Crowning Rolls of Awesome

[Dannyalcatraz]

She walked up in a marketplace, using respectful words and tone, challenged a known Necromancer who ruled by fear & terror, and struck- there was no subterfuge.

As for paladinhood- read the RW stories of paladins like Jeanne D'Arc, Charlegmane's knights and others' and you'll find they are perfectly willing and able to use misdirection and trickery, as well as threats and acts of violence upon the lower classes.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

I've posted this once before in a similar thread, but here's the story once again. This was from my first AD&D campaign c. 1983.

"In a 1E campaign (over 20 years ago.. yikes), the party was leaving the town of Sanctuary (yes, Thieves' World ripoff.. errrr.. homage ) for some wilderness adventuring for a change of pace. They trespassed in an elven enclave and were taken prisoner. My plan was that the elves would release them upon successful negotiation, but the party preferred the 'direct approach'. The party members not captured staged a raid on the camp. A few strategically placed web spells and fire bombed huts later, things were going remarkably well.. except for the new recruit, a first level fighter named Marie. Marie succeeded on her Str check to bust out of her cage, but failed the Dex check required to climb out without tumbling 20' feet to the ground. The fall left her with a single hit point.

At this point, Marie felt that discretion was the better part of valour, and decided to hightail it. As she made for the denser forest outside of the camp, she came across the body of an elf slain by one of her companions. Being weaponless, she picked up the bow he had been carrying. She was non-proficient with the bow, being a trident specialist, but a non-proficient weapon was better than no weapon. At this point, an unlucky die roll had two elves round a tree 20' feet away from her.

In 1E, bows did 1d6 damage and allowed you to fire twice per round, even at first level. Each of the elves had (a predetermined) 6 hit points. If either elf got in the first attack, Marie was toast; there was no way an elf with 2 arrows at 20 feet was going to miss. The only way Marie was going to come out of this alive was to win initiative (which was determined by each party rolling a d6, higher roll goes first.. the elves rolled a 4 and a 5), hit with both arrows (which required a roll of 19, since Marie was non-proficient), and to roll max damage on both arrows.

You can guess what happened next: Marie rolled a 6 for initiative, rolled a 19 and 20 to hit, then rolled two 6s for damage. Two dead elves later, Marie makes her escape and has the most memorable first combat any PC in any of my campaigns ever had."

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That reminds me of my very first AD&D game ever, only mine didn't end well.

Long story short: after a battle in which it was just the last 2 party members- a Magic-User and my Fighter- vs a Purple Worm, the Worm nat20ed the Magic-User, leaving me facing it solo. And my dice had gone cold. I rallied a bit, whittling it down to 4HP...same as me. With everyone watching, the DM and I rolled simultaneous initiative.

He hit, I didn't.

And I was hooked for life.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

In the final combat of my 3.5E Shackled City campaign the party was up against the son of Gra'azt and a CR23 Lich. The Lich cast Implosion on the Hexblade.

Thanks to either a Hexblade or prestige class class feature he had the ability to turn one spell cast on him per day back on the caster. The spell reflects back onto the Lich, I succeed in overcoming the Lich's spell resistance with his own spell and then roll a 4 for the saving throw. One CR23 Lich implodes due to his own spell!

Olaf the Stout