DM's and experienced players

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You know the kind of player who is so versed in D&D that he can name the monster you are fighting by comparing the creature's height with the terrian it is found in? The one you can't pull punches with? Doesn't it feel great when you fool them? I was DMing a campaign recently, and I had a shambling mound residing in a subterranean cave as the result of a monster summoning spell. The players entered the room, and they saw a stalagtite/mite ridden cave riddled with glowing moss and mushrooms, and a pool of water, fed by water dripping from the ceiling of the cave, with some rotting vegetation in it, surrounded by large mushrooms. Well, the player in question was immediately on his guard. He asks, "are the mushrooms large and purple?" implicating shriekers, insidious fungi, and I couldn't help but chuckle. "No," I replied, "there are no shriekers." Off his guard, his character entered the cave, and was immediately lashed by three viney tentacles from the water, and he STILL had no idea what they were up against. After a few more rounds of reduced piercing and fire damage, and a dwarf pulled into the mass, he caught on, and decided to change tactics. Instead of his worthless burning hands, he cast SHOCKING GRASP. (for those that don't know, shambling mounds are immune to fire damage, and grow when dealt electrical damage) I stifled a laugh, and replied , with a wry smile, that the mound had gotten bigger. He thought for a moment and then said, "Oh yeah..."

Any other good stories?

 

We have a DM here, between my friends in Warsaw, that is a very good DM, especially in terms of running things, inventing thing, keeping the order in game and just being DM. Rules however are not of his favourites and we have to tell him things sometimes

session quote:

Player: I think...
DM (interrupting): Roll

This was a joke of course

 

sounds like you player is metagaming quite a bit, adding player knowledge to character knowledge, unless his character is some loremaster in all kinds of beasts and enemies.

 

http://adventurers.keenspace.com/d/0029.html

 

Yes, he is metagaming. He used to be DM, so he finds it hard to separate one from the other.

 

Ah, the infamous Red Knight. Yeah, I'm one of those. It's a curse- I've been a DM and player for the greater part of 6 years now. Just recently in a session taking place in Sigil, my paladin [I'm a player now] had a confrontation with a devil inside a bar. The DM at the time forgot the name of it, so he started to describe it from pictures he'd seen. Everyone else stared blankly, and after about 15 seconds of description, I said, "Cornugon."

It was kind of saddening. As soon as I figured out what it was, I immediately knew in my mind all of its baatezu resistances and all of its abilities, SR, etc. Then I was faced with a dilemma, I mean my character is ignorant to these things, but I'm not- so I roleplayed as such until it could be reasonably determined that certain spells from our sorcerer weren't phasing it, and that it had a fear aura, etc.

I catch myself doing it all the time, and I honestly don't mean to do so. Our parties rogue wanted to go in and draw the breath weapon away from an Juvenile Red Dragon, thinking he could just evade it ("It's young"). I took a look at his Reflex save, his HP, and shook my head, "No way, he'll light you up. Almost guaranteed." Meanwhile I was thinking in my head: [DC: 22, 8d10 damage... +9 to reflex, that's still a 60% chance he doesn't save, which means he takes approx 8d10 damage, avg- 44, he has 37hp. Translation- 60% chance death]

I know, it's horrible, but I'm getting better- this is one of my first campaigns as a player in a long time, and I'm starting to forget things.

I've had players like me, too. I don't like just picking on them to teach them a lesson, I just play the game, and if they fall for it, they fall for it. I had a wizard once who memorized different spells based on what enemies he thought he'd be fighting, because he knew what resistances they had, if any.

My solution: They were going to wipe out a troublesome band of orcs, who hadn't really attacked anything yet, but had, on occasion, walked harmlessly into town and by the time guards arrived, had vanished. I laid some hints, that new people were seen around town, people no one had ever seen before, and that wild rumors and secrets about townsfolk had started to spread, creating a gossip ring that was tearing the town apart, shattering lives and exposing hidden scandals. There was no way these secrets could have gotten out, like hidden affairs and cheating the scales, and I was trying to get the party to investigate that, but lo- they decided to hell with investigation, let's go slaughter some orcs. I made it particularly clear that these orcs were stupid, trash-digging, smelly orcs, who, according to eye-witnesses [more on this later] seemed dumber still than normal orcs. Baited on this, the wizard memorized a plethora of Will based spells [perfectly legitimate] including charms and sleep spells. I nearly broke out laughing. They showed up at the camp, spoke to the tribal elder, who played dumb, and then decided it was time to unleash their fury on the unsuspecting orcs. Only, they weren't orcs. They were dopplegangers, fully immune to sleep and charm. They were walking into town, reading peoples minds, then selling secrets to interested buyers, all for their own amusement. Posing as an orc tribe made them the last suspect for the spreading of these rumors. The people the party had spoke to, the ones who had said the orcs were dumber than normal- were also dopplegangers. Needless to say, the ensuing battle was challenging, as the wizard was practically useless. If it weren't for the heroics of the party paladin, who fought back 3 dopplegangers while standing over the unconscious wizard, and nearly fell himself, it would have been pretty ugly. Afterwards, the paladin had a talk with the wizard, and they decided it best not to be so overconfident next time around.

It's ok though, now, because he's our DM. He can metagame all he wants. I'm just waiting for the day he gets his revenge.

Amon-Ra

 

The most fun I had was using a band of fire trolls as opposed to snow trolls. All the fire related spells and arrows were useless. I don't have much of a poker face, so they eventually worked it out.

 

in a group that i play with, we have a very hardheaded munk who loves all things shinny. in one game that i happened to be running, the characters entered a library type room. it was a large room with statues inbetween the bookcases, long tables in the center, and at the far end a glass case containing some objects. the players scattered throughout the room looking through all the books and materials on the tables. the monk went right for the glass case.

all the players had talked it over before hand, "lets check the room out before we go for the case.. its too obvious" so when the monk headed right for it everyone yelled at him. sure enough, as soon as he touched it one of the statues .. a shield guardian assigned by his master to protect the items in the case .. started for him.

we all eneded up rolling on the floor in laughter because the shield guardian had to move through all of the other character's threat areas.. and no one did a thing.

• Me: Rockwood.. the creature is now moving thorugh your threat area, do you want to take an AOO?
• Rockwood: <chuckle> ... no
• Me: Carlos.. the creature is now moving thorugh your threat area, do you want to take an AOO?
• Carlos: <snicker> ... hell no

it went on like that with everyone.. with the monk's player spitting out curses in between his own laughter. they let the SG get a few good rounds in on the monk.. forcing th monk to use up all his cure potions just to stay alive, before they came to his rescue (with a very cleaver use of wall of stone, i might add).
to this day, however, that single encounter still makes us all laugh and slap the monk upside his head with a, "stupid! we TOLD you not to touch it!"