Learning the hard way...

[TracerBullet42]

Ok, so I was just thinking of some old stories from games past...and I thought of how the wizard in my party learned of the wil-o-wisp's ability to ignore nearly all of his magic. He unleashed some chain-lightning amongst a few other high powered magics before settling on magic missile to finally do some damage.

Or when he blasted the shambling mound with a lightning bolt...

It got me thinking...what are some good/bad stories of people learning things the hard way in a game?

 

[Darklone]

My first encounter with Shambling Mounds included Willow Wisps as well. And no PC had any clue that lightning cured them till we saw the Wisps cure the Mounds.

 

[Telperion]

Hm...it's obviously been a while, but I think I can recall a few moments of "newbie mistakes" from my old groups:

-Party wizard seeks out a high-ground vantage point and then proclaims to the assaulting goblin hoard: "Prepare to be toasted!"
And before he gets the Fireball off a bunch of goblin archers (riding on Worgs of course) shoot him into the negative hitpoint zone.

-Party ranger goes hunting and runs into a Bulette. Instead of raising the alarm he approaches the beast and prepares to kill it on his own. A couple of rounds later the same Bulette surprises the rest of the party and attacks them. At this point the ranger is running towards the camp and shouting at the top of his lungs, but too little too late. The Bulette nearly wipes out the party.

-Party paladin finds out about the evil scheme of a local noble and goes to confront him in his own stronghold. The paladin is courteously allowed to enter and then led into a suitable room for slaughtering. Luckily the party rogue had followed him in secret and brings in the "cavalry" before the paladin is killed.

-Party wizards casts Fireball into a group of Demons and then complains loudly when they don't have the good grace to die. He follows this up with a Chain Lightning and starts begging for mercy when that doesn't even slow the demons down.