In Dungeons & Dragons, the player experience thrives on the interplay between the Game Master and the players. A Dungeon Master has given their players a seemingly cruel task – but they quickly came up with a creative solution.
What task has the DM set for their players? User AdditionalBuyer5242 shares in their thread on Reddit their dilemma that their players are intentionally trying to circumvent the task. In their campaign, their players must face a powerful vampire, but defeating him should not be that easy.
So, not only did he throw a foe with strong stats at his adventurers, but he also posed them another task. For the vampire should not be able to die by a “weapon forged by mortal hands.”
The players had to find a way to harm him without such weapons. And as it often goes, the players found a creative way to circumvent this, triggering a little fundamental debate that caused the DM to turn to the community.
Classic Puzzle Classicly Circumvented
How did the players want to solve this? Since the players couldn’t quickly come up with weapons crafted from the hands of immortal beings, they had to think of something else. Because the puzzle contained the word “forged,” they quickly came up with the idea of considering materials other than metal.
But instead of thinking of a wooden stake, as one often does with vampires, the group came up with the idea of using furniture to take down the pesky foe. However, this quickly led to a fundamental debate over whether furniture technically counts as weapons and whether, once metallic, forged elements are part of it, it counts as forged again.
Therefore, the DM turned to the community when his players stormed the vampire’s location with various pieces of furniture and wanted to slam the opponent’s head onto a table edge. After all, it technically isn’t a weapon being swung and there is no metal involved.
But the community believes he should just let his players do it because the solution is extremely funny:
- jmartkdr writes: “Table Slam is damn funny, so it absolutely works.”
- jasonred79 chimes in: “It would be just as funny if it didn’t work. SLAM SLAM SLAM! Table Slam!”
- BandOfBudgies suggests: “Forged is, in my opinion, the most important word. So if the object is carved, that’s fine.”
- Ninjacat97 presents another solution: “What if this sword wasn’t forged but rather cast!”
- SnooOpinions8790 comments: “It’s not a weapon and not forged. Go ahead! Shakespeare and Tolkien would approve. See Macbeth and the Witch King of Angmar.”
- Cuddles_and_Kinks would have preferred a different solution: “‘No weapon forged by mortal hands can kill me.’ Okay? If I chop your body into pieces, are you still alive? That sounds like your problem.”
User Incompetent_Penguin raises another point that they believe leads to a loophole in the puzzle: because they could still have taken a weapon that was crafted by something other than hands. For if the weapon was made by a mortal creature with claws, tentacles, feet, or something similar, it would theoretically not fall under the excluded description.
Either way, the community celebrates the group’s approach so much that the DM actually lets them do it. The vampire thus meets his end at the edge of a table.
Another DM turns to the community to share his planning for his “probably longest session of all time” and to seek further inspiration. His idea is well-received by fans and many wish to experience the session themselves: Player plans the “longest session of all time” in Dungeons & Dragons, celebrated by the community
