Re: Outcomes of actions
So I'm playing in a pretty standard low level party - I'm playing a 2/2 lvl half elf f/mu (X - you can guess his name), and we're out in the wilderness and the DM roles a random encounter with a hill giant.
Now, along with my character there's a 2nd level dwarf fighter, a 1st level human cleric (w/ high wisdom), and a 1st level human magic user (w/ a sleep spell).
At the time we spot him we're about 100 yards away, and he's sitting on his arse atop a low rise. There's a cave behind him with what my f/mu thinks is a horde of treasure...so, after a long drawn out discussion about their ancestry, their courage - or lack thereof - and their duty to Good and Man, my f/mu convinces them to attack.
"I think we can take him," he says.
So, we spread out, and bum rush the hill.
His first action is to stand and grab a boulder the size of Mt St Helens and hurl it through the air at the magic user - only thing I can think of is that he must have thought we were high level adventurers to go after poor Theo that way...needless to say, all that was left was a blood stain. BUT, the nice thing about it was that it got us in range to attack, with the beastie only throwing one more rock (DM said he rolled a 1) - a miss.
We roll initiative, and the party wins the round. The cleric's hanging back in case he needs to drop some Cure Lights on us, my character waltzes in and throws twin 15's (+1 for str, +1 for sword, +1 for specialization) - so after adjustments it's twin 18's, so he hits both times. Long sword, 1-12 damage on large, +4 damage for each hit, rolled a 7 and a 6, so 13 + 8 = 21. Portia the dwarf then drops a nat 20 on the poor sucker, with a battle axe - she danced for joy (and if you've ever seen a female dwarf dance for joy...). Anyway, she gets +1 for str (17) on dmg, and the axe does 1-8. She rolls a 6 (+1) = 7x2 = 14 + 21 = 35.
At this point the hill giant's reeling...I kinda feel bad, but then he takes a swipe at me with a club the size of a small oak tree...Rolls a 4: No go - we get next attack - I roll a natural 13, plus all the bonuses above takes me to 16, so we are golden...I roll an 8 +4 again for above bonuses = 12 + 35 = 47.
Hill Giant groans, and does a header, crumples and slowly tumbles down the slope, stopping a few strides from where we are. Figure he had somewhere around 40 hp. DM's hopping mad because he warned us that at least half of us would die, and cost vs. risk analysis and some other unusable business jargon that had no place in a D&D setting...he must have been petulant because the haul, while nice for low levelers, was only (1) 1900gp jewel + 300 gp, and the sucker had no magic. But pretty nice experience, and I've added "Giant Killer" to my character's name.
Thought I'd share...