A momentary lapse of good DM judgement killed all my players.

[SpuneDagr]

Alright, I made a mistake.

My players were speaking with an ultroloth and the one guy made a Wisdom check to see if he could take him. He got a 10. I told him, "Sure, you could take him."
Everyone died.

After sitting there, thinking for a bit, I reconsidered and decided that a 10 should have been a success. It was pretty obvious that he was really powerful, what with his aloof maner and palpable aura of pure evil.

Neither I nor my players wanted things to end this way, so I told them that their deaths had been a horrid vision seen in the hypnotic eyes of the creature to scare them.

Live and learn, I guess.

 

[Frostmarrow]

Neither I nor my players wanted things to end this way, so I told them that their deaths had been a horrid vision seen in the hypnotic eyes of the creature to scare them.

At least you score points for inventivness.

 

[spacecrime.com]

And you sound truly repentant. You are forgiven, my son -- recite three chapters of the Monster Manual, then go and sin no more.

 

[BSF]

Nice recovery!

Those are a bit nasty, ezspecially if the party is underleveled for it. Out of curiousity, why didn't you use a Knowledge skill check? Or even an untrained Intimidate for the Ultraloth. I suppose a Wisdom check is a nice, quick roll to make, so that would definitely be easy.

No criticism, I just like to hear different perspectives on how and why other GM's make the on-the-fly decisions. Shared learning experience and all that.

 

[tetsujin28]

I think your solution was a good one. Maybe it'll teach some of the folks in your group to take a few ranks of Know: Dungeoneering

 

[mythusmage]

Nobody tried to stop him? Your players did themselves in, just because everybody else is trying to surf lava don't mean they have to.

At the same time, you did set the Wisdom Check DC a tad high. The next time something like this happens, put the DC at 5. As in, only a loony would go for it.

BTW, add some description to your conversations. For example, the next time the group meets an ultroloth emphasis the beast's size, how he looms over them, the smell of rotting flesh that surrounds him and the shreds of putrefying flesh stuck in his teeth. With the occasional elf ear or halfling foot for 'flavor'.

More work for you, but it's worth it in the long run.

 

[Kichwas]

Hmmm...

If they took it on and died, they should stay dead.

They should have made a withdrawl during the battle when things started to go poorly.

I wouldn't even allow a wisdom check to see if they could handle something or not. You look at me and you wouldn't know I have military experience and grew up on the streets - you look at some of the people I've known and you'd never be able to tell they could kill or have killed with ease.

See a colorful frog - what tells you it's poisonous to the touch?

By contrast, I've met numerous people who had that 'dangerous air' about them that honestly couldn't defend themselves from a cripple or didn't have a mean bone in their body.

Most of us don't really -radiate off- the truth of our nature so easily. You may be able to tell with details, but usually not with a casual interaction.

If they want to find out how deadly something is - let them examine the clues and come to their own judgement, be it right or wrong. A simple stat check is a cop-out.

 

[Mark]

Great save!

There's a lot to be said for emphatic descriptions and not just relying on a simple rolled check, as said above. If someone asked to make a rolled check on something like that in my game I'd suggest that is what divination spells are for determining. No matter what the creature might be, there's simply no way to look it over and determine the future. Even the lowliest Kobold can get lucky against someone, sometimes.

 

[Celtavian]

re

That was a nice in-story do over. Good job. I'll have to remember this one.

 

[Goobermunch]

Great save!

There's a lot to be said for emphatic descriptions and not just relying on a simple rolled check, as said above. If someone asked to make a rolled check on something like that in my game I'd suggest that is what divination spells are for determining. No matter what the creature might be, there's simply no way to look it over and determine the future. Even the lowliest Kobold can get lucky against someone, sometimes.

Especially when that lowly Kobold has 15 class levels. *SIGH* I had a DM who gave humanoids levels back in the 2e days. Imagine my surprise when I tried to bluff an entire army of orcs into surrenduring, only to discover that their leader was a 15th level fighter.

From time to time in my DMing career, I've found it necessary to call Shennanigans! I think this is a perfectly reasonable way to deal with TPKs that result from misunderstandings between the DM and the party. F'rex, once one of my players and I had a very fundamental difference of opinion about what a N character would do in a situation. It resulted in the party being arrested and tried for Murder. Tempers flared, people were getting angry, and rather than let the game end, we called a mulligan.

If I fail to do my job properly and the party is wiped out as a result, I don't know that it's such a bad idea to just start over at the point of my failure.

--G