D&D General Most Memorable Party Win

[Swedish Chef]

Hi all. Just curious as to what is your group's most memorable "win"? Was it a random encounter that turned sour? A Boss fight that was truly epic? A lucky die roll that completely up-ended the carefully planned campaign?

Mine came way back in 1st Edition. I was running the original I6 - Ravenloft. At the beginning of the module, Strahd is supposed to show up and harass the party at times and locations of his choosing. I decide to have him attack the inn they are staying in with some wolves and bats, drawing them out to the courtyard. Strahd is nearby, observing. The party exits the inn and Strahd basically warns them away.

That's when the mage casts Sepia Snake Sigil. " If it is successful in striking, the victim is engulfed in a shimmering amber field of force, frozen and immobilized until the caster releases the dweomer or until a dispel magic spell does so. Until then, nothing can get at the victim, move the shimmering force surrounding him or her, or otherwise affect the field or the victim. The victim does not age grow hungry, sleep or regain spells when in this state, and is not aware of his or her surroundings."
As we rolled in the open, I was forced to make the save. Of all the times for the d20 to roll a 2! Duration of the spell? Until the caster opts to release the victim or someone else is successful in casting a Dispel Magic.

The party waited until high noon and release the spell. Scratch one vampire.

That spell was subsequently banned from use at the table.

 

[R_J_K75]

In 2E I was playing a Moon Elf Mage 3/Thief 2 with the Spellfilcher kit. We were in Myth Drannor exploring one of the ruins. We came across a stone golem. The other 2 players ran and hid in a closet leaving me to fight the thing by myself. I used all my spells, every magical item, and was down to my last 2 or 3 hp when I finally destroyed it. Think I ended up jumping on its back so it couldnt hit me, hung on long enough to grab a wand out of my boot and blow its head off. Back then you declared your actions then rolled initiative so combat was quite different. Later in the same adventure we came across a vrock, it was another tough battle be we just ganged up on it, got lucky and won rather quickly. I ended up with a +3 luck blade out of that fight. Come to think of it we werent purposely going into Myth Drannor we were just wandering around Cormanthor and ended up there, so the DM just started throwing a bunch of high HD creatures at us. Thats the way we played back in those days, we didnt run modules, we'd pick an area and just make up adventures there. so we kind of knew it was possible to have a TPK because we went where we shouldnt have. For the life of me I cant remember what happened to those characters but I think the game got put on hold and we never restarted it. It was so long ago I only recall mostly vague bits and pieces with a few particulars mixed in, but I remember it being really fun.

 

[TheLibrarian]

It was the very last combat of The Savage Tide campaign for 3.5. We're entering the final room to confront Demogorgon. We're all 20th level badasses. Buff spells have been cast. Potions drunk. Swords sharpened. Spells prepared. Tarps are off and we're ready for a Donnybrook.

My wife's fighters scores the highest initiative. Walks up to Demogoron and crits him. Does so much damage (because of the crit and buffs) it triggers the massive damage rule... which straight up kills him. Both his heads fall to the floor and the body follows with a satisfying "thud." Her character sheathes her sword and walks out of the room past the rest of us with a grin on her face.

It was the most epicly anticlimatic battle I've ever seen.

I swear I'm going to put something like "Killed Demogorgon in One Hit" on her tombstone.

 

[DemoMonkey]

Ending Strahd by repeatedly refusing to be drawn into his castle (where he is at his strongest, what are we MORONS?), and instead drawing him out - we knew we were being scryed - by putting on a very public and very obscene puppet show with him as the main character.

On open ground, driven by pride to not play cat-and-mouse, against a party of prepared adventurers with no concern for collateral damage? It did not go well for the Count.

 

[R_J_K75]

Does so much damage (because of the crit and buffs) it triggers the massive damage rule... which straight up kills him. Both his heads fall to the floor and the body follows with a satisfying "thud."

It was the most epicly anticlimatic battle I've ever seen.

Any idea what CR Demogorgon was in that edition? I believe every word of it, and that it was legit on the DMs part. But every time I hear a story like this I always think that WotC definitely should put something in the rules to prevent things like this. Just for the fact that as you said seems pretty anticlimactic and too easy. Id have to think that Devil/Demon lords should be immune to massive damage and other such flukes. IDK its been a long time since I played or ran 3.x.

Edit: I found this online:

Demogorgon

"The first of these new demons was a twisted, deformed abortion of evil with boneless arms, twin simian heads, reptilian legs, and a twisted tail—a snapping, howling, and ultimately uncontrollable monster formed from the primal fears of mortal souls." — The Demonomicon of Iggwilv Demogorgon, the...

dungeonsdragons.fandom.com

The cult of Demogorgon appears prominently in the Savage Tide Adventure Path (Dungeon Magazine 139-150). In the final chapter, Prince of Demons, the player characters enter Demogorgon's lair and face him directly, in this incarnation a CR33 creature upgraded from the version in the Fiendish Codex.

 

[Shiroiken]

Most memorable was fairly recent, being in the current 5E campaign. We were investigating a cultist lair in the sewers under the city. We'd faced down several areas of cultists, with the last being a sudden swarm of reinforcements. We figured that all the cultists came, so we were clear of enemies. Instead, we found an old cultist who was a mage with his familiar. Already low on HP and resources (we never considered the idea of a short rest), he was kicking our butts. In the end, the only ones standing were the barbarian and my dwarven cleric, both because we had high con and HP. The barbarian falls, I figure I'm dead (no spell slots left), but she rolls a 20 on her Death Save, popping back up to join the fight. I fall on the next round, but I also roll a 20. Barbarian falls again, only to roll yet another 20! In the final three rounds of combat, the mage had dropped a PC every round, only to have them come back up with 1 HP with a lucky roll.

There was still a lot of lair to explore, and we figured there were more enemies left. We took our fallen comrades and carried them out of the sewer... where we were mugged by a dozen thugs. At 1 HP each, we gave them half the loot we recovered instead of fighting, because we'd have no chance. Man that sucked!

 

[TheLibrarian]

Any idea what CR Demogorgon was in that edition? I believe every word of it, and that it was legit on the DMs part. But every time I hear a story like this I always think that WotC definitely should put something in the rules to prevent things like this. Just for the fact that as you said seems pretty anticlimactic and too easy. Id have to think that Devil/Demon lords should be immune to massive damage and other such flukes. IDK its been a long time since I played or ran 3.x.

CR33 as you mention.

No linking to pirated material, please.

Granted it was 15 years ago, but I do seem to remember the dice lining up just right. Like there was a critical, and she rolled close to max damage, a buff of some sort was triggered, and then Demogorgon failed a save or something. It was a total fluke, but a really cool one. We still talk about it.

 

[R_J_K75]

CR33 as you mention.

No linking to pirated material, please.

Granted it was 15 years ago, but I do seem to remember the dice lining up just right. Like there was a critical, and she rolled close to max damage, a buff of some sort was triggered, and then Demogorgon failed a save or something. It was a total fluke, but a really cool one. We still talk about it.

I totally remember instances like this. As a DM Id have done the same. Sometimes the dice just roll well. Not even a DM v PC thing but everyone loves rolling that Natural 20.

 

[ehenning]

It was the end of my first campaign in 20 years. In the early days of 5e and the final fight of the Rise of Tiamat. We hadn't done the best job of muting Tiamat's strength as she ascended from the portal and entered into the Material Plane, and she was wiping the floor with us. Our paladin had taken a vorpal sword off of a previous encounter and was doing his best while the rest of us were just trying to survive against all of the breath weapons. Paladin rolls a natural 20 critical and off comes the green head. Then another crit and off comes the blue head. Fire breath weapon takes down our wizard (me) and our rouge. Our paladin strikes again...crit! Off comes the red head. Our cleric brings us back, and I put up a Wall of Force to give us a breather. I leave a 5 foot space open from the floor to give us space to attack. Bad idea. Tiamat breaths cold and everyone but our cleric and paladin go down again. Paladin rolls up to Tiamat and attacks...another crit! Off goes the black head. Our cleric makes a clutch decision and uses his last healing spell on our paladin. Legendary action takes the cleric down right after. It's just our paladin standing, and he is down to single digit HP after a claw attack hits. Teetering on the brink of unconsciousness, our paladin takes a final strike....and crits!! Off goes Tiamat's final white head, and the world is saved.

5 critical hits (not exactly in a row. I shortened the narrative a little here. But the last two crits were in a row!). My friend playing the paladin jumped on the table and screamed in joy. It was the most memorable moment in my long RPG history.

 

[Swedish Chef]

Not a party "win" this time, but still remembered and talked about.
2nd Ed, party is exploring a dungeon. Random encounter, the mage decides to show off. Casts fireball. Forgets to calculate volume, so the fireball backblasts into the party. Mage shrugs his shoulders - what's 6d8 damage? We're all high level, we'll save easily.
Mage rolls a 7 for his save vs spell. Then starts rolling for his magic items (as was the rule then). Nearly fully charged Helm of Brilliance? A 1 you say?
<boom>

Complete TPK, but everyone was laughing so hard they just didn't care. New characters, new adventure, epic story to remember later.