Dungeons & Dragons/Awesome

"Thaxan:I think you have something that belongs to me. Art: Oh? What could that be? Thaxan: This! (Thaxan severs Art's ear with a knife and makes a pendant out of it.)"
 * On the Wizards.com D&D boards, Raz the Rogue mage (played by Rickel) is generally considered purified awesome. He got so popular that Rickel wrote an original story starring Raz here
 * How many people are known that have rolled three twenties during a single session, and have all of them instant kill something?
 * In a DND game, the heroes managed to surround Irontooth from Keep on Shadowfell, and blind him, stun him, and stab him to death. Then Irontooth revealed that worshipping Orcus means you can become an undead. Right then. Irontooth attacked the rouge who killed him, managed to reduce this minotaur to near True Death Negative Hp. exactly. Minotuar rogue then pointed out that he gets one last attack...but so does Irontooth, an attack that had damage prerolled, to "True Death". Minotaur rolls the attack, kills Irontooth first. So, basically, he killed the guy who KOed him, SECONDS before the guy who KOed him could coup-de-grace.
 * This minotaur then managed to infiltrate a Cult of Shar, as he is Chaotic Neutral, borderline evil, and a TRAINED ASSASSIN. Said cult recruits him, and even forces him to perform the ritualistic sacrifice of an innocent. They offer him immortality and NOT as an undead, along with a ridiculous sum of gold and custom magic items. All he has to do is kill a PC. His response? Through sheer diplomacy manage to convince them AND THE GM that he is going to do it, go to the PC he was hired to kill, explain the situation, go back to the cult, and beat them down. Oh, and he managed to do this WITHOUT swearing a magically binding vow to Shar. (Other PC who swore said vow...went blind and died during the cure disease.) His sheer honesty and wordplay made the HIGH PRIEST impressed, (it used elements of the High Priest's sermon)and sure he would join. (Without a roll, it was good RP.) End result: Cult went poof.
 * Oh, as for the PC he was hired to kill? That PC was a half-dragon fighter. Loosely worshipped Bahamut. Against a white dragon, he fought said dragon by STRANGLING IT TO DEATH WITH HIS FLAIL'S CHAIN! Dragon casts Aura of Fear, which will stun anyone who it hits. I roll to hit on entire party, only half-dragon's roll is left. Everyone in the party: "Roll a 1, it'll be dramatic!" "Aw, come on, roll a 1. Roll a 1." I smile, roll it in full view as a joke...IT ROLLS A ONE! My RP? BAHAMUT HIMSELF, BY DIVINE MIRACLE, SHIELDS PC WITH HIS WINGS! (Character ends up multi-classing to paladin based on this incident.)
 * As for the cult? On the way to the cult, one PC, mage, rolls a series of 30+ checks, along with a natural 20 on Religion, to devise how to use a certain mirror for a ritual. Thus, said PC knows how to use light reflecting from the sun to form a beam that can close rifts to the Plane of Shadows/Shadowfell. Then they fight the cult, and cult leader mutates into a being of shadows, blinds fighters. Dragonborn fighter's response? Pulls out a sunrod, not 100% effective. Mage then pulls out the mirror, and rolls very high on invoking said ritual. Cult Leader is stunned, but claims that Shar protects him. Figher invokes prayer to Bahamut, rolls it...Natural 20. Light from sunrod becomes holy fire. Cult leader pile of ashes.
 * In a recent D&D session, a Barbarian (4th ed) was riding the shoulders of an ogre, the ogre rolling a 20 to get the PC off threw said PC 45 feet, into the Big Bad Hobgoblin mage, dealing the last Hit point of damage need to off the bastard, note Hobgoblin Mage Level 7, Barbarian Level 5.
 * About two days afterwards, said barbarian took out 2 Bronze Warders at the same time(taken from H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth) dying 9 times in the process.
 * The epic tale of Sameo.
 * Example from an Eberron novel (not really Literature CMOA material, because the book is just a tie-in to the setting): a human has been enslaved by one of the less pleasant Valenar clans. Because the clan is being called back to the service of the Darkwood Crown, and the king wearing said crown doesn't approve of slavery, said human began suspecting he was about to get deaded. So he immediately calls the leader of the clan a disgracer of the blood (Vadis nia). This is literally the worst insult in the culture of the Valaes Tairn. As a result, the clan leader goes apeshit berzerk and begins attempting to dismember the slave with a knife in each hand...our plucky slave, Cutter, because he served as a woodcutter, duly grabs hold of the clan leader's wrists and forces him to slit his own throat. Beating the leader of a clan of elves who are feared all over Khorvaire as its scariest combatants.
 * Another canonical Eberron example: the initial response of the Elves of Valenar when a group was hired by Cyre. Rather than sending a note saying "OK, we'll go hurt people for cash on your behalf", they kill a Karrnathi general, engrave "We accept" onto his skull in Elven, and send it to the Cyran queen. Eberron has the greatest spin on Our Elves Are Better in the history of the universe.
 * In one battle in a Eberron campaing, there was a civil war on a big city. It's was a 5 vs. 5 plus the pc's. In one moment, some enemies npc broke in the barricades were the archer were. just one was able to survive the first strike. He sweared in a big manner that would not die in vain. And you know what? He was able to finish off 3 guys who were surronding him. The kicker? it was a group of level 1 warriors against level 1 warriors. All my group was amazed of the great fight a bunch a guys of cr 0.5 could do and one of them said "A epic level guy watched this fight and said 'that one has potential'". Cue to a bunch of "hell yeah!"
 * The party consists of a (somewhat portly) Human Warlock, an Elven Scout, and a Human Healer, all second-level. Well, they're participating in this three-day festival, containing, among many other things, bloodsports, an archery tournament, and a jousting tournament. Of all people, the Warlock decides to sign himself up for the arena battles. The premise was explained to him: it's a fight to the death. The participant is pitted against three of the more violent criminals in the Imperial prisons, who start out unarmed (but there are weapons dropped into the center of the Arena at the beginning of the match). The participant is allowed to bring in whatever equipment he desires, but there's no healing magic allowed during the matches (or afterward, if he wishes to participate in another bout after the first). Of course, since this event panders to the lowest common denominator, extra payment will be awarded to the participant if the match is particularly impressive and/or gory. In order to keep things fresh for the spectators, the officials have some surprises thrown in. For instance, the prisoners might get replaced by nasty beasties (such as giant scorpions, skeletons, bears, or even a chimera). If the participant ends up pitted against these creatures, he is paid double... if he survives. Another entertaining bit is the heavy square metal grate resting on the ground at the center of the arena. At the whim of the officials, it will be hoisted fifteen feet into the air by the pillars at each of its corners. If a person is under it when it falls again... well, it won't be pretty. Anyway, the Warlock borrowed the Scout's magic sword (it lights up with electricity when you say the Abyssal word for "shock"), rented a chain shirt, and entered the arena. The gates opened up, and in came an ogre and two orcs. The ogre ran in, standing on the platform and grabbing a warhammer. The Warlock didn't realize how far the ogre could reach, and provoked an attack of opportunity from the ogre when he approached. The ogre dropped him dwn to 2 HP with that one attack, so the Warlock, with his magical talent for wall-crawling, decided to beat a hasty retreat, climbing up the pillar as fast as he could. The two orcs make their way to the platform and pick up the remaining weapons, a dagger and a heavy pick. The ogre starts trying to climb the pillar to attack the Warlock, but he keeps failing his Climb check to get up the pillar. The Warlock remembers a wand he had taken from a fallen opponent, and activates it. Suddenly his hands start sparking with electricity, much like the sword. One orc starts to climb the pillar, and attempts to push the Warlock off. The Warlock, however, manages to push the orc off, electrifying him in the process. Things take a turn for the worse, however, when the platform begins to rise. Thinking quickly, the Warlock climbs under the platform as it rises. He fires off an Eldritch Blast through the grate... well, the Warlock's player got a 20. I asked him to roll again, to confirm a critical hit. He rolls again... 20. I ask him to roll one more time, "to confirm." He doesn't get a 20, but he rolls high enough to break the ogre's AC, so I tell him, "Your Eldritch Blast suddenly flares as it emerges from your fingertips, violently bisecting the ogre in a shower of gore." The remaining orc is utterly terrified, and starts scrambling up the far wall of the arena, pleading for his life all the while. The Warlock fires off another Eldritch Blast... 20. Seriously. I ask him to roll to confirm the critical hit... 20. He rolls one more time... and again, doesn't get a 20, but broke the orc's AC, so I tell him that the orc was decapitated by the Eldritch blast. The Warlock's player is looking at the d20 with awe, and he picks it up. "I just want to see..." he says, and rolls the d20 again. Bam! 20. We decided that he got a new nickname amongst the spectators; they started calling him "The Lightning Blood."
 * A group of level one adventurers exploring their first dungeon found themselves faced with a small Death Course in the form of a dangerously narrow walkway across which pendulum blades swung at intervals. The intent was clearly for the party to try a fast run across and dodge the blades, but with only one or two exceptions - being a bunch of level one characters - nobody was confident in their ability to try it, especially not after the first character across nearly got cut in half. Instead, the party's paladin-in-training got the dwarf cleric, the only character in the party with any skill in Dungeoneering, to call out to her when and where to expect the blades so that she could attack them with her sword as they swung. Repeatedly. For hours. Until finally all of the blades had been broken off and the way was safe to cross. It may not have been an exciting feat of badassery (and would have no doubt taken an obnoxiously long amount of gameplay time had the DM not handwaved the rest of the rolls once he realized the players were serious about it and let them fast-forward to the other side of the walkway), but it was a triumph of patience and stubbornness on the parts of the characters.
 * So skipping a lot, The party is in a heavily armed airship that's inbound to attack a city (they're at war). If it could successfully pull off the attack, the war would be over. The general of the opposing army (along with a few lackeys) manages to break into the airship and slaughters the majority of the crew, with his goal to take over the airship and use it to win the war. The party and the last few crew members (5 left out of 100 or so) are in the bridge, with the door locked and sealed with a spell, but the general carving through it easily. One party member sets the ship to crash into the city and then destroys the controls. Someone points out that they could use a escape hatch that leads to the cargo bay and use the last flying mounts to get out of the airship, but theres no way they'd make it from how fast the general is breaking through the door. One party member (an elf) tells them to go on ahead and that he'll take care of this. They start rushing into the escape hatch just as the door is cut in half. The elf charges at the door and attacks the general just as he gets through. They start to fight and the elf can barely survive against him, the general being literally twice his level. He lasts a few rounds, and it ends with him thrown across the room and barely conscious. The general closes in on him preparing to finish him off, and asks him for his last words. "Might want to close your eyes for this one". He stabs his sword into the ground and blasts the windshield (or equivalent to it) apart, sending glass flying through the room, at the general and his lackeys and blowing them to the back of the room. One ally contacts him via telepathy and explains to him that they got to the mounts safely and took off. As the general is closing in on him (by stabbing his blades into the floor), he throws himself out the window and is caught by one of the mounts, and just in time to see the airship crash and its payload explode, taking out a notable portion of the city.
 * Spending a few night in town, the Dwarf fighter decided to hustle at the bar with the typical drinking boast. over the course of three night he lost progressively more money (totaling a hundred copper) losing just to set up the fourth night, where he bet ten gold (about a week's wages in the port town we were in) he could drink anyone under the table. Three men went up. All told, he downed more shots than the three of them combined, making up for his indiscriminate spending earlier. The next night, stone sober, the three men came to get their gold back. Having watched the spectacle, my Elf Drunken Master downs his bottle of fire whiskey (making the DC to only have a strong buzz), took the bottle, and rolled an 18 crit because of a homebrew feat that gave a high crit to any improvised weapon to hit the biggest guy in the face. This gave me a surprise round as the bottle broke stunning the other two guys. A flurry of blows with three nat 20's brought down the second guy, and the Dwarf finished off the third. My drunken master didn't say a word and sat down and just held up two fingers for two beers.
 * Another 1st Edition memory, with the group whose thief slew the dragon with only a dagger above. It takes place immediately after the Dragon incident, and while this isn't quite as epic, it still serves as an awesome moment for this DM. The party has been hired to deal with a cult group in exchange for a Raise Dead spell on their Dwarf Fighter (this is after the Dwarf was killed by the Dragon). The cult is made up by about a dozen level two fighters a level four fighter, and a level six cleric. The group is only around level five at this point, and despite there being five of them, the battle starts to get a little out of hand. The Dwarven figher is having terrible luck and the thief is being beaten up by three of the fighters. Down to two hit points he does the thing that players always do when they're desperate, and begins searching his inventory for something that might be useful. No healing potions are on his person, but he does have two unidentified potions, both clear like water that he has been carrying on his person for a year. (There are no identify spells in my game. The only way to identify something is to use it.) In desperation he grabs one and drinks a small mouthful. He turns invisible. The perfect thing for a thief. He proceeds to use this to backstab a bunch of fighters, and really turns the fight around, saving the life of at least two of the other characters in the process.
 * A lvl 6 paladin who took the vow of poverty. That paladin used his horrific charisma and diplomancy boosts to talk down several bosses - including a pair of evil lvl 10 Clerics of Bane. Paladin worshipped Helm.
 * A lvl 7 Monk that took the vow of peace. Said monk also worshipped Helm. Began preaching on the steps of the temple of Bane, much to the annoyance of the chief cleric, lvl 18. Cleric stepped out to challenge the monk. Cleric could not affect the monk due to the vow of peace (and a couple of lucky roles for will saves). Cleric finally decided to murder the monk outright, wielding a very nasty mace. The Vow of Peace states that any magic weapon used to attack you in melee must make a save or be destroyed. Yes, the weapon failed it's save and detonated... the ensuing explosion formed a chain reaction, exploding most of the other magic items the Cleric had on his person. One dead lvl 18 cleric, one alive lvl 7 monk. At this point, Bane notices, and starts sending extraplanar minions... Helm notices as well, sending minions in response. Cue new Holy War, starting in Tantras. Again.
 * Chaotic neutral rogue and ranger, fed up with the goodie two-shoes Paladin and Monk, decided to rob a magic items store. Rogue camoflauges both with a wand of improved invisibility. During the insuing randomness, they wait for the Priest of Bain to finish loading up a bag with weapons to distribute for the War now starting. One murdered priest later, and the rogue and ranger find themselves in possession of a LOT of valuable goods.
 * Lastly, the party's druid, uninterested in the proselytizing, heads to the local equivalent of a Zoo. When the insanity strikes, the Druid befriends a Rhino, and goes in search of the rest of the party. The druid convinces the rhino to charge a rather angry Barbed Devil that was commanding troops of its own. Rhino charges. Bull rush succeeds. Devil trips, falls, and thanks to the Rule of Cool, is trampled by said rhino. The rhino opens up the gap as it dies, allowing the Paladin and Monk to escape the increasing madness.
 * The party links up and makes it out of town together. For the rest of that campaign, every Saturday's session started with the "Weekly War Report."
 * Shortly before permanently outlawing the Book of Broken fore use when constructing characters, the DM finally averted another town being completely ravaged by the Paladin (now on a crusade against Bane and close to attaining the template for Sainthood). This CMoA goes to the Players, who through their combined efforts, got the usually unflappable DM to say "YOUR POWERS DON'T WORK ON THE BOSS!" Much fun was had by all, and a new campaign was started the next week. For the next few campaigns, the characters would make cameo appearances, being Heroes of Legend mentioned in stories told by the NPCs (and in one case were stumbled upon during a campaign that had us planes-hopping for a high-level quest).
 * During a 4th edition campaign that consisted entirely of people new to roleplaying, Awesome moments were surprisingly common, and usually revolved around a wizard named Thaxan. Among them:
 * During the second session, the party rogue, a halfling named Pervince(Perv for short) was killed by goblins. After barely killing the goblins, stealing their equipment, and making coats from their skin, Thaxan picked up the corpse of his fallen friend and returned to town. He then took the crappy weapons to the local weapons shop, casts Prestidigitation on them to make them appear clean, shiny, and new, and sells them to the shopkeeper for enough money to get Perv raised from the dead.
 * A Changeling framed Thaxan by stabbing a Captain of the Guard while in disguise. When confronted by guards, Thaxan agreed to come along quietly, but had something much more insidious planned. He stabbed a guard with a poison ring, used prestidigitation to convince him it was a poison wasp, then used Ghost sound and more prestidigitation effects(Including setting the man who turned him in on fire) to convince the guards the house was a "Weak point in the Veil etween this World and the World of Magic" causing them to run around in a panic until Thaxan was able to convince them he was being framed by using prestidigitation to alter his face. Not only was he released, he lead the search for the Changeling.
 * After defeating a necromancer who knew no fear of pain or death, it became clear interrogating him would be difficult. Thaxan instead decided to convince him that he was the avatar of Vecna, God of Undeath. To the surprise of all, and the frustration of the DM, it worked perfectly, and he told the party everything.
 * Chasing a Tiefling through a mysterious portal led the party roughly 500 years into the past. Upon meeting a few locals, Thaxan walked up and said "Hello, I'm the Doctor. Just the Doctor.
 * Upon catching the Tiefling, a Smug Snake named Art, Thaxan walked up and had this exchange:

"Necromancer: We will send a message to our leader, communicating your... proposal. Thaxan: Okay. Well, while we wait, mind if we wipe out this hobgoblin tribe? Hobgoblin Chief: What? Necromancer: No, no. They are nice. They let us stay in this cave. Thaxan: It's my city. I'll let you have the cave. Hobgoblin Chief: What?! Necromancer: Can't argue with that. Go ahead. Hobgoblin Chief: WHAT?!?!"
 * During a visit to Thaxan's home city, where he is a powerful and popular noble, the city's warforged guards begin rebelling, including a new prototype that's just been made. The rebellion was eventually put down, including a "Designated Armored Lifeform Ersatz Knight, which came very close to Exterminating Thaxan.
 * A group of necromancers had settled in with a tribe of hobgoblins near the city. Not liking the idea of fighting them, Thaxan negotiated an alliance with the necromancers. They agreed to consult their leader. Thaxan's response?(Keep in mind, the Hobgoblin chief is still in the room.)


 * After finally catching up with(and subsequently losing track of) the Changeling who framed him in the midst of the capital city, Thaxan used his clout to earn an audience with the queen to solve the problem. Within a few hours, he had cast arcane lock on a nearby door(Set only to open for humans), crammed every single person in the castle inside, and invited the queen to open the door, to demonstrate how easily a human could open it. It didn't open.
 * In the ensuing Dual Boss fight(The Changeling was working for Art, who also showed up to fight.) Pervince killed each of the bosses with a single sneak attack. The sole remaining Mook who worked for them simply dropped his weapon and surrendered.
 * Thaxan went on to meet with the elderly chancelor who would decide on a successor to the missing queen. While his noble status was enough to render him eligeable, the chancellor(not to mention the DM) was dead set against it. Thaxan also happened to have a boobytrapped box that sprayed sleeping gas. With a good bluff score, a disguise kit, and some borrowed clothes, he was able to declare himself King in short order. Afterwards, using an excellent bluff check, he was able to convince the chancellor(who was tied up in the closet) that he had tasted a mysterious liquid, gone insane, declared Thaxan king, and retired to his chamber with a 'promiscuous looking woman' and some rope.
 * Might as well ad examples from my group featuring Jumor the Dragonborn Paladin (me), Solo the Hafling Rouge, and Javar the Ardent.
 * The first one is how our first combat ended. We were facing a single mook with Solo being blocked by Javar. So he decided to jump over Javar and hit the mook. While he doesn't do damage he gives Javar and I a chance to take down the mook. Which we succeed at doing.
 * Later when traveling with a group of NPC soldiers consisting of: Redgar, Marian, Wesley, and Garrett we were attacked by a drake. Throughout the entire fight it focused on Garrett, but when the beast was slain who killed it? Garrett was when then decided to be second best to Redgar.
 * A little bit before the previous one our camp was attacked by goblins. Solo was the one who noticed them and woke everyone up. He also scored the last kill so it was decided that Solo woke up warned everyone fired a random shot in the following chaos and then went back to sleep.