Tell Me Your Best DM Dirty Tricks...

[Dragonhelm]

A friend of mine once played in a game where every time the monster was hit, it got stronger. The way to defeat it was to cast a healing spell on it.

 

[Numion]

Rolling die for no purpose, maybe asking "Sooo .. what was your will save again?"

Asking for confirmations on innocent actions "I pick up the gem" "Soo .. you're touching the gem?" .. then watch the player squirm trying to come up with an explanation how he picked up the gem without touching it, or recanting the whole action (while the gem is perfectly normal).


Just a little messing with the players heads..

 

[Numion]

A friend of mine once played in a game where every time the monster was hit, it got stronger. The way to defeat it was to cast a healing spell on it.

Was it Baldurs Gate II?

 

[LostSoul]

I presume you're joking.

Yep.

And I presume you're not, but you should be. Beating the PCs down with stronger opposition takes no effort or talent, nor does it gain much respect from players.

I'd rather face an EL = APL + 4 encounter than an EL = APL of equal difficulty.

Because of XP rewards.

Plus, it allows you to challenge players while you are improving your tactical skills.

 

[Dragonhelm]

Rolling die for no purpose, maybe asking "Sooo .. what was your will save again?"

Stress the word was. I do that all the time. "What was your armor class? How many hit points did you have left?"

Or just roll the die for no purpose and go, "oops."

Asking for confirmations on innocent actions "I pick up the gem" "Soo .. you're touching the gem?" .. then watch the player squirm trying to come up with an explanation how he picked up the gem without touching it, or recanting the whole action (while the gem is perfectly normal).

I love it!

Was it Baldurs Gate II?

No, I think this was a homebrew monster created years before Baldur's Gate II. Nice to know that someone else had that idea.

 

[Hypersmurf]

When playing in a high-level group, I was constantly amazed at how often a simple spell like darkness (the old 3.0 darkness) would hinder us.

When I ran RttToEE, I had the hobgoblins who lived in the ground floor of the old temple completely black out all the windows etc.

The PCs had light sources, but a torch or light spell only sheds light (of any sort) out to 40 feet, and the hobgoblins have darkvision that sees further than that... and the temple is huge.

The hobgoblins stood in the darkness and shot at the PCs; if the PCs moved to bring them into the light, they'd back off; if the PCs threw rocks with light spells on them, they'd pick them up and put them in a pocket.

The crazy PC monk charged off into the darkness and tried to take on two hobgoblins in melee while effectively blind. That was discovered to be a Bad Idea.

I ran a similarly-themed encounter in a PbP, in smaller quarters but using the No Light cantrip from BoVD, which (unlike the Darkness spell) doesn't mess with Darkvision. The gnolls could all see just fine; the PCs couldn't.

Messing with people's lines of sight can be incredibly effective

-Hyp.

 

[Voadam]

A friend of mine once played in a game where every time the monster was hit, it got stronger. The way to defeat it was to cast a healing spell on it.

Nilbog?

 

[Voadam]

No, I think this was a homebrew monster created years before Baldur's Gate II. Nice to know that someone else had that idea.

Homebrew, never mind my question above then.

 

[Deset Gled]

One of my favorite tricks (that I learned here) is to take some humanoid monster and give it armor that has Continual Flame cast on it (including helmet, gloves, whatever). The PCs think they're fighting a fire based creature when they're not. For best results, use a base creature with cold immunity.

 

[RigaMortus2]

Well, when I DM, I am more interested in the story aspect than the "how can I defeat my players" aspect. I will throw easy, mid-range and hard-but-beatable encounters at my players, as well as impossible to beat encounters with hints that they should probably be careful.

My favorite type of "trick" usually happens AFTER an enounter. I like to throw "trusting" NPCs at them, perhaps an NPC that needs help finding a lost heirloom or an NPC that hired them to kill their father's assassin. And then when the quest is complete, turn around and have that person betray them, or they find out they used them for evil means (and before anyone asks, no, I don't do it to screw over paladins and such, alignment is never a factor or reason for me doing this). Again, it is all for story purposes.