One of my players’ Goblin Barbarian, Nehemiah Greenskin, was contracted, with the rest of the crew, to heist the magic engine holding a huge airship together. Some smooth talking got him into the control room ahead of the other characters, where he had to confront the adventure’s villain alone, as the others struggled with an ochre jelly. Things looked as grim as they’d ever been. I thought the fights, with a split party, might herald a TPK.
He just goes, “I run past him and grab the engine off the pedestal.”
The airship came apart mid-flight, and the Feather Fall emergency enchantment kicked in. Players, enemies, and passengers alike went floating down to the city as my planned boss fight was brilliantly subverted. And a clutch casting of Pass Without Trace got the characters away unharmed. Still the most awesome session I’ve ever DMed.
Another story, in which I was the player: my Halfling Paladin, Milton Reedripple, leapt heroically over a pit with a water monster to save the guard captain being lowered in by a rope. He rolled well enough to grab the rope, but not to swing to safety as planned, and was left dangling over the pit, options running out. He was able to grab onto the edge, but not get the captain over the railing.
So Milton pulled out his sword, struck the captain with the flat of the blade, and cast Thunderous Smite, sending her like a baseball over the railing as he plunged into the deadly depths below.
One Cure Wounds later, the captain was saved, but Milton nearly died in the water before the party got a rope down. It was probably the craziest encounter I’ve ever played. Kudos to my DM (a random at my LGS) for creating such an epic scenario!
I was the Barbarian, on a boat, with a water elemental to try to attack. I had used my Javelins, and had run out of things to throw.
So I quickly doodled a comic of what I wanted to do, and passed it to the DM. The DM laughed for at lease a minute, and then just said "Yes, Yes that's what's happening!".
So Thoruk jumped to the front of the boat, and attracted the attention of the water elemental. The elemental moved to smash him, and as it did so he jumped to the back of the boat. Me and the Ranger were catapulted into the air by the elemental's attack, and Thoruk flew through the Elemental, making an attack as he went through. I then remembered that a new player had just had their hammer sucked in by the elemental, so I asked the DM if I could sacrifice making a smooth landing to grab the hammer on my way through. I then flew out of the other side of the elemental, passed this confused dwarf his warhammer back, before demolishing the side of a house as I crashed heavily into it!
If I can find the comic later I might post a picture...
You're correct! My dumb ass goliath barbarian during a fight with a dragon decided to climb up a cliff, Leap off of it to purposely land in the dragons mouth. A couple good rolls later.. that's exactly where he landed. Just to use his lance to stab at the beast from the inside. Was a looney fight but he survived.
my tortle divine sorc. we were in an area optomized for 3d lvl characters. there were five of us me (tortle divine sorc 1), a lvl 3 wizard, a lvl 2 barbar, a level one fighter (bow), and a 2nd lvl rogue.
we had a regular fight then a regular fight then a random encounter with two ogre zombies and a zombie. (this is to show how depleted our resources were when we met the ghouls)
then another with 4 ghouls and a ghast.
after the first three rounds we had one unconsious person, and a bunch of paralyzed people. remainder was low hp no rages left barbarian. and me. at full health with no spells.. there was still a wounded ghast and 2 ghouls.
i walked to the front and called them useless pathetic failures. followed by THREE ROUNDS OF MISSING ME while the barbarian hit them with an axe (step forward hit step back) and i hit them with shocking grasps. WE WON SOMEHOW.
moral of the story
insulting enemies is always a good idea
also I AM NEVER EVER PRETENDING TO BE A TANK WITH 7 HP AGAIN!
for those interested we then tried to have a long rest and fought two zombie beholders.
we left with two corpses and an unconscious body but we got enough loot to res me and the other corpse.
This Mug immediately shared with me a transcendental tale of an Infinite Mug that anchors the Universe and keeps it from folding in on itself. I filed this report under "illogical nonsense" and asked why its sign is in Times New Roman font, when it is basic knowledge that Arial Black is a far superior font. I wondered: How did this mug even get past the assembly line with its theistic beliefs and poor font choices?
quote from Romantically Apocalyptic byVitaly S Alexius
I was playing a Tabaxi wizard. We were fighting a tiger, which was using hit-and-run tactics. It was hidden again; we knew it was likely to go for the mostly-dead rogue next. My turn came, and the only thing I could think of to do, was to imitate the mating call of a female tiger!
I rolled a nat one.
When the hysteria died down, the DM announced that I had actually succeeded, but the tiger we were fighting was actually female, and it now considered me a rival for mating opportunities! Needless to say, I got slaughtered. I saved the rogue, though!
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I live with several severe autoimmune conditions. If I don’t get back to you right away, it’s probably because I’m not feeling well.
Oh yeah, that reminds me of another one of my players. The dude’s Halfling Barbarian grappled a dragon, and it kicked off, spinning in the air to try to shake him and spiraling higher and higher while he hacked at it triumphantly. Everyone was loving it...until they realized that as soon as he killed the dragon he was dead to fall damage! Somehow, he found a way to take it down, then plummeted over a hundred feet to his death.
My party was attempting to retrieve treasure in some shipwrecks, and there were sharks in the water. First, the Druid wild shaped into a shark and swam around to check things out. We then dumped the body of the half orc fanatic we had just killed along with some dead harpies into the water far away from the wrecks to attract the sharks. Next, the warlock cast fly on the fighter to get him directly over each wreck. He then swam down and retrieved the treasure chests and brought them back to my rogue, who picked the locks. The bloodied barbarian was on lookout/chum dumpling duty so she didn’t attract the sharks!
A party had a member cross a rickety bridge. The bridge was broken by kobolds, and so the party member fell down a giant chasm.
70% of the party jumped after the falling party member, with NO ESCAPE PLANS except one could cast feather fall on themself.
Crazy?
I would say that isn't crazy. Crazy is when you have an end goal in mind which is either unlikely or at least unexpected. That "plan" is either just stupid or a game of meta-chicken with the DM with the thought being "We bet the DM doesn't want to bother resetting everything with new characters so we're trusting them to pull something out of their ass to explain why this action isn't the group suicide it should be." I've been in games where the latter case was pretty much expected if not openly stated, and if that's along the lines of what everybody's looking for in the game then it can be quite fun (assuming the DM is a good enough improv artist), but it doesn't really qualify as a "plan" on the part of the players.
So, we were all new players to DnD and didn't know much about how things work. We were in the town WaterDeep at the docks looking for something to do and found someone who needed us to sink a boat at the docks. From what I remember the owners of the boat were a really bad group who sailed around robbing cities and blackmailing mayors, so we agreed to taking out the boat.
I forget why, but for some reason we had a jar of Kraken oil on us..... We had NO IDEA how it worked, all we knew was that it was kraken oil.
For those who don't know Kraken oil is VERY flammable..
Naturally, we agreed that the oil was probably flammable, we knew boats are made of wood, so we decided lets burn the boat down at nightfall... (We did not discuss this much or even talk about how wrong this could go)
We had an Aarakocra in our party and decided to give her the oil to fly over the boat and just DUMP the oil onto the boat... (Again, we did not think about this much.)
I was a ranger and had oil and a lantern that I was going to use to light my arrow on fire and shoot the boat to ignite it.
You can probably guess what happened...
I shot my arrow and all hell broke loose..
The boat exploded into flames, we panicked, the docks caught fire. The whole situation was just bad all around.
So, we ran away and agreed that we would never tell anyone what we did that night.
However on the plus side, we now know what Kraken oil does and our DM knows to expect the most chaotic idea from us.
I cast Seeming to make the party look like a bunch of ghouls and a few friends to look like bats/batswarm then we walked up to Strahds castle, circled around it and saw a part of the building looking too much like where he was prophecied to be so we stone shaped inside and beat him.
Earlier fun times was instead of fighting some monstrous spiders and possible undead we talked with them and persuaded them to bring us to the highest tower of some ruins, in return for food. Skipped so many battles.
Sorry GM.
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Share your tale of when a player had the craziest, most ludicrous plan ever and it worked (or failed miserably)
my name is not Bryce
Actor
Certified Dark Sun enjoyer
usually on forum games and not contributing to conversations ¯\_ (ツ)_/
For every user who writes 5 paragraph essays as each of their posts: Remember to touch grass occasionally
One of my players’ Goblin Barbarian, Nehemiah Greenskin, was contracted, with the rest of the crew, to heist the magic engine holding a huge airship together. Some smooth talking got him into the control room ahead of the other characters, where he had to confront the adventure’s villain alone, as the others struggled with an ochre jelly. Things looked as grim as they’d ever been. I thought the fights, with a split party, might herald a TPK.
He just goes, “I run past him and grab the engine off the pedestal.”
The airship came apart mid-flight, and the Feather Fall emergency enchantment kicked in. Players, enemies, and passengers alike went floating down to the city as my planned boss fight was brilliantly subverted. And a clutch casting of Pass Without Trace got the characters away unharmed. Still the most awesome session I’ve ever DMed.
Another story, in which I was the player: my Halfling Paladin, Milton Reedripple, leapt heroically over a pit with a water monster to save the guard captain being lowered in by a rope. He rolled well enough to grab the rope, but not to swing to safety as planned, and was left dangling over the pit, options running out. He was able to grab onto the edge, but not get the captain over the railing.
So Milton pulled out his sword, struck the captain with the flat of the blade, and cast Thunderous Smite, sending her like a baseball over the railing as he plunged into the deadly depths below.
One Cure Wounds later, the captain was saved, but Milton nearly died in the water before the party got a rope down. It was probably the craziest encounter I’ve ever played. Kudos to my DM (a random at my LGS) for creating such an epic scenario!
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
I was the Barbarian, on a boat, with a water elemental to try to attack. I had used my Javelins, and had run out of things to throw.
So I quickly doodled a comic of what I wanted to do, and passed it to the DM. The DM laughed for at lease a minute, and then just said "Yes, Yes that's what's happening!".
So Thoruk jumped to the front of the boat, and attracted the attention of the water elemental. The elemental moved to smash him, and as it did so he jumped to the back of the boat. Me and the Ranger were catapulted into the air by the elemental's attack, and Thoruk flew through the Elemental, making an attack as he went through. I then remembered that a new player had just had their hammer sucked in by the elemental, so I asked the DM if I could sacrifice making a smooth landing to grab the hammer on my way through. I then flew out of the other side of the elemental, passed this confused dwarf his warhammer back, before demolishing the side of a house as I crashed heavily into it!
If I can find the comic later I might post a picture...
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It's always barbarians who do these things smh XD
my name is not Bryce
Actor
Certified Dark Sun enjoyer
usually on forum games and not contributing to conversations ¯\_ (ツ)_/
For every user who writes 5 paragraph essays as each of their posts: Remember to touch grass occasionally
You're correct! My dumb ass goliath barbarian during a fight with a dragon decided to climb up a cliff, Leap off of it to purposely land in the dragons mouth. A couple good rolls later.. that's exactly where he landed. Just to use his lance to stab at the beast from the inside. Was a looney fight but he survived.
my tortle divine sorc. we were in an area optomized for 3d lvl characters. there were five of us me (tortle divine sorc 1), a lvl 3 wizard, a lvl 2 barbar, a level one fighter (bow), and a 2nd lvl rogue.
we had a regular fight then a regular fight then a random encounter with two ogre zombies and a zombie. (this is to show how depleted our resources were when we met the ghouls)
then another with 4 ghouls and a ghast.
after the first three rounds we had one unconsious person, and a bunch of paralyzed people. remainder was low hp no rages left barbarian. and me. at full health with no spells.. there was still a wounded ghast and 2 ghouls.
i walked to the front and called them useless pathetic failures. followed by THREE ROUNDS OF MISSING ME while the barbarian hit them with an axe (step forward hit step back) and i hit them with shocking grasps. WE WON SOMEHOW.
moral of the story
insulting enemies is always a good idea
also I AM NEVER EVER PRETENDING TO BE A TANK WITH 7 HP AGAIN!
for those interested we then tried to have a long rest and fought two zombie beholders.
we left with two corpses and an unconscious body but we got enough loot to res me and the other corpse.
This Mug immediately shared with me a transcendental tale of an Infinite Mug that anchors the Universe and keeps it from folding in on itself. I filed this report under "illogical nonsense" and asked why its sign is in Times New Roman font, when it is basic knowledge that Arial Black is a far superior font. I wondered: How did this mug even get past the assembly line with its theistic beliefs and poor font choices?
quote from Romantically Apocalyptic by Vitaly S Alexius
I was playing a Tabaxi wizard. We were fighting a tiger, which was using hit-and-run tactics. It was hidden again; we knew it was likely to go for the mostly-dead rogue next. My turn came, and the only thing I could think of to do, was to imitate the mating call of a female tiger!
I rolled a nat one.
When the hysteria died down, the DM announced that I had actually succeeded, but the tiger we were fighting was actually female, and it now considered me a rival for mating opportunities! Needless to say, I got slaughtered. I saved the rogue, though!
I live with several severe autoimmune conditions. If I don’t get back to you right away, it’s probably because I’m not feeling well.
Oh yeah, that reminds me of another one of my players. The dude’s Halfling Barbarian grappled a dragon, and it kicked off, spinning in the air to try to shake him and spiraling higher and higher while he hacked at it triumphantly. Everyone was loving it...until they realized that as soon as he killed the dragon he was dead to fall damage! Somehow, he found a way to take it down, then plummeted over a hundred feet to his death.
Wizard (Gandalf) of the Tolkien Club
My party was attempting to retrieve treasure in some shipwrecks, and there were sharks in the water. First, the Druid wild shaped into a shark and swam around to check things out. We then dumped the body of the half orc fanatic we had just killed along with some dead harpies into the water far away from the wrecks to attract the sharks. Next, the warlock cast fly on the fighter to get him directly over each wreck. He then swam down and retrieved the treasure chests and brought them back to my rogue, who picked the locks. The bloodied barbarian was on lookout/chum dumpling duty so she didn’t attract the sharks!
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
A party had a member cross a rickety bridge. The bridge was broken by kobolds, and so the party member fell down a giant chasm.
70% of the party jumped after the falling party member, with NO ESCAPE PLANS except one could cast feather fall on themself.
Crazy?
Frequent Eladrin || They/Them, but accept all pronouns
Luz Noceda would like to remind you that you're worth loving!
My party is making plans on our group chat to quit adventuring and start a waffle house. The rise of waffles will be glorious
my name is not Bryce
Actor
Certified Dark Sun enjoyer
usually on forum games and not contributing to conversations ¯\_ (ツ)_/
For every user who writes 5 paragraph essays as each of their posts: Remember to touch grass occasionally
I would say that isn't crazy. Crazy is when you have an end goal in mind which is either unlikely or at least unexpected. That "plan" is either just stupid or a game of meta-chicken with the DM with the thought being "We bet the DM doesn't want to bother resetting everything with new characters so we're trusting them to pull something out of their ass to explain why this action isn't the group suicide it should be." I've been in games where the latter case was pretty much expected if not openly stated, and if that's along the lines of what everybody's looking for in the game then it can be quite fun (assuming the DM is a good enough improv artist), but it doesn't really qualify as a "plan" on the part of the players.
A single quote can explain our 2 hour discussion : But what if I pray REALLY hard to summon the cheese bell of doom? - from a goddamn lvl 3 fighter
So, we were all new players to DnD and didn't know much about how things work. We were in the town WaterDeep at the docks looking for something to do and found someone who needed us to sink a boat at the docks. From what I remember the owners of the boat were a really bad group who sailed around robbing cities and blackmailing mayors, so we agreed to taking out the boat.
I forget why, but for some reason we had a jar of Kraken oil on us..... We had NO IDEA how it worked, all we knew was that it was kraken oil.
For those who don't know Kraken oil is VERY flammable..
Naturally, we agreed that the oil was probably flammable, we knew boats are made of wood, so we decided lets burn the boat down at nightfall... (We did not discuss this much or even talk about how wrong this could go)
We had an Aarakocra in our party and decided to give her the oil to fly over the boat and just DUMP the oil onto the boat... (Again, we did not think about this much.)
I was a ranger and had oil and a lantern that I was going to use to light my arrow on fire and shoot the boat to ignite it.
You can probably guess what happened...
I shot my arrow and all hell broke loose..
The boat exploded into flames, we panicked, the docks caught fire. The whole situation was just bad all around.
So, we ran away and agreed that we would never tell anyone what we did that night.
However on the plus side, we now know what Kraken oil does and our DM knows to expect the most chaotic idea from us.
I cast Seeming to make the party look like a bunch of ghouls and a few friends to look like bats/batswarm then we walked up to Strahds castle, circled around it and saw a part of the building looking too much like where he was prophecied to be so we stone shaped inside and beat him.
Earlier fun times was instead of fighting some monstrous spiders and possible undead we talked with them and persuaded them to bring us to the highest tower of some ruins, in return for food. Skipped so many battles.
Sorry GM.