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(I don't know if there was already a thread like this - initial searches came up empty)
I thought of a very demeaning way for someone to die in 3.5 due to its qwirks, so I figured I'd start a thread. How many deaths like these can you think of?
* The party is in a sewer. The water is 2 feet deep. A party member is knocked unconscious and falls into the water. By RAW, that PC is dead next round from suffocation rules.
* A 16th level PC is down to 2 hp and suffers 1 Con damage. -14hp. Dead.
* A gargantuan dragon uses a crush attack (4d6) against a fighter, then takes flight again. The wizard blasts the dragon, kills it, and it falls on the fighter, flattening him because it's now an object (20d6).
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* A gargantuan dragon uses a crush attack (4d6) against a fighter, then takes flight again. The wizard blasts the dragon, kills it, and it falls on the fighter, flattening him because it's now an object (20d6).
I would love to see this actually happen. It is just so funny! And I can imagine the fighters last thought to: "Why did I think it was a good idea to have a wizard in the group?"
A gargantuan dragon uses a crush attack (4d6) against a fighter, then takes flight again. The wizard blasts the dragon, kills it, and it falls on the fighter, flattening him because it's now an object (20d6).
From now on, all of my fliers low on hp will be moving to a space over a party member.
I think there was a thread like this once... *shrugs*
In a 2nd Ed. game I was playing in, one of our barbarians was attempting to hack down a locked door with a battle axe. Our DM was rather...off the wall when it came to rulings on things not covered in the RAW. So...he decided that the barbarian had to roll to hit and damage every round as if he were in combat. On about the third swing he rolled a natural 1.
It so happened that we were using critical hit and fumble tables. The DM ruled that he had to roll on the fumble chart. Critical hit, self.
To this day that player has yet to live down the fact that his barbarian was killed by a door.
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I've got three stories about dumb deaths that actually happened in game.
I think the first one counts as a "stupid" death since the character in question had a 6 INT...
So, I'm running a game with some mid-level PCs. Though incredibly wise, the cleric has the intellect of a very destructive, very slow child. He's alone and cornered by undead with class levels; too many to turn them all. One of the creatures, an undead duskblade, hits him with a Touch of Idiocy. I roll for his INT damage: 6 points. He drops to 1. Without the ability to speak, he's no longer able to cast any of his prepared spells and, due to his animal intelligence and high wisdom, he figures it's time to beat feet or go down swinging. He puts his head down, pushes forward and tries to bull rush through the undead to get to his friends who are now about 240 feet away. He made it 20 feet, N'tse-Kaambl bless him.
Let that be a lesson to all you min/maxers out there.
Another time I had a kid playing who, inspired by the Savage Species bok, wanted to pursue the Emancipated Spawn prestige class after his lizard folk cleric was killed and turned into a shadow. The party destroyed the shadow who killed him so I figured why not, could be interesting. A few sessions later, he's having a good time being incorporeal and sucking STR out of his enemies when the party encounters, DUN, DUN, DUN! an evil cleric! Poof. The lizard folk shadow PC is now a controlled minion of the evil cleric. A halfling paladin ended up putting the poor creature out of his misery. Not really any fault of the player, but just a show of how splatbooks and expanded rules can put you over a barrel.
This third story is about a death that occured due to an unwise act.
I'm playing in this game, and our party is exploring a tunnel in the side of a hill. We get to a spiral staircase leading up into, what we assume, is a tower on top of the hill. Before anybody approaches the staircase, the wizard pipes up saying he's going to study the stairs for any signs of magical traps or wards. So now maybe your thinking the wizard casts detect magic on the stairs or rolls a Spellcraft check or something, right? Nuh-uh. The wizard steps forwards and announces, "I'm going to lick the stairs." His last words it turns out.
A 16th level PC is down to 2 hp and suffers 1 Con damage. -14hp. Dead.
I just wanted to point out this only works if the character in question normally has a Constitution score which is an even number. If it's an odd number, the damage has to be at least 2.
To contribute to the theme, no one died from any of these, but they were stupid:
Back in high school, when we were all newbies, the player of a ranger PC decided to climb a tree to snip at some kobolds. He had Climb, but lacked Balance, which from what he was describing, he needed. So he yells a battle cry, gets a shot off (failing miserably on the attack, by the way), rolls an untrained Balance check, and falls 15 feet... onto the paladin in spiked full-plate armor who had ended his moved directly below the ranger. Tha paladin ended up taking more damage than the ranger.
Same campaign, same paladin and ranger in the party, found a chest which they quickly found out (the hard way) was trapped with a lightning bolt spell. The ranger with massive Dexterity and light armor gets hit full force, the paladin with terrible Dexiterity and heavy armor takes almost no damage. There was a lot of antipathy between those two, and I'm not talking about the spell.
That party in general had trouble with lightning bolt traps. Remember, these are newbies who've never encountered this stuff before. They lined up in a fifty-foot long, five-foot wide hall, neccessarily single-file in front of the door at the end. They had this eager and excited look on their face as they announced they were opening the door to see what was on the other side. I announced the effect of the trap. Their eager look hung in the air for a mere second as if they hadn't comprehended what happened, and then immediate collapsed into anger as expletives filled the air. They never lined up single-file ever again.
The ranger eventually got a chance to shine, but only because we were, yes, stupid. Turns out Manyshot doesn't actually give you multiple arrows per attack roll, like we thought. Turns out, it only gives you one multi-arrow shot in place of all the others, at limited range, with big penalties. Turns out, the 6th level ranger with the +1 flaming longbow shouldn't actually have shredded that adult black black dragon single-handedly in three rounds.
Sorry for not sticking to the stated theme exactly. I hope the idiocy of the events described compensates.
* A 16th level PC is down to 2 hp and suffers 1 Con damage. -14hp. Dead.
The whole -10 is dead not scaling with level has always annoyed me. As in the above case, it would have been better to for the GM to fudge and do three more points of damage on the first attack.
Of course I've seen asshat DMs that think, the PC is down, but I can't reach another target this round, I might as well chop up the corpse. Or they believe there is some mythical rule that states you have already "designated" your attacks for the round and can't change after the PC drops.
Another one I've seen is the 50 point threshold for massive damage. A high-level fighter trading blows with a melee monster could very well suffer two or three of these in a single round. While his Fort save is probably high, a natural one always fails.
Back in highschool, our party leader was a rogue, and we had a ranger that was a little slow, the character not the player. We discovered this altar room in the middle of a dungeon. So we examined the altar and the only thing on it was this candlestick. Well the in the meantime the ranger searched the wall off to the side and found the trigger to open the door. He opened the door into an empty room, and when it opened the rogue pulled on the candlestick and boom a fireball trap was sprung and singed the ranger. When all the commotion settled he (the ranger) went back into the room to search for another door, well the rogue saw this and decided to pull the candlestick again, bye bye ranger (failed the save). This turned out to be the first of many deaths for the ranger, we were soon to be on a first name basis with the local temple to Pelor. After that episode the rogue's player kept using the defense "It's your fault for following the CN rogue. Guess who was no longer the party leader.
Rogue jumping out of a window to the cold, merciless sea 70 feet or so below. And just before he hit the surface, he remembered that he could climb walls.
A wizard base jumping out of a tower in Sharn expecting his feather token to kick only to remember too late he loaned it to another party member.
Back in highschool, our party leader was a rogue, and we had a ranger that was a little slow, the character not the player. We discovered this altar room in the middle of a dungeon. So we examined the altar and the only thing on it was this candlestick. Well the in the meantime the ranger searched the wall off to the side and found the trigger to open the door. He opened the door into an empty room, and when it opened the rogue pulled on the candlestick and boom a fireball trap was sprung and singed the ranger. When all the commotion settled he (the ranger) went back into the room to search for another door, well the rogue saw this and decided to pull the candlestick again, bye bye ranger (failed the save). This turned out to be the first of many deaths for the ranger, we were soon to be on a first name basis with the local temple to Pelor. After that episode the rogue's player kept using the defense "It's your fault for following the CN rogue. Guess who was no longer the party leader.
"PUT...the CANDLE...BACK!"
XD
The silliest and most tragic death was in the original Temple of Elelmental Evil... 1ed, the party was in a 20 hallway when suddenly the blank wall at the rear of the party pops open revealing a small closet with a bugbear hurling javelins from it... the mage, who is at the back rips out a ligntning bolt (I asked of course whether it was short and fat or long and skinny, he said long and skinny bc the corridor was on 5' wide) at the offending goblinoid...it travels dstrikes the bugear, then the wall behind him. Rebonds, strikes the mage, then everyone else, then bounces of the opposite wall and hits everyone but the mage one more time...only the mage and the fighter are still standing... ode to the days of the bouncing LB
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By the way, when I DM and a PC is down, and the bad guy has attacks left and no one to attack ... no good for the PC.
I think it should depend on the situation. If the enemies are intelligent, they will realize that a "down" PC can readily be healed and pose a threat to them again. If it takes minimal effort to ensure that that pesky adventurer does not jump back into the fight, why wouldn't they do it?
Monsters looking for food may be happy with the one enemy they've taken down, and will finish off the adventurer and try to drag off the body for a little snack.
But of course if the monster is in real danger from other PC's, stopping to chop up the guy on the floor isn't believable. Likewise unintelligent undead, constructs, etc, who have been commanded to guard a location (or something of that sort) will focus on active threats, not unconscious adventurers.
My 2c.
I think my favorite dumb death involved a wizard in a campaign I ran several years ago:
The party had camped for the night, for some inexplicable reason, next to some dire lions they had just passed near the road. The lions were not aggressive (having had enough game in the area not to be starving), and were simply lounging for the evening. Well the party, due to the exploits of a barbarian, a ranger, and a monk, had a wagon (owned by the wizard) with large sides of meat hanging off of it. I like to throw animals out as brief encounters, just to give the characters a feel they are traveling through the wilderness. This group hunted and killed every single herd of deer, antelope, elk and moose that came their way. So this large wagon, with slabs of meat hanging off of it, parks about a quarter of a mile away from the 2 dire lions. The lions naturally came to investigate. 3 members of the party (bard, barbarian and monk) climb to the top of the wagon. The wizard goes inside (it was his wagon, he refused to share the inside with anyone else). The ranger get's on his mount and rides to the top of a small hill -mostly to observe the circus as it's about to happen.
The lions approach. The three characters on top of the wagon start cutting meat off of the slabs and throwing it with the intention of getting the lions away from the wagon. I had them roll a few attacks, success indicating that they got the meat to land away from the wagon, failure meaning they threw the meat in a spot to encourage the lions to continue their approach. A 1 and several 2's and 3's were rolled. At this point the bard pulls out his crossbow and begins shoot at the lions (while the other two continue throwing meat at them). It was also at this point that initiative was rolled. A couple of shots get off, then one hits. That's it. Game on. The lion who was hit, on his next turn, charges the wagon and claws it. The wizard (who this entire time was waiting patiently inside the wagon) is angry now. He opens the door and smacks the lion (who just attacked his wagon) in the face with a staff.
At this point I apologized to the player and on that lions next turn rolled an attack (hey, he just got smacked in the face). Claw, claw, bite. Two natural 20's and an 18. The lion completely tore the wizard asunder. I can't help but think if he'd just let the attack on his precious wagon go he'd have lived. But oh well. At this point the ranger (who'd been waiting patiently on the hilltop) joined the fray and the remaining characters took care of the lions.
But that wizards death is something we still all laugh about to this day when I see those folks.
Maybe not quite on topic. But definitely a dumb move by the PC.
Another time I had a kid playing who, inspired by the Savage Species bok, wanted to pursue the Emancipated Spawn prestige class after his lizard folk cleric was killed and turned into a shadow. The party destroyed the shadow who killed him so I figured why not, could be interesting. A few sessions later, he's having a good time being incorporeal and sucking STR out of his enemies when the party encounters, DUN, DUN, DUN! an evil cleric! Poof. The lizard folk shadow PC is now a controlled minion of the evil cleric. A halfling paladin ended up putting the poor creature out of his misery. Not really any fault of the player, but just a show of how splatbooks and expanded rules can put you over a barrel.
You could argue whether this is off-topic, as it's not really a death, but Velcro Zipper's story compels me to tell my own, vaguely similar story.
When I first tried to learn 3.0, I was insecure about my ability to DM it. For the first time in my life (the first time of many, as it turned out), I was converting a 2nd Edition adventure, and all of the monsters in it, to 3.0, because I had not yet discovered ENWorld's conversions. When I saw one encounter with two shadows, my only thought was "Great! A monster I don't have to convert!" It didn't even occur to me to note that 3E shadows were far deadlier than 2E ones. I didn't even bother to glance at the CR! That's right; I'M the "stupid" person in this story!
All I could think was "Are my conversions any good? Would they actually work in play?" So before I ran the adventure for real, I took four PCs of my own, and ran them through it all by myself, playing it solo.
My monster conversions, as it turned out, were fine. The shadows were a different story. They came out of a wall, attacked my elf sorceress, and drained all her strength before anyone could blink. They then went for the rest of the party, which vainly tried to fight off the shadows, the cleric unsuccessfully trying to turn them. The shadows drained a few strength points from the main fighter of the group (actually a barbarian) and the former PC rose up as a shadow, when I got a lucky die roll and the cleric managed to turn them, giving the party time to run away.
Now what? Should my party just go back to town, several days away, and recruit a replacement for the sorceress? It just didn't seem right. She wasn't dead, exactly. Think of all the vampire stories where killing the a vampire emancipates its spawn. Maybe shadows could work that way? The rulebooks didn't say. And if there was ANY chance of freeing her, surely I just had to take it!
Talk about stupid! I was sending the whole party on a suicide mission! And even while my barbarian was drained of much of his strength! I was actually, mentally, planning what my next party would be like, after the inevitable TPK. Even in the unlikely event that the party wasn't killed, they had no way of distinguishing their former comrade from the other shadows! I was going to roll randomly to decide which shadow each PC would attack, to compensate for my "DM omniscience." No way was this mission going to succeed!
As you've undoubtedly guessed, it DID succeed. Beautifully. I got a slew of unbelievably lucky die rolls, and the party finished off the right two shadows, only wounding the sorceress. That's one of the great things about RPG's, as opposed to written stories: The odds are real, and yet occasionally, you still get lucky.
But even if the sorceress was alive, would she ever be the same again? Had she been a rogue, I would have put her on the path to becoming a shadowdancer. It's funny. When I first read about the prestige classes, I hated them all, except assassins, and I especially hated the shadowdancer. I kept thinking "But what IS a shadowdancer? How do you become one?" Now I had an answer! Much later, I created a shadowdancer character with just that background story!
Maybe I should start a new thread: "Stupid PC actions that SHOULD HAVE resulted in a death, but didn't."
Home made dungeon years ago. At the beginning the party had a left, right or straight on choice. We went left and entered a cave with several bodies. The elven PC decides to search the corpses and they animate. After a tough fight the party wins the day. I don't think there was anything worth having on the corpses. The party headed towards the cave on the right.
The DM describes the cave as being similar as the one before. The elf PC decides to search the bodies. Everyone around the table screams not to do it. Everyone says they will animate. Everyone says your on your own elf.
The elf PC convinced that there is treasure to be had enters and searches, the corpses animate and pounds the elf to death whilst the rest of the party watch. His pleas of help were responded to with "We told you so!"
The DM is laughing sooooo hard and shows us the scenario.
Room 1 Seven zombies which animate if anyone enters the room, no treasure.
Room 2 see room 1 above.
The same player in a RuneQuest game I was running again did something really stupid. The party's Shaman with his Second Sight sees a whole pile of Spirits in a pool. PC jumps in pool, gets possesed, spends the rest of the game wandering around drooling.
However my favorite is when during a solo game a PC climbed a rope down into a pit holding some bones. The owner of the bones, now a ghost, posseses the PC. What next...
The PC is compelled to bite off his own thumbs, chew and swallow. The ghost leaves his host and watches him weep as the PC tries to climb a rope.
A few come to mind:
- Red Hand of Doom: A fairly rookie player's poor character finds himself cut off by a pair of pretty tough hobgoblin fighter types in the desert druid's Sphinx lair. The character backs himself into the room with the 70' deep pit that he can't see the bottom of. Rather than be hacked down by the hobgoblins, he figures the others can get him out of the pit, so he jumps in. The falling damage alone nearly kills him - the grey ooze filling most of the bottom of the pit ate him on the spot.
- Savage Tide (Parrot Island): The party holes up in the narrow hallway behind the (flimsy) wooden doors for the night after having rampaged all over the eastern part of the complex and dined on jumbo-sized crabs. The huecuva notices them - it was pretty impossible not to - so he rounds up the remaining zombies and quietly sets up outside the door. When they are eating a cooked breakfast in the hallway, said huecuva spells up. When the door pops open, his readied action to bolster undead - including himself - goes off and I roll nearly maximum or maximum - bad news for the party. The barbarian goes down after a little bit, at negative hp but savable. The wizard, who goes next, fires off a burning hands, incinerating the barbarian. Literally, death by friendly fire!
- Parrot Island again: Player loses his character to two zombies that eat him alive due to trying to move between two threatening zombies. Death by overconfidence.
- Same player promptly dusts off his back up character, engages in a running battle with the huecuva, ends up well out of easy assistance by the rest of the surviving characters and gets fragged by blowing his save against the Death Touch ability of the Death Domain (3.5 PHB). Death by reckless pursuit.
- Savage Tide, first session: The entire party handily mops the deck with the mooks, although the one named NPC puts up a good fight only to be shot in the back with an arrow as he attempts to swim away. They've been told about the stair ways on the map and had the description of flickering lamp light from below. Sadly, several characters descend the ladder that is pretty much RIGHT NEXT to the pair of deathbugs below deck. (8 player party, they got 2 deathbugs.) The death bugs proceed to slaughter the party, only the cleric got away by virtue of jumping into the drink. Death by mass stupidity.
- Fellow player's beguiler in a home brew game run by a new GM: The sassy kobold beguiler, rather than hang back and pepper an animated carpet with ranged attacks, decided to melee the carpet with a club. The carpet glomped her and popped her like a grape. Death by, well, stupidity.
All I can think of at the moment.
... gets fragged by blowing his save against the Death Touch ability of the Death Domain (3.5 PHB).
Check me on this, but I don't think there is a save for that ability....
... gets fragged by blowing his save against the Death Touch ability of the Death Domain (3.5 PHB).Check me on this, but I don't think there is a save for that ability....
*Memory trigger works thanks to Saern*
Yep, you're right - I rolled exactly enough damage to kill him. That particular domain ability is the only thing in 3e that could kill some one at 0 hp. Not counting "Save or Die" stuff. Thanks!
It's still a pretty crummy way to buy the farm though, IMO.
... gets fragged by blowing his save against the Death Touch ability of the Death Domain (3.5 PHB).Check me on this, but I don't think there is a save for that ability....*Memory trigger works thanks to Saern*
Yep, you're right - I rolled exactly enough damage to kill him. That particular domain ability is the only thing in 3e that could kill some one at 0 hp. Not counting "Save or Die" stuff. Thanks!
It's still a pretty crummy way to buy the farm though, IMO.
No problem; I just thought it would be funny if, many years later, the player got a bit of news.
"You remember that one character that died because he failed his save? Well...." :)
A similar thing happened when I ran Whispering Cairn. The party came to a not-so-wide bridge with a certain pair of windy warriors. The party had a hexblade and a barbarian, as well as an archer-specialized ranger and a rogue/monk. So of course the hexblade and barbarian, being the front-liners, take the front line, right?
Nope.
The rogue/monk gets initiative. "Okay, I throw an alchemist's fire at the things." He does. Very little effect. "All right, and now I move up into melee with them."
"What?" The hexblade and barbarian go livid. "Dude, we're going to need to move up there on our turns, but we can't do it if you block the way like that."
"I'll be fine!" says the rogue/monk.
"No, you'll get pulverized," say the front-liners.
So the rogue/monk moves up. The opponents get some hefty attacks in on him. "Told you," says the hexblade.
"Oh, I'm fine," says the rogue/monk. "I'll tumble around them on my next turn so you can get into position, then we'll flank." Nevermind these things are immune to flanking, or at least the sneak attacks the player hoped to get out of said flanking; the party lacked the Knowledge checks to identify them, so I've got to give them at least that one.
"No, just fall back. They'll keep attacking you and you'll die," advises the hexblade. "Besides, I don't think you'll make the tumble check around them."
The rogue/monk pays no mind. His next turn comes up. "All right, I tumble along the edge of the bridge around the enemies." He rolls.
It's a 3.
Expletives are said. "I told you!" groans the hexblade.
"Roll a Reflex save," I sigh.
It's a 2.
"I told you!!!" The smirk was impossible to hide.
A split-second and sixty-feet later, the monk was a puddle on the stone floor below.
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A week later I was going over the adventure and realized I'd forgotten to hand out a certain piece of treasure.
"Guess what!" I says.
"What?" the player of the deceased rogue/monk asks.
"I forgot that, at the mouth of the dungeon, there was supposed to be a ring of feather falling."
This same player also is the one who convinced the party to line up in a five-foot-wide, fifty-foot-long corridor and then try to open a locked door. They had never encountered a lightning bolt trap before. At least it wasn't a 2e bouncy-bolt.
Despite all that, this player eventually became, hands down, the most rules-versed person in the group, saving myself as his equal, and we shared DMing duties during the heydays of high school gaming.
^_^ Ah, good times, good times.
I ran it fair-n-square at the time. Your tales are awesome!
Nice reference."PUT...the CANDLE...BACK!"
XD
Thanks, I was waiting for somebody to notice it.
Thanks, I was waiting for somebody to notice it.Nice reference."PUT...the CANDLE...BACK!"
XD
Ack. What IS that from?
THIS PIECE OF AWESOMENESS
How could I forget? I adore that film. Thank you, carborundum.
I always remember it with the distinctive accent, which makes it sound like "Put ze candle beck!" :)
Legacy of Fire, Howl of the Carrion King.
In the Nave of the Ruined Monastery, with the pugwampis. The party has just defeated Moknkokk by collapsing the entire system of beams overhead. The wizard detects a magic aura above.
The rogue scales the wall in order to retrieve the treasure, while the rest of the party turns there attention elsewhere. I as the GM forget about the rogue for a minute, since he's climbing the wall at a careful pace.
Everyone is looking at the treasure and bickering over who gets what from the pugwampi king who fell. It is at this time that the rogue rolls a 1, falls off the wall and falls to negative HP.
What was in the chest he was climbing up to get?
A Ring of Feather Fall but of course. There was no question which recently resuscitated party member would be wearing it.
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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I love stupid player deaths!
Here's an example of why I rarely play and generally DM. I was running a gnome sorcerer in a 3.0 game of Against the Giants. Also in the party was a rogue of some type with an improved invisibility device. We're fighting giants in cramped quarters, so I do what sorcerers generally do - rained down fiery death with an empowered (maybe even maximized, can't remember for sure, but it did a lot of damage) fireball. I pinpoint the radius so that it hits 3 or 4 giants and no PCs.
(At least not any PCs my character can see.)
Turns out the invisible rogue is in the radius of the fireball. No big deal I figure, he's got improved evasion and will only fail the save on a 1 or a 2.
Want to guess what he rolled?
I love stupid player deaths!
Here's an example of why I rarely play and generally DM. I was running a gnome sorcerer in a 3.0 game of Against the Giants. Also in the party was a rogue of some type with an improved invisibility device. We're fighting giants in cramped quarters, so I do what sorcerers generally do - rained down fiery death with an empowered (maybe even maximized, can't remember for sure, but it did a lot of damage) fireball. I pinpoint the radius so that it hits 3 or 4 giants and no PCs.
(At least not any PCs my character can see.)
Turns out the invisible rogue is in the radius of the fireball. No big deal I figure, he's got improved evasion and will only fail the save on a 1 or a 2.
Want to guess what he rolled?
Which ever number was 1 less than he needed?
Awesome character deaths - keep 'em coming folks!
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Actually had one tonight. A friend started running a 3.5 game where he stated emphatically that he would NOT be using alignments for PCs, but would just track actions himself (though he did not stated what he would be using the tracking for). Additionally, he decided to run a campaign where the players would run characters using the Gestalt rules.
With these two factors, I created an otherwise unfeasible combination: the barbarian/monk (the removal of alignment made this possible and he agreed to allow the combo). Let me first say, I rarely play the tank. I typically stick to rogue or spell casters. So having me in the role of the heavy threw everyone off a bit.
We started play around 11am this morning and run until 10pm tonight. Around 500pm or so, we took a break and he awarded XP (three of us fought off a goodly number of orcs and a heavy boss type, helped out the town we had started in, had a good amount of RP, discovered a few things we needed and threw a couple of loops his way) and we ended up leveling up to 2nd level. During the meal break we quickly bumped up our PCs (I stuck with the Bar/Monk combo) and after we finished eating, we jumped back into it.
Fast forward to about 800pm, we had tracked down a larger group of orcs and had another player join us and had NPC with us as well. Five of us facing off against 20 some odd uber orcs (around 13hp average, great axes and longbows abounding) who were in the process of burning yet another rural farm. We figured "hey, we can do this" and went into the fray, sending the they three ranger/whatevers around to sneak up while the dwarf fighter/cleric and I waited 10 minutes before charging in on our steeds.
We came barreling in, the ranger/??s opened fire and the fight was on. I started off with some great rolls, standing on the back of my horse and jumping up onto the roof of the building (had to make a 5 foot jump), and engaging the archers up there. The dwarf swung around front and encountered some problems, however.
Between the archers and my bar/monk, we finished off the archers fairly quickly and my character, upon hearing the sounds of combat coming from the other side of the building, raged, ran over, jumped from the roof and attacked one of the orcs that was attacking the dwarf. At least that was the plan.
I made the attack roll and failed the jump roll. The DM did allow the attack to stand (which did take out one orc) and I took 5 points from the drop. This was the one thing that ultimately killed me.
Once we killed off the four orcs out front, I spotted several more inside and rushed in. The dwarf hung back and healed himself before following. Inside were four more orcs and, one round later, another big baddy (turned out to be a 4th level barbarian orc). The fight was vicious and it got down to the dwarf (with about 5 HP left) my barbarian in his next to last round of rage with 3 HP left (so two rounds later he would be down to 1 HP), the big baddy and one of the four remaining orcs.
The dwarf hit the big baddy, I hit the last lower orc, killed it and tried to cleave the big baddy. In my raged state, I was hitting these things on a 4 or higher so I figured no problem. I rolled a 2.
The big baddy then raged and hit me for 12 points, knocking me to -9, which ended my rage and resulted in me dropping to -11. <sigh> If I had only made the jump check ...
The big baddy was killed off two rounds later with the dwarf hitting twice and one of the ranger/??s popping it with a couple arrows.
I ended up spending the last hour or so of the session working up a replacement: the cleric/monk. Hope this one lasts a little bit longer. :)
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One of my favorites, however, was from a campaign I ran years ago. The party was in a cavern system and came upon a cave with several trolls inside. The trolls had not noticed the party's rogue when she had scouted and so she came back to let everyone else know. The wizard decided she could take care of the beasts with her handy fireball spell and made her way to the cavern opening and cast the spell.
The distance between her and the back wall of the cavern was about 10 feet within the area of effect, so the rest of the party, who were standing back a bit, saw this gout of flame erupt from the cavern opening and engulf the wizard.
The trolls were knocked down to the point that the two fighters in the party had little trouble with them, but the wizard was reduced to negatives. Not killed, but definitely a memorable "oh crap" moment from the players, especially the wizard who had misjudged the distance on the battle map.
One of my favorites, however, was from a campaign I ran years ago. The party was in a cavern system and came upon a cave with several trolls inside. The trolls had not noticed the party's rogue when she had scouted and so she came back to let everyone else know. The wizard decided she could take care of the beasts with her handy fireball spell and made her way to the cavern opening and cast the spell.
The distance between her and the back wall of the cavern was about 10 feet within the area of effect, so the rest of the party, who were standing back a bit, saw this gout of flame erupt from the cavern opening and engulf the wizard.
The trolls were knocked down to the point that the two fighters in the party had little trouble with them, but the wizard was reduced to negatives. Not killed, but definitely a memorable "oh crap" moment from the players, especially the wizard who had misjudged the distance on the battle map.
I use these lovely little red and white-colored plastic brains as spell pinpointing markers. (I also use them for dancing lights.) My players have become very proficient very quickly at placing their targeting brains. My group's wizard player (she almost universally plays an elf wizard [universal/generalist]) had misplaced her fireball brain. The GM had been kind enough to provide a meat shield DMPC so my poor cleric wouldn't have to be both meat shield and healer. Sadly, "Buzzsaw" (as we dubbed him) nat 1'd his saving throw, drawing a x3 magic damage critical. He blew up ... and ALL of his gear brewed up with him. When he was brought back, he stabbed her to death with a pair of rusty daggers. When SHE came back, he said " Now you owe me new gear. We're even on lives, now."
Good times!
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One of the most stupid ones was the 8th level Paladin of Torm loosing against two orks and being permanently dead.
It all started when the whole party was on a boat trip and the paladin wanted to save 1 gold piece by sleeping on deck. As luck (or lack thereof) would have it, I rolled for a small chance that he would be robbed at night.
To make it worse - I just took the sheet and erased an item (they were written in pencil) and the player didn't even knew what was missing. He was upset (actually shouldn't even have known) and net day insulted the thief (who tried to get him into some gambling with loaded dice). So next night the chance did double to 10% and he lost another item. This time he was aware in character as well.
The paladin acted quite non-paladin like and dice failed oddly - and a third night he was the target (10% chance as well). This time he tried not to sleep (he failed the roll) and slept with his backpack in his arms - assuming this would be save.
He woke up next morning with a knife having cut open the backpack. He was so upset that he acted up and the captain threw him off the boat.
So on his own he had to walk the last stretch. He met some trader with wife as companions and to let him know the value of a piece of gold I arranged a not-so-random encounter with 4 orcs. Just standard, 1st level ones. One each for the trader and his wife - two for the paladin. The idea was that he would rescue them all and get 5 GP as thank you.
This is where it went horribly wrong for the paladin. Instead of fighting normally (he needed a 3 or 4 to hit) he opted to fight defensively. As the rest of the group had sit idle most of this solo-show I allowed them to roll for the orcs.
Two combat rounds later -two critical hits with the Great axes - and the Paladin had lost some 50+ HP while due to fighting defensively he didn't manage to hit a single of them (a 5 and 6 rolled while theo orcs needed some 18 or 19 plus).
The trader and his wife managed to get one or two of the orcs down (they were 1st level NPC's) while the paladin went down next combat turn. But they didn't manage to kill the remaining ones - well - wasn't planned that way.
It took a full game week before the rest of the party actually started to look for the paladin. They never even found his remains - so reviving was out of discussion.
All of this to save 1 (or was it 5?) gold pieces and a string of weird dice rolls. And if he would just have acted a little bit more like a paladin he wouldn't have been thrown off the boat. But he felt his honour had been attacked - well - bye bye paladin ...
Thod
"I forgot that, at the mouth of the dungeon, there was supposed to be a ring of feather falling."
Great story!
I'm the most absent-minded DM you'll ever meet. Even after years of experience with 3E, I still forget at least one critical rule in almost every gaming session. In addition, I often forget critical information on the adventure I'm running.
The worst such mistake I made was when I ran "Centaur of Attention" from Dungeon magazine #60.
The PCs fought an evil wizard, and one PC finished him off with a Magic Missile spell. Then they searched him for treasure, and found a brooch of shielding, which could still absorb 63 points of damage.
Only afterwards the session was over did I realize my mistake. Oops. How could I explain why the brooch didn't work for the wizard? Um...
So many posters on these messageboards seem to know the rules as well as they do their own names. It's a relief for me to learn you're only human.
The big baddy then raged and hit me for 12 points, knocking me to -9, which ended my rage and resulted in me dropping to -11. <sigh> If I had only made the jump check ...
A little help for next time, being unconscious doesn't end your rage. Go ahead and check...
The big baddy then raged and hit me for 12 points, knocking me to -9, which ended my rage and resulted in me dropping to -11. <sigh> If I had only made the jump check ...A little help for next time, being unconscious doesn't end your rage. Go ahead and check...
I think he died the beginning of his next turn - whether from his rage expiring or from not stabilizing and dying at -10...
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We've had a couple of good ones in my group. Both due to one of our players listening to my advice. The first was in an Eberron game. We found an artifact tooth and my wizard being unable to identify it, decided one of us should put it in their mouth and test it out so we could tell what it does. Our fighter, being my character's cousin, volunteered. After figuring out what the tooth did, my character asked him to take out the tooth so we could choose who would be best using it. Ripping the tooth out killed his character. Turns out that removing the artifact kills the owner. Doh! My bad! (The artifact was later placed in the mouth of my shocker lizard familiar. Poor fighter died for no good reason thanks to me.)
The second time was during Runelords.
After those two times you'd think he'd stop listening to me, but no. I'm just waiting till my advice kills him a third time.
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The big baddy then raged and hit me for 12 points, knocking me to -9, which ended my rage and resulted in me dropping to -11. <sigh> If I had only made the jump check ...A little help for next time, being unconscious doesn't end your rage. Go ahead and check...
Ah well, the rage was about to expire and if the cleric had stopped to heal me, he would have probably gotten killed by the big baddy and then both of us would have kicked that proverbial bucket.
No worries though, the cleric/monk I came up with should be a good substitute.
* The party is in a sewer. The water is 2 feet deep. A party member is knocked unconscious and falls into the water. By RAW, that PC is dead next round from suffocation rules.
* A 16th level PC is down to 2 hp and suffers 1 Con damage. -14hp. Dead.
* A gargantuan dragon uses a crush attack (4d6) against a fighter, then takes flight again. The wizard blasts the dragon, kills it, and it falls on the fighter, flattening him because it's now an object (20d6).
LMAO that's comedy gold!!!
After those two times you'd think he'd stop listening to me, but no. I'm just waiting till my advice kills him a third time.
Who's the more foolish: The fool, or the fool who follows him?
Heh. I'm kidding, of course. How were you supposed to know removing the tooth was bad? Granted, that second story involved a great risk, but if you don't take risks in this game, you don't get very far.
Gee, writing that last paragraph suddenly makes me look at this whole thread in a new light.
Ok, so, we're playing AD&D years ago. The party walks into a room with no other exit. The stone statues at the door attack, blocking the only way out. The rogue madly searches the room while the others fight and finds a trapdoor at the centre of the room.
The elf fighter is first down the hole, climbing down the ladder within. The rogue (for some reason), after getting into the combat for a couple of rounds, wants to execute a retreating backflip down the escape hatch. He rolls a 1 on his dexterity check and I rule that while he does the backflip perfectly, he fails to grab hold of the ladder, thereby free-falling down the chute, knocking the elf off the ladder on his way down and both of them dying after stopping 140' later.
They all whined so I had to show them my notes.
There it was in pencil and white; "ladder, 140' drop".
They all whined so I had to show them my notes.
There it was in pencil and white; "ladder, 140' drop".
That's a perfect demonstration of why I prefer prewritten adventures over homebrew ones. They're not only pencil - they're professionally written and edited. "Don't blame me for the trap you just stepped into that killed you. Blame <module's author>."
Not a death, but a close call -
Ran a mod with a lot of kobold traps set up in a logging camp. The wizard/rogue decides to explore away from the main group. While they's fighting on the outskirts he decides to hunt for free loot, and opens the door to the mess hall. With 10 zombie kobolds inside. Instinctively he throws a fireball into the room. 20' x 40' room, plus a little for the roof, ~1000 cubic feet. Fireball = 20' radius spread, 1256 cubic feet of fire. He's still standing in the doorway. The blast catches him as well and of course he failed his own save. Fried all the bad guys but blasted himself across the courtyard. And drawing the attention of a BBEG.
He barely survived, but somehow I can see this guy doing this again.
The fireball in an enclosed space. A tale as old as gaming. ;)
They all whined so I had to show them my notes.
There it was in pencil and white; "ladder, 140' drop".
That's a perfect demonstration of why I prefer prewritten adventures over homebrew ones. They're not only pencil - they're professionally written and edited. "Don't blame me for the trap you just stepped into that killed you. Blame <module's author>."
Understandable, but if you're ballsy enough to run you got to be ballsy enough to tell them Tough too. Can't always fall back on "it's his fault I didn't make it," since most modules have a footnote or something that gives you permission to run it as works for you and your group.
(not criticism necessarily as much as general comment)