ChrisTalbot.com

Now as a gamer, I'm not superstitious about dice. I know there are a lot of gamers who are very superstitious about their dice out there, but I'm not one of them. I'll talk about luck and all that, and I'll occasionally say something like "the dice are against me," but I don't really believe it. Logically, luck in rolling dice is no more than randomness. At the end of my life, all of the dice rolling I've done will balance out, and I'll have made as many critical hits as I have critical misses. ;)

Anyway, with that in mind, my D&D session last night almost turned me superstitious. Apologies to Logan for telling this story, as it's his character at the centre of it ... but you have to admit that it's a story that needs to be told, man.

There is a spell in D&D called Phantasmal Killer. It's basically meant to be used to scare a living creature to death. Mechanically, a wizard casts it on a target, and the target must first make a Will save, and then a Fortitude save. If the target fails both, he just dies. If he makes the Will save, nothing happens. If he blows the Will save but makes the Fort save, he takes 3d6 points of damage.

Anyway, so two sessions ago, the party entered a room with two trolls. Mayhem ensued, and Rawl's fighter (Arjunan) started to get the shit kicked out of him. So Logan's wizard (Arkelos) primes up one of the two Phantasmal Killer spells he has memorized, chooses one of the trolls as his target and lets the spell fly. Now, Logan knows (but Arkelos doesn't) that trolls have a crappy Will save of only +3, but they have a +11 Fort save. More than likely, a troll will blow the Will save, make the Fort save and take damage. With some luck (note: randomness that ends up in a low roll), the troll will keel over from fright.

So I make the troll's Will save. Bad luck for Arkelos. I rolled a 20 on the die. Add in the +3, and the troll made it. So the troll takes no damage and we continue.

In the next round, Arkelos decides to try it again. He fires off his spell and I roll the troll's Will save. What do I get, but a 19? With the bonus, it's another successful save. Logan is flabbergasted, but even he knows it's possible.

Last night, the party (sans Rich/Kuruk, who was camping/being put out to stud) encounters a troll with two levels of fighter. He's a mean bastard, and Arjunan steps up to once again get his ass kicked. Arkelos once again has two Phantasmal Killer spells in memory.

His turn to act comes up, and Arkelos hurls the spell. I make the troll's Will save. A 20 turns up. Logan gives me this look that says, "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were cheating." Of course, he does know better, and I was not cheating.

Arjunan continues to fight and the troll continues to beat him to a bloody pulp. Arkelos' turn comes up again, and he hurls the second (and only remaining) Phantasmal Killer spell he has in memory. I roll for the troll's Will save, and ... no shit, I fuckin' swear I rolled another 20. I'm laughing too hard to actually say what I rolled, so I pick the die up as it is and turn the face-up result to Logan.

I believe the words that came out of Logan's mouth were something to the effect of "fuck you," but I could be wrong. Again, I was laughing too hard to really get his reaction.

So what the hell are the odds of that happening? At this point, I'm almost ready to say that Arkelos is cursed when it comes to using that spell ... or when it comes to using that spell on trolls. :)