Let's hear your most epic or ridiculous TPKs!!


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

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As the title says, I want people to share their TPK stories. I'll list some of my own as the threat expands. :D


I GM'd a somewhat humorous TPK in Dragon's Demand that I detailed in another thread. To sum it up in brief:

The group was investigating an abandoned monastery that they suspected was the home of a dragon. The Ranger decided to separate from the party a bit to listen at a stairwell, and heard something, so he went upstairs. The rest of the group, not wanting to spread themselves too thin, went after him.

They were ambushed by a giant bat-thing with a big sword, and lost initiative to it. The Witch tried to outflank the creature and was dropped by an AoO, then (in an ironically bad attempt at metagaming) assumed that the creature didn't have Combat Reflexes, and told the rest of the group it was safe to move around it.

It wasn't. The resulting AoOs tore the party to shreds, especially since their usual tank, the Ranger, went down early from a full-attack. The Druid lived the longest, and managed to kite the damn thing almost long enough to survive, but died a round before her Flaming Sphere could have finished it off.

So basically, they all died of the Ranger's curiosity, to a giant bat with a glass sword.


Did they keep trying to get around it, after learning that it did have combat reflexes? Also, did the flaming sphere kill the dragon anyway?


1. They only tried to get around it once, but that was enough. They weren't actually supposed to fight that thing yet, and many of them were squishy.

2. They died fighting a Large-sized man-bat, and never encountered the dragon. I believe the flaming sphere would have killed the creature, however.

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A GM accidentally killed us all through divine intervention by a good-aligned deity who was trying to help us.

Grand Lodge

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I wasn't at the table, but apparently there was a TPF (total party fail) that involved a high level wizard casting haste, just as the enemy let lose with an aura of fear effect. The entire party failed their saves, and ran in fear. The fear effect lasted one turn longer than the haste. By the time they stopped running, got turned around and went back (at their normal speed) the people they had been sent to deal with were long gone.

The Exchange

I was running a bit of Slumbering Tsar for a duo game. Out of all the deadly things out in that place one of the times they both died was to two Dire Tigers who had been hiding in stealth. The cats surprised them and quickly made short work of them with pouncing.

I don't know if this really counted as Epic so much as surprising considering the setting.


FLite wrote:
I wasn't at the table, but apparently there was a TPF (total party fail) that involved a high level wizard casting haste, just as the enemy let lose with an aura of fear effect. The entire party failed their saves, and ran in fear. The fear effect lasted one turn longer than the haste. By the time they stopped running, got turned around and went back (at their normal speed) the people they had been sent to deal with were long gone.

I love this. :D


Ragoz wrote:

I was running a bit of Slumbering Tsar for a duo game. Out of all the deadly things out in that place one of the times they both died was to two Dire Tigers who had been hiding in stealth. The cats surprised them and quickly made short work of them with pouncing.

I don't know if this really counted as Epic so much as surprising considering the setting.

Hey that's fine! Deaths that are unexpected are sometimes the most memorable.


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Not a TPK, but hugely ironic.

I was running an updated Pathfinder version of Against the Giants with a group of three who were using gestalt characters. They were in the Frost Giant section and got into a fight with a handful of said giants.

One of the characters was a gestalt barbarian/sorcerer. Two of the giants approach the sorcerian. The player says, "No problem, I got this."

Two natural 20's, two confirmations, and 160+ points of damage later, the sorcerian is in two pieces.

Henceforth, the phrase, "I got this" is banned from our tables by player decree.


Cyrad wrote:
A GM accidentally killed us all through divine intervention by a good-aligned deity who was trying to help us.

Now this sounds like a story I'd like to hear! Details please?


One of my own:

We were about level 3-4, a 5-hero party with a human sorcerer, elf rogue, dwarven druid (me), human barbarian, and gnome ranger.

The party is investigating an old abandoned library on the outskirts of town. Residents have heard strange noises at night from the direction of the library, and livestock, pets, and recently a small child had gone missing. Our initial thought was that some sort of witch was taking them and stewing them, using the library as shelter.

We go to the edge of town and easily find the library. It is an old decrepit building made of stone and large wooden beams that bear splinters and moss - something we should have paid closer attention to...

So the rogue and ranger advance on the building, using the dense ferns and bushes to remain hidden while they split and circle around each side. The rest of the group loses sight of the two and begins to get paranoid. They decide to go prone and hid behind a big mossy deadfall just off the road.

The rogue and ranger advance to the library only to find it has windows only very high up. The building itself is perhaps 60 feet tall with a conical roof extending perhaps 10-15 feet higher. They decide to try and climb the walls to the window and peer inside.

The rogue elects to do this task and begins her ascent. Soon, she arrives at the window, peers inside, and can now see almost the entire library. The small lofty windows provide some fresh air and sunlight for the whole building. The inside is dark and streaks of sunlight illuminate the dusty air. Books and tables lay broken and rotting, a few birds dart back and forth - but nothing else can be seen.

The rogue signals the ranger, who then sprints back to the party to give them the news. The rogue decides to get on the roof to get a better view of the surrounding area, while the party advances to the loosely hanging double doors of the old building.

They elect to let the rogue catch up and enter the building. One of the doors is so rotted that as the barbarian gives it a good shove, the entire thing crumbles and booms as fragments fall about the doorway. The barbarian chuckles at this, shrugs, and steps through the door right into a snare trap.

The rope tightens about his foot and sends him flying upwards, his head pointed towards the ground. He manages to hang on to his earthbreaker hammer. The group rushes through the doorway, expecting combat, only to hear nothing but the muttered curses of their upside down friend.

By now the pack of dire wolves and their orc ranger master are well aware of the intruders. The party begins to see yellow eyes blink open all around them, and low growls heard from the surrounding shadows. Initiative is rolled and the group wins. The ranger, with no visible target fires a lucky arrow and severs the rope that holds the barbarian up. He takes some light damage from the fall, but is able to roll an acrobatics to land on his feet.

The rogue is outside and biding her sweet time on her way back to meet the group and remains oblivious to what is happening inside. The sorcerer blasts some magic missiles towards a pair of yellow eyes and is happy to hear some mild yelps of pain as they connect. My druid readies an action to attack anything that rushes from the shadows.

Quickly, 3 wolves dart from the shadows, 1 attacks the sorcerer and connects with a solid bite attack, and trips the sorcerer. Two go for the druid who takes minor damage from a bite to his shoulder but manages to block one with his shield before striking it back with his own weapon.

The orc ranger fires a rapid shot from the shadows and manages to hit the prone sorcerer with both! The rogue can now hear the commotion and sprints towards the doors. Next round, the ranger spots the orc and fires back, hitting once. The barbarian flies into a frenzy and crushes one wolf's head between his hammer and the floor. The druid manages to heal the sorcerer who bites an attack to cast a magic missile on the same wolf as before.

The next round the rogue arrives in time to finish off the wolf, while the barbarian finishes the other. The druid blocks the doorway to prevent an exit by the orc, who fires a single shot into the side of the ranger.

The orc, who had been hiding just behind the center support beam that ran all the way up to the ceiling is not directly in front of it. On the following round the barbarian charges, swinging his hammer wildly. The orc dodges out of the way, and the hammer blow connects with the beam. Maximum damage is rolled to the weak timber...

The entire roof collapses in absence of the beam, bringing with it a cave in from the surrounding walls. Thousands of pounds of rock and breams collapse on the entire party, dealing enough to kill each and every one of them, plus the orc...

We all turned to our friend playing the barbarian who had a pale face. He blinked a few times, shifted in his chair, and then let out a big grin. "Woops!"

We have never let him forget it...


Saldiven wrote:

Not a TPK, but hugely ironic.

I was running an updated Pathfinder version of Against the Giants with a group of three who were using gestalt characters. They were in the Frost Giant section and got into a fight with a handful of said giants.

One of the characters was a gestalt barbarian/sorcerer. Two of the giants approach the sorcerian. The player says, "No problem, I got this."

Two natural 20's, two confirmations, and 160+ points of damage later, the sorcerian is in two pieces.

Henceforth, the phrase, "I got this" is banned from our tables by player decree.

That definitely earns its place in the book of famous last words...


Gregor Greymane wrote:
The orc dodges out of the way, and the hammer blow connects with the beam. Maximum damage is rolled to the weak timber...

As great narratively as it sounds, how mechanically did this happen? Did he roll a one and the DM decided this was it? Was it a predetermined hazard set up by the orc? Seems sorta unusual imo.


Darth Grall wrote:
Gregor Greymane wrote:
The orc dodges out of the way, and the hammer blow connects with the beam. Maximum damage is rolled to the weak timber...
As great narratively as it sounds, how mechanically did this happen? Did he roll a one and the DM decided this was it? Was it a predetermined hazard set up by the orc? Seems sorta unusual imo.

I am honestly not sure about all the specifics, but I know that the beam was severely rotted, as was much of the rest of the building. The orc did roll a 1 followed by a nat 20. The dm always has us roll critical failures. He said it connected and asked for damage, which was maximum. Thus, the building collapsed. :P


Saldiven wrote:
Henceforth, the phrase, "I got this" is banned from our tables by player decree.

This is the phrase that my fiance and her cousin utter fairly often. It also tends to end with us having to bail their characters out of a lot of messes.


I've heard many spell casters utter those words when they try to go toe to toe with something in melee just too many times...

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A GM accidentally killed us all through divine intervention by a good-aligned deity who was trying to help us.

Early in the campaign, a part of a demoness's power got infused into our rogue. In what would be our final adventure, the demoness kidnapped the rogue in effort to extract the power and become a demigoddess to take over the land. After besting a dungeon filled with monsters and traps, we finally arrived at the grand chamber where the demoness was performing a ritual with the rogue tied to an altar. Using Knowledge (arcana), I figured out that the rogue's death would botch the ritual and cast a cloudkill on the altar to force the demoness to save his life or lose her only chance of gaining godhood. The party hated the rogue anyway, so I had no issue putting his life at risk in this gambit. After a fierce battle, my plan worked. The demoness stopped the ritual to throw the rogue out of the cloudkill. The rogue was likely going to die, but we had the battle under control, stopped the demon's plan, and saved the land.

The GM then had the goddess Sarenrae communicate through the pactbinder's sword and heal the rogue's CON damage. In doing so, the goddess extracted the demon's power into the form of a highly explosive crystal of solidified evil called the Demon Seed, which was precisely what the demoness wanted. The demoness made a move for the Demon Seed. Our druid died trying to snatch it away. Our pactbinder had to make the decision: destroy the demon seed, which will kill us all, or risk the demoness taking the seed on her next turn and become a demigoddess.

The resulting explosion obliterated everyone in the chamber, collapsed the dungeon, and ushered a massive spire of light that you could see from space. Thanks to a clone scroll, I was the only survivor. Inheriting the pactbinder's castle, I spent the rest of my days alone, shell shocked at the loss of my comrades who lived on through legends as heroes who saved the world.

And that's the story of how a GM accidentally caused a TPK by having a goddess save the life of a party member that no one liked.


Did the GM think the events would play out differently, or did he expect you to all die?


Sounds like the GM wanted you to all die in spectacular fashion.


Gregor Greymane wrote:
I am honestly not sure about all the specifics, but I know that the beam was severely rotted, as was much of the rest of the building. The orc did roll a 1 followed by a nat 20. The dm always has us roll critical failures. He said it connected and asked for damage, which was maximum. Thus, the building collapsed. :P

Ah, okay. Seems like a creative, albeit extreme, use of background fluff for a Nat 1.

I for one don't like to punish my players for Nat 1s that badly. Though I have them confirm fails(Nat 1, then "confirm" by missing). I doubt I'd ever have one result in an auto TPK. I could see it happening in a high mortality campaign though, I'm not a fan.


Party accepts a fetch quest from LE crime lord.

Party sells fetched item to third party.

Party does not return to crime lord.

Party receives invite from crime lord to discuss the delivery of the fetched item.

Party accepts invitation to the crime lord base!?!?

Party gives half-hearted deflection to the gentle probing: "where is my loot"

Party is verbally probed less gently: "Get me my loot or die"

Party attacks crime lord in his home base.

Crime Lord and amassed forces TPK party.


DHAnubis wrote:
Saldiven wrote:
Henceforth, the phrase, "I got this" is banned from our tables by player decree.
This is the phrase that my fiance and her cousin utter fairly often. It also tends to end with us having to bail their characters out of a lot of messes.

That phrase has been the precursor to bad things happening to players in my play group since 2nd edition AD&D back in college, actually, now that I think about it. One player in particular, my college roommate, almost universally flubbed any roll he made after uttering that particular self-only curse....


Oh, here's one I forgot.

Back in 1st ed AD&D, I was running a game with some high school friends. The party ended up in the lair of an old black dragon. The party started out at the edge of the room.

After attempting to parlay with the dragon, the dragon responded with, "I'm sorry, I didn't quite make that out. I fear that age overcomes all things; my eyes and hearing aren't what they once were."

Obligingly, the party comes closer to converse with said dragon.

Well, the first player hit with the acid breath failed his save, and all his equipment failed its save, too, with the exception of a magic short sword and a potion vial. So much damage was done that I ruled all the rest dissolved and drained through the flag stones leaving an icky residue.

It went downhill from there.


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Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber
DM Livgin wrote:

Party accepts a fetch quest from LE crime lord.

Party sells fetched item to third party.

Party does not return to crime lord.

Party receives invite from crime lord to discuss the delivery of the fetched item.

Party accepts invitation to the crime lord base!?!?

Party gives half-hearted deflection to the gentle probing: "where is my loot"

Party is verbally probed less gently: "Get me my loot or die"

Party attacks crime lord in his home base.

Crime Lord and amassed forces TPK party.

lol


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Not a TPK but it could have been:

This was back in the 1E days. Everyone was a bit beat up by this pesky archer--the archer had infravision, the party had lanterns. This mook would shoot one arrow and immediately run off, rinse and repeat. A wizard had enough of this and snapshot a fireball down the bearing the arrow came from. Everyone screamed "NO!" but these were experienced players, I didn't give them a do-over.

I was a bit nice in letting the fireball fly perfectly--it went down the corridor the mook had fired from without hitting the sides or anything. The dungeon had 5' corridors, though and this was back when fireballs filled their volume rather than went a certain distance.

The wizard rolled high on the damage, anybody that failed their save was in the negatives (I played death at -10, not zero) and the squishiest wouldn't survive even if they saved. I'm sitting there with the map spiraling out from the blast point and counting off the area while describing the wall of fire getting closer and closer. It burned out 5' in front of the party. Talk about luck!


Saldiven wrote:

Oh, here's one I forgot.

Back in 1st ed AD&D, I was running a game with some high school friends. The party ended up in the lair of an old black dragon. The party started out at the edge of the room.

After attempting to parlay with the dragon, the dragon responded with, "I'm sorry, I didn't quite make that out. I fear that age overcomes all things; my eyes and hearing aren't what they once were."

Obligingly, the party comes closer to converse with said dragon.

Well, the first player hit with the acid breath failed his save, and all his equipment failed its save, too, with the exception of a magic short sword and a potion vial. So much damage was done that I ruled all the rest dissolved and drained through the flag stones leaving an icky residue.

It went downhill from there.

Hahah that reminds me of a time when we came across a demon in 3.5 that was locked in a pentagram that bound him in place.

He somehow persuaded us to let him out. The first thing he did was summon some buddies. It wasn't a TPK but it was damn near...


Loren Pechtel wrote:

Not a TPK but it could have been:

This was back in the 1E days. Everyone was a bit beat up by this pesky archer--the archer had infravision, the party had lanterns. This mook would shoot one arrow and immediately run off, rinse and repeat. A wizard had enough of this and snapshot a fireball down the bearing the arrow came from. Everyone screamed "NO!" but these were experienced players, I didn't give them a do-over.

I was a bit nice in letting the fireball fly perfectly--it went down the corridor the mook had fired from without hitting the sides or anything. The dungeon had 5' corridors, though and this was back when fireballs filled their volume rather than went a certain distance.

The wizard rolled high on the damage, anybody that failed their save was in the negatives (I played death at -10, not zero) and the squishiest wouldn't survive even if they saved. I'm sitting there with the map spiraling out from the blast point and counting off the area while describing the wall of fire getting closer and closer. It burned out 5' in front of the party. Talk about luck!

One of those actions you immediately regret... :P


DM Livgin wrote:

Party accepts a fetch quest from LE crime lord.

Party sells fetched item to third party.

Party does not return to crime lord.

Party receives invite from crime lord to discuss the delivery of the fetched item.

Party accepts invitation to the crime lord base!?!?

Party gives half-hearted deflection to the gentle probing: "where is my loot"

Party is verbally probed less gently: "Get me my loot or die"

Party attacks crime lord in his home base.

Crime Lord and amassed forces TPK party.

Haha what did they expect? :D


Gregor Greymane wrote:
DM Livgin wrote:

...

Crime Lord and amassed forces TPK party.

Haha what did they expect? :D

They expected to steamroll the crime lord.

The gaming group had a culture of spoon-fed, low risk hack and slash. This campaign was an attempt to move away from that into a darker, more gritty game. As DM I failed to establish the mortal danger they were in, but it served as a great reset of expectations for the next campaign.

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Ciaran Barnes wrote:
Did the GM think the events would play out differently, or did he expect you to all die?

The former. He never considered we would break the demon seed to sacrifice ourselves. Apparently, the demoness was low on hit points (something we didn't know), so he figured we would just grab the seed and kill her. We didn't know that and the pactbinder did not want to chance it. No one else was in position to stop the demon. The druid died because she took Constitution damage for grabbing the seed with her mouth while wildshaped and went into the battle with only 6 Constitution due to a poison trap earlier in the dungeon. The demon seed's explosive nature was well established earlier in the campaign (we destroyed an earlier demon seed by stabbing it with a holy sword while inside a bag of holding instead of purifying it as the GM expected). It was just one massive derp moment.

The GM felt absolutely awful. One player still feels bitter for him trying to save the rogue. The GM let the rogue get away with many jerkish things throughout the campaign. The campaign ultimately ended with everyone dying because the GM played favorites.

Lantern Lodge

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Thief steals wizard's spellbook.

Wizard places tons of exploding runes on a fake spellbook.

We all sleep togather.

Thief came, and read one...


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In 30 years of GMing I've had one TPK. The party encountered a beholder. The End.


When I ran Age of Worms a while back, I had two consecutive TPKs with the same group in the exact same part of the dungeon. Not really epic or ridiculous, but there you go. (Without spoilers, it happened in the second module).

Sovereign Court

A friend of mine, dmed for some friends...he killed all the party members with one cleric using a spear. It was fairly low levels, but my friend kept on rolling natural 20s (he rolled twice of them in a row) which was enough to take down both melee and the caster left, didn't stand a chance, having only his ranged crossbow...it was the fodder fight before the boss fight.

Liberty's Edge

Not quite a TPK, but close enough...

I was running a 2E campaign back in the mid '90s, and the party had just slain a blue dragon in the desert and was working their way into a mountain in search of it's lair. The "valiant" paladin in the group had a weapon called the "Sword of the Dales" or some such, but the primary power of this sword was that it would deflect electricity directly back at it's source.

Well, the party is working their way through a narrow tunnel, only able to pass single file as they approach the vast cavern ahead. They were a bit lax because, hey, they had just killed the dragon!... Only, they didn't consider it's mate. So as they continue down this narrow tunnel, no one does anything that might reveal or even notice the invisible blue dragon watching them from the mouth of the passageway...

The dragon breathes her lightning breath weapon in a strait line down the tunnel! The massive pool of dice blasts the party one by one...until it hits the aforementioned "valiant" paladin, who is at the rear of the party... the electricity of the blue dragon breath deflects off of the Sword of the Dales, and proceeds to pass through the party a second time.

The paladin lived... so it wasn't actually a TPK...


Well, I was playing in a single player game, a gestalt leveled efreeti witch, level 4 in Reign of Winter. So, a pretty powerful single character right?

Well, book 1, on the way to the winter portal. Random encounter with a sprite that has a normal small air elemental friend. I slam the sprite twice, kill it. The air elemental proceeds to nat twenty and crit me with a slam and breaks my leg (crit cards). I then miss two attacks (note I only need to roll an 8 to hit), then it crits again and causes a bleed. I heal myself, manage to fail the concentration check and the AoO from it is another crit that causes 2 Str damage and the wild magic burst changed my hair purple.
Then it crits me AGAIN and bleeds me again. This time I again fail the conc, but it misses the AoO and I heal. Then it crits me and I finally die.

That small air elemental... dice of the gods. And it was rolled on roll20 too, GM did it open, no fudging.

The game after that, a RotR one, I died to a small earth elemental, again due to dice of the gods.

Elementals are now always considered bosses and instantly draw all of the cheese tactics. They're still dangerous even with that >_>


Back in the 2e days we were in a homebrew game, and our characters were approaching an abandoned temple where a dragon has made its lair. As we prepared to open the front doors to enter, we, the players of the mage, cleric, and fighter, are discussing our tactics when we hear the ranger's player say, "I open the doors." He, in the space of a moment, had lined up our minis in a line in front of the door and declared his action, at which time the dragon breathed and due to a mass of poor saves, we died.

A second event, different party but same group, could have been a TPK, we did make our saves, but it was hilarious at the time. We had discovered a trapped door and we had no rogue, so my mage and our cleric were telling the DM how we planned to handle the trap, when the fighter (who we referred to as a buckethead being a fighter and of CN alignment) tired of our planning and decided to rush the door and break it down. He was successful, plunging thru the broken door safely into the room beyond, while the corridor the rest of the party stood in collapsed on top of us.

Silver Crusade

I remember what was probably my first TPK as a GM, running an evil campaign in 1e.

The party were trying to rescue their sponsor, a drow king, from a mad wizard's dungeon. Although the dungeon had a signs of the zodiac theme, most of the evil PCs died to "deadly sins".

The first casualty was a due rear cleric who fell in battle against wind giants. Then, both party chaos knights (effectively anti-paladins) decided to charge the Great Death Druid when he'd opened with a spell that should have warned them he was out of their league (so, died to Pride really); the first was hit with a finger of death and the second fell in melee. To be fair he critted the Druid twice so he made a good showing.

Finally the party's wizard/acrobat died drinking multiple potions due to a very unlucky roll on the infamous potion miscibility table (death by Greed).

Particular points of note: the chaos knight who was killed by finger of death had the ability to regenerate, and had assumed that he would always recover even if "killed". Of course, you don't regenerate from death magic. And the wizard who died due to potion poison was the only PC not to carry a unicorn horn, which would have rendered her immune.

Three party henchmen survived, one of them with her alignment reversed to Lawful Good. Each is now a major NPC in my campaign world.

I ran another party through the same dungeon many years later. That party succeeded in their quest but with multiple fatalities and a human cleric reincarnated as a kobold. It's a high risk, high reward kind of scenario.


The entire party getting eaten alive by Carrion Crawlers in a 2nd edition D&D game...

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Myrryr wrote:

I heal myself, manage to fail the concentration check and the AoO from it

...

Then it crits me AGAIN and bleeds me again. This time I again fail the conc, but it misses the AoO and I heal. Then it crits me and I finally die.

Weren't you casting defensively? How would you provoke an attack of opportunity? Failing your concentration check when casting defensively doesn't provoke an attack of opportunity. It's why you cast defensively in the first place


A buddy of mine and I were playing a campaign where we worked for this secret organization of deamon slayers. We traveled around closing portals and one time we were sent to an underground bunker. We thought it was full of enemy cultist so we ran in guns a blazing and killed everyone in there. Inside was a deamon we converced with and struck a deal to free him from his bindings in exchange for his gear. As we were leaving we realized that the building was in fact a branch of the organization we worked for. Not wanting to get yelled at by our boss we did the only logical thing. Team up with the deamons. We ultimately summon the bringer of the apocalype. We don't want to die so we try to kill him so he does a breath attack that kills my partner and nearly does me in. I decide I've come too far now and decide to bank everything on rolling two natural 20's. Spoiler alert, I didn't. He kills me the next round and destroys the world. I suppose in a way we kind of won.

Sovereign Court

I remember another one...this one is ridiculous on another level:

we got to this room, imagine 3 people level 1. We had another player who was supposed to join us during a boss fight.

We get to force golem room. Force golem proceeds to do his aoe attacks, essentially weakening us and we have a hard time killing him. The fourth guy stood outside of the boss room and instead of joining us, kept pretending that he didn't hear anything. Force golem killed our entire party, first session of a new campaign and we never played it again.

So far, never did play again with that other guy (was a friend of a friend...who just wanted to dick around.)

Also since nobody managed to pass the knowledge checks...nobody knew that force golem weakness...was force effects funny enough, so nobody even thought of using magic missile.

Sovereign Court

Borderline TPK, in a 4E adventure

Our party ran into a room to speak with an elderly woman we thought we were there to save. Turns out it was a trap, and she ressurected about 10 skeletons all around us. We had just finished a battle and were hurt pretty badly, so we were glad to find out they were minions (meaning they only have 1hp).

What we were not glad to find out, by way of our Ranger firing an arrow at two skeletons on opposite sides of the party, was that when killed the skeletons caused an explosion in a 10 foot radius for decent damage.

The explosion caused a chain reaction, killing all the skeletons, and taking 5 or 6 of our 8 man party to 0, and killing another. Who was the 7/8th that survived, you asked? The Ranger and her co-Ranger, standing at the top of the stairs looking at our bodies as she says "Oh... well that was unexpected".


Not quite a TPK, but I almost TPKed my party GMing a Skulls and Shackles game a few months ago. I'll spoiler just in case.

The Story:
So the party is in book 2 and level 6. They left a major boss from book 1 alive marooned on an island and expected him to die there since the island is a hive of ghoul fever. This came back to bite them in the ass.

They find themselves attack by a ghost ship piloted by ghouls. The boss is back (slayer 7) as a dread ghoul. He had two other survivors as dread ghouls as well (swashbuckler 2/rogue 2) and four ordinary ghouls for flanking buddies because they all the enemies I actually expected to hurt the party had sneak attack (they're pretty well built so the regular ghouls needed something like a 17 to hit and the party could ace the saves vs. paralysis and disease).

The party is:
Swashbuckler/Magus
Alchemist
Brawler
Inquisitor of Calistra
Witch

Combat begins and the boss commands the ghouls to flank with him, and the brawler demands they fight. He accepts and two ghouls get around him and the slayer moves in to flank. The slayer is duel-wielding handaxes, so crits on 20s. Crits three out of four attacks, last one misses. Inflicts a lot of damage. Ghouls attack. Both crit. Inflict enough damage to put him at -8, his Con is 16. I had just rolled 7 20s in one series of attacks. Everything on on the table, everyone can see it.

Then I realize I hadn't rolled his sneak attack. Roll 4d6 more damage, brawler outright dies in one turn. Dread ghoul slayer runs down the party one by one and beats them unconscious. Swashbuckler kills the other dread ghouls and the alchemist blows up the other ghouls. By now the witch and inquisitor are unconscious. Slayer comes after the swashbuckler, puts him on the ground. Alchemist ends up bombing him to death from the rigging. On the brawler actually died, but the alchemist had low enough health by the time he won the fight that one more good roll on my part would have killed the party.


Not a TPK exactly, but its effect on the campaign was the same.

the story:

Prior to my joining the group, the party had been on a ship that had been attacked by pirates. Not ordinary pirates mind, powerful pirate kings that for some reason every nation in the area is ignoring. somehow they escaped, i dont know the circumstances. Well time passes, the group goes from 4th level to 7th, we wrap up a side quest, buy a ship with the earnings, and start our own little shipping company. Cue the party barbarian, who, due to our half-drow bard selling out her share of the ship/company, had more than the normal voting power, powering through a vote to take our small unarmed merchant vessel (which currently held about 2kgp in various trade goods) out pirate hunting. Not the normal "oh lets go find us some random encounters on the high seas so I can put my swashbuckler levels to good use" pirate hunting, this 7th level human barbarian with a +1 greatsword wants to go hunt down a group of pirate-Gods that are ignored by the rest of the world. the vote passes, because so does the Inquisitor.

We track the generously provided rumors to a small island, leave our crew to man the ship, and head over to the assumed location of the pirates' base of operations. the rumors prove true, and we find the ship docked on the other side of the island. no pirates in sight. Of course, we chose to scout it out. Ah, but who is sent to do the scouting you ask? The stealthy high-dex bard? no, no. too valuable a *erhm* party commodity. the barbarian whose fault this is? nay. Low dex, compensated for by the heaviest armor he could wear. inquisitor? same problem as the barbarian. so who did that leave? oh, yes. me. the cleric if sarenrae who, due to a combination of low strength and my abysmal rolls, had yet to kill a single enemy, and had been relegated to the roll of buffer, bandaid, and party gimp.

needless to say, I was less than silent in my chainmail, with low dex and no skill ranks in stealth.

which didn't matter much, because the rest of the party decided to traipse in after me to loot the seemingly vacant ship.
one surprise round later, thick with a number of merciful arrows delivered by less than merciful rogues, and our unconscious bodies were loaded into the ships hold, and summarily sold into slavery.

we later escaped, but due to certain... events... that took place during our captivity, it was decided that oblivion was the more merciful fate for our characters.

Dark Archive

I TPK'd a party I ran through the mini adventure in the back of the Eberron Campaign Setting. I gave the party extra starting gold and gave them 1000 gold a piece instead of the small amount offered in the book. I also gave them starting kits with good equipment for first level such as starting the Fighter out in Masterwork Fullplate, giving the rogue a masterwork weapons, and giving similar class appropriate gear to the other party members.

They all died in the last fight against the Warforged. It was a combination of bad tactics, decisions, and rolls. It didn't help them that I rolled a bunch of Natural 20s(rolled in the open) and played the Warforged smartly. None of them worked together in the fight and tried to take the Warforged on one on one. They didn't stop to heal(only had potions) at any time prior to making it to the final area(I even heavily suggested they should rest several times and gave them a safe place to rest) and the caster was out of spells.

It was a Paladin, a Fighter, a Ranger(melee focused), a Rogue, a Monk, and a Sorcerer. The Paladin never rolled above a 5, the Fighter got critted by the flame arrow, the monk told the group that he would kick the Warforged's shiny metal ass and preceded to not land a single hit before he got critted. The Str based ranger dropped his sword and tried to be an archer but forgot that he didn't buy any arrows(I didn't give him any because I gave him a masterwork Bastard Sword) who then preceded to melee the Boss without going back to pick up his melee weapon. The rogue managed to hit with one arrow before she was killed after provoking an attack of opportunity for trying to fire in melee after the Boss moved to her. The Sorcerer brought a back up cross bow but didn't use it. A caster trying to fight in melee with no Str bonus at level 1 didn't stand a chance.

All of these players had played before, the Paladin was made by the previous DM, and 2 of the players had played that adventure I ran before with a different group(1 played a Warmage and the DM played a Fighter the first time.) I felt bad about it, but they played that fight really horribly.


My group played the Legacy of Fire AP. They were all 1st Level and encountered some enemies in an old monastary at the beginning of the first adventure and got extremely "unlucky".

The wizard casted acid splash on the last (but strong) enemy and rolled a natural 1. He confirmed the critical fumble and draws a card from the critical fumble deck - it said: roll rod of wonder table twice. The first result from the table was a 5d6 fireball and all characters (including the wizard) were in range.
After the enemy and each character took 23 fire damage, the second roll was made. The badly burned enemy sprouted green leaves all over his body...

How unlucky. The end.


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The moment I found out just how broken the CR system was...

I had a party of 6 slightly over geared level 9 players (A Cavalier, A rogue, A Monk, A Witch, A cleric, and a Gunslinger) (I was DM) traversing a sort of Undermountain style dungeon (for any who know Forgotten Realms). Well they came across a fairly long pool in a corridor like room. The party checked the pool bu tossing in a bunch of lighted stones to check depth of the pool and highlight anything that may be down there. They didn't notice the 4 aboleths in the pool... Well they get a scroll of Water Walk ready and they go along the pool.

Well this is when things got funny... First the Witch and the Gunslinger fail their respective will saves vs the aboleths' Dominate Person spell midway across the pool. I allowed Perception checks to see if anyone noticed teh spell casting (none noticed). From there the gunslinger unloaded on the cleric (who was kinda obvious with his regalia as a cleric... I made the players describe their respective appearances upon character creation and have them inform me when they wanted to change something since I used things like this to their benefit or detriment, depending on how they described themselves and knowledge and stuff) and the witch dismissed the Water Walking Spell.... well after that, between the Projected Images and the Wall of Dominates the party died pretty quick... I felt bad after wards since I didn't realize just how powerful 4 "CR 7s" were xD


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Some copypasta from a much older thread....

WPharolin wrote:

Only time I ever encountered the Tarrasque as a player, a buddy of mine was playing a dwarven fighter. Tarraque shows up and he boldy announces that he's got this. That we should all just stand back and watch. He strolls on up to the damn thing carrying part of a heroes feast (I guess he thought he was more likely to be targeted if he had food. I dunno) and lets himself get swallowed whole. He then informs the DM that he is going to turn his bag of holding inside out and hands his character sheet over to the DM to look over his inventory. The DM looks at it for a moment and then looks up...looks back down...looks back up..."I f#~@ing hate you"

You see the dm had given him a bag of holding with infinite capacity. During a previous adventure he used the bag to catch water leaking from a planar rift. We had all forgotten about this. The entire elemental plane of water was inside this bag. Like the whole damn plane. So he opens the bag and the prime material plane is engulfed by the plane of water. Only the druid and the tarrasque survived. Although the tarrasque remained drowned for the rest of time.

And this behavior was completely in character. That's the scary part.

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