Saddest TPK's you've had as players or while DMing?

[EastbySoutheast]

So I always enjoy reading player stories and I'm interested to see what moments you've had in DND games where everything goes wrong for some reason or other.


I might as well start off. In a campaign with three players they were given the fearsome task of clearing a storeroom of some rats. The players are all second level with the party consisting of:
A Wizard
A Swashbuckler
A Archery Based fighter

All is looking well before they enter the store room. The wizard prepares burning hands and the DM smiles knowing that 75% of the rats can all be killed in one spell as they all have 1-2 hp. What can go wrong?

As they enter the room the wizard hangs back waiting to blast the hell out of anything that moves. The two other players move into the middle of the room and the rats appear.
The wizard doesn't use burning hands
cause she doesn't want to hit her friends. The rats move into the squares of each player and do their maximum damage of 1 hp.
The wizard still doesn't use burning hands.
The players each attack one of the rats and kill them. The remaining rats all do 1 point of damage each. This repeats.
All players die because they have no healing and cant kill the rats quick enough.
Everyone laughed at how pathetic the situation is with the whole party being decimated by several small vermin.

The players then rerolled characters found an extra player and went back to that storeroom just to have the small victory of killing the creatures that killed them.

[Necromancy]

During the first book of Wrath of the Righteous we had to attack a small fort. There was no way to get into this place except a frontal assault with our mighty 8 man 5th level party. My brash fighter decided to bash in the front door and make an entrance. The DM hated this idea so much that he decided the entire fort could hear me and had every inhabitant ready for us.

Right inside the door was a 15 by 15 room that tee'd to 2 more 15 by 15 rooms. The party moves into the keep and we split to hold the enemy on both fronts.

Immediately a wall of fire is cast into the entry room as a ring by a Mage that can walk through walls. This splits the party 3 ways, cuts off escape, and damages multiple people. My fighter takes out 5 or so before he falls unconscious. The same round he goes into negative hp, an enemy hits him twice while he is down "because that's what they would do" and makes sure he is dead.

All in all the keep contained something like 30 enemies from level 4 to 9

The DM explained to us that somehow, if we opened the door by normal means, we would have been able to fight the guys on the lower levels without alerting more

[danzibr]

Haha, that rat story is great. As is the DM punishment story.

For me, we were level 1. Me an Elf TWF Fighter with 20 Dex and 10 Str who hadn't taken Weapon Finesse yet. Also had a Psion and a Druid or something.

Anyway, our first adventure was taking down a lone skeleton which was killing chickens at night or something. We succeeded.

Then we decided to, rather than pursue the necromancer, explore some random cave. It had 3 fleshy undead, 2 Zombies and a Ghoul, I think. We wiped. The DM had the undead munching on 2 of us while the third finally woke up, and went on a quest to Rex us. Then the DM recalled Elves are immune to paralysis, and wrote everything off as a bad dream.

[Necromancy]

Same DM retracted an entire (bi-weekly) session because he didn't approve of how we attacked (yet another) keep that guarded a dungeon entrance.

He secretly wanted us to come up with some sort of mission impossible crap to get through this "impregnable" keep.

Instead, we got some fly pots and dropped in through the alarm tower like the red dawn.

Halfway through steamrolling his keep guards with us mostly unscathed, the session ended.

Via email he rolls the adventure back because "we didn't plan well enough and would have died"

[weary atlas]

Fly potion paratroopers....I love it.

I'm taking that a new "elite troop" tactic. :smallamused:

[Necromancy]

His level of DM fiat was over 9000, seriously

The archers in said alarm tower (level 8ish) had a ridiculously easy time spotting the Druid in bat form in the middle of the night, and somehow knew it was no ordinary bat and shot at it (very successfully) with bows.

Ever seen a bat flying around at night? It's not easy to spot I assure you.

I doubt, if I could see one, that I could hit it with a shotgun let alone a bow and arrow

[Sliver]

I doubt, if I could see one, that I could hit it with a shotgun let alone a bow and arrow

Well, you aren't level 8, are you?

Also, the druidic bat is still humanoid (I presume), so it's a pretty easy knowledge local. :smallbiggrin:

[Waldmarschallin]

This one was my fault, but it fit with both my character's values and mine. This was a party game run by the man with the best combination of rules knowledge, creativity, gregariousness and sense of humor I know- in short, if he would ever run a campaign instead of short party games where everyone is drunk and more into smash bros than D/D, it would be the most epic thing I've yet encountered, but he doesn't.

We were level 4 at this point, and investigating the local spooky manor which seemed to have something to do with werewolf attacks (highlights of previous sessions included the fighter trying to swat flying enemies- i forget what- off the roof of the church and the plant cleric casting entangle on his fighter comrade to keep him safely strapped to the roof.) Anyway, the party at this point is cleric, monk (me), barbarian, rogue, sorcerer. We had entered the manor, escorted by the charming maidservant, (my character, in his awkward way tried to get to know her and figure out what she knew, if she had other options, etc, and also spent the first night with her guarding her from the ravages of the rest of the party) and as spooky things continued we made our way to the dungeon, (forcing her to take us), where we met the lord of the manor, obviously her employer, engaged in some sort of ritual.

After attempts at banter, combat began and no one seemed to question in the least that all minions of the evil lycanthromancer or whatever (I think he was a cleric of some kind, the strong kind) needed to be killed summarily. Having had a pleasant conversation with the NPC helped steel my resolve that killing an unarmed woman subject of the true villain was not my plan A- the rogue and his rapier both disagreed, and while the rest of the party rushed the boss, the rogue and I had what Calvin calls a "frank exchange of ideas". After the rogue had been knocked out by SOMEone's monk fists (not sayin' whose), I promised the npc that she was safe now - unfortunately she had now revealed her tiefling form, and began he;ping her employer continue to fight us.

I forget exactly what happened in the melee but I remember that while only two of us survived, we did win- almost- the boss got his inexplicable selfdestruct rune activated. Everyone, including his minion, ran as fast as we could. I had enhanced monk speed. They didn't. I alone survived- amid much grumbling

[Thurbane]

End of RHoD - it was fairly early in our 3.X days, and we weren't much for optimizing.

In the final boss fight, we lasted all of about 4 rounds.

Real bummer of an ending to a game we'd played for over 6 months...

[(Un)Inspired]

End of RHoD - it was fairly early in our 3.X days, and we weren't much for optimizing.

In the final boss fight, we lasted all of about 4 rounds.

Real bummer of an ending to a game we'd played for over 6 months...

When you say final boss do you mean Lord A or Sloppy T?*


*Names changed to prevent spoilers.

[Thurbane]

Sloppy T.

We got caught in the energy blast in the summoning area, then T wiped the floor with us in short order.

Like I said, it was before we had much idea about optimizing.

[Scorponok]

The one that sticks out in my mind was 3 PC vs. 2 jungle cats (I think I used a lynx) in what was suppose to be a random encounter the PCs were suppose to walk all over. They kept rolling low over and over that fight, and on the times they successfully hit, they rolled 1s and 2s on damage. After about 1/2 hour of fighting when it was only suppose to take 5 minutes at most, the party was low on health. Eventually, the last panther critical failed on an attack and accidentally clawed itself to death.

[(Un)Inspired]

Sloppy T.

We got caught in the energy blast in the summoning area, then T wiped the floor with us in short order.

Like I said, it was before we had much idea about optimizing.

Ouch. You have my condolences my friend. The way Sloppy T shows up it's easy to get caught with your pants down, so to speak.

even with some optimization, it's hard to face Sloppy T IMMEDIATELY after fighting Lord A and getting roasted by the energy blast. My group had a Nomad that teleported us out as soon as Sloppy T appeared.

We were nowhere to close ready for another fight.

[Mr Adventurer]

First encounter of RHoD. TPK.

[Sian]

second encounter in Savage tides, against the (previously) caged Rhadogessa. In my (then) group, all combat rolls were done in the open, even as DM.

Party consisted of Swashbuckler, Druid, Wizard, Bard and Warblade (druid and wizard being relatively unoptimized), While the druid is getting the pet up onto the ship (not content with letting it guard the dinghy), the rest of the party rushes down to where they heard the female guard screaming (led by the warblade whom were running stupid good paladin personality), and runs into the Rhadogessa. Warblade swings and misses (if only just), Swashbuckler tries tumbling past it with the intention of getting to flanking position, failing (rolled a 2 i seem to remember), leading it to get an AoO, smacking him, grapple (Improved Grab) and take a free bite (dealing max damage), followed by its turn, biting the swashbuckler again (dealing enough damage for the Swashbuckler to get knocked out), swinging at the Warblade, getting a grab, followed by the free bite critting dealing instagib to the Warblade ... Bard and Wizard ****s their pants making a tactical retreat up to the Druid.

[DarkEternal]

We were level 9 or so I'd say. Party consister of a Factotum, Warblade, Cleric and a Lurk.

So, we travelled through the burning wastes kind of a scenery and were attacked by basiliks. Always a menace, but we were level 9 with good saves. So, they attack us. We all needed to roll a 2 or more against their gaze attack. First round comes, three of us roll. We all roll 1. Every single one of us. The Lurk saves.


However, these were some advanced basilisks. Once they saw they couldn't petrify him, they went against him the old fashioned way and actually chomped him for dinner. Not only were we petrified, but we were forced to watch as these lizard creatures basically ate our party member in front of our helpless eyes.


The DM felt bad about the crappy TPK, so he said that a year or so later an agent(played by the guy whose Lurk died, his new character) hired by the king we were working for tracked us down. He played a sorcerer under the DM's condition one of his spells was Stone to flesh.


It was pretty sad all in all.

[Firechanter]

Not necessarily the saddest, but the first that comes to mind:

As part of Skull&Shackles, Pt 1. In a partially flooded cave system, we were trying to rescue 2 NPC friends who had been abducted by Grindylows.
After one particularly nasty fight, we were in no shape to continue (low HP, poisoned, ability damage, out of spells), and the DM told us exactly that. Very clear OOC info that we would get wiped if we continued before resting. So we agreed to retreat and rest up.
Well, EXCEPT for that one idiot player who wanted to take "just a peek" of what was ahead. Immediately botched bis Stealth check and triggered the boss fight.
We didn't even bother to roll. The GM just called a timeout and offered a Rewind - for the first time in his life, as he said.

The adventure proceeded normally after that, but played straight it would have been a Wipe.

[SimonMoon6]

Savage Species had just come out, so we all wanted to play monsters. I played an air elemental, someone else had a centaur, I forget the rest of the team.

Well, we all had low mental stats as a result.

Then, in a dungeon, we got stuck. The only ways out were (a) attack a huge horde we couldn't possibly beat or (b) find the secret door leading to the exit. We looked for that secret door. It was a simple secret door with a DC 20. We all took 20. We all failed. :(

So, we had to fight the horde and, despite some memorable heroics, we all died.

[Naez]

Was playing in a small party one of my earliest 3.X campaigns level 7 Me a Barbarian, an Archery Ranger, and a sorcerer. We run into a group of formians. we kill quite a few of them. I wind up dominated and in an attempt to incapacitate me the archer crits and kills me. The sorcerer goes down from strength poison and ray of enfeeblement. Archer stays up long enough to drop most of their frontliners before also being knocked out.

[PsyBomb]

I was DM for this one. Just got my hands on Sandstorm, and was running a Sahara setting game. Party is level 2, TWF Fighter, Barbarian, and Artificer. I asked for no divine spellcasting, and the Artificer had to agree not to craft food/water stuff for the feel of the survival game.

They were really getting into it, investigating a Kobold incursion. Halfway across the desert, having already killed a raiding party and some monstrous scorpions, they get a camel on the random encounter table. Not monstrous, not dire, nothing but a single, ordinary camel.

Camels are valuable, so they decide to subdue it for training. Long story short, due to their attempts to subdue it giving penalties it wipes the floor with them. Two of the three bleed out, the last is the Artificer who was the least survival-oriented of them and died of exposure in the open desert.

Worst part of this is that they realized later that NONE of them trained Handle Animal. If they had subdued it, they couldn't have trained it.

[JBarca]

I had an incredibly sad TPK recently. I was DMing some free module I found online, I can't recall its name.

Anyway, the players decided to be as weak as possible; we had a healing Cleric, a Dwarf Monk, an Aristocrat (yeah, the NPC class), and... A Fighter, I think.

They went into a dead witch's hut and starting poking around, thus waking up the animated cauldron. Said pot promptly ate the Aristocrat (doing like a d4 of nonlethal damage a round because he was "bouncing around inside"), beat up the Monk, and was fighting the fighter (or the other way around?). The party's level 1, so the Hardness of 5 the thing had was tough to beat. The Cleric would heal the Monk, then go down, then the monk or fighter would use a potion on the Cleric, then go down. Repeat for, I dunno, 5 rounds? Finally they were all down.

They were TPK'd by a pot. Probably the most actual fun I've had in a session in a while.

[atemu1234]

Not a TPK, but there was the paladin who charged a demon lord. It was both epic and deeply saddening.

[nedz]

AD&D — but it doesn't really matter.

Party infiltrate a fortress of Dwarven Extremists via the waste disposal system.

The find a Disintegration Chamber.

They all squeeze inside and press the button.

Saves all round — they all make.

They press the button again — they all fail.

Apparently it was obviously a Teleportation Chamber.

[HolyDraconus]

I got a few stories here. But im on my phone so i will leave just this one
The party was 8 players, lvls 4-6 (role playing exp), and one i dmed to cover for a friend that was on a date. I didnt want to hijack his campaign, and so made a simple dungeon with a simple goal: clear it out. Well i added two chests at the end of this dungeon. Both are literally the size of a building, in a dungeon. One was an actual chest. The other was a die progressed mimic. The Paladin (well, ex at this point, he fell and was going black guard anyway) came up with the brilliant idea to jump inside for the gold. He didnt make it out. So instead of trying to either kill it or run away or even trip the lever behind it that would render that fight won, they all, both wizards, ranger, barbarian, rogue, druid and cleric, jumped inside..
And i cant feel bad cause they ignored the screams of pain the expaladin was making...

[Submortimer]

Same DM retracted an entire (bi-weekly) session because he didn't approve of how we attacked (yet another) keep that guarded a dungeon entrance.

He secretly wanted us to come up with some sort of mission impossible crap to get through this "impregnable" keep.

Instead, we got some fly pots and dropped in through the alarm tower like the red dawn.

Halfway through steamrolling his keep guards with us mostly unscathed, the session ended.

Via email he rolls the adventure back because "we didn't plan well enough and would have died"

For real, your DM sounds like a huge ****.

[Necromancy]

For real, your DM sounds like a huge ****.

Personally, I think all rule changes should be discussed and approved of ahead of time. I don't think you should change ANY rule on a whim as it can have unforeseen consequences.

Yet another time.... Same DM

"It doesn't say that black puddings split when lightning hits them, but it used to be that way so I wanna bring that back"

So yeah, no blunt weapons, only one caster (witch) that has only lightning spells for offense.

We didn't do well enough on knowledge checks and ended up with 3 puddings. Our only hope? 23 charge wand of magic missile (lv3)

[NecessaryWeevil]

AD&D — but it doesn't really matter.

Party infiltrate a fortress of Dwarven Extremists via the waste disposal system.

The find a Disintegration Chamber.

They all squeeze inside and press the button.

Saves all round — they all make.

They press the button again — they all fail.

Apparently it was obviously a Teleportation Chamber.

So the button to trigger the disintegration effect is...within the range of the disintegration effect? Sounds more like a Suicide Chamber.

[Sith_Happens]

Personally, I think all rule changes should be discussed and approved of ahead of time. I don't think you should change ANY rule on a whim as it can have unforeseen consequences.

Yet another time.... Same DM

"It doesn't say that black puddings split when lightning hits them, but it used to be that way so I wanna bring that back"

So yeah, no blunt weapons, only one caster (witch) that has only lightning spells for offense.

We didn't do well enough on knowledge checks and ended up with 3 puddings. Our only hope? 23 charge wand of magic missile (lv3)

1. Kite it with your normal ranged weapons until it's split into 30 puddings with 7 hit points each none of which can split any further.

2. Open fire with the wand.

3. Once the wand is exhausted, kill the remaining puddings by throwing rocks at them.

[(Un)Inspired]

So the button to trigger the disintegration effect is...within the range of the disintegration effect? Sounds more like a Suicide Chamber.

Lol seriously. Is the trash supposed to lock itself in there and self-terminate?

[Inevitability]

Lol seriously. Is the trash supposed to lock itself in there and self-terminate?

Indeed it is. Animate Objects is more useful than you'd think, isn't it? :smalltongue:

[(Un)Inspired]

Indeed it is. Animate Objects is more useful than you'd think, isn't it? :smalltongue:

Can you do that? I believe the animate objects spell only let's you direct who you want the objects to attack. I don't think you can command them to walk into an incinerator and push a button.

[Necromancy]

Can you do that? I believe the animate objects spell only let's you direct who you want the objects to attack. I don't think you can command them to walk into an incinerator and push a button.

"And that never struck you as needlessly complicated?" -Elan

[Bullet06320]

Ever seen a bat flying around at night? It's not easy to spot I assure you.

I doubt, if I could see one, that I could hit it with a shotgun let alone a bow and arrow

I hit a bat with a taxi one time

[nedz]

So the button to trigger the disintegration effect is...within the range of the disintegration effect? Sounds more like a Suicide Chamber.

As per the item description — one button inside and one outside.

It was a common feature, in those days, for all item types to have dodgy variants. Bag of Devouring looks just like a Bag of Holding etc.

I called the end of the session and I would have finessed it as a Teleportation chamber had the campaign not ended due to the group breaking up.

[Inevitability]

Can you do that? I believe the animate objects spell only let's you direct who you want the objects to attack. I don't think you can command them to walk into an incinerator and push a button.

Be a cleric with the warforged domain, then command the Animated Objects. It is needlessly complicated, but hey, it works.

[PsyBomb]

Who needs to animate anything? Depending on how trash entered the room (from the top) and where/how hard the button is to press (chest height at least, mid-light pressure), the trash itself building up would press it just by weight. Rather efficient design, actually.

[iDesu]

It'd work great until the trash builds up just wrong and won't touch the button without being rearranged, which will happen. Then you'd have to go in or send a minion in to nudge the trash and hope the trap doesn't get to them as well. Sure, you don't have to clean up after your minion, but now you have to pay to hire and train another one.

[Perturbulent]

I was the dread necromancer in a dungeon-delving party. Each party member had Tomb-tainted soul for the free healery and the not needing to return to the surface. The whole third floor was full of constructs, so the extent of my usefulness was summoning and healing. (we were between level 3 and 5, I'm pretty sure). We never really wondered what made the constructs, so when we walked into the boss room with the ravid (deals positive energy "damage") and animates objects, well, we almost don't need to describe it. Our butts were thoroughly handed to us.

[Jarawara]

Regarding the trash disintegrator:
Ummm... guys?

Press the button. System warms up for 10 seconds, builds up the energy. Zap goes the disintegration with everyone safely behind the yellow line. Unless of course, someone wanted to step FORWARD in that 10 seconds, but who in their right mind would do that?

Nothing in the story as presented seems at all unusual. The button is not set inside the machine, but just outside. The PC presses the button and steps inside to join his comrades, or maybe was already standing inside and leaned out to press the button... though I'd be scared to do that! Just think what would happen if only half of me teleported! If only they made some kind of pole that I could use to press the button, maybe one measuring about 10 feet? That would be great if someone made something like that.

[SowZ]

During a one shot, two groups of two PCs each are racing to kill a powerful vampire. The vampire arrives and starts fighting group one. Group two gets desperate and one of the guys has a way to open up a large gate that lets in random extra-planar creatures until it is closed. He dies in short order, however, with no one to close the gate.

Meanwhile, the other two players didn't really have a plan to fight a vampire and were doing it underground. The only entrance with which to escape has this gate right outside of it. So they decide to hold their ground and go toe to toe. They bring it down to about a fifth of its HP before it ultimately wins out. The last survivor of group two manages to escape the city and runs until he cannot run anymore. In a desert with zero transportation, food, water, or survival skills, he dies. (An ignoble end to a high level character, to be sure.)

[(Un)Inspired]

During a one shot, two groups of two PCs each are racing to kill a powerful vampire. The vampire arrives and starts fighting group one. Group two gets desperate and has a way to open up a large gate that lets in random extra-planar creatures until it is closed. He dies in short order, however, with no one to close the gate.

Meanwhile, the other two players didn't really have a plan to fight a vampire and were doing it underground. The only entrance with which to escape has this gate right outside of it. So they decide to hold their ground and go toe to toe. They bring it down to about a fifth of its HP before it ultimately wins out. The last survivor of group two manages to escape the city and run until he cannot run anymore. In a desert with zero transportation, food, water, or survival skills, however, he dies. (An ignoble end to a high level character, to be sure.)

Later, that vampire would be killed when Bullet06320 hit it with a taxi.

[Bullet06320]

Later, that vampire would be killed when Bullet06320 hit it with a taxi.

LOL, funny story about that too, I had vampire character in a larp I played in awhile back, drive a taxi and did try and take sumone out with it, lol

[RolkFlameraven]

Sunless Citidel... So I had run that thing about three times and all three times they came upon that mephit and yeah, TPK. So one of my players wants to run it so I roll of a PC and join in the fun. We get to that room and we all look at one another OOC and laugh about are impending doom before jumping into the fray.

Well we win! It was grate high fives all around; only it had run away after going invis... so we go and clear out the rest of the module got shatter spike and think we are all badass and head back up to town... remember that mephit? It remembered US it was not pretty to die after 'winning' :smallredface:

Not the first nor last time I've TPKed but it was the saddest.

[Ben Powers]

Later, that vampire would be killed when Bullet06320 hit it with a taxi.

Funniest thing I've seen all week.

[Ferronach]

Sunless Citidel... So I had run that thing about three times and all three times they came upon that mephit and yeah, TPK. So one of my players wants to run it so I roll of a PC and join in the fun. We get to that room and we all look at one another OOC and laugh about are impending doom before jumping into the fray.

Well we win! It was grate high fives all around; only it had run away after going invis... so we go and clear out the rest of the module got shatter spike and think we are all badass and head back up to town... remember that mephit? It remembered US it was not pretty to die after 'winning' :smallredface:

Not the first nor last time I've TPKed but it was the saddest.

Really tempted to make another joke about Bullet06320 hitting this mephit with a taxi like (Un)Inspired did for the vampire...


Later, that vampire would be killed when Bullet06320 hit it with a taxi.

[ComaVision]

Really tempted to make another joke about Bullet06320 hitting this mephit with a taxi like (Un)Inspired did for the vampire...

If I ever need to deus ex machina, it's going to be a man named Bullet driving a taxi.

[Ferronach]

If I ever need to deus ex machina, it's going to be a man named Bullet driving a taxi.

Is the taxi a Bullitt Mustang or the fast back driven by McQueen in Bullitt? :P

[Reprimand]

A closet with 150 alchemist fires wrapped in cloth fell over and tpk'd a level 5 6-man party after the adventure.

The baron had been using slave labor to make alchemy supplies for cheaper. he told them not to go into the closet and they didn't listen or use a 10 ft pole splash damage killed the entire party

[Ferronach]

Players fell down a long smooth shaft (ha-ha you dirty minded individuals) They landed in a short tunnel with a door at either end.
At one end was a rotten old wooden door (unlocked).
At the other, was a shiny methal door covered in runes (some magical and some not) that was very much locked.

The party didn't bat an eye and went straight for the shiny door because "better door = better loot"
They went through the door and encountered a colossal dragon that had been chained in that dungeon for a very long time. Needless to say he was hungry and angry and decided to toast and eat the six man party of level 12s....

Had they read the runes on the door they would have encountered a big warning about not entering and such. The unlocked wooden door (they didn't even check to see if it was un/locked) would have lead them to a friendly dwarven village where they were to get their next quest....

[Th3N3xtGuy]

Same DM retracted an entire (bi-weekly) session because he didn't approve of how we attacked (yet another) keep that guarded a dungeon entrance.

He secretly wanted us to come up with some sort of mission impossible crap to get through this "impregnable" keep.

Instead, we got some fly pots and dropped in through the alarm tower like the red dawn.

Halfway through steamrolling his keep guards with us mostly unscathed, the session ended.

Via email he rolls the adventure back because "we didn't plan well enough and would have died"

Jesus I would of dropped the group the moment the DM throws a fit that the players were actually creative. Also I love that paratrooper idea though, gonna steal it.

[thecrimsondawn]

Was playing with the best DM ive ever had the pleasure of playing under. Our group where all d&d vets. Every game we played, we steam rolled through it with cleaver ideas, great tactics, and legendary uses of items.

He asked us one day, how hard do you want this next game to be?
All of us replied, maximum difficulty.
So we entered a mid magic world. We had a druid, I was a warlock, we had some kinda monk/rogue hybrid, and a paladin. The level was I think around 5ish or so.
Our party met up, found a job that pays well going to deal with a sorcerer that has been causing all sorts of trouble. Through somewhat good uses of gather information, we located a rough mountain range where it was thought his dwelling resides. We buy some gear for the journey and head out.
It was not even half way through that first game when we where scaling the mountain, botch a roll that alerted the Sorcerer (who was really an adult red dragon that we where never supposed to fight) to fly at us as we where climbing with no real cover to speak of.
I die first from a breath attack (no time to change my dark ones own luck :( ), Our rogue somehow hides, and the paladin gets knocked dead from a claw attack. Our druid gets eaten and holds on for dear life in the dragons mouth, as he flies away. It is while this dragon is thousands of feat in the air, that our druid gets the idea to use a quill feather token of a great oak in the dragons throat - breaking his neck and killing the dragon, while both the druid and dragon fall to there death. I guess you cant say its a total wipe as the rogue/monk survived, but there where enough deaths to end that game right there :P

[Zazax]

My group's usually pretty good at avoiding TPKs, but there's one standout exception.

It was our first time trying 5e. We grabbed some pre-genned characters, starting at level 1, and set out on our first adventure; protecting a caravan. In the very first combat of the very first session, our four characters are attacked by a small squad of goblins, roughly split half-and-half ranged and melee. Three of the four PCs roll less than 5 for their initiative, and the only one who doesn't, the Sorcerer, rolls minimum damage on his attack. All the goblins went in a mob, and the first three all rolled crits. The Sorcerer goes down in a single hit (he actually takes almost double his total HP in damage), followed by the Cleric who goes down before he can even act. The Rogue goes down the next round, and the Fighter goes down on the third while trying to resuscitate the Cleric.

So our group of veteran 3rd editioners got annihilated on our very first encounter in 5th. It was... kind of pathetic and slightly embarrassing, but after the initial shock wore off we all had a good laugh. It probably helps that we were all using pre-genned characters and hadn't really had time to get invested in the game yet.