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When Dice Role-play
One of my favorite events from running a game came during my first time running DnD 3.5. My players played a group of gnolls running from Neogi who were attempting to kidnap them and use them as slaves. After escaping the Neogi themselves, a Dominated Umberhulk was released to track them down and capture them. While the players attempted to run, the Umberhulk used its Confusion ability to force one of them into melee. The gnoll did not survive the second attack, which was a critical hit.
Another player played the gnoll’s twin brother, and on seeing his sibling fall he turned around and charged the Umberhulk. His attack was a natural twenty, and the critical would be confirmed five times consecutively, dealing more than enough damage to down the Umberhulk.
The scenario we decided had just played out went along the lines that the brother had struck out in rage, and tapped into a resevoir of power and strength he did not normally have access to. This is the sort of thing that could never be planned, but has an inescapable magical quality, as though the actions truly were destiny, and not just a roll of the dice or plot twist invented by the narrator.
Has anyone else had a similar kind fo experience?
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As my party was coming to the close of the campaign, my character had to face off with the big bad as the rest of the party was occupied with his minions. My character was isolated from the rest of the group in a separate room/area.
The encounter was such that my character was fairly evenly matched with the enemy, but I had some brawn advantage, so if I played smart and rolled ok (not even well, but just OK), I’d likey come out victorious. It wasn’t going to be a walk in the park, but I was also assured the win.
4 rounds later, I had had missed or critical missed all 4 attacks even though the “to hit” number I needed was ridiculouly low (I never rolled higher than a 5).
At the same time, the villian had hit, critical hit or used spell abilities enough in 4 rounds that I was at something like 20% of my hit points. The fight became so amazingly lopsided, I was forced to retreat to rethink my tactics.
I used a ring of invisibility, but knowing that wouldn’t be enough to keep him from hittingly me blindly, I also then shrunk myself so I could hide someplace small and think about what to do (it was one of those moments where you have a potion that you thought you’d never use and suddenly it’s a godsend).
In order that I shouldn’t escape, the villain warded the exit with some kind of explosive/shock/fire damage thing so all he’d have to do is wait for my magic to wear off before finishing me off. It was then that I came up with a plan.
I basically had no other magic than the ring and potion I had just used, but I was a big burly fighting fellow. While still invisibl, I used a large piece of furniture to basically bullrush/push the villian back into his own wards (and not take damage myself since I had put a table between him and I). He took a big piece of damage from his own spells, and then we were pretty much toe-to-toe again.
Luckily, the dice fell my way this time. I was able to hit and critical hit the villian while he missed me or had his spell concentration broken (and it was no GM fiat — we rolled in the open). My beserk rage took over after I fell below my 10% threshold of hit points and I was able to kill the villian… Of course, I succumbed to my wounds when the beserk rage wore off. Since I was then at negative hit points and isolated, the rest of the party couldn’t get to me before my character bled to death.
Even though I died, the screwy dice rolls provided one of the best combats we’d seen that campaign. I had to think on my feet and come up with alternate plans when I realized the fight was going to end badly for me and I was able to salvage a heroic death from it, taking the villain with me.
For me, it was one of the best sessions of that campaign and all the other players, having fought their epic battle while I cheered them on, got to watch the big finale as spectators themselves, moaning at my poor dice rolls and then cheering when the tide turned.
The GM had planned so that it would be me to face the villian alone, but no one could have predicted the wild play or outcome that resulted. In those two final battles, another character aside from mine died (2 out of 5 player) as well as one major NPC-ally, but the party was victorious over the villain.
It turned out to be a pretty good final act for that campaign and largely due to the fall of the dice.