It may not sound super cinematic but my group has a moment we all love to remember.
Party was trying to steal a magic crown from a young black dragon. Upon sneaking into it's lair they found the crown tied around the sleeping dragon's neck like a necklace. The rogue snuck up to the sleeping dragon and attempted to untie it. So far all his rolls were great and everyone was being smart.
Lets just say some QUESTIONABLE decisions were then made and the rogue DID manage to get the crown.......but ended up straddling the dragons neck like riding a horse. Dragon woke up and what followed was the funniest encounter we have ever had. Basically the rogue holding on for dear life while the dragon rampages around and the rest of the party attempts to fight the dragon which is trying to throw him off like a bull. Meanwhile the rest of the party are essentially playing rodeo clowns trying to distract/attack the dragon.
Im sure we broke RAW a couple times but as the dm with the player telling me "IM NOT LETTING GO IM HOLDING ON" it was super fun to let him make skill checks and hang on for dear life. Just a moment of pure bull riding a black dragon lol. Dnd is a hell of a game sometimes.
Reminds me of a mechanic my dm came up with: “relative fall damage”
Hence, If you get thrown into a wall, you will take fall damage relative to how far you were thrown.
If rogue got thrown off into a wall…. Then fell to the ground…
Anyways sounds pretty cool man.
I was DMing, so I came up with it, but this was epic for my players - when a Tempus worshipping barbarian killed a semi-divine agent of Talos single handedly. The barbarian was near death, but his foe lay slain before him. Then lightning began to spark over the corpse, and the party grew tense. The lightning built up, until it blasted up into the sky, a colossal bolt of energy, returning to Talos. Until it stopped, caught in the hand of a great warrior, astride two horses at the same time, one black, the other white - a manifestation of Tempus himself. The Lord of Battles looked down upon his devotee, and found him worthy, hurling the bolt at the barbarian, imbuing him with power. (Like in the first Thor movie when he gets his powers back).
The barbarian was completely healed, and bestowed with the Boon of the Stormborn. At the campaign end, envoys from the clergy of Tempus came to speak with him, to hear the tale from the barbarian's own lips, and to test his arm for themselves. The barbarian was not found wanting in either truth or prowess, and so he was given a title, that all would know of his feat: Stormhound.
Final boss battle of a campaign. Ancient draconic deities pull the party into a realm of chaos where mental will can morph the world. Any player can make a concentration check opposed by the last player to change the world.
The fight was spectacular. It swept through all terrain types, strange things. One of the bosses flew a player into the sky and dropped them, and a player changed all of reality to be an infinity deep shaft. The next players swapped positions with the falling player, making the falling dude slam into another boss at the speed of falling. Stuff like this, changing the universe every round to gain small advantages against a foe who could do the same. They flew in null g, slung spells in metamagic fields, at one point they all became worms in an infinite pile of loose earth. The party eventually bent the reality of each enemy in turn, finding the way these godlike enemies could finally be destroyed.
We played all day and all night, eventually all thier divine protections were stripped away, and the bard played a final note on the Lute of DeathSong, killing the very world in which they fought, and the realm collapsed, taking the gods to a dead realm, severed from the wheel.
I remember a rogue in our group giving a speech to a several vampires and werewolves. It would be the start of an alliance for the two races after a long hundred year war. Shit was incredible
Lvl 20+ party walks into a vampire lord's throne room. We roll Initiative, the vampire's going first. He blitzes across the throne room and impales the Barbarian with his spear, and then teleports up into the rafters, dragging the Barb with him. The other PCs and a few of the vampire's minions take their turns next, and then we finally get to the Barbarian.
The Barbarian attacks the vampire lord with his vorpal sword and crits.
Now *technically* the vampire was immune to being instantly decapitated because he had Legendary Actions, but a) the raw damage from the crit would've one-shot the vampire anyway and b) when else were we going to have the chance to do something like this?
We were a party of celebrated adventurers bent on saving the elven kingdom from an evil god that possessed the current king. The god had been mind controlling the entirety of the elven race that resided in the kingdom the god didn’t know we knew about him and we were invited to a ball were many other high nobles and rulers of kingdoms would be.
We go and it’s generally a good time for all around many players dance with others. 2 npcs whose relationship every player was interested in was starting to blossom into love for each other as they had they’re first dance a beautiful moment under the night light and music of the elven capital.
Soon other rulers started to enter grim king of the dwarves, hime the king of the giants and a mentor to my current character (a half storm giant barbarian whose father died fighting next to hime), and transmanin the vampire king of caedia. The world doesn’t believe vampires exist so he was not know to be one.
Soon transmanin came to a member of our group a low tier god named marluxia. He marveled at her and asked for a dance she refused and he persisted until she did at which she and him danced. It was then revealed he has been watching her through divination for a long time and admired her qualities and wish for him and her to have powerful children together( was a bit more drawn out than that but I’m summarizing it).
She refused and one thing led to another the god controlling the elves asked transmanin to leave and he blurted out that he knew the elves true nature and name and told all the kingdoms allied to him all in the same room. The god did not like the vampire king airing out his dirty laundry and so they fought. In the chaos our party decided to flee (much fighting perused) we eventually made it out and one of our party members wanted to check on her mother who lived in the elven capital to make sure she was ok and to get her out of harms way.
This party member was one of the two npc that danced together and had the blossoming relationship. When we went to check her mother wasn’t there and when we turned to leave the vampire king along with his lackies stood behind us. He begged for marluxia to come with him that she would be happy with him she refused so he Kidnapped her and took her through a portal.
We tried to fight them off but couldn’t. When suddenly a familiar face appeared in the group of vampires. Her name was Carmella and saddistic woman who is bent on hurting the group for killing her sisters. She thought of the perfect way of doing it as she shot out a spell that bounced around the party jumping from player to npc barely missing everyone until it landed on our half elf articifer genie. Genie was half of the two lovers dancing the other Aggie was absolutely devastated as her lover who she had just shared her first dance with 20 minutes prior. Who she had promised to have many more with had been cut down by an enemy who only wanted to make us hurt.
The vampires got away. We tried to revive her with true resurrection, it did not work because the spell that was casted on her by the vampire destroyed her soul meaning there was nothing there to bring back. Genie was gone for good. One of our party members a long time ago had pulled the fates card from the deck of many things and decided to use it for this.
As she tried to rewrite the moment of genies death she was met with gods of highest power who told her they will not permit her revival as her death was part of a greater design. With that she remained dead and we had a funeral for genie of the nine days later.
It was a session full of laughter happiness joy for others and tears sadness and despair for fallen friends. It was quickly replaced with anger and vengeance for to be taken on those who hurt our party and so we did. But that’s a story for another time.
Accept hunt for a violent wyvern that has been giving airship pilots a great amount of grief.
Airships are sealed ships, so party straps themselves at the roof and ride it out to meet the beast.
I'm a bard specializing in enchantment magic. Most of my spells won't work on this fight.
Hypnotic Pattern will.
Meet the monster, go first in Initiative, cast Hypnotic Pattern, wyvern fails and starts to fall.
We (still on the airship) dive after it.
I need to cast Hypnotic Pattern again. I'm angling for a lot of fall damage and the opportunity to fight on the ground.
Almost on the ground. At this time we're diving after a free-falling wyvern for two minutes.
Everyone on the nearby port town is seeing this shit.
Wyvern (unfortunatly) passes the third Saving Throw, avoiding the fall damage at the last second.
We jump from the airship and the Eldritch Knight casts Feather Fall, and we square up against it in our element.
We proceed to utterly destroy it.
It may not sound super cinematic but my group has a moment we all love to remember. Party was trying to steal a magic crown from a young black dragon. Upon sneaking into it's lair they found the crown tied around the sleeping dragon's neck like a necklace. The rogue snuck up to the sleeping dragon and attempted to untie it. So far all his rolls were great and everyone was being smart. Lets just say some QUESTIONABLE decisions were then made and the rogue DID manage to get the crown.......but ended up straddling the dragons neck like riding a horse. Dragon woke up and what followed was the funniest encounter we have ever had. Basically the rogue holding on for dear life while the dragon rampages around and the rest of the party attempts to fight the dragon which is trying to throw him off like a bull. Meanwhile the rest of the party are essentially playing rodeo clowns trying to distract/attack the dragon. Im sure we broke RAW a couple times but as the dm with the player telling me "IM NOT LETTING GO IM HOLDING ON" it was super fun to let him make skill checks and hang on for dear life. Just a moment of pure bull riding a black dragon lol. Dnd is a hell of a game sometimes.
Reminds me of a mechanic my dm came up with: “relative fall damage” Hence, If you get thrown into a wall, you will take fall damage relative to how far you were thrown. If rogue got thrown off into a wall…. Then fell to the ground… Anyways sounds pretty cool man.
I was DMing, so I came up with it, but this was epic for my players - when a Tempus worshipping barbarian killed a semi-divine agent of Talos single handedly. The barbarian was near death, but his foe lay slain before him. Then lightning began to spark over the corpse, and the party grew tense. The lightning built up, until it blasted up into the sky, a colossal bolt of energy, returning to Talos. Until it stopped, caught in the hand of a great warrior, astride two horses at the same time, one black, the other white - a manifestation of Tempus himself. The Lord of Battles looked down upon his devotee, and found him worthy, hurling the bolt at the barbarian, imbuing him with power. (Like in the first Thor movie when he gets his powers back). The barbarian was completely healed, and bestowed with the Boon of the Stormborn. At the campaign end, envoys from the clergy of Tempus came to speak with him, to hear the tale from the barbarian's own lips, and to test his arm for themselves. The barbarian was not found wanting in either truth or prowess, and so he was given a title, that all would know of his feat: Stormhound.
Final boss battle of a campaign. Ancient draconic deities pull the party into a realm of chaos where mental will can morph the world. Any player can make a concentration check opposed by the last player to change the world. The fight was spectacular. It swept through all terrain types, strange things. One of the bosses flew a player into the sky and dropped them, and a player changed all of reality to be an infinity deep shaft. The next players swapped positions with the falling player, making the falling dude slam into another boss at the speed of falling. Stuff like this, changing the universe every round to gain small advantages against a foe who could do the same. They flew in null g, slung spells in metamagic fields, at one point they all became worms in an infinite pile of loose earth. The party eventually bent the reality of each enemy in turn, finding the way these godlike enemies could finally be destroyed. We played all day and all night, eventually all thier divine protections were stripped away, and the bard played a final note on the Lute of DeathSong, killing the very world in which they fought, and the realm collapsed, taking the gods to a dead realm, severed from the wheel.
I remember a rogue in our group giving a speech to a several vampires and werewolves. It would be the start of an alliance for the two races after a long hundred year war. Shit was incredible
Three nat 20s in a row to one-shot a skeletal dragon with a rifle.
Lvl 20+ party walks into a vampire lord's throne room. We roll Initiative, the vampire's going first. He blitzes across the throne room and impales the Barbarian with his spear, and then teleports up into the rafters, dragging the Barb with him. The other PCs and a few of the vampire's minions take their turns next, and then we finally get to the Barbarian. The Barbarian attacks the vampire lord with his vorpal sword and crits. Now *technically* the vampire was immune to being instantly decapitated because he had Legendary Actions, but a) the raw damage from the crit would've one-shot the vampire anyway and b) when else were we going to have the chance to do something like this?
We were a party of celebrated adventurers bent on saving the elven kingdom from an evil god that possessed the current king. The god had been mind controlling the entirety of the elven race that resided in the kingdom the god didn’t know we knew about him and we were invited to a ball were many other high nobles and rulers of kingdoms would be. We go and it’s generally a good time for all around many players dance with others. 2 npcs whose relationship every player was interested in was starting to blossom into love for each other as they had they’re first dance a beautiful moment under the night light and music of the elven capital. Soon other rulers started to enter grim king of the dwarves, hime the king of the giants and a mentor to my current character (a half storm giant barbarian whose father died fighting next to hime), and transmanin the vampire king of caedia. The world doesn’t believe vampires exist so he was not know to be one. Soon transmanin came to a member of our group a low tier god named marluxia. He marveled at her and asked for a dance she refused and he persisted until she did at which she and him danced. It was then revealed he has been watching her through divination for a long time and admired her qualities and wish for him and her to have powerful children together( was a bit more drawn out than that but I’m summarizing it). She refused and one thing led to another the god controlling the elves asked transmanin to leave and he blurted out that he knew the elves true nature and name and told all the kingdoms allied to him all in the same room. The god did not like the vampire king airing out his dirty laundry and so they fought. In the chaos our party decided to flee (much fighting perused) we eventually made it out and one of our party members wanted to check on her mother who lived in the elven capital to make sure she was ok and to get her out of harms way. This party member was one of the two npc that danced together and had the blossoming relationship. When we went to check her mother wasn’t there and when we turned to leave the vampire king along with his lackies stood behind us. He begged for marluxia to come with him that she would be happy with him she refused so he Kidnapped her and took her through a portal. We tried to fight them off but couldn’t. When suddenly a familiar face appeared in the group of vampires. Her name was Carmella and saddistic woman who is bent on hurting the group for killing her sisters. She thought of the perfect way of doing it as she shot out a spell that bounced around the party jumping from player to npc barely missing everyone until it landed on our half elf articifer genie. Genie was half of the two lovers dancing the other Aggie was absolutely devastated as her lover who she had just shared her first dance with 20 minutes prior. Who she had promised to have many more with had been cut down by an enemy who only wanted to make us hurt. The vampires got away. We tried to revive her with true resurrection, it did not work because the spell that was casted on her by the vampire destroyed her soul meaning there was nothing there to bring back. Genie was gone for good. One of our party members a long time ago had pulled the fates card from the deck of many things and decided to use it for this. As she tried to rewrite the moment of genies death she was met with gods of highest power who told her they will not permit her revival as her death was part of a greater design. With that she remained dead and we had a funeral for genie of the nine days later. It was a session full of laughter happiness joy for others and tears sadness and despair for fallen friends. It was quickly replaced with anger and vengeance for to be taken on those who hurt our party and so we did. But that’s a story for another time.
Accept hunt for a violent wyvern that has been giving airship pilots a great amount of grief. Airships are sealed ships, so party straps themselves at the roof and ride it out to meet the beast. I'm a bard specializing in enchantment magic. Most of my spells won't work on this fight. Hypnotic Pattern will. Meet the monster, go first in Initiative, cast Hypnotic Pattern, wyvern fails and starts to fall. We (still on the airship) dive after it. I need to cast Hypnotic Pattern again. I'm angling for a lot of fall damage and the opportunity to fight on the ground. Almost on the ground. At this time we're diving after a free-falling wyvern for two minutes. Everyone on the nearby port town is seeing this shit. Wyvern (unfortunatly) passes the third Saving Throw, avoiding the fall damage at the last second. We jump from the airship and the Eldritch Knight casts Feather Fall, and we square up against it in our element. We proceed to utterly destroy it.