Prank War
We’ve all been there. It’s third watch, everyone else is asleep, and no interesting random encounters are popping up on the chart. You’ve got all those useful ranks in Sleight of Hand though, and so you’ve got the resources to make your own entertainment. Why not see how many straws you can fit up the barbarian’s nose? Or sew that high falutin half-elf into her sleeping bag? Or apply a little prestidigitation (soil object) to all of the ranger’s smallclothes? Well as it turns out, there’s a very good reason not to do these things.
Prank wars have a way of escalating beyond the bounds of harmless fun. While the instigator might try any of the harmless shenanigans above, her victim will usually respond opportunistically. And since most of the game has to do with overcoming dangerous challenges (read: combat), that’s where the opportunity is likely to arise. Support type characters have the easiest time here. They simply withhold their usual buffs and heals, where other characters have to be a bit more direct. Magic users might “accidentally” catch you in the area of their fireballs, front liners might “accidentally” push a monster into your square, and sneaky types might “accidentally” push a dagger into your pancreas. And now we’ve graduated to full-on PVP because you thought it would be hilarious to store your bacon rashers in the bard’s tuba. (Although to be fair, if that tuba happens to be a horn of fog, bacon-scented fog banks are pretty amusing.)
How about you guys? Have you ever been involved in an intra-party prank war? How did it end up, and what was the best prank?
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I can’t be certain how good an idea it is, but I’ve got the idea to give our Soul Forger’s ox an elixir of Awaken Animal while he’s asleep one night. It’s discreet, it doesn’t require me to babysit the ox, and in one day’s time after ingestion, the fun begins.
I would think that it’s newfound sense of self awareness and intelligent may make it much more obstinate towards him, refusing to be used as a mount, and be much more reluctant to go into dangerous places… Like a volcano.
I’d like to do away with his oxen antics in my own little way… That is, if it doesn’t die first.
Now, have you known anyone for using Awaken Animal on another’s animal companion or mount to screw with it’s owner?
Solid! I can just picture the conversation.
PC: “Who’s a good ox? Is it you? Yes it is.”
Ox: “I do my best.”
PC: O_O
Be warned though. This would be a bit of a dick move if it were actually this guy’s animal companion (awakened animals can’t act as companions). Sounds like it’s just a random animal though, so I think you’re good to go.
The ox is not an actual Animal Companion, merely a PCs pet.
So “Awaken Animal” will not harm anybody’s class in this case. XD
The party druid did the Awaken Animal schtick on the fighter’s pet hedgehog in my current Reign of Winter campaign. It was done outside of the session, player to GM. No-one else had any idea what had happened. Cue the paranoia as everyone worried that Mr. Prickles had been possessed by demons!
Later, when the druid admitted it was them playing pranks and people had calmed down, there was talk of the fighter taking Leadership and making Mr. Prickles a cleric henchhog. Alas this was vetoed by one player who said it was “too silly!”
There’s a talking hedgehog. We done jumped the silly shark already.
I have one party that has been a prank war pretty much from day one, but ours has been entirely in good fun. It all started because we were being very silly on day one and it spiraled out of control. some highlights:
-The Fighter and Gunslinger had to run through the halls of the castle we are working in naked because they got hit by a teleport trap that left their clothes behind and the Oracle grabbed them.
-Our Oracle tried to trip the Fighter down the stairs at a major social function. Then the fighter Succeeded at tripping our Oracle down the stairs. He almost landed on the king of the realm.
-The Oracle and Fighter were arguing about possession of a key we had acquired and I dropped a sleep spell on both of them mid argument, grabbed the key, and went on my merry way to do the thing we came out to do.
-The Spiritualist helped an NPC write a series of romance novels about my character. And then convinced several castle maids that the Oracle and Fighter were “an item”.
(this prank war is still ongoing. the DM hasn’t stepped in yet but has said “no lethal force guys”.)
“No lethal force” seems like a pretty good ground rule. As for the romance novels, I think you need to demand your cut of the profits.
The most my players do is tease the dirty halfling with a bar of soap. That or tie up the wizard in an old mattress while he’s searching for hidden objects. I suppose using the party cleric has a projectile weapon could count but that was because she was a yellow pegasus and he was a very strong stallion with only a sword.
So how does a stallion wield a sword? Or a cleric for that matter?
My paladin had found a wand in a treasure chest. The alchemist pestered him for forever (the entire session. Refused to take no for an answer. it was irritating.) to let her see it so she could identify it. Eventually he gave her the wand. She identified it as a wand of hiccups. She cast it on my paladin before returning the wand to him. Great, now he has the hiccups. That would have been fine if it hadn’t been done literally 60 seconds before the main huge boss fight of this leg of the campaign. During the boss fight my paladin got encased in an orb of water and had to hold his breath. He’s a dwarf with an 18 constitution score so it wouldn’t have been a big deal had he not been hiccuping. Needless to say, after the boss fight was completed (my paladin had several broken ribs due to being crushed in a giant crab claw in addition to the whole drowning thing) I declared revenge.
A few weeks later I had to take a hiatus which was explained by the paladin taking a family vacation, and when I returned I brought gifts to the party. Everyone got fun and interesting trinkets. The alchemist got a picto-box camera thing. She was delighted and immediately took a selfie. The picto-box is cursed to give her a runny nose every time she uses it.
She swore revenge. We’ll see how that goes.
I hope the runny nose becomes plot-relevant. Maybe it drips while she’s trying to stealth or some such.
About a month after a pair of goblins joined the party, they tried to steal Fighter’s armor. They ran off wearing said armor in two pieces, one with the top and the other with the legs. The mage tried to stop them but “accidentally” turned the armor pink with red hearts. One goblin let out a Noxious Cloud spell so Fighter was chasing two goblins through a fart cloud to retrieve pink heart armor.
One Goblin had to leave though as the player’s schedule changed and couldn’t play anymore. We still have the other Goblin though.
Did the fighter exact revenge?
I honestly don’t remember.
One from the long, long ago times (1ed.)
The party was about 5th level. The party included a paladin, Rob. He was a pretty nice guy. Enjoyed looking good on his horse and staring into the distance looking noble. Party also included a rogue/wizard.
One day they got their hands on a scroll of Symbol of Stunning. A pretty good spell to have at that level. Mr. Rogue secretly inscribed the Symbol on the inside of Rob the Paladin’s visor.
The next day the party encounter a classic Black Knight sort of fellow guarding a bridge and saying “None shall pass.” Rob the Paladin said “I shall joust you for the right to pass this bridge.” He then snapped his visor down into place and fell sideways out of his saddle, stiff as a board.
What was the fallout like? Did the paladin have any way of figuring out what his “Ally” had done?