Stupidity or Genius?

[Jack99]

Our wizard had a wand of improved invisibility. We figured it best to sent just a couple of guys as keeping the whole party invisible with be too much trouble and take too many charges. So they set off on their carpet of flying toward the keep.

Your DM gives some pretty cool things out at 4 level. Has he been playing for 16+ years as well?

 

[tenkar]

I don't think that will work. Police will ask questions...and what you gonna kill them too?

Nah, plus it is bad publicity for D&D.

"My GM made me do it! He tried to kill me in the game; this was self -defense!"

The decision seems to have been based purely on metagaming. That makes it stupid in my book. How do you justify your action in-game?

AR

I'm "The Police" and I endorse this message

Anyhow, it's stupid to knock yourself out in game... I can't think of any sane character that would try to do so... players on the other hand...

Metagaming is to rpgs as cow dung is to your boots... a bunch of smelly crap that is near impossible to clean off once you've stepped in it

 

[tenkar]

Your DM gives some pretty cool things out at 4 level. Has he been playing for 16+ years as well?

Wands of Improved Inivis, Fireball and Magic Missles

Carpet of Flying

Super Turning Ability

Dread Wraith for the kill

I take back my previous post... when Monty joins the game metagaming is behind every door

 

[yesnomu]

Heh, I've done something similar (had my weasel familiar attack me nonlethally so I'd be unconscious but stable). It's an artifact of the 3e -10 HP thing, where you need to hit that tiny sweet spot to avoid dying. Bad idea to let the enemy do it, much more precise to do it yourself. Withdrawing would probably also have worked, if you could get far enough away. The vrock would likely go after the next most dangerous target.

It is silly, though, which is why 4e has the scaling -bloodied buffer. Now there's little chance of dying from one hit, even at 1 HP, so it's always the better idea to take a last swing at the enemy.

As a side note, I had a lot of fun playing as my familiar and using Charades (with corresponding Bluff check) to tell the rest of the party what had happened to my character. Man, I miss familiars.

 

[TwinBahamut]

That kind of tactic is metagamey, cowardly, possibly suicidal, and it is hard to imagine any sane person ever doing such a thing. It is also comedy gold, and, if I were there to witness it, I would have laughed like crazy upon watching someone do such a thing. Since the first few issues are trivial at best, and comedy is pretty much half the point of D&D, I would say that the move was pure genius.

For just a moment, regardless of how he was portrayed previously, your character became a classic "cowardly buffoon" character, the kind that entertains everyone by doing really off-the-wall things during fits of pure panic in the middle of dangerous situations. This kind of character is stock trope of almost all human storytelling, so I applaud your introduction of such things into a game of D&D, even if it may have been unintentional. Actually, characters like that tend to be overly-analytical and genre-savvy, so it would be almost in character for such a character to use metagame knowledge.

Honestly, I could almost swear I have seen a cowardly character knock himself unconscious out of fear (accidentally or not) in one anime or another at some time... It seems like the kind of thing Usopp from One Piece would do...

 

[Dragonwriter]

Honestly, your idea was both brilliant and idiotic. In the context of the encounter, it was the only semi-sane choice in an insane situation.

And the next sane choice would be to find out a few things...
Why does the DM come after you so regularly? Aggro is a poor idea and demons are smart enough to know what actually poses a threat. Now if the Vrock was toying with you, that's a different situation.
Why do these uber-powered creatures (relative to your level) appear from nowhere to kill the party?

I can see a party of 4th-levels facing a Vrock IF (and only if) it is a major story encounter. They obviously have no chance whatsoever for victory. The Vrock would then either send them to the realms of their respective gods or carry the four of them to the Abyss. I can see a storyline happening in the Abyss and that could be great fun, but just throwing a Vrock in just because is just plain cruel.

Maybe you should offer to DM for this person and throw a Balor against this person alone, "just because". Might make them see...


(EDIT: Just realized, this is my 100th post! Sorry for a little sidetrack...)

 

[Mallus]

Genius?

Yes, genius. Because that action --punching yourself out when faced with an implacable immortal adversary-- makes for a good scene, as a few others have already noted. It's amusing... and gaming should be about creating amusing stories, no?

Far from it.

That depends on your criteria.

You think with 16 years of experience playing RPGs someone would learn that the game isn't all about the numbers...

You're absolutely right. Sometimes the game is about doing fun, batsh*t crazy and/or stupid things. Wait, make that frequently.

That's metagaming to the extreme. I would have done the coup de grace too.

When metagame thinking produces fun, funny, and character-defining moments like that, I applaud it, and more importantly, reward it.

 

[jeffh]

My response as a DM would have been to laugh and then ask what your character is really going to do, because this falls firmly in the category of ridiculous rules exploits, and those never get much traction at my table.

Playing dead should be workable, I agree, but this isn't the way to do it.

 

[Mallus]

Playing dead should be workable, I agree, but this isn't the way to do it.

Why not? It's certainly more memorable than just dropping to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

 

[RithTheAwakener]

Another thing... regardless of whether punching yourself out was stupidity or genius, it was certainly entertaining. And being entertaining should count for something in RPG play. On those grounds alone I would have had that stunt succeed.

Exactly my thoughts. Punching yourself in the head is just too great of a DnD escape to not work.