Just one of those days . . .

[Vyvyan Basterd]

I've found particularly over the most recent two versions of D&D that the dice gods hate characters that have increased crit ranges. I would never dare to make a 3E character that critted on a 12+ because my experience told me that my d20's would never roll above an 11 the entire time I played the character.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

A curse I have been under for many years, when playing a PC: the die will come up 1 for the most dramatic action. I don't think I have ever, in 30 years, had a PC that I was playing "win the day" in any situation.

I'm envisioning that mystical Place Where Unmade PCs Frolick. Whenever someone picks up the dice to roll up a new character, they all cross their fingers and mutter, "Please not Bullgrit, please not Bullgrit..."

 

[renau1g]

LOL
Reminds me what my very same 1/action point/1 character had happen earlier in the campaign:

Using area effect attacks and risking hitting party members to try to clear minions away so we could move. Miss the minions, hit party member followed by miss minions, hit self.

I must be running a cursed swordmage.

This happened in a game I'm playing in. We managed to draw the enemies into a choke point, being outnumbered by them, with the druid waiting with Thorn Blast. She had 8 enemies and 1 ally in the blast. Guess what? She crit the dwarf fighter and MISSED all 8 enemies... I didn't even know what to say...

 

[Dykstrav]

I don't think I have ever, in 30 years, had a PC that I was playing "win the day" in any situation.

I've rolled high in a dramatic situation once in approximately twenty years of gaming... Once.

As a 2nd-level wizard in my very first 3E Greyhawk game, our party encountered a horde of goblins with a worg outside the ruins of Castle Greyhawk.

Our monk was the first to die. He had just hit 2nd level after being 19 xp short from the previous session, and the player had actually postponed his own birthday party that very day so he could make it to game. In the first round, a goblin with a javelin rolled a 20, and a 20 to confirm, and then a 19--at which point the DM saw fit to inform said player that we were using the instant death variant. That's right. The DM killed that poor character on the spot with a goblin javelin on the player's own birthday, with an optional rule that he had never brought up before then.

To make a long and depressing story short... We had four characters out of seven die in that battle, and I had already started thinking up a new character when the worg with 30-plus hit points remaining stared me down from 20 feet away. My wizard was out of spells and crossbowing at this point, so I figured... What the hell? I'll shoot him so that my character could at least go down fighting and then try to run.

I rolled a 20. I rolled another 20. The DM asked me to use a different die... I rolled a 19.

His party-killing worg dropped dead at my feet from a lucky shot, using the exact same optional rule and even the exact same rolls that he'd used with the first attack of the encounter.

That's the only time that I've ever actually rolled well in a dramatically appropriate situation, and possibly the only time that I've ever actually enjoyed rolling a die in and of itself. Good times.

 

[TarionzCousin]

In my latest 4E game, the warlock failed seven (7) saving throws in a row so he remained stunned throughout almost the entire battle.

Note: in 4E, you must roll a "10" or higher on a d20 to make a save. So he had a 55% chance of success every round. The odds of his failing seven (7) times in a row are 1:37,943.6412*







* I totally made these odds up.

 

[renau1g]

I'm in the middle of an online game... I've spent 7 out of 9 rounds stunned.... all failed saves....oh and I'm the leader so no healing for anyone

 

[FireLance]

In my latest 4E game, the warlock failed seven (7) saving throws in a row so he remained stunned throughout almost the entire battle.

Note: in 4E, you must roll a "10" or higher on a d20 to make a save. So he had a 55% chance of success every round. The odds of his failing seven (7) times in a row are 1:37,943.6412*

* I totally made these odds up.

Indeed.

The actual odds are around 1 in 268 (0.45^7, or about 0.0037367), which is fairly close to the odds of rolling a natural 18 on 3d6*.

* And we all know how often that happens.

EDIT: Interestingly enough, the odds of failing 7 saving throws in a row (about 1 in 268) are actually higher than the odds of rolling two natural 1s in a row (1 in 400).

 

[wedgeski]

A game of Dark Conspiracy the other week, facing off against the zombie horde. One character left standing with a crowbar, one with a gun. The one with the gun fires.

20, critical failure.

Roll again.

20, critical failure.

Gun falls apart in player's hands.

 

[TarionzCousin]

The actual odds are around 1 in 268 (0.45^7, or about 0.0037367), which is fairly close to the odds of rolling a natural 18 on 3d6*.

* And we all know how often that happens.

Every single time Drowbane rolls up a character!


I once rolled three natural 20's in a row, missed one, then rolled two more--all in combat (in Hackmaster, as a Barbarian). Whoa!

 

[Henry]

Was playing some Pathfinder last month, was set to be in a "Fight Club" style battle, I was doing my trash-talk (more like "trash-gestures") to the enemy fighter, and when it came time to pull out my smooth moves, I couldn't roll above a 5 the entire fight. I went down like the foppy little lightweight I was in about 5 rounds. Fortunately, they stopped the fight before he pulled a Mortal Kombat on me...