WTF!RPG

While Munchkins are infamous for breaking any system with sheer dedication… there are still those systems that have come to be considered as “munch-friendly.” DnD 3.5 is perhaps one of the most infamous systems in our gaming group, primarily because of its potential for “CHEESE” or Munchkinisms.  Yes, anyone that heard of Elminster would know that a fighter/wizard/ranger/rogue is just a horrible, horrible concept storywise… even if it does benefit the player a lot ingame.

(Note: For those unfamiliar with the term… Munchkins are players who optimize their build so much, abusing the faults and loopholes of the rpg system just to benefit from them ingame.   In other terms, they abuse the glitches… metaphorically like a Super Mario hitting that turtle a hundred times to get infinite lives.)

The powerhungry, the perfectionist, or just the plain bored gamer would probably create these gems of WTF-ness.  I’ve experienced munchkin’d DnD characters in my time as well, counting Oghren Tor, the feral half fiend barbarian human rogue of doom with a symbiote who had nearly 7 attacks at level 5 alone… or the White Wolf Damphyr Hunter who was so overpowered with customized thin-blooded disciplines, that those npcs that encountered him called him the reputed  Son of Kain. The biggest WTF munchkin’d character known to our group will no doubt be RV’s The Assassin Dee, in Balthazar’s Lethal DND game a few years back. Known for not only surviving the very lethal game, but also for killing a month-long prepared Boss-monster in just a single round.

I admit, as a GM, I felt the dire need to give munchkins sufficient challenges… and sometimes wanting to kill them outright for breaking the fragile tension and balance of the game.  But I have never tried to attempt such an ingenious death ’scene’ as was applied to Dee.

Such WTF, that it requires an entry here…

It all began when the GM Balthazar created a very lethal DND campaign and pitched it to the group.  This is the selfsame DND Game  that was responsible for the deaths of Pointyman’s 5-minute cleric, and the Dwarf and Human HP monsters that got biatch-slapped by ninja vampires of doom.  More details on those encounters are posted in this prior post: En Memoriam.

As you may well know, concept, in Balthazar’s game, ranks far less than the sheer utility and power the builds give the GM.  There were levitating Ogre Monks, and Ninja Vampires … and that was before we met the symbiotes and familiars with class levels. And he is also known as a killer GM, which means he actively tries to kill the players just to add notches to his GM’s staff.

The GM Balthazar, after his fifth player-character kill, realized his game was a bit too fatal.  So, he allowed each character to create a secondary character to be a tag-team partner of the main – so as to improve survivability.  The GM also gave the team an ample amount of starting gold to equip the characters with magical items.

Big Mistake.

RV then decided to make two characters:  One was his main: The Assassin Dee (a simple dex-based rogue that abused the stealth and dex bonuses) and the other was the Assassin Dee’s Wife, Ithy – who stayed at home and knitted him some nifty magical items.  Ithy, being an artificer – crafted a lot of magical items… pooling both character’s gold equivalents to give him a boost on gear.  This alone doubled the amount of magic items Dee could use and imbalanced the character, and assured his survival until level 15.  His wife, always safe at home while he brought home the cash.

By the time of level 15, Dee has levelled into a formidable Wizard Assassin – (His sneak attack bonuses, and AC was imbalanced for the level – and included is his ‘persistent’ magical wizard defenses which made him nigh impenetrable.  The custom magic items by his wife Ithy, his abuse of the Simulacri and Possession spells, and Multiclass munch also rendered him above and beyond the normalcy of a player character – powerwise)  and such was the munchkinism of the character (which I will detail in a separate character entry) that the GM was forced to create a scenario to kill him.

The result was a cut-scene.

In one of the famous non-interactive cutscenes, he whisked away the Assassin Dee and placed him in a no-save Force Cage where the level 40 Epic Demon Boss  hurled Anti-Spell Resistance magic missiles upon magic missiles upon the Wizard Assassin’s level 15 body.  Just like Aeris had no chance to dodge Sephiroth’s Sneak attack in that infamous FF7 cutscene from Playstation… so did Dee had no chance to survive such a gruesome death — primarily because it was not interactive, no rolls allowed, and the one hurling the bolts was horribly beyond the character’s level.  The Demon Lord then took Dee’s soul, to avoid resurrection – and placed it in a magical jar… making sure the character won’t be available ever again.

Thus, the first ever recorded character death in our group where the only way to kill an overpowered character was to “DIE-BY-CUTSCENE.”

♦♦♦♦

Mr. Nonsense notes:

Dee should be honored that the GM had to resort to a cutscene to kill him, and is indeed well known in our group as one of the most munchkin’d characters around.  But his story does not end there… because there were two characters, RV decided to also munchkin Ithy (Dee’s Homespun Wife) now suitably dedicated to rescue her husband’s soul from the clutches of the Demon Lord.  A pretty epic change in the storyline… and something that should be posted another time.

I am glad to say that I spoke to that GM lately and found out he’s outgrown his player-killing phase.  But for the pure unadulterated attempt and success (duh!) for killing a character via an uninteractive cutscene… this deserves the  Official Brand of WTF.