TPK stories

[NecroDancer]

Does anyone have any stories about TPKs? All stories are permitted please refer to characters by their class/race rather than name for simplicities sake.

[Sir cryosin]

It's not a tpk as in the hole party is killed. So the party has a sorcerer, wizard, archer"5 fighter 2 rogue 2ranger", barbarian, ranger,. Most of the party were turn evil do to different cures,pies, and just greed s.o.b's. So we're going through a house the see a smoke poudodragon it darks off the archer give chase. It takes him to a room with a huge undead warrior. He's starts talking to the undead finding out the the undead dude what ed to get revenge on the main bad guy we are to kill. Most of the party wants and plains to work for the big bad guy. So the archer talking to the undead and the it not getting any were. So now mad the undead get up and attacks the archer bring him down to 14 hp. So on the archers turn he attack hits and use one of his battle maneuver disarming attack. The undead fails his dc check to keep his sword. The archer use his extra attack to pick up the greatsword on the ground. Then bonus action disgage and runs use action surge to dash. The two more rounds in double dashing befor he get back to his party. He gets back tell them what went down when he show back up. The hole party ran for a better spot we were in a small room. We get to a bigger room and fought the undead killing him. After the archer was going to keep the greatsword. When the sorcerer asked the Dm would I want the sword dm said it is powerfull."she had a flaw were she want power at any cost. So she turned on the archer. And even after trying to bride others in party to help him everyone else join in and killed him and took all his magic weapons and left. After that dm told us to give him are characters sheets he turning them into npcs working for Strahd now. And my character the archer in revenant and can't rest untell he kills the party members.

[Sabeta]

This was a fun story that happened in Princes of the Apocalypse.

After travelling for weeks after leaving Red Larch we eventually found our way to a great stone Monastery built straight into a cliff. We knocked politely on the door, and then barged our way in killing just about anyone who stood in our way. Our party consisted of Chaos Sorcerer, an Ice Dragon Sorceress (me), An Evocation Wizard, A Cleric, and a Rogue. It wasn't long into our onslaught that we needed to start resting. Thankfully we had cleared out a barracks full of Sniflblenem (Dark Dwarves whose name I forget), and decided to barricade the room. About an hour into our Long Rest we're jolted awake by the sound of the door being smashed repeatedly.

Eventually, the door and the wardrobe propped against it fail, and charging through it were two Orcs (Ogres?) They had an ability that allowed them to charge and attack us, so running wasn't a feasible option, and it didn't help that behind the ogres were eight Golden Gargoyle Mask Monks. The Wizard was a homebrew, he was allowed to do double dice damage on all of his spells, but could only gain 1 hp every level up. He was quickly mauled by an Orc. The Rogue wasn't very good at D&D. He did not attempt to seek high ground, nor really run away. He was ganged on by 3 Monks. Chaos Sorcerer was similar, albeit much better at the game. His rolls failed to save him, as he was murdered by a few more Monks. The Cleric nearly survives, but is also gored by an Orc. I, the Ice Sorceress was spamming Ray of Frost trying to run and get back to our horses. Unfortunately, I did not make it.

The Wizard and the Cleric were completely killed. The rest of us were "Captured", and we rolled new characters to form a rescue party. I played a Gnomish Druid who had Multiple Personality Disorder to help cope with a tragic past. (In terms of gameplay, this meant every 3rd day she played with optimal spells, and the other two days were loaded up with goodberries and summoning trees). Joining us was a Tiefling Fighter Dual-Wielding Spears (I called him the Master of Edge, formerly the Rogue), a Barbarian Tavern Brawler whose only weapon was an Ale Mug (Formerly the Cleric), the Wizard quit, and the Chaos Sorcerer was replaced by a Bard (Sorcerer quit, to be replaced by a new player...she was bad)

We arrive at the castle, I use Wild Shape to scout it out, find our old companions, and plan out our attack. The Bard spends every round of combat stabbing opponents with her Daggers. "because just sitting back casting spells feels wrong, somehow." I spent my combat not understanding druid spells to well, and kept trying to give Magically imbued Rocks to people...for use against a Gargoyle. (Despite my intentions, I feel like I lived up the gnome stereotype). I also managed to cast some kind of Thorn Bind spell, which only I failed the DC on...so I looked like an S&M freak. Master of Edge spent more time posing than doing anything useful, his DPR averaged a whopping 1. (Quite literally, he usually did 1-3 damage and missed quite a bit). The Tavern Brawler managed to grapple a lot, but had no damage worth speaking of.

Despite all of this, we managed to infiltrate the castle. We're fighting our way through, and during one such fight we knock down a stone wall. Behind it, was a Lich...The DM told me what it was since I'm a Druid and would probably know what a terrifyingly powerful undead creature this was, and I strongly urged everyone to run away from him. The fighter however, only saw a raggedy old man with an expensive looking necklace. Master of Edge goes for the kill, and Granpappy Lich lays a smackdown on us, which promptly results in our repeated capture.

We didn't play through the rest of PoTA, it was too hard for unoptimized/stupid people.

[djreynolds]

The night hags in CoS. My life cleric at 4th level couldn't keep up. I passed all my dex saves but their lighting just destroyed us.

But since we we're Strahd's playthings, the hags just through us out with 1HP each. We spent the next session running from wolves all day.

Embarrassing

[Cryosin the 3rd]

The night hags in CoS. My life cleric at 4th level couldn't keep up. I passed all my dex saves but their lighting just destroyed us.

But since we we're Strahd's playthings, the hags just through us out with 1HP each. We spent the next session running from wolves all day.

Embarrassing

ya that encounter was tough. half my party was passed out from the pies and the hags attack when i tryed to get rid of the rest of the pies. i was holding my own for a bit. untell the hags did nothing but magic missile. it sucks because they dont have a limit to how many casting of magic missile.

[Starchild7309]

Way back when 2.0 was giving way to 3.0 our DM was new and the group consisted of a 13th level Wizard(DMs little sister), a 13th level vampire Fighter/Rogue, a 12th level Dwarf fighter (cousin of DM), and me a 3rd level psion. (Luckily this is the last time this happened, but the DM used to make us start at 1st level, assuming we would catch up relatively fast, as long as we didn't die.) So we are on this mission, given to us by this shady guy none of us trust, but we need to complete it to gain this artifact piece to build something that will get us back to our home plane...I didn't know how it worked, never got to find out. So anyway, we go into this crypt and we are just almost destroyed. Our wizard is out of every spell except 1 3rd and 2 1st. Our vampire is unconcious from wisdom drain, I have no power points left and I am 3rd level and the dwarf fighter is like 1/4 hp. We come strolling out of the crypt and there is one man, dressed in ninja garb and asks us for the artifact, demands it. The wizard, without considering anything says no, and like 15 other ninjas stand up from behind gravestones. She calls out Fireball. The ninjas all killed our weak initiative and slaughtered her, the vampire, and the fighter. I luckily was fast enough to out run them, plus they took the artifact off the dead bodies of my companions so they didn't give chase. I get back to the guy that gave us the mission, explain what happened. He looks me over, asks if I can do the same things the wizard can do eventually and I try to bull**** him, he sees through it, reveals himself as the BBEG and destroys me for not being of any use. It was rather disappointing and we made the DM's sister cry for getting us all killed.

[MrStabby]

So we went into a dungeon where a vampire was hiding. Cautiously we advanced, discovered a few traps, disarmed others by feeding them HP. Animated armour, rugs of smothering in one room. Not a problem. An old crypt with vampire spawn in took away a few more HP and a couple of high level spells as well as Chanel divinity from the cleric. The party barbarian needed to be stabilised running over more traps to engage some spectres. Low on resources we come to a bridge guarded by a vampire spawn Fomorain - with some lucky rolls on our part it went down.

By this point we are seriously short on resources so we find a corner to rest in and up goes Leomund's tiny hut. The party beds down. In the middle of the night the Bard makes a successful knowledge arcana check to realise that the sounds he is hearing is the sound of dispel magic being cast.

On the plus side we found the vampire we were looking for. The downside was he had turned up with six spawn henchmen, a couple of spectres and a shield guardian. The fighters had taken their armour off to sleep. The party had one spell of 3rd level or higher and no channel divinity left. HP were not too bad but not up to the encounter.

As an opening move the Vampire dominated the Rogue who, on his turn, get a critical hit on the Cleric rendering them unconscious. The bard gets isolated and surrounded by spawn. The Barbarian destroys the spectres but is then fact to face with the vampire and with one rage left. He uses it. The vampire backs off and climbs up the wall using his spider climb ability and just throws ray of frost. The barbarian shrugs off the damage but then discovers that there is no one in range of his melee attacks next turn with his reduced movement. The bard goes down - dimension door gets him away from the spawn but not out of range of the rogue who brings him exactly to zero HP. The Barbarian makes a run for it pursued by the vampire and makes good progress. Unfortunately he is running deeper into the earth. Whilst the spawn finish off the rogue the vampire tracks the barbarian, aided by children of the night ability. Cornered the barbarian lasts a couple of rounds before the Vampire finishes him off.

[Tough Butter]

I'm sure you can find a more in-depth story somewhere else on the playground, but one time in a zombies game, the party was burning alive, and our tank had a fire extinguisher.

He tried to burn it to use it like a BOMB.

A fire extinguisher. He wanted to light a fire EXTINGUISHER on FIRE.

He then Crits 3 times in a row, blowing us all up.

[Sir cryosin]

I'm sure you can find a more in-depth story somewhere else on the playground, but one time in a zombies game, the party was burning alive, and our tank had a fire extinguisher.

He tried to burn it to use it like a BOMB.

A fire extinguisher. He wanted to light a fire EXTINGUISHER on FIRE.

He then Crits 3 times in a row, blowing us all up.

Umm even a 6 int knows that he should put fire on everyone out. And how many rounds did it take for the tank to get hot enough to explode because it don't take 6 secs which is one turn.