When you just can't roll well
Responding to a "vent with allowed responses" thread, but figured this might spawn its own discussion and didn't want to hijack the vent thread.
I had a character who rolled really low a lot several years ago (the previous poster had described a character that, in 18 rolls, had rolled six 1's and two 2's. Eventually I just gave up and started writing him as a combination of "Ernest P. Worrell" and "Steve Urkel", writing in that he got lucky during one of the rare moments when I'd actually roll well.
Some other people in the game expressed in OOC that they were upset that I was writing such a poor character, a character who was basically contributing nothing to the group, but I'd already posted in OOC that I was frustrated by the rolls too and was just trying to write something that was true to what was supposed to happen.
Like the fifth time you roll a grand total of eight on your attack roll, it may be time to stop writing about how your opponent is such an amazing dodge/parry master (especially when that particular opponent was literally a crippled kobold who could barely move), and start writing about how ineffective your character is.
"Did I do that?" The character ignored the destroyed desk that had resulted from when he'd fallen and stabbed it seventeen times then thrown away his dagger (from a one). He smirked at the crippled kobold in front of him, "Prepare for a chilling ray of frost, vile creature!" He waved his hand and then saw a butterfly fly near his face. A beautiful butterfly, with wings of gold and silver and amethyst wrapping around each other in a never-ending fractal spiral. And as his attention turned to the butterfly he pointed his finger at it at just the wrong time and hit it squarely with his ray of frost. An expression of horror slowly spread across his face as he realized what he'd done and turned to give his full attention to his real opponent.
I rolled a 4 with 1d20+2.
OOC thread:
In OOC: Why'd you attack a butterfly? Your character is worthless. You're worthless -- play better. You're supposed to attack the kobold.
Me: Look at my dice rolls, that's the 5th time I've tried to attack that same creature and failed miserably each time. I'm starting to run out of ideas for how I can keep missing so badly. I mean, it's not like I'm missing by one or two, I'm missing by a lot. There has to be a reason for that.
Anyway, that was my somewhat frustrating experience. How about the rest of you? Who else has had a rotten string of bad luck rolls and how did you handle it?