Author Topic: Stuff you did when you were a D&D noob  (Read 16815 times)

Offline Libertad

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Stuff you did when you were a D&D noob
« on: November 15, 2011, 12:32:45 AM »
We all were novice players at some point, and our views of the game and its mechanics were probably very different back then.

During my first year of playing 3rd edition, I thought that Magic Missile was the best thing ever.  I can honestly say I rolled more d4s than d20s in that time.  I also thought that more skill points for a Rogue were great, so I put an 18 in Intelligence and a 12 in Dexterity (it was 28 point buy).

I also tried to Bluff a Wizard into looking the other way while in combat.

One of the first games I DMed: after clearing out a goblin-filled cave, the PCs stayed at an inn.  The party got dead drunk, stole all the soap out of the inn's rooms, and fell down a flight of stairs while trying to escape.

So what crazy shenanigans did you get up to?

Offline veekie

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Re: Stuff you did when you were a D&D noob
« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2011, 01:59:10 AM »
I had a serious addiction to arcane sneak gishes for a while. Its what greatly improved my optimization skills really, since triple threats takes so much work to get off the ground it kept ending up mostly wizard.
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Offline SneeR

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Re: Stuff you did when you were a D&D noob
« Reply #2 on: November 15, 2011, 02:11:28 AM »
Oh, the things I did...

Putting enemies on the board without knowing their stats as a DM...

Trying to invent strangulation rules without a clear understanding of the grapple rules...

Trying to loot the room before the enemies were dead...

Can you tell my first character was a rogue?
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Offline Solo

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Re: Stuff you did when you were a D&D noob
« Reply #3 on: November 15, 2011, 02:19:13 AM »
Quote
During my first year of playing 3rd edition, I thought that Magic Missile was the best thing ever.  I can honestly say I rolled more d4s than d20s in that time.  I also thought that more skill points for a Rogue were great, so I put an 18 in Intelligence and a 12 in Dexterity (it was 28 point buy).
That's not necessarily a bad thing, if you optimize for skills...
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Offline Mooncrow

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Re: Stuff you did when you were a D&D noob
« Reply #4 on: November 15, 2011, 02:49:44 AM »
My first D&D experience was when I was 12, and I was our group's DM. (Back in the days of 2e) I spent forever designing this intricate island maze with the McGuffin at the center, that I thought would take at least two sessions to get through.  Anyway, the party had just hit level 5 the session before and the new session opened with them landing on this island.

Me: reading a detailed description of the maze entrance
Mage: hey, do I see any creatures flying above the maze?
Me: Um, no.
Wizard: Cool, I cast fly on myself and go over the wall
Me: Wait, what?  You can fly?
Wizard: Yeah, now do I see the open altar where this thing is supposed to be at?
Me: ...ah, shit.

And that's how my party learned how to fly^^  Now of course, I could think of dozens of ways to handle it, even if I had messed up that bad in the first place :p  But back then all I could think about was my hours and hours of work going to waste.  It did teach me an important lesson about keeping an eye on the party's capabilities though^^

Offline Basket Burner

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Re: Stuff you did when you were a D&D noob
« Reply #5 on: November 15, 2011, 07:11:41 AM »
I thought that Scorching Ray and Fireball were the best things ever. I was cured of that bad habit.

Offline InnaBinder

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Re: Stuff you did when you were a D&D noob
« Reply #6 on: November 15, 2011, 07:18:43 AM »
Hi, my name's InnaBinder, and I played Rage Mages.   :blush
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Offline RobbyPants

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Re: Stuff you did when you were a D&D noob
« Reply #7 on: November 15, 2011, 08:36:04 AM »
I started playing back in 2E. I don't recall anything dumb I did back then, but I'm sure there were plenty of things. It's more that 2E painted my perception of D&D, and it took a while of playing 3E to get over that.

So, when I started playing 3E, I thought spells like Fireball were still awesome, although I did pick up on some early 3E goodies like Haste pretty quickly.

Since, for a while, none of our games went to very high level (2E or 3E), I thought fighters were a really good class. I also put too much emphasis on healing as clerics/druids.
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Offline Prime32

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Re: Stuff you did when you were a D&D noob
« Reply #8 on: November 15, 2011, 09:30:56 AM »
My first character was an elf wizard/paladin, with at least 3 levels in each. Alright, it was Neverwinter Nights, but still.

Offline solara

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Re: Stuff you did when you were a D&D noob
« Reply #9 on: November 15, 2011, 11:13:43 AM »
I played a Paladin. And thought spells were silly and not worth my time. *sigh*

The rest of the party was worse, though - the sorcerer who loved fireball and took levels in dragon disciple (or whatever it is) comes to mind.

Because the DM ruled my Paladin was immune to becoming drunk, the sorcerer decided to have a drinking contest with me. Got very, very, very drunk (he was an elf). And fireballed the ceiling of the oh-so-upper-class castle we were in at the time. The DM allowed him to take that back, but he still killed a page while he had a hangover. The player didn't WANT to take that back, despite having killed an 8-year-old boy randomly.

Offline hazard

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Re: Stuff you did when you were a D&D noob
« Reply #10 on: November 15, 2011, 12:27:02 PM »
First character was a straight sorcerer in 3.5 played him as a gish with twf (for more attacks :lol) going into dragon disciple. 
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Offline veekie

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Re: Stuff you did when you were a D&D noob
« Reply #11 on: November 15, 2011, 01:49:08 PM »
First character was a straight sorcerer in 3.5 played him as a gish with twf (for more attacks :lol) going into dragon disciple. 
It works a BIT better if you were Rogue/Wizard/Arcane Trickster TWF gish. Though I didn't understand why the unenchanted knives kept missing.
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Offline sirpercival

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Re: Stuff you did when you were a D&D noob
« Reply #12 on: November 15, 2011, 01:58:00 PM »
I was 8, and it was first edition.  I played a pygmy giant (only 10 feet tall!) who carried a halfling around on his shoulders (my 5yo little brother).  The halfling threw arrows at people.  Didn't shoot them, just threw them.
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Offline Libertad

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Re: Stuff you did when you were a D&D noob
« Reply #13 on: November 15, 2011, 02:04:38 PM »
Back in the day I thought hit points and damage were the prime methods of determining challenge levels and character effectiveness.

I never realized the potential of Grease until my players used it against an Ogre Mage's Chuul minions.  They effortlessly kicked the monster's asses, and the Chuul might as well not have been in the battle, for all the good they did trying to defend their boss.
« Last Edit: November 15, 2011, 02:47:24 PM by Libertad »

Offline SneeR

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Re: Stuff you did when you were a D&D noob
« Reply #14 on: November 15, 2011, 02:21:45 PM »
I started playing back in 2E. I don't recall anything dumb I did back then, but I'm sure there were plenty of things. It's more that 2E painted my perception of D&D, and it took a while of playing 3E to get over that.

So, when I started playing 3E, I thought spells like Fireball were still awesome, although I did pick up on some early 3E goodies like Haste pretty quickly.

Since, for a while, none of our games went to very high level (2E or 3E), I thought fighters were a really good class. I also put too much emphasis on healing as clerics/druids.

I thought Haste was fully broken in previous editions, like you got do do two rounds of stuff in one round... but you aged one year per round, too... Or so I've been told.
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Offline Basket Burner

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Re: Stuff you did when you were a D&D noob
« Reply #15 on: November 15, 2011, 02:51:58 PM »
I started playing back in 2E. I don't recall anything dumb I did back then, but I'm sure there were plenty of things. It's more that 2E painted my perception of D&D, and it took a while of playing 3E to get over that.

So, when I started playing 3E, I thought spells like Fireball were still awesome, although I did pick up on some early 3E goodies like Haste pretty quickly.

Since, for a while, none of our games went to very high level (2E or 3E), I thought fighters were a really good class. I also put too much emphasis on healing as clerics/druids.

I thought Haste was fully broken in previous editions, like you got do do two rounds of stuff in one round... but you aged one year per round, too... Or so I've been told.

In 3rd edition it acted like Celerity, except every round and without the dazing. Only single target though. Before that I don't remember what it did, but it did age you a year which means you could easily kill your own party by casting Haste on them.

Offline archangel.arcanis

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Re: Stuff you did when you were a D&D noob
« Reply #16 on: November 15, 2011, 02:58:16 PM »
I started playing back in 2E. I don't recall anything dumb I did back then, but I'm sure there were plenty of things. It's more that 2E painted my perception of D&D, and it took a while of playing 3E to get over that.

So, when I started playing 3E, I thought spells like Fireball were still awesome, although I did pick up on some early 3E goodies like Haste pretty quickly.

Since, for a while, none of our games went to very high level (2E or 3E), I thought fighters were a really good class. I also put too much emphasis on healing as clerics/druids.

I thought Haste was fully broken in previous editions, like you got do do two rounds of stuff in one round... but you aged one year per round, too... Or so I've been told.
Try being mean to the DM. They added the age 1 year per casting rule to the 3.0 version and let me play a wyrmling dragon. Needless to say I got hast ASAP and cast it frequently.

Offline Libertad

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Re: Stuff you did when you were a D&D noob
« Reply #17 on: November 15, 2011, 03:00:33 PM »
Quote
During my first year of playing 3rd edition, I thought that Magic Missile was the best thing ever.  I can honestly say I rolled more d4s than d20s in that time.  I also thought that more skill points for a Rogue were great, so I put an 18 in Intelligence and a 12 in Dexterity (it was 28 point buy).
That's not necessarily a bad thing, if you optimize for skills...

Except that I didn't know at the time which skills had the most utility.  I took ranks in the perception stuff and disable device, which made me a good trap-finder.

But I wasn't a good archer (12 Dex) and I pretty much needed Sneak Attack to deal damage.  Oftentimes when fighting undead skeletons I felt useless.  It was Living Greyhawk, so I retired my character around 4th level to play a Sorcerer, which is where I learned the joys of Magic Missile spamming.

Since I was a Rogue, I didn't bother looking over the spell list except for the most dangerous-sounding and iconic stuff.  Things would have gone a lot easier for me if I learned Glitterdust or Web instead of Scorching Ray...
« Last Edit: November 15, 2011, 03:02:09 PM by Libertad »

Offline veekie

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Re: Stuff you did when you were a D&D noob
« Reply #18 on: November 15, 2011, 03:16:14 PM »
I still remember the first spells I cast, in order:
Prismatic Wall
Rock to Mud
Mud to Rock
Fireball
Baleful Polymorph
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
It's a god-eat-god world.

Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Offline Libertad

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Re: Stuff you did when you were a D&D noob
« Reply #19 on: November 15, 2011, 03:25:21 PM »
I still remember the first spells I cast, in order:
Prismatic Wall
Rock to Mud
Mud to Rock
Fireball
Baleful Polymorph

Was your first game high-level?