Cool Combats

What's the coolest setting, atmosphere and actual play-by-play of a battle you've either DMed or played in?

One of my old time favorites was the final boss battle for an increasingly ludicrious dungeon crawl that was my first experience in both module design and DMing. The fight was between the party and a possessed kobold sorcerer, on top of a three-hundred foot tall tower, in the eye of a hurricane. The hurricane would move back and forth across the battlefield to throw the players off the tower or into its spiked walls, the kobold protected from its ravages by supernatural power. Sure, he went down really fast (damn forgetting damage reduction!), but the setting was awesome.

One that I DMed that was a lot more recent involved really bad planning on the party's behalf. They were mining in a cavern complex, and one of them spotted an emerald jutting out of the wall of a vertical shaft below them. The party tied a rope around the fighter's waist, gave him a pick, and told him to go to work. Lowering the fighter down, he managed to dislodge the emeralds, but they hit the cavern floor below, disturbing the behir sleeping down there... The behir scrambled up the walls and grabbed and swallowed the fighter. Instead of tying down the rope and all going at the behir with spells and arrows, all but the wilder continued to pull the fighter out of the behir's digestive tract, as if they were fishing for it. It was hilarious, yet awesome, because eventually the behir rolled a one on its Climb check to hold on after taking damage, plunging to its death below and still leaving the fighter, dripping and unconcious, dangling from his rope harness.


Care to share your stories?
Demiurge out.

HERE's a cool story I posted just recently, which might qualify.

Bye
Thanee

Mad God's Key - spoiler alert!!!

I DMed my newbie group yesterday. We've been going through Mad God's Key from Dungeon 114, and they've made their way to the Green Dagger Gang's hideout. After a session last week which ended up with them severely harassed by one of the thieves who kept popping out of hiding and taking potshots at them (after sneak attacking the only fighter and staggering him with a single blow - that led to all sorts of wacky hypotheses about traps, invisible opponents (he was behind the door), ranged attacks from across the corridor (Me: "But there was no bolt or arrow in the wound"), flying monsters and so on), they finally decided to withdraw, regroup and taunt their attacker, to make him show himself.

So the halfling rogue starts chanting, "Come out and fight us, why don't you? Chicken! Chicken!" (Have I mentioned that most of the group are 14 year old boys?) "Yeah, right," I thought, making a couple of rolls for window dressing. The first was a half-way decent bluff. The second, the rogue's sense motive, was - you guessed it - a 1! I did consider ignoring that - it was obvious that as soon as the gang member showed himself, he was going to be toast - but then I thought, "Hey, why not? We need to move this on, anyway." So out he came ... and died ... cut in two by the fighter's greatsword (the player has so been wanting to kill something with his greatsword!)

After some further faffing around, they decided to explore the next room. Imagine my surprise when the halfling rogue leaped into the room chanting, "Chicken! Chicken!" Imagine his surprise when the gang member at the top of the stairs shot him with her crossbow!

That was the start of a star turn by this feisty, competent opponent. Great armor class, high dexterity, awesome melee and ranged attacks (for the level of adventure - 1st), and bucketloads of attitude. The 18 CHA sorceror decided to turn on the charm - she was not impressed, and put him down with a snappy reply. The bard shot at her, and did minimum damage, which she shrugged off. This woman was fantastic!

The only woman player in the group (and the mother of one of the boys) was entranced. She started contributing the gang member's dialogue - really getting into it.

I was rolling like a demon, they were making average rolls, and after 7 rounds I had two of the party (the spellcasters) unconscious but stabilized, the rogue bleeding out, the fighter on 1 HP, and the bard soiling himself. It was at that point (having already explained to them that I wasn't fudging the rolls) that I realized that I'd made a mistake in her AC, pitching it too high, forgetting that she didn't have the benefit of her shield. Not a serious one, but enough to have slowed her down a bit, and certainly enough to have made her demise more imminent than it was. It finally came down to a shooting match between the fighter, the bard and the star villain. I then fudged a couple of rolls. Luckily, the fighter, who had been missing her consistently, managed to hit her and roll maximum damage. That was my cue. I announced her death ("You pinned her to the wall") and the party rejoiced that they were triumphant, after a really exciting encounter.

Had I not made my mistake, I would have let the dice fall as they would (although I certainly hadn't expected a TPK). Since it was my mistake, I rectified it in a way that seemed fair to me - and I'll never tell them that their victory was anything but well earned, because as far as I'm concerned, it was!

Actually, I had a really good fight with that woman when I ran Mad God's Key for my players. It was a one-on-one, running duel between her and the rogue, who was scouting ahead, littered with references to the dance of combat and with both combatants collapsing from their wounds at the end of it. Very cinematic.

Demiurge out.

Thief game I was running. Running halflings and gnomes from thief catchers. The human boosting the halflings to roof only to be left down below alone when the 4 guards ran up. The rogue casting and illusion of "something big" from the dark alley giving the strandad human a chance up to the roof.
Achase across the rooftops. A jump to the next rooj, the halflings and gnome smissing the roof and falling to the ground below. The human climbing back down. They are stil being chased by the guards. Fianlly lost them in the sewers.


Was pretty fun. We still talk about it. There wasn't much combat, a few swings, some arrows but still combat if you ask me.

I ran a convention game that involved a priest who thought he was a vampire, his two half fiend bardic children and and succubus in gold spandex named Columbia.
I takes place in a old mansion during a dark and stormy night. Its really the fact that big finally fight takes place on a balcony above the the succubus who is trapped in a magic circle. I helps that the party mage wants to see the rest of the party dead - or at least defeated. (unless she learns why she shouldn't )
Both times someone got thrown/jumped over the balcony, once the succubus was relased.
the first time the priest/pho vamp ended up lying upside down on the stairs, his feet caught in a tanglefoot bag, his white facepaint running as he desperatly tried to use his wand of hold person to stop his attackers.

I never did work in the Flesh golem with an 18 Chr and gold boots though.

Boddynock said:

I DMed my newbie group yesterday. We've been going through Mad God's Key from Dungeon 114,

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Great Newbie Module, that.

I ran a newish/compleat newbie group through that a while ago and had some fabulous scenes - not quite the knock down drag-em-out that Boddynock described, but the bit on the pier was really good. The PCs had trailed a 1/2 orc criminal type to the area, found him, then ended up chasing him the full length of the pier - through, over, and around docks, piles of goods, crates of chickens, moored vessels... It was AWESOME: climb checks, balance checks, jump checks, falling off a roof (one PC took the high road), bull rushes, some really key swim checks , trips, a brief grapple... They captured the baddy alive (subdual), interrogated him (intimidate, bribery), AND talked an unruly mob out of lynching them (diplomacy)...

Good times... And some of the best stuff was from players who had never played the game,

A'Mal

demiurge1138 said:

Actually, I had a really good fight with that woman when I ran Mad God's Key for my players. It was a one-on-one, running duel between her and the rogue, who was scouting ahead, littered with references to the dance of combat and with both combatants collapsing from their wounds at the end of it. Very cinematic.

Demiurge out.

Click to expand...

I remember that fight. We were playing over IRC, and demiurge and I played the entire fight over private messages. That fight was one of the most entertaining in recent memory, and a great start to the campaign (it was the second or third session we played). My character (the rogue) and the woman ended up fighting their way through what must have been half the house, with him finally stabbing her in the back just before they reached the rest of the party (who were fighting the dog like things in the main room). It was almost a shame to have to kill her, the two developed a mutual respect throughout the combat.

Other memorable combats of the campaign-

Fighting a crazed firemage who had kidnapped a floor of a Sharn tower, while flying about on soarsleds. Highlights - various bull rushing onto and off of soarsleds, errant fireballs nearly blasting combatants off their sleds, and a heroic (and near suicidal) dive to save a falling child. Probably the most cinematic fight we've had yet.

Battling a vampire spawn in an underground crypt. The warforged artificer was disabled by a summoned rhinocorous (of all the things the vampre could have pulled from a Bag of Tricks), and only the fighter and rogue remain. Luckily, they came prepared. The fighter lured the vanmpire spawn outside, where the vampire spawn managed to critically miss and fall to the ground. At this point, the fighter picked up the gallon of holy water, and proceded to pour it over the vampire spawn. Next, the rogue places a holy symbol of the Silver Flame (you don't need to be a cleric to buy one) on top of the coffin, and taunts the rhino into charging the coffin. One reflex save later (ad hoc ruling), and the vampire was finished.

The current fight we're in is going on as I type this: The party is investigating an aboleth (I think) manipulating the city council of Karrlakton, and enters his lair - a alchemical factory/warehouse, which has an attached crane which suspends a metal boat above a mudpit (where the aboleth dwells). After a close RP encounter with the warehouse manager, the party makes its way upstairs, where they are attacked by two manticores. After 2 rounds of melee.... the artificer draws his eternal wand of fireball... and the alchemical supplies factory explodes. To salvage the situation, the party is now trading arrows with a few skum perched on top of the boat, while the artificer has levitated to the top of the still standing crane, and is attempting to cut the chains and bring the whole thing toppling down. One round remains before he finishes. Wish us luck

I've also been a big fan of making cinematic fights in unique places. Always add's a great element to the game, especially when the setting is dangerous.

The most fun one I've played in involved an undead army led by a death knight moving to attack our town that we had to stop. We set up an ambush in a mountain pass to catch the army in route. As they approached we found that the majority of the army was being carried by large undead golems that walked on all fours (from CC I think). When the golem carrying the death knight came by we jumped off a ledge onto the golems back and assaulted the death knight. Soon the battle turned into a running battle, as we chased down the death knight (or attempted to), jumping from back to back on the golems, all the while under heavy attack. It turned into a one-on-one fight between my character and the death knight, as everyone else had fallen off and was under heavy assault from the army. The battle was awesome, with some great tactical combat, and plenty of cinematics. One of my favorites.

There was un underground river, passing through a cavern alongside an ice wall some thirty feet high, with a white dragon's lair above it. (Wasn't a very big white dragon.)

The dwarf ranger and the half-orc paladin had made it up to the top of the ice wall, eventually, and were finally dealing some real damage to the dragon (readied arrows and magic missiles just hadn't been cutting it, when the dragon was sticking its head out to breath frost at us). The dragon went for its escape tunnel, diving off the cliff into the river and preparing to swim out through a hole in the cavern wall.

"Now's your chance to shine!" we told the paladin's player. "Evil dragon. Low on hit points. About to escape. Champion of goodness. Big sword. You have to do it. Swan-dive, greatsword-first, onto the dragon down the bottom of the cliff..."

"It'll be a campaign-defining moment!"

"Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it..."

The player thought about it a while, and then said "I climb down the rope..."

The dwarf gave the paladin a withering glare, and cannonballed off the cliff with his axe.

It would've been cool, if he hadn't rolled a 1...

-----

Then there was the same paladin, who had shown more and more of a yellow streak as time went on. But the player was absent, and we were running the character by committee, and we decided that it was about bloody time he showed some backbone.

We were fighting a bearded devil, and the paladin was the only character who had any real show of overpowering the DR. We were all low on hit points, and low on spells. We'd dealt with the minions, and the devil was caught in a Web (I mentioned to the DM later "I thought he'd just teleport out of it"... the DM looked at the stat block and said "... oh. Damn.")... gave us a chance to feed the paladin some cure potions and buff him a bit before the devil got out of the Web.

The paladin hit the devil a couple of times; the devil hit the paladin a couple of times; the paladin made a few Fort saves; the paladin went unconscious; the cleric cured the paladin; the paladin hit the devil; the devil hit the paladin; the paladin went unconscious at -1.

"All I've got left is a Cure Minor," the cleric said. So we cured the paladin back up to 0.

"If he stands up, he'll provoke an AoO... and he'll be unconscious again... but if he attacks, he'll go unconscious too..."

But we decided that in his new spirit of heroism, the paladin would take the shot. A swing with the greatsword from prone... and the last thing the paladin saw before falling unconscious again was the devil collapsing on a pile of its own entrails...

-Hyp.