Most Unexpected/Funny Ways the PCs Killed A Creature

[Bad Paper]

OK, so they didn't actually kill the creature, but they got through the encounter alive.

In one of the WotC modules there is a roper who is waaaay above the party's level (the point of the encounter is to teach the party that there are some fights they cannot win). So this roper, standing across a very cold stream, has the entire party, except the fighter, weakened and being dunked in this stream, taking hypothermia damage. The fighter nailed the roper with some alchemist's fire, then negotiated for the release of his comrades.

The resolution was that the fighter went outside the dungeon, grabbed one of the party's donkeys, and brought it down as an offering of fresh warm-blooded food for the lonely roper. "MMM...donkey! I haven't had donkey in years!" is still a popular catchphrase with the group.

 

[BRP2]

A PC falling off a tall cliff and LANDING on someone. And the PC survived too.

 

[awayfarer]

Me: "Ok. I cast Command. The one word is MASTURBATE.

I still have not played a (full) caster in D&D but I was thinking someday I'd like to use Commandefecate. Wonder what sort of penalty "occupied" drawers would give.

 

[mythusmage]

Way back when there was the time my 1st level magic user (that should date me) talked a balrog into beating the snot out of a full grown red dragon.

For real fun head on over to Zoe Brain's place and ask her about the Saga of Brillo ("These are the voyages of the Starship Brillo..."). I'll never forget the ssgcla (slavic small giant class liberation army).

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

This didn't work as I expected it to, mostly because the DM felt that it was too anticlimactic, but I think it should have killed the creature.

Spoiler

We were nearing the end of the Tomb of Horrors, and lo, we enter a room with a skull sitting on a pedastal. I knew this was going to go bad when it bagan to glow and then started levitating off the pedastal. After two rounds of mayhem, still alive, I recall a special cursed item my character had acquired in a previous adventure. She still had a bag of devouring she was holding for the right moment. We had been using as a convenient disposal mechanism all along.

I dig the bag of devouring out of my pack, and dive at the floating skull with the bag open. DM tells me to roll an attack, nat 20. I swipe the bag down on the skull getting it into the bag of devouring and I close it.

Its a creature, suddenly drawn into the bag right? Should be destroyed.

The DM ruled that it was far to anticlimactic, and he wanted us to fight it out, so he said Acererak burst out of the bag, destroying it, and we had to continue the carnage. 3 PCs died afterwards, but our cleric lived and raised them.

Another time, years before and in a different group, the party was playing a Spelljammer sidetrek where the PCs are hunting down larger-than-human bugs on some rock. We enter a large nest chamber that is described in the boxed text with something like, "the ceiling is so fragile, the slightest noise might collapse the roof down." Combat is imminent as big bugs stir, everyone doing their best to keep the noise low. One twit who hadn't been paying attention closely decides she was going to cast a fireball. The DM asked her twice if she really wanted to do that. The party told her each time not to cast THAT spell. Not fireball, not here. It's a loud spell, we said. So what, she said.

The DM said, "Congratulations, you killed the room full of monsters... by causing the ceiling to collapse... also killing all of you beneath thousands of tons of rock."

So, sure, it was a self-inflicted TPK, but it did also kill a chamber full of huge bugs. After the fact, this was a funny way to kill a monster.

 

[MongooseFamiliar]

We had a grey bag of tricks and were first-level characters defending a city from hobgoblins. Well, an alleyway, so that the hobgoblins wouldn't get sidetracked. Anyway, we made a barricade of wagons and debris and since we didn't have a tank we all grabbed our ranged weapons and climbed onto the roof. Just before that, I reached into the bag and pulled out....a badger. I made my handle animal check to get him to hide under a broken wagon and attack ambush the first person who came by.

After giggling for about five minutes as my level 1 sorceror climbed up the wall and everyone got into position, the first wave of hobgoblins tried our defenses and were cut up by our bolts. The second wave included a cleric who cast obscuring mist at the entrance of the alley...right next to where my little pet was hiding. The timing was beautiful - obscuring mist, then I cast sleep on the area (getting 3/4 of the hobgoblins), and our rogue jumped off the roof and into the mist, just as one of the awake hobgoblins blundered close enough to set off my disgruntled badger.

One round later, the goblin managed to do one point of damage to the badger, activating his enrage feature.

Four rounds and several vicious attacks later, the lone survivor ran out of the obscuring mist screaming, "Badger! Badger! Ruuuuun!"

Those little suckers are vicious. My next druid is totally having a badger as a companion because of that.

 

[Darklone]

That roper was in Forge of Fury. Yeah, it's hard, but my players simply killed it... no remorse. Tell them a monster is too tough to be beaten and they say: "Ok, let's roll some crits..."

Then they do it. The PC who killed that roper nearly singlehandedly was known to roll a 20 on command. Once he used 5 archer npcs (war1) with shortbows to kill three ogres before they were able to close to melee range with the group.

Badgers: Yeah. Our favorite ogrekilling animal.

 

[BaldHero]

I was once in a group that included a centaur.
While we were sleeping and resting above a corridor, a pair of mindflayers crept towards us and tried to pinpoint our location.

The centaur player was absent, so the remaining three of us pushed him out of the hole onto the mindflayers. Squish. The Dm ruled that both mindflayers were killed. The centaur was startled and bruised, and covered in illithid goo.

 

[megamania]

Characters are trapped at a temple built by giants. They are 12th level. 20+ Ogres, 15+ Hill Giants, 10 Fire Giants and three Formian Giants are attacking.

I'm thinking....ooops.... TPK. What can I do change the odds.

Suddenly the Cleric and Mage decides to use spells they rarely use. Confusion and Command. Two Formians fail and begin a fight. Hill Giants begin to fight or wander away. The ogres look at each other and wonder why follow these jerks?

The Fire Giants are then taken down with Energy Substitution Fireballs (Ice Balls)

I stand there slack jawed and amazed......




In another game, I had an assassin with an Invisible Stalker killer. The group sees one and is not even aware of the Stalker. Fireball. Assassin ignores it. Invisible Stalker....dead. It was caught in the area-effect.

I really really really hated letting them know when the assassin was forced to leave.

 

[Torm]

A PC falling off a tall cliff and LANDING on someone. And the PC survived too.

We had a Warforged in our party once who would do this on purpose to get rid of baddies. Frequently, the Artificer would get a flight spell on him so we didn't even need the cliff. It was not long after Eberron came out, and for some reason we were all under the impression that Warforged weighed about 1100 - 1200 lbs. During earlier levels, whenever we'd go anywhere on horseback, he would walk, and while we made camp, the unsleeping Warforged would have to catch up. (Later we found better ways to keep him with the party.)