Question: I'm writing a fight scene. My gladiators are outnumbered by Roman legionaries by 15 to about 80. (The gladiators don't know that - they think it's about 100). However, the gladiators are inside a cave; the entrance is narrow, so the legionaries can only enter one at a time. There's a fire inside ... oh, and a Gynosphinx is on the legionaries' side.
I'm thinking of giving her one of three spells:
1. Time Stop
2. Flame Strike
3. Heroes' Feast
Which one is best? And what would you do with it?
I'm thinking of "Time Stop", so she can rush out, pull off the legionaries' breastplates, throw them away, and rush back in.
But obviously that won't work, because under Time Stop, you're not allowed to interfere with others. What else could she do?
The cave is cramped, so she can't exactly fly. The gladiators are ready; most of them have spears and shields, but two of them have slings and shields. So anyone who tries to sneak in will get a *BONK* in the wrist (or head).
What do you think should happen next? Bear in mind, there are no Bags of Holding or anything magical in this universe (so you can't empty a huge Bag of Holding full of Flaming Swords on the poor legionaries, or something like that).
Suggestions welcome.
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And apropos of nothing ... from Quora:
What is your funniest critical failure moment in Dungeons & Dragons?
We were playing as a bunch of mercenaries generally of the goodish, neutral, or “I’m immune to know alignment” variety. If memory serves, we had two fighters, my ranger, a sorcerer, and a rogue. Sadly, the sorcerer and I were the best we had for medics, so there was a lot of bribing/threatening clerics after a few rough missions.
We were working our way through a bandit camp, trying to rescue someone important daughter. I don’t remember who exactly, but a lot of money was involved. Also, the “bandits” may have been slightly in another country, and wearing uniforms. Also, the camp was inside a fort.
Like I said. Lots of money. Also, never trust a Baron.
So Clanky McFighter botched his sneak roll, and we’d gone from plan A), sneak in, slit a few throats, and sneak out, to plan B) kill everything that moves. Plan C involves county-sized locust swarms. Escalation. It's a thing we did.
Now, the snatch-and-grab turned surprise massacre wasn’t going that great. There were a lot of them, not so many of us.
So, a large group of unusually-well-and-uniformly-dressed bandits were running at us screaming, and Flash McSorcerer decided to lob a fireball at them. Teach them why you don’t bunch up.
And he rolled a 1. There was this moment of stupefaction.
Now, the DM had a home-made Critical Failure table that he liked to use. We all knew about it, no surprise. He gives the sorcerer the D100 and tells him to roll ...
...
... 1.
Yeah. Critical fail on a critical fail. Worst possible outcome.
DM: “Uh…you’re completely engulfed in flames.”
SC: “&%@*. Wait…hold on.” He checked his sheets. “I still have the ring.”
DM: “Which ring?”
SC: “The one I bought when we went to fight the dragon over in that &%@*ing desert.”
Our sorcerer had previously purchased a ring that made him immune to the element of fire. Handy when fighting dragons.
He’s immune to fire. He’s engulfed in flames.
DM: “So…what are you going to do?”
The sorcerer got the most maliciously gleeful grin I have ever seen. “I bellow at the top of my lungs ‘FREE HUGS FOR EVERYONE!!!’ and charge.”
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