Total Party Kill Stories

[Saph]

It's been a while since we've had one of these threads, so let's see if anyone has any good new stories to tell. :)

I'll start with mine, from yesterday. Long-running FR campaign. Six PCs, five level 11s and one level 12 (me). After a long journey through the Dimensional Locked dungeon, we finally tracked down the boss. We made our way through the last set of traps (including one that dispelled every spell currently active on us) and the fight started off.

The boss was a . . . (deep breath) female redspawn arcaniss dragonblood incorporeal spectral mage fire subtype rogue/sorcerer/spellwarp sniper undead. 15th-level caster, CR 18 or so. The curious (or just sadistic) among you can find the un-advanced version of her here (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fc/20070622a) at the WotC website.

It took about five rounds before we even knew what we were fighting. Once we did we found that with her types, subtypes, and defensive spells, she was immune to almost everything and had a 50% chance of dodging everything else. That was when the two shadesteel golems showed up. They had a negative pulse wave that fired every 1d4+1 rounds and did 24d6 negative energy damage to everyone in range (Fort half) and healed the mage for the same amount.

Yeah.

The carnage went on for a while. When it eventually finished one PC was disintegrated, three more were dead, one was at negative HP and stable, and I was the only one left standing, with literally nothing left that could hurt the mage. I surrendered. The DM paused for a while, trying to figure out what to do. Eventually the mage said she'd flip a coin, and if I called it right she'd let me and one other go. The DM flipped the coin. I called heads. It was heads.

And now for the really sadistic part.

The mage nodded and that she'd let me go, along with whoever was left alive. She went from one PC to the other, checking each one, and saying "Dead" each time. When she got to the one who was unconscious but still breathing (a moon elf ranger who was my character's best friend in the party), the mage drew a dagger, cut the ranger's throat, then turned to me and smiled. "Nope. She's dead too."

There was nothing left I could do, so I walked away. The mage let me get to the door, then said, "Oh . . . Niriel?" and shot me in the back. I think it was supposed to kill me, but the DM had forgotten that I still had a greater mirror image spell up, which took the hit. I got out.

So, five out of six dead. Not a total wipeout, but the next closest thing. Couldn't quite call it a TPK, so we settled on calling it an EDD (Everybody's Dead, Dave.)

- Saph

[Lolzords]

The DM got fed up with the campaign.

A gigantic hand comes out and pulls the entire party down the plane of shadow with no save, stuck floating there forever. Apparantly, it was a trap.

[martyboy74]

So, hand falls, everyone dies?

[PlatinumJester]

Wow. That sucks for you.

The worst we've ever had is 2 people dead in 1 session.

The first session this happened was when our Dwarven Cleric was bullrushed into a volcano and then our Tiefling Wizard exploded after picking up a cursed sword.

Then in another campaign our Dwarven Totemist killed my Elven Wizard because he destroyed a scroll I wanted so I tried to Web him to teach him a lesson. It provoked an AoO an I was masacred by the entire party. Then, later that session the Kobold scout killed a Gnome NPC and the Totemist sundered his masterwork longbow. The scout said that the Totemist owed him 375gp at which point the totemist killed him.

[Manticorkscrew]

Both of those stories (above) sound as if the GMs were out to get you.

Sadisticalicious!

[Saph]

Both of those stories (above) sound as if the GMs were out to get you.

Sadisticalicious!

The DM swears he honestly thought the party could beat it. Much as he's a good DM generally, in this case I'm of the opinion that he's talking out of his rear orifice.

- Saph

[Sornjss Lichdom]

in the bottom of the dungoen, (after being dropped there by the BEBG's right hand) we found a chute up to the top again. Party of 5, level 8, the party wizard cast levetate, mass from his scroll belt, we go up, pass through a wall of dispel magic, greater. Everybody dies in the fall back to the floor. :-(, the DM who felt bad (for he was a merciful DM) let us start back at the bottom like nothing happened, and the Rogue found a secret stair case, which he missed the first time.

[Leicontis]

Here's a near-TPK that was due entirely to player incompetence:

We're in the Underdark on a quest for Kelemvor (FR god of death), and we know the area ahead of us is infested with grells (not sure what 3.5 sourcebook, if any, they're in). For those of you not familiar with grells, they're essentially flying brain-shaped beasties with a beak and tentacles, the latter containing a paralysis poison.

Anyway, our party sorcerer gets a Fly and an Invisibility spell, and flies ahead to scout. He runs into a group of grells.

Did I mention grells have blindsight/sense?

So he ends up paralyzed, and his familiar (who he left with us) is going crazy, so we realize something not-good has happened. We charge in to rescue him, and find the grells ready for us. Most of us are very quickly paralyzed. The elven cleric cures the poison on the party druid, then gets paralyzed herself. The druid and the ranger/cleric of Kelemvor in the party, who is also not yet paralyzed, flee, and leave the rest of us to our fate.

Thing is, we were working for the god of death, who was not impressed. His first reaction was along the lines of "You - cleric - my office. NOW." In other words, the druid saw the ranger/cleric suddenly drop dead. All of us (except the druid) were then told we were getting a second chance, a la "I'm willing to overlook this little incident...", and sent back, so suddenly the whole party, druid included, are once again alive, in the chamber of the gibbering mouther that the grells had fed us to. Combat ensued, followed by hiding, followed by the continuation of the adventure.

The best part was my character, who was an orphan that had never even known his own name, peeked over the shoulder of Jergal (minor power who records the names and fates of the dead) and found out his own truename. I ended up playing a character who knew his truename but not his name...

[Kaelik]

I have a non-TPK that I feel is worth it because of who died and how.

It was a simple encounter with a bridge over a gorge, and on the other side were a couple hidden orcs and a door. Behind the door was a hobgoblin and the tiefling in charge, along with a Monstrous Centipede. Lvl 6 party. Obviously class leveled mobs.

The Barbarian in the party had picked up leadership to get a skill monkey for the party. He also built his character for HP, lots of it. (I don't have them roll.) Mongrel Folk with 23 Con. He charges across the bridge to begin the fight. Then the door opens and the Monstrous Centipede overuns him and goes out onto the bridge. He then has his cohort cut the rope bridge so that an orc and centipede fall to your death.

After he died (surprise) his Cohort gained a disproportionate amount of XP and became his new character. (Just in time since he was about to be outshined by the Druid at tanking anyway.)

[drunkmonk]

I have told this one before, but I will go back into it again because I don’t know if I have told it recently. Our DM is my ex-girlfriend’s younger brother. Normally he is a real good guy. We almost never have any PC deaths. When we do it is usually something important or the player accepts it before it happen in some kind of heroic death scene.

Anyway, we have 5 characters in the group. I am playing a pretty fun barbarian/fighter that basically runs around and smooshes things with a giant war hammer. Good times. Back to the killing of us. We are contacted by a rouge who is working as the face for a resistance movement to overthrow the local evil government. There is a hidden complex where the bad guys are keeping the resistance leader under wraps. It is our job to go get him.

Turns out that the whole underground complex is a death trap. That’s it. Just traps. Over and over again. We were supposed to get the hint and leave, but we just keep on going through the maze of death traps. We even camped down there a couple of time to try and survive. Nope. Eventually, our cleric dies. Then our trapfinder. The rest of us died in a collapsing floor, acid pool, iron grate on top of us thing that our DM made up on the spot just to end the game because he got frustrated that we were not taking the hint and leaving to go confront the double agent who sent us to our deaths.

We were pretty mad when we all died. When I found out that the whole thing was a red herring and we basically died for nothing, I lost my temper with him threw him over the sofa and then threw a recliner on him. He still brings that up now and again.

DM

[Collin152]

Rocks fell, everybody died.
Well, thats what happens in a landslide, right?

[boomwolf]

in one game all the team was evil that pretended to be good (later discovered. each thought the others where good) and we end up slaying each other.
last two died when i set a trap, then got stabbed in my sleep, and he triggered the trap walking away.

[Elhann]

I have a couple TPKs under my DMing belt.

First one, the group was fighting a cleric of Shar and her Black guard bodyguard

Pallie smites cleric, blackguard smites pallie. Critical hit. (Heavy flail) Maximum damage. He cleaves the fighter, and gets another critical. His second attack also lands.
Next turn, Sharran claric casts blindness on the elven rogue, who fails his save. Fighter attacks blackguard, and hurts him. The blackguard proceedes to retaliate, and drops the fighter. Cleaving the rogue, and getting another critical. Three down, the lathanderian cleric tries to cast CCW on the fighter, while the transmuter holds the blackguard.
This was her last move, as the sharran cleric casts "firestrike" and fries her, burning also the PC cleric in the process. To make things worse, the blackguard passes his next save against paralysis. Cleric and fighter try to flee, but the fighter is held with the magic of Shar. Blackguard power attack charges the cleric. And you know what? double 20. Cleric down. Fighter is unable to move and beg for mercy, and gets coup-de-graced.

It was intended to be a tough encounter, but beatable. And then, that blackguard decided to honor the Lady of Loss as if any of my PCs worshipped Sêlune.


Next one, it was my players fault, and my bad mood (caused by my players). Same players, different characters, around Lv9. (Cleric, fighter, rogue, paladin)
We hadn't been playing for a few weeks, but they sent me a mail to play. And when I arrive (25 minutes by tube), one of them is 30 minutes late, and offers no reason or excuse. Not great, but hey, I can live with that.
We start playing, and the group finds five redcaps in a ruined building. The redcaps attack, and the group answer back: The cleric burns his level 3 spells with "searing lights", paladin uses ALL his smites, and a good part of his divine power uses. Afer this, the paladin player starts to ignore completely what I am saying, and gets the cleric distracted too. I make a toilet break, and when I'm back, I tell them that there is no reason to play teh game if they don't want, but if we are going to keep playing, I'd rather have them paying attention.
Second encounter of the day, a few ooze mephits. They say they want to rest. I say it is 5 o'clock in the afternoon or so, and remind them that the "forest demon" (a half-fiend green hag) knows they're there, and it is not very probable she will wait for them. Still, the group decides to go back to the redcaps' building, barricades a door and window, and get ready to sleep.

Mind you, their HPs were OK. The cleric was low on level 3 spells (but I never forced him to memorize 3 searing lights) and had casted one cure critical wounds. The paladin had no smites left.

A good four hours later, they hear "pop" noises. As the fighter was doing his guard, a babau demon teleports inside the room. It grins evilly, and after the fighter gives the alarm and attacks the demon, teleports out.
Reaction of the group: OK, we keep on sleeping. So, having given them two warnings, I think about what a half fiend would do in this situation, when her attack on a nearby town was thwarted by the PCs. And what is it? Green hag, plus her babau stalker, plus her 4 dire lions (Malarite green hag, when Malar is the FR god of beasts) start attacking the windows and door. Cleric and paladin start putting their armour on, and just as they finish, the green hag finally manages to break the improvised barricade. In the following 5 rounds, paladin is raked to death by dire lions, fighter cannot handle the babau, and the green hags rips appart the rogue.

Seems harsh? Sure thing. I feel it was the right thing to do.

[Anxe]

I did a TPK once when I got frustrated with my players not following any of my plotlines. They wanted to bounce around the world not doing much of anything. So after I almost forced them to do a quest one of the players decided he was bored of one of his characters and that he would suicide him in a spectacular fashion. He had the mage scry the King of Orcs. The King of Orcs is a badass 30th level psion. The psion notices the scry and quickly teleports to their location. He begins to wreck havoc on the party. After it was over 6 charred PC bodies lay on the ground.
I later took the action back and had just two of them die. That campaign was retired two or three sessions later due to lack of interest.

[BardicDuelist]

Party was flying up to a the enterance to the dungeon I had planned and ran into some harpies. They were laughing at how easy this random encounter was, until the harpy mage cast dispel magic. They fell, everyone died.

Only TPK I have ever played in or DMed.

[Kaelik]

Party was flying up to a the enterance to the dungeon I had planned and ran into some harpies. They were laughing at how easy this random encounter was, until the harpy mage cast dispel magic. They fell, everyone died.

Only TPK I have ever played in or DMed.

Did they descend slowly for 1d6 rounds? Did the Wizard not have any more Fly spells?

[BardicDuelist]

Did they descend slowly for 1d6 rounds? Did the Wizard not have any more Fly spells?

No, he used them all on the party. They were about a mile in the air, so even decending for 1d6 rounds (on which they rolled a 1, 3, and 4), they still fell a very long way.

[Anxe]

Did they make their tumble checks when they hit the ground?

[martyboy74]

I don't think you quite understand the magnitude of that check. To survive that fall, you would've had to roll at least a 100. That's pretty unlikely.

[Anxe]

Nah. It's just a DC 20 to negate the first 2 dice of damage. Then you just gotta hope the DM rolls low for the other 18d6.

[Arbitrarity]

I don't think you quite understand the magnitude of that check. To survive that fall, you would've had to roll at least a 100. That's pretty unlikely.

It's so TRUE!

DC100 Ignore falling damage.

Ignore Falling Damage
The character can fall from any height and take no damage.



http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/skills.htm#tumble

Exploding dice plz? Seriously though, fall damage caps at 20d6, which is average 70. So, what level? :smallwink:

[Kompera]

The only TPK I've been in was the culmination of a GURPS campaign which had been played nearly every week for about 2 years. One of the players was vastly more interested in character optimization than the rest of the group, and the GM had a homebrew race which gave some slight advantages to casting at the cost of physical abilities. Oh, and this race did not need to sleep.

In GURPS spells can be maintained for a fairly low cost in casting potential, but not while asleep. So this character had several spells going all the time, day and night, and was still able to cast a near full compliment of spells in reaction to encounters or other situations.

The GM tried to make situations and encounters which were challenging for the entire group and to give each player their turn in the spotlight, but it became more and more difficult for him to be able to do this rationally, as the caster had a spell for just about any situation and could easily handle challenges designed for other characters key roles.

So the game sort of devolved into a series of escalating challenges, GM vs caster. The end came when we had finally learned of the BBEG and the location of his lair. Going in the front door would be asking for a lot of extra encounters, says the caster. So he uses his ability to shape stone to craft a set of stairs down into the dungeon lair. The GM didn't seem to like this much, but it was well within the powers of the caster, so no game reason to disallow this action. We got in without being detected, but the first encounter went like this:

Three opponents, two general mook-ogre types, and one elven warrior. Who had a personal damage shield which my finesse epee fighter could not penetrate. I beat the mooks, but I'm rendered unconscious by the warrior. The rest of the group had been undetected, and hid in a room in which the caster sealed the sole door using the same mold stone spell. The rest of the situation of course could not be known exactly due to the party being enclosed in a sealed stone room, but apparently the BBEG had a large radius anti-magic field around him (no doubt necessary to give any challenge to the caster). When the BBEG was on the other side of any wall of the room the group was in, the radius covered the entire room. So no more casting for the caster. Through the uses of whatever magic, or perhaps the missing door, the group was located. Communication ensued, ordering everyone to remove their armor and to stack it and any weapons in one corner, and to gather in another corner. The alternative was death by suffocation. So, they complied. Somehow, the party was rendered unconscious.

And woke up undead. End of campaign.

Everyone was rather bitter, but the GM was fairly well pushed into this kind of situation by the presence of this single character within the party. And this was not the only time this player did this to a setting. On another occasion, which did not end in a TPK, we were playing a Scooby Doo kind of campaign. We were all college students, with the sort of skills mix which might be expected. Some social, some scholarly, some athletic. Being poor college students, we didn't have much in the way of equipment. I had the sole gun in the group, a .22 rifle, and I never fired it. Enter Gary (the caster from above) after about 4 runs in this setting. He brought a mystic private investigator with psionic powers and a .45 pistol, bullet proof vest, etc. Again, just totally out of line with the rest of the group.

[TheOOB]

My frenzied beserker got hit by an arrow trap and frenzied. He killed the cleric and rogue in the first round, and killed the wizard several rounds later, but not before he was pushed -50 something hp. He died one round later when the frenzy ran out.

[Tallis]

We were pretty mad when we all died. When I found out that the whole thing was a red herring and we basically died for nothing, I lost my temper with him threw him over the sofa and then threw a recliner on him. He still brings that up now and again.

DM

And he still lets you play in his group?!?!?! That's a very understanding DM you've got there.

[kamikasei]

Everyone was rather bitter, but the GM was fairly well pushed into this kind of situation by the presence of this single character within the party.

If the guy's playstyle is such a problem for the rest of the group, couldn't you a) ask him to tone it down so you all aren't stuck trailing behind him on an escalating power struggle, or b) failing that, ask him to leave and let the rest of you get on with it?

[drunkmonk]

I have known this kid since he was a teenager. He did not “let me” stay in the group. I only play with those guys occasionally, mostly because I am ten years older an have a life, but Darin and I know each other well enough that if he pulls the “I am the all powerful DM and rule zero says you all have to suck my dice”, then I am going to pound him. Just so you know, no nerds were actually hurt in the execution of the aforementioned smooshing.

Basically, I take the position that players have to trust their DMs to have a fair and even hand when running a game. If 1 player dies, it is usually the player’s fault. If all the players die, it is the DM’s fault. What recourse do players have when the DM screws them over? Most of the people I know who play, do so with friends at somebody’s house. Not at a college library or a hobby store. That means I would treat it like I found out one of my friends was cheating at cards. I would toss him over a couch and put some kind of wrestling hold on him till he squealed.

DM

[Daracaex]

So, five out of six dead. Not a total wipeout, but the next closest thing. Couldn't quite call it a TPK, so we settled on calling it an EDD (Everybody's Dead, Dave.)

- Saph

I stared at that for a full minute before I got the Red Dwarf reference.

I've never actually had a TPK. I don't even think anybody has died in the games I've played in. Of course, that number is pretty small (haven't found a local group, been playing online). There is this one guy though that seems to get himself in bad situations almost every time we fight (No offense if your reading this Colin).

[Solmage]

The DM swears he honestly thought the party could beat it. Much as he's a good DM generally, in this case I'm of the opinion that he's talking out of his rear orifice.

- Saph

Heh, as someone else said Sadisticalicious!

I can't help shake the feeling you guys were supposed to find out WHAT the evil girl-thing is before you attacked it, and somehow missed a few obvious or (totally obscure but obvious for the DM) clues to do that and be prepared for it. So the GM let you have it (Sadisticaliciously!) but then tried to save face by saying 'well, I thought you could handle it .. err, cause, yeah, you COULD have all rolled 20s 20 times in a row! each!' :smallwink:

PS: I have a new favorite word :smalltongue:

[Telvos]

You ever hear of the "Keep on the Borderlands"?

Yeah, there's a pit trap at the Kobold Lair there that got us a TPK. Worst campaign I ever ran (I blame the players for taking it too lightly)

[dr.cello]

I once died twice in a single encounter. Well, sort of.

Our DM was not very good. I believe the rest of the party was ECL 4 or so, but new players and characters started at level 1. So I was a first level rogue with six hit points and a whopping 1d6 damage on my sneak attacks.

This DM used a houserule variant where a 20 was always a critical (no confirmation rolls), but a natural 1 was a fumble. He had a fumble table which was decidedly lethal. So, the first round of combat, I shoot my shortbow at someone. I roll a one--he rolls 'do triple damage to yourself.' Naturally, I go into 'dying' pretty quickly.

Someone healed me, so I was back in the action.

Unfortunately, one of the things the DM likes doing is giving overwhelmingly awesome magical items that are also a touch hazardous to everyone around them to the party. His son had a shuriken which had fifty percent critical hits. I was standing a ways past his target, but in a straight line. So the DM ruled that it exploded through the first target and hit me. Due to the way he handled criticals it ended up doing something on the order of thirty damage.

[Saph]

I stared at that for a full minute before I got the Red Dwarf reference.

(For those of you who haven't seen it, it's from the first episode of Red Dwarf, 'The End'. Lister's just emerged from stasis, and is about to find out from the ship's AI, Holly, that he's the last human alive in the universe.)

Holly: Good morning, Dave. It is now safe for you to emerge from stasis.
Lister: Haven't I just gone in?
Holly: Please proceed to the Drive Room for debriefing.
Lister: Where is everybody, Hol?
Holly: They're dead, Dave.
Lister: Who is?
Holly: Everybody, Dave.
Lister: What, Captain Hollister?
Holly: Everybody's dead, Dave.
Lister: What, Todhunter?
Holly: Everybody's dead, Dave.
Lister: What, Selby?
Holly: They're all dead. Everybody's dead, Dave.
Lister: Petersen isn't, is he?
Holly: Everybody is dead, Dave.
Lister: Not Chen?
Holly: Gordon Bennett! Yes! Chen, everybody. Everybody's dead, Dave.
(long pause)
Lister: Rimmer?
Holly: He's dead, Dave. Everybody's dead. Everybody is dead, Dave!
Lister: Wait a minute. Are you trying to tell me everybody's dead?
Holly: (muttering) Wish I'd never let him out in the first place.

Here's a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma_0oKRQVYk) of it.

- Saph