Hi, so we are starting a Gathering of winds this week (we already played the battle with Ilthane, it was a blast).
The warlock player in our group is a little bored with his character and wants to try a magister ( a wizard type class from arcana evolved), I am OK with this and we just need to kill off his character. I want the kill to seem real to everyone else because it would be a good way to remind the pcs that death is possible. We have already discussed that the other players will not know that he wanted to die. Problem is we have a cleric in the party who can Raise, so I need to kill the warlock in a way that he cannot be raised. I would like him to come back as allustan... so I would probably kill him before Allustan is rescued.
So anyone got any ideas for a trap/monster that will kill this warlock in a way that he cannot be raised?
Change the trap that Allustan is in so that the only way the PCs can free him is for someone to take his place. The PC could then sacrifice himself and thereby free Allustan (his new character apparently).
The beauty of this is that there is absolutely NO downtime for this Player as losing one character frees his new one.
You will want to speak with the player before hand so he knows that is what you have planned for the exchange... a good heroic sacrifice AND he gets what he wants.
Sean Mahoney
great idea. But none of my PCs have died yet, and I want them to know that it is at least possible. We have always played in Monty hall type campaigns where no one can die, so I think them seeing someone actually die, and believe it, would be beneficial....
Any other ideas?
Raise doesn't work if it's a death effect or the body's destroyed outright. Maybe give Ilthane or something else along the way a scroll of slay living? Or a wand of phantasmal killer?
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You can always have him killed and devoured by whatever did the killing. Or carried off maybe.
The dragon snarls at the rest of the group with the character in his mouth, daring them to try and steal his meal. The the huge beast takes to the wing, happily chewing on his snack mid flight, crimson droplets of what was once their companion raining down on the group.
Tam
The elder black pudding should fit the bill nicely - just arrange to have the warlock be rear guard when someone else disturbs the treasure in the side room, then have the pudding critically hit the warlock and kill him. when they turn to look, all they'll see is their poor dead comrade being dragged into the pudding, to be dissolved into nothingness
Pudding would be hilarious... Most of my players think that the pudddings are stupid, and that they have no place in dnd, so it would be kind of funny to have our first death be at the hands of a pudding. Wand of phantasmal killer/slay might be a good backup too.
Raise Dead also doesn't work on someone who's been raised as an undead. Move the dread wraith (Zifforian) to a more comvenient location - basically as soon as the party spreads out a bit, have the Dread Wraith pop out of a wall and attack the warlock while he's mostly alone (and place a secret door or hollow wall where he appeared, with his room behind it). If he dies from the Con drain (1d8 Con per hit, DC 25 Fortitude negates) he rises 1d4 rounds later as a wraith. Just have Zifforian keep attacking the Warlock and ignoring anyone else who comes to help (and then once the warlock goes down, randomly select a new target from those who are closest and focus all attacks on that new target until the PCs manage to destroy him).
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I don't know... there's something about this that doesn't feel quite right. On the one hand you want to show that death is possible in your game, yet on the other you need to manufacture this "supposed" death. I'd be careful because as much as you would like to make it look unstaged, subtle unbidden clues from either you or the player could give away the charade.
Perhaps the best thing to do is to not target the PC but to instead do a PC to NPC swap between his character and Allustan at the appropriate time. No charade. No fake.
You should have (and should have had)ample opportunities to kill characters anyway if this was the tenor of game you were seeking - something which I can understand and even recommend. I invited a seventh player into my game, killed his PC in his third session and he thought it was fantastically ruthless (this was with the invisible stalkers). My last session saw three character deaths (against the Alkilith/Bozal Zohal and friends) and all around, everyone thought it the most tragic but exciting session so far. When a real threat of loss is there, players do that little bit extra to keep their PCs alive, invest more in their characters and bring a real tension from the other side of the table.
In essence and in relation to your situation, I think it best that the tension you create is as real as possible. If you want to do it, choose a difficult encounter, make it harder and have a creature target the PC for some reason (helps if you have multiple opponents). Kill the PC legitimately (Ilthane would have been perfect) or go close trying (if the rest of the party saves the PC, don't get in their way and just do the PC/NPC swap). Don't worry about the Raise Dead thing as you can only bring someone back if their soul is willing - which in this case they would not be.
Hope it all works out.
Best Regards
Herremann the Wise
Kobold Press
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I'd recommend either having him "miss" his save when the water trap and having his character carried off and down the falling/underground river. No body, and if he changes his mind, he can come back.
Another option is having him captured by Flycatcher and not returned.
Finally, when they fight the oculus demon, you can rule that its eyebolts are soul destroying negative energy effects. Soul death = no raise OR resurrection. Plus that demon is a little overpowered already, so it won't require much fudging if any.
Any encounter can be a fitting end, depending on the character. How does he want to go out? Kidnapping or volunteering to go with Flycatcher (or into ALlustan's sphere, as someone else suggested) has a little more dignity. Fighting the waters and falling into the abyss or toe-to-toe with a soul-sucking demon is a whole nother finale.
Easy and believable....
Have him attack the party. When they slay/defeat him have the body revert to a doppleganger.
Explain that the warlock was killed way back in the HoHR adventure and replaced. If they defeat the Doppleganger instead, he could tell them that their friend became dinner that night.
Evil? yes. I might just save that myself for a possible future need :) .
Easy and believable....
Have him attack the party. When they slay/defeat him have the body revert to a doppleganger.
Explain that the warlock was killed way back in the HoHR adventure and replaced. If they defeat the Doppleganger instead, he could tell them that their friend became dinner that night.
Evil? yes. I might just save that myself for a possible future need :) .
This was how my last PC made his exit when I moved away from Michigan. It was much fun for me and the DM, but I managed to take out about 2/3 of a party of 10 PCs before I went down, the way we had things set up. I think the DM wanted to end the campaign anyway, as he had me do up a pretty powerful greater doppelganger and gave me lots of gold to equip. I haven't heard whether the group stayed together after I left, though--people didn't seem too upset on the whole, but it was kind of arbitrary.
Thanks for the posts. Herremann, thanks for your comments especially, I am trying to bring death slowly to my game. I think I have overpowered my characters with items and they really are strong for what we are encountering (they beat Ilthane with no deaths and I was trying to play him well). I know how much it sucks to have a pc die on you, sometimes it really takes the wind out of the campaign. On the other hand no deaths kind of makes descisions inconsequential. I am still trying to find that happy medium.
Anyways I think I will get Flycatcher to kidnap the warlock when the party encounters one of the traps. He will tell the PC's they can have him back if they kill Moreto. Either way the char will be dead... If they go kill Moreto, they will wind Flycatcher did not keep his end of the bargain. If they attack flycatch, then maybe he will have minions kill the warlock (sound plausible?)
I think you are right Herremann about not going over the top with the charade. I was wondering how I could make the character unresurrectable, but I think I will just say that the spirit isn't willing because the player is ready for something new..
Anyone with comments?