PC's often meet strange fates- imprisonments(which happened to my character tonight- deck of many things...*sigh*), implosions, drowning, being stepped on by a creature several times larger than it, etc- that often result in the end of that character's career. This greatly upset me as a novice and journeyman player, but nowadays I actually get excited about a character's demise- it often results in strange new adventures. Am I alone in thinking this? I think I saw a topic like this not too long ago, so I apologize if I'm beating a dead horse, but I can't help but wonder how the party is going to fair without me and how they are going to get me back...
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Exotic deaths are, once you get over the loss of a cherished PC, actually rather gratifying. Case in point - in a 1 ed. campaign I DMed looooong ago, the party meets a Type IV demon. After a preliminary exchange of firepower, it becomes clear that the only PC capable of harming the beast is the Paladin, who possesses a +3 dagger. He promptly charges the beastie, grapples it and starts stabbing it with his Toothpick of Doom. The demon takes to the air with the Pally hanging onto its shoulders, but the Paladin actually, after a long stab-fest, manages to kill the fiend! However, this happens at about 300' above ground, and the triumphant warrior immediately plunges to his death (he was pretty badly beaten up already).
This was almost 20 years ago, and none of us remember the Paladin's name, or anything about the rest of the party or campaign. But his spectacular end lives on...
Once, a fellow PC got turned into a wraith or a wight or something and converted an extraplanar city. Let me tell you, a level 20 dwarf fighter is no match for creatures dealing negative levels with an incorporeal touch attack, especially when incorporeality lets 28 creatures surround you three-dimensionally...