What is the PFS stance (if any) on the One Shot Kill?


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AZhobbit wrote:
Per rules other PC's can not donate gold or prestige(even from the same faction) to raise your character

Actually, the rules state explicitly that the other characters CAN pool their gold for a raise (though not their PA), but they're not required to.

Shadow Lodge 5/5

Sniggevert wrote:
Actually, you can't donate prestige, but you can pool gold to purchase spell casting services during a scenario, such as to raise a fallen comrade.

Correct. Other players may only donate gold. The dead player must spend the prestige him/herself if they want to get a raise dead that way. In this instance, the dead individual had a good chunk of the gold and the rest of us had to chip in about another 250 each to finish the job.

Liberty's Edge

Ryan Bolduan wrote:
*snip* The GM rolled an awful lot of 5's and 6's on his damage roll too, which didn't hurt. *snip*

Actually this did hurt. It hurt waltero dead. :) :)

4/5

The first time I really played in PFS at a Con me and my mate were both one shot because the GM improperly scaled the game. Six level 1's and one level 2 at the table and he put us on 4-5 tier. I was very upset and almost left the con and PFS, but decided to give it another go and had a ton of fun throughout the rest of the weekend.

If it is a legit one-shot I'm fine with it, though I understand how it could completely ruin the game for people.

AZhobbit wrote:
He was an 11th level rouge who was killed by a very nasty undead, the next round he became a zombie and shambled after us at which point our wizard lightning bolted him into ash. His death required a resurrection not a raise, and thus he did not have the money or prestige to bring himself back.

Hmmm. Can lightning bolt really disintegrate someone? Light stuff of fire? Yes. Break stuff? Yes. Instantly turn someone into ash? No. It could of course be DMs-ruling, but that would be a pretty mean thing to do to someone.

2/5 *

"" wrote:

I ran this scenario last Saturday at tier 1-2.

Two characters were one shotted. A third was brought close to death on a single hit. The fourth and last character had to run for his life.

So it sounds like Magus are OP.

No wonder they can get 1-shot kills, if they can use their weapon AND cast Shocking Grasp. And it sounds like they have an ability to give themselves free metamagic too? So it's no wonder they have insane burst damage.

Paizo should probably first address the fact that the CR system isn't correct for class based humanoids. It's been mentioned many times already. For example, a 1st level human fighter is not a CR 1/2 creature.

Liberty's Edge 1/5

Mortifier wrote:
Hmmm. Can lightning bolt really disintegrate someone? Light stuff of fire? Yes. Break stuff? Yes. Instantly turn someone into ash? No. It could of course be DMs-ruling, but that would be a pretty mean thing to do to someone.

I assumed he was speaking figuratively. The resurrection is needed because raise dead can't be used for creatures who have been turned into undead. "A creature who has been turned into an undead creature or killed by a death effect can't be raised by this spell. "

Liberty's Edge 1/5

Jiggy wrote:
As someone who's never played in any organized play prior to PFS, that whole "14 CON minimum" thing is something I'd never heard of prior to reading this thread. It sounds a bit unnecessary (and really expensive, point-wise, if you're a non-dwarf or - God forbid - an elf). My human fighter, Cledwyn, has a 12 CON and does just fine, despite semi-frequently playing up a sub-tier (due to varying attendance and sometimes broad level spreads among players). Interestingly, he played up into a sub-tier 3-4 scenario while at level 2, and it was actually a different fighter (at level 3) who got one-shotted by a double Scorching Ray to the face, with both rays rolling above-average damage.

It is reasonable that if you hadn't played organized play previously, then CON 14 minimum as a recommendation given by many organized play players for how to survive in organized play is reasonable. :)

It is expensive. Note that we get 20 point builds, not 15 point builds, as well. Not taking Con (what's needed to survive more often) in order to take more offense (the normal trade off) has the effect of making glass cannon-like characters. They hit hard, but they can't stand the heat when they are the subject.

YMMV, and it depends a lot on the tactical resources of the GMs you play with. There tends to be an escalation process that happens in organized play, and what has been suggested to be a flood of hard hitting baddies suggests that is happening.

4/5

Howie23 wrote:
I assumed he was speaking figuratively. The resurrection is needed because raise dead can't be used for creatures who have been turned into undead. "A creature who has been turned into an undead creature or killed by a death effect can't be raised by this spell. "

Ah very good.

Scarab Sages 3/5

Howie23 wrote:
Mortifier wrote:
Hmmm. Can lightning bolt really disintegrate someone? Light stuff of fire? Yes. Break stuff? Yes. Instantly turn someone into ash? No. It could of course be DMs-ruling, but that would be a pretty mean thing to do to someone.
I assumed he was speaking figuratively. The resurrection is needed because raise dead can't be used for creatures who have been turned into undead. "A creature who has been turned into an undead creature or killed by a death effect can't be raised by this spell. "

While the flavor text is nice, you shouldn't post about a player not being able to be res'ed because of getting blasted by a lightning bolt. He was level 11 so their wizard may have used disintegrate instead.

Grand Lodge 2/5 RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Howie23 wrote:
It is expensive. Note that we get 20 point builds, not 15 point builds, as well. Not taking Con (what's needed to survive more often) in order to take more offense (the normal trade off) has the effect of making glass cannon-like characters. They hit hard, but they can't stand the heat when they are the subject.

Regardless of what you're trading off for it, 14 CON for an elf is half your stat points; a quarter of them for a non-dwarf/gnome. I would imagine that you might be better served putting (some of) those points elsewhere. Of course, I've never been very into glass-cannon styles (in PF, MtG, or anywhere else), so I'm still going to build smart and not *dump* CON, and when playing an elf I'll probably always buy up to at least a 10 (because a negative CON mod sounds like a TERRIBLE idea); similarly, I'll make sure I'm either standing in the back or rocking a 20-ish AC at first level, too.

Quote:
YMMV, and it depends a lot on the tactical resources of the GMs you play with. There tends to be an escalation process that happens in organized play, and what has been suggested to be a flood of hard hitting baddies suggests that is happening.

That's a tad scary. O_o

Liberty's Edge

It sucks to be killed in one hit. Really it does. But when you put very minimal resources into preventing your own death, and then you get into melee range with a class designed to do damage, I wouldn't blame Paizo for it.

Instead, ask yourself "How do I feel about 1 shot kills?" After you answer that question, build your characters accordingly.

Liberty's Edge 5/5 **

Jason S wrote:
"" wrote:

I ran this scenario last Saturday at tier 1-2.

Two characters were one shotted. A third was brought close to death on a single hit. The fourth and last character had to run for his life.

So it sounds like Magus are OP.

No wonder they can get 1-shot kills, if they can use their weapon AND cast Shocking Grasp. And it sounds like they have an ability to give themselves free metamagic too? So it's no wonder they have insane burst damage.

Paizo should probably first address the fact that the CR system isn't correct for class based humanoids. It's been mentioned many times already. For example, a 1st level human fighter is not a CR 1/2 creature.

Yes, yes, and yes.

I understand crits happen. The magus can one shot people from full to dead without criting.

When my party fought this guy he dropped our cleric, fighter, and barbarian in one shot each. The fighter and barbarian weren't down by much but the cleric was at -8. Quicken Spell is a +4 spell level metamagic for a reason.

Waltero I suggest you do your best to recover from this setback and pretend this was an exception. The number of things that will reliably one-shot you without critting are fairly limited in PFS. That said, over the next year or so this might change.

5/5

Callarek wrote:

Huh?

21 - 21 = 0, ok.
0 - 10 = -10, dead.

Another example, 40 hit points of damage, character has 28 hit points, Con of 12.

What am I missing?

Well let me put it this way...

Brain-fart, sorry :)

5/5

Power attacking, raging, 5th level barbarian for a boss in a tier 3-4 is going to deal how much damage with a +1 great axe?

7.5 weapon + 9 strength (22 while raging?) + 6 Power Attack = 22.5 damage. (17 - 28 damage range) (51 - 84 crit)

This guy:

5d6 (shocking grasp) + 1d8 (longsword damage) + 3 (strength modifier) = 25.0 average (9 - 41 damage range) (18-82 crit)

3rd level characters will have how many HP? (this assumes FC bonus goes to HP)

Con - 10 12 14 16
d6 - 17 20 23 26
d8 - 21 24 27 30
d10 - 25 28 31 34

Morale of the Story? If at all possible, don't get into melee with a 10 Con.

2/5

LazarX wrote:


A. This happened quite a bit in Living Greyhawk and Arcanis. Deadly crits can happen, and sometimes not always just by the end boss. We manned up, got used to it, and made new characters as needed. If you prefer a carebear campaign, go for Legends of the Shining Jewel.

Two points.

A. This was not a crit that killed him.

B. You're right, this isn't Shining Jewel. It's PFS. Characters are expected to be socially adempt as well as combat capable, able to surmount any number of challenges that come their way. They aren't expected to be min/maxed out the wazoo.

I currently play in a weekly PFS table and a weekly Temple of Elemental Evil game. For Temple, we have character upon characters at the waiting as replacements because mortality count is so high.
To be compleately honest, 6 characters later, Temple feels more like a chore than a game. PFS, on the other hand, I always look forward to.

Character death happens. But it shouldn't be a given. There's a diffeance between challenging but fun and brutally difficult.

Liberty's Edge 5/5 **

Kyle Baird wrote:

Power attacking, raging, 5th level barbarian for a boss in a tier 3-4 is going to deal how much damage with a +1 great axe?

7.5 weapon + 9 strength (22 while raging?) + 6 Power Attack = 22.5 damage. (17 - 28 damage range) (51 - 84 crit)

This guy:

5d6 (shocking grasp) + 1d8 (longsword damage) + 3 (strength modifier) = 25.0 average (9 - 41 damage range) (18-82 crit)

3rd level characters will have how many HP? (this assumes FC bonus goes to HP)

Con - 10 12 14 16
d6 - 17 20 23 26
d8 - 21 24 27 30
d10 - 25 28 31 34

Morale of the Story? If at all possible, don't get into melee with a 10 Con.

I have yet to see a barbarian in a 3-4 with 18 strength that starts the encounter invisible.

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Feral wrote:
I have yet to see a barbarian in a 3-4 with 18 strength that starts the encounter invisible.

...what?

Liberty's Edge 5/5 **

Jiggy wrote:
Feral wrote:
I have yet to see a barbarian in a 3-4 with 18 strength that starts the encounter invisible.
...what?

Oops, spoiler alert.

5/5

There was an 11.1% chance AFTER hitting you that he could kill you outright. At 12 Con, there would have been a 0.7% chance.

d6 - 10 Con - 37.1%
d6 - 12 Con - 7.4%
d6 - 14 Con - 0.34%
d6 - 16 Con - 0%
d8 - 10 Con - 11.1%
d8 - 12 Con - 0.74%
d8 - 14 Con - 0.002%
d8 - 16 Con - 0%
d10- 10 Con - 1.48%
d10- 12 Con - 0.01%
d10- 14 Con - 0%
d10- 16 Con - 0%

5/5 **

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

I started this thread not to complain or place blame, but to get an idea of the frequency of this unfortunate situation before I go "all in" (as mystic powers in the Bay Area have been counselling). I wanted the opinions/experiences of the veteran players as to wheter this (the one-shot kill) was functioning as intended.

Thus far I have only played PFS at the last three PaizoCons - that's a grand total of 11 scenarios as a player and 3 as DM. I never took part in Living Greyhawk or any other organized play. In my limited experience, I've had it happen to me once as a player and as DM of MotFF, I saw where it can potentially happen to multiple 1st level characters (although the DM is given an option to avoid it).

So, to me it looked relatively common, which I would be uncomfortable with (Option C in original post). Responses so far favor fluke/dumb luck (Option A). In that case, I will charge on and this death may actual lead to further character development.

Just to reiterate, I'm not advocating removing risk of death. Dumb tactics should get appropriate results. I'm talking about the case where "poor bastard didn't even know what hit him."

Here's what happened to me. Don't read if you want to play Dalsine Affair!

Spoiler:

I was playing as a Taldan. The second faction mission requests that we accompany Baron Jacquo to his estate after mission completed. In the final encounter, either I misheard the description or my character failed a perception check, but I did not comprehend that the Baron was beheaded. My understanding was that he was lying in a pool of blood with his throat cut. I ran to render assistance to him, as any proper Taldan should. The villian was invisible and appeared in the square next to me and proceeded to dispense with me.

And it didn't take 6's to do me in, 4's would have been sufficient!

3/5

Kyle Baird wrote:

Power attacking, raging, 5th level barbarian for a boss in a tier 3-4 is going to deal how much damage with a +1 great axe?

Even better, how about a Barbarian1/TwoHandedFighter5 with a Falchion?

5 Falchion base average, +12 Str, +6 PowerAttack, +1 enhancement, +2 WeaponSpec, +1 Weapon Training = 27 average, 18-20/x2

Oh, and then he gets to attack you again.

Point being, yes, he's scary, and yes, he can one-shot people. But that encounter could very well have been two Brb1/2HandFighter4s (26 average/swing) at Tier 3-4.

about the module:
I would like to say, though, that Magus or not, a single-monster final fight in PFS that can actually kill people is a really good sign for the campaign. I've gone through way too many final fights in PFS where the party just whomps the badguy in round 1 and emerges unscathed.

Oh, and don't forget that you did have time to buff before going into that fight. Gabrielle is so glad she cast Shield.

To Feral:
You know, Jenksism would have been really handy here. A Scroll of See Invisibility to see through Chalfon's kung-fu treachery is only 1 PA... hehehe...

-Matt

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Lord Twitchiopolis wrote:
LazarX wrote:


A. This happened quite a bit in Living Greyhawk and Arcanis. Deadly crits can happen, and sometimes not always just by the end boss. We manned up, got used to it, and made new characters as needed. If you prefer a carebear campaign, go for Legends of the Shining Jewel.

Two points.

A. This was not a crit that killed him.

B. You're right, this isn't Shining Jewel. It's PFS. Characters are expected to be socially adempt as well as combat capable, able to surmount any number of challenges that come their way. They aren't expected to be min/maxed out the wazoo.

I currently play in a weekly PFS table and a weekly Temple of Elemental Evil game. For Temple, we have character upon characters at the waiting as replacements because mortality count is so high.
To be compleately honest, 6 characters later, Temple feels more like a chore than a game. PFS, on the other hand, I always look forward to.

Character death happens. But it shouldn't be a given. There's a diffeance between challenging but fun and brutally difficult.

Me and my spouse played in a Temple slot in Origins. Both of us were one shot to dead by a crit hitting ogre right at the entrance. PFS by my observations is not nearly as lethal as Living Greyhawk, or Living Arcanis, but considerably more challenging than Living City. Yes you do face social as well as combat challenges. In PFS you have a shot at them. You're not supposed to automatically "surmount" them.

Any campaign has the potential for a TPK especially at levels 1-3 and you have a really big run of unfavorable dice rolls. (or the DM has a really long run of good ones). Living Greyhawk by the way used to have an expected mortality rate of 25 percent per table.

Shadow Lodge 5/5

One thing I want to give Alex huge kudos for is an exciting last fight. There have been instances in the past where players complain that the penultimate fight is more exciting than the climax. This module was not the case.

Could we have played smarter? Yes, and we probably should have. There was a death by a low HP member of the party that went further ahead than good tactics would allow. In the end though Alex just got very lucky, the players helped save the character, and all is well. Scenaris this difficult are few and far between. I'm just happy it was a good a story as it was.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
waltero wrote:

ent.

Just to reiterate, I'm not advocating removing risk of death. Dumb tactics should get appropriate results. I'm talking about the case where "poor bastard didn't even know what hit him."

Dumb tactics should not be the only reason for death. Sometimes it happens just that way.

Liberty's Edge 1/5

Jiggy wrote:
Howie23 wrote:
It is expensive. Note that we get 20 point builds, not 15 point builds, as well. Not taking Con (what's needed to survive more often) in order to take more offense (the normal trade off) has the effect of making glass cannon-like characters. They hit hard, but they can't stand the heat when they are the subject.
Regardless of what you're trading off for it, 14 CON for an elf is half your stat points; a quarter of them for a non-dwarf/gnome. I would imagine that you might be better served putting (some of) those points elsewhere.

The 14 Con rule-of-thumb is generally stated before racial mods. Sometimes with the caveat, 'and don't play elves,' or something similar. ;) Yeah, elves suffer from elven disease, and choosing to play them takes some risks, particularly for melee characters. It's one thing to take on the risks of a low Con knowingly. It's another to be surprised by it.

Liberty's Edge 1/5

LazarX wrote:
Any campaign has the potential for a TPK especially at levels 1-3 and you have a really big run of unfavorable dice rolls. (or the DM has a really long run of good ones). Living Greyhawk by the way used to have an expected mortality rate of 25 percent per table.

*flag down on the field*

Sorry, gonna have to call foul on that 25% number. It certainly may have varied from region to region, but that is pretty much impossible on the face of it and is well outside my experience. I ran a total of well over 100 sessions of LG, had a reputation for tough tactics, and saw a total of something like 8-10 deaths at my tables. That's maybe 10/500, which is more than an order of magnitude below 25% (125/500). At 25% mortality and with a mod progression that varied from 3-8 adventures per level, characters would never progress. They'd die an average of 1 in 4, but take an average of 1 in 6 to level. If you're saying 1 death per every 4 tables, that sounds like about double my experience and could reflect regional variation.

While PF isn't Living Carebears, a year ago it had a reputation for being rather sedate on the threat level. It looks to me like it is changing, and that means that characters built to a lower threat expectation of threat level are going to have a tougher time of it.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Whilst you'll never meet an NPC this twinked in PFS (I hope!), at Tier 3-4 you could theoretically meet a 6th level Draconic Sorceror with Spell Specialisation in Fireball and a Varisian Tattoo, who'd be hitting the entire party in round 1 for 9d6+9 damage (an average of 36 if you fail your saves). And then again in round 2, and again in round 3 if you haven't shut her down by then... The Magus you met was a wuss :-)

Of course you could also have a PC in the party like that, playing down and simply blitzing encounters (10d6+10 4/day at 6th level with the right trait). The comment about new mods ramping up the difficulty is right (partly for that reason), and you played a very new mod. Year 0 mods are generally quite easy by comparison.

NB: I've never seen an NPC, nor a PC, quite that insanely powerful. I also suspect the level increasing capabilities of different feats or traits will get errata'd so they don't stack at some point.

If you have a Con of 14 or more, put the level points into hp as well (and don't play up) then you'd be extremely unlucky to get one-shotted.

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Howie23 wrote:

While PF isn't Living Carebears, a year ago it had a reputation for being rather sedate on the threat level. It looks to me like it is changing, and that means that characters built to a lower threat expectation of threat level are going to have a tougher time of it.

Fascinating. I guess I haven't been playing long enough to see/hear about such trends. I've had scenarios where we played up a sub-tier and felt well-challenged but not overwhelmed, and others where we were right on target and barely surviving. I guess those variations will even out as I play more.

Grand Lodge 2/5

Branding Opportunity wrote:
As both the GM for waltero's game and the person who wrote the scenario, I feel bad for having caused the character's death, although I was very happy to see everyone chipping in for the raise dead spell.

Nice

For him you feel sorry? In our Rise of the Runelord you fried me numerous times without shedding a tear

Seriously for thoose who had Alex as a GM this weekend I envy you.

He is tough but fair. I miss his GMing skills since he moved to the left coast

Rich

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber

Thanks, Rich.

I know we've wandered far from the OP's intentions and questions, but I wanted to add that it's almost impossible IMO to write a PFS scenario or even just a simple combat encounter that is a challenge to both min-maxers (or even novice min-maxers, especially in parties of 6) and people who don't worship at that particular altar, or who regularly play with only 4 PCs.

Having GM'd PFS in NYC for two years, I played with lots of great folks who enjoyed playing effective (read: partially to wholly min-maxed) characters. For them, most final PFS battles (especially against single opponents) were over in 2 to 3 rounds, less if I rolled low on the BBEG's initiative. The final encounter in Dalsine Affair was designed to challenge these folks and provide a memorable fight. I recommend that GMs who are playing this mod with small parties or non-combat optimized parties take it a bit easier on the poor unsuspecting PCs.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

In both LG and LFR the fights were adjusted according to the number of PCs present; so remove an enemy for 4 players or add an enemy for 6 players. I'm still surprised PFS doesn't do that.

The Exchange 3/5

Stormfriend wrote:
In both LG and LFR the fights were adjusted according to the number of PCs present; so remove an enemy for 4 players or add an enemy for 6 players. I'm still surprised PFS doesn't do that.

I, for one, unabashedly adjust things a bit to suit my players. I trust in local coordinators to know their players and judges best and they (the local coordinators...the ones managing the games, scheduling, and judges) are in the best position to adjudicate the difficulty of a scenario to meet the needs at the table and thereby empower their judges to make changes.

PFS hierarchy doesn't endorse this, but I encourage it because for scenarios that are too easy or hard, shackled by a narrow rule that denies thoughtful and considerate adjustments, helps no one and is a disservice to the players.

-Pain

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

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Kyle Baird wrote:


Morale of the Story? If at all possible, don't get into melee with a 10 Con.

My 9th Level Rogue has a 10 Con and Has never Died, not once And I am ver aggresive with Combat, in fact he has only gone down below 0 twice.

That said, I still play him smart, like not putting him at a table that Kyle is running..;).

Liberty's Edge 1/5

Stormfriend wrote:
In both LG and LFR the fights were adjusted according to the number of PCs present; so remove an enemy for 4 players or add an enemy for 6 players. I'm still surprised PFS doesn't do that.

LFR adjusts for player count. LG didn't as a regular matter of course, or that might have been practice in some regions or for some adventures. I think I've used about all the waffle words possible to say "I think you're wrong, but it's been so long, I'm not 100% sure anymore...." :)

Liberty's Edge 5/5

Muja wrote:
Howie23 wrote:
Mortifier wrote:
Hmmm. Can lightning bolt really disintegrate someone? Light stuff of fire? Yes. Break stuff? Yes. Instantly turn someone into ash? No. It could of course be DMs-ruling, but that would be a pretty mean thing to do to someone.
I assumed he was speaking figuratively. The resurrection is needed because raise dead can't be used for creatures who have been turned into undead. "A creature who has been turned into an undead creature or killed by a death effect can't be raised by this spell. "
While the flavor text is nice, you shouldn't post about a player not being able to be res'ed because of getting blasted by a lightning bolt. He was level 11 so their wizard may have used disintegrate instead.

The post was about him not being able to be raised due to becoming undead, res'ed is a completely different matter. Sorry you didn't understand that.

5/5

I have witnessed around seven pc deaths, in PFS during the games I have played in which is about 50 mods, two was in last weeks game from the mentioned mod. 3 deaths from one area attack. Most were the type that happenened in the first round.

I like seeing experienced PFS players join someones home game, using character skills to tear apart a DM plans. I am new to orgainized play, PFS is my first. I have became a huge fan of it. The deadly, mods are the ones that really bring something out of players.

So crits do happen, and death is a real possibility, but it is not common.

Grand Lodge 3/5

My character was one of the one-shots that Jason S saw, Massacred by Miles.
Partly wrong character, wrong place, wrong time. Partly because the rest of the party out-voted me about playing up. But they did all chip in for the raise, and still ended up with more gold than they would have at the lower sub-tier.

Ya know, Kyle gets all the bad rep, but I suspect Miles is just as deadly, even on a proportional basis.

Liberty's Edge 5/5

Stormfriend wrote:
In both LG and LFR the fights were adjusted according to the number of PCs present; so remove an enemy for 4 players or add an enemy for 6 players. I'm still surprised PFS doesn't do that.

Actually they do, the standard for chronicle is stated for 4 PC's it is adjusted APL up 1 for a six PC table. The GM should never take away creatures. Now because of the option to play up some PC's can bite off more than they can chew.

Dark Archive 4/5 5/5 ***

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path Subscriber

It happens. As long as it's not a regular occurrence, it's okay. Combat encounters need a bit of challenge and especially the BBEG needs to pose a credible threat to life and limb. Heck, my first PFS character (a human cleric) was one-shotted by the BBEG in Silent Tide. First PC death in PFS Finland, too. I shrugged and created a new one, and kept playing.

And there's no way that Living Greyhawk had "an expected mortality rate of 25 percent per table". Not even Creighton Broadhurst, He Who Drank Deep of the Blood of PCs, took home that many heads.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/5 ***

Kyle Baird wrote:
Believe it or not, in my limited experience, I think I have only ever once "one shotted" a PC straight to death. That was in a subtier 8-9 game, to a 5th level PC, via a save or die effect, which was before the scenario was altered (in small part because of this exact game).

Actually, a certain pally was "one shotted" by you (with the help of a Glabrezu). Of course it was a full-attack action, but it was all in a single turn so, I guess, the "one shot" concept could apply.

Serves me right for charging a demon in the first place. WTF was I thinking?!? :-)

AnD BTW, I agree with your assessment of the re-write. The stat block is now in error. The CL should still be 15.

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Though Technically not a "One Shot" Kill, I once "TPK" a whole group with on action.

An Evil cleric Channeled negative energy, all 7 1st level players where within range, they all failed their saving throws and I rolled max damage of 12 on the 2d6. The character with the highest HPs only had 11, so everyone was taken down with no means of recovery and where killed. All of this in the first round.

To this day that has been my only TPK.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/5 ***

K Neil Shackleton wrote:
Partly because the rest of the party out-voted me about playing up.

This is why I require a unanimous vote when deciding to play up. And I make sure that the "up-players" are secure in their decision. I do not like to see low sub-tier players being railroaded into a higher tier.

I have also experimented with the "mercy" rule. We start a mod at the higher sub-tier and, after any encounter (but not during), they can cry "mercy" and I'll drop it down. Rewards follow the mod as completed.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/5 ***

Dragnmoon wrote:

Though Technically not a "One Shot" Kill, I once "TPK" a whole group with on action.

An Evil cleric Channeled negative energy, all 7 1st level players where within range, they all failed their saving throws and I rolled max damage of 12 on the 2d6. The character with the highest HPs only had 11, so everyone was taken down with no means of recovery and where killed. All of this in the first round.

To this day that has been my only TPK.

Sounds very much like a "rat" move on your part ;-)

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

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Bob Jonquet wrote:


Sounds very much like a "rat" move on your part ;-)

Good guess

5/5

Dragnmoon wrote:

Though Technically not a "One Shot" Kill, I once "TPK" a whole group with on action.

An Evil cleric Channeled negative energy, all 7 1st level players where within range, they all failed their saving throws and I rolled max damage of 12 on the 2d6. The character with the highest HPs only had 11, so everyone was taken down with no means of recovery and where killed. All of this in the first round.

To this day that has been my only TPK.

Didn't any of them have any use? I would have stablized them all and sold them as slaves.

5/5

Bob Jonquet wrote:
AnD BTW, I agree with your assessment of the re-write. The stat block is now in error. The CL should still be 15.

That was a knee-jerk reaction by the development team. That whole template is a problem.

Technically speaking, you're the only person I've ever one-shotted... twice. bahahahahaha!

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/5 ***

Kyle Baird wrote:
Technically speaking, you're the only person I've ever one-shotted... twice. bahahahahaha!

With your badge of character kills, that makes me special. Woot!!!

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Kyle Baird wrote:


Didn't any of them have any use? I would have stablized them all and sold them as slaves.

This was the Start of Season 1 in fact the first day of Season 1 so that option was not really passed about that much back then, and it was only the 5th PFS game I ever ran at the time *Season 0 I only got to play and run at one Con GenCon UK 08, could not find players before I moved back to the states*. If the same thing happened today they would have been sold into slavery.

5/5

Kyle Baird wrote:
Dragnmoon wrote:

Though Technically not a "One Shot" Kill, I once "TPK" a whole group with on action.

An Evil cleric Channeled negative energy, all 7 1st level players where within range, they all failed their saving throws and I rolled max damage of 12 on the 2d6. The character with the highest HPs only had 11, so everyone was taken down with no means of recovery and where killed. All of this in the first round.

To this day that has been my only TPK.

Didn't any of them have any use? I would have stablized them all and sold them as slaves.

The same happened to me second time I ran that (though not in the first round of combat) and what you suggested is actually what I did. Seemed very logical in that scenario.

All but one character ended up buying their freedom; got an economic slap on the wrist and got a lesson on the effects of procrastination-tactics in combat.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/5 ***

How does one "buy your freedom?" Do you just pay the cost of a slave? Not much of a "slap" IMO.

I assume the PC's had to forfeit the remaining gold from the mod (since they didn't earn it), but did they lose all their possessions? Depending on the levels, that could be a serious "slap".

Regardless, I have been tempted to use this outcome to save some "dead" PC's myself, but am unsure what an appropriate "cost" should be applied.

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