Run a D&D game

After restarting twice, I finally hit upon something everyone loved. As a bonus, I even concluded the campaign before school let out. Now my players can’t wait until the sequel next semester.

I can’t wait either ^_

I have never been so insulted. Last night, during my D&D game, one of my players, Marq, accused me of deliberately playing against him simply because an NPC dealt 30 damage in one blow. First of all, EVERY ON IN THE PARTY IS LEVEL 7! We’re getting into those “really high” damage rolls. Second, the NPC CRITICALLY HIT. Allow me to break down what happened:

1) The NPC (Cheshire) has a score to settle with Marq’s character (Steel). Because of a geas, Cheshire isn’t allowed to kill him, but in order to vent his anger, he challenges Steel to a fair one-on-one. He allows Steel to get fully healed before the match, and even lets the monk choose the size of the fighting area. It should be noted that Steel is a 6th level monk/ 1st level cleric (since earlier actions cause him to fall from lawful to neutral and monks MUST be lawful). He doesn’t have a holy symbol yet, so his choice of spells are limited. Cheshire is a 4th level rogue/ 2nd level fighter. In a nutshell, Steel is effectively 7th level, and Cheshire is 6th.
2) Steel decides he wants a 10’ X 10’ fighting area. In other words, a 2 square X 2 square grid. This should have been a tip-off to me, but I thought Marq was just being REALLY stupid by limiting his movement so much. After all, monks have great movement, and it would have been in his best interest to attack, then get away, thus preventing Cheshire from ever attacking with a full-round action.
3) Initiatives are rolled. Cheshire wins easily (high roll + high modifier), so he goes first. He rolls to make an acrobatic strike (a feat he has). He needs to make a DC 24 Tumble check to do this, or fall prone, and he can only do this with a full-round action. With his modifiers, he has about a 50% chance to succeed, and he does. Effectively, this denies Steel his dexterity modifier to his armor class, dropping his AC from 20 to 17. Also, anytime an opponent is denied his dexterity, a rogue gets to apply sneak attack damage. I roll to hit. Natural 20; a possible critical hit. I roll to confirm. The odds of me backing it are also 50%, and I rolled the MINIMUM to back it. So now, Cheshire gets to double his damage, add sneak attack, and his strength modifier (also doubled). That’s 4d6+6 (1d6 doubled for the attack, 2d6 sneak attack, and +3 strength modifier doubled). I rolled maximum damage, thus 30 damage. Ouch.
4) Steel’s turn. He casts Obscuring Mists… and runs out of the arena, effectively forfeiting the challenge. Marq accuses me of simply trying to kill off his character and, well, the rest is history.

I was livid after this and had to take a five minute break to cool down after the insult. I ACTUALLY rolled these numbers! I was highly offended that I was being accused of targeting Marq, and cheating to boot! I almost kicked him out of the game… but he appologized, and I (being unable to hold a grudge for more than five minutes) gave him one last chance. If he EVER pulls something like that again, he is OUT of my game. END OF STORY.

We ended up restarting that battle as if he hadn’t been an asshole like that to me, but Cheshire still kept his good hit. The area was widened to a 30’ X 30’ area (6 X 6 squares), but the battle still ended in Cheshire’s favor. Gah! NEVER again will I let something like that slide…

It’s official: Scott’s character is ALWAYS the first to die. Last night, during my D&D game, my boyfriend’s character, Brynger, made a valiant stand against two dyareke (dark elves) trappers who realized the worth of the bounty on his head. Sadly, Brynger did not survive. Fortunately, neither did the other two dyareke, so it wasn’t a total loss. And Scott would have gotten his first level of his prestigue class too…

We will miss you very much, Brynger.

Well, I have managed to significantly irritate my players; they don’t like the non-WotC material I’m using. It should be noted that I warned them ahead of time that I was using a non-WotC suppliment so I could test it and fix it if necessary (which, so far, seems to be the case). I just wish they would calm down about it. They didn’t die or even get knocked out, and they still won the fight hands down. I don’t understand why they’re upset.

So far, we’re headed into our 3rd session and all is still well. SHould my players reach the main arc of the story (whatever they decide it is), I will consider the game a success.