My characters die CONSTANTLY! I love to play high risk characters with a no guts no glory attitude. Irronically enough my characters often end the day lacking both glory and their guts.
One time i decided to play it safe an 8th lvl gnome cleric with magical full plate. I had high hp high AC and since my strength sucked i stayed in the back.
Trolls attackeed the party and the palidin and the barbarian were both drained from a previous fight so i decided that I would wade up and try to draw some fire. Remember HP AC (including a +4 racial bonus against giants) THEY SHOULDN't HAVE TOUCHED ME!
Three critcals later I was gnome chunks.
In a city of torn by a war vs. giants at a big battle interactive, the boss for our epl was a big fire giant...named fire giant. We were so scared, half the group went for his hobgoblins, half on the big guy. Me, a dwarf fighter named firebeard and my dad, Misdirect had to fight the giant. I shot arrows and he got me to 40 hp in one boulder (23) damage. The dwarf got ready to AoO the giant cause he was mad at me and the illusionist cast a illiuson ice wall. The giant took chunks out of it failing will saves and we attacked the hobgoblins. One jumped on my bow and disarmed me so the giant was more interested in the dwarf now. He got paced the wall and with his reach got a crit confirm, hit, and double crit confirm. The dwarf had no damage on him but after this was blown to kingdomcome at -60... about 120 damage.
We killed the giant after calling in help. We were all beaten badly and uncounscous...poor dwarf though.
Ok, we were invading an evil wizard's private sanctum in a city to retrieve an item which contained the soul of a bronze dragon. Right before we find it, we lose a party member to a magical mirror. So I pick up his clothes and equipment on the way out, turn into an eagle, (I'm a druid) and go to our only contact in the region for help. One good spellcraft roll by the NPC later, and I now know I need to smash the mirror.
When I get back, the town guard has come to investigate (the guards were armed with a necklace of fireballs), so I sneak in through the chimney entrance I used before in eagle form, using up my last wild shape for the day. I smash the mirror, and there's my companion. Naked. And I'm wild shaped with is clothes. Now, he's a felon in the city now, for associating with the assassin's guild, and it's death to be caught with him. I'm *not* going to the guillotine just so he can go with clothes on.
I'm sure the NPCs still talk about the naked elf running wildly through the city to escape the guards in midmorning.
DM: The alleyway ends, and you find yourself rapidly approaching a main road to the city, crowded with the citizens about their morning chores.
Naked Elf: I try and run through.
DM: They don't get out of your way.
Elf: I'll make an intimidate check.
DM: in what way do expect to intimidate them naked and unarmed?
Elf: I go up to them and do the "booyea" motion in their faces.
DM: Never mind, don't bother rolling, they get out of your way.
Meanwhile I'm in eagle form, trying to steer the elf to safety, and distracting the guards by what means I have left. The only spells I have left are two "create water"s.
In the end, they finally managed to get him, and it was time for naked elf's player to roll up a new character.
Totaly different RPG and I don't know if this was especially brutal. It was however a low-point for me as a DM.
First scene - First adventure.
All characters except one is rolling down the street in their cab. Suddenly the last character dashes around the corner chased by guys with auto-shotguns. The attackers fire - and miss the fleeing character.
But as the others are just past the fleeing guy I roll for a small chance of the others getting hit. One does. Rolls for damage, gets a crit. Rolls the crit, one character dies.
So basically 60 seconds into the game one character dies as he gets a stray shotgun pellet in the neck. DAMN!
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As a DM, I have preceded over 2 really brutal character deaths, at least 2 that come to mind.
Alph, Barbarian/rogue teleported into a container of acid. Dissolved over 6 rounds. The party cleric used her crystal ball just in time to catch Alph’s final painful moments of life. I felt kind of bad about that one.
Elvis Orkslayer, Dwarven bard captured and sacrificed by the cult of Iuz. Considering that the character was a bit of a joke (and the player ran it as a joke character), I didn’t mind too much.
As a player, I guess that I have been lucky. Mine have died in combat or in one case, I had a wizard collapse a cave on him and the drow elves that were about to kill him.
Drow elf: “Now you die human.”
My wizard: “I’m not dying alone.”
One shout spell latter, wizard and drow elves all buried under a pile of rubble and all quite dead.
It's a toss up for me:
My 2nd Ed character, halfling thief/psionicist. We're in the big battle with the BBEG; a necromancer causing all kinds of trouble on his way to Godhood. He's riding a dragon skeleton. My rogue uses dimension door, one right in front of himself, the other aimed to force the necromancer to pass through it and bring him to my character while the others fight the minions. It works! Round one, I swing, I miss, even though the BBEG is stunned. Round two, I swing, I hit! BBEG can't get off a spell. Round three. I swing, I miss! BBEG points a finger at me and says "DIE!" I die.
I say, out of character, "Good thing we still have that resurrection scroll!" DM says, "You do? Huh." It's the first time any of us had died in his campaign.
Second scenario: 3rd Edition, I'm playing my Duergar Rogue/Psion/Elocator/Fighter/Dwarven Paragon (this guy was so awesome; a total hovertank. Mithril plate, floating off the ground, high AC... sigh).
Anyway, we're fighting a BBEG; green dragon. We stole treasure from his hoard, so he comes stomping into the treasure room. The fight ensues. Toward the end, I try to bring it closer to an end. I zip in, and hit him with a Dissapating Touch (think lesser disintegrating melee touch attack) and crit, dealing a BUNCH of damage. His turn, he unloads all the attacks he can on me. Ow. I get out of dodge. He breathes. I fail my save (and I don't get evasion anyway with the mithril plate). I die a horrible acidic death. If only I'd used Anticipatory Strike to get out of melee /before/ he decided to beat the snot out of me... Alas.
Wow. I've been gaming for so long that the list sometimes seems to stretch off into the mists... =)
I would have to say that there are four particularly brutal deaths I have overseen as a Dungeon Master.
1. 2nd edition. The party had looted the obligatory evil ruins and had driven off (but not killed) the lich that inhabited it. While returning to the surface, the lich appeared and cast _flame strike_. Not so bad, if you think about it.
One of the treasures that the party had found was a golden helmet covered with jewels. We've all seen this one before...
There was nothing left of the player except for his magical boots, which ironically made the saving throw. The rest of the party managed to survive, if only barely, and then fled at full speed from the lich as he cackled out his anger at the looters.
2. 2nd edition. Sadly, it was the same player as in #1. His replacement character was a winged celestial (we were playing a planar game) who lept into combat against the beholder that was blocking the party's escape.
The poor guy... he literally swooped down from the ceiling, attempting to dive-bomb the beholder. All ten of the rays hit him, and he failed every save.
The worst part was the Tiefling mage collecting the distengrated remnants into a pouch muttering about "angel dust" and "making a killing selling this to the tanar'i."
3. 3.0, _Nightfang Spire_. The party's beatstick, played by my girlfriend was raging towards Gulthias. He calmly waited (Readied action) until she was almost to him and then cast Phantasmal Killer. She rolled a '1'. I didn't get to go on any dates for a few months after that one.
4. 3.0, _City of the Spider Queen_. The party was moving through the final castle fairly quickly, taking some hits here and there but muscling through it. It was only when the divine seeker ambushed them and /destroyed/ them with a few rounds of critical hits that they began taking it personally. The entire party gave chase after her, with the Tiefling rogue in the lead. She reached her bedroom a few rounds before they did.
The thief didn't make his Listen check to hear the trap activate.
The thief failed his Reflex save as a swarm of deathblade-tipped darts rained down as he tried to force open the door.
The thief looked at me, shrugged and said, "I search for traps?"
I'd say the most brutal death was when I was playing a dwarven fighter, forget the name. He was captured from the party and put in a gladiator match. His first match was with a Grey Render. Just a few short rounds later his shield arm was ripped off and half of his side had been bitten into. Two rounds after that the dwarf was being digested. I've had other deaths and kills, but that was the worst. Though I did run one where a friend was melted by a black dragon's acid breath. That's pretty gruesome too.
A bit from my Hoarde
One of my players was in the laboratory of Dr. Victor Mordenheim in the Ravenloft setting, and basically used his knowledge to determine that none of the experiments or chemicals were poisonous (a ranger with knowledge of natural poisons but not chemistry, this was back in 2E). He then proceeded to drink random potions from the lab, and was in complete shock when I described the acid dissolving his jaw and throat, pouring out onto his chest, and burning into his ribcage. Suffice to say, he was a goner.
Same campaign, different player: guy steps in watery mud in a swamp, gets stuck, starts to sink, and rather than doing ANYTHING to get himself free, opts to stand there and just sink until he drowned. All he had to do was look around for something to grab onto and he would have lived.
Sadly, the character's Intelligence score may have been much higher than the player.
A year ago I was DMing City of the Spider Queen and the group was smashing through all the demons and fire giants in the main cavern . They entered the abandonded temple of Lolth and the exalted cleric was tossing some major light spells around to kill the nightwalker, they managed to kill it in a few rounds but the huge display of light caught the attention of the resident balor who appeared a couple rounds after the dispatched the nightwalker.
Needless to say the exalted party members did not make their Knowledge planes check and did not realise what they were up against and proceeded to wail on the balor. Some more crazy huge light spells and some amazing damage from the psion and the balor was almost dead in 4 rounds! :) then he just laughed and moved into the middle of the group drawing attacks of oppurtunity. This ended the balor but his Death throes proceeded to turn 4 of the 6 players into dust.
Take home message: don't mess with big things if you fail your Knowledge Planes check ;)
This following one may not have scored too high on the Brutal scale (and may even be attributed to a little bit of bad luck on the players side) but it certainly was funny (for me at least i was on the floor laughing) so i'll include it anyways:
For once I was playing and not Dming...and the Dm (guy was not TOO imaginative, but still learning the ropes so i was trying to encourage him as much as i could) threw up a dragon against our party.
OK so a few rounds in we're all getting battered but doing pretty well considering (the dragon was hurt too)...my fighter backs off a round to get healing from the cleric as the backup fighter, rogue, and sorceror all engage the dragon. Don't know what the sorceror was thinking but tried to engage the dragon in mellee (not with a weapon, but for some touch spell if i remember correctly) and just got smacked to within an inch of his life. He was flying and so was the dragon. He decided to "play dead" since he was almost dead anyways in the hope the dragon would move off to engage someone else and the cleric can get to him. Poor sob rolled a 1 on his bluff (he has good chr but no ranks in it)...needeless to say he lands in a heap and pretends to be dead. What follows next was so funny if you were there (its in the delivery..the way the DM so nonchalantly describes the dragon's actions)...the dragon completely doesn't buy the playing dead sorcerors act and decides to make sure. It just landed on top of the prone sorceror with 2 hit points. The DM then hands the sorcerors player a new character sheet...looking stunned the player also very nonchalantly asks "what? no saving throw or anything?" LMAO.
It still hurts my sides to think back at that session...I haven't laughed that hard in a LONG time.
How about brutally ironic. It was 2nd ed. and I was playing a Wild Mage. We were fighting in a volcano on a stone bridge over a pit of lava. Overall things were going well, until I had a wild surge (I think that's what it was called) and a 10 foot pit opened under me. Unfortunately the bridge was only 5 feet thick. I fell into the lava and to my death. I guess if you live by wild magic you die by wild magic.
While DMing my two favorite character deaths were
A) A player grappling a minotaur was cut in half by the parties cleric weilding a great axe with a beautiful critical hit. Smite, power attack, the critical hit, it was all there.
B) A dwarf "tank" failed a grapple check with a goblin (alterself spell in effect of Ogre sorcerer)and plummets 400 feet into Drow Elf stone hulled wooden decked longship about to set "sail" to the sunless sea. He did so muck damage with his impack he sank the ship.
Most brutal death I've seen...
Human Thief type blew a Detect Traps, triggered a false floor...fell down into a short, torch-lit hallway. The next step he took (did not try to Detect Traps cause he figured he was in the trap) triggered a stone in the floor to start the next trap. The torches dropped to the floor as a liquid oozed from the base of the hallway walls.
The Thief ran to the end of the hallway...door there was locked. As he tried to pick the lock, the liquid contacted one of the lit torches. It ignited and then when it touched the wall, exploded (made of a highly flammable material).
The party dropped down after the flames ceased; all they found was a pick in the lock of the door.
Stillfoxx
"Live or die, you decide..."
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Playing 2nd Ed. with the "critical hits and fumbles" from Dragon magazine. My PC was a human wizard 9th lvl with more than 100 HP (having been a ranger 15th and trying to reach 16th of wizard) in the "Queen of the demonweb Pit".
That was the weakest encounter : an ogre (no match for a mage 9th with lots of HP). DM rolls : critical. Rolls high % : the result was something like : if the PC wears no helm, his head is smashed up like pulp.
Fortunately, the DM was nice and I didn't turn into a bodak something (I guess he didn't knew by that time, just like me), and the other PCs got me resurrected.
A few hours ago, another good brutal death was one of my henchmen, human ranger 8, leading the way. He opens a door leading to an encounter with lots of zombies and 3 female drow cleric/fighters and 3 male drow mage/fighters : they are not surprised (obviously we are). First round DM : "hemmm, please roll for your henchman 6 saving throws". My henchman got a "huge magical sneazing / catch a cold-spell", since he was paralysed (hold)-burnt (fireball)-frozen (cone of cold)-electrised (lightning bolt) all in one round (I think he did succeed in two or three saves, but that was not enough).
The last brutal death was in "Isle of the ape", when one of the PCs (human thief 5 / mage 13) was kicked out of sight down a cliff by one of the female ape.
A long long time ago, my elf rogue/wizard 8/8 (1st edition) with around 40 hp is in the abyss searching something I don't remember, following the group we walk before some dark caverns, the others don't stop but I am curious and coming near the entrance I throw a stone with a continual light on it to pierce the darkness.....the answer: 3 breath of acid...I think I reached -110hp because I made my 3 saves.
I was resurrected later but lost all my objects, now it's my highest level character I became human and 15 wizard/29 rogue.
Another one 10 days ago, the level 6 dwarf fighter happy in his new full plate taken from the duergar is leading, with a 10 spot he doesn't see the snake falling on him, he is grappled and constricted, loose the initiative and is bitten again, constricted, fails poison save, falls, the cleric fails the concentration check to cast on the defensive the clw....he fails stabilization roll....dead in 10 seconds!!!