Swamp druid with the swamp domain in a swamp. Has a good fort save, a +3 cloak of resistance, +4 vs disease and a good con.
Rolls a 1 vs malaria.
Second save
Rolls a 1 vs malaria.
(art imitates life i suppose...)
My Inquisitor got hit with 2 negative levels at lvl 3. Rolled to see if those negative levels become permanent, double 1s. Fortunately I had the PP for the spellcasting to correct it but damn that was a downer.
isn't it 100 times cheaper to take them off BEFORE then?
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My Inquisitor got hit with 2 negative levels at lvl 3. Rolled to see if those negative levels become permanent, double 1s. Fortunately I had the PP for the spellcasting to correct it but damn that was a downer.isn't it 100 times cheaper to take them off BEFORE then?
We couldn't, we were in the Gloomspire
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Rip.
I remember playing casually with my friends- and the GM likes to f**k with us a ton, and has us roll just for the hell of it. We were scaling a rocky cliff to get to a monastery or something, and had to make climb checks like 12 times. When I rolled a 1, naturally, the "GM" had my poor monk fall off and make a reflex save. and a will save. and a fortitude save. and i got nat 1s on all of them. Which is how, for the second time, I ended up with my character impaled a stalagmite through the pelvis.
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I remember one group around level 5 or 6, where our only healer was a bard with a CLW wand. My sorcerer with +15 or so in UMD was the backup healer.
Tough combat, we're ambushed in weird environmental conditions, and the bard who shouldn't be on the front line takes all the hits, going down to about 1 point from his negative con score. I rush up and try to UMD the cure wand to save him, and fail. Shirt reroll, another fail. I actually don't remember if they were 1s, or just really low rolls, but it was also back before you could add GM starts to your rerolls. The bard died the following round.
Only time my dice ever killed someone else's PC when I wasn't GMing.
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Squishy ranged archaeologist gets caught in the area of a maximized Fireball spell, rolls a 2 on the reflex save. I do the math in my head, think he can probably make it on a 4. I use my reroll! Nat 1.
GM tells me later that the two woulda made it. Oops!
Bonus non-PFS: playing Over the Edge a spellcaster character is trying to burst a glass underwater tunnel with a fireball. I burn most of my MP, roll I think 20d6 keep best 6.
4/3/2/2/2/2/2/2/1/1/1/1/1/1/1/1/1/1/1/1.
I remember when ALL my 3 players rolled a 1 on Stealth at the same time while infiltrating an enemy fortress. The alarm was given and it became a race against the clock. Not what I had planned for them.
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Replacing the d20 with 3d6 is a thing for a reason. (Need to rework the crit ranges though)
Check the 3.0/3.5 Unearthed Arcana if you have it, there was a section on doing that.
As to the OP my Kender rogue walked into a room that was full of various statues, holes in the walls, and other standard trap looking things. Rolls a 1 on his search check, now even though this isn't an auto failure I'm dubious as the the statement of "you find no traps". My Kender however proudly announces a trap free room and barely manages to reflex and tumble his way to safety with a cry of "I might have been wrong!"
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We were playing a 2e Darksun game years ago. We were all high level.
We were confronted by illithids who tried to mind control us. No biggie, really. Remember, we were high level.
The DM said "Just don't roll a 1."
Every single one of us did just that. The DM really wasn't prepared for that eventuality, and paused the game right there!
I was GMing a solo campaign to a kinda stealthy ranger. I had created some NPCs to help the player. There were many NPCs and he could choose the ones he wanted to take with him. Among them there was an illusionist elven wizard with a pretty effective support build.
They were entering a walled enemy town. The walls were not very high and easy to climb. Taking 10 was enough to succeed for all characters but the Wizard, who had dumped STR. So she kept rolling poorly. Even with the aid another option she wouldn't make a single roll.
After some pathetic attempts and some falling damage she managed to climb to the top. They were invisible but they had already made a lot of noise so there were people wondering what was going on.
Going up the wall was not that difficult, but going down should be much easier. There was a big cart full of straw and they only needed to jump in it. Easy and simple.
But the Wizard rolled a nat 1 on her check. I rolled again allowing a stealth check to avoid making too much noise. Nat 1 again. So instead of jumping on the straw she jumped on the side of the wooden cart, broke it, took falling damage and cried with the pain. The guard was alerted of invisible enemies invading the town.
The Wizard was replaced forever and ever for a Bard.
Playing a low level scenario, there was a misplaced helpless victim. There was something fishy but all of us failed the easy skill checks to pin point what was fishy (One of those scenarios that drive home the point that 5 barbarians make a bad team). A character enters goes to aid the victim and a massive monster with grab takes a swing at him, the DM is upset because this is guaranteed death for this character. The monster rolls a 1 and the character is able to flee past a plot barrier...
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Was playing a 3.x game in Worlds Largest Dungeon. I just statted up a new character to play with the group. He was a Frenzied Berzerker Barbarian wielding an oversized Warhammer with Monkey Grip going (of course) with the full Power Attack line. The 4th fight I ever had with the character and we go up against some kind of advanced Tendrilucos. First round I Rage, Frenzie, Power Attack and smack that sucker so hard I did like 3/4 of it's HP in one hit. Feeling pretty accomplished and ready to take on the rest of the combat with my party behind me it moves on to the baddies turn.
The Tendrilucos attacks me (the thing that just hurt it so badly) and easily hits. I was utterly unconcerned about the trivial damage it would deal. It's Grab ability goes off. No problem, I had a damned good opposed grapple check. ...I roll a 1. Ok. Thats not good, but it could be worse it could...
The Tendrilucos Swallows me whole. Pretty bad, but I could probably fight my way out.
The Tendrilucos' stomach acid/poison forces me to roll a save vs. parallelization. Pft. No problem, I got this. My Con is huge especially while raging and my Fort saves are crazy high. I couldn't fail this unless I... I roll another 1.
My character is stuck in the Tendrilucos' belly for an unknown number of rounds. Meanwhile my party tries to fight the rest of the bad guys on the outside and end up basically losing the fight. It seems grim but that I come out of parallelization with only a single round to spare. I do all of my attacks including a Frenzy attack and manage to cut my way out! I'm running, not on Con hitpoints. I'm WELL below that. I'm running on Deathless Frenzy alone. Desperate for a heal I stumble out of the still living gullet of the Tendrilucos reaching out to the Cleric for a heal but he is too far away, low on hit points and cannot reach me through the reach of the beast. The next round my character dies when his rage ends and the Tendrilucos eats him again and the party runs away.
RIP.
You know these stories are why some people hate Pathfinder, right? Especially in organized play when one bad roll literally means your character just died.
Unless a poorly written scenario, poor Dm, or both dictate things should never come down to a single die roll. You should never be scripted into something before you have a chance to do something.
That being said. It should be poor choices or a series of dice rolls leads to that one bad one finishing you off.
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Friend of mine had his character go to sleep for the night away from the party, outside the fort they'd liberated, just halfway to the haunted woods (made sense in-character, I suppose).
Roll random encounter. A dire badger appears! He fails his check to wake up. Badger's hungry, and as badgers are prone to do, it wants to bite him in the neck. Rolls attack: Natural 20! Rolls to confirm: Natural 20! As per house rules, he needs to confirm the autokill: Natural 20!
Given the sheer improbability of such a roll, he's given a saving throw to survive the throat-tearing attack.
Rolls save: Natural 1.
Hate to be a downer in such an upbeat thread but the 3x20=autokill is a lame rule for just the reason you gave. Totally justifiable reason to not play at a table with such a rule IMO.
Not a story but punishment for the dice. One of the players has a rawhide nut-sack (I don't know what animal was the giver of such a trophy)
Anyway anytime his dice roll ones or low rolls in they go into the nut-sack as punishment. Sometimes they stay for days. Sometimes weeks depending how bad they were.
In a recent game we had 2 dead characters before we could even act.
As we could only enter the room by a magic portal, we could not make any kind of check to see what was there, no clues on what we were finding there. We entered the room and were caught flat-footed by two Bogeymen.
We rolled the worse initiatives ever, I had a +7 modifier and our fighter had about a +8.
They were first. We rolled poorly against their deepest fear aura and then they casted consecutive Phantasmal Killers on me and the Fighter.
With a double saving throw Phantasmal Killer sucks. The Fighter had a +16 to her Will Save and about +19 to Fort. I had +16 Will and +13 Fort. I had casted Heroism on all the party members.
I don't remember the exact rolls, but we managed to fail the 4 saves!!!
The GM couldn't believe it! We had to be pulled out of the room by our 8 Str Wizard.
We were Cyclic Reincarnated and it ended being a good thing for the story (both characters who died were going through hard times and were kinda depressed and distracted before their deaths) but when it happened it was really shocking.