Bad idea (AD&D):
Setting foot inside the Tomb of Horrors. Period. The reason that module came with pre-fab characters in the appendix was because Gygax at least had enough of a heart to provide you with an alternative to sending your beloved campaign regulars into that sadistic meat-grinder.
On the subject of the baddest AD&D "adventure" ever, this article is hilarious and spot on (adult language alert):
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/wtf-tomb-horrors.php?page=1
I can see why you don't like liches Jess and Mike I absolutely love that article, it is so true!!! I've just got my grandson playing AD&D, we've played a couple of times so far and he is really enjoying it. Maybe one day I'll get a party together and he can experience the Tomb of Horrors too, after all I don't see why the younger generations should get away unscathed.
Bad Idea (AD&D)
I was DMing a party who were entering into Hades after some Book and there were four characters and one chap (John) was playing a fighter of some sort and he had this ring of enlargement. Well here they were fighting on this narrow ledge at the entrance (or maybe exit) of some cave and he puts on this ring, grows up to something like hillgiant size and promptly knocks one of the party (Tim) off the ledge - bad idea. Obviously everyone had a real go at him for not thinking properly but they let him off. However it gets better because the fight finishes and they decide to rest up and get some curing sorted out when they get attacked again. The idiot only goes and does the same thing and knocks the same guy off the ledge, I thought that Tim was actually going to get up and punch John there and then.
now thats funny. i dont think anyone had ever physically assulted one of my players before...thrown things yes, but flat out punched one ne
Hm I'll post again l8r, tho the first thing that comes to mind is this.
(Party walking along) Me: Oh dear, we are surrounded by 8 flesh golems, what will we do?
Party Mage (PM): Don't worry, I have a spell specially prepared for times like these.
Me: Hm what is it?
PM: Oh, you'll like it. (Casts Chain Lightning)
If any of you don't know what chain lightning does to a group a flesh golems, it aint pretty. Needless to say, we transformed an easy win into a total party kill. next campaign we let that guy play a rogue.
vorpal swords get me and/or my players into bad spots
i had a group playing a power quest once. a power quest in our groups means magic items flow like ale in a dwarven tavern...anyway a runewarrior (i dont remember exactly the class was but he had a curse power) got an infection in his leg after an encounter with lobstosities (think steven king's "the drawing of three") the the fail healer couldnt treat the infection so it got worst. to the point where they decided to amputate the leg with the +3 vorpal sword the pscion was sporting. the guy with the bum leg had already rolled a few 1's for saving thorws and thats the reson the infection had taken hold and grown worse over time, well his luck continued to suck. the guy with the vorpal rolled a 1 when he wen to amputate the bad leg, he missed. we then rolled to see where his wild swing went to, guess what he hit the other leg. he then rolled a 20 to hit the good leg and severed it instantly. they still had to amputate the infected leg still. so he turned into a legless warrior and remained that way well into the higher levels. he was carted around in a wagon or rode the minotaur druid into battle.
That's brilliant it's moments like that which stay with you forever and make D&D such a great game. I guess it could have been worse, he could have chopped the guys head off.
Archbadger, I like the bit where the mage states that he has a spell prepared just for that sort of situation, was he suicidal or was his alignment chaotic stupid?
Hm well he wasn't role-playing very well (the character had a high intelligence, not the player). Nah, he really didn't bother to research his monsters i guess? Also bad was the druid convinced that undead were part of nature too and that we should play with them. She lost that vote and spent the adventure under a hold person from our caster to stop her from petting the zombies. Makes you wonder if either of them ever opened the Monster Manual?
Here's a bad luck story.
My friend was playing a high level fighter and was about to go into this tunnel (The Tunnel of Hate - not a nice place). Now little beknown to him there was some sort of trap (I think it was either a symbol or glyph of warding) at the entrance to the tunnel. He was down 3 hit points from a previous encounter but decided not to bother resting or getting healed but to boldly go forth (before anyone had checked the place out). He walked through the entrance, there was a blast, he was surprised, he failed his saving throw and took exactly 1 point below his maximum hits but because he hadn't been healed to full he died and plummeted down a steep stone staircase making an almighty noise and alerting the denizens of the dungeon. Fortunately there was a high level cleric in the party who was able to raise him but it was funny.
In a pathfinder campaign my friend was running we ended up running across a basilisk (forgive any spelling errors). The druid in our party promptly transformed into an eagle to do battle. That would be all fine and good if she hadn't failed her saving throw and turned to stone mid-flight. She fell to the ground and shattered...
Also, I don't if you guys know this singer, but he is awesome and does some really good dnd songs. Here is a link to a rather relavant one (it sounds better on the cd)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKUG_hzysSs
bad idea #1 i was playing a svirfneblin (deep gnome) fighter/thief 16/16 in an epic level quest (back in 2nd ed. long before epic rules were ever published)...we came into a room full of crystal skulls with ruby eyes, like 10 of em...i had never heard of a demi-lich before, but i learned quickly that they dont like having thier ruby eyes pried out with a vorpal short sword by a thieving little svirfneblin. on top of the fact that i had 10 lv25 demi-liches casting various nasty high lv spells on me, i had an insidious EVIL DM who thought that he'd have a good laugh with my stupidity...long story shortened up some, i ended up in the nine hells, polymorphed into a pink bunny, "insane with lust," and soul-bound some demon...ahhh good times.....
etc #1 i had this player, great guy, good player, fun to be aroud, but he was also kindda slow, often intoxicated, and spoke with a lisp. he was complaining one night that he didnt have a magical battle ax...but he kept saying magical battle ASS...an i knew what he wanted of course but i kept repeating "so you want a magical battle ass right" and he would comfirm "Yeths i wan a mashical battle ASS" so i made him role a % die...pow he rolled a 1...so i gave him a plaid, steel hooved, fanged magical attack doney...a magical battle ass! he wasnt amused much but everyone else got a good laugh out of it and he ended up using that donkey for very long time and it became its own little NPC/player companion.