Forgotten Realms/Awesome

• Most of RA Salvatore's attempts at a Crowning Moment of Awesome for his characters come off seeming a little cheesy, but most of them still get at least really good one.
  • Drizzt: Proving that the parry, indeed, was wrong.
    • Defeating Ertuu the greater fiend in single combat.
  • Wulfgar: After coming Back from the Dead, effectively armwrestling a greater demon to a standstill.
  • Also, the part where he y'know, causes a man's skull to implode with his bare hands.
  • Bruenor: Setting himself on fire and riding a dragon down to the bottom of a chasm.
  • Catti-Brie: Blowing up Dropping a giant f*ing STALACTITE on the largest church of Lloth in Menzoberranzan.
  • Regis: Convincing a mage empowered by one of the most powerful artifacts in the world that he's under the mage's thrall...and that the mage's closest allies are plotting against him.
  • Jarlaxle: Pick a moment, any moment, but his manipulating a red dragon into incinerating a traitorous underling of his own might be one of the best.
    • Rai-guy: "Have you met my new friend, Jarlaxle?" (gestures at the illithid he's just dominated). Jarlaxle: "Indeed, and impressive. Have you met mine?" (gets out of the way of Hephastios' breat attack just in time)
    • It's both a CMOF and a CMOA-- For those who don't know, Jarlaxle regularly carries enough magical items to make a lich-king jealous, so when the poor halfling switched on Detect Magic-O-Vision, the resulting blast of color and light nearly blinded him... which is especially understandable if it stacked atop the drow's typical Rainbow Pimp Gear.
  • Entreri: Wrestling a sentient weapon (that had devoured numerous ex-owners) into submission with sheer willpower.
    • It's the proper way to do this. But still...
    • True, but usually you wait until you're not in the heat of battle to do it.
    • Apparently Entreri is sentient-weapon-takeover-proof. It's not a bad thing to be.
    • Let's not forget when he took down a Dracolich. Bonus points for style.
  • Obould starts racking these up after being blessed by Gruumsh. Beating the leader of the frost giants in singles combat,cutting an elf who Drizzt considered an equal in half, swatting Wulfgar aside with minor effort, resisting a sentient sword's attempt to dominate his will, and matching Drizzt blade for blade while fighting naked. His defining CMOA, however, came just after that. A drow priestess interupted the fight by blowing up the hill he and Drizzt were fighting on, presumed Obould dead, and proceeded to insult him without realizing he was directly behind her. He grabs her by the hair, rips her throat out with his teeth, and spits it back into her face as she dies.
  • Cadderly, a young cleric of Denir, spends most of the first two books of the Cleric's Quintet doing no magic whatsoever. His god, Deneir appreciates people who think and not those that blindly praise him. Finally an ally with a trident in his belly saves Cadderly and the prince from Death. Cadderly had to hold in his friend's guts to keep them from spilling out as he yelled at Deneir in rage, then his fingers were pushed away by the mending skin.
  • Nanfoodle the gnome alchemist managed to cause what might be the largest controlled explosion in the Realms. Without using any magic. Even Elminster's absolute best fireball, considered the largest to that point, could not compare. It completely annihilated a mountain ridge and the shock wave knocked over two armies. He used natural gas to cause the explosion, in case you were wondering.
• Paul S. Kemp's books also have Crowning Moment of Awesome in them.
  • For instance, after Jak dies near the end of The Twilight War books, Cale proceeds to cast every single buffing spell in his arsenal, takes one of the Death Slaads responsible for Jak's death to the Shadow Plane, and proceeds to pummel the Slaad with his fists. As the big finish, he's sitting on top of the Slaad jamming his thumbs into the thing's eyes, scrambling his brains! Meanwhile ignoring all pain the Slaad's claws cause as they desperately slash into Cale. Then, Cale goes back to the stolen temple of Cyric, after having torn off the Slaad's head, and throws it at the other Slaad! Next: he rips that Slaad's head in half! And if that's not enough, Cale bearhugs The Sojourner to death while one of the spells the Soujourner has cast on himself reciprocates that damage on Cale! Finally, despite Cale not going through with the resurrection, both he and Riven swear to Mask that if he doesn't provide Cale the power to resurrect, they will kill every. Single. Priest. Of. The God's! ALL OF THEM! And Mask gives him the power!
  • Riven also has his moments. Specifically when he and Cale go to rescue Elden Corrinthal, the only son of Abelar Corrinthal, from Malkur Forrin's army. They find the toddler in the tent of a Talos Priest, severely beaten and tied to the ground to four stakes. To make it an even bigger Moral Event Horizon moment, the kid is retarded. Cale teleports out with the boy, but not before casting a silence spell on the sleeping priest so Riven can have a "discussion" with the man. Riven wakes up the man, proceeds to beat the snot out of him, then heals the guy's wounds so he can do it again! For his Coup de Grace, Riven slowly thrusts a spear through the priest's stomach and leaves him to die bathing in his own shit and blood.
• The Moonshae Trilogy effectively had Tristan and his group taking on Bhaal, God of Murder.
  • Canthus vs. the werewolf. That is all.
• Elaith Craulnober is a walking magnet for such things. Both Elaine Cunningham and Ed Greenwood gave him CMOA/CMOF whenever it's not another character's (mostly Danilo or Laeral) turn.
  • In Silverfall he only appears briefly which does not prevents great show-off and he still got to crack the final one-liner, as well as phrases like...

Elaith: If I desired my little empire of sewers to be full of goddesses, archwizards, and Chosen of Mystra, I'd have invited them.

• Lhaeo. It's hard to tell what Khelben expected from him proclaiming that now he's called, it's time for the Rightful King Returns as opposed to "hiding behind the beard of the Old Goat". But apparently did not expected to see all his chronic vices briefly summed up, washed in vitriol and handed to him. Including the fact that he, obviously, stolen the Royal Regalia he so grandly offered to the would-be king. Lhaeo obviously knew exactly who and what Blackstaff is and still flattened a semidivine being playing the hand of destiny. Awesome Moment of Crowning can wait, but Crowning Moment of Awesome should never be missed (he got both). Khelben later even apologized for the "theft" in writing... hiding behind "Mystra's grace", of course. With "Your Majesty" and all. ^[1]
  • Lhaeo had originally been willing to entirely skive off the job until Khelben arrived to shame him into it, even Sylune agreed that it was the opportune strategic time to try for a reconquista of Tethyr (when before it would not have been feasible), and returning aleady-stolen property to its rightful owner is not theft. But Khelben's role is to be the Butt Monkey in any plot involving Elminster (just take a gander at The Fall of Myth Drannor for a hilarious example), so, not surprising it happened.
• From the game Demon Stone, also penned by Salvator, we get the Stand at Mithril Hall, where Drizzt, the fighter Rannek, the mage Illius, and the rogue Zhai, annihilate the troll clan responsible for destroying Nesme.
• At the end of the novel Crusade, King Azoun IV of Cormyr faces Yamun Khahan in single combat. That's right: the fate of all Faerun is decided in a one-on-one fight to the death between King Arthur and Genghis Khan.

1. ↑ Lands of Intrigue, freely available.