Even better if the foe was already almost dead. When you slap something for huge numbers it’s also fun having the DM describe the wreckage that’s left of your opponents.
I feel like some Table Top games are more prone to this than others, just based off watching some different IP’s being played.
I do a thing where if someone lands a critical hit that takes a character from alive to dead*, they get a more descriptive kill based on the type of attack. A slashing attack might behead them. A cold attack could freeze them solid.
It’s Pathfinder 1e, so death is when negative HP >= constitution score (not bonus.) I don’t do it if they have room for bleedout and stabilization.
I like that a lot - it makes the crits feel more epic and unique.
A party member once used spike growth, grappling, and a wide array of speed boosts to deal so much damage it couldn’t be rolled on Fantasy Grounds and we had to roll it on Wolfram Alpha and enter it manually. Appropriately enough it totalled 666 damage.
That damage amount is freaky. Player sold their soul to roll the most damage anyone will ever see lol.
That kind of nonsense was typical for the campaign :)
My first casting of Time Stop went overboard like this. I rolled 5 turns, and those 5 Delayed Blast Fireballs did enough structural damage to the cavern we were in to give us just enough time to confirm that everything on that end of the cavern was destroyed, before the cleric plane shifted us out of there. Lich and minions down? ✅ Lich’s phylactery destroyed? ✅ All other magic items and treasure destroyed? ✅ Whoops. Apparently doing almost 500 damage instantly causes cavern collapses, and blows up magic items, furthering the damage.
I’ve never played a TTRPG where I got to play around with 9th level spells or the equivalent and now I’m jealous. That’s insane!
We got to 40th level in that campaign. I played an Epic Wizard/ Epic Dweomersmith. The magic items I made for that character, and the rest of the group probably were technically minor artifacts. For instance, my headband was +6 to Str, Con, Wis, Dex, and Cha, +36 to Int, +100 to concentration, spell craft, knowledge arcana, and knowledge religion.
By the end of the campaign we had exterminated all the mind flayers and aboleth in several prime materials, as well as the astral plane of existence. Never could get permission to kill the ones in Sigil or the City of Brass
Have you played 10 million hp planet? It’s built around this concept, the endgame is bashing an entire planet to pieces. And you start with just d6 damage! If you love stupidly epic over-the-top ridiculousness, this is the perfect game!
That looks hilarious. It’s like the TTRPG of ridiculous anime.
My first fireball felt so good. All the little math rocks bringing their 30 hp of damage.
All the little math rocks bringing their 30 hp of damage.
Now that you mention it, that’s probably one of the best ways to teach the basics. It’s so much more fun when it’s roasting baddies as opposed to counting apples.
Hell yeah. I’m so much better at basic addition and subtraction now.
