D&D 5E Sometimes? The most memorable battles come down to 1 roll.

[Sacrosanct]

Warning! Spoiler alert ahead.





Last night we were playing HotDQ and were in the hunting lodge. Our party consisted of a Warlock4/Fgtr2, Shadow monk 6 (me), wild sorcerer 6, barbarian 6, and rogue 6. We had managed to fight our way through most of the first level of the lodge before capturing a guard to interrogate him. We were all wounded and down some resources, but were doing alright. We were in the kitchen getting ready to interrogate when Trespin and his drakes showed up, alerted to our presence. The sorcerer managed to send off a fireball and rolled very well, pretty much killing almost all of the drakes. We're thinking, "Hey, this might be a pretty easy battle."


Wrong.

Things went south when Trespin crit'd against the barbarian, doing over 70 points of damage in one round, and she wasn't raging. Ooops. She went down before she could do anything else. The warlock called out, "Troll! Use fire!' So the sorcerer was gonna launch scorching ray. Was. Unfortunately he wild surged and turned into a sheep instead. I tried to engage with him in an epic flying kick from 40ft away but rolled a 3 and 4 for my attacks. The warlock cast darkness and moved to engage in melee. The rogue tried to hit with his arrows from range. We accepted attacking at disadvantage because at least he was too, due to the darkness, and the warlock would not suffer that penalty due to devil's sight.

After only two rounds, Trespin tore apart the warlock and the darkness was dispelled, revealing how bad he was wounded; his clothing in tatters and still smoking from the fireball. The rogue's sneak attack damage and good rolls and my fists of fury (waaaaaaaaaaa!) were able to bring him nearly down despite his regen. The problem? We didn't have any fire attacks. I had 4 hp left. The sorcerer was chewing his cud, and the rogue was about to pee his pants.

Time for a desperate move. I shadow stepped to the shadows in the back of the room, ran forward to grab a handful of burning wood from the kitchen fire (taking 2 hp damage), and moved forward to attack with those (as improvised weapons). I got lucky and hit with one.

So it all came down to the rogue making a single attack roll to avoid a TPK (as I was surely dead this round, and the rogue would be the next).

Sometimes, the most memorable battles come down to 1 roll.

He hit. 1d6+3d6 sneak attack was enough to drop Trespin. We lived.

For now...

 

[I'm A Banana]

Things went south when Trespin crit'd against the barbarian, doing over 70 points of damage in one round, and she wasn't raging. Ooops. She went down before she could do anything else.

Oofdah. I suppose this is what healing potions are for.

The warlock called out, "Troll! Use fire!' So the sorcerer was gonna launch scorching ray. Was. Unfortunately he wild surged and turned into a sheep instead.

FYI, wild surges happen after you cast a spell, not before, so the sorc should've been able to get off that ray before they became a sheep.

I tried to engage with him in an epic flying kick from 40ft away but rolled a 3 and 4 for my attacks. The warlock cast darkness and moved to engage in melee. The rogue tried to hit with his arrows from range. We accepted attacking at disadvantage because at least he was too, due to the darkness, and the warlock would not suffer that penalty due to devil's sight.

Woof for the low roles...though imposing disadvantage on the party is a questionable strategy. I wonder - why was no one dumping healing potions into the Barbarian's throat?

After only two rounds, Trespin tore apart the warlock and the darkness was dispelled, revealing how bad he was wounded; his clothing in tatters and still smoking from the fireball. The rogue's sneak attack damage and good rolls and my fists of fury (waaaaaaaaaaa!) were able to bring him nearly down despite his regen. The problem? We didn't have any fire attacks. I had 4 hp left. The sorcerer was chewing his cud, and the rogue was about to pee his pants.

The sorcerer should've stopped concentrating on polymorph and turned back into a sorcerer, too!

Time for a desperate move. I shadow stepped to the shadows in the back of the room, ran forward to grab a handful of burning wood from the kitchen fire (taking 2 hp damage), and moved forward to attack with those (as improvised weapons). I got lucky and hit with one.

So it all came down to the rogue making a single attack roll to avoid a TPK (as I was surely dead this round, and the rogue would be the next).

Sometimes, the most memorable battles come down to 1 roll.

Epic finish.

Though I'd say for the future, (1) get some healing potions, (2) remember wild surges happen AFTER you cast a spell, and maybe (3) remember that if you cast a spell on yourself, you don't HAVE to keep concentrating on it.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Woof for the low roles...though imposing disadvantage on the party is a questionable strategy. I wonder - why was no one dumping healing potions into the Barbarian's throat?

Because drowning the unconscious barbarian with fluids in his lungs would just make things worse.

I only allow potions to be drunk by people who are actually conscious.

 

[JackOfAllTirades]

Wild magic... in the name all that's sane, why?!

 

[I'm A Banana]

Because drowning the unconscious barbarian with fluids in his lungs would just make things worse.

I only allow potions to be drunk by people who are actually conscious.

That must really highlight your lack of in-combat healing! Sounds like the best healing is prevention in your party's case.

Wild magic... in the name all that's sane, why?!

I'm having a lot of fun with my gnome wild mage, personally! Most of the wild magic results I've had have been pretty minor - and a lot of fun. even when I rolled a 2....

 

[PnPgamer]

Wild magic... in the name all that's sane, why?!

I dropped my party members thrice in lost mines of phandlever because of my "fireball dice".

 

[pukunui]

I've had a few fights like that! I remember we were playing Thunderspire Labyrinth and we were up against the duergar. We were staring down the barrel of a TPK when my barbarian rolled a 20 on a death save and jumped back up and proceeded to take out the big bad with another natural 20, thus saving the day.

As for wild magic, I've got a player in my Friday group who's been playing a halfling wild mage. Once, she killed herself with a wild fireball while alone in a little dinghy on arctic lake. She got raised from the dead. She's also turned herself into a potted plant once or twice and briefly became a smurf once. Most recently she had all her hair fall out and she grew taller (for the second time). Her brother is 3'1" and she's now 3'11".

 

[Rhenny]

We had a moment like that in our game session last night. In a big battle (6 1st level pcs vs. 4 goblins, 1 goblin chief and 2 half-orcs), it was looking pretty bad for the PCs. The sorcerer got dropped and then the bard hit the ground. The fighter had used second wind, was surrounded by 3 foes (one was the chief who could attack 2x per round), and was down to 1 hit point. He took a blow which would have knocked him down, but since he was a half-orc, he used his ability that let him stay at 1 hp instead of going unconscious. Then he attacked the goblin chief and scored a crit, doing 21 points of damage, just enough to drop the chief. At that point, the others who were still fighting were able to take down 1 half-orc and 2 remaining goblins, leaving just 1 half-orc foe, who took one more attack, missed and then was cut down. I was pretty sure that the group might suffer a tpk, but they turned it around. It was a great fight that lasted 6 rounds. (It was their second fight of the day too, so they were low on resources)

 

[DaveDash]

I've had a moment like that. 3/4 of the party stunned by a Mind Flayer, remaining Wizard running low on spells, mind flayer about to eat brains.

The Bard finally breaks the stun (-1 Int save), saves the Paladin with a cutting words when the Mind Flayer goes to brain suck him, puts inspiration on the Paladin who subsequently makes his save (+1 int save), misty steps up to the Mind Flayer and crits it for about 75 damage.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Well, I was gonna make a response with how the DM ruled that since wild magic results are out of the PC's control (by the very nature on how they work), the polymorph didn't require concentration and thus the sorcerer just couldn't end it at will. Especially since the table implies that with "you turn into a sheep for the duration", not "until you stop concentrating. Or about how if we tried to force a potion of healing down the barbarian's throat with Trespin standing over her, it would at the very least open us up to advantage for Trespin to kill both of us.

But then I realized, "Wow. In a thread about how one die roll can make memorable battles, it took all of 1 reply for someone to say, "you're doing it wrong.""

Yay internet.