roguerouge
First Post
Pure cowardly genius. I applaud you.
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Stupidity or Genius?
Aus_Snow
First Post
Guess it was the one in twenty, as per the DMG's guidelines.
Still, it does seem a bit harsh, on the face of it. Vrocks are a nasty piece of work at low levels, dependent I suppose largely on items gained to that point and resources left at the time.
Hey Moff_Tarkin, what happened to the rest of the party, after what you've described so far? And the Vrock, for that matter. . .
I don't understand - did your character pretend to play dead, or deliberately injure himself to the point of unconsciousness (0 hp)?
If it is the latter, then your DM likely misplayed. The vrock has no reason to perform a CDG, not when it has access to 5 natural attacks (both are full-round actions to perform), and even a single attack will likely bring you past the -10 hp threshold (2 is assured). And the vrock has the cleave feat, IIRC, so that first attack is essentially free.
Lets see, I can spend a full round action to make 5 attacks (possibly 6 with cleave), or I can spend a full round action to make a single crit (and provoke AoOs from everyone around me). Wow...what a dilemma...
Considering your options at that time (or rather, the lack thereof), I wouldn't say it was stupidity or genius. You would have been screwed either way.
If it is the latter, then your DM likely misplayed. The vrock has no reason to perform a CDG, not when it has access to 5 natural attacks (both are full-round actions to perform), and even a single attack will likely bring you past the -10 hp threshold (2 is assured). And the vrock has the cleave feat, IIRC, so that first attack is essentially free.
Lets see, I can spend a full round action to make 5 attacks (possibly 6 with cleave), or I can spend a full round action to make a single crit (and provoke AoOs from everyone around me). Wow...what a dilemma...
Considering your options at that time (or rather, the lack thereof), I wouldn't say it was stupidity or genius. You would have been screwed either way.
Grazzt
Demon Lord
This. Exactly what I would've done.
Frostmarrow
First Post
I do too. When facing certain death it's quite easy to hit yourself hard enough to go unconcious. Face it, people are capable of injuring themself with far less incentive than that. Besides the DM allowed you to hit yourself so it stands. Second, is it sensible to attract AOOs just to perform a coup de grace?
Well, demons aren't sensible.
The playing dead option is not meta gaming, as this could happen in real (fantasty) life. But punching yourself out because you know the game rules will allow you a chance at survival most definitely is. Surely a real hero (assuming your PC is one) would sacrafice himself, knowing he had no other option, so that his comrades may live.
Though having said that, I have to admit I like your style.
Though having said that, I have to admit I like your style.
Henry
Autoexreginated
ignoring the "Overwhelming Encounter Level" problem, it was sort of a stupid action for anyone to take in the middle of a combat, even a hopeless one; slitting your own throat to avoid the Vrock's depraved caress would be sensible (you see it in a lot of horror movies and, unhappily, in real life in cases of prisoners of war and serial killers); playing dead would be sensible, too. But smacking yourself in the head, and going down? It would be amusing for the Vrock, to say the least.
If I were playing the Vrock, I would have (A) picked you up after the fight, to drag back to the Abyss, to be my new "toy," or (B) I would have ignored you in the first place if you were doing a pittance of damage to me, and focused on the other targets, probably even taking an Op-attack from you to move past you on to the more "fun" targets.
If I were playing the Vrock, I would have (A) picked you up after the fight, to drag back to the Abyss, to be my new "toy," or (B) I would have ignored you in the first place if you were doing a pittance of damage to me, and focused on the other targets, probably even taking an Op-attack from you to move past you on to the more "fun" targets.
But seriously, if there were other PCs nearby that were a threat to it (which, based on the AoOs granted when it Coup de Graced), it should have been a more viable tactic for you to just 5' back and full defense.
Even if it didn't Coup de Grace you, taking a single attack would likely have finished you off, and would have been a very small investment in order to remove a potential threat. That, really, is the actual flaw in your plan.
Even if it didn't Coup de Grace you, taking a single attack would likely have finished you off, and would have been a very small investment in order to remove a potential threat. That, really, is the actual flaw in your plan.
I totally get the logic. And had you accomplished your goal of going unconscious through any other method besides punching yourself in the head, I'd have thought it was cool. But seriously? Punching yourself in the head so hard that you go unconscious? That is a very difficult thing to accomplish, I think. Even with one hit point, your natural instincts are going to make it very hard.
