We had a similar problem in D&D once. I came up with the idea of yoking the Dwarf and the Druid (wildshaped into a bear) together.
It worked, and we made good time on that journey 
Remembered another one.
This was an evil 2-man party (demons, technically), set in today’s world, and their very first mission fresh out of Hell was to assassinate the local mayor, with one twist: their boss wants to send a message, so it’s got to be done in public.
Now, I don’t know if it’s the words I used, or if they misunderstood, or if they just wanted to have a laugh, but they didn’t understand “public” in just any old way. The scenario expected them to simply gun down the guy during a public rally, or on church steps after mass.
This is not what they did.
What they did was, the day before the rally they raided a medieval museum to get hold of a cavalry lance. To that spear they tied the flag of the local soccer team (Why ?! Beats me). On the day of the rally, they nicked a motorcycle, one of them got to driving it while the other sat back with the spear, charged the podium and *jousted *the guy before deliberately crashing the bike into the press corps & cameras (both had some innate damage & fire protection, so the crash was no big). They then hoofed it before the cops could react, singing “We are the Champions” as they went.
It was public all right. I have no idea what message was sent, but was it *ever *sent.
I think 7th Sea is still it’s old system. I never saw any d20 version, anyway.
Speaking of which, we had some amazing swings of luck and insanity in our Legend fo the Five Rings game. Such as the pacifistic Shugenja (wizard/shaman) who, in the very first session, instantly torched a bandit. She’d meant to give him a stern warning. However she kept rolling and rolling… and rolling.
The description of the flame exploding out of every orifice of his body was as disgusting as it was impressive. And my character never once believed that shugenja wasn’t ridiculously powerful again.
I’ll always think of that style of rolling as arquebus rolling, since that’s how the damage from an arquebus (a primitive firearm) worked in 2nd edition D&D.
Speaking of which, I once had to remind a DM that D&D considers smoke powder a magic item, when an NPC tried to use an arquebus in a wild magic zone.
I am not a great roleplayer, as a rule, but I had some memorable moments.
2nd ed AD&D. I was playing Tarxis, the thief. Probably 4th level, MAYBE 5th. We were up against a dragon, myself, an evil magic user, a fighter, a ranger… I think that was it. We were holding our own, but not doing a lot. I was bored with the game, and the people playing, and I made a grand attack that consisted of a run, and a slide under the beast, using my short sword to geld that bastid (lizards don’t have external genitals, you say? Shut up, I say. Good think my DM was an idiot.) on the move, and pop out behind him to make a solid run.
This is suicide, as I’d rather just go play Sega at this point.
I start my run. Dragon proceeds to 1- Breath attack (missed), 2- Bite (missed), 3- a body slam (missed!!), and finally a swipe with the tail (missed). My luck that day was prodigious. Some fast talking on the GM convinced him that the dragon was going to go into shock and bleed to death.
I miss gaming, sometimes. I really do.
Great option for a name there: Tarxis the Dragon Snipper.
Ehh, I’m sure someone can think of one better than that.
Tarxis the Dragon-Spayer.
Okay, technically, it was a male dragon and those don’t get spayed, but it’s too good to pass up on a technicality.
Dragon-Fixer. I mean, come on.
Tarxis, the Bris of Death.
Actually, he’d be the mohel. What he DID would be the bris.
In that case, it could be a name for the attack. Thanks for the tip (as the mohel said to the pleased family).
I hate to feed the zombies, but this may be the funniest thing I’ve ever read.
How can a breath attack miss? It’s a big-ass area effect. As a DM, I’d allow a save for half damage, with potential further reductions for other magical defensive effects, but dragon breath just doesn’t miss in my game.
He said 2nd Ed, and I don’t know what specific rules it uses, but in 3E the saving throw for area effect attack was usually Reflex Half, including breath weapons. Rogues then got a class ability called Evasion, which allows the Rogue to take no damage on a successful Reflex throw that would normally deal half damage.
Provided the 2nd Ed rules are at all similar, this is completely legal.
ETA: On rereading I think I see what you’re saying, but Tristan didn’t say that the GM rolled a 1 on the breath weapon or anything, only that it missed. A successful saving throw would make a breath weapon miss (strictly speaking, the Rogue would avoid the breath, the breath wouldn’t be misaimed, but it amounts to the same thing).
The dragon breathed right in front of himself, but the rogue had already scampered out of the way.
Lonely Mountain Oysters, anyone?
So how would the DM describe what happens when a dragon rolls a 1 for a breath attack? He inhaled instead of exhaling?
The dragon thought the rogue was gonna zig, when he actually zagged.
He doesn’t roll. What happens with an area attack like a breath weapon is the GM describes the area in which it’s happening and tells the players to make a Reflex check. The breath weapon has a particular difficulty the players have to meet. If they don’t meet it, they take full damage. If they do meet it, they take half (or none, depending on the situation).
There’s situations in D&D where the attack isn’t guaranteed and the attacker has to make a roll to hit, and there’s situations where it is guaranteed and the defenders have to make a roll to avoid.
I don’t think there was any way, by the books, for a dragon to attempt to zorch someone with a breath weapon but to fail to do any damage at all, in 2nd edition. That said, “by the books” didn’t have as much meaning in 2nd edition as in 3rd, and houserules were abundant.
And incidentally, Firefox’s spellchecker actually recognizes “zorch”.
Oh, and even if dragons don’t have external genitals, they would have to have an opening of some sort in their armor at that spot, which would mean a vulnerability to some extent.
In the various flavors of 3e, if a weapon does not deal damage, then sneak attacks/poisons/extra damage effects generally do not take effect.
This is sometimes a handy thing to know.