Stupidest things PCs/DMs have done

[Ipissimus]

True, GammaPaladin, true.

I'm not sure if it'd been better, my players are the type that like to be able to try something stupid and fail over being told a flat-out no. It gives them the illusion that they are in control. If the player came back and begged me for another familiar, I probably would've relented but he didn't.

On the other hand, the line between stupidity and genius is a very thin margin. The number of crackpot schemes they've come up with that actually worked...

 

[Peni Griffin]

Christopher Reeve's neck was broken. He was paralyzed from the injury down, but eventually died of neglect (An infected bedsore?! I will never understand why his family didn't sue the staff that let that happen!), not the injury directly.

It is possible to die of a broken neck, just not inevitable, and I quite agree that he should not have been allowed to profit from this callous disregard of his familiar's well-being. I'm having a real problem picking a stage of a constrictor's life at which this would even be a tempting option, as constrictors are relatively bulky as snakes go by the time they get long enough to use as a whip.

I would encourage a person with a familiar to bone up on the base animal's abilities and use them appropriately. That's the most fun thing about familiars!

 

[pallandrome]

A broken neck is not neccisarily lethal, but it certainly can be. If enough nerves in the spinal column are severed, there are none left to tell the lungs or heart to function.


That said, my own tale of rampant stupidity I can only blame upon it being my first roleplaying game. This was White Wolf Werewolf, and being a first-timer, I decided to play a combat monster, of course. I had huge size, I giant silver warhammer, the works. It wasn't long before we get to the old haunted house we were supposed to explore. The old, rickety, rotten, WOODEN haunted house. Sure enough, true to form, the moment the first spirit appears, I transform into a 12 foot tall, half-ton, slavering monster, and swing my silver hammer like I'm babe frikkin ruth.

But I'm not Babe Ruth. I'm a giant wrecking ball, hammering it's way through a support column (botched roll) in the second floor of a rickity mansion that we were supposed to fix up, not tear down. Now, I am a werewolf, so I can take this kind of punishment. Sadly, my pride was far more gravely wounded.

 

[Evilhalfling]

More Stupidity:
In having a formal Dinner / negociation with what is a seemingly evil huge Silver Dragon, who has been gratcious, if frighting(6th lvl PCs). A PC asks if she has been allied with white dragons, more specifically these! and he pulls out a white dragon skull and plops it on the table. Shaking with rage she replies "You do not bring the heads of my allies' children to Dinner!"

We are assured that his fate can be included in the negociations,and that PC is removed. Then a kobold brings out a Cake, we decide that the cake is drugging the dragon, and one character manages to knock it off the table, my PC offers to help and tries to sleight of hand some cake into a pocket for later study. (thus attempting an opposed roll +5 in my (CC) skill vs a dragons SPOT. Botching it I leave big stains on my clothes, pockets and hands.

Slightly later, after what amounts to a uh-uh / uh-huh arrgument with a different PC : the dragon declares "You all are the worst emissaries ever!"

After being saved by an NPC who living up to our suspictions, turns out to be another dragon (a canidate for stupid DM tricks)

We go after the kobolds in the kitchen. At last a fight 6th lvl characters can win!
(which we did not really need to fight, the recovered dragon would have driven them off, we just wanted the revenge.)
rnd 1 Paladin charges, misses and is paralized by dc13 posion
Sorcerer (my character) lighting bolts 4 kobolds, then is also paralized despite draconic feats that bring my paralization save to +8.
The cleric is still locked up from earlier, leaving the Rogue, and 3 cohorts to finish the battle. So each player takes over a cohort, but it was a near thing. We survivied the dragon, to nearly fall to a TPK by kobolds.

 

[Judou Ashita]

My PCs are usually quite smart, and I don't really recall anything truly stupid they have done... but a friend of mine has had a few laughs at the expense of her PCs dealing with a red dragon.

Random PC: "Let's set this thing on fire!"

And they ACTUALLY tried to attack the ADULT red dragon with fire-based spells!

Needless to say, it was a TPK.

 

[mara]

More Stupidity:
In having a formal Dinner / negociation with what is a seemingly evil huge Silver Dragon, who has been gratcious, if frighting(6th lvl PCs). A PC asks if she has been allied with white dragons, more specifically these! and he pulls out a white dragon skull and plops it on the table. Shaking with rage she replies "You do not bring the heads of my allies' children to Dinner!"

We are assured that his fate can be included in the negociations,and that PC is removed. Then a kobold brings out a Cake, we decide that the cake is drugging the dragon, and one character manages to knock it off the table, my PC offers to help and tries to sleight of hand some cake into a pocket for later study. (thus attempting an opposed roll +5 in my (CC) skill vs a dragons SPOT. Botching it I leave big stains on my clothes, pockets and hands.

Slightly later, after what amounts to a uh-uh / uh-huh arrgument with a different PC : the dragon declares "You all are the worst emissaries ever!"

Classic. It's scenarios like these that make me wary of including "represent your kingdom" as a plot hook.

 

[Lalalei2001]

More Stupidity:
In having a formal Dinner / negociation with what is a seemingly evil huge Silver Dragon, who has been gratcious, if frighting(6th lvl PCs). A PC asks if she has been allied with white dragons, more specifically these! and he pulls out a white dragon skull and plops it on the table. Shaking with rage she replies "You do not bring the heads of my allies' children to Dinner!"

We are assured that his fate can be included in the negociations,and that PC is removed. Then a kobold brings out a Cake, we decide that the cake is drugging the dragon, and one character manages to knock it off the table, my PC offers to help and tries to sleight of hand some cake into a pocket for later study. (thus attempting an opposed roll +5 in my (CC) skill vs a dragons SPOT. Botching it I leave big stains on my clothes, pockets and hands.

Slightly later, after what amounts to a uh-uh / uh-huh arrgument with a different PC : the dragon declares "You all are the worst emissaries ever!"

Oh, wow. That is priceless. The poor embarassed dragon.

 

[theskyfullofdust]

A common blunder I used to do back in the old days of handdrawn maps and mini's, was to lable the maps with the name of the encounter; a classic was when I had painstakingly drawn a tavern, but had the words 'BAR BRAWL encounter' written in plain view for all to see. Kinda took the surprise away from that

And a common player/character blunder was blasting away with fireballs and lightning bolts in the old editions, when it spread and took out the other player characters.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

And a common player/character blunder was blasting away with fireballs and lightning bolts in the old editions, when it spread and took out the other player characters.

I've done that ( ) but not in the normal way.

I don't remember if I posted it in this thread or not, but back in a 1Ed/2Ed game, we had a high level party going through S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. In an early encounter with the Police robots, one of my PCs launched a high level delayed blast fireball set at maximum delay...so we could get away, don't ya know.

We didn't realize that the robots moved soemthing like 4X the fastest party member's top speed, and they closed with us within a round, started meleeing us, and then

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Only a couple of hours into the module, and we were sent home, tails tucked with massive casualties (including at least one dead).

 

[prospero63]

I wonder if that monk fared any better. I'm guessing not.

He rushed forward in another combat and was the victim of a custom critical. Managed to get captured by the bad guys and was killed instead of giving the party up. It was actually a pretty balls move on his part.