Moments on the Edge

ChaosEvoker · 23rd March 2005, 04:07 AM

We all love D&D. But we know that our favorite moments as the DM is when your PC sweat bullets. Those moments where it's the next 20 wins. Moments on the edge. We love these becuase it stretches our limits as DM and PC and it makes us as the DM proud of our PCs when they pull through by the skin of their teeth.

What's your favorite Moment on the Edge?

ChaosEvoker · 23rd March 2005, 04:08 AM

BSF · 23rd March 2005, 05:22 AM

Sheesh, where do I start?

In the current campaign, there was the time two of the PCs were captured by a warband of gnolls. They orchestrated an escape with the help of the other PCs and they saved 15 other captives. That one was good because they were a little creative and seized opportunities that they helped create for themselves.

In the last campaign, there was the time the PCs released a wraith that proceeded to drain every person in the town. All 100 NPCs. I was playing with the templates from Dragon and did 100 low strength wraiths. The PCs freaked out when they realized what they had inadvertently done. Then, instead of running, they consecrated the center of town and made a stand, determined to put all those souls to rest or die in the effort. They pulled it off!

Is that the sort of thing you are looking for or is there something more specific?

MarkCsigs · 23rd March 2005, 12:47 PM

I had a campaign where from literally the first adventure, the PCs had a group of evil NPCs that dogged their every step. Every time the PCs got the upper hand, the NPCs would find a way to escape. They loved 'hit and run' tactics.

When it came time where we decided we were ending the campaign, I promised the players a locked-room showdown with the NPCs. No escapes, and no punches pulled.

It literally came down to just the two female wizards, completely exhausted of spells, single digit hit points, whacking each other with their staves for the fate of the whole party! LOL.

--Mark C'sigs

ChaosEvoker · 23rd March 2005, 12:59 PM

I think MarkCsigs's story is more what I'm after, details are appreciated, stories we can step into and feeel as if we are experiencing them ourselves.

BSF · 23rd March 2005, 05:29 PM

*laugh* OK, I am busy today and tonight so I won't be able to tell you about the PCs trying to assault the yuan-ti, but don't let me forget to write that one up.

Blade of Desecration · 24th March 2005, 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarkCsigs

I had a campaign where from literally the first adventure, the PCs had a group of evil NPCs that dogged their every step. Every time the PCs got the upper hand, the NPCs would find a way to escape. They loved 'hit and run' tactics.

When it came time where we decided we were ending the campaign, I promised the players a locked-room showdown with the NPCs. No escapes, and no punches pulled.

It literally came down to just the two female wizards, completely exhausted of spells, single digit hit points, whacking each other with their staves for the fate of the whole party! LOL.

--Mark C'sigs

This is hilarious! Just watching to wizards slugging it out in melee is one of the funniest things that can happen!
Wizard 1: Become a wizard my parents said.*WHACK!* YOu'll learn powerful magic they said. And here I am, being whacked to death by my evil NPC counterpart, wihtout any of those oh-so-wonderful spells to save me.*BAP!* Why couldn't I have listened to my guidence counselor and at least taken a few levels in fighter?
Wizard 2: Why couldn't I have run away to the circus when I was a little girl?*SLAM!* Then I wouldn't be here!

MarkCsigs · 24th March 2005, 01:31 AM

Thanks for the good words, guys ...

Actually, while it sounds very heroic, remember these were two relatively powerful mages ... so while they had their defenses up, neither one was terribly proficient at combat, so it went more something like this:

Wizard 1: a 14 ...
DM: You miss. I get an 11, that's a miss.
Wizard 1: a 10 ...
DM: You miss. I've got a 16, that's a miss.
Barbarian PC: Am I still dead?!?
DM: Yes!
Wizard 1: I've got a two ...

The wizard PC finally ended things by mercifully rolling a 20, which I described as a lucky back-swipe that accidently cracked the NPC wizard upside the temple.

--Mark C'sigs

LilMissKittyn · 24th March 2005, 03:45 AM

Lol. Simply amazing.

ChaosEvoker · 25th March 2005, 04:00 AM

Ah the classic desperate mage staff fight. It funny just imagining it in my mind

Mr_GrinReaper · 6th April 2005, 02:10 AM

I have a story, Lord of Desecration is gonna kill me for this....

This isn't really a near death experiance, but a moderatly easy fight that turned into one DMPC's death... Our DND group was (is) doing a jointly dmed bloodline campaign.

Ok, so heres the story-

We are in a town, we hear a rumor about bandits (something like that) and so we go to investigate, finding one bandit camp, heavily populated... We tried to bluff them into thinking we were a party of drow raiders, but the dm at the time, (not LoD yet) had the Bandit leader scream out "THEIR BLUFFING, BLUFFING I TELL YOU!"

this ruined our attempt at bluff, so our parties bard facinated the whole group, giving most of us time to run. He broke the facination, and started running. Me (a swashbuckler) and our parties rouge run to his defence, meanwhile our parties ranger (sniping sort of guy) was shooting the mug outa the bandits, and so we kilt them, but then, we found a unsent letter, talking about a 2nd bandit camp. We decided not to do anything about it, and defend the town if needed.

We were back at the town, fortifying it with caltrops and barriers, using a large tavern as our headquarters. It turns out that a whole bunch of goblin's we're the other camp, and this is where LoD was DMing, there were a whole bunch, and some even burrowed through the floor of the tavern, and set it on fire, and I had to take them down.

So meanwhile, theres a whole buncha fighting around the tavern, including the DMPC- the bard mentioned earlier, every one else has kilt their respective goblins, and are far away from him, and so hes going at it melee with this goblin, ironically, he roles, in plain sight, (no dm screen) three 20's one the goblins attack, and than, he fails his fortitude save for the instant death- the result, one pissed off DM and a dead bard....

Another horror story, the party is fighting a whole mass of Orcs, the underdark variety, (4got name) with a whole bunch of supporting people, we kill a bunch of them, and then, another wave comes, and the Female Elf Fighter (who was stronger than anyone else in the party, ironically, being an elf) who was weilding a +something, flaming greatsword, thinks herself invunerable, so she charges strait into the massed Orcs, slaying one instantly, and missing on the cleave attack. The Orcs procede to surround her, and completly and totally kill her. That was the stupidest thing a PC had done in a while....

Blade of Desecration · 9th April 2005, 04:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr_GrinReaper

I have a story, Lord of Desecration is gonna kill me for this....

This isn't really a near death experiance, but a moderatly easy fight that turned into one DMPC's death... Our DND group was (is) doing a jointly dmed bloodline campaign.

Ok, so heres the story-

We are in a town, we hear a rumor about bandits (something like that) and so we go to investigate, finding one bandit camp, heavily populated... We tried to bluff them into thinking we were a party of drow raiders, but the dm at the time, (not LoD yet) had the Bandit leader scream out "THEIR BLUFFING, BLUFFING I TELL YOU!"

this ruined our attempt at bluff, so our parties bard facinated the whole group, giving most of us time to run. He broke the facination, and started running. Me (a swashbuckler) and our parties rouge run to his defence, meanwhile our parties ranger (sniping sort of guy) was shooting the mug outa the bandits, and so we kilt them, but then, we found a unsent letter, talking about a 2nd bandit camp. We decided not to do anything about it, and defend the town if needed.

We were back at the town, fortifying it with caltrops and barriers, using a large tavern as our headquarters. It turns out that a whole bunch of goblin's we're the other camp, and this is where LoD was DMing, there were a whole bunch, and some even burrowed through the floor of the tavern, and set it on fire, and I had to take them down.

So meanwhile, theres a whole buncha fighting around the tavern, including the DMPC- the bard mentioned earlier, every one else has kilt their respective goblins, and are far away from him, and so hes going at it melee with this goblin, ironically, he roles, in plain sight, (no dm screen) three 20's one the goblins attack, and than, he fails his fortitude save for the instant death- the result, one pissed off DM and a dead bard....

Another horror story, the party is fighting a whole mass of Orcs, the underdark variety, (4got name) with a whole bunch of supporting people, we kill a bunch of them, and then, another wave comes, and the Female Elf Fighter (who was stronger than anyone else in the party, ironically, being an elf) who was weilding a +something, flaming greatsword, thinks herself invunerable, so she charges strait into the massed Orcs, slaying one instantly, and missing on the cleave attack. The Orcs procede to surround her, and completly and totally kill her. That was the stupidest thing a PC had done in a while....

Sorry, already told both those stories, though not in as much detail. Yeah, the valient charge of the elf was really dumb, I don't know why it even happened. I felt stupid just for DMing an event where something like that happened.
And yeah, that was kinda sad when my bard bit it. The thing with the bandit camp though, is that, despite my bard telling you all to run, you all just sit there like morons. It gave me a great opportunity to perform my clown music while juggling apples though.

Also, we did some coo' stunts to get away from the bandit camp (it was awsome, we summon a globe of darkness on them, then just ran into the darkness and started stabbing randomly at anything that started to come out).