Best character near-deaths

[Jon_Dahl]

We have the "best character deaths" thread, but in my opinion the very, very close calls are even better.

Two of my favourites:
#1: An 8th-level ranger PC led the party to a narrow mountain path. They walked and walked, until the path was cut. There are was a narrow chasm, only 5 ft. wide. Beyond that, the mountain path continued.
The ranger couldn't get a running start, so he jumped. He rolled 4 and fell of the mountain. Luckily he didn't fall too far, since he landed on a cliff and survived.
So he walked for hours and then casually, without saying a word, jumped off the mountain. It reminded me of this: http://img.pandawhale.com/26643-Jump-Out-Window-gif-AT8K.gif

#2: Another was the Master Thief.
Player had just created a new character, who was a CN thief (it was 2e). He walked into a tavern and saw our characters sitting there. Then he walked straight past us and went to loot our rooms.
The player didn't know that my character had a special kind of dagger of venom, which actually turned into ridiculously effective insta-kill poisonous snake (it was a fairly high-level campaign). I had that snake in a bag on the bed.
The thief-PC went to the room and touched the bag, and the snake bit him through the bag. The PC was lucky to survive, the save was almost impossible to succeed in. At that point, the character was less than 10 minutes old IRL.

[Ravens_cry]

Well, I was playing a fallen Paladin. Not intentionally, it was because of an infraction in game. In fact, it was the same paladin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=13034519&postcount=2)here.
Anywho, I had gone to a priest of Sarenrae to get atoned, and while the spell was cast, I did not get my Paladin status returned right away. Instead, I had to undergo a quest. So there I was, after helping slaughter wave after wave of gnolls. I had just walked across a blade barrier to the gnoll priest, down to single digit hit points, and hit him one good with my trust great falchion. He wasn't down yet, but tried to cast Heal. He failed, and my next full attack did wonders. Literally. As my enemy fell, my powers returned, in a cheesy yet completely awesome moment of victory.

[JonU]

My current character in the campaign I was playing before deployment is an Ogre War Hulk. Our group was helping an NPC hold out in a fort against a large army of Orcs and Ogres. Our plan was to hold them off as long as possible (think Alamo here) . Well after a while I ran out of rocks to throw. Then our ranger was nearly killed by a volley of arrows, so he took to hiding in one of the barracks. So sometime during the fight I get this bright idea to go out the back and try to flank the enemy. So off I go to the back gate w/o telling anyone where I'm headed. Everyone just assumed I was fleeing since I didn't tell them what I was up to. As I open the back gate I see ~400 soldiers marching up. So what did I do? Did I go back inside and warn the others? Nope. I did what any intelligent War Hulk would do and locked myself out of the fortress, standing on the bridge between the gate and the enemy. I proceed to stand my ground and go toe to toe with the enemy. When I almost have them all down an archer hits me and drops me to exactly 0 hp. As I'm falling to the ground unconscious the rest of the group comes out figuring I'm long gone just to see me falling over in a massive pile of bodies. The ranger took care of the archer while one of the others gave me a healing potion. He doesn't let them forget about that time that he "saved their butts".

[Qwertystop]

Does a death-and-revival count? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8359242)

[FatherMalkav]

Few years ago some friends and I were laying a 4E campaign with a party consisting of a Gnome Star Pact Warlock, a Half-Elf Archer Ranger, a Goliath Druid, and Longtooth Shifter Bard (read: Blasty, blasty, Tanky, Support/Heals).

After two sessions the Druid decides she's done and drops, and one fight without her shows us SOMEONE has to tank. Th Bard is skinned as northman/viking/skald-like character and, being the lone sword and board, takes up the mantle of tank.

Fast forward to a few months later when we get a new character playing a Half-Orc Paladin. He meets the party in their 'home base' and comments that the shirtless Shifter is absolutely COVERED in nasty scars. We then explain the 'house rule' that every time a character in out campaign is on death's door (read: death saving throw) and survives they gain a scar from whatever blow/poison/disease almost took them out.

The Bard hadn't seen a combat since the second session in which he didn't make a DST. Every combat was, in essence, a life or death scenario.