Are there really Dungeonmasters, Storytellers, or Gamemasters (that is what GM stands for, isn't it?) who do this?
Well...maybe not on purpose. But now I've met one who doesn't pull his punches once the fight starts. At all.
::winces just remembering::
First encounter? Seven party members versus five large monstrous centipedes. Most of said party members being equally divided between third level (two rangers and a sorceress) and second level (a druidess, a rogue, a fighter/barbarian and a rogue/fighter). The centipedes, of course, ending up attacking--and hitting--both the sorceress and the rogue/fighter first.
The rogue/fighter being mine. Aeryn (mk II, for those of you who know the original). And guess who went down during the course of the fight? First time I've had a character drop below zero before...he ended up at -2. Oddly enough, there was almost no magical healing in the party. Either the druidess had only the one-point heals available, or decided that it was better roleplay to deal with the injury--and everyone else's--in a more regular manner. A point to which I'd agree, in fact, as I submitted my log of the ending for extra XP for her.
Buuuut...no aftermath for Aeryn. So many things he'd liked to have done...
Ah well.
So...on to the next encounter! We run into the Big Bad Dudes of the adventure. A Ranger (Level 4) and two Rogues (Level 3). Ambushed from the sides by the Evil Rogues, of course...while the Evil Ranger just stood there and laughed. Aeryn got an initiative good enough to vanish off to the side, sneaking through the woods to get to one of the rogues. Thumbs up on the dice there.
And it was at that point that the DM pointed out that what worked on the Bad Guys could do just as good (or bad) a job on the good guys. One well-placed Entangle trapped all but the druidess and the rogue. Nice little spell, isn't it? Field day for the two archers! With the Manyshot feat, too! Holes, anyone?
End result? One L3 ranger pinned down and wasting his time either drinking a Protection from Arrows potion or trying (and failing) to break free. The sorceress fizzing her spells because of lashing vines. The fighter/barbarian went down (while in a Rage, at that). Aeryn snuck in both a crit and a sneak attack (gotta love Improved Feint!) and dropped one Evil Rogue, with help from the other rogue. The druidess went down. The rogue went down. Aeryn went down, critted in his turn, trying to get at the other Evil Rogue.
And then, finally, so did the other two Bad Guys, to the sorceress' spells--finally working!--and the two rangers. The Evil Ranger being particularly difficult to take down, as the DM had also gone and given her the Diehard feat. Oops. That's pretty much an extra 10 hit points, when you get right down to it--especially if you've got healing potions on your person.
And again no large quantities of magical healing--although with the druidess down, not too surprising. There were a few healing potions around, as well as one of the rangers being skilled in Heal, so no-one actually died. It was pretty close for my character, though. -8 is Bad. Had the fight gone on another two rounds, I might have had to try out that halfling wizard concept I had in mind...
One does note that, after his being 'stabilized' by the book, the others appeared to pretty much ignore the fact that he had a hole in his lungs and some other assorted and pretty horrendous wounds. A bit of a hole in AD&D, that...how do you seriously 'stabilize' someone hurt that bad...and then can just leave him like that for a while (which the others did)? Or even (although that didn't happen--someone poured a Cure Light into him which brought him all the way back up to -5) leave him that way while you drag him back to a town or such where you can find a cleric?
Oh well. Evil DMs are part of the fun...and he did survive, after all...
Even if it was only just by two hairs.
Posted by adam at February 8, 2004 02:20 PM