PDA

View Full Version : Most Bizarre player death



Purple Cloak
2008-05-27, 07:33 AM
Well Having recently having a player die to complete stupidity and thus dying in a strange way I though I should inquire as to whether any other groups have had any equily or more bazare deaths of PCs.

The campaign was on a deamon world and the party saw a herd of wild deamonic bovine, so the monk disides to try and ride one so he runs up and jumps on the back of one.
He promptly fell off and got trampled by the stampedeing herd.

Aleron
2008-05-27, 07:39 AM
Well Having recently having a player die to complete stupidity and thus dying in a strange way I though I should inquire as to whether any other groups have had any equily or more bazare deaths of PCs.

The campaign was on a deamon world and the party saw a herd of wild deamonic bovine, so the monk disides to try and ride one so he runs up and jumps on the back of one.
He promptly fell off and got trampled by the stampedeing herd.

...wow...WHY would the monk have tried to ride the demonic bovine? That's just...stupid in the extream. He'd have had a better time trying to "surf" it and use ballance than ride it.

Purple Cloak
2008-05-27, 07:46 AM
I realy can't answer that, but this is from the player who also wound up dying after suffering grevous wounds from disiding to urinate on a pile of bones he found in a crypt, it was a skeletal dragon, he later died to a witch hunter because he didn't have the HP to survive getting shot off his ride.

So as Lein said "Even an epic level ranger couln't track his thought process"

Edit: This was in a previous campaign

kentma57
2008-05-27, 07:56 AM
You decend down a great platform that surounds the monolith, just being withing reach of this unholy thing drain the life from you body; water runs down the side like a mightly water fall. When you reach the bottom you find a great pool of water-

PC1: Water! I could use a bath, I jump in.
PC2: Great idea! I jump in too.
DM: You die.
PC1/2: What, Why?
DM: The water ran down the soul eating evil monolith and the pool is at it's base. Did you even listen to the descripsion?
PC1/2: No...

The rest of us died laughing.

black dragoon
2008-05-27, 08:00 AM
Killed by a fellow player who was randomly sniping moving tergets. the kill was a triple crit. in our house this means insta-kill.

Nebo_
2008-05-27, 08:20 AM
Bizarre.

I had a character killed by an invisible prismatic wall once. That was lame.

Swooper
2008-05-27, 08:20 AM
In a campaign that was so good that it has since been called The Campaign, my buddy was playing a dwarf fighter type. He was amnesic at the start of the campaign, and a lot of the campaign revolved around him finding out that he had been used as a test subject by a mage guild, and that a magical portal had been hidden inside him. The villains of the plot were trying to recover the portal and use it to unleash a daemonic invasion on the unsuspecting world.

This dwarf died, at the end of the campaign (having reached level 22 or so) when he jumped into an active volcano a few rounds before the portal opened inside him.

He didn't die immediately, and swam around in the lava for a few rounds before the portal ripped him apart. He was badass like that.

The daemons entered the world in molten lava. Should've seen the look on their faces...

Aleron
2008-05-27, 08:23 AM
geez...what slef respecting deamon doesn't have fire immunity! :biggrin:

EDIT:
And I have 2 deaths for you
1) Our groups barbarian runs headfirst into a magically darknessed area, "literally head first like in a bugs bunny cartoon" is how he described it. Ran smack dab into a stone wall and was knocked unconcious. 1 round later he was cu-de-gre'd(sp?) by a lizardfolk rogue.

2) Fighting a fire giant my Monk goes in and, after the cleric refuses to heal at all, gets knocked unconcious, exactly to 0 HP. The cleric and others decide not to worry about the monk for 3 rounds. They kill the giant and he falls. Right on my unconcious Monk. Yeah, I was pissed.:smallfurious:

Swooper
2008-05-27, 08:39 AM
geez...what slef respecting deamon doesn't have fire immunity! :biggrin:
Well, see they were actually robots. From another dimension. Yes. I'm not kidding. We didn't know until they started crawling out of the lava, though.

Purple Cloak
2008-05-27, 09:17 AM
Hmm that reminded me of the fact my last campaign ended by the players trying to escape a temple they had been captured and taken too.

But they went deeper instead of leaving thus winding up getting a thrashing by the high preist then getting sacraficed to the Fell deamon lord Samual (50 bonus experiance if you get the refrence)

Thus the deamon was summon causeing my current campaign, taking place 100 years later. :smallcool:

EvilJames
2008-05-27, 01:02 PM
in a Planescape game, a character had just found out that he had previously been an evil villain before he lost his memory (it's complicated Yondolla's Curse was involved) and his evil brother is hunting him. The Villains ambush them in Sigil the afore mentioned character says a prayer to the Lady of Pain, grabs his brother and says "I can't live with the things I've done, and neither can you" and flys (he had wings at this point)them both into The Lady causing them both explode into a shower of blood and feathers.



PS Saying a prayer to the Lady of Pain in Sigil causes her to appear so she can kill you. (She doesn't want to be worshiped)

black dragoon
2008-05-27, 01:10 PM
that's a nasty one. here's a good one electrucuted by my archnemisis.
of course i was later reincarnated as a munckin but I count it.

Jimp
2008-05-27, 02:21 PM
PS Saying a prayer to the Lady of Pain in Sigil causes her to appear so she can kill you. (She doesn't want to be worshiped)

That. Is. AWESOME.

Soup of Kings
2008-05-27, 04:32 PM
One of the players in our group is an ass, and thought it would be funny to do the Soldja Boy dance over and over. We got sick of it really quick, so we made him fall into a spiky, acid-y pit on one of his attempts. He had it coming...

Just Alex
2008-05-27, 05:02 PM
While on the Positive Energy Plane, I Shapechanged myself into a flea, figuring when I Shapechange into something big and nasty, I'd get the drop on the bad guys. Not thinking things through led to my flea self running through a burst of positive energy. Without rings for protection, and cloaks for resisting, I failed my fortitude save miserably and became a flea sized puddle of goo.

Farmer42
2008-05-27, 05:07 PM
We never saw this happen, it is purely theoretical, but the most interesting character death I have ever heard of was the Pez Dispenser death.

The Pez Dispenser Death:
What happens when an Illithid gets their greedy little hands on a Death Delver with a Ring of Nine Lives? I'll let your imagination fill in the blanks.

EvilJames
2008-05-28, 01:12 AM
That. Is. AWESOME.

There is even a Planescape adventure where you have to stop a cult dedicated to her before she kills them all.

but back on topic:
The very same session a few rounds later (this was an end game session as it were) The Lady of Pain is still dangerously close to the rest of the party's vicinity. The Half-ogre fighter tries to save the unconscious ranger from being collateral damage from the Lady of Pain's presence, by throwing him back into the party's house. Which then promptly explodes from the time frozen fireballs the villains had placed in the house, (the party caught a glimpse of some one sneaking around the premises as few sessions earlier but never really checked it out) killing the ranger. The fighter and the thief (who just downed the last bad guy) were then left in the path of the Lady, but fortunately for them there's no more death the thief manages to survive the Lady with 1hp and the fighter had a ring of regeneration.

The Lady of Pain tends to have a lot of collateral damage when she's dealing with people who violate the scant few rules she has for her city. Despite what the 3rd ed Planar handbook says Lawful Neutral she ain't.

The Necroswanso
2008-05-28, 01:18 AM
Had to jump a five foot pool of water in a premie. My DM had a rule that physical checks resultin in a Nat1 or nat 20, were auto success/failure respectively, and thus were not able tot ake 10s.
+11 to jump five feet and what do I roll?
I was grabbed by a CR1 large plant monster with improved grapple.... I'd never died 4 minutes into a game due to TENTACLE PORN!

Breaw
2008-05-28, 01:30 AM
cu-de-gre'd(sp?)

coup de grace

French expression, literal translation: 'Blow of mercy'

Xefas
2008-05-28, 01:31 AM
One of my players got burned to death, once. That, in and of itself, isn't that strange. However, the fire that did him in was produced by a lizard. I mean, how often do you see that kinda crap happen? It wasn't even just a lizard; it had wings. It was like a bat-lizard with giant teeth. I did mention it was giant, right? Like two stories high. Bat-lizard with crazy fangs and claws the size of a house that breathes fire. I don't think anyone wakes up in the morning expecting to see that, and it was the last thing this poor bloke ever saw.

Ever since, we've called them "Steve-Eaters" for lack of a general, widely accepted term for them (in honor of his heroic sacrifice). Not that we ever expect to see another one. Well, it isn't the kind of thing your expect to see at all, really.

The Necroswanso
2008-05-28, 01:34 AM
My friend once sundered his own brain to avoid having it taken by a mindflayer.... We were going to win... He was confused at the time..

_Zoot_
2008-05-28, 01:59 AM
One of my players got burned to death, once. That, in and of itself, isn't that strange. However, the fire that did him in was produced by a lizard. I mean, how often do you see that kinda crap happen? It wasn't even just a lizard; it had wings. It was like a bat-lizard with giant teeth. I did mention it was giant, right? Like two stories high. Bat-lizard with crazy fangs and claws the size of a house that breathes fire. I don't think anyone wakes up in the morning expecting to see that, and it was the last thing this poor bloke ever saw.

Ever since, we've called them "Steve-Eaters" for lack of a general, widely accepted term for them (in honor of his heroic sacrifice). Not that we ever expect to see another one. Well, it isn't the kind of thing your expect to see at all, really.

I think That i have one heard of one of these Monstrosities , these "Steve-Eaters". I said that the guy that told me was a lier, but if you too have seen one! <.< >.>

Bayar
2008-05-28, 02:34 AM
Get a couple of players and find out how the Deck of Many Things actuall works. Fun times. We sent alot of innocent souls into the afterlife with that :smallbiggrin:

Fitz
2008-05-28, 04:31 AM
some time ago, one of my players managed an odd death, fighting in a room with animated furniature, his socerer fell to 0 hp, he then used his partial action to hide, causing him to start bleeding to death, one natural 20 with a high dex later and no player having any ranks in serch and 10 rounds elapse = 1 dead hidden socerer!

Fitz

Elixia
2008-05-28, 05:24 AM
me and my party member are trapped in a room with a few bow-dacks (spelling?)
my bard friend, sees himself as a hero and valliant warrior and jumps infront of one screaming 'enguard!' with his sword out stretch the undead creature simply looks at him and one shot him with 'death gaze' ... thud

Elixia
2008-05-28, 05:26 AM
some time ago, one of my players managed an odd death, fighting in a room with animated furniature, his socerer fell to 0 hp, he then used his partial action to hide, causing him to start bleeding to death, one natural 20 with a high dex later and no player having any ranks in serch and 10 rounds elapse = 1 dead hidden socerer!

Fitz

I dont know what made me laugh more, the fact he hid so well or the fact no one had any ranks in search!

DrowVampyre
2008-05-28, 05:48 AM
Hmm...not all that bizarre, but amusing, I thought. I had a group that was really smart, both in general knowledge and in taking advantage of their abilities and such. That's what makes this so amusing - they had a battle with a pyroclastic dragon in a lava pit with islands in the lava. Well, they're fighting, doing pretty good, but the dragon's going after the wizard (who's been doing nasty thigns to it). Wizard's hurt pretty bad, but nothing that can't be fixed, and this dragon's flying over. Well, its move ended with it flying directly over the wizard, who's standing on one of the islands. He casts a spell, finishes the dragon off...but forgets to move out from under it first. Unfortunately for him, he didn't have enough HP to soak the damage of a giant dragon corpse smashing him flat, nor the Reflex save to avoid it.

leperkhaun
2008-05-28, 06:14 AM
the group had just finished whooping up on the BBEG and was basically out of resources. Since the way we came is was blocked we went out the back way. There was a couple shocker lizards, my big bad super tough fighter got taken out. I think because it was so anti clamatic that it was funny.

My guy got raised, and still to this day, he refuses to discuss what happened, if someone gets him drunk enough, he insists that it was a dozen t rexes.

MorkaisChosen
2008-05-28, 06:35 AM
I had a half-orc paladin in the same group as an evil bard. Formal challenge after they did some evil stuff.

****ing Invisibility and Summon Swarm. ***ing Bards.

May I just add that I tried several ingenious tricks (water, Detect Evil), and eventually just ran out of stuff to do to find the Bard.

Grr...

Enguhl
2008-05-28, 06:39 AM
I had a party of six level nine adventurers get outsmarted and (indirectly) killed by a 15ft long, 20ft deep pit in a 5ft wide hallway. Just a hole (well it was trapped, but it only got one of them).
No joke...

enteri09
2008-05-28, 06:43 AM
myself. i was playing a githzerai vow of poverty monk (please forgive me for ever making the mistake of thinking that was a good idea) we were in an ettin's dungeon complex the rogue checks the door for traps , nothin, i open the door and run in. two ettins wail on me taking about 2/3 of my hp. the ninja runs in in etheral step mode and ss's an ettin. it's now the sorcerer's turn. then ninja and i both have evasion and no-one else is in the room. "throw in a fireball, we've got evasion and high saves"......."ok" comes the reply. 6th level caster the dice come up with three 6's i roll my reflex save........natural 1............F@#K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Dead monk. on a side note i was rezzed and by the end of the session i had drowned

OzymandiasVolt
2008-05-28, 06:48 AM
An especially abrasive party member shot my character in the eye with some kind of death arrow before my character could even be properly introduced to the party. For no reason. It was bizarre because it was just so SUDDEN. Nobody saw it coming.

JeminiZero
2008-05-28, 06:58 AM
An especially abrasive party member shot my character in the eye with some kind of death arrow before my character could even be properly introduced to the party. For no reason. It was bizarre because it was just so SUDDEN. Nobody saw it coming.


I think this (http://www.feartheboot.com/comic/default.aspx?c=51) might be what happened :smallbiggrin:

raygungothic
2008-05-28, 07:56 AM
As an Illithid (don't ask) I once fell (likewise don't ask) three hundred feet onto a steel floor while barely conscious and polymorphed into a hippopotamus. Hippo at point of impact... squid by the time I hit the walls... an image quite enough to make one feel unwell.

Soup of Kings
2008-05-28, 09:39 PM
One of my players got killed by the boiling hot juices of a Calzone Golem.

Yes, a Calzone Golem.

No, I didn't make it up, it's got stats published by WotC.

It's tasty...

FlyMolo
2008-05-28, 11:50 PM
One of my players got killed by the boiling hot juices of a Calzone Golem.

Yes, a Calzone Golem.

No, I didn't make it up, it's got stats published by WotC.

It's tasty...

Saw this. +1 for being killed by it, btw.

How did you end up an illithid?

SurlySeraph
2008-05-29, 01:17 AM
Bizarre.

I had a character killed by an invisible prismatic wall once. That was lame.

WHAT?! Isn't the entire point of Prismatic Wall that the visible colors are magical?

Zeta Kai
2008-05-29, 11:35 AM
One of my players got literally digested by the Elemental Plane of Flesh recently (see signature). It left nothing to resurrect him with. That started a side-quest to bring him back by tracking down a dagger he was stabbed with just an hour before his unfortunate digestion. The dagger was in the hands of a recurring assassin, who got away, so I'm still hoping my players can pull it off & get the bloody dagger back in time.

Also, only one Positive Energy Plane heal-pop so far? That's the most bizarre way to die that I know of from the core-RAW.

nagora
2008-05-29, 11:39 AM
Gee, we must have really dull games. NONE of our players have ever died during a game. Although one fell asleep once after drinking a bottle of wine and six bottles of beer.

SamTheCleric
2008-05-29, 11:42 AM
My cleric (the namesake for my forum name).. died in the following way...

Round 1: Maximized Enervate
Round 2: Cloudkill
Round 3: Evard's Black Tentacles
Round 4: Attacked twice by ghouls that deal strength damage.
Round 5: Killed by grapple, since I couldn't escape.

Ker
2008-05-29, 12:04 PM
I have a great one. I was playing in a D20 Modern game. We were being sent to Mars, and trying to beat the Russians there. One of the characters kept doing random dangerous stuff, like pressing random buttons. So, in order to keep him in line, we tied det cord around his neck (we also stuffed him into a washing machine, but that's another story).

After awhile of this, I got tired of this and duct taped him to the back of the spacecraft in a space suit. After awhile the duct tape broke. He tried to get back but couldn't. He eventually plunged through Earth's atmosphere and into Senator McCarthy's pool (we were playing an alternate history game). The last thing he heard was "the Commies are attacking!"

This was a really messed up campaign.

Zocelot
2008-05-29, 03:14 PM
I was playing a sorceror, and we were fighting the BBEG. With maximized fireball I managed to kill 3 orphans, the fighter, and deal all of 30 damage to the villain.

Hal
2008-05-29, 05:13 PM
One of my players got killed by the boiling hot juices of a Calzone Golem.

Yes, a Calzone Golem.

No, I didn't make it up, it's got stats published by WotC.

It's tasty...

Do they take double damage from Bite attacks?

Manga Shoggoth
2008-05-30, 03:52 AM
In a long-running 1e campaign, the party finds a lake (or spring, I can't remember which) of healing potion.

There is a rather intense fight with the bad guys de jour, and one of the fighters falls unconsious, face-down in the spring.

The DM ruled that the for simplicity he would ignore micibility effects (aka overdose on healing potions). It was a race between the healing and damage from drowning.

(This, I think, was the same player who came up with the phrase "Is Cthulhu Large?")

Samakain
2008-05-30, 08:00 AM
MY bladesinger
Walked into a garbage disposal room for the orcs that where inhabting a dungeon. Daughter of a Noble line of elves, little miss pristine she was. Room was filled with giant bugs. and cramped, she decided to jump onto a 7ft tall pile of garbage to put some hurt on some fire beetles
Failed the jump, tumbled 15 feet down the other side, nat 20 by a giant vermin with 1/2 CR, nat 20 confirmation, Decapitated Elf Girl.

McClintock
2008-05-30, 08:42 AM
I was DM to a PRE-Apocalyptic 3e styled campaign. All 7 players in the group were given a special ability, that was REQUIRED to be used to complete the quest to save the world. The group consisted of 4 Humans, a 1/2 dragon, an Elf and a gnome.

The gnome, a svirfneblin to be exact, was a dork, PC & IRL. He was constantly making REALLY bad decisions. His final act of stupidity, and this is a whopper, was simply stupendously amazing.

We entered a room (at 15th level) with a dragon and a nightmare beast. Roll initiative, the dragon & nightmare beast win. Dragon breathes & moves. The PCs had protection from the BW and took minimal damage. The NB was a brute of a fighting machine and stepped up to the biggest threat it could find (random roll and it found the guy labeled below)and missed.

PC's turn, our super-munchkin metagamer of overpowering death (the one the NB attacked), unloaded his two-weapon hasted attacks of sure death and managed to kill it in one round. Our Ghoul Lord(Think Necromancer) used animate dead on the NB corpse and stood it back up. On the gnoes turn, he had not been paying attention to the Ghoul Lord and say the NB stand back up after taking cloase to 1000hp damage. He panicked and jumped into a pool of lava, because he didn't believe we could win.

The remaining of the round was 5 PCs pounding the snot out of a blue dragon. We all just looked at each other quizzically and asked him what he was thinking. He said, It seemed likea good idea at the time.

Lycan 01
2008-05-30, 10:31 PM
^ Lol. I laughed at that one...

raygungothic
2008-05-31, 05:01 AM
Flymolo - it was an epic finale in the 2e era. The Illithid had been an NPC ally of the party - they didn't want the world destroyed by the BBEG! My actual character (dull and crap Dwarf cleric) died unglamorously a few minutes into the lengthy final session and our DM kindly gave me the magic-laden Illithid (and a quick briefing).

Worked quite well all around, until the unfortunate death (but I'd been briefed that the character would risk death to achieve a certain goal, and I tried to control for that risk as best as I could - did the job but the dice failed me)

nobodylovesyou4
2008-05-31, 06:42 PM
Cyperpunk 2020. A solo (played by the user PirateJesus) was perched on a rooftop of an office building, providing sniper fire for the rest of the group, who were across the street. He got pissed and began spraying machine gun rounds at the other building, attracting the cops and a police helicopter. he ran away, off the building and into an alley, where he ran face first into the barrel of a rifle held by a bounty hunter out for his head. the bounty hunter fired, taking off MOST of his head. however, with what brain function he had left, piratejesus managed to punch the hunter in the stomach (using a super robo arm, no less) and completely DISEMBOWELED said bounty hunter before finally dying himself. im not quite sure if the bizarre death goes to piratejesus, or the bounty hunter.

evisiron
2008-05-31, 07:00 PM
We had a Dwarven Bard who saw an orc ambush ahead, and (while the rest of the party snuck through a secret tunnel they discovered) decided to ride the very slow mule pulled cart into their midst and attack them.
Of course, they just stood their waiting patiently for him to hit the trip wire and activate the giant block of stone hanging from the ceiling...

Turcano
2008-05-31, 07:07 PM
coup de grace

French expression, literal translation: 'Blow of mercy'

Also, I feel I should mention that the "c" is not silent; that would mean "blow of fat."

Lycan 01
2008-05-31, 07:21 PM
So its pronounced "cou' de grace" instead of "cou' de grau"?

Aquillion
2008-05-31, 10:23 PM
in a Planescape game, a character had just found out that he had previously been an evil villain before he lost his memoryHey, I played that game too.

...more seriously, though, many of these sound more like 'bad DM stories' rather than just 'bizarre player death stories'. Seriously, a huge percentage of the things in this thread amount to 'houserule: YOU DIE' sorts of things.

Lycan 01
2008-05-31, 10:34 PM
I dunno. I don't think the DM can help it if a player jumps into lava, or gets killed by a Calzone Golem, or the wizard who hid when he passed out and nobody could find and heal him... :smalltongue:

nobodylovesyou4
2008-05-31, 10:48 PM
in my story, the dm later admitted to planning a fiat on the character... mostly because he had botched up both missions we had had up to that point. ><

Lycan 01
2008-05-31, 10:54 PM
A fiat? :smallconfused:

Recaiden
2008-05-31, 10:57 PM
Ah, the calzone golem. That was a strange adventure.:smallbiggrin:
Most bizzare... i can think of 2.
We were fighting a paragon squirrel, and it threw acorns at the fighter and killed him, for about 35 damage each.:smalleek:
Second, my elf druid was death attacked by an assassin, and when they died, a contingent reincarnation went off, reincarnating them as an elf. (this was 3.0, and it was much more likely to come back as an animal.)

nobodylovesyou4
2008-05-31, 11:09 PM
A fiat? :smallconfused:

DM fiat. im not particularly sure, but context clues tell me that its a situation set up that the player cannot in any way get out of. correct me if im wrong, people.

Lycan 01
2008-05-31, 11:11 PM
I figured it was a trap, but... fiat? I've never heard that word before. Is it slang? A typo? French? :smalltongue:

TigerHunter
2008-05-31, 11:14 PM
I figured it was a trap, but... fiat? I've never heard that word before. Is it slang? A typo? French? :smalltongue:
Don't know about it's origins, but it means any situation that only exists because the DM says so.

nobodylovesyou4
2008-05-31, 11:14 PM
french, probably.

Lycan 01
2008-05-31, 11:17 PM
Aha...


"Fiat" is Latin for "Let there be..." or "Let it be..."

Example: "Fiat Lux" = "Let there be light"

So a DM Fiat is just when a DM says something is just so it can be.

Woooo, I feel smart now! :smallbiggrin:

Aquillion
2008-05-31, 11:23 PM
I dunno. I don't think the DM can help it if a player jumps into lava, or gets killed by a Calzone Golem, or the wizard who hid when he passed out and nobody could find and heal him... :smalltongue:Sure, those are fine, but the invisible prismatic wall? Knocking yourself unconsious by running headfirst in the dark? Having a giant fall on you when it dies? (Two people died like that in this thread.) Several other things don't sound like they should have been instantly deadly, either (Trample damage isn't that high.)

I mean, sure, I'm fine with DMs making up a few rules as they go along, for flavor, but using it to kill players seems a bit out there. I know I'd be kinda annoyed if one of my characters was killed out of the blue by a previously-unmentioned houserule.

Lycan 01
2008-05-31, 11:34 PM
Which is why you find a loophole, I guess. Or make sure your next character makes his DMing career a living Hell. XD

FMArthur
2008-05-31, 11:43 PM
Gelatinous Cube.

edit: Well, that and a wizard who was ambushed by a swarm of housecats born of DM spite.

GoC
2008-06-01, 12:55 AM
Sure, those are fine, but the invisible prismatic wall? Knocking yourself unconsious by running headfirst in the dark? Having a giant fall on you when it dies? (Two people died like that in this thread.) Several other things don't sound like they should have been instantly deadly, either (Trample damage isn't that high.)

A giant falling on you would do 20d6 damage because they weigh more than 4000 pounds.

Lycan 01
2008-06-01, 01:02 AM
But there's still the fact that the giant could have fallen in any direction, and yet he fell on top of you. I mean, think about it. Something standing up dies, it has 360 degrees around it. It has to fall in one particular degree to land on the stuff. So lets say the hero is over on the 145 degree angle. The giant falls at a 144 direction. The hero lives, because the giant didn't land smack dab on top of him. But lo, despite the overwelming chances, that giant fell exactly on top of him.

Fair? No.

DM Fiat? Yes.


(Yes, I'm going to use that word waaaay too much now... :smalltongue:)

Patashu
2008-06-01, 01:07 AM
Given the stance of the human body, you're most likely to fall forwards or backwards. It's closer to a 1/2 or 1/3 chance, isn't it?

Lycan 01
2008-06-01, 01:10 AM
But take into consideration that even though he's falling forward, you can be on his right side hacking at his ankle, or even between his feet if you're feeling gutsy. Just because he's falling in one of two directions doesn't mean you have to be standing in either of them.... I mean, he IS a giant. You have plenty of places to hit him from...

Aquillion
2008-06-01, 01:15 PM
A giant falling on you would do 20d6 damage because they weigh more than 4000 pounds.No it wouldn't. An object has to fall at least 10 feet to do any damage. Despite its size, the giant counts as standing on the ground, so at least per RAW, it does no damage at all. A DM could houserule otherwise, but they should have a reason to do so.

And that's assuming they fall forwards and don't just keel over. And assuming they hit me (which would normally require an attack roll if they're deliberately dropped; it seems absurd to suggest that there's no attack roll if they fall by accident.)

And still, it isn't in their entry in the MM (for a reason, I think. As a houserule it's stupid and unbalancing. 20d6 damage is an absurd amount at some of the levels when you're fighting giants.) Realism should never be a DM's main concern; making sure that everyone is having fun should be. Applying massively unbalanced amounts of damage to a PC with no warning, no roll to avoid it, and no chance to respond is a bad idea no matter how many arguments the DM comes up to defend it with.

The game is a simplification of reality. Not every aspect of the real world (or every behavior from the real world) is represented there. When you put it in a story like this, "You stupid player! Why didn't you move away from the giant!" sounds obvious, but the truth is that a player can't possibly specify all the logical actions their PC takes; if the DM is going to add a new houserule that represents the way the world works, they should also assume that the PCs take that into account, or at least warn them before they take an action that doesn't take it into account ("As the giant weakens, you realize that he is going to fall when he dies. You should clear the area!" "Are you sure you want to drink the ominous sulphorous bubbling pool?" Etc, etc, etc.)

Many of stories of these types involve players who do not understand the rules of the gameworld or the situation that their characters are in. This reflects badly on the DM, not the player. Making sure the players understand their world, situation, and environment is part of the DM's role in the game; if a player doesn't recognize a situation that is supposed to be obviously dangerous, it is a failure on the DM's part, not just the player's.

Otherwise you end up with something like this:

DM: Opening the door, you see a bare, simple chamber whose walls are lined with cold dark stone.

PC: All right... I walk inside and...

DM: You fall to your death! There was a big obvious open pit filled with deadly spikes right in the middle of the room! Ha-ha, what an idiot!

BRC
2008-06-01, 04:03 PM
Personally, I think that the a player should only take damage from a giant falling on them if they are unable to dodge or, if it's really big (I'd say at least 2 size catagories larger), in which case they get a reflex save (Maybe DC 10+ 5 for each size catagory larger beyond the first, for example).

Be cause otherwise, a Halfling could get crushed by a falling human, which makes no sense. A halfling getting crushed by a falling ogre on the other hand makes a little more sense.

TheCountAlucard
2008-06-02, 12:07 AM
Actually, on the whole "giant falling" thing, when people faint, they almost always fall forward.

Now, of course, that's just fainting, but I'd still probably keep it in mind...

Anteros
2008-06-02, 12:15 AM
Depends on the cause of death too. If I smash you in the chest with an axe I can promise you'll fall back and not forward. Really there's no good reason for the giant to fall on you at all when you apply logic.

Edit: Although, if my DM did that to me, my next character would be a giant who did nothing but purposely fall on people. Free, unavoidable instant kill move? Sign me up.

Blanks
2008-06-02, 04:57 AM
Edit: Although, if my DM did that to me, my next character would be a giant who did nothing but purposely fall on people. Free, unavoidable instant kill move? Sign me up.

I was thinking the same thing. Why didn't the giant use this as his attack from the start?

@ lava story
Anyone NOT guessing "lava is dangerous" is not going to survive anyway...

@ calzone golems
Any campaign involving calzone golems is governed by a different set of rules, where killing players and ressurecting them with Craft: Strong Coffee is perfectly alright :)

Soup of Kings
2008-06-02, 06:59 PM
Depends on the cause of death too. If I smash you in the chest with an axe I can promise you'll fall back and not forward.

Well, what if the axe gets stuck in my chest, and then you yank it out, pulling me forward? :smalltongue:

toddex
2008-06-02, 07:04 PM
I realy can't answer that, but this is from the player who also wound up dying after suffering grevous wounds from disiding to urinate on a pile of bones he found in a crypt, it was a skeletal dragon, he later died to a witch hunter because he didn't have the HP to survive getting shot off his ride.

So as Lein said "Even an epic level ranger couln't track his thought process"

Edit: This was in a previous campaign

Jesus you guys are super dull. I'd hate to play with your group. That guy is a complete bad ass though. I'd play a game with him any time.

CockroachTeaParty
2008-06-02, 07:12 PM
This isn't actually a player's death, but a strange death nevertheless.

In my recent Eberron campaign, the PCs finally got to fight the Lord of Blades. He was the second-to-last BBEG they were to fight.

So, they engaged in an epic struggle against the Lord of Blades, atop the head of a giant warforged (the 'godforged') high above the mists of the Mournland. In the end, the PCs were victorious, but can anyone guess how exactly the LoB died?

A rhino.

Yes, a rhino that emerged out of the party warlock's bag of tricks got in a lucky critical hit with a charge, killing the Lord of Blades stone dead. While it wasn't truly anticlimactic, it certainly was a strange way for an evil mastermind to die...

Collin152
2008-06-02, 07:13 PM
Depends on the cause of death too. If I smash you in the chest with an axe I can promise you'll fall back and not forward. Really there's no good reason for the giant to fall on you at all when you apply logic.

Edit: Although, if my DM did that to me, my next character would be a giant who did nothing but purposely fall on people. Free, unavoidable instant kill move? Sign me up.

I could have enough mass that I just end up slumping foward against the axe.

Sequinox
2008-06-02, 07:13 PM
The climax of a campaign, and the first person of the three villains (A hexblade, an evil paladin ((house ruled, pallys are good or evil)) and a sorcerer, the hexblade, somes out. She casts that spell that makes you hallucinate worst fear killing you - and then you die, and well, everyone made their save but the ranger and the samurai. The ranger's worst nightmare was a giant forest fire with fire-immune giant spiders walking around inside it. Ugh. That was me. The samurai, the groups perv out of game, decides that it's ex girlfriends with guns. Angry ex girlfriends. He got whacked pretty good, and none of us in game could understand what he meant when he said "No! I only cheated twice!"

Purple Cloak
2008-06-02, 07:50 PM
Jesus you guys are super dull. I'd hate to play with your group. That guy is a complete bad ass though. I'd play a game with him any time.

I don't understand what you mean by we're dull :smallconfused:

Although this was another one of my mental groups, we were traveling through a chaos torn wasteland and we came across your steryiotypical tentacaly type chaos beast (stat wise is was only a souped up geletanous cube with cold resitance)
Which after almost killing the shadowcaster, who teleported away, it paralysed and engulfed the fighter, the mystic thurge (I think, I can't quite remember) cast dance of ruin on it and the fighter, it died but the fighter survived on -8hp and bleeding,
the pyromancer then had the briliant idea to 'save his life' by using his fire elemental familiar to cautrise the wounds, 4 fire damage, the fighter died.
he was a half elf, he was reincarnated as an orc, he didn't like that much.

ahzreal
2008-06-02, 08:22 PM
I suppose this isn't really "bizarre", but...

I was Dm-ing a game, and one of the players was a Raging-Beserker, enough said. :smallannoyed:

nobodylovesyou4
2008-06-02, 08:42 PM
I suppose this isn't really "bizarre", but...

I was Dm-ing a game, and one of the players was a Raging-Beserker, enough said. :smallannoyed:

actually, you have to tell the rest of the story - is the "bizarre death" in question of the frenzied berserker, or his lady friend?

Bob the Urgh
2008-06-02, 08:49 PM
I was playing a kobold fighter with a repeating crossbow (just for the hell of it) and the party got ambushed by a group of tendriculos'. I decided to charge through the forest and get to the other side to provide fire support, right into the huge tendriculos that was hiding. Didn't stand a chance, I hate grapple checks.

FlyMolo
2008-06-02, 09:36 PM
Craft (Strong Coffee) is now completely allowed as a valid way of duplicating Raise Dead in any game I DM. Henceforth. If you fail the DC it's Reincarnation not Raise Dead.

BizzaroStormy
2008-06-02, 09:36 PM
Cyperpunk 2020. A solo (played by the user PirateJesus) was perched on a rooftop of an office building, providing sniper fire for the rest of the group, who were across the street. He got pissed and began spraying machine gun rounds at the other building, attracting the cops and a police helicopter. he ran away, off the building and into an alley, where he ran face first into the barrel of a rifle held by a bounty hunter out for his head. the bounty hunter fired, taking off MOST of his head. however, with what brain function he had left, piratejesus managed to punch the hunter in the stomach (using a super robo arm, no less) and completely DISEMBOWELED said bounty hunter before finally dying himself. im not quite sure if the bizarre death goes to piratejesus, or the bounty hunter.

Well, I got a natural 1 (which is good in this case) on both my stun and death saves. I hit him for a total of 83 damage (Wolvers [3d6+2] Improved Myomar giving x2 [6d6+6] and hydraulic rams for another x3 [18d6+18] ) To put this into perspective for you playgrounders, 40 HP is the absolute limit for a cyberpunk character (to my knowledge)Should i have succeeded my stabilization check, it would have been the most bizzare player survival.

As for Ahzreal's post...

My frenzied berserker finished off the last enemy, then went on to killing the rogue who had stayed way too close. I was then Hit by our mage for a ton of Dex damage and then stabbed to death by a character made specifically to out-DPS me. Also, this all happened under water.

FlyMolo
2008-06-02, 09:39 PM
OH NO! My players are here! Now they'll all take ranks in Craft(strong coffee)!

I should stop shooting my mouth off about fun things to allow in my games.

BizzaroStormy
2008-06-02, 09:41 PM
Craft (Strong Coffee) is now completely allowed as a valid way of duplicating Raise Dead in any game I DM. Henceforth. If you fail the DC it's Reincarnation not Raise Dead.

So if I screw up the coffee bad enough, they'll become a trogladyte? Sweet

ahzreal
2008-06-02, 09:52 PM
As for Ahzreal's post...

My frenzied berserker finished off the last enemy, then went on to killing the rogue who had stayed way too close. I was then Hit by our mage for a ton of Dex damage and then stabbed to death by a character made specifically to out-DPS me. Also, this all happened under water.


Oooooh yaaaa... I forgot the whole underwater thing.. But I still think the frenzied beserker class was a bad idea.... Although it WAS pwnage. >:D