When outrageous plans work!

[Hummingbird]

Hey,

This is my first post ever on the board, so hello everyone. I have been reading for a long time, I just never got around to setting up a userid before. But now on to my topic.

We were playing a few weeks ago, and our party was attacked by a band of orcs lead by a shaman (we think) riding on the back of a dire wolf. We had fought this guy before, and didn't want to let him get away, so as we began to win, and he started to flee, I disengaged from combat (taking 4 AoO's) and ran towards him, and grappled him ignoring the wolf. He failed his AoO, and I successfully grappled. Our DM ruled, that I had flying tackled him, and knocked him off wolfback. I was amazed that my daring was successful, and am now prone to playing my character as a bit reckless since his ego was boosted by his success. Do you have any other stories, where an outrageous plan (either well though out or spur of the moment) worked a lot better than you expected? Mine was due to all good dice rolls. (I am a lvl1 fighter/lvl1 rogue with an AC of 16. I was just lucky that all AoO's missed.)

--Hummingbird

 

[Sodalis]

outrageous tactics

Glad to hear that your DM is open to new and fun idears.

I play with a Dm that encourages that kind of stuff too- but since it can be botched by a bad roll, we tend not to... we would rather win.

BUt when I dm and he plays- it is a staple that he does these flying acrobatics that gets everyone involved (and i usually reward him for his detail, imagination, and courage to do these things)

One time, he played a lvl 3 halfling roguethat was not good at anything, but good at everything (i dont know if that makes sense...) but they were riding through the deseert when they were surprised by an ankheg. While the rest of the group was busy fighting it head on (not good when you have 10 HP) he rode behind it (flanking) and said "I want to get on top of my horse, and while riding (standing) beside teh ankheg, I want to jump onto the ankheg, grab it by the antennae and sever its spinal chord."

I thought for a while, and thought "why not?"

so I said, "make a ride check" (DC25)- he made it
"make a balance check" (DC 15)- he made it
"make a jump check" (DC 15)- he made it
"make a ref check" (to catch the antennae)- he made it
"make a balance check" (DC 10)- he made it
"and then now you can attack" (called shot)- he did

and i gave him teh sneak attack bonus on top of the crit and he dealt enough damage for me to say

"you thrust the knife in with such force that sopinal fluids splatter all over you- and the ankheg falls to teh ground, twitching..."

and so- YES- these things do happen. But it is the job of the DM to encourage it, and reward it when the player has the courage to try. Otherwise, a player will be more inclined to hack away at it rather than take the chance...

 

[Wolfspider]

At least it was an ankheg and not a dragon....

 

[Methinkus]

Hey and welcome to the boards Hummingbird!

Yep it’s always great when the DM is open to letting players try out more “interesting” tactics from time to time.

I remember once a party I played in as a paladin became involved in a naval battle and we were doing pretty well until that Beholder showed up. . . . . So anyway the battle turns against us and my paladin, in a desperation maneuver, ran to the edge of the deck and leapt at the big ball of flesh – who was floating over the water – and succeeded in grappling it at a major penalty on account of trying to grapple in full plate using only one hand while flying through the air. So I hold on to it with one hand and was even awarded a surprise round to attack, two rounds later I am floating safely back towards the ship on the carcass of a beholder!

 

[jollyninja]

well, once i got a little cocky with a rogue3/monk9 character and tried to pull off a hurikanrana (don't know how to spell that one) on a fire giant. i suceeded in putting my legs around it's kneck and locking them on but when i tried to take him over, i rolled a one which doomed me. he body bumped the nearby cliff and nearly killed me (he was not the only giant of the day), I had to roll a check of some kind not to let go and made it. then i went with a flurry of blows (the dm denied him his dex so the first one was a sneak attack) i hit on all of my attacks and downed the giant, who then fell on me and took me to -1 hp, enter the paladin healing me for 3 pts. the day was won.

 

[Sodalis]

Wolfspider At least it was an ankheg and not a dragon....

yeah... Dragons are a lot easier to kill. None of the acrobatics needed- we just walk up to one, pet it with one hand, and sever its neck in the other.

And I'm not talking just the wyrmlings either- I mean the mature adults and stuff. My party has trinkets made out of the teeth and horns from the dragons that have slayed...



NOT!!!

dragons are GODs in my campaign. I don't think they have ever encountered one- let alone have the chance to kill one....

Ibrandlins and pseudodragons, yes- butr never a dragon...

 

[SonOfLilith]

ahaha, reckless is my barbs middle name.

One time there was a pit of lava, and the only way to get accross was by a series of 20 chains. So when the panzy spell casters where preparing there polymorph, fly and whatnot, I said screw it and began to jump. I hand to make 20 consecutive Dex AND strenth checks. If I would have failed eather, even once, I would have been toast.

 

[Tsyr]

Things like this are always cool.

One time a party I was in found an alchemists lab. The DM described several bottles that were neatly labled as "healing potions" and "Cure disease potions" and so forth, but the corks had rotted away and the liquie had dried up. We were down on HP. I grabbed one, filled it with water from my water skin, shook it up, and drank it.

DM just stared at me for a moment.

DM decided to do it like roling a wild surge. It worked perfectly. No side effects. I got lucky.

The dwarf (who was even lower on HP) grabs one and does the same thing. Gets magicly silenced for a week. Doh.



One time in Shadowrun, my character had obtained a peice of stolen tech... a pocket sized broadband transmiter that I could connect to my deck (I was a decker). It would scan the airwaves in about a 30' radius for anything that seemed to send off signals like a computer, and then attempt to set up a form of forced wireless connection. It was easily jammed, delicate, had a huge power requirement, and somewhat unreliable... but it worked once and a while. It was a prototype we sort of... borrowed... from an R&D lab.

Anyhow, we were trying to get in to a warehouse where some biotech a Mr. Johnson wanted was stored. It was totaly isolated from the matrix, had no external connections of any kind as a matter of fact (It had a generator). Building blueprints revealed no entrances other than the main one, and the main one had several sentry guns near it, in addition to human guards.

I hadn't used the transmitter in a while... I found out it could be traced fairly easily each time I used it, so any time I used it I had to high tail it out of there soon after. Besides, it wasn't terribly effective... it only had enough juice in it's transmitter to work for around a minute, and it took nearly a day to charge again because of the type of batteries used. But I decided, what the heck... I plugged it in, snuck as close to the building as I could, booted up, and hit the button. DM rolled to see what I managed to get. Keep in mind, I've gotten microwaves and tridmonitors before... it's very random. Jackpot. I managed to get control of the central computer controling the sentry guns. I put in a series of commands to have the guns shoot any living things for the next 10 minutes, then shut down for 24 hours. Just as I hit the mental "enter" button, the transmiter kicked off.

10 minutes later we walked in the building, 5 minutes after that we were driving away, biotech in hand.

 

[RJKrik]

Well... its not quite as good as some of the ones on here, but it was outrageous that it worked....

Situation: 1 5th lvl Mage (er Wizard) 1 5th lvl Bard, stuck in a jail cell, after having been druged by the captain of the guard. (Gee isn't impresment funnn!) We're pretty much outa spells.

Mage: "Hmm... well I could cast Magic Missle on the lock."
Bard: "UH hold on let me get behind you..."
(Mage: Casts magic missle)
DM "Ok... roll a d100, you have a 5% chance of doing this (1-5)."
Rolls...
87
78
3!!!
DM: "Your first two shots hit the lock but appear to do little. The third melts the mechanism, the door swings open."
Bard: WOW. Cool


(another one, not quite unbeliveable, but still lucky)

Halfling Pally and Elven Ranger are fighting a group of 6 archer guards and 1 Sargeant who liked short swords. The first round the ranger gets shot up like a pin cushion. 22 or so damage. The Pally attacks and does 3 damage to the sargeant. The Sargeant misses. Next round, most of the archers miss some hit bring the Ranger down to about 5 HPs. The Halfling attacks again, does 2 damage. The sargeant goes to attack... and fumbles. Sword flying from his hand.... (OH but wait theres more) NEXT round the ranger takes out one guard. He actually avoids getting shot up this time. The Sargeant grapples the Pally... and the Pally fumbles his AoO roll. (IE He throws hs sword at the sargeant, to go hand to hand don't yah know.) Then it starts to get good. THe ranger fights off the arrows one mroe round, looks bad for him the archers are getting out short swords. The Pally rolls a 20 on his str check to break the grapple, and then starts punching. At this point and time the Mage and the Bard (from above) come down the ladder into the room...

Bard: "Uhmm..." (grabs a sleep scroll) (Prays it works)
(rolls 2d4-5!)
DM: Rolls will saves... They all fall asleep except for the sargeant....
Bard: "QUick, take their weapons, I'll tie them up while they are still asleep." (DM rules it takes 8 rounds)
Pally: "Ok... surredner." (to the sargeant)
Sargeant: "fine..."
Pally: Take off your armor and equiptment."
Sargeant: (grumbles, but does it)
He then makes a break for a secret door and gets out.
Bard: "Id love to hear what the HELL just happend, but i don't think we have time..."

 

[Sodalis]

I have an outrageous plan- Hall of shame story

I was DMing a game where we had a wiz who always had spells and money (he never keeps trackand no one really cares- just accepted) and a rogue that is controled by the stupidest player on earh.

During a hike through the forest, they came across a couple of raptors that were attracted to the scentog their rations. They killed it rather easily (lvl 6 party). and teh wiz said "if only they were T Rexes..."

I smiled and said, "as you are resting up by the river, you see that the boulders ar etrembling and the small puddles are rippling..."

A T Rex crashes through the trees and attack (protecting its young on the other side of the river)

The rogue decided to climb the tree to jump on the T Rex's head. he failed like 5 climb checks, and so took some damage. When he finally got high enough, the T Rex bit him, swallowed him, and that was the end of the story....

he is the source for many idiotic stories- and a pain to DM.