When the dice are against you... your worst dice rolls ever

[Goonalan]

I know this is not very highbrow, and a little silly but...

So I'm DMing 4e, lovely encounter- tough, five Hobgoblins tweaked and made special with Adventure Tools, the first fight of the session and I think I'm going to give the PCs a real run for their money. We're playing a fast and dangerous game, MM3 damage for all the bad guys- actually scaled up a little so that every hit really hurts the PCs, to balance they have an AP every encounter. We've had two PC deaths in the adventure so far (only 10 encounters old), and the guys were all 'captured' in the last session but one- to avoid a TPK, fights are very bloody affairs- it's tense is what I'm trying to say.

So we get in to it-

Round 1 my unadjusted attack rolls.

Hob1 - '1'
Hob2 - '1'
Hob3 - '3'
Hob4 - '1'
Hob5 - '2'

Round 2 my unadjusted attack rolls.

Hob1 - '1'
Hob2 - DEAD
Hob3 - '2'
Hob4 - '2'
Hob5 - DEAD

Round 3 my unadjusted attack rolls.

Hob1 - DEAD
Hob2 - DEAD
Hob3 - '1'
Hob4 - '2'
Hob5 - DEAD

Round 4

Hob1 - DEAD
Hob2 - DEAD
Hob3 - DEAD
Hob4 - DEAD
Hob5 - DEAD

The players just sat around giggling for nigh on twenty minutes, not a scratch on their PCs.

I obviously roll my dice in the open, and we record everything for posterity- hence me knowing the exact dice rolls...

Either side of the DMs screen, any similar experiences?

 

[Crothian]

This didn't happen to me but to one of my players in a game of 2e I was running back in 97. The first seven d20 rolls on 5 different dice came up natural ones. After the seventh he quickly packed up his things and left the table. The following week he came back with a whole new bag of dice and everything was fine.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Here's one that happened as a player:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/3953777-post17.html

And some as a DM (the third was the worst):

http://www.enworld.org/forum/5475553-post8.html

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

Our last session against a single Storm Giant after we had taken out a room that had 2 storm giants and multiple ogres (and after we had healed up quite a bit).

Me rd 1:
1st - 7 (miss)
2nd - 6 (miss)

Giant hits me doing over 50pts of dmg.

Me rd 2:
1st - 4 (miss)
2nd - 5 (miss)

The paladin rd 2:
misses on both his attacks but had intimidated the giant to attack him when he closed.

Giant rd 2:
hits the paladin for over 40 pts of damage bringing him down to like 30-35 hps

Me rd 3:
1st - 16 (hit finally!)
2nd - 4 (at this point I'm fishing for new dice!)

Giant rd 3:
Crits the Paladin so hard that he smashes his brains all over the wall.

The Oracle joins the fray at this point and hits the giant with a spear of purity for like 15 pts of damage.

I use a hero point and roll 3 attacks in rd 4:
1st - 15 (hit)
2nd - 17 (hit)
3rd - 20 (hit/non confirm on crit)

I did well over 60 pts of damage to take the Giant out, but this was too little too late as the Paladin had perished

The dice are the ficklest of gods...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

When I first joined my current group, I was playing a Ranger whose FE was the main foe type in the campaign. The first combat? We're fighting creatures of that type. Time to shine!

Except I couldn't roll higher than a 7 for most of the combat. I was the master of whiffs.

My third hit of the combat WAS a kill-steal, though.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I once rolled a 1. I didn't like it, so I resolved never to do it again.

 

[rkwoodard]

Wacky trend

Back in 1st edition days, I played with one other guy. He was the DM and I ran a whole Party. I still managed to role-play. Sometimes the dice even helped.

One Character was a Paladin, that could not roll good damage against low level critters to save his life. At 7th level (and higher) if he were fighting tough monsters his damage rolls were evenly spread so a good number of 6,7, and 8s (he used a longsword of course).

Against things like Orcs.....he would go whole battles rolling nothing higher than a 3 on damage. And this was over probably 3 sessions. So, not a real trend, but notable enough that from then on, I played him as always overlooking the orcs trying to get to the big guy.

RK

 

[Jacob Marley]

Two anecdotes!

I was playing a cleric/rogue of Saint Cuthbert, 3.5 rules with a 10 Con. At levels 2 through 5 I rolled minimum for hit points on my d6s and d8s! What made matters worse was that whenever I cast a cure spell the result was almost always a 1 or 2 on the d8. Not only was the character weak in combat (with a grand total of 12 hit points at level 5) but he also couldn't heal worth a damn. He is also one of my top three favorite characters I have ever played.

I was playing a cleric of Rudd (goddess of chance, good luck and skill), 3.5 rules with the Luck domain. Our campaign also included Action Points which let us reroll any die once per session. We were fighting some random undead monsters of which one had a weak Save or Die ability - a bodak, I think. I remember I had a really good saving throw modifier against the ability which meant I needed some like a 1 or 2 to fail the save. Of course, when I was targeted by the ability I rolled a 1! I then used my Luck domain to reroll and got a 2! Finally, I used the Action Point to roll again... and rolled a 1! And thus my cleric of good luck passed on to the great gambling hall in the sky due to bad luck. I couldn't help by smile at how oddly fitting that death was.

 

[Janx]

one time, in a college dorm, I played with my first and only set of dice, the red gem Nice Dice. they served me well enough for years. Then one day, I really needed to hit something, and the d20 refused to grant my requests. So I flung it in an irrational fit of pique, sidelong across the room where it split in two. My GM still has that die.

In more recent times, I bough the Iron Heroes Battle Box which comes with a steel d20. That thing consistently rolled 1's and 2's half the night.

I calmly put the die back in the box and haven't used it since.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

I had a memorable moment with the very first adventure I ever ran: N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God. The big boss in this adventure is a naga, which wreaked havoc among the characters resulting in four deaths. Feeling generous - and not wanting to demotivate the all-new players - I graciously gave them four scrolls of Raise Dead. Back in the 1e days you had to roll your Resurrection Survival chance in order to actually survive being raised. The percentage chance depended on your Con and fell in the 90+% range.

The first player (96%) rolled - a 98.
The second player (98%) rolls next - a 99.
The third player (99%) rolls next - a 100.

The most horrible series of rolls I encountered in 30 years of gaming...