What have you done to surprise your DM?

[obliged_salmon]

DM: Ok, the sword you found is powerfully enchanted. [Just to me] It's one of the swords you trained with as a child, and what's more, it has your real name [that my character has been hiding from the rest of the party] engraved on the hilt. You realise your [crazy stalker assassin] aunt must have left it here to screw with you.

Me: Right. I'm going to wait till the others aren't looking, then throw it in that pit of lava we just passed. I'm through playing her games.

DM: ....buh....wuh....but it's plus two...

(He didn't let me do it in the end. Stupid railroad plot.)

Didn't let you??? I would've given you bonus XP. Talk about interesting, character-driven conflict!

[Callista]

Definitely. Ditto here. If a player throws away a +2 sword for RP reasons, I'd darn well give him a healthy chunk of XP for it.

[Tyrmatt]

Surprise for me is generally that my lovingly crafted special and boss zombies who at one point had NAMES (That's how much I cared!), are immediately and brutally slaughtered by any given PC. I've done more damage with a single, basic zombie than I have with all of my customs combined.

I've given up trying to challenge them with cool zombies now. They seem perfectly happy racking up the kills on the basics and throwing grenades at necromancers. Yeah, I let them have way too many explosives but its fun.

[Callista]

You can re-flavor and re-use things they slaughter without examining. Just sayin'.

[Duke of URL]

What have you done to surprise your DM?

Flowers, chocolate, and a well-thought out choice of card.

[Shademan]

Flowers, chocolate, and a well-thought out choice of card.

classy.
I approve

[~Nye~]

We were fighting an augmented otyugh, which we soon discovered had a weakness to fire, it kept grappling our rogue and fighter, so I dropped incendary grease on it, both the rogue and fighter slipped free from it's grapple. I waited untill they had moved away and I dropped a fireball on it. I sat and watched the fireworks.

[2-HeadedGiraffe]

Definitely. Ditto here. If a player throws away a +2 sword for RP reasons, I'd darn well give him a healthy chunk of XP for it.

Agreed. This was clearly a character who was willing to give up mechanical advantage because his character would want to avoid the drama that came with it. It's not everyone's style of play, but I think it ought to be appreciated.

[TaliaJacta]

The level 1 PC wizard was being followed by a level 10 ranger, who was supposed to be a plot hook. When the wizard heard someone behind him, he turned around and cast sleep before even looking to see who it was. Both the ranger and his two lackeys failed their saves and fell unconscious.

The DM had to dish out a lot more XP than she had expected to...

[Frosty]

The level 1 PC wizard was being followed by a level 10 ranger, who was supposed to be a plot hook. When the wizard heard someone behind him, he turned around and cast sleep before even looking to see who it was. Both the ranger and his two lackeys failed their saves and fell unconscious.

The DM had to dish out a lot more XP than she had expected to...

She also forgot that Sleep only targets up to 4 hit-dice, starting with the lowest HD creatures first. The two lackeys *might* have fallen to the spell, but the 10 HD Ranger can't possibly succumb to the Sleep spell.

[KingMerv00]

I'm DMing an 8th level party that is on a war mission to find and neutralize a base that is manufacturing explosives. They find the base in the swamp and see an airship outside the base being loaded with bombs. The party decided that their best course of action was to hijack the blimp and bomb the base.

Should have seen that coming.

This will be resolved this weekend. Fortunately, I have a plan. It is horrifying but fair.

[tynger1234]

The party had finally made it to the final room of the big villain's keep. The villain and her last remaining cohort are all that are in the room ready to activate the seed of destruction. My paladin leaps at the main villain ready to end her fiendish plot to destroy all of creation.

When suddenly... Time stopped for everyone, but my paladin and Nerull who spontaniously appeared in the room just in time to save the villain. Long story short my paladin had a battle of wits with the god of pestilence and won. Nerull tried multiple times in the session to get my paladin to fall and join him as his most powerful death knight.

I stayed true to my paladin code, atoned the high priesttess of Nerull into a preistess of Pelor and saved all of creation.


Top that

[Oracle_Hunter]

My players actually decided to pay for the resurrection of a NPC with only the loosest of characterizations

His name is "The Boulder" : a Goliath Fighter whose characterization up to that point was speaking in the third person and not dying in the first encounter. Yes, my Players named him and yes they're fans of Avatar but even so - 500 GP when the party is only LV 3!

He just died again and they insist on resurrecting him a second time! It's mind-boggling!

Also: !

[Cuaqchi]

His side of the story...

Now my side of that conflict as the second player at the table.

My High Priest of Wee Jas (Archmage/Hierophant/Mystic Theurge) had actually leapt into the Seed of Destruction(SoD) only a moment earlier, attempting to Plane Shift the object out of the dungeon and away from the BBEG. The resultant explosion of diefic energies created a demi-plane in which my character, the original BBEG, and the SoD were trapped hurtling through the D&D multiverse.

So, while the Paladin was doing his thing back talking to a god, I was stuck in a life or death conflict with another Hierophant (The Wizard/Druid One) as we wrestled for control of the world altering entity. What made the fight even better is that I didn't use an offensive spell until like the 5th round whereas he tried everything to take me out quickly. In the end I had burned through things like Spellturning, Deathward, Fire Shield, and a Limited Wish when all that was needed was a Dimensional Anchor before Pelor reached in and pulled me from the item trapping the BBEG and the SoD together, somewhere no one would ever find them.

The really sucky part is player 3's role... As a Fighter/Knight his sole success was pushing the paladin out of the way of the SoD before Nurell arrived...

[Frenchy147]

It's a long story as to what led to this, but we tied up our fat cleric (who had nothing but a loincloth) a left him in a puddle of urine in the sewer.

[Scoot]

Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children homage?

I have not seen this but if there is anything even remotely similar to this scene in it,

I think I need to watch it.

[The White Knight]

Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children homage?

Exactly what I thought, too. I hated that fight scene.

[Frosty]

My players actually decided to pay for the resurrection of a NPC with only the loosest of characterizations

His name is "The Boulder" : a Goliath Fighter whose characterization up to that point was speaking in the third person and not dying in the first encounter. Yes, my Players named him and yes they're fans of Avatar but even so - 500 GP when the party is only LV 3!

He just died again and they insist on resurrecting him a second time! It's mind-boggling!

Also: !

Well the Boulder is very awesome because he is voiced by Mick Foley aka Mankind...so of course they have to res him!

[2-HeadedGiraffe]

My players actually decided to pay for the resurrection of a NPC with only the loosest of characterizations

His name is "The Boulder" : a Goliath Fighter whose characterization up to that point was speaking in the third person and not dying in the first encounter. Yes, my Players named him and yes they're fans of Avatar but even so - 500 GP when the party is only LV 3!

He just died again and they insist on resurrecting him a second time! It's mind-boggling!

Also: !

The last game I DMed, my players became attached to several NPCs I had never really planned to do anything significant. Of course, once they decided they cared about those people, I had to have them doing something the next time the PCs were in town.

[TaliaJacta]

She also forgot that Sleep only targets up to 4 hit-dice, starting with the lowest HD creatures first. The two lackeys *might* have fallen to the spell, but the 10 HD Ranger can't possibly succumb to the Sleep spell.

It was 4th edition. We couldn't find anything in the rules against it.

[Flail_master]

but even so - 500 GP when the party is only LV 3!

Try 30,000 GP (from value of magic weapons) for level 4's cos of killing THE LEVEL 12 MESSENGER!

tis ridiculous!

[Oracle_Hunter]

It was 4th edition. We couldn't find anything in the rules against it.

How the devil did a LV 1 Wizard

(1) Hit the Will on a 10th Level Monster/PC and all his allies?

(2) Manage to force all of them to fail their first saving throw?

I don't want to do the math on that one, but I think we're at a couple of orders of magnitude of improbability here

[Shademan]

my players shot the plot.... with arrows
they set fire to a mountain, they woke the dragons up 5000 years early
they killed a tavern
they surprise me alot...
I weep alot.

[dsmiles]

It was 4th edition. We couldn't find anything in the rules against it.

You are correct. In 4e there is no HD limit on Sleep, unless there's another stupid errata I haven't read yet.

[2-HeadedGiraffe]

Speaking of sleep, my players managed to put a plot-important NPC to sleep twice in the same combat and finally finish him off. To accomplish this, by the way, meant that he had to roll something like a four on two will saves.

He was too important to the story to let die, however (and I didn't come up with a better way to keep him around until it was too late), so I had his superior intervene and get him out of there.

[maysarahs]

Our party of three were attempting to infiltrate an assassins guilds lavish dinner party and discover the contents of the buildings basements (rumors of investigative worth stuff). The Fighter/War Hulk goes the straightforward way and intimidates/ bribes his way in. The wizard (me) and ranger climb in through the second floor window. I ask the fighter to make his way to the room we are hidden in, and cast magic jar. with me in his pocket, I proceed to enter the guild leader. After some unsuccessful shenanigans in the basement (the DM wanted us out of there) we return to the balcony (for the main event) **** hits the fan (the guild is an evil cult that cloudkills and then raises zombies out of the corpses) and I proceed to jump in and out of the jar into whomever it helps us most at the time. We actually managed to kidnap the boss. Plot obviously derailed, he does some quick thinking and the leader bites on a poison capsule hidden in his mouth.

[Fiery Diamond]

I'm DMing an 8th level party that is on a war mission to find and neutralize a base that is manufacturing explosives. They find the base in the swamp and see an airship outside the base being loaded with bombs. The party decided that their best course of action was to hijack the blimp and bomb the base.

Should have seen that coming.

This will be resolved this weekend. Fortunately, I have a plan. It is horrifying but fair.

Only "should have seen that coming?" That's what I would have expected my players to do!

[Newbieshoes]

Well in the game I'm currently playing...

Negotiated to have a very throw away NPC baddie from the beginning released from prison.


Walked right up to a group of evil druids throwing on buff spells preparing to battle with the party and offered to rent their poison filtering masks of off them. This worked. They assumed we were gonna go with the fighters plan of stabbing them in the face and taking them.


Attempted to rescue the queen by grabbing her and throwing the two of us out of a 60 foot window, as she fled butt naked from her captors. This ended up failing and I was overwhelmed by guards and had to go out the window on my own.

[Volos]

One time we had week long gaming session. It was the marathon of all marathon games. We did nothing but game. When we ate, it was in character; when we took breaks for use of sanitation facilities, it was in character; when we did anything it was in character. It was quite a feat of gamer acheivement if I do say so myself. By the seventh day we hadn't slept much (scared to die by random encounters), and even though we were supposed to be sleeping in shifts, the DM was ever watchful. The co-DM would give him nap breaks by watching over us with a keen eye. I was the melee guy so I had to stay awake for most of the nights. (CON checks to ramain awake awarded Energry Drinks. Failure meant we had to take sleepytime tea) In the middle of a long roleplay / suddenly combat phase I had fallen asleep. The DM wanted to take advantage of this, suddenly trying to attack me with some spell or some sort. I woke up suddenly and screamed "BLUFF CHECK!!!" tossing my d20 across the table. Everyone was stunned. I had succeeded, so I was able to pretend to be asleep (even though I had actually passed out). I drew my greatsword, used my attack of opprotunity, and destoyed that caster like he was a lowly goblin (or out of line commoner). It was one of my greatest moments in D&D. It is spoken of in myth to this day.

[khylis]

You DnD Larp? O.o