it just keeps killing them!

[big teej]

greetings playgrounders,

I had an epiphany the other day.

every time I use creature x, PCs die (or come close to it)

I found this rather humerous, and pointed it out to all of my players, they agreed with my observation.

they disagreed with my resolution to use more of creature X. :smallwink:

so, I'm curious.


what creatures have you thrown against your players that consistently proves highly lethal/dangerous to the party?


mine is Orcs with class levels, which account for all 3 of the PC deaths I have caused as a DM

whats yours?


tl;dr
what specific creature do you use that consistently kills PCs?

[BillyBobJoe]

Two Words:

Sha-

Dows

That is all.

[Everest]

While I have had roughly thirty or so character deaths in the little over a year that I've DMed (one of the many reasons I'm a horrible DM), I don't think they've ever been by the same monsters.

Though there is a recurring theme of one of these players feeling insulted when a character stronger than them happens to be insulting him, and summarily getting demolished. Knowing that the other character was stronger.

[Ursus the Grim]

Yeah, for me the issue is class levels too. Even with NPC stats and WBL, I tend to build characters that are more effective than the players. I estimated what would happen if the party took on one of my NPCs, the lieutenant to the BBEG and realized that despite it being a fair fight, they would lose two, if not all of the group.

I have to consciously force myself to decide the build based entirely on fluff.

[Ksheep]

In one campaign I played in, we kept having run-ins with tigers, both normal and dire. One character (the druid) died twice because of them, and several others got close to dying. We all feared tigers above all else due to that.

Ironically, we kept finding tiger-skin couches in the loot for various dungeons.

[terminusdrop321]

Chokers.

any kinds seems to kill my players because they don't look up.

[opticalshadow]

two particular ones,

first is anything that can grapple well with reach.

and the other, which has caused a death nearly every time used , was a creature with the ability to force the pcs to fight each other (such as dominate ever bribery once)

i think the mind control one gets me the most, it has been a clear weakness to the teams, but only for their lack of creativity or preperation. i like to toss them at combat oriented groups that like to maximize for killing. it shwos them how open they are. from what i can tell none of the casters liek to learn or prepare disable spells, or buffs their saves, and no one else really comes up with better solution then to ignore them or knock them unsonsis and hope they dont bleed out.


i dont do it often, it just makes me scratch my brain, my casters ALWAY have disable spells, i cant imagine why my players dont use them.

[Avalon2099]

10 foot pits of determinable and sometimes indeterminable depth.

The first time my party ran into a pit, one fell in, the party Dwarf Fighter grabbed some rope and lowered it into the pit with the Barbarian spotting him, Barbarian failed strength check with a 1 to hold onto the dwarf when the Human Rogue tried to climb the rope, Dwarf failed reflex save and fell into pit, landing on rogue who also fell from 30 feet, then the Dwarf decided to attack a rope to a crossbow bolt and shoot it up, rolled a 1 and hit the barbarian in the chest (Who was already wounded from a previous hard combat) and knocked out, didnt fall in at the time, but when the Dwarf pulled on the rope pulled the Barbarian into the pit landing on them, at this point the other PC was a Cleric was Picard Facepalming. 3 PC's had died to a 50 foot pit.

Then recently, in "Expedition to Undermountain" the group came across the 'Curtain of Darkness' on the first level, the first PC managed to test with a weapon that there infact was a drop off, and decided (assumed) it was 10 feet across and figured they could jump it. The curtain of darkness obscured not only vision but sound as well. So the first PC jumps into the darkness but when he jumped in he was clotheslined by a immovable rods positioned in the darkness at running jump height. Thus was knocked into a 10 foot pit, no death but was swarmed by Beholderkin. So the next PC (not knowing what happened to the first) also jumped in and also hit the immovable rods, fell in and was also swarmed, the only one that made it across unscathed was the Gnome Cleric, who was short enough to miss the rods. Suffice it to say my party fears pits... more than ANYTHING...

[Divide by Zero]

Kobolds. Oh, the kobolds :smallbiggrin:

[Hiro Protagonest]

Kobolds. Oh, the kobolds :smallbiggrin:

Oh No! It's Tucker's kobolds! And they have class levels!

[Alleran]

The sphere of annihilation in Tomb of Horrors. It became a running joke.

See, the group all went into it and died on their first run-through.

Then they built new characters and came back for a second go. And all walked into it again. And died.

So they did it a third time.

And then they all died again.

Now, any time they run into something dark that they can't see through, they pull out spare character sheets or whatever resurrection clause they've managed to get for themselves. Just in case.

[Delcor]

mine is Orcs with class levels, which account for all 3 of the PC deaths I have caused as a DM

whats yours?




similarly the only PC death in our campaign so far (Me :smalltongue:) was dealt by an orc with class levels

but the reoccuring near death causer for my party is definately demons, or anything that can tenticle rape :smalleek:

[Herabec]

*insert any creature that deals CON damage*

Erm..

But really, the bane of my players appears to be Wizards.

Particularly, Wizard with Scorching Ray. Somehow, they don't find getting crit by three rays for 24d6 damage entertaining.

[Soranar]

Kobolds. (happens way too often)

Ghasts, the make a fort save every turn usually gets them before they can finish them off.

Golems (not something you want to run into when they forgot the tank).

[kardar233]

Grues.

I mean seriously; if you're going into a pitch black area, at least bring a damn lantern! Lots of light-sensitive enemies underground, so a good thing to have.

[LansXero]

Rakshasas. Not kill them, mind you, but making them run, which leaves them dead inside :(

[Crossblade]

Those D*mn Crabs.

[Morph Bark]

I have seen two characters in the same party hit the negatives three times in a row in the same encounter all due to a tree. If it weren't for a summoned unicorn...

On the other end, there have been surprisingly few PC deaths in my campaigns, but when they happen, fiends tend to be involved. Though usually it is also some PC stupidity, like the one time one of them got hit by flamestrike while having over 9000 explosive pieces of paper in his backpack (to be precise, it was 9994).

[Coidzor]

While I have had roughly thirty or so character deaths in the little over a year that I've DMed (one of the many reasons I'm a horrible DM), I don't think they've ever been by the same monsters.

Though there is a recurring theme of one of these players feeling insulted when a character stronger than them happens to be insulting him, and summarily getting demolished. Knowing that the other character was stronger.

Why would you keep doing that? :smallconfused: That just sounds so... boring... I mean, maybe once or twice, but getting up into the 30s in slightly over a year means that's about half of your sessions. @_@

[LordBlades]

We have a player that keeps dying to hydras. Regardless of whatever he's playing and whatever the circumstances, whenever he gets around hydras things turn nasty for him.

Last week's session(playing a DFI Bard) he almost died because one of my Dread Necro's pet Zombie Hydras got hit with a Command Undead and before I could do anything about it was ordered to charge him(as he was nearest) and dropped him to 2 HP from full health.

[Lonely Tylenol]

and the other, which has caused a death nearly every time used , was a creature with the ability to force the pcs to fight each other (such as dominate ever bribery once)

This is the only thing that's outright killed a member under my (very brief) tutelage as a DM--other players. Party walks into a dirt arena with no opponents, and suddenly everything starts to feel tingly. Two of the players made their Will save, but the forsaker barbarian (who had the best Will save) rolled a natural 1--only way he could have failed the save, really--and his SR wasn't high enough to overcome the spell, so he charges the sorcerer full speed, only to have the cleric (who's Large and buffed to the teeth) intervene. He ends up hitting the Cleric, who bops him over the head a few times with his large heavy mace (hooray redundancies), at which point he begins focusing on the cleric (who is in his way). Per the rules of the encounter, he got a new save for changing targets, and passed with flying colors, at which point I told him, "you no longer feel magically compelled to attack your companions, though your head feels like it's been beaten in a bit." He looks at the cleric, who's standing over him with a mace, and says, "I'm going to go all-out on him." Full attacks with full power attack, hits twice, knocking the Cleric into negatives (something like -6 HP). The Sorcerer intervenes with a maximized Orb of Cold (SR no, no save to half damage) and kills him.

I asked him what compelled him to do that, to which he responded, "I'm chaotic neutral." I responded, "but you're chaotic good!"

Anyway, they brought him back, and I have since vowed never to let him play an actual chaotic neutral character without good reason (since he had thrown in a DMPC who was actually a PC that went untouched due to absences at the beginning of the adventure into a Prismatic Wall to test it out, after which he was knocked unconscious by the electricity, killed by the poison, turned to stone, and then winked out of existence; I explained to the party that, should they ever need his service, his body was in the Elemental Plane of Fire, and his soul was in Mechanus).

[WeeFreeMen]

Kobolds. Seriously, I use the same tactic every-time and my PCs have yet to defeat them.

Kobold Scouts + Kobold Sorcerers/Warlocks + Kobold Marshal = 12 PC Deaths last year.

I cant even credit it to the PC levels because they rarely get more than 2 CLs
Kolbold Scout Skirmish is an evil evil evil thing when used in tight spaces. Last time they ran into them, the Cleric simply ran, left the party outright. He was the only player in that campaign that had seen them before tho :smallwink:

[Knaight]

Its always other player characters. Not when mind controlled, not when legitimately fighting, no, its careless friendly fire, or bringing an overwhelming force down upon themselves, or abandoning injured allies every time.

[Drascin]

Banshraes.

It helps that I tend to play them as musical Skull Kid kobolds, ie, luring people to traps, using those darts from the shadows, and etcetera. You'd think that after the first time someone would put a decent amount of points in spot, but no.

[Undercroft]

Horrid Rats, straight out the eberron campaign setting book. My one player usually does massive damage and tears through most of the encounters (the other player is healer/support), but whenever they encounter rats she seems to have a hard time with them.

really strange :P

[TheCountAlucard]

So they did it a third time.

And then they all died again.Why is it that I get the impression that this group, had they been born as cows, would've been electrocuted, the thought never occurring in their heads to move away from the electric fence? :smallamused:

I kid, I kid. :smalltongue: Actually, I've not had much in the way of PC deaths, really, though the most notable of them have been at the hands of other PCs. :smalltongue:

[Ravens_cry]

Two Words:

Sha-

Dows

That is all.
By the end of one campaign, I hated shadows. Hated with a burning hate that knew no bound nor end. Seriously, d6 strength damage is horrible. Especially with the exception to the general rules that been dropped to zero strength this way not only killed you but almost all characters would become a shadow under the shadows control.
Darn you shadows, darn you to heck.:smallfurious:

[Big Fau]

Adamantine Horror. As written.

[Delcor]

Adamantine Horror. As written.

Ok I've read the stats on adamantine horror, what kind of sadistic DM would throw that at you? Something that can cast Disintigrate and Implosion at will is not CR 9, no wonder your party would continuosly die to them.

[Big Fau]

Ok I've read the stats on adamantine horror, what kind of sadistic DM would throw that at you? Something that can cast Disintigrate and Implosion at will is not CR 9, no wonder your party would continuosly die to them.

The kind who plays FATAL.

[Sdonourg]

Ghouls almost always kill some of PCs if I am DMing.

[Everest]

Why would you keep doing that? :smallconfused: That just sounds so... boring... I mean, maybe once or twice, but getting up into the 30s in slightly over a year means that's about half of your sessions. @_@

It's often legitimately unexpected, and I have little choice but to follow through, lest I be accused of copping out. And there have, overall, been near-entirely different circumstances going from incident to incident.

There are plenty of reasons. It is most often either player stupidity (see the attacking a reputably-powerful NPC over some insult to their honor, though I've become more wary of that since those two incidents; but this is a player who puts too much stock in his twisted sense of honor, and most players would know better, I hope) or my overestimating them. And sometimes battles just plain don't go well.

I might also be overestimating the number of deaths, on account of how many there've been.

But on more than one occasion, I've had a non-tank character go trying to be the big tough guy up front because they won initiative; this has led to such wondrous things as a druid charging at a troll and summarily getting torn apart. It's worth noting that the players were level 5, thus the druid had wild shape, but did he use it to at least turn into a leopard or something, to get a bunch of attacks off against the troll, or buff himself up, or maybe summon up an animal to get in the troll's way and distract it? Nope. Just went right in there with his little scimitar. It was a new player, but I expect new players especially to do some reading on what their own stinkin' characters can do. In this scenario, he had it coming, I say. And sometimes they charge groups of enemies and get surrounded, and out of those times, the enemies aren't always the kind to assume that a downed person is dead or not a threat.

Another time, we were in an eight-on-eight tournament (4th edition) against drow and driders. They rolled better, they overwhelmed us, some died, and we were forced to forfeit.

So, to make this into an on-topic post, I'd say what has killed my players most often are bullheaded decisions and lack of basic tactics or balance, but it often is my fault for going too hard on them. But this is a group of fairly-close friends, so there are no grudges held or anything. I wouldn't DM how I do with people I don't know as well. Indeed, I've run a game where I managed not to kill anyone. It was a short game, but I applied more discretion, even if it meant less interesting encounters sometimes.

[subject42]

Anything with class levels is incredibly dangerous to my players, with the worst being small groups that complement each other.

I've never had a full TPK before, but I've come darn close once and another time we had one player dead and another player in the negatives before the threat was down.


The first was a party of goblins that were sniping from the woods as the party was crossing a bridge. One of the goblins was trying to cut the rope supports holding up the bridge. Rather than focus on that threat, or just try to sprint across the bridge, the players stood in the middle of the bridge and took pot shots at the goblins that were under cover and concealment. When the bridge finally snapped, they slammed into the side of the cliff, barely hanging on.

One of the characters took a stunning critical (we use a crit deck) and fell off into the water below, while another PC jumped off to rescue him. The rescuer was wearing heavy armor and rapidly became a second victim. The party ranger got them out, but they had exactly one round to spare before the drowning rules kicked in.



The second one was when the party led an assault on a mighty Ogre warchief. When they approached his chamber, the d4-hitdie, 12 CON sorcerer said "I'LL TAKE POINT". Everyone agreed that this was a splendid idea.

(Note that they had heard the warchief screaming orders and they had killed a few enemies who had run out the door, so they knew that he was in their somewhere.)

When he walked in the door, everyone failed their spot check to see the warchief barbarian in the shadows and the sorcerer ate a charging critical hit from a raging barbarian while flat footed. He ended up at something like -40 HP from that attack and I had to describe it as him simply getting split in half from the crown of his head to his pelvis. After that, the barbarian was loose amongst a party of casters and fight proceeded on predictable lines. One other PC was unconscious and most of them were at low health before somebody succeeded on a save or die.




So far the moral of my story is "don't let NPCs score critical hits, or if they do, use max damage rather than a multiplier".

[big teej]

So far the moral of my story is "don't let NPCs score critical hits, or if they do, use max damage rather than a multiplier".

I didn't see anything wrong on your end, why make their lives easier? :smallconfused:

[subject42]

I didn't see anything wrong on your end, why make their lives easier? :smallconfused:

I guess you have a point there. After the goblin encounter I stopped using the crit deck for NPCs, but I in retrospect there's only so much you can do as a DM.

A d20 can be a harsh mistress sometimes.

[big teej]

.

A d20 can be a harsh mistress sometimes.

which is something every gamer accepts the moment they sit down at the table.

[Coidzor]

It's often legitimately unexpected, and I have little choice but to follow through, lest I be accused of copping out. And there have, overall, been near-entirely different circumstances going from incident to incident.

...I think you need to take your group aside and have a little talk with them, then. :smalleek:

[Everest]

...I think you need to take your group aside and have a little talk with them, then. :smalleek:

Probably. Though it's sure as heck not going to be a "little" talk, if I do have it. Not that I wish to imply that I'm blameless.

[Andorax]

The sphere of annihilation in Tomb of Horrors. It became a running joke.

See, the group all went into it and died on their first run-through.

Then they built new characters and came back for a second go. And all walked into it again. And died.

So they did it a third time.

And then they all died again.

How in the nine Hells did you get a group to reroll and return, not once, but TWICE to the Tomb of Horrors in close succession?

I TPKed a party on that sphere myself. It ended that campagin, bought me one of my few breaks as DM in years, and has resulted in an outright unilaterial ban on my even MENTIONING it as a possible adventuring destination.

[Arbane]

How in the nine Hells did you get a group to reroll and return, not once, but TWICE to the Tomb of Horrors in close succession?

I TPKed a party on that sphere myself. It ended that campagin, bought me one of my few breaks as DM in years, and has resulted in an outright unilaterial ban on my even MENTIONING it as a possible adventuring destination.

"The Tomb of Horrors isn't a hack and slash adventure, it's an intelligence test. And if you decide to go in, YOU FAILED."

[BillyBobJoe]

By the end of one campaign, I hated shadows. Hated with a burning hate that knew no bound nor end. Seriously, d6 strength damage is horrible. Especially with the exception to the general rules that been dropped to zero strength this way not only killed you but almost all characters would become a shadow under the shadows control.
Darn you shadows, darn you to heck.:smallfurious:

My favorite character died by shadows. He was level one, because he had LA 1, and he was a Hexblade with an Elven Courtblade. Two people out of our group of 8 had any ability to damage it at all, and that was the Incarnate with his incarnate weapon, and the sorcerer who spammed Magic Missile. Mostly, that was my own stupidity that killed me though. I cast Light on my sword, thinking that it would make the Shadows run away. It turns out, they were attracted to light, and ran me down and strength drained me to death, and then I turned into a shadow, and nearly caused a TPK. This was the same character that, despite having 11 hitpoints when everyone else was 2nd level, almost never lost a fight. (This was an arena game, but we went out adventuring just this once.)

[Anxe]

Dragons are the player killer in my campaigns. Not surprising really.

[Xtomjames]

I love dragons, I have an ultimate means of killing them at 3rd level...lol.

Anyways for me the ones that tend to always kill my players when I DM are Assassin Demons and Pixies.

[Aharon]

Actually, I have yet to kill any of them. But they are so very, very, very annoyed by caster enemies attacking, draining them of a good chunk of their ressources and then teleporting out before they are killed themselves that I think it counts.

Actually, it's only one caster enemy. There's this wonderful, oh so wonderful item in the "The Bastion of Souls" adventure that allows you to dispel Dimensional Anchor as a free action :smalltongue:

[Ursus the Grim]

Actually, I have yet to kill any of them. But they are so very, very, very annoyed by caster enemies attacking, draining them of a good chunk of their ressources and then teleporting out before they are killed themselves that I think it counts.

Actually, it's only one caster enemy. There's this wonderful, oh so wonderful item in the "The Bastion of Souls" adventure that allows you to dispel Dimensional Anchor as a free action :smalltongue:

Heh, I'm running the Bastion of Broken Souls too. Those Bracers of Exit are pretty much the middle finger to people trying to stop the Cathezar from cheap shots. Nobody thinks to cast TWO dimensional anchors.

You use those outside the module, and you're a terrible terrible person. :smallbiggrin:

[SuperFerret]

I haven't killed many PCs, but I did run one beholder encounter for two groups, with one ending in a TPK (that was thoroughly enjoyed) and another ending in a badly beat-up group and one disintegrated fighter.

Aside from that, my usual play group each has their own personal kryptonite regardless of the character they're playing. One seems to run face first into every pit I put on a map, another seems to do stupid things around undead, and so on.

[Acanous]

an Aboleth usually flat out ends entire parties whenever I have the audacity to pull one out. Usually I wait until the party is lv 6 before having one show up, usually in a situation where the PCs can simply run away to dry land in order to survive if they're losing. But no one ever does, they always go into the water >.<

[Anderlith]

Undead using bows from behind fortifications.
Tiny vipers in a shallow slow moving stream

[Alleran]

How in the nine Hells did you get a group to reroll and return, not once, but TWICE to the Tomb of Horrors in close succession?

I TPKed a party on that sphere myself. It ended that campagin, bought me one of my few breaks as DM in years, and has resulted in an outright unilaterial ban on my even MENTIONING it as a possible adventuring destination.
They thought they could pull it off.

I said they probably couldn't, because it was a deathtrap with the sole purpose of TPKing a party.

They challenged me to run it for them, and they'd prove that they could.

After that, I think it was just pure stubbornness that kept them going. What they should have done was taken the doors of the tomb, sold them, and never gone near the place again.

Mind you, this was also the group who thought taunting Ashardalon was a good idea.

[Hunter Killer]

Anything with blindsight paired with low-level battlefield control spells (Obscuring Mist or Darkness most of the time). They never counter said spells, which is sad because there's a Cleric and Wizard in the party.


Grues.
Seriously? There are stats for those?! If you could point me to those so I can get my Zork on, I'd be eternally grateful.

[Crazysaneman]

Inexplicably the thing that kills my party more than anything else is my player who only plays fighters coupled with the player who plays only ego maniacal casters. Example: He decided to take a swing at a bookcase, thinking that there was a secret passage (:smalleek:under?:smalleek:) it. It collapses on him (and his necklace of fireballs type 5 full charge) burying him in books and splintered wood. The fire based supersorc decides that fireball spells instantly incinerate anything they touch and casts one at the books. Big explosion in a 20x20 room and kills the whole party.

[Elvencloud]

Orcs with Barbarian levels (Axe crits hurt with rage.)
Allips, Shadows, and Ghouls. Oh, and the ghost who possessed a player into coup de grace.

[flumphy]

Two Words:

Sha-

Dows

That is all.

I don't think I could have said it any better myself.

[Mr.Smashy]

My players tend to have problems with rolling saves against Carrion Crawlers. Especially in clinch time. Throw a group of them at a party before 8th level, and they are gonna fail their save sometime. Do it in an enclosed space where they have to squeeze to get through, and you are deliciously evil (this would imply that you were just tasty evil to begin with). :smallsmile:

[mootoall]

Chokers. With class levels. :smallcool:

[MachFarcon]

Hyenas. For some odd reason, we never can make that trip save...

[Feytalist]

It's generally accepted at my gaming table that monsters don't kill characters, the dice do.

[kardar233]

Anything with blindsight paired with low-level battlefield control spells (Obscuring Mist or Darkness most of the time). They never counter said spells, which is sad because there's a Cleric and Wizard in the party.


Seriously? There are stats for those?! If you could point me to those so I can get my Zork on, I'd be eternally grateful.

Sure:

HP: Too much
Full Attack: +Lots(claw)/+Lots(claw)
Damage: You Die/You Die
Sunlight Lethality: Dies instantly when exposed to sunlight. Blinded by any light. Will no willingly go into a light radius.

I think in one of them, you could kill grues only with two major artifacts, and only once you were effectively epic level. For D&D, they're more of a thinking man's challenge. One of my opening adventures is sending the party into a pitch black maze with a grue inside.

[Lonely Tylenol]

Orcs with Barbarian levels (Axe crits hurt with rage.)

This one hurts at any level, but it stinks the worst at low-levels. I managed to get smoked out from a relatively protected place with my level 5 Wizard by another Wizard chasing me with Flaming Sphere, and suddenly from across the room the Orc Barbarian charges across the room and scores a critical hit. I had 29 HP, and the DM looked at me and said, "OK, so the Barbarian is going to do 24 damage BEFORE the 3d12 die..." I held my breath and waited for the die to fall, and he rolled (in the open, for all of us to see) 2, 1, 1.

I got lucky, but a single lucky crit can end a squishy spellcaster entirely.

[Kittenwolf]

Balhanoth :)
Large size reach grapplers that prevent teleportation *and* put their grapple-ee into effectively an AMF. Party had a hell of a bad time trying to deal with them.

In my case though it's mostly NPCs that are the cause of party kills, heck, I had a lvl 10ish single-class Kineticist Psion that TPKed a party of 5 lvl 10 Gestalts...

[Squiggles]

Orcs with Barbarian levels (Axe crits hurt with rage.)
Allips, Shadows, and Ghouls. Oh, and the ghost who possessed a player into coup de grace.


Yea, for some reason my players underestimate creatures from the Monster Manual. They never anticipate that the enemies will have any class levels

[Kittenwolf]

Yea, for some reason my players underestimate creatures from the Monster Manual. They never anticipate that the enemies will have any class levels

My players have learned their lesson on that score :)

NPC Scout: "Hey guys, there's a huge band of orcs in that valley"
PCs: "Yeah.. but Orc *whats*"
NPC Scout: "Huh?"
PCs: "Well, are they wizards, or fighters, or warblades, or more clerics or...."

[Lucktheturtle]

Shadows for sure and wraiths and of course dread wraiths. one time they thought they had survived but the werewolf changed back into human while at 3 con and lost his 4 con bonus =(

[satorian]

Forest full of Bodaks.

[Anderlith]

Give orcs falchions, more crit.

[Stallion]

Intelligent Cloud Giants. I threw 3 regular cloud giants at a group of four level 16 characters and caused a TPK. All because they used their bows and SLAs before the PCs closed to melee.

[Beelzebub1111]

Shocker Lizards, any time there's more than one.

[Antonok]

Oh lets see, for me, its goblins with mornings stars. My very first time playing my char was killed by one (just a regular MM goblin witha morning star) by a 20, 20, confirm.

Another friend (lets call him P) its anything that has a save or die/suck. He has a fetish for the savage species. (Although chaotic evil halflings with Rods of Wonder would probably come in a close second)

Other then those 2 specifics, we've died to a whole slew of different enemies. Including Ogres, various dragons, dire rats, a slyph, allips, etc. Although the most funny and frustrating would have had to be when we ticked off the DM over his 'stalking boars' and they turned around and summoned 2 high CR things from the fiend folio.