D&D 1E What are examples of "gotchya" encounters from Gary Gygax?

[Eltab]

Mimics ...

DM: You enter a plain room with a comfy-looking chair.
PC: I sit down on the chair and ...
DM: -picks up d20- The chair grows teeth and bites you !

 

[Orius]

Or the Robe of Blending 3 Speed.

To be fair that was a joke item from an April issue of Dragon.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Mimics ...

DM: You enter a plain room with a comfy-looking chair.
PC: I sit down on the chair and ...
DM: -picks up d20- The chair grows teeth and bites you !

Doctor Who did it first!

 

[jdrakeh]

Years ago, when I was an impressionable young thing, I played with two former TSR employees. The way they told it, Gary could (and would) turn almost any encounter into a "gotcha" - it was kind of his thing, apparently. The specific example I recall was giants doing acrobatic tumbling maneuvers in combat during the playthrough of Against the Giants.

 

[Shadowdweller00]

Here's one for you: I seem to recall a room in Castle Greyhawk with a number of narrow, cylindrical shafts in it. When the PCs in all probability try to investigate they become magically compelled to throw their most prized magical item down one of the shafts, where it is irrevocably destroyed. Fun times, right?

 

[Jmarso]

Oh, another fan favorite: The Helm of Opposite Alignment. Here, take my PC and make him an instant NPC! Thanks!

 

[Lanefan]

Don't forget about cursed items! If you put on a necklace of strangulation, thinking that it was something beneficial, then it's time to roll up a new character!

Over the years I've lost at least 4 characters to those things...

 

[Lanefan]

Oh, another fan favorite: The Helm of Opposite Alignment. Here, take my PC and make him an instant NPC! Thanks!

Not at all, mon ami. You still get to play it, only quite a bit differeently than before.

I've also seen HoOA's intentionally used on evil-to-start-with PCs (in one memorable case, this was done by a bunch of other PCs acting in tandem!) to prevent them getting completely out of hand.

 

[Ath-kethin]

EDIT: Realized I was replying to an old thread and 400 people made my point before I got to it.

Carry on.

 

[Greggy C]

Indeed, higher levels do little to mitigate the threats of the Tomb.

A low-level party could get far if they were smart, until Acererak. There are only a handful of spells that even affect him in his Demilich form. Only two types of magic weapons can hurt him, if I recall correctly, and thieves can lob gemstones of a certain value to do 1 point of damage per hit. Even a higher level party is likely to meet their doom before they could figure out it out.

My players succeeded in the tomb of horrors because they were high enough level and smart enough to survive it.