Killing a PC

[Rhaegus]

Hi,

I have a player that doesnt want to play their character anymore and wants me to kill them off, preferably with dramatic flaire and without the other players knowing beforehand. His favorite monster is a gelatinous cube so I was thinking that, but my players are at around level 7 and could handle even a tough one of those without much trouble, any advice on making a gelatinous cube more threatening/ scary? my initial thoughts are just like a hoard (or whatever a group of oozes is called) of them or homebrewing a bigger tougher one, or trapping the group in a corridor somehow with 2 strong ones slowing approaching.

For reference I have 4 players, a wizard, rogue, paladin and barbarian, the wizard is the one with the deathwish.

any advice appreciated!

EDIT: Thanks for all the responses, some really great ideas!

[Talsin]

Hi,

I have a player that doesnt want to play their character anymore and wants me to kill them off, preferably with dramatic flaire and without the other players knowing beforehand. His favorite monster is a gelatinous cube so I was thinking that, but my players are at around level 7 and could handle even a tough one of those without much trouble, any advice on making a gelatinous cube more threatening/ scary? my initial thoughts are just like a hoard (or whatever a group of oozes is called) of them or homebrewing a bigger tougher one, or trapping the group in a corridor somehow with 2 strong ones slowing approaching.

For reference I have 4 players, a wizard, rogue, paladin and barbarian, the wizard is the one with the deathwish.

any advice appreciated!

I was in a campaign where we were descending down a tower that had sunken into the ground. The ladder and stairway had been worn away with time. We had to use a rope. Little did we know, we were descending onto a room-wide Gelatinous Cube. Our hands were full with keeping ourselves from falling the ~120 feet, and so we tried to scurry back up the rope. Our Paladin fell.

Tight Corridors with their hands full of treasure (or civilians!) might be a good way to trap them. Plus, you could vary the damage resistance/vulnerability it may have.

[Brookshw]

Hi,

I have a player that doesnt want to play their character anymore and wants me to kill them off, preferably with dramatic flaire and without the other players knowing beforehand. His favorite monster is a gelatinous cube so I was thinking that, but my players are at around level 7 and could handle even a tough one of those without much trouble, any advice on making a gelatinous cube more threatening/ scary? my initial thoughts are just like a hoard (or whatever a group of oozes is called) of them or homebrewing a bigger tougher one, or trapping the group in a corridor somehow with 2 strong ones slowing approaching.

For reference I have 4 players, a wizard, rogue, paladin and barbarian, the wizard is the one with the deathwish.

any advice appreciated!

Have a villain drop him into a self-sealing pit filled with an Ooze. Wizard goes in, pit seals with some kind of lid, wizard can't be anything but engulfed and a solid lid will prevent the other PC's from getting to the wizard before he dies. Gives you a chance to showcase the villain which you could make dramatic in it's own right. Bonus points if the pit trap is actually at the bottom of a chasm so the party isn't initially sure where the wizard went (assuming the lid on the pit trap otherwise looks like the bottom of the chasm.

[Sirithhyando]

What's scarier than a foe you cannot see?
You make it a plague, the wizard get sick with stomach pain as many others in a village.
Adventurers are helping the "medic" or priest of the village to find a cure. When they are in the place where all the sick are "sleeping" in agony. Have some of them have their chest tore open from the inside having a swarm of tiny gelatinous cube spewing out of the "diseased" (of course, the sick dies when it happen but not instantly so they stay aware of what's happening for a few seconds).
Roll initiative!
And a d4 per sick to know when they'll give birth to swarming gelatinous cube too.

Swarms... my players usually have trouble with those, they're extremely annoying to get a hold of and can get deadly really fast if they're ill-equiped for the task.

[jjordan]

Abberation? A wizard experiment with a cube and an ooze? Doesn't engulf but hides inside the body and eats it from the inside? Players are trying to figure out how to get it out or attack it without hurting their comrade while it's eating him and maybe causing him to attack them?

[Talsin]

What's scarier than a foe you cannot see?
You make it a plague, the wizard get sick with stomach pain as many others in a village.
Adventurers are helping the "medic" or priest of the village to find a cure. When they are in the place where all the sick are "sleeping" in agony. Have some of them have their chest tore open from the inside having a swarm of tiny gelatinous cube spewing out of the "diseased" (of course, the sick dies when it happen but not instantly so they stay aware of what's happening for a few seconds).
Roll initiative!
And a d4 per sick to know when they'll give birth to swarming gelatinous cube too.

Swarms... my players usually have trouble with those, they're extremely annoying to get a hold of and can get deadly really fast if they're ill-equiped for the task.

Oh man, I love this idea! You could even have the Wizard TURN INTO A GELATINOUS CUBE IN DEATH.

...that's pretty Metal yo.:smallcool:

[Lupine]

Create a trap with some arcane runes. The runes seem to open some gateway to some mcguffin. The wizard goes forward to inspect the runes. After a moment of inspection, he warns the party to "stand back; this could be dangerous." Likely they'll do so.
Now. The Trap.

These runes have an incredibly hard DC (or thematically, the player just fails), with failure triggering the trap. So:
Complex trap.
Initiative 20: Crushing granite. A wall of granite falls down, sealing off an area 5 feet long from the runes (trapping the wizard away from the party. the granite is curved, and so the area above the runes is higher. As it falls, it rotates down, so that it also opens a compartment in the ceiling. Gelatinous cube drops down.

That covers killing the wizard. With no help, the wizard will almost certainly die. Now, we have to distract the party, and get them to save their own lives.
Initiative 20: Poison darts: From the far side of the hallway, poisoned darts start flying out. Any creature that ends its turn in the darts makes a DC 13 constitution save, taking 2d10 poison damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful save
Initiative 10: Rune of fear: A rune on the ceiling between the players and the darts forces all players who can see it to make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or becomes frightened by the rune. (This forces the players away from the traps.)
Initiative 20 and 10: Saw Blades: runs at the players, DC 15 dex to dodge, 1d6 damage on a fail, none on a success


You get the idea. Take it from here.

[Catullus64]

My advice, having had a similar situation, is to try to be subtle about it, and hope the suicidal PC does most of the work. Avoid anything as hamfisted as intstakill traps and spells. Instead, try engineering overwhelming fights where this person can go out in a blaze of glory, possibly buying time for the other PCs to escape, or activating some deathtrap that secures victory at the cost of his own life.

I would try as much as possible, if the cat is still in the bag, to not let on to the other players that this death is deliberately engineered. It significantly lessens any emotional impact the death has on the other players if they know that the character is just being let go out of boredom. If the death is going to be dramatically resonant, it at least needs to seem to arise from the character's decisions, failings, or desires. Talk to the players about how their character can act in the sessions leading up to the death, in order to make the death feel like a natural endpoint to that character's journey.

[Danielqueue1]

Ceiling trap. Start by letting the party know that the floor in this part of the dungeon seems cracked and weak. Most parties will stop paying attention to the ceiling if they ever do at all. Marked for death character trips the trap, (your choice of trigger) and a Gelatinous cube falls from the ceiling, falling damage, auto-engulf on failed dex save (DC adjusted for low chance). Party is surprised giving second chance for damage. Give the party 1 round before the floor collapses now everyone is making saves to avoid falling into (spkies/acid/chasm/next floor of dungeon) gelatinous cube guy goes down.

For added fun, have a villain pull the lever from the far end of the hallway instead of having it be a trap. That way it is extra dramatic and gets the party focused to killing that guy.

[Guy Lombard-O]

My group did this (oddly enough, it was the wizard who quietly wanted out), and the DM used the opportunity to give his BBEG some danger credentials, creating a serious situation which killed off the wizard and nearly killed off another PC. It was fun and impressive, and definitely confirmed that the BBEG was a most dangerous enemy.