So I have been playing D&D for 12 years and out of all the characters I have made none of them so far have outshined the very first 3.5 character I had ever played. His name was Gimble "Irontoe" Girrick. He had the name irontoe because of the iron toe boots he wore. My dungeon master hated Gimble because he was a gnome artificer. He had this belief that gnomes were only good for punting while artificer was nothing more than a shopkeeper class.
I really wanted to play Gimble but my dungeon master was reluctant till I agreed to his terms of if I did not like the character after the first four games, I was allowed a reroll character. I was excited as well as determined to play gimble out to his fullest potential.
Gimble was a kind-hearted soul with a with attitude to back up his vengeful streak if you angered him.
The first 4 levels were hard but with a little tinkering know-how, I was able to make many nonmagical things with Gimble, one such item that impressed the dungeon master was Kindness. The party got the pun when I revealed that Kindness was a double light crossbow that I liked to load with bolts that had random alchemy mixtures Gimbles little mad scientist mind could brew or was allowed to brew.
When we had reached level 13 the party stopped at a tavern to rest for the night but when my fighter friend decided she wanted to be part of the arm-wrestling contest that is when all 5 of my Alchemist Savant prestige class came into good use.
The rules were simple: none may be permitted into the contest if they were wearing a magic item or had a spell cast on them that made said contestant stronger. One of Gimble's specialties was writing scrolls. I am a writer so the wordplay was obvious.
I handed my fighter friend two potions of bull strength, this raised her strength from 19 to 27! I smiled like a cheshire cat when I told my fighter friend that the vials I gave her were just some liquid courage for the contest. Each had a combine duration of 6 minutes. That was all she needed to win most of her matches.
The Dungeon Master stopped and asked her why she was able to take down a goliath 2 times bigger than her, she just simply said "Gimble gave me liquid courage for the matches, why?" he sent me a scowl that would make any character wet themselves.
He proceeded to tell me magic items or spells were not allowed in the contest. I sarcastically mocked him while roleplaying gimble by saying, "Ummm actually, you said I could not cast a spell on her which I did not but also I did nothing to her equipment to make it magical as that is my specialty. Potions are consumable items I do not believe I heard anything about having a simple drink before the matches."
Dungeon masters face showed the shock at the fact that I was right, man I just love wordplay. After that day we continued our quest but I can say right now that dungeon master told me after that game that I had built an interesting gnome. I was proud until he decided to try and get rid of gimble by summoning up the tarrasque about 3 levels later! He told us it was not revenge. He just wanted to see if the group could take on a real threat.
Now at this point, I was freaking out because I was not sure of what to do. Then I had an idea! I told the dungeon master that I use my ring of astral vision to see what is in the current location. Dungeon master rolls a dice saying there are two things, an astral dragon as well as an astral dreadnaught! I think he was saying this because I had boots of astral jumping but that was not my plan. An evil smile spread across my face.
I ask the group to keep the tarrasque distracted while I rig something up. Dungeon master was thinking that I was going to run. He should have known Gimble as well as myself better than that. I asked my fighter friend to tie rocks to the top and bottom of the straps of the extra bag of holding that I had made as a friends birthday present in-game while I started tying a portable hole to one of my crossbow bolts.
My dungeon master went from smiling to a grim face saying no.
"Oh yes mister dungeon master, as an artificer I have a high enough arcana and planes check to know what this is about to do," I said as I hoped to roll for the best and prepared for the worse.
Fighter friend throws the bag, she rolls with the 27 strength after I gave her liquid courage again. 19 on the dice! Oh yeah! That will get the bag where I want it. I pull out my bolt of long-range, load it, then shoot. Dice lands on a natural 20! Bolt successfully flys right into the bag of holding.
The thing about this bag of holding was that it is a type 4 bag of holding. The friend I made it for loved collecting things, so I made her a bag big enough to hold everything she wanted.
Rules in this game were that if a bag of holding is destroyed in this way, the size of the portal created is much bigger if the bag's space inside is. This was a pretty large gate. Tarrasque is given a save due to its sheer size. Dice rolls then we all watch as the dungeon master huffs lowering his head. Dice roll was a natural 1.
Both Gimble in-game, as well as I the player, let out a sigh of relief. The tarrasque is resistant but with a natural 1 the astral dreadnought reaches out and grabs its leg yanking it into the astral plane. The party is thankful that I was able to pull that one off then takes gimble to a nearby tavern where we all get a lot of ale. Mine is made into basically flavored water because I use some alchemy pills to change the alcohol to water.
When we took our break that we always have in the middle of the game the dungeon master pulled me aside to where the group could not hear him talking to me.
"I want to tell you I was wrong about your character and that I apologize for doubting your ability to build what I was thinking to be the most worthless build in the entire game," he said to me with a smile. "To be honest, your character is the first gnome I have warmed up to due to our lack of a wizard. You have played him much differently than a lot of other players and I like that."
I just look at him and said "I rarely play anything by the books honestly, I just wanted to play what I think would be fun." that was the only time I ever had a dungeon master say that to me while admitting they changed their mind about what they thought about my character.
[zombify_post]
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