Of Tpks and, uh, more TPKs.

[Lord Loss]

Tales of TPKs. Epic Fails at Epic Levels? Whole parties laid low at low levels? Basically, trade tales of TPKs over the metaphorical campfire whilst roasting imaginary marshmallows in an imaginary forest. With us virtual Playgrounders. Confused yet?

[AstralFire]

I have yet to TPK a party.

I have not been a player long enough in any campaign to be part of a TPK.

[d13]

Never TPK'd, never been TPK'd

Still...

Very lucky when rolling dice + Starting to DM a RHoD campaign + Planning not to fudge ANY dice roll = Probably you'll be hearing from me soon xD

[Lord Loss]

Believe me, not fudging is fun. The Ogre hits... Natural Twenty... How much HP Does your rogue have? Uh, 15, Why.

[Blackknight1239]

Oh, my party was TPK'd last night. A big ol' Monkey Construct decided to come to life, and kill us. It worked.

[Lord Loss]

0_o Do describe that. It sounds... um. Y

[Forbiddenwar]

Been part of a near tpk. plot: villian is a lost little girl in a maze, we are suppose to save, she acts happy to see us, then:

Rogue: I'm using my scrying mirror on her.
DM: (realizing the scrying mirror should never have been given to the low level party, since it lets the rogue see the true form of the "little girl") crap. Well, this is what you see. (shows rogue pic in book) She takes two steps and (rolls dices) and kills you. Everyone else roll initiative, you just saw this little girl rip the throat out of your friend.
Me: RUN away
Dm: (rolls dice) she kills you and the druid on her turn.
Barbarian: I rage and attack with my great hammer. I full power attack. (rolls a Nat 20) great, rolling again to confirm the crit (rolls another nat 20) umm
DM: Roll again. If it is another nat 20, it is an instant death.
Barbarian: (rolls another Nat 20)
DM: the barabarian smooshes the little girl into a very small greenish meat patty. And we have to quit now, while I try to figure out the exp on this. No way in hell you should have survived a battle with her.

We jumped from level 4 to level 7 (yes I know that isn't RAW)

[Myshlaevsky]

Quite a few deaths when I sit on the other side of the DM's screen, but not many TPK's. I don't like ending the story.

I've had one, though. The PC's attacked a dragon when they really weren't ready for it and refused to retreat. It killed them all.

I've been TPK'd once, as well. Not much to say about that one. We tried to sneak into the "Den of the Troll King" and it all got pretty catastrophic. Noise is not the friend of a thief.

[Xallace]

Near TPK. Party of 4 vs Skindancer, 3.5 game.

1st Down: Half-Giant Barbarian. When the Skindancer hits with any melee attack it gets a free trip attack, and the barbarian kept getting knocked prone. For some reason, he never tried crawling out of its reach before getting up again, he'd just keep trying to hop up right beside it; well, the Skindancer hit him with an AoO every time, knocking him prone again 'til he died.

2nd Down: Raptoran (Archery) Fighter. Rolls a Nat 1 on his attack, his Shocking/Thundering Bow backfires, unstrings itself, deals electricity and thunder damage to him, and deafens him permanently (last time we use fumble charts...). Raptoran, weaponless and deaf, lands on the roof of a building nearby as he didn't carry a back-up weapon and felt useless at that point.

3rd Down: Human Druid / MoMF. Puts up a good fight against the Skindancer, but the Skindancer slips in a lucky crit and knocks the druid down to 1 HP. Druid climbs up to the top of a building to escape the beastie.

4th Down: Elven Fighter / Champion of Corellon. Gets grappled by Skindancer, decides to set off the 48 remaining charges in his Helm of Brilliance on top of him (my inability to understand WBL is pretty notorious, hence why he had one in the first place). Somehow made his save against the charges, and had Evasion. Takes out an entire city block, obliterates the skindancer, comes out without a scratch.

Only one died, sure, but I'd say there were enough close calls to count as a near-TPK, at least.

[Evilfeeds]

TPKed the party once, via plot. They all got raised as zombies next adventure. (DM fiat > raw)

Oh, and once when the cleric fell to a giant spider, the tank decided to keep fighting rather than run away (despite several hints that this was a bad idea). When he inevitably died, he threw a massive wobbly, and killed my motivation to ever GM again. I like to think the rest of the party died shortly after, giving the campaign a nice sense of closure.

[sofawall]

Near TPK. Party of 4 vs Skindancer, 3.5 game.

1st Down: Half-Giant Barbarian. When the Skindancer hits with any melee attack it gets a free trip attack, and the barbarian kept getting knocked prone. For some reason, he never tried crawling out of its reach before getting up again, he'd just keep trying to hop up right beside it; well, the Skindancer hit him with an AoO every time, knocking him prone again 'til he died.

Died from bad rule-reading. You can't trip someone as they're getting up. you interrupt the action, so they haven't gotten up yet, so they're still rone, so you can't trip them. Strike one.

2nd Down: Raptoran (Archery) Fighter. Rolls a Nat 1 on his attack, his Shocking/Thundering Bow backfires, unstrings itself, deals electricity and thunder damage to him, and deafens him permanently (last time we use fumble charts...). Raptoran, weaponless and deaf, lands on the roof of a building nearby as he didn't carry a back-up weapon and felt useless at that point.

Ah, the famous critical fumble houserule. As you so adroitly noticed, it sucks. Hard. Strike two.

3rd Down: Human Druid / MoMF. Puts up a good fight against the Skindancer, but the Skindancer slips in a lucky crit and knocks the druid down to 1 HP. Druid climbs up to the top of a building to escape the beastie.

Druid's near death is fair, no rules broken. Strike two remains.

4th Down: Elven Fighter / Champion of Corellon. Gets grappled by Skindancer, decides to set off the 48 remaining charges in his Helm of Brilliance on top of him (my inability to understand WBL is pretty notorious, hence why he had one in the first place). Somehow made his save against the charges, and had Evasion. Takes out an entire city block, obliterates the skindancer, comes out without a scratch.

Only one died, sure, but I'd say there were enough close calls to count as a near-TPK, at least.

Holy hell, Helm of brilliance, and he made the saves as a FIGHTER? His awesome alone removes the need to give you a strike.

However, you won, so it wasn't a TPK, in fact, it wasn't even close (although if he leveled a city block, how did the Raptoran and the Druid not die?). Anyway, I give that strike three. Entertaining, but not a good TPK.

[Umael]

Been part of a near tpk. plot: villian is a lost little girl in a maze, we are suppose to save, she acts happy to see us, then:

1) How did the "little girl" know the rogue was seeing her in her true form?
2) What WAS it, anyway?

[Moofin Bard]

Ahhhhh TPKs.

Never DMed one or been part of one. But I watched one go down.

Jeff (DM): HEY EVERYONE THERES ABOUT TO BE A TPK OF MY PARTY!

Then we watch as one by one, the rust monster takes everyone down because no one had a non-metal weapon and the magic-users were rolling epic fail rolls.

[Eldariel]

Latest TPK I experienced was our 2-man party of Dervish & Warlock facing a Wizard Lich of ~our level or one or two higher. This was around level 15. First turn, our Warlock shot himself thanks to some variety of Ray Deflection, I whiffed my attacks thanks to Ironguard and the Warlock got hit by Anti-Magic Ray. He failed his save. Yes, we tried to run. Yes, we died.

Though I almost survived under invisibility running the streets of Sigil (I got far enough that his True Seeing couldn't locate me anymore...but there were only few ways I could go and he tossed a Fireball in my general direction and I was so low it was enough to kill me in spite of my successful Reflex-save). This had to do with the Lich's laboratory we happened upon (we found a door to a maze of traps so of course we had to see where it goes!) searching our inn room in Sigil.

[ZeroNumerous]

Then we watch as one by one, the rust monster takes everyone down because no one had a non-metal weapon and the magic-users were rolling epic fail rolls.

No one had a fist? That seems a bit counterintuitive to being a fighter-type.

[Xallace]

Entertaining, but not a good TPK.

Then I consider myself fortunate if my worst TPK isn't a TPK at all.

[Kaihaku]

I've only been involved in one near TPK and that was caused by some OOC fighting. The sniper and GM had a fight, so the 'gloves' came off and got replaced by spiked gauntlets. Then the sniper and I had a fight, so the team ended up working against each other even as the challenge rating flew through the roof... It wasn't a true TPK as the technician survived but everyone else died.

So I suppose I've never been in a TPK, unless you count a railroaded TPK where the DM killed all of us intentionally so he could resurrect us as a plot point.

[Forbiddenwar]

1) How did the "little girl" know the rogue was seeing her in her true form?
2) What WAS it, anyway?

An etherreal Doppelganger, if memory serves.
I can't remember exact how the little girl knew. Either it is a part of the etherreal dopplegangers attributes or she made the scrying check and saw the rogue use the mirror and put two and two together.
we were all weak after just barely getting away from a demon.
It would have worked out if we stayed on the rails. And it still worked out after all.

[zarakstan]

On the player side of things I had a very near experience to TPK. It ended up that only the ape companion of our parties' wildshaper (homebrew) managed to stay up and he managed to free a paladin who subsequently pwned everyone.

[Carden]

My parties have so far been completely immune to TPKs, no matter how hard I try. Now, on the flip side, parites I have been a part of have consisted almost totally of TPKs. Mainly due to the fact I'm the only one that understands CRs. Case in point:

Two level 1 adventurers venture into a forest looking for alchemical ingredients for an eccentric wizard, hoping he will portal us to where we need to go. My sister is DMing, so everything is a little off kilter. She flips through the monster manual and tells us this, "Alright, you're now being attacked by a Chimera and a Unicorn." CR 7 and 3, opposed alignments attacking us. Yeah, she also gave us no chance to run. I think I lasted for 3 turns trying to climb trees for safety. This is a prime reason for not picking monsters based on how "cool they look", as she put it.

Thus the reason why I DM for my friends.

[Myou]

I came horribly close today. I was running an attack on Seawell from the Wrecked Ashore module by lizardfolk with class levels and some magically enlarged and zombified tanks (not actual tanks).

My player, a gestalt Wu Jen 4//Tweaked Monk 4 (it's just me and him) tried to take the whole force on at once to protect the village and my character ((Wizard 3//Homebrewed class that's a bararian without offensive abilities but a bit more endurance)) backed him up with mage armour and the like.

He was quickly surrounded by about 20 of them, ranging from basic ones straight out of the MM to the two giant undead ones which I thought were CR 4 but seemed more like CR 6

The first few rouds went well, he took a few hits from javelins and claws, etc, but still had most of his HP, but after a few more AC boosting spells most of the lizardfolk were no longer able to hit him, so I had their leaders co-ordinate them to use Aid Another to help the two huge undead.

That was +10 to the attack rolls of both undead, who were making 3 attacks a round.

He took 50-odd damage, blasting through his temporary HP from magical items, and was left on 0 hp, but luckily his Body of The Sun spell killed all the mooks that same round, so it was just the two huge undead, which I distracted while he used healing potions. Even so, we finished the fight with him on 6 hp.

Since I was out of spells by the time he took the hits that brought him to 0, if he had taken even 1 more poit of damage it would have been a TPK.


Looking back I think that perhaps Aid Another only give that bonus to one attack roll that round.

[Frosty]

Hopefully she's a better DM now, your sister?

[Carden]

Oh, no, not at all. Mainly because she's never wanted to DM again, but, then again, it's doubtful we would let her if she did. There's just something wrong with her mind that she thinks DMs don't need an ounce of prep time. It scares me to even think about it... *shiver*

[FoE]

I got TPK'ed playing in a one-shot back in 1E. But then, the DM (my oldest brother) was basically out to destroy us because we'd beaten his last adventure and then joked about it.

We were a group of low-level characters who'd just battled through an army of goblins, trolls and a spectator, a beholder variant that's supposed to guard an object but in this case was just hanging out in a corridor and ambushed us without warning. Anyhow, half the party was dead and the rest were down to single-digit HP when he dropped a white dragon, a frost giant and two orc and troglydyte chieftains on us. We didn't even bother rolling; we just gave up.

[shimmercat]

I LOVE the story about the little girl in the maze. XD Wow.


Been TPK'ed once of note.

It's the big showdown. There is an artifact on display at the museum that we (a group of vigilants) know is supposed to be stolen by the big baddies of our game, so we set up a stakeout, along with our major NPCs (the chief of police and a reporter-bard). The big baddies show up, we spring our ambush, and roll initiative!

Fight goes as expected, until one of the baddies casts Wall of Flames, as we had been stupid enough to line ourselves up. The fighter, cleric (me), and illusionist all fail their reflex saves -- sucks, but it happens. Unfortunately, so did the monk. In fact, he rolled a nat 1. The monk who was wearing a Necklace of Fireballs, because we assumed that he WASN'T GOING TO BE FAILING A WHOLE LOT OF REFLEX SAVES (stupid, stupid, stupid...)

The Necklace failed its save. The museum exploded, killing the party, the major baddies, and our important NPCs, all in one fell swoop.

We woke up three weeks later, resurrected by some deus ex machina (all except the monk, who was announced disintegrated beyond recovery and the player had to roll a new character), to find that dopplegangers had taken our shape and had completely tarnished our reputations.

To this day, none of those players will go within 10 feet of a Necklace of Fireballs.

[Lord Loss]

What is a necklace of Fireballs, anyway?

[PId6]

What is a necklace of Fireballs, anyway?

Link 10 char

[Talic]

A party I was DMing for was given a quest (at ECL 13) to negotiate the safety of trade routes in the area. They were sent to negotiate with an Ancient Red Dragon. They knew its age, and its power.

The dwarf totemist and halfling rogue came up with a plan to have the dwarf distract the dragon, while the rogue gathered items the dragon would value. They were then going to try to extort the dragon to garner the safety of the village.

The rogue had darkstalker. However, the dragon had a very good spot and listen modifier.

It wasn't pretty. But it was quick. My parties have learned that with my dragons? They aren't easily defeatable through shivering touch, etc.

They've also learned that when I put in an encounter that isn't status quo (non-CR appropriate), that there is a CR appropriate way to defeat the encounter. It's just not usually fighting.

Oh, and blackmailing and extorting things much more powerful than you? Not smart.

[prufock]

Tomb of Horrors.

[Swordguy]

My last one was in Mechwarrior 3e. The party was a group of mech pilots kicking around as a pirate/mercenary unit. All groundpounders - no spaceborne abilities at all.

So, during their transit from the garrison planet they just left to their JumpShip (to get out of the system), they passed their relief; a large unit called Hell's Black Aces...a group composed entirely of AreoSpace Fighter jocks who specialize in space ops. Turns out, one of the party members had an Enemy in HBA (the PC had killed the dude's little sister in battle), so he calls over via the radio to taunt the guy a bit. Taunting turns into personal insults, and the PC eventually goes verbally after the whole unit of HBA.

"I'm going to kill you and everyone you know. I'm going to hunt each of you Black Aces bastards down and exterminate every one of you. I'm gonna kill your families, just like I killed [enemy's] sister. And I'm starting now."

He pulls his sidearm and tells the guy at the ship weapons console to shoot at the HBA's ship. The poor scared schlub does so (scoring a pretty good hit just as the two ships exit weapons range), and about 5 minutes later, 50 HBA areospace fighters come swarming in and blow the party's ship into oblivion. Best part? The idiot PC is the only one who got to an escape pod, and instead of riding it back to the planet, he jury-rigs the emergency radio to continue broadcasting epithets and insults. So the HBA Enemy turns back around and smokes the escape pod. TPK.