What's the most cinematic thing one of your character's has ever done?

[Mathew_Freeman]

Paul, my Fighter4 is sleeping in a deserted inn. He is awakened by the sound of many voices outside, so he quickly grabs his greatsword and heads upstaris.

His suspicions are confirmed as a group of obvious bandits enter the room and start to make themselves comfortable. Paul gets a chair, reverses it and sits at the top of the stairs with a loaded xbow and sword to hand. He calls out to the bandits, telling them that this inn is occupied and that they aren't welcome.

The bandits respond in traditional idiot villain fashion by trying to rush up the stairs.

In a fluid moment, Paul shoots the first one with his crossbow, then jumps up from the chair and kicks it down the stairs at the second man, toppling him as well. Rather unfortunately, the third man ran up and criticalled with his rapier, taking Paul out, but it was a great moment as Paul faced down a gang of thieves by himself...

 

[gunter uxbridge]

This didn't exactly work out too well for the PCs, but I can totally picture it in my mind.

Imagine....a rowboat full of PC heroes in the harbor of Procampur rowing like mad to board a bad guy vessel. It's the middle of the day and they have been seen. (Sure...lousey tactics, but an invasion was on and there was no time to wait until nightfall. Time is of the essence men! To arms!) The main deck of the baddie boat is buzzing with crewmen taking up small-arms in preparation of repelling boarders and two massive ballistas are being brought to bear.

"Don't worry," says the optimist Priest of Lathander aboard the dinky rowboat. Perched in the bow like Washington crossing the Deleware, he eyes the baddie boat with murderous contempt and looks on while the crew struggles with the cumbersome ballista. "They couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with that thing at this range!"

The plucky young cross-eyed gunner aboard the baddie vessel loads a bolt the size of a phone pole in the ballista and takes aim. "Hmmmm...." he thinks. "Adjust for wind, the rolling of the boat, planetary rotation, a-ha! Got it!" He breathes a quick prayer to Tymora, the goddess of luck and lets the bolt fly!

(The DM rolls furiously) Natural 20.

The smile quickly falls from the face of the Priest of Lathander as he ducks in vain for cover. The bolt slams first into the dwarven psionicist nearly cleaving him in half! The murderous projectile then continues on and smashes the boat into splinters, tossing the happless...and mind you....mostly still armored group into the harbor. That's right, the mostly armored group of players who thought spending skill points in the Swim skill was a waste of resources.

Nobody drowned, but their attack was pretty much a bust from that point on, and a lot of their heavier goodies wound up at the bottom of the harbor. It just so happens that this was the last session of that campaign and we never resolved what happened after this little debacle.

 

[Americancyco]

movie sceens

Kyle my skirt chasing Bard had climbed up the side of a old building and snuck in a second story window. The rest of the group used the front door. Well Kyle ended up getting trapped in the corner by a giant poisonous spider. So I wanted to stab the spider with my basttard swoprd and use the sword to jolt myself over the spider to the doorway and safety beyond. The DM laughed and said yeah right (this was a 1st edition game) and said you need to roll a 20. So I pulled off one of the greatest moments in my gaming history and rolled the 20. It was a great sceen.

In a star wars game I run the players where caught by 4-Lom and Zuckkuss. Well the Fringer said he wanted to do back flip and in doing so kick the web cannon out of 4-loms hand and catch it as it falls. Now I'm a pretty fair DM who loves to see these type actions happen, so I said sure roll me a natural 20 and I will allow the flip and disarmin g. But if you make the roll you must make another roll to catch the gun. Well wouldn' you know it, two 20s, a perfect matrix moment.

 

[Mark]

Circa 2E - ...leapt from a cliff to called-shot, critical hit a dragon in the heart with a two-handed sword to save the party from certain death. I believe, IIRC, that I died in the subsequent plummet to the rocky coastline far below...

 

[Ravellion]

Interparty conflict yippee!

I was playing a 2e Swashbuckling elven thief. I stole prestige items, left roses in the beds of fair maidens etc. etc. The local government of Tilverton didn't like me much, especially not since I stole the Judges ceremonial scepter.

We were doing a job for an archeologist outside of Cormyr. After we cleared some tombs from monsters and getting part of our reward, he also wanted us to escort the sealed boxes back to Tilverton, through goblin lands.

We were stopped by an advance Cormyr patrol. We all went to the front of the caravan of 5 wagons, where the patrol started asking questions. The party paladin, who suspected me being the Thief of the Three Roses, answered truthfully on who we were (adventuring company silver something) and said that if the patrol needed to check the cargo and break the seals, they should, since Cormyr law overrides the archeologists' preferences.

Weapons! The next crate too! "All right, you are under arrest! You are smuggling weapons to the goblins!" the patrol leader yells. Unfortunately, even if I would be acquitted for that crime, I shall surely be hung for my thefts and insults against the justice system. I start to fast talk my way out it.

"Good job men. Not a moment too soon as well. I think these people had almost found me out. I am an agent for the crown of Cormyr. I shall produce my seal, it's in a secret compartment in the back wagon."
"I'll follow you, to make sure you don't escape." is what the party Paladin said!
After some bickering at the back of the caravan, I trip the paladin, stab his bonded mount in the leg with a called shot and start running for the nearby forest.

The paladin stands up, mounts his horse, lay on hands on his horse and actually starts pursuit. The scene: a non armoured elf running for the forest, chased by an insulted paladin in plate mail, his horse in plate barding as well. I made the forest just in time.

Rav

 

[megamania]

never tick off an 1/2 elf!

Last year was a big moment for Kari Morningdew.

I always played her as an extremely reserved person with emotional problems (human dad did in elven mom while she watched in hiding). She had bad luck growing up and had worse luck with relationships. End of preview-

She and her teammates had just successfully turned back a humaniod attack on a small town. Her teammates celebrated while she had water. Unknown to all of us- our drinks were drugged and that night we were taken by Trogs.
She was freaked since she woke up wearing nothing but her moth eaten night dress (others had less) and bound up underground. I forget how she got free but she went berserk! There was a human evil priest leading about four trogs armed with stone clubs. With no weapons, no armor and little back-up, she attacked the trogs. Needly to say- I rolled welll that night. She took out 3 of the four trogs then went after the fleeing preist.
She caste Exipedious Charge (retreat) on herself and went after him. He was seen trying to get into his temple as I cleared the woods. As the cultists inside began to open the door Kari jumped at full sprint and planted his head into the door slamming it shut. The inpact was good enough to damage his wood/metal mask of a snake.
Even once her teammates arrived, she continued to fight anyone and everyone with nothing but a ratty nightdress and a crude stone club.

It's something I won't forget for awhile.

 

[maddman75]

The character's homeland (the Gran March) had been taken over by an ancient mind flayer god. They were out adventuring at the time, and every living creature in the land was controlled by the illithids.

The characters went questing. They had learned that 5000 years ago a great hero had banished the god with a sword known as the Mindblade. It shielded him from its psionic powers and with a comet overhead he stabbed the god, casting it back into the Far Realms and consuming the hero in the process. Turns out the sword was in a place called the Nightfang Spire .

They got the sword and headed back, but the god-brain thought to try to dissuade them. It was a mere two weeks before the comet arrived, and teleportation within his sphere of influnce was blocked. The first test was some kindly, helpful farmers. Their sons had been taken by orcs, but following them and saving the boys would take several weeks in all likelyhood. The druid changed to an eagle, quickly found the orcs, and singlehandedly freed the boys.

The second test was one of the champions of the Knights of the Marches. He was near death, and told them the capitol was defended by beholders, drow, dragons, and demons. Only by going to an ancient hold he knew of in a distant kingdom for powerful items could they hope to succeed. This was a lie, but the characters didn't know that. They knew that they didn't have time and would have to face whatever terrors the illithid had conjured.

They finally made their way to the capital and fought past the god's guardians. The group's fighter/cleric drew the MIndblade, cried "This is my destiny" and plunged the sword into the god. In a blinding flash, the god was cast out. Only the mindblade and the cleric's schorched skull lay at the altar.

The characters became the new lords of the March, and build a huge statue to the brave cleric in the center of town. For several hundred years, the people of the Gran March will reverantly speak of the sacrifice of the hero Helios.

 

[Olive]

my ranger bruno was sleeping in a temple of his god, when he was woken by a creature crawling on the roof, rushing out, he discovered it was a bugbear, and chased it through the snows and killed it single handedly... notice that he wasn't wearing his armour ar much else when he woke, and never had anytime to put it on.

 

[WayneLigon]

Two things off the top of my head, one as a player, one as a DM.

We were running a house rule for massive criticals, back when we were playing 2E. The rule was: if you roll a natural '20', then roll again. If you hit at your normal to hit chance, you do double damage. Now, keep rolling and do damage for each time you make the roll. Not really as easy as it sounds like, either. Most people would manage two or three rolls, then fail.

We're beat up, hurting, right near the end of a massive adventure when we come into the last chamber and we find an adult black dragon. We're all like 5-7th level, so we're just flabbergasted. No way we can beat this thing. So my character, an elven rogue, decides that if he's going to die, by God he's going in style. I use a ring of Jumping to leap onto the things head, and stab it in the top of the skull.

I roll a '20'.

Followed by more than 15 straight rolls to actually hit it.

Upshot of this is: the elf leaps up, brandishes his sword and drives it down through the top of the dragon's head, coming out the bottom side. It falls down, dead dead dead.

=================

As a GM: we're playing Champions, and we're just about to the big fight scene. It's raining like hell outside, but so far no thunder. Then I start hearing soft thunder and seeing lightning flashes out the back window. I start counting, and the storm is getting closer, faster. They finally burst open the main base doors and confront the Evil Villain.

I manage to somehow time the thing perfectly. I see a large lightning flash, then I stand up from behind the screen and clench my fist in front of me, acting as the mad villain.

"FOOLS! NO-ONE defies VIPER! Doom upon you all!"

Massive peel of thunder, so loud it shakes the windows. Lights flicker off for a second, then another massive crack of thunder right behind it.

They all just STARED at me "We give up."

 

[demiurge1138]

Picture this...

Four adventurers literally kick in the door to an old, abandoned inn. The ground floor is little more than an atrium, and the staircase leading to the Zhentarim hideout is cloaked in shadow. All adventures involved left their torches back at their inn. Smart.

The halfling rogue calls for silence and gears the raspy breathing of a something in the darkness. The paladin (uncharacteristically for a paladin, but characteristically for the player) refuses to see what's in the dark. The cleric argues that she would be more useful in "cleanup". Finally, the rogue and the paladin shove my wizard into the darkness. Luckily, he managed to at least get off a stoneskin spell.

The wizard soon retreats from the darkness screaming. A hideous thing, hardly visible in the dim light, pounces on the retreating mage. The paladin and rogue pry it off of him and attack it while the cleric engages herself in "cleanup" of the wizard's wounds. The injured wizard finishes the damned thing off with a magic missile to the brain. The party then boldly shoves the mage to be the first up the stairs and into the Zhent lair.

The noise of the combat below easily alerts the small Zhent force, consisting of a tough-looking bruiser, two sorcerers and the sneaky looking woman whose retreat lead the party to the old building in the first place. One of the sorcerers had prepared a spell, and launched the magic missile into my wizard's flank. The rest of the party soon came up the stairs and attacked the enclave.

The rogue, pulling initiative, fires his shortbow at the sorcerer who cast the spell. One natural 20 later, and the sorcerer is literally nailed to the wall he was standing in front of, dead. Suffice it to say, the remaining combat was relatively standard fare: the fighter and the paladin just hacked at each other until one of them dropped, the sorcerer was torn apart by his own neuroses (phantasmal killer spell), and the enemy rogue pulled a gymnastic routine was generally near impossible to kill. After the rest of her group perished, she decided the best course of action was to vault over the balcony and tumble out of the abandoned structure.

The DM rolled a natural 1.

It was ruled that she failed her roll miserably, and after rolling for falling damage, had snapped her neck on a bad landing.

Even after I took over DMing, and the adventures got far more epic in proportion (and I hate to say it, but more competent in their construction and presentation), that one session is fondly remembered as the most cinematic.

Note: In my current games I have cinematics, but these are really more of a “Shut up and let the villain exposit” situation.

I apologize for the length of this post.

Demiurge out.