The Holy Grail: Making Your Epic & Crazy DM Ideas Work in a Game

Greetings gamers from all systems, places and timelines. 

In our most recent episode, we discussed some of the craziest things we’ve done over the years in our games. Unfortunately, we ran out of time. Knowing I had a lot of material coming into that episode, Dave prompted me to write something up.

Let me start with a warning: I am, and have always been, a DM who wants the party to do crazy, super, heroic things like they are living out scenes from mythology. Even lower-level characters can be extremely heroic as long as they stay in their weight class. I mean, just how many times can a new party clean out the goblins from a copper mine or do a town module and not be bored to tears?

But I digress.

Some of my stories have multiple inspirations, from pop culture to classical tales and legends. The one thing they all have in common is that they will go extremely out-of-bounds in terms of the rules as written for that particular game system.

With that said, if your crazy meter isn’t maxed out yet for the day, here is one those stories from back in the day… 

The Tale of Sir Thomas & the Quest for the Holy Grail

For some context, this was from a campaign set in the World of Greyhawk for 2nd Edition AD&D.

Sir Thomas was a 20th level Paladin who had slain dragons, banished demons, won grand tournaments and saved a princess who wasn’t in another castle (shout-out to my Super Mario Bros. peeps!) But that wasn’t enough and, like Freddie Mercury, he wanted it all.

He planned to do something that countless other great knights who came before him had died trying to accomplish, a goal that he had set when he was but a mere 2nd level squire: To find the Holy Grail. This quest was simply not a module. Rather, it was part of the fabric of my campaign – clues to the final resting place of the Grail had been left throughout it, so the mystery of its location could only be solved in its final chapter. 

Once he had assembled all of the clues, Thomas (who I conceptualized as a cross between a young Indiana Jones and Richard the Lionheart ) took up this last quest alone. This journey took him to an enormous cave – a cave that was the lair of the largest red dragon EVER in my entire game universe. (He was nearly as big as Fyrillicus from the Throne of Bloodstone, if anyone gets that reference.)

A Dragon Worthy of the Grail

Regardless, this red dragon was incredibly outside the range of stats for that system. I have been called the king of analogies, so here’s one to describe this dragon in terms of cars. Let’s say, by the rules, the meanest red dragon in 2nd edition AD&D is a 2020 Lexus LX. The dragon I put Sir Thomas up against was the actual Batmobile!

Sir Thomas had dice hotter than the dragon’s breath and the kind of gear that they just stopped making after 2nd Edition, both of which sealed the fate of this epic boss monster. 

However, it was only half time. 

The Epic Mirror Match: PC vs. NPC

I placed him up against one of my favorite styles of challenges that I’ve discussed in previous episodes: the Mirror Challenge. Before he could claim the grail, he had to face an evil version of himself from a parallel universe.

Thomas had slightly better armor while his evil twin had a slightly superior weapon, but they were both, essentially, evenly matched. 

Now, this is where the rubber really hit the road with this encounter, because I have this really nasty habit of rolling all the dice on the table for all to see. At the climax of the battle, the doppelganger (who happened to be using a Vorpal sword) rolled a natural 19. This meant two things: Sir Thomas had an opportunity to parry the attack, but since the doppelganger’s sword was better than his own, Thomas would need to roll a natural 20 to successfully parry. If he didn’t, he would receive lethal damage, since a roll like that with a Vorpal sword leads to decapitation!

In this horrifying moment, I saw a two-plus year campaign come to a crashing and tragic end. However, on the table in plain view, with no shenanigans, Sir Thomas rolled a natural 20 on the parry. I kind of just looked at it for a minute in disbelief. I can only imagine that his evil, otherworldly doppelganger felt the same way. Thomas then cut down his evil counterpart and, after choosing wisely, became the only knight in any of our games to claim this artifact of legend. 

What D&D Powers Would the Holy Grail Grant?

So, was that the crazy part? Not entirely. I haven’t discussed the powers he was given from drinking from the grail.

I started with the fundamentals you would imagine: restored youth, immortality (I mean no big deal there, right?), immunity from all status effects … By 5E standards, he would have been invulnerable to any and all conditions (aside from physical restraints like being grappled, restrained, etc.). 

Has anyone else claimed or had someone in their campaign claim the Holy Grail?

What powers did it have? How would you assign powers to this artifact of legend? 

I would love to hear what you think in the comments below.