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Lord Afro
2010-08-06, 04:17 PM
Has anyone ever given their characters' life in a dnd game? And how did it work out, RP wise?

Aroka
2010-08-06, 04:22 PM
My paladin stayed behind to fly circles around the clumsy maneuverability red dragon (that was so far above our level it was ridiculous) with his good maneuverability pegasus mount while the other PCs fled to warn the nearby village to evacuate and spread the word. He was incinerated and we were way too poor to ever afford resurrection.

arrowhen
2010-08-06, 04:40 PM
I *should* have, but the DM made up a stupid houserule on the spot to keep me alive, despite my strenuous objections.

AustontheGreat1
2010-08-06, 04:45 PM
I got two:

This ones not about me personally, but a friend of mine in a d20 modern game we were playing a while back. In the game the premise was basically we were mages and using a spell point system. On top of the points received daily, we could also sacrifice some of our own life force to give us more or increase our power. Our group was totally out numbered and out gunned by a pack of tommy gun wielding henchmen. In a fit of desperation, the guy sacrificed his life to increase his caster level enough to summon a horde of ghaele to defeat the mooks. It was both heroic and inspiring.

This one involves a game I was playing in before that one, it was my first 4th Ed. game, and the premise was we were the chosen ones, and were destined to decide the outcome of a great war between the people who lived on the surface of the world, and the "god" society that lived in the sky. We had gotten ourselves into the surface world stronghold (I don't recall how) and discovered that they planned to fire a missile filled with a hyper-deadly toxic gas (essentially, no save - die) at the sky people. We immediately engaged them (we weren't necessarily rooting for the sky folks, we just weren't huge fans of mass genocide) the fight was going along terribly, we were completely out numbered and things looked grim.

It was actually a really cool moment, really dramatic. The guy described it as thus. "I take aim at the tank containing the gas, then I wait." he looked around at all of us as we each solemnly nodded our consent. We then spent the last turns of our lives holding the ground people off until he could take the shot on his next turn. The gas filled the ground people kingdom's capital, killing everyone in the facility and stopping the missile and essentially crippling the surface world military.

Swordgleam
2010-08-06, 09:58 PM
Oh yeah. Sort of. Depending on what you mean by self-sacrifice.

It was tri-stat dX, but I assume that's close enough. It was an urban fantasy game. Our party was an illusionist (me), a healer, and a (sporadically incompetent) assassin. My character was close friends with the healer and looked on the assassin as something of an annoying, danger-prone little sister.

We were supposed to be protecting this NPC from these fanatically religious diamond-pelted lizards. He'd trespassed on their holy ground, so they wanted to kill him. He offered to help the healer out of some legal trouble if we protected him. My character saw this as him blackmailing the party to protect him from his own sacreligious dumbassery, and was not a fan. She mostly tagged along to protect the other two.

My character got herself kidnapped by a lizard and taken to their ice caves. She was replaced by a lizard shapeshifter, who pushed the assassin into a lake and then teleported the assassin, healer, and NPC to the ice caves.

The assassin, who has a little pyro magic, uses a flame to thaw out her gun and tries to shoot the lizard shapeshifter. She shoots once. Nothing happens. The gun's been soaked, frozen, and thawed with an open flame. Shoots again. Nothing.

At this point I should mention that the gun was full of her brand new explosive ammo. Shoots again. Nothing.

Shoots again. There are now pieces of assassin all over the healer. The NPC is some kind of useless demi-god of teleporting, so he ports the stunned and traumatized healer back home, then starts hopping around the caves looking for my character so that someone competent can save his scrawny hide.

Meanwhile, my character has broken out of the cave where they were holding her and is wandering around the place. She only has a few hit points and a couple daggers at the moment, but that's never stopped her before. She manages to stumble onto the lizards' holy ground, goes "uh-oh," and keeps looking for the rest of party.

The NPC finds her. It is then he makes the very worst and last mistake of his life: He tells her, "The assassin is dead. Let me get you out of here before the lizards kill you."

My character sees the world in a way that's a little different from most. What she heard was, "My selfish blackmail and idiocy just got your friend killed, after you promised to protect her with your life. And now you have no more reason to protect me."

Despite knowing that Mr. useless teleporting demi-god is her only way out of the ice caves, my character proceeds to stab him to death.

She finishes just as a squadron of lizards finds her. They seem to approve. But she knows they're going to kill her anyway, since she did trespass on their holy ground. She's not too upset, but she does ask after her healer friend. The lizards respond, "We won't kill a healer. Our god is a god of life." Then they stab my character through the heart.

Turns out their god of life was generous to people who avenge trespasses, so my character woke up good as new on the ground next to the healer. Who assumed she was a ghost or zombie and very nearly shot her. The assassin did come back as a ghost. The three of us then proceeded to take a leisurely vacation in the Forest of Everything Hates Undead. But that's a story for another time.