnot where people BAITED a creature into a trap, and they simply did not catch on until the last moments when it started flying away from their location.
My current group WILL NOT stop splitting up every time we do something. Enter a city? Scatter to the winds, so bad things happen. Cave complex or dungeon? Same thing so when someone comes across a monster that would be easily managed by the group, instead we nearly lose a character before the rest can find them.
During one of our sessions, during an extended campaign, the party was overnighting in a village investigating a zombie outbreak. There was a barn with quite a few zombies secured inside. One Party member, had a self proclaimed "Grand Idea" and seemingly thought in his own words, "well who knows if the one controlling the zombies is a villager, only one way to find out, surely they wouldn’t attack their master!" So he stealthily crept out in the dark of the night making his way to the barn holding the zombies. Ripped the chain barring the doors asunder and, in that moment, tossed the hat of vermin into their field of view activating it at full capacity, sending all the rats the hat could muster streaming towards the village. This immediately got the zombies’ attention and off they went as if the starting shot at an Olympic 100 yard dash had gone off and they did their best impression of track stars, streaming out of the barn. . . directly towards the village and its unawares inhabitants.
Lets say what happened next was carnage.
The rest of the party rallied from their sleep hearing the cacophony erupting around them to save what villagers they could and put down the surprise assault. All while mutter IRL slurs and reactions to what their party member had done. He just watched and took notes of "Suspicious villager interactions" with zombies, all of which were surreptitiously mauled or otherwise gnawed upon by the zombies.
When the dust settled, everyone was pissed, since now the party's gracious hosts were VERY VERy VEry Very upset and holding the group accountable to investigate the outbreak. The member in question just said "well now we know its not any of them..." complete deadpan reaction on everyone else's faces.
The DM gave the party an ultimatum that they need to get their stories straight before the next session, since each of them will be questioned by the remnants of the town guard. He then started a what’s app group chat called "Alibi Alley" and tried talking all the other members into a finely spun tale to get him off the hook. A plan started to form, albeit begrudgingly by the other party members.
The next session began the questioning, and it just continued to go downhill. Everyone else stuck to the facts as it pertained to them and vagaries when it came to the perpetrator. Until the questioning turned to him. Basically, he derailed the plan they had formulated since it really wasn’t going as he’d hopped and changed gears, just outright admitting it and calling it part of the “Grand Experiment” The remaining guards and interrogator were speechless. Ill spare you the colorful detail he went into explaining everything that led to this point, since most of it was, while creative RP, a mishmash of nonsensical shenanigans. Im sure at this point if acquittal due to mental instability was a thing, this was now his primary defense. It was not a thing. . . . and the next session was his trial for sentencing.
Since this is getting a bit breathy, ill share the cliff notes of what occurred. Based on some spectacular roleplaying and with dice seemingly blessed by the gods, quite a number of consecutive high dice roles later, he was going to get off with just loosing one of his horns. (I didn’t mention this earlier, but he was a Tiefling, fighter/shadow sorc) Unbeknownst to everyone else, he had been cooking up a new plan and was going to have none of this losing a horn business. When the verdict was finally delivered, with a smile and a wink, he cast darkness, misty step and invisibility in quick succession abusing quickened and subtle spell from the sorc metamagic options so no one knew what was coming, teleporting out of the courthouse and into the wilderness where he made his great escape.
On that day a number of things happened; the party was FINALLY able to move on from the village that was supposed to be only part of a single session that turned into 3. The player retired that character and rolled a new one. . . . and the party hence forth speaks of that character with a mix of awe, admiration, disgust and most of all in a form of comedic relief and fondness, which is in my opinion one of the most enjoyable parts of playing. Fondly remembering the adventures had in the theatre of the mind.
The DM admits, that he is still out there and may make an appearance as an NPC in the future, with some degree of levity and more specifically a threat that the party may have to deal with. (this could be juicy!!)
If you made it this far, thanks for reading, and hoping I painted a picture that aptly tells the tale of Cale Vari, a strange fellow with machinations only the insane or the genius can fully appreciate.
Did you forget that a Vrock has a screech attack that can STUN anyone caught in the blast area? One screech attack is nasty, two or more screech attacks is a Total Party Kill.
They can only use that screech once per day.
However, if you have an entire flock of Vrocks attacking your party, then you have multiple needs to save and if the entire party is STUNNED, then it is a Total Party Kill.
If you happen to venture into 'The Dungeon of the Mad Mage' and you make your way (somehow) down to the 12th level or so, you will find a drow fortress that has a flock of Vrocks for its outer defenses.
Sure, however, the situation was described as a town was being attacked by a Vrock at night, not a flock. So whether he forgot about the screech or not is irrelevant, there was (likely) never any danger of a screech induced TPK.
Anyway, I'll stop derailing the thread and answer the question: the biggest blunder I've seen was a group I ran for who, after killing an adult black dragon, didn't think to search for it's hoard despite my having given several hints/nudges to do so before heading back to the city.
Edited for typo.
Second Edition DVD, we reached 11th level and thought we were the badest group on Faerun. We were loaded with gear and our hype was hyper than the moon. We inherited a large parcel of property, only to discover that in the cavernous section was an elder red dragon. We were supposed to stall the dragon while reinforcements arrived, but like mentioned, were high on ourselves. I took the first swipe with my long swords, and the dance begun. We held our own for 3 rounds, making saves etc. but the gods of dice said, sorry Charlie not your day. So from the ultimate high to the lowest of lowest. All but one character died, yup you got it, the rogue with the Dex and evasion, lucked out and escaped with 4hp. Was good for me because I rolled up my most epic character, who I use as my handle on Beyond.
The party are up against a numerically superior, well organized enemy. They learn of a well concealed position and decide (wisely) on a stealth mission. But then insist on bringing their NPC cleric along, despite her protests as to her complete uselessness in stealth situations. And then, rather than look for a better approach, tried crossing an open field, knowing the enemy they were taking on were in the tree line on the other side of the clearing. The open field was trapped and no easy approach, even if they had no stealth issues. The cleric was one shotted by enemy snipers and they barely managed to retreat safely.
How about the dumbest DM move? My DM failed to read or remember the features of my 1st Edition Wild Mage and gave us a Deck of Many Things. Fun fact, in the 1st Ed. the Wild Mage could CHOOSE any result from a randomized magic item 50% of the time. Then of course there is a 50% chance to just randomly draw a good card from the deck. I asked for 10 cards, had several good rolls and ended up with something like 11/13 good cards from that deck.
The look on his face as all this transpired was hilarious!
"Oh, yes. I get to pick again! I think another beneficial magic item will suit me nicely!"
Which is why I have always said that the command word needed to activate a Wand of Wonder.....is....Ooops!