DMs, Tell about the shortest encounter ever because of players luck and actions

[SamuraiY]

Note: this is not my story. it happened to my Dm a while ago.

The PCs are fleeing from an angered manticore. They are very low level, so victory is almost impossible. Just then they realize that they are carrying so much stuff that neither they nor their mounts can even walk. The cleric summons a hawk in a last ditch attempt. It gets an attack of opportunity against the maticore as it flys past. natural 20. natural 20. hit. They were playing with the house rule that made this an automatic kill.

 

[Olive]

this is another story as a player...

weeks of adventuring into the underdark to find a lost mindflayer city. my wizard was out for revenge against another wizard who was down there... not only was my revenge denied (the wizard had been killed before we got there), but the 'guardian' or the city, a huge insectoid construct (a retriever), the fear of whom had haunted us for weeks, was destroyed in less than one round by my wizard with a disintergrate spell. the other members of the party never even saw it.

 

[MarauderX]

as DM:
I had a evil NPC rival group showdown with the PCs and expected the spells and blood to fly on both sides. PCs won initiative by a massive amount and the rogue fires and takes out the evil wizard with two shots of flame arrows he had picked up earlier. The PC cleric destroyed half of the flanking zombies the bad guys brought with them for fodder, and then PC wizard casts fireball for massive damage which all of the evil guys fail saves on, which drops the evil rogue and cleric. The PC fighters charged and within another round they cleaned up the three evil fighters that were of the same level. After that I had new respect for the improved initiative feat.

as a player:
We got harassed while at camp one night while chasing down our target, a bandit group led by a shaman. We wake up to find the rouge missing, and we are about to abandon him when he shows up and says "I got 'im". "Who?" "Da bad guy, you know, that shaman guy."
Turns out between sessions he played it all out with the DM (they work together) and used his track feat to follow the bandits stealthfully during the night. His reasoning is that they would stop and make camp for the night just like us, and when he got there he rolled well on all of his checks, ambushed the shaman and killed him, set it up to look like an accident, then sneaked back out. The DM was hoping to have him captured for doing something so foolhardy, but couldn't deny the dice. We were all let down when we read the email of the story of the event, as we so looking forward to doing it 'the way it should have been done.'

 

[Enforcer]

This was in an Exalted game (White Wolf, not d20) I ran last weekend.

I've got one player in this game playing a Night caste Solar (an Assassin with super powers). My NPC is a Dawn-caste soldier. The Solars have 5 XP at this point. They're being chased by a group of Realm elite soldiers (7 of them) led by a Water-aspected Immaculate Monk with 50 XP.

Now, for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about: The two Solars are able to rip through the elite soldiers, maybe becoming somewhat wounded in the process. The monk, on the other hand is a real badass.

Boom, 1st turn the assassin sends a screaming arrow of death into the monk and kills him.

"I spent 30 min. doing his character sheet!"

 

[Richards]

I was running an adventure from Dungeon for my group, and they were exploring a volcano-based cave network. I knew that in the next room was an 11-headed pyrohydra, and I'd never thrown one of those against the group in any edition of (A)D&D, so I was looking forward to it. They spotted each other at the same time, so no surprise attacks.

We rolled for initiative. The winner by a long shot was the monk/psion. She used a mind blast on the pyrohydra, which failed its save, and then stood there, stunned, while the party carved it up into ribbons.

I was as stunned as the pyrohydra.

Johnathan

 

[Dr. Zoom]

In one adventure last year, the heroes assaulted a bell tower to rid it of a gang of wererats. The wererat leader was also a rogue of some skill. He had been sneak attacking them with his crossbow for days and then fleeing, so they wanted his head badly. He was about to make his move when the illusionist spotted him and cast phantasmal killer. I roll two 1's and down he goes.

 

[DDK]

Hmm... the first incident that comes to mind is the most recent where I ran a module, ie. RttToEE.

Spoiler Alert!

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They had already breached the water temple gate but were finding it difficult and so decided to find another way in, ie. the main gate.

By the time they got there, though, other things happened and they had levelled up. So instead of assaulting the main gate at around 5th-6th level, they assaulted it at 7th-8th level.

It was a massacre.

At first, they were all, sneaky-sneaky, spy-spy, but once they realized the worst opposition they would face was a bunch of gnolls, they got a bit cocky and tried to pull a ruse with a hat of disguise.

The master was called (Mereclar) because it was all a bit suss (hell, even a gnoll could tell something was up it was so obvious) and he called Terrennygit. That's when all the gates of hell opened up...

I can't remember specific details, but essentially, everybody was invisible, and people started shooting and attacking and the middle chamber filled up with skeletons and gnolls and human guards and then the sorcerer used his newest spell, Shadow Conjuration, to obliterate everything in the hall with a Shadow Acid Breath.

Nobody saved...

Cloaks of Arachnida (from Lareth... yes, they had already gone and taken him out), lots of Haste spells, a few Shadow Conjured Bisons, a bard who though trapped for six rounds in a web didn't bother singing, a few crits from a maul after Bull's Strength and Weapon of Impact had been applied, and wala, no more main gate.

Despite a constant flow of new enemies from everywhere that could hear the battle and cared (the howler was nice, caused a lot of pain ), it was basically all over from the moment it began.

What I had thought would take numerous sessions and lots of sneaking, ended up being a huge bloodbath of pure carnage and destruction that Tharizdun would've been proud to have caused.

Ironic, eh?

 

[Ycore Rixle]

1e version: Players begged me for years to run S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. I said, "No laser guns in the campaign," a million times, but finally I relented. By that time, though, not all the players were interested: the archmage shapechanged into a black dragon, flew up to the crashed saucer, and melted the whole darn thing into the ground with her acid breath. No one ever went inside. Hours of preparation on my part sizzled away on that one.

3e version: The players are in over their heads, or so I think, when they arrive on the Angel of Poison's private island. But a couple of 1's later and the Angel is charmed and happily carrying out scrolls and gold to offer to the friendly visitors. *sigh*

 

[DDK]

Stabs dragon with Longsword (not proficient) that he grabbed from the Bard earlier.

Rolls natural 20, natural 20, 19.

We were using the optional rule of 20/20/hit was a kill.

Beast slain.

It gets an attack of opportunity against the maticore as it flys past. natural 20. natural 20. hit. They were playing with the house rule that made this an automatic kill.

I hate that rule for just this reason.

 

[Piratecat]

I hate that rule because it screws the PCs.

Just tonight, I had a (slightly tuned-down) epic-lvl pseusonatural troll attack the party. He got hit by an Otto's Irrestible Dance. "Oooh!" says the player. "He has a choice; he can either caper, or prance!"

Scratch one tentacled monstrosity.