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

[the Jester]

Never really got that. Any character can be beaten by a challenge with higher numbers on it. And the DM can use any monsters, traps, deities, whatever they want. It's literally just a question of writing down a higher number than the other guy.

Tomb of Horrors is the opposite of "just add higher numbers". It's the most challenging and fairest adventure D&D has ever seen. It is quite possible for a low-level group to work their way through with a cautious and well-thought out approach and suffer no losses.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

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.

Tomb of Horrors is the opposite of "just add higher numbers". It's the most challenging and fairest adventure D&D has ever seen. It is quite possible for a low-level group to work their way through with a cautious and well-thought out approach and suffer no losses.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

It's the most challenging and fairest adventure D&D has ever seen.

Unlike the Orcus mounted on terrasques scenario the Tomb is technically winnable but there are plenty of people who'd disagree with you that it's fair.

I think it's a mistake to think of the Tomb as anything other than what it was intended. Gary's answer to players who came up to him saying "My character is unkillable. I've already killed the Tarrasque and Tiamat and Orcus and all the gods."

It's mostly a bunch of unsolvable "@#$% yous" each of which is designed to kill your character without a roll.

If you're having the problem Gary had, then it sort of makes sense. Though I suspect there's about a million better ways to deal with that. Otherwise, pass.

Tomb of Horrors is one of the all-time classic Dungeons & Dragons adventure modules. It is, in the true sense of the word, infamous for being one of the most devious and impossibly difficult adventures ever written. Not only is it chock full of incredibly deadly monsters and unforgivingly lethal deathtraps, but in many cases the encounters and traps are triggered for no readily apparent reason, and cannot reasonably be avoided even by players exercising extreme caution. Anyone who has ever played this adventure has had characters die horribly in the Tomb.

 

[mach1.9pants]

The rust monster, as originally designed, was probably the worst for players.

I'm not sure about 'classic dungeon hack strategy' though. Gary was more about trick and traps than 'hacking'. When you did go up against his monsters they were smart and coordinated - his modules had monsters working in a coordinated fashion.

Rot grubs.

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Unless you know the few exact ways to deal with them, your character is going to die.

Ear seeker, no more listening at doors smarty pants!

Edit, actually I am not 100% that those were EGG's

 

[the Jester]

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.

Except you don't need to fight him, at all. Take the treasure and run.

 

[Undrave]

Except you don't need to fight him, at all. Take the treasure and run.

Or challenge him to a game of Joust.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Ugh, Ear Seekers and Throat Leeches were just too horrible to contemplate, so I never used them in my games.

Ear seeker, no more listening at doors smarty pants!

Edit, actually I am not 100% that those were EGG's

 

[Shades of Eternity]

Except you don't need to fight him, at all. Take the treasure and run.

I remember tomb of horrors being scant in the treasure department.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Sure. I understand he said the words. I just don't "get" them. The DM by definition is all-powerful. Gygax could create any dungeon on a whim. Those words are nonsensical.

The DM operates under the severe constraints of fairness and impartiality. He couldn't just manifest an unbeatable challenge. His pride and reputation wouldn't allow for it.

 

[Morrus]

The DM operates under the severe constraints of fairness and impartiality. He couldn't just manifest an unbeatable challenge. His pride and reputation wouldn't allow for it.

No challenge is unbeatable, even if infinitely unlikely. It’s just how difficult do you want to make it? Challenging a DM that they can’t make a dungeon to challenge your character is just silly. He looks at your character and makes a dungeon for a character two levels higher.