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Mattarias, King.
2007-06-26, 10:58 PM
Our druid just died. Boss battle. Very young shadow dragon (we're level 2-4.) The dragon was at 0 HP, and it used it's dying breath to totally level drain old longears into nothingness. I coup de grace'd the thing right there and then. He's currently buiried in a grave fit for the greatest knights, in the middle of a forest.

.. He wasn't terribly knightlike, though, but I felt he deserved some respect. ^^; He fought well. My character values that.

The party's taking it kinda hard, though. I, for one, am gonna be at a bar drinking my head off. Fort save or not. :smallconfused:

How did the first character deaths you witness occur, and how did you deal with them, in-character and out?

(.. Also, Are there side effects to being killed via level drain? Sounds nasty..)

SadisticFishing
2007-06-26, 11:02 PM
The first character death I saw was actually my fault entirely.

I decided to play a Stormlord, as everyone was complaining they wanted a healer - and what's more Talos-like than Chaotic Evil?

Turns out the Paladin had a problem with that. I came up disguised as a cleric of Pelor with a NE Shadowcaster with me. The paladin comes up to greet me and sees the dude wearing all black - two readied actions against detect evil later, ta da! First player kill we've seen.

Mattarias, King.
2007-06-26, 11:09 PM
O.o;; I see...

Who's Talos, though, if you don't mind my asking?

Callix
2007-06-26, 11:13 PM
FR god of storms, destruction and dirty fighting. All-around bad guy. Specialises in lightning.

Starsinger
2007-06-26, 11:13 PM
Wow... That poor Druid.. I liked your story Mattarias... very sad

Mike_Lemmer
2007-06-26, 11:14 PM
Wow, your group actually mourned a death? IC?

That's a new one.

Starsinger
2007-06-26, 11:18 PM
Wow, your group actually mourned a death? IC?

That's a new one.

Not everyone is a vulture who grabs their buddy's loot and redistributes it before the corpse hits rigor mortis. :smalltongue:

shaddy_24
2007-06-26, 11:20 PM
I'm the DM and I almost killed the level 2 wizard in our third session. I introduced 2 new players (bringing us up to 8 players!) by having the new ones be ambushed by goblins and the other players run in to help them. 11 goblins vs. 8 level 2 PCs. The party consists of:
human fighter 2, human samurai 2 (not the complete warrior one, our own homebrewed version, able to magically enhance a focused weapon), elf rogue 2, elf ranger 2 (brothers with rogue), elf monk 2, grey elf evoker wizard 2, human bard 2 (new) and dwarf cleric 2 (and new).

The surprise round? Only the wizard hit anything. I am serious, no one else rolled higher than a 3. The wizard hits the lead goblin (level 3 fighter, the rest were level 1 warriors) with an orb spell for 7 damage.

Next round initiative was rolled and the goblins act third (more miserable rolling, only the ranger and monk got higher rolls). A goblin with a bow crits the wizard and does 9 points of damage, knocking the wizard to -2. The rest of the players are unable to roll the 7-13s needed to hit the heaviest armored goblins, or the lower rolls needed to hit the others. Meanwhile, the goblins pull of at least 6 15+ rolls (right in front of the players). The fighter takes at least 8 points and the monk 6. None of the players managed to hit anything this round either (it was rediculous).

Eventually the players win, killing all the goblins and the wizard was stabilized by the ranger at -8 (before combat was actually over). The cleric finally ran over and cured him back up.

Wow, this is really long. Sorry. And great story about the druid.

SadisticFishing
2007-06-26, 11:20 PM
Not everyone is a vulture who grabs their buddy's loot and redistributes it before the corpse hits rigor mortis. :smalltongue:

How does one say "quoted for untruth"? QFU?

... :P

Mattarias, King.
2007-06-26, 11:21 PM
FR god of storms, destruction and dirty fighting. All-around bad guy. Specialises in lightning.

Ah, i see. thank you.


Starsinger- Thank you kindly. it was a pretty sad affair. Now only if we weren't missing three of our party members..

de-trick
2007-06-26, 11:23 PM
wow we usually laugh at the character and leave them there take items and go wait for new character

SadisticFishing
2007-06-26, 11:25 PM
Oh did I mention that every character death throws off the in-party economy greatly? It's annoying.

My players don't mourn. The earliest I've died was level 14, and I just got True Resurrected - though my character was shaken and a bit less brave for a few sessions, no one cared. =(

Damionte
2007-06-26, 11:45 PM
I have absolutley no recollection of the first PC deaths I've seen. I've been playing over 20 years and just can't remember back that far.

I can tell you the first two deaths in our current campaign.

These two deaths were at the lead in fight to the "Battle Of Gnoll Ridge" which is now famouse in our current campaign.

In the "Battle leading up to gnoll ridge" we the party got our butts kicked. Let's see.....

A still as of yet unknown foe had been sending armed gnoll bands into our territory and kidnapping tradesmen of all kinds for some unknown reason. Our party "about 5th lvl at the time" was out investigating the issue.

We had tracked a group of gnolls back towards one of thier camps.

"Bit of side note." In our group if you miss a session your character goes "grey". Like in an MMPORG if you're not logged in your characters not there. We kinda play the same thing at our pen and paper games. This week out rogue couldn't make it. Thus we didn't have any one with the built in abailities of a scout.

While I "the party cleric" was back tying up the horses our Barbarion decided to go scout it out. Doing so before I could bring reason to the table.

Well this barbarion only recons in one manner. Reconasence in force. So he simply charges over the hill into the middle of this gnoll camp. It was a pretty long run, maybe 3-4 combat rounds and he's faster than everybody else. None of who'm were prepared for his charge to begin with. So he get's to the camp a good two rounds before anybody else.

The gnolls had wolves as camp gaurds. Normally not too difficult a problem for a 5th lvl barbarion. But there were a bunch of them, maybe 5-6 plus all the gnolls in the camp and he had them one on one. He charges in and puts the royal smack down on the first gnoll he sees. he is then prombptly surounded by gnolls and wolves.

At this point he's still not afraid. Except wolves and I think war trained dogs too, have a natural trip attack. The very first one rolls a natural 19 vs his natural 1 to trip him. The rest promptly souround all 8 hexes including a few gnolls in the back row with spears and start to put the beat down on him.

Now two round slater the rest of us come trudging over the hill. actually I am a whole round further back. They ran off while I was still taking care of the horses and I literaly didn't know where they went. I just followed the noise of thier charge.

Anyway, we coem over the hill, and I swaer to god it was liek that last scene in the movie "GLORY" we're all just standing there lookign down into this war camp of gnolls. And there's our barbarion gettign the beat down i the middle of the camp. Funny thing is he was still alive. wolves and first level gnolls don't do a ton of damage, and since we're using the armor as damage reduction alternate rules from unearth arcana he was still kicking it when we got there. Granted he was almost gone.

Now I had a decision to make. No one else made a move yet. They know I am a survivalist. "That's not the word they use. They usually say coward" and will run if the odds don't look to good. Needless to say the odds here didn't look to good so i was ready to get the hell out of dodge but didn't want to hear it from the dead barbarion that I left him there to die for the next 3 months in RL. So I led the rescue charge down the hill.

Which is to say I cast invisibility on myself and tried to sneak down there so I could heal him. :) Meanwhile the rest of the squad, Swashbuckler, and Wizard came also made thier way down the hill. "We actually had 2 players missing that night, and this encounter was designed for the full party.

The barbarion actually died before I could get down to him. Our swashbuckler got down there while our wizard started pelting them all from a small rise besides the camp.

We were also using one of the variant spell point systems from EU, along with a coupoel of house rules. Our caster could keep on casting even after he was out of spell points but he became fatigued and was slowly killign himself in the process.

Between the three of us we did manage to take out most of those in the camp but not before they could callfor help. This camop it turned out was jusdt an outlying camp of a much larger gnoll force that had moved into the area. Reinforcments were on thier way.

It was time to retreat but our caster was in no condition to run for it. He insisted on staying to cover the retreat. I argued with him for ... like 1 and a half rounds then agreed with him that he was doomed before I booked it out of ther emyself. Our swashbuckler who's nickname is "The Dash" booked it in another direction away from the horses. I ran back to our horses, took all off them by the reigns and took off. letting the extra horses go whenever I came to a fork to throw off pursuit.

Our wizard actually put up a good fight by himself before he fell in about 4 rounds of combat.

The barbarion still gives me a hard time for lettign them die. Like I could do anything about it. It was his dumb a$$ that charged the camp.

The same player has died a couple more times in this campaign. Usually in equaly silly ways.

The characters in this campaign are now between 13-15. We have 7 players. Only myself, "The Dash" and the Rogue who was missing that night are original characters that have been with the party since lvl-1. The other players have all lost characters along the way. A couple of them have lost 2 or more. Ha actually the same two players who died that night are on thier 4th characters each.

TheLogman
2007-06-26, 11:51 PM
Way, Way back, playing 1st edition. I had to keep my abilities as I rolled them, and I kept coming up with Wizards. I ended up with 2 Wizards, a Cleric, and 3 Fighters. We went into the Dungeon, made it a few rooms in, and fought some Vermin. 3 rounds later, after looking for Treasure, huge amount of wandering Vermin come in, total Party Tpk. Minor annoyance, a few rerollings later, new party ready to go. I actually rejoiced, cause I had two parties worth of Treasure now, and the knowledge to stay out of the vermin room next time.

Mattarias, King.
2007-06-26, 11:56 PM
oh, wow, crazy stories here. Sucks to be that barbarian, though, Damionte. No offense.

Though from Logman's story, I guess not all deaths are totally bad. At least metagame.

CockroachTeaParty
2007-06-27, 12:05 AM
The last campaign I ran... last year? Yes... let's see...

Oh yeah! This one guy was playing a psion. His CON score was only 10, so he had really low hp. The final battle of this long adventure finally comes around, and he single handedly destroys the BBEG's champion, a Hill Giant, with a single power (Mind Crush?). Everyone is very impressed. Then, the BBEG shoots a Prismatic Ray at him (PHB II, I believe), and does 30 damage to him. He was flying 90 ft. above a canyon at the time, and he fell unconscious... and then fell to his death, Roy style. SPLAT!

Still, the battle was epic enough that his death seemed... fitting? At least it wasn't in vain. It was a pretty cool way to die, after all. At least he wasn't critted by a random orc warrior's greataxe.

Mattarias, King.
2007-06-27, 12:13 AM
The last campaign I ran... last year? Yes... let's see...

Oh yeah! This one guy was playing a psion. His CON score was only 10, so he had really low hp. The final battle of this long adventure finally comes around, and he single handedly destroys the BBEG's champion, a Hill Giant, with a single power (Mind Crush?). Everyone is very impressed. Then, the BBEG shoots a Prismatic Ray at him (PHB II, I believe), and does 30 damage to him. He was flying 90 ft. above a canyon at the time, and he fell unconscious... and then fell to his death, Roy style. SPLAT!

Still, the battle was epic enough that his death seemed... fitting? At least it wasn't in vain. It was a pretty cool way to die, after all. At least he wasn't critted by a random orc warrior's greataxe.

:smalleek: ... Ouch. Still, I have to agree. Nice end. I'm resisting a joke related to a parody of a children's card game show, but good end nonetheless. :smallbiggrin:

CockroachTeaParty
2007-06-27, 12:17 AM
No gay clowns were harmed during the campaign.

ocato
2007-06-27, 12:26 AM
In my first session ever my Half-Orc Fighter was killed by the head of the bugbears we were sent to kill. He was actually eviscerated by a terrible crit. Jokes still fly whenever we see bugbears. I hate them. I hate them so much. I miss playing D&D.

Mattarias, King.
2007-06-27, 12:32 AM
Cockroach- XDXD heheh. Ok, YOU win a cookie.

ocato- ouch.. Well, at least you were felled in battle with ther leader. it should be a bardic tale to be told for some time.
-also, good luck finding a ew group, too. :smallsmile:

Jasdoif
2007-06-27, 12:40 AM
(.. Also, Are there side effects to being killed via level drain? Sounds nasty..)There can be.
A character with negative levels at least equal to her current level, or drained below 1st level, is instantly slain. Depending on the creature that killed her, she may rise the next night as a monster of that kind. If not, she rises as a wight.

Starsinger
2007-06-27, 12:43 AM
Okay, I'll share. The first time I encountered death in the party was my first game of D&D ever. The party consisted of an Elven bard (Me! My first character ever!), a half-orc fighter, a human cleric, and a halfling rogue. Well, some orcish cultists were performing a ritual to make a volcano, called the Eye of Gruumsh, explode, taking out the small kingdom nearby. So, like good adventurers, we set out to stop it.

We fought through and at the end, the head cultist killed the Half-orc fighter. And we ran off, as the volcano began to erupt, despite our best efforts we failed. (This is the way!!) Anyways, as we were escaping, the halfling failed a jump check and fell into a river of lava, our second death. As the cleric and I ran towards the entrance to the volcano, he pushed me out of the way of a boulder, and tragically died, squished beneath it... So the Eye of Gruumsh exploded, destroying the nearby town, and the only person who survived was the only elf around. Like I said, I was new to D&D so I wasn't quite as attached to him as I would've been had I played longer... but it was still a nice story.

Maerok
2007-06-27, 12:58 AM
Doesn't death via level drain create a Wight (seeing as the lifeforce is all torn asunder to create some vile shell of its former self)? :smalleek:

Mattarias, King.
2007-06-27, 01:13 AM
Doesn't death via level drain create a Wight (seeing as the lifeforce is all torn asunder to create some vile shell of its former self)? :smalleek:

:smalleek:

.. OH. Oh dear. Egad. Uhm...

How do you fix that? :smalleek:

ClericofPhwarrr
2007-06-27, 01:53 AM
:smalleek:

.. OH. Oh dear. Egad. Uhm...

How do you fix that? :smalleek:

Easiest way: make sure the DM doesn't learn about it.

Mattarias, King.
2007-06-27, 01:56 AM
Easiest way: make sure the DM doesn't learn about it.

... O.o; good point, but, uh...

If that falls through...?

ClericofPhwarrr
2007-06-27, 02:00 AM
Cremate the body?

Unfortunately, that would require digging it up... :smalleek:

Inyssius Tor
2007-06-27, 02:04 AM
Well, in one night you won't have to worry about digging it up...

Vuzzmop
2007-06-27, 02:07 AM
Our first campaign's character death happened the first day I wasn't there. There were two ways to get into the tomb, one of them gaurded by two ogres (we were low level), What do my party do? Charge!!. They run away, badly beaten, especially our barbarian. They could have easily, gone the other route, and knew it was undefended, but, Charge!!!!!!!!!. Barbarian dies. Idiots.

Callix
2007-06-27, 02:24 AM
I'm playing a Crusader, and I almost got wiped by rats. That's right. Rats. Four standard, 1 advanced to 1HD (Small size). The scouts were injured from an earlier fight, and the DM didn't want casters, so I went into what I knew would be an ambush because I had the HP and AC to take it. Or so I thought. The advanced rat hit, then two of the other rats did too. One of them got a crit. Then we roll initiative. They roll a 19. I roll a 3. Rats!
Two more hits. I'm at 3, with 5 points delayed. And I'm rolling lousy. I just manage to hit with Furious Counterstrike, and get Martial Spirit healing, so I go to 0. Now my party nukes the rat. I was this close to being out, and I ws the party healer. I proceeded to miss all my attacks except 1 for the next 3 hours of play. Against rats. Go figure.

Basha
2007-06-27, 02:30 AM
After nearly 20 years of gaming, the first one I do not remember. But mostly, it is the players not to clever reactions that got them killed.
I will give you an example.
While storming a villainīs stronghold, an old castle, battle ensues and a fire breakes out in some part of the castle. The PCs move on to the castles treasury. The door is closed. The DM says that it is hot down there, and getting hotter, the closer you get to the door. Without close inspection it is noticed, and the DM tells the players, that the door is searing hot. (It is a door made out of metal.) Everyone tries to get out of the castle, except for a certain PC played by Mr. Moribund. He says"I go there and open the door." DM:" Do you really want to do that?" PC:"Yes, I want to see what is inside. It ought to be filled with gold."
So it is, but the PC cannot make any use of it, because he is engulfed in molten gold pouring on him from the inside of the treasury chamber......

However, in your case the DM should provide for an opportunity to get that character raised. I mean, it does not look like his stupidity got him killed. In the groups I played with, most of the DMs were not "Mr. NO Mercy".

How do you deal with character death?
First of all, do not take it personally. It still is a game. Please, do not confuse your character with yourself. It usually is doing quite some harm to the people to whom that happens.

Destro_Yersul
2007-06-27, 02:42 AM
First one I've played: Me. I was the party rogue, and was a knife thrower. We end up fighting a demon because we needed the shackles it was chained with to bind the BBEG. I've been staying back, throwing many many daggers at this guy. I hit very little. The (legless) party wizard has been slinging magic missiles this whole time, and doing quite a bit of damage with them. The demon knocks him unconscious and swipes at me with his tail. I have, at level four, a grand total of 11HP. I died in one hit.

First one I've DM'd: Party fighter is one on one with an earth elemental next to a really deep pit. The sorcerer is on the other side, throwing spells. Earth elemental, which keeps missing, decides to grapple. Picks up the fighter, chucks him into the pit, and jumps down after him. Several thousand d6 later, the fighter is a red smear on the floor.

First one I've watched: The party has just killed a powerful cleric of death. They're searching his living area, looking for loot, and come across a chest. A glowing chest that radiates evil dark energy. Party Rogue: "I open it." Rest of Party: "We get the #$&@ out of the room." The rogue died. Horribly.

Xefas
2007-06-27, 03:23 AM
I'm always stuck with DMing games, and have never played in a campaign for more than the first session before the new DM says its too much work and wants me to DM again, and the players say that he was doing a crap job and I should do it again...

But, I digress...so the only deaths I've experienced are from the DMing side. And...well, the first two ever were related in that they happened to the same character in the same combat from the same enemy. That enemy was another player.

The one who died was a Lawful Good Cleric, and the killer was a Yuan-Ti whos alignment was shifting from Chaotic Neutral to Chaotic Evil. Their relationship beforehand was that the cleric put up with the Yuan-Ti because the group needed the extra muscle to save the world and what-not, and the Yuan-Ti had promised to be on his best behaviour. Well, after a while, snakeboy started regressing back to his malicious roots, and after some bravado about slaying innocents and what-have-you, the cleric decided that this thing was obviously beyond redemption, and that it had been given many chances beforehand, all of which were used up now.

So, the cleric attacks, and the Yuan-Ti retaliates immediately, not having liked the cleric much anyway, and quickly pummels the holyman to the ground and poisons him. After some taunting, he plants an arrow in the cleric's skull, desecrated the corpse a little, and begins moving on. The rest of the party isn't sure what to do at this point. However, the cleric had previously never cashed in some of his shmoozing points with the powers that be, and decided he'd like to be ressurected instantaneously as a reward for thwarting evils in the past (the rest of the party had been given divine rewards in other sessions, the cleric just hadn't thought of what he wanted yet). Anyways, the cleric rises from the dead in a blaze of glory and charges after the Yuan-Ti.

In a morbidly hilarious run of rolls, the Yuan-Ti shoots the cleric dead before he can even get close enough to have a chance to fight back.

The Prince of Cats
2007-06-27, 04:00 AM
My first character death (in D&D) was back in 2e... I was a level one elven fighter-mage, so no armour and my con was not as high as a full fighter's. Critical hit, rolled on the DM's little table as being to the groin, dropped to -20hp, ruled as 'bisection' and the image scarred many of us for life.

What is worse, it was just a random bugbear. Not a boss-fight, just one lucky shot.

My party tend not to care about party death so much unless I DM. The one time I saw them care was in one of my campaigns that spanned two generations. Only one player kept the same character, while the others took children of their original (mostly human) characters. As a cleric, I suppose the ageing modifiers were not such a penalty as they would be to a fighter.

He died heroically, fighting undead and singing his praises to the gods. Sadly, the party did not have the resources to buy him a resurrection and he was the only cleric they had. They ended up making a rather ill-advised bargain with Mephistopheles rather than lose their 'uncle' in a cold unhappy tomb.

I was so proud of them at that point. It is just a shame they never repeated that level of roleplaying again.

Dan_Hemmens
2007-06-27, 04:16 AM
The last PC death in a campaign I was playing in (and first, thinking about it, if you don't count freeforms and boffer LARPs) was a natural philosopher with religious leanings who had turned to strange forbidden magics in order to reestablish his connection with his god.

We shot him when he refused to admit that he was putting us all in danger.

It worked really well actually.

Damionte
2007-06-27, 04:33 AM
I remember my first 3.0+ death. it was my very first monk character.

I don't remember why we were fighting them. Pretty much because they were there I guess.

We had just spent a couple weeks figuring out how to make characters and me being me picked the al-mighty monk as my first ever D20 character.

Had him all decked out and ready to go.

Our very first combat in D20 was against a trio or Orcs. I won initiative. I charged the lead orc, pulling a sommersault through the air, GM even let me roll a tumble check, though he gave me no bonuses for surprising them.

I did my handy dandy flip, landed before them rolled a 3 to hit and my turn was over. I missed.

That was all she wrote.

The Orc with the battle axe took one swing. Natural 20. he backs up the crit, I'm dead.

That was it. That was my first D20 character. down in the opening round of combat. The other PC's hadn't even had a chance to go yet. That damn orcs initive was next.

Saph
2007-06-27, 06:47 AM
We've had too many PC deaths to easily count, so I'll just do the funny ones.

Shish Kebab

The 5th-6th level party's just fought their way to the top of a tower containing an artifact wand. The party ranger manages to open the chest and grabs the wand. An Erinyes shows up, longbow in hand, flutters down to land on the top of the stone pillars, thanks the ranger for getting the chest open, then tells her to give her the wand or be killed. They refuse. Roll initiative. Wizard goes first, erinyes goes second.

The 5th-level wizard flies up using his still-active Fly spell, hovers right in front of her, and blasts her with an acid-substituted fireball. High Reflex save + acid resistance 10. She takes no damage.

The Erinyes says "That was really mean" and rapid-fires three arrows at the wizard. The first shot hits, the second shot criticals. 4d8 + 28 piercing damage + 2d6 fire damage. He drops to -21 HP.

The funny thing was that the Fly spell was still active, so his corpse, with an arrow stuck through its neck, proceeded to spin gently in midair, 40 feet up, for the rest of the battle.

Death After Battle

Same player, same campaign. This time he's playing a Warblade. You'd think that given how tough they are, he'd manage to survive. Nope.

The party runs into a Wyvern. It Flyby Attacks him and stings him. He fails his save, takes 7 points of Con damage. I tell him that the poison feels lethal and he knows he could easily die from this. He stays where he is and hits the Wyvern again as it goes for another Flyby Attack on someone else. It stops and lands in front of them, ready to do a full attack. He moves up next to it and hits it a third time.

Well, you can guess which target the Wyvern picked. The sting criticals. He makes his Fort save and the party kills the Wyvern next round, but now he's got two doses of wyvern poison inside him. He drinks some antitoxin. One minute passes. First saving throw; makes it. Second saving throw; fails. 2d6 roll comes up: it's a 9. Zero Con, dead.

First time I've ever seen a player die from secondary damage.

Death By Dumbness

Different campaign - I was a player this time. We were exploring a long-deserted area of sewer, and found a room surrounded by traps. After much difficulty we manage to work our way around to the room's iron-bound door, which has an inscription on it written in Sylvan. My character can read Sylvan: unfortunately, the cleric can't, and she's the one who gets there first. She opens the door and walks in. I get there a minute later and read the inscription. Loosely translated, it says: "Warning, do not open, a hideous monster is sealed inside."

Sigh.

The monster turns out to be some kind of ogre mage. After it's nearly killed half the party, we manage to put it down and start investigating its prison. The room is completely airtight except for a black half-sphere in the corner. The party try sticking things into the sphere. They vanish.

Cleric: "How about you guys lower me in and I'll investigate?"
Fighter: "Okay."
Druid: "We tie the ropes. Okay, you're good to go."
Me: "Wait! I don't think you should-"
Cleric: "They lower me down into the sphere."
Me: "-go into . . . oh."

Party waits. Cleric doesn't come back. I'd already made a good guess at what the thing might be - a prison needs some kind of waste disposal system, right? We never found out exactly what effect it was, but out-of-character, the DM made very clear that the cleric was dead dead dead.

That's it for now, but there are plenty of others. :)

- Saph

Leon
2007-06-27, 07:32 AM
wow we usually laugh at the character and leave them there take items and go wait for new character

Sounds like a lovely bunch of people.... not

Jayabalard
2007-06-27, 07:42 AM
How does one say "quoted for untruth"? QFU?

... :PI think that the first step would be finding something that's untrue...

Tormsskull
2007-06-27, 07:57 AM
My very first character death occured back in Old D&D, the adventure in the red books. As the intro default character fighter, I went through the solo adventure, missed my save versus the evil wizard Bargle's charm spell, and left the poor female cleric to die on his suggestion.

In the follow-up adventure I met with three other players at the Golden Dragon Inn, traveled to the abandoned castle where we might find more information on Bargle. We were ambushed by a pack of kobolds (back when they were canine creatures instead of reptiles), defeated them, and then found the large hole covered by one of the doors that was ripped from the castle front.

We moved the door, looked inside the hole, only to discover it was where a Carrion Crawler lurked. My character got paralyzed by one of the many attacks, and eventually was eaten up.

Darth Mario
2007-06-27, 08:02 AM
We've had too many PC deaths to easily count, so I'll just do the funny ones.

Death By Dumbness
The monster turns out to be some kind of ogre mage. After it's nearly killed half the party, we manage to put it down and start investigating its prison. The room is completely airtight except for a black half-sphere in the corner. The party try sticking things into the sphere. They vanish.

Cleric: "How about you guys lower me in and I'll investigate?"
Fighter: "Okay."
Druid: "We tie the ropes. Okay, you're good to go."
Me: "Wait! I don't think you should-"
Cleric: "They lower me down into the sphere."
Me: "-go into . . . oh."

Party waits. Cleric doesn't come back. I'd already made a good guess at what the thing might be - a prison needs some kind of waste disposal system, right? We never found out exactly what effect it was, but out-of-character, the DM made very clear that the cleric was dead dead dead.


That... would be the Minor Artifact called the Sphere of Annialation. (spelling) Your Cleric was erased from existance the moment he touched it.

Saph
2007-06-27, 08:15 AM
That... would be the Minor Artifact called the Sphere of Annialation. (spelling) Your Cleric was erased from existance the moment he touched it.

Either that, or a portal to somewhere really unpleasant, like the Negative Energy Plane. We weren't sure which. Just as fatal either way.

- Saph

EagleWiz
2007-06-27, 08:43 AM
Easy Sphere of anilation test:
Try to controll in with your mind.
If that works then you have a sphere of anilation and the DM has a headache.

Knight_Of_Twilight
2007-06-27, 09:55 AM
Not everyone is a vulture who grabs their buddy's loot and redistributes it before the corpse hits rigor mortis. :smalltongue:

*Begin True Story*

:: Horrible Death Vines attack ::

Kobold Thief: BLARGH! * Killed *

Sorcerer: AGAHABA! * Killed *

My Paladin: Oh no!

:: Fight ensues, vines defeated ::

Paladin: *Kneels down* My poor friends. We fought many battles together- I..

Scout: *Removing the boots, rings, and pouches from both*

Paladin: ... What are you doing?

Scout: They had good swag! I'm taking some of it.

Paladin: *sighs*

Scout: What? You can have some too!

Dan_Hemmens
2007-06-27, 09:58 AM
Scout: They had good swag! I'm taking some of it.

Paladin: *sighs*

Scout: What? You can have some too!

Anybody would think that the game in some way rewarded you for prioritizing the acquisition of treasure over your character's emotional reactions...

Tormsskull
2007-06-27, 10:06 AM
Anybody would think that the game in some way rewarded you for prioritizing the acquisition of treasure over your character's emotional reactions...

*Succeeds at a Will Save DC 20 check in order to avoid engaging Dan in another debate over the difference between OOC and IC information/reaction/etc.*

Maerok
2007-06-27, 10:11 AM
Death By Dumbness

Different campaign - I was a player this time. We were exploring a long-deserted area of sewer, and found a room surrounded by traps. After much difficulty we manage to work our way around to the room's iron-bound door, which has an inscription on it written in Sylvan. My character can read Sylvan: unfortunately, the cleric can't, and she's the one who gets there first. She opens the door and walks in. I get there a minute later and read the inscription. Loosely translated, it says: "Warning, do not open, a hideous monster is sealed inside."

Sigh.

The monster turns out to be some kind of ogre mage. After it's nearly killed half the party, we manage to put it down and start investigating its prison. The room is completely airtight except for a black half-sphere in the corner. The party try sticking things into the sphere. They vanish.

Cleric: "How about you guys lower me in and I'll investigate?"
Fighter: "Okay."
Druid: "We tie the ropes. Okay, you're good to go."
Me: "Wait! I don't think you should-"
Cleric: "They lower me down into the sphere."
Me: "-go into . . . oh."

Party waits. Cleric doesn't come back. I'd already made a good guess at what the thing might be - a prison needs some kind of waste disposal system, right? We never found out exactly what effect it was, but out-of-character, the DM made very clear that the cleric was dead dead dead.

That's it for now, but there are plenty of others. :)

- Saph

Classic. :smallbiggrin: The only think better would be if they sent the druid in after him. :smallamused:

Bassetking
2007-06-27, 10:17 AM
The room is completely airtight except for a black half-sphere in the corner. The party try sticking things into the sphere. They vanish.

Cleric: "How about you guys lower me in and I'll investigate?"
Fighter: "Okay."
Druid: "We tie the ropes. Okay, you're good to go."
Me: "Wait! I don't think you should-"
Cleric: "They lower me down into the sphere."
Me: "-go into . . . oh."

Party waits. Cleric doesn't come back. I'd already made a good guess at what the thing might be - a prison needs some kind of waste disposal system, right? We never found out exactly what effect it was, but out-of-character, the DM made very clear that the cleric was dead dead dead.

That's it for now, but there are plenty of others. :)

- Saph

Any Prison that uses a Sphere of Annihilation as a Toilet is a SWANKY place.

Though, sadly, you cannot make sangria in a Sphere of Annihilation

Dan_Hemmens
2007-06-27, 10:19 AM
Any Prison that uses a Sphere of Annihilation as a Toilet is a SWANKY place.

Though, sadly, you cannot make sangria in a Sphere of Annihilation

How do you know, it's not like you can go in and check...

Arbitrarity
2007-06-27, 10:22 AM
Hmmm... TPK in some premade module, as we jst wanted to play some. And no one came up with anything.

ECL 4, a paladin(me), a warmage, a changeling rogue, and an NPC cleric.

So. We were told by the church in a local village to escort this girl down the path of D00m. We began o do so, encountering owlbears, something with DR 5/magic (before I knew about recommended wealth total, so no magic weapon for me), and something I can't recall. We're all beaten up, so we go to camp. I take watch. Bandits come, and CDG the party. They try to sneak attack me. The roue wakes up and leaves before they get to her, the girl wakes up too.

Anyway, then the stupid stuff happens. The rogue leaves (perfectly in character, CN, just found the party), I kill both the bandits, and decide to forge on. Shadows come. I burn all my turn undead attempts, and run a lot, only to run into more bandits. I die hrribly of being str damaged to 0. The girl dies as a result of being in between hostile bandits and shadows.

I rise as a shadow.

Kellus
2007-06-27, 06:58 PM
Our first death in our current campaign was my own. We'd recently gotten our hands on a bag of beans that was recently posted on the Homebrew forum. Very random. I planted one and a wall fell on top of me. Somehow I couldn't hit the DC 35 Escape Artist check to get out, and was squished to death. Kind of depressing, really. The rest of the party stayed back and laughed at me. :P

Thrawn183
2007-06-27, 07:51 PM
First character death I ever saw was a Level 12 soulknife that took a disintegrate to the face for about 93 damage (failed the save). Managed to survive that due to having a decent con score and then failed the save against massive damage.

Seeing as this character was a member of a party that, at level 11, took down a CR 15 black dragon with nothing but straight damage in a single round and was the one who struck the final blow... it was definitely surprising.

Next round of course, my cleric ate a different disintegrate and failed his save, though he managed to save against massive damage at least (and healed himself to full hp the very same round!)

Man, my group still talks about that dragon, definitely the most interesting encounter of the entire campaign.

JellyPooga
2007-06-27, 07:58 PM
The first character 'death' in a Ravenloft campaign one of my mates ran was me and the character didn't die...he left.

I thought, the campaign being Ravenloft and all, that I might actually give some 'heavy roleplaying' a go (as in play a character that built around an actual character rather than a bunch of stats). So I spent hours writing out (mostly for my own benefit) a fairly lengthy background and personality. In short: He was a Sorcerer by class, but not by heart. He grew up in a rather superstitious and fearful village (which is just about every village in the Ravenloft campaign setting) which had a habit of burning 'witches and warlocks' at the stake. When his sorcerous powers showed through, he was forced to run away. As a character, he disliked using his powers and was a little touchy about the subject. Fairly stereotypical, but I laboured at it and really got to like the character.

The first session was great; all atmosphere and plot-line. Gave everyone a chance to get into their characters and the setting.

The second session went a little downhill; the plot started getting a bit bizarre (too...obvious for Ravenloft) and random combats were thrown in for no apparent reason.

The third session was nothing more than a dungeon delve (metaphorically), Hack'n'Slash gore fest. No plot. No RP opportunities. Nothing. For a Sorcerer that dislikes using his somewhat limited (1st level) spells, it was really rather dull, so towards the end of the session he simply picked up his gear and wandered off into the night, leaving the party behind.

If he were to have stayed in the group, he would definitely have regretted it because my second character in that game died the next session, along with 2 other characters. The session after that, another character died and the one after that, one player died twice. After that I stopped playing that game...

Anxe
2007-06-27, 08:17 PM
The first campaign I played in had quite a few character deaths. The first one was a mage called Mara who decided to attack some Harpies with a dagger at 2nd level. She died. The second character, also called Mara, went first when our party was climbing a tree and ran into a python. She died. The third character death was my beloved thief, Anxe. He put on a cursed necklace that started to choke him. The rest of the party then proceeded to attempt to lop his head off in order to remove the necklace. I think I actually died from an axe hit by the dwarf. They should've just pulled the charm off the necklace. They would've saved me. I was too busy choking to tell the burly barbarian to do that.

The fourth party death was when we fought a spellcaster. He fireballed our mage and killed him. The rest of the party fought the mage while I pickpocketed a Raise Dead scroll off the cleric. I then tried to use it with my pitiful 1 rank in Use Magic Device. Rolled a 20 and Raised the mage during the combat with the enemy spellcaster.

The fifth party death was the above mage dying when we fought another spellcaster.

Diggorian
2007-06-27, 09:18 PM
First death I witnessed was my own mage in my first D&D game 15 years back. I think he was a elf named Soren, my first PC.

I'd been playing Soren for 30 minutes, enjoying acting in character, when Orc pirates attacked the ship I was a passenger on with the party. I cast my spells until I ran out of slots, then I drew my dagger and charged the nearest orc. Turns out Orcs were better at melee than Soren; who was impaled through the gut *splortch*, lifted by the blade, and flicked off the sword *schling* over the side of ship like a dry booger. *sploosh*

My reaction: "So, I'm done playing then?" DM was nice enough to let me make a new character. :smallbiggrin:

Last campaign character death, before the confused Wizard had Fly dispelled over a chasm *weeee* and the dwarf thief-acrobat became Illithid lunch *crunch-crunch-crunch-crunch-sluuurp*, we lost a dwarven fighteress that was my long time partner in tanking.

A Balhannoth (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mm4_gallery/98666.jpg) was attracted to the magic of her axe so grappled her up (it didnt care we werent Drow). During the fight it got me too. After it was knocked from the ceiling, I -- with only a hand full of HP -- killed it with a martial manuever boosted shortsword piercing armpit deep into him. Ignara was already dead.

I took her axe and wrapped it in canvass with a note (http://cardishrpg.wikispaces.com/Igara+Durnstone)I wrote in the monster's blood. If my PC survives the current adventure, he'll take the axe to her Clan.

Valamere
2007-06-27, 09:29 PM
My first Char death was in basic rules D&D I was 10 and had no idea how to play, but the party was 1 fighter 2 elves and 1 thief, I sent the thief in the next room and there was no light on and died. Me assuming it was a terrible evil,agian i was 10 skipped that room.


It turned out to be 3 rats

phoenixineohp
2007-06-27, 09:41 PM
The first character 'death' in a Ravenloft campaign one of my mates ran was me and the character didn't die...he left.

I thought, the campaign being Ravenloft and all, that I might actually give some 'heavy roleplaying' a go (as in play a character that built around an actual character rather than a bunch of stats). So I spent hours writing out (mostly for my own benefit) a fairly lengthy background and personality. In short: He was a Sorcerer by class, but not by heart. He grew up in a rather superstitious and fearful village (which is just about every village in the Ravenloft campaign setting) which had a habit of burning 'witches and warlocks' at the stake. When his sorcerous powers showed through, he was forced to run away. As a character, he disliked using his powers and was a little touchy about the subject. Fairly stereotypical, but I laboured at it and really got to like the character.

The first session was great; all atmosphere and plot-line. Gave everyone a chance to get into their characters and the setting.

The second session went a little downhill; the plot started getting a bit bizarre (too...obvious for Ravenloft) and random combats were thrown in for no apparent reason.

The third session was nothing more than a dungeon delve (metaphorically), Hack'n'Slash gore fest. No plot. No RP opportunities. Nothing. For a Sorcerer that dislikes using his somewhat limited (1st level) spells, it was really rather dull, so towards the end of the session he simply picked up his gear and wandered off into the night, leaving the party behind.

If he were to have stayed in the group, he would definitely have regretted it because my second character in that game died the next session, along with 2 other characters. The session after that, another character died and the one after that, one player died twice. After that I stopped playing that game...

The only campaign I've played was Ravenloft and I'm happy to see another person who tried it. Unfortunately your experience doesn't see quite as... fun? Can the idea of fun still be applied to ravenloft? :smalltongue:

My personal character nearly died once, but that was plot. After that, death and true death became different things and one 'death' did happen. In the end of the campaign I had to make a choice and what I picked happened to be the one (out of three options) where she lived. Phoenix now continues on in town. :smallsmile:

As for our group... death and Ravenloft go hand in hand. Horrible twisted death too... Wonderful rp opportunities.

Stormcrow
2007-06-27, 11:00 PM
Last campaign character death, before the confused Wizard had Fly dispelled over a chasm *weeee* and the dwarf thief-acrobat became Illithid lunch *crunch-crunch-crunch-crunch-sluuurp*, we lost a dwarven fighteress that was my long time partner in tanking.

A Balhannoth (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/mm4_gallery/98666.jpg) was attracted to the magic of her axe so grappled her up (it didnt care we werent Drow). During the fight it got me too. After it was knocked from the ceiling, I -- with only a hand full of HP -- killed it with a martial manuever boosted shortsword piercing armpit deep into him. Ignara was already dead.

I took her axe and wrapped it in canvass with a note (http://cardishrpg.wikispaces.com/Igara+Durnstone)I wrote in the monster's blood. If my PC survives the current adventure, he'll take the axe to her Clan.


Man... The world needs more people who can roleplay like you...

Mattarias, King.
2007-06-27, 11:03 PM
.. well, I'm pretty sure i cremated him..

Also, It seems bugbears and vermin are big offenders. hm.. :smallconfused:

And our druid doesn't want to be revived. not like we have enough cash to raise him anyways. The highest-leveled character in our party is at 4 and is a bard (me). Not much can be done for revivification..

Tallis
2007-06-27, 11:19 PM
My very first character death occured back in Old D&D, the adventure in the red books. As the intro default character fighter, I went through the solo adventure, missed my save versus the evil wizard Bargle's charm spell, and left the poor female cleric to die on his suggestion.

In the follow-up adventure I met with three other players at the Golden Dragon Inn, traveled to the abandoned castle where we might find more information on Bargle. We were ambushed by a pack of kobolds (back when they were canine creatures instead of reptiles), defeated them, and then found the large hole covered by one of the doors that was ripped from the castle front.

We moved the door, looked inside the hole, only to discover it was where a Carrion Crawler lurked. My character got paralyzed by one of the many attacks, and eventually was eaten up.

Ah, remember Castle Mistamere well. I died quite a lot there. Unfortunately I don't remember any of the details.

The first in-game deaths I can remember were from campaign I ran.
Day One: The ninja decides to leave the party. He tries to break into the mayors estate and gets into a fight with the guards. He loses half his hit points and gets knocked out. Upon waking he decides to climb the wall. He fails his climb check and falls to his death. I should note that this player felt it was the players' job to make life dificult for the DM. He made a second character, wandered off again and we stopped inviting him.
Later: The illusionist's player never quite got the hang of it. He somehow managed to make it to level 4. The party encountered a couple ogres in the woods. He won initiative, pulled out his dagger and charged. He missed. The ogre took one shot, critted and chopped him in half. After that the player rerolled as a ranger and everyone was much happier.

Diggorian
2007-06-27, 11:32 PM
Man... The world needs more people who can roleplay like you...

Thanks, the buttload of bonus RP XP for making another player teary dont hurt either! I've got a level adjuster to buy off :smallbiggrin:

Our characters had an interesting relationship: a dwarf fighteress and a hobgoblin fighter/warblade that was once a slave to dwarves. We came 180 degrees from suspicion and prejudice to her subtly hitting on him, a comradery that can only be shared by fellow meatshields. :smallamused:

Elven Paladin
2007-06-27, 11:48 PM
Lessee...first character death.

Well, I was playing a Half-Elf Ranger. It was one of my friend's first times at being a DM. I don't remember why, but he let a D&D veteran join in, and it was my job to escort him through the forests.

Well this "veteran" was playing a character who was convinced that...that bears lived inside every one. After brutally murdering the nameless NPC while I was sleeping; he then proceeded to rip through my ribcage to get to the bear side.

Did I mention I was level 1 while he was level 7?

dungeon_munky
2007-06-27, 11:59 PM
Well, the first character death any of my characters experienced was a near TPK where two of the five died, two were brought to negatives, and the last was at 0. Of course, he is Lawful Evil, so these deaths are a necessary loss. Cares more for the lost utility than the person.

NamuC
2007-06-28, 01:15 AM
Not everyone is a vulture who grabs their buddy's loot and redistributes it before the corpse hits rigor mortis. :smalltongue:
(The maker of this thread fails to mention that the phrase "Can I have your amulet of health?" was one of the most immediate responces on his part.)
*ahem* >.>

Renegade Paladin
2007-06-28, 01:19 AM
One of my current characters has died twice. If he bites it again, he'll beat the record of Saint Sollars the Twice-Martyred, and any local Ilmatians will be upset. :smallamused:

Mattarias, King.
2007-06-28, 01:19 AM
(The maker of this thread fails to mention that the phrase "Can I have your amulet of health?" was one of the most immediate responces on his part.)
*ahem* >.>

HEY! I have a reason for that. :smallyuk:

NamuC
2007-06-28, 01:33 AM
HEY! I have a reason for that. :smallyuk:

My statement stands reguardless. :smalltongue:

Ka'ladun
2007-06-28, 01:33 AM
The first death in my campaign was about a week ago. The bard broke the illusion that the kobold wizard used as a distraction. The kobold responded with a fireball and the bard failed his reflex save for 22 damage. He was at 12 hp from the traps set up in the room :smallfrown: .Alas poor Jasper, we knew him well. Granted, they got a cleric to cast raise dead for him a few days later, but still.

ClericofPhwarrr
2007-06-28, 01:56 AM
Lessee...first character death.

Well, I was playing a Half-Elf Ranger. It was one of my friend's first times at being a DM. I don't remember why, but he let a D&D veteran join in, and it was my job to escort him through the forests.

Well this "veteran" was playing a character who was convinced that...that bears lived inside every one. After brutally murdering the nameless NPC while I was sleeping; he then proceeded to rip through my ribcage to get to the bear side.

Did I mention I was level 1 while he was level 7?

That is amazing. Bears inside everyone... I had a good laugh. :smallamused:

EndgamerAzari
2007-06-28, 02:16 AM
There's nothing worse than getting killed because the DM has no idea what the hell he's throwing at you. Our party, around level 11-12 gestalt, came up from a dungeon inside an inn full of people we decided must be evil. After the wholesale slaughter of the occupants of that room, we headed upstairs. One character, who specializes in hunting undead, senses a few in a room nearby. Boom. Inside is a vampire and a few of his hoochie spawns. Our goliath swordsage/barbarian (I know, it doesn't make sense), waded in there to unleash merry hell, and was subsequently energy drained to death. The DM didn't even know how negative levels worked. So we tied up the dead PC after we wiped out the vamps, and plan to beat him over the head each time he wakes up until we can get a true resurrection on him.

The_Chilli_God
2007-06-28, 02:20 AM
First character death...

Ah, yes. Elf. Elf the Elvish Elf, as my halfling rogue in that campaign would say.
He was an elf, believe it or not. Elf wizard. Though his real name wasn't Elf, that's just the name my PC called him.
Elf was a really arrogant piece of work. I will never know whether that was the player's own personality, or the character's personality. Either way, Elf thought that he could handle most every thing thrown at him, with his fireball and his ice storm and other such mage-ick spells.

Well, we were going to this town to complete this quest thingy-or-a-rather, and we got ambushed by two (2) hill giants. Nice challenge for a... Oh, what were we? 8th level by that time? Must have been. Yeah.
Anyway, Elf decided that he could handle one of them hill giants all on his onesies, while the rest of us (that would be a cleric, his fighter cohort, my rogue, and a ranger popped onto the scene during the battle to help) all focused on the other one. We killed our giant with no serious problems, but Elf fared a little bit differently.

I think his order of spells went Ice Storm, Ice Storm, Fireball. By the second Ice Storm, the hill giant had made Elf's horse into a fine paste. After the fireball, the hill giant made Elf into a fine paste.

The player later decided that he wouldn't bother making another PC, and left the group due to other reasons. Him and the DM are buddies, so there weren't any hard feelings.

Xan
2007-06-28, 09:27 AM
The first character death I saw was our party's wizard, who decided that it was a good idea to climb up a one hundred foot long shaft in the ceiling of the cavern we were in. Now, the shaft was lined with razors, but this didn't seem to deter him much. He keeps climbing, taking a little damage here or there, but overall doing all right, until he reaches the top and find a small patch of wax above him. Curious, he peels it off, only to unleash a torrent of acid into his face. The acid makes him loose his grip and he plummets the full hundred feet out of the shaft and another seventy five to the floor, hitting razors all the way down. By the time he landed at our party's feet he looked like melting ground meat.

My own first character death was so anticlimactic it was funny. I was scouting ahead of the party through an old temple when I walk under a symbol of death, fail my fort save, and keel over dead on the spot. My party took one look at me collapsing for no apparent reason and quickly came to the decision that they were going to go the other way.

GoldDragon
2007-06-28, 10:11 AM
Timeframe: Last session of the campaign.

Us: A group of about 6-7 level 9 characters. Most of the people playing were new to DnD, and this was their first real campaign.

Them: 2 CR 11 White Dragons and a CR 14 Human "Witch" (Never found out what she had class levels in)

The Events: Our party neared the top of the mountain and found themselves in a wide clear, open space. We all (OoC) suspected an ambush, and were rewarded with two breath weapons during the "surprise" round.

We fought the dragons for a little, and get pretty close to dieing. Our cleric didn't heal very often, but instead preferred to melee. This wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't be utterly inept at it. It didn't help that he never buffed himself, or anybody else for that matter. Finally the cleric falls back to heal some of the party, just in time for the evil witch, Baba Yaga, to make her entrance.

At this point, my character (a human wizard) is getting pretty low on hit points. But, I figure since I'm near the back and very far away from the witch, I'd be ok until the next round when the cleric could get to me, right? Nope. She cast some sort of weird lightning spell (I think the DM made it up on the spot. He had a nasty habit of creating encounters and monsters specifically to kill the characters.) that hit the fighter and arced to every character in the party.

Me: It's cool though, right? I get a reflex save or something right?
DM: Nope.
Me: How much damage then?
DM: 72.
Me: Hmm... *Calculates* That drops me to... -67.
Everybody: o_0
Me: *Laugh to self* Know what's funny about it though? That would've dropped me to -10 even if I'd had full hitpoints.

Matthew
2007-06-28, 11:57 PM
Level 1 Halfling (probably named Bilbo) in the Red Box Dungeons & Dragons Game. He and his Elven companion (ironically, named Tanis Half Elven') bypassed some Kobolds only to be paralysed and eaten by a Carrion Crawler. The first in a long line of Halfling Adventurers to die gruesome deaths as my Player Character. Eventually one of them made it as far as Level 6, after switching up to (A)D&D and took to the stars on board a Spell Jammer.

Hadrian_Emrys
2007-06-29, 12:01 AM
First death I witnessed was in a game I was in the second game I ever ran, and it was actually a two-fer.

It was a home brew setting called Japan-like set in The Kamakura Era, but with a supernatural twist. In any case, there were two samurai, a bushi, and a mystic (all homebrew classes). The bushi and the mystic joined about three sessions into the deal, and right from the start made the mistake of not respecting their caste superiors (the samurai). Well... session 5 rolls around and both the low class party members are in high form insulting the samurai pair despite numerous warnings to pay heed to their place. Not 5 minutes into the game is the bushi beheaded and the mystic impaled on the fallen foot soldier's spear.

Haikiah
2007-06-29, 01:17 AM
My first death this current campaign was my wizard. Hit and run tactics don't work if the demonic army you're using them on happens to a large amount of archers and spellcasters...

"I fly in, invisibly. I want to scope out how big the army is. What do I see?"

"The army has 200 demons of varying sorts."

"Which one is the biggest and ugliest?"

"They're all pretty big and ugly, but I'd say the biggass demon sitting on a throne of skulls, being carried by a bunch of other demons".

"Alright, I'll have to use the utmost of caution here.... DIVINE STRIKE!"

"The demons can now see you. You see a bunch of them reaching for their bows."

"THEY HAVE FREAKING BOWS?! OH GOD!

Is it my turn yet?"

"Yes."

"I want to flee! I can move around 120ft away. Hopefully that'll be safe..."

"Alright, demons turns. What's your AC?"

"30..."

"Alright, 15 hit you, and a fireball."

"Reflex save... failed.... pain..."

"How many hitpoints are you on?"

"....About -30? I'm a spiky charred piece of meat now. Woo!"




Good times.

Belteshazzar
2007-06-29, 04:57 AM
:smalleek:

.. OH. Oh dear. Egad. Uhm...

How do you fix that? :smalleek:

Remove the head or destroy the brain...I repeat remove the head or destroy the brain

Mattarias, King.
2007-06-29, 11:07 AM
Remove the head or destroy the brain...I repeat remove the head or destroy the brain

O... Kaay. :smalleek: ... I should hope the fire takes care of that..

Also, the last few posts made me say "ow"... not fun. If, in our last session, our rogue had failed his save against kobold sorcerer's fire burst (I think I like that spell..), he wouldv'e been pretty far in the negatives, too. :smalleek:

This was a bit -before- the shadow dragon. .. but after the blood elemental. :smalleek: those things POP if you stab them after a few fire spells. ugh..:smallyuk:

... On that note, I might want to look into evasion..

TheRiov
2007-06-30, 09:50 AM
first major character death a I 'witnessed' was during a WOD Vampire LARP. One of my fellow Malkavians, Kara, got thanatos'd into a big pile of dust by one of the badguys.

My response? Being a Malkavian I grabbed a vacuum cleaner, sucked her remains up, put on my biggest ****-eating grin, and marched straight to the prince of the city and presented him the vacuum cleaner bag like I had just handed him a huge sack of gold.

He stared at me for a good thirty seconds, then asked, (very cautiously, like he has is afraid of what answer a Malkavian is going to give him.) "Uhm.... so.. what is this....?"

Me: (brightly) "Kara!"
I immediatly turned and walked away leaving him (and everyone else in the room who hadn't heard of the death of course) to stare blankly.
I got halfway down the hall before I hear him explode "WHAAAAATTTT!?!?"

I Fair-escaped and let them wonder.

Orak
2007-06-30, 11:08 AM
I have had a lot of character deaths over the years but the most memorable happened to a barbarian played by a friend of mine.

We were adventuring in mountains where we know undead were to be found. The DM rolls a random encounter while we are camped against a mountainside and says "Opps, I forgot I put that in there."

Strolling out of the fog comes an giant wielding a rediculously large great axe. We hop out of our sleeping rolls and run to engage it. In the second round of combat the DM rolls a 20, followed by another 20 to confirm the critical and then a 19 to confirm max damage. He ponders the numbers, pulls out a calculator and announce that the barbarian just took 376 damage.

Little pieces of the barbarian rained out of the sky after he was struck by the giant. Not much left of him. Oh yeah, we were level 5-6 at the time.

Quietus
2007-06-30, 12:05 PM
First character death of mine was my poor Elven Ranger, Tor'Suul. Guy had the WORST rolls ever, except when he was below 10% of his max health. Never did understand that. He played in a solo campaign, and had this habit of rolling absolutely horribly if his life wasn't in imminent danger. He managed to get through several adventures worth of things at level 1, by rolling poorly and getting captured by several different creatures, being beaten to within an inch of his life, and escaping.

Case in point : At one point, he was at 1 HP after falling down a 45 foot shaft in the earth meant for storing "food" for a grell (which I was hunting - got captured by his poisondusk lizardfolk cronies). I managed to climb up the shaft, got to the top, and rolled a strength check to get the plug at the top to move - and I managed to get the d20 to stop on an edge. There was nothing there holding it up, no dip in the floor, nothing. My DM ruled it better than a natural 20, and the plug to the shaft went flying.

Of course, my luck ran out later when I got re-captured...

This is the same elven ranger (FE : Abberations) who beat a grell to death at level 1 with his bare hands. Go figure.

Anyway. He got captured again later by some cultists, who strapped him to a table where he had manacles on his wrists and ankles, and a blade around his throat. I managed to get both arms free, then went to work on the blade around my neck - spent three days drifting in and out of consciousness as I rolled more natural 1's than I thought possible, cutting myself on the damned blade. Eventually the place I was in got raided by meenlocks... and they turned poor Tor'Suul into one of them.

Yahzi
2007-07-01, 02:18 PM
He put on a cursed necklace that started to choke him. The rest of the party then proceeded to attempt to lop his head off in order to remove the necklace.
That happened in a game I was playing once - a player put on the necklace and it starts choking him, so our fighter says he'll cut it off with his axe.

A good plan... but he rolled a natural 1.

evisiron
2007-07-01, 02:41 PM
These two while I was GM-ing (in same campaign):

1.Party sees an orc ambush ahead. Most follow their little dragon guide around a cliff face to avoid them. Once they go, dwarf bard decides to 'ride the cart and donkey' into the centre of the orcs and attack them. Of course, he doesnt spot the trap, which crushes him while the orcs stab him repeatedly.
2. BBEG of undead castle is a lich, with 2 undead ogre bodyguards, with orders to attack the closest enemy. Party casts Disruption on the Dervish (Roy style) and he runs to the lich...only to 1 his will save against fear. Lich uses paralyzing touch, ogres coup de grace him to death.
3. The final BBEG of the entire campaign (Col red dragon that later became undead) is low hp. The level 20 ranger is down to 17hp, so runs and hides. However, the dragon looks like its about to die (again) so he jumps out to shoot it, and brings it down to 10hp. Its turn, it decides to use its last Disintegrate spell, and I random it. Comes up to ranger, who fails his fortitude save, and is blasted for 40d6 damage. Ouch.

While playing in a friends:
1. I was playing a rogue, so was checking doors for traps etc. We went into a room, and fought some living items there. The fiend player (same as dwarven bard) gets bored and opens another door on his own. Giant spider drops on him, gets crits in surprise round, wins initiative, more crits in its turn. Dead fiend.

Ali
2007-07-01, 03:25 PM
One or two sessions ago, the Dragon Shaman in the party became terribly boozed up and attacked me while I was in the forest. Luckily, I defeated him (the guy was scrapping the Dragon Shaman to play a Wizard).

Later on we were ambushed by a large group of bandits and the Wizard character mentioned above and the Binder were almost killed.

Capt'n Ironbrow
2007-07-02, 06:58 AM
The 1st character death in my groups WFRP-world was the chaotic dwarf Gorak Gnollengromson, he mutinied against his captain, killing the bloke, then he lost his only fate point (Fate points represent a hero's greater destiny, and are used to escape death, they are rare and once they're gone it will take magnificent heroics to restore them) during his arrest and then failed to escape prison. He was then judged by martial law and sentenced to death in no less than 3 ways: The Gallows, Beheading and Quartering (tied arms and legs to 4 horses who all run seperate ways tearing the poor fella appart).

In WFRP, there's also the chance of mutilation in combat, say, lose an arm, an eye or any other bodypart you'd rather keep. The first limb lost was the right arm of our Dwarf Templar, torn of by a freak creation of an evil alchemist... it was replaced by a whiskey-powered chainsaw :o

In addition to mutilations, each critical hit (a hit that causes the target's wounds to drop below 0 : -1+) requires a save against mental trauma, failure giving you an insanity point. Reach 6 of such points and you might end up with a mental disorder... as the campaign drags on, disorders begin to accumulate. We have a cataleptic halfling targeteer (when failing a fear/terror test, he'll be curled up in a ball and effectively paralysed for a day or more!), a Heroically idiotic nymphomaniac, someone with a phobia for clerics of the God of death and dreams ('caused by the irresponsible actions of the heroically idiotic nymphomaniac).

Most of these disorders add greatly to the Roleplaying, the mutilation of the dwarf templar has the player always shake hands with his left hand when meeting NPC (and apologising for it as a left-handshake is deemed impolite), the nymphomaniac has a really dirty mind and is always looking for pretty ladies to seduce and the Theophobiac tries to keep clear of certain temples and people, including one of his former friends and allies (who has changed beyond recognision in the mental part)

Webtron
2007-07-04, 08:12 PM
this is the story of how a 1st level party was killed on their 1st encounter, it includes a half-ogre fighter (me) a drow mage (Scott) a drow ninja (Daryl) and a dwarven cleric (Greg), this is what happened...

DM: you are on a forest path, it stretches north for as far as you can see, to the south is a town.

me: i think we should go back to town, i need weapons.

scott: yeah, i want some spell components too.

after the quick tyrip to the town, i have a shiny new great-sword, and scott has his sack of ram's blood, or whatever wizards use.

greg: so, is there anything on this path?

DM: well, the dirt has been recently passed over, you recognize them as kobold tracks.

me: oh no, something like 1/4 of my size, lets follow the tracks!

after a brief argument, and convincing there could be loot, we arrive at a kobold encampment.

DM: you rrive at the kobold's encampment, theres a few tents layed out and a single guard with a wolf outside, patrolling the camp.

daryl: i go scout out the camp, and see if theres anything in the camp worth taking.

DM: okay, make a move silently check.

daryl rolled a 2...

DM: the kobold with the wolf spots you and *rolls a 20* hits you in the face with a crossbow for *rolls a 6* 6 damage, how many hit points did you have?

daryl: ...6

DM: okay, so you're bleeding on the ground, and the group doesnt know it...

at this point the group decides to charge.

dave: i run over and try to heal him!

DM: okay... *rolls a few dice* you take 6 points of damage from the wolf and 4 from the goblin, whats your hit points?

dave: negative 2...

DM: so now dave colapsed ontop of daryl, and they're bleeding to death...

at this point me and scott attempt to charge in and kill the wolf and kobold

Me: okay, i charge in and hit the wolf with my greatclub!

DM: okay, roll it...

Me: *rolls a 1* ...20!

DM: ...the gods are mad at your lies, you are smiten by thor for 80 damage!

Me: ...i'm at -68...

Scott: i shoot the wolf with a magic missile! *proceed to roll 1 damage*

DM: okay, the wolf is mad at you and bites you! *rolls some dice* you get crit'd for 8 damage!

Scott: i'm at -4...

DM: ...wow, okay, so i killed you all in the first encounter?

All: yeah...

Scott: you're banned from DMing...

DM: aaww

tahu88810
2007-07-04, 08:22 PM
My first death involved the party Fighter/Sorcerer and a war.

First off, we were in an incredibly small village somewhere in a forest, when suddenly a group of goblins, zombies, and humans led by a wizard riding an elder black dragon attack (we were about lvl 5, but weren't meant to fight the leader). Seeing as how the party is the only group capable of helping the villagers escape, we took up the fight.

Long story short:

Main Fighter, and Main caster open up a small area that heads toward the leader.
I charge forward, leaving the cleric, fighter, caster, and rogue behind to help the villagers escape.
I deal a crit. on the leaders dragon (Just barely) and deal about 4 damage. The wizard fireballs me, and the dragon bites my head off. I drop dead.
Party escapes.
4 sessions later, they fight my zombie. :)
So I got to 'die' twice! Awsome, huh?
--
PS.
My new char. (N Druid) killed my zombie XD

GentleSavage
2007-07-04, 08:29 PM
The first time a character of mine died was the very first session he came in. I was playing a Halfling Rogue at the time, and he was lvl 2. so my character, before he meets the party is captured by Kobolds, and then brought to a cave, unconscious, but alive, barely. So the party hears the Kobolds in a cave going through my stuff and talking, and decide to investigate. they didn't know that this was how my character was going to be introduced, so they didn't actually check for anything. they barge in there and see how many Kobolds there were, (like 5 or 7) and they decided to just throw a lot of Alchemists Fire in the cave, flush 'em out, and then finish them off. bad news for me. The DM made it so i didn't die, so i got to join the party.

And there was also another time that i got controlled by an evil slug, and then killed everyone in the group, but thats not another story.

SpiderKoopa
2007-07-04, 09:16 PM
Hrm... Well, I have had a character die recently. Human Invoker, lv5...
Ok first a few details, this is a LOW magic campaign. We have a bard and myself as arcane casters and that's it. (2E). And being raised from the dead can be a VERY bad thing. If you're raised you must complete a pentance quest for the sins you've commited. Well, my character, Thallis is CN... and likes things to go boom, aka fireball is his solution to almost all combats. So yeah...
Here's the story:
We're doing a dual-sided... er... side quest. This was for the paladin's mount and some golden scrolls of magic that my late master left behind for me. Well as we walked into the tomb there were three ways to go, and three piles of treasure offered to the deceased. Also this douchey ghost chick (who's body was in the left door) was guarding everything so we were like meh, we won't mess with the treasure then. She made gave us some info about the tomb, such as "Never open the door straight ahead, it contains a foul demon!" and "Beware another demon guards the golden scrolls, the dreaded Elf-Eater." Well, regardless, the "Elf-Eater" had spawned some babies, which btw, they were all invisible to the elves in the party. @_@
Anyways, we finally get to the room with the scrolls after beating the demon and there are three puzzles, one for each scroll to unlock them from the wall of force they're trapped behind. One is to weigh down a scale with money and jewels, another a virgin maiden's heart, and one that required magical sacrifices... So we're like crap, we don't have enough money amongst us to weigh this thing down, let's totally go take some from the dead guys' offerings.
Ghost got pissed, I enlarged the warrior, ghost got owned. "Demon" came out of the sealed door... -DM says a very pale man walks out [clearly a vampire, but I didn't want to metagame]- He charms me with his gaze and tells me to stay that he'll teach me all about magic. Bingo, that's Thallis's one weakness, he's addicted to magic, he wants to know everything there is about it.
-A few lv drains later- Thallis is on his deathbead, and my fellow party members are angry and coming for me, desperately trying to save me. (Btw, vamp is a lv15 fighter...) They narrowly defeat the vampire (crazy, right?) but the vamp had completed the fast ritual and Thallis would become a vampire in 24 hours. Zachary (the warrior, we were the only original party, everyone else joined up after we had already had a few adventures) actually mourned when he had to burn my body to make sure I didn't come back. Oh, btw, the totally owned the vampire with a rod o' rez we got for beating the original Elf-Eater. We house-ruled that a rez counts as destruction to an undead and the vamp was dusted with it.
Anyways, Joshua, ranger, prayed to his nature goddess for my soul. ;_; and... rolled 00... I got forcibly reincarnated. The roll for the reincarnation?
...
...
Bugbear. -Cries.-
Oh the two greatest things? I have to do the rez quest and my levels are still drained. I can get them back from the elven grand druid where we currently are, but that'll cost me another quest for the elves. Damn I hate being a plot device.

Mattarias, King.
2007-07-05, 01:54 AM
... Yeesh. O.o; ressurection seems to be kinda common, too.. hunh. Ouch at that quest bit, though.. and the zombie thing. Irony, eh?

Argent
2007-07-05, 09:36 AM
We don't get character deaths that often in our campaigns, so when they happen, they're usually a Big Deal and are treated as such by the characters.

We'd been playing one of our EGCs (Evil Guy Campaigns) and had made it up to about 9th level when my Ranger/Fighter/Foe Hunter got whacked. Part of his backstory was that he was anti-theistic and didn't worship any gods, so he couldn't be resurrected. (I'm sure in RAW, a non-worshiper can be resurrected, but for character purposes, this guy wouldn't have wanted the help from the gods, so he was un-resurrectable.) Even for an evil guy, he'd done some powerful things to help the party, so the other characters took his death hard -- they staged a candlelight vigil mourning him and the whole shot. Very good roleplaying.

Not every character death in our campaigns is such a production, but they're rare enough that they usually get treated with more than, "hey, you check his pulse, I'll grab his boots."

Mr. Moogle
2007-07-05, 10:20 AM
My characters have always died, (with one exeption). In the campaign i was in (my friends brother DMing) My first character was a palidin, he was eaten by crazed owls, next character a monk who got exploded by a goblin with fireworks (that deal 3d6 damage, we were level 4), my NEXT character was a swordsage who lasted for 4 sessions (It was a record), but he burned to death in a forest fire that he started by using Hatchlings flame on a group of warlocks (In the middle of the forest), my NEXT characterwas a fighter who apparently was NOT supposed to rip a warlock into 6 peices while singing "Oh what a beautiful Morning (slash), Oh what a beautiful Dayyy. (slash) Ive got a feeling, a wonderful feeling everythings going my wayyyy (Coup de gras)" (he was later killed by the worlock leader a level 9 swordsage, we were level 7). And (Finaly) our DM alowed us to gestalt and I made a monk//swordsage of desert wind. He actually helped the party, considering that our strategy was Blanket-Everything-In-Fire-While-the-dragon-shaman//warblade-tanks-and-gives-us-fire-resistance. My good saves let me help the tank and get some nice stunning fist's in. I'm still playing him to this day.