The most epic death I've had occurred in 3.5, sometime after the Book of Nine Swords was released. I was playing a Swordsage who had a love for the uses of jumping (Tiger Style, of course).
We were fighting a rather cunning Red Dragon through a narrow rocky corridor, and had been cornered. We had done some damage to the big dude, but we were running on empty. Through some cunning intuition we figured out that in one round, we were getting hit with another blast of fire breath, and that would likely be the killing blow.
So, my character being the jumpy person he is, thinks of a way to get to higher ground. But, we only have one round... Solution? Move action - Jump to a ledge, thanks to stance allowing him to count as if having a running start. Swift Action - use an ability that gives him another free jump to a higher ledge. Attack action - a maneuver that gives him yet ANOTHER jump before the attack. All in all, moved up 60 feet to come crashing down on the dragon's head with a bunch of bonus damage from the attack maneuver. My guy didn't survive the falling damage.
The catch? We had apparently been duped by one of our own. A party member knew the area we were standing on was brittle and had suggested we take the route in hopes the dragon would fall. He hadn't shared the information with us because someone else had just recently accused him of being entirely unhelpful (in character, not ooc, there's a story there) and he was trying to build an "I told you so" moment.
The result? A 60-foot martial plunge onto the dragon, smashing us both through the flooring and into an unfathomably deep chasm.
The original Castle Ravenloft, way back when... I was GM.
The party had entered the castle via a back door, and then proceeded to work their way through the horrors and tribulations that were that particular module.
In the end, Straad was defeated, but only one character managed to survive: a cleric (my brother's) with no spells remaining and single digit hit points...
As the sun came up, he staggered out the front gate, and over the drawbridge... the horrors behind him...
Only to have the board he was on break and collapse beneath him and he plummeted a few hundred feet to his death.
To this day, he still remembers that death fondly =)
LOL. That is so wrong.
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The Tale of Atenaken...
Best Death
When the magic faded, Atenaken returned to the keep. Finding the stripped corpses of his friends, he howled an oath of vengeance to his god, Horus the Avenging Son (... and rolled "00" on the percentile dice for divine intervention). His wounds magically healed, and newfound vigor suddenly flowed through his limbs.
Stalking through the fortress, he hunted the evil wizard responsible for his allies' doom. The mage sent dozens of his minions against the vengeful warrior, each one inflicting some petty wounds before falling. By the time he finally ran his foe to ground, the battered avenger's armor was red with blood, both his own and that of his defeated enemies (8 hp left...). Kicking open the door to the final tower, Atenaken beheld a terrifying sight: The wizard (his magic largely depleted) stood behind nearly a dozen of the walking dead. Decaying ghoulstirges fluttered through the lofty heights of the tower. It was a battle no lone warrior could hope to win, let alone one who already staggered with fatigue and blood loss.
Atenaken had one untouched resource left to him: A satchel filled with to overflowing with ceramic flasks, each holding inflammable spirits of naptha. Dropping his torch on the floor, the warrior ripped open the satchel, scattering a dozen of the fragile flasks across the tower's flagstones. Raising his sword aloft, he filled the tower's narrow doorway as the torch's flames caught the naptha, transforming the narrow tower into an inferno. Black smoke and bright flame filled the chamber, and nothing escaped.
His oath was fulfilled.
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My 'epic' death.
Back in 3.5 I was playing a 4th level paladin of Osprem (LN goddess, 'The Sea Princess', 'Lady of the Waves').
I died when our ship got rammed by a giant turtle random encounter, while we were out on the sea chasing some pirate ships. Fell overboard (damn chain of fumbled balance checks) and drowned. Irony much?
Thing is, I cared alot for that particular char...
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Not really spectacular ways to die but a few that were anticlimactic.
Both of these deaths were with a 1st edition Paladin that I had played for about 5-6 years,He was level 14 at the time.
#1. The dreaded Tomb of Horrors. We new that this module was a meat grinder and we just finished some stuff with our regular DM when we decided to do a one off of ToH,we also said ahead of time that it was just a fun run and any results would not carry over into our regular game as we knew the lethality. It was one of the traps in there, I cannot remember the specific spot but the trap sprung some venomous snakes and it was a save or die poison.Well my 14th level full plate wearing bad@ss dies to a lowly poisonous snake. A fitting end for the champion of good.
#2. The second and real death was when the Bloodstone series came out and in one of them early on he was swallowed whole by a random encounter with a T-Rex who back then had the swallow whole ability, and back then swallow whole was instant death. Another fitting end to the beacon of goodness.
I was playing a bard working toward fochlucan lyrist in a 3.5 game. My physical stats were average at best, somewhere around a 10 IIRC. I was frustrated with the campaign, the DM, and my character. We came to a rickety bridge we needed to cross so I knew I was in trouble.
I failed a DEX check and fell off the bridge into the water. I then failed multiple swim checks and drowned! It was pretty humiliating!
I was then raised and later in the campaign we went to the plane of water. We were trying to get information but everyone in town acted like an idiot towards us. I used a lyre of building to tear down an entire city block and as a result we were chased from town.
The very first night we were resting I was attacked by a gargantuan shark. It grabbed me in it's mouth during the surprise round, swam away, and swallowed me the next round! Since I was on watch no one even realized I was gone until the next day.
I thought I had a good character concept going into the campaign. Before it was all said and done it was quite painful to play the character because he was so ineffective.
The DM sure showed me who was in charge!
1) Wrong game, Paranoia. I had a cruel GM; he cut off my PCs arms. Further, he gave me an experimental head laser gun, which fired when I bit down hard on an activator. For those of you who don't know Paranoia, you can only fire your laser gun a certain amount of (random) times before it explodes... like a grenade. You have a number of rounds to get rid of it, which would normally not be a problem, but yeah... I couldn't even change the barrel by myself. So yeah, I was basically walking around with a grenade strapped to my head. Anyway, you can guess what happens next. I actually lasted a long time like that. I guess that's why you get 6 clones.
2) I was trying to introduce a new PC to the group, he was a prisoner and he said he worshipped Shar (instead of Ilmater, sigh), and insisted that after being asked multiple times by the party. He... even had it on his character and we just finished talking about it not even 5 minutes before that. Well, that was the shortest lived PC we've ever had in the campaign...
3) Rolemaster, the same player had 3 separate PCs die to traps with the same critical. Super bad luck, 1 in 10 000, three times in a row. I guess you had to be there.
4) I had a Ranger jump on a flying Grell who caught his pet wolf and was flying away. The ranger ended up killing the Grell, 100' into the air, and plummeted with his wolf to their deaths. Bet he would have liked to re-think that.
There’s more, that’s just off the top of my head.
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My most epic death was when I was a 5th level Paladin, and working with a group of guards who were thinking about revolting against their tyrannical lord who we had been taking out. I was alone from the party (it was only 2 of us), and the loyal guards caught wind of our plan and boarded the door to the basement (the only way out) and set it on fire.
So, I charge through the door, take the fire damage, and begin fighting 10 guards alone, telling my allies to stay back for now. When I started losing, I called for support, they came help, including the Captain of the Guard, only for us to all slowly fall, me last to a simple 1st level warrior. The DM was trying to save me (some nonsense about taking me prisoner or something) and I said "No! Why would they do that? I was instigating a rebellion. Hang me!", so he hung me.
The only other death I can remember off-hand is a first level druid in a 6th level adventure (RPGA, think PFS for 3.5, most of our group was higher level). So there's a bridge. And Gargoyle statues at the end of it. You expect the statues to animate and attack you. You don't expect the bridge itself to animate and attack you, though. I fell. And died on the stalagmite.
I am no coward in game but i tend to play characters that actually value their lives thus I play ranged characters that avoid the thick of the battle, and I tend to play them tactically intelligent.
in one game we came across a cave. there was a monster inside and my party went inside to fight it but due to the nature of the area and my limited ability to fight in the cave I stayed outside to watch for danger.
The GM rolled a few dice and sure enough a group of large sized lizard men had been tracking us for some time. unfortunately he randomly rolled that they show up while most of the party is busy fighting in the cave so I had just enough time to see them coming (because I was specifically watching out backs so i saw them trying to sneak up) take a few shots and figured OK i can hold them off for a few rounds while my allies finish off the cave monster.
not so much...
the gm rolled the first ones attacks and hit 2 out of 3 times for almost max damage each. the next one only had one attack. he was carrying essentially a small tree as a club. small trees crit for huge damage. dead ranger... at least I got a warning off and my group managed to defeat both cave monsters and lizard men. I was awarded a heroes funeral and my loot given to the captive they found at the lizard mens cave who just happend to be a bow spec ranger ^_^
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I once had a DM who liked to overdo environmental and incidental dangers to the point of absurdity. Back to back, I had one of my characters die from smoke inhalation in the aftermath of a fireball spell in a "damp" forest and another drown himself in a 15 foot wide mote.
Another highlight of that campaign was a low level Monk nearly killing himself when he tried to step off a slow moving cart. Needless to say heroism tended to take a back seat to paranoia.
Everything started when I decided to play a Wizard after a very long time.
We were a Party of 5 PCs, a Female Aasimar Cleric, a Female Aasimar Inquisitor, a Male Human Dragoon, a Male Human Magus, and Me a Male Elf Wizard.
I would haste, silent image, summon III or stinking cloud most of the time, Sleet Storm being there for enemies with high fortitude, I knew the GM didn't like how easy we would solve fights, so I played my character less intelligently than what he should be (usually losing a full round before casting anything in a battle). I guess he thought my character was annoying him or something when we got into this boss fight that sealed my wizard's fate.
That day, he made a house rule system, I was supposed to Fortitude Save every time I casted a Spell, failure resulting on unconsciousness + damage, success resulting on damage (DC and Damage based on Spell Level), i didn't have a problem with this system at all, he even gave it lore about some weird phenomena going on (even though he admitted later, he just did it 'cause of me), but well, I spent half the session unconscious, but played at full whenever I was awake, passing by two armies at war with shift, and web, and catching up to the rest of the party in the boss room (at half Hp though - due to casting magic, I wasn't even touched).
So, boss fight starts, I Summon Monster III on first round, and Haste on Second, keep my distance at 100ft away (My Hp down to 15 due to casting magic). The Boss is surrounded by the Melee dudes and prone due to the Celestial Cheetah I summoned, then boss dude plays, and HE did 5 full round actions (5 Full Attacks, One on each Party Member), plus 3 move actions (to get close to me), and 3 move actions to get back on his initial position, moreover he ignored the melee party members by not opening any AoO, and out of the 4 attacks he scored at me, 2 were critical hits, I took 51 Points of Damage and Died.
I asked him what the hell was that, he said "Ancient Technique", I told him I am all in for custom stuff on a D&D session (i do it all the time as a GM), BUT... and so, we are now playing Vampire the Masquerade, as everyone on the table got pretty tense that day.
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That day, he made a house rule system, I was supposed to Fortitude Save every time I casted a Spell, failure resulting on unconsciousness + damage, success resulting on damage (DC and Damage based on Spell Level), i didn't have a problem with this system at all, he even gave it lore about some weird phenomena going on (even though he admitted later, he just did it 'cause of me), but well, I spent half the session unconscious, but played at full whenever I was awake, passing by two armies at war with shift, and web, and catching up to the rest of the party in the boss room (at half Hp though - due to casting magic, I wasn't even touched).
I like that system a lot,a little like spell burn from grim Tales.I might work something like that into my homebrew setting.
The last part where he went ape-shat is pretty crappy though.Just wow.
My very first character provoked an attack of opportunity from a spider because I failed my Tumble check to move through its space (it was 3.5). I was trying to get close enough to an ally who had several hundred pounds of debris dropped on him and he was now drowning in a relatively shallow pond as the debris pinned him in place.
I rolled a natural 1 against the Spider's venom. My DM at the time had alternate rules for critical hits / critical failures and he rolled that I had an allergic reaction to the spider venom and took double Con damage. He rolled a 4. I was an elf wizard with a Con of 8. Instant death to spider venom.
The next round the fighter failed his Constitution check to hold his breath and drowned.
DOUBLE KILL.
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LOL. That is so wrong.The original Castle Ravenloft, way back when... I was GM.
The party had entered the castle via a back door, and then proceeded to work their way through the horrors and tribulations that were that particular module.
In the end, Straad was defeated, but only one character managed to survive: a cleric (my brother's) with no spells remaining and single digit hit points...
As the sun came up, he staggered out the front gate, and over the drawbridge... the horrors behind him...
Only to have the board he was on break and collapse beneath him and he plummeted a few hundred feet to his death.
To this day, he still remembers that death fondly =)
ROFL... You are not kidding, just plain Wrong!
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Funniest Death: Age of Worms
I had one player that was very secretive about what his character class was (in-character he was ashamed that he had dragon blood in his ancestory. Played it up very well and was eventually going for Dragon Disciple). He started mentioning that he was sneaking around places and keeping an eye on NPCs in Greyhawk. The party wizard (first time playing D&D) *assumed* the sorcerer/fighter had picked up levels in rogue.
In the Mindflayer's layer there was a cracked out creature called an octopine with a vicious claw/claw/rend and player #1 (the sorcerer/fighter soon to be dragon disc) took a beating from it.
Player #2 (wizard): I step forward and Maxize Burning Hands!
DM (me): that's going to catch Player #1. You sure?
Player #2: Sure! He's got evasion.
Player #1: ... I do?
Player #2: Woot! Awesome damage!
Player #1: ... I'm not a rogue. I don't have evasion.
Player #2: ... You're not? Well you get a save...
Player #1: <rolls a natural 1> Super...
Lesson: Communication is key. LOL. That was our first death in AoW and certainly the funniest.
Stupidest Death: Homebrew Greyhawk
I was playing a rogue and we were investigating ruins under Exag. I hear something at the double doors and stealth forward up to the doors to investigate.
Player #1 (playing a fighter): I'll move up next to the rogue to cover him beside to the door keeping close to the wall.
DM (amusingly Player #1 from previous story): roll your stealth
Player #1: <rolls> uh oh... CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!
DM: the double doors swing open and a very angry gorillion looks down seeing a cloaked figure kneeling in front of the door.
Me: Kill him! Kill him! <pointing to the fighter>
DM: <rolls a butt ton of damage> Four arms reach out and snatch the rogue ripping him to pieces.
Me: <looking at fighter> Gee... thanks for "covering" me.
Lesson: Keep "helpful" players in check.
I usually GM, but I'll give you the recent deaths in my campaigns. Oddly enough, they are all by the same guy. He's having really bad luck with his characters.
Elf Magus : Ran off ahead of everyone in a halfling ruin, and cast dancing lights into a chamber to see what was in it while the rest of the party was killing 2 negative energy elementals. He woke up 4 of them, two mediums and two smalls. They each had 100 ft of movement, and closed in on him and attacked. By the time the rest of the party could get to him, he'd died.
Catfolk Paladin : He got hit and knocked to -12 hp by a chaos beast (turned into goo at the same time). Failed his stabilization roll. Then the healer decided to attack the chaos beast instead of stabilizing him. Dead paladin. The healer player's excuse? 'Eww, who wants to touch gooey catfolk!'
Orc Fighter/Cleric : Not actually in my game, but same player as above. His orc fighter/cleric failed a save on a Baleful Polymorph while fighting a bunch of witches in a hag coven. Then he failed the will save to keep his brain. So he got turned into a cat. The cat got picked up and a witch slit his throat.
Dhampir Fighter/Ranger : Party is clearing out a ruined temple with undead. The temple pulses once each night with 6D6 of negative energy that harms living and heals undead (simultaneously). So the living characters decide to sleep outside the temple, but the dhampir decides to sleep inside the temple. He fails his perception roll while asleep to notice the skeletal champion sneaking up on him in his sleep. The champion coup-de-gras him with non-lethal damage, and drags him off and chains him to the altar that's pulsing the negative energy. Then he spends the next 5 days slowly being withered down into a skeletal champion. One more day the effects are permanent. The rest of the party has spent the 5 days trying to clear out some flaming skeletons they accidently created by putting the undead bones they killed the first day into a magical fire pit. So unless they get to the altar the first day next game session, he's dead and has to bring in a new character. Although, I am going to let him play the evil skeleton who will attempt to kill the characters who 'left him to die'. :)
Worst death: my own worst death came when playing with a pickup group in college. There was a fairly large group (8+) and most had played together before, but not me. I made up a druid on the spot and joined in. Our first encounter was with a bunch of goblinoids outside of their cave. We moved into position via the woods and I planted myself next to a tree and cast entangle behind me to defend my rear. Right as combat started, I was told I got stabbed in the back and killed. I never got to do anything. /sigh
Epic death: a long, long time ago in 1st edition I was playing a 10th level magic-user who was given a ring of spell storing with a 20d6 fireball in it. We eventually got into a "no win" situation deep in some cavern and, rather than let the evil horde get passed us, I unleashed the fireball on top of us and killed us...them...everyone. Glorious.
Worst death:
Big bad shows up to threaten the PC's and their little doggy too while the monk and my wizard in dragon form are sparring in the back yard. Big bad punctuates said speech by casting summon swarm into the crowd of kids watching the practice.
The shapeshifting wizard, instead of getting the rest of the party, charges, grapples the big bad singlehandedly... and proceeds to do a pretty good job of chewing his head off. Big bad attempts to teleport out.. fails. Gets his head chewed on some more.
Big bad casts searing seed on my dragon/wizard. My character is impregnated with a fiendish version of himself. Teleports to the temple of healing and starts calling for a dispel magic...
and dies giving childbirth to a fiendish version of himself right on the spot.
It was a glorious death.
+1 to this!
Hmmm I would have to say my Rakshasa Rogue (gestalt - race/class game). We entered a War-Torn city after a failed Teleport. This place was under full WAR. War mages were casting huge area effect and every block we went we had to take cover in a building to rest and recover.
We hit one block and the Were-Tiger Monk went down along with the Mindflayer Wizard and his Runeslaved Owlbear. I managed to make it 1 more block before my DR and SR gave out and I went splat. It was an EPIC powered game, fantasy warfare is brutal.
Mine was actually death by piranhas I fell in a hole with full plate and was eaten alive at 10th lvl. Swarms shall feel my wrath.
Final fight in Rise of the Runelords and I'm starting to summon in some backup. Hidden/trapped by a prismatic wall I thought I would be able to get the spell cast safely.
One wail of the banshee and a bad roll later, and I'm dead. We had just started that session too, so I had nothing to do for four hours that week or the next.
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Im running the CC AP right now.
Best Pc death belongs to one of my players who is a cleric. He got dominated by a vampire and ordered to kill the party.
Player 1 ( magus ) - Magic missle the dominated dummy.
GM - Your missles are absorbed by a barrier. ( he has brouch of shielding )
Player 2 ( cleric ) - Muahahaha die! Uses a thrown weapon and rolls a natural 1. Draws a card from the fumble deck and gets throw a peice of your gear at random instead of the weapon. Rolls it up.....
Gm - A small brouch comes flying across the room and lands near you.
Player 2 - ......Maximized magic missle?
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These are fun.
Okay, here are mine...
Best PC Death: (D&D 3.0, circa 2001): At the culmination of an epic quest to stop cultists from opening a gate to the Abyss which would release hordes of demons across the world, the party was fighting along a catwalk suspended above the gate. At the end of the catwalk was a platform, on which the villain of the campaign was conducting a ritual that would unseal the gate. (The ritual involved sacrificing a high-level friendly NPC, who was tied to the altar on the platform.) I was playing a 12th level character (fighter/ranger/Demon Hunter). I burned an Action Point, then charged the BBEG, and executed a successful Bull Rush, declaring that I intended to throw myself into the BBEG to hurl us both off the edge and into the Gate, sending us both to the Abyss. After the GM picked his jaw off the floor, he had me roll-- natural 20. So I pulled the BBEG through the gate, sacrificing myself, but saving the world.
Worst Death: (AD&D 1st Edition, circa 1981) We were playing through some published module or other, and the characters needed to walk across a narrow stone arch that was over a lava pit, while an earthquake was happening. The mechanic was make a Dex check. If you failed, you stumbled-- make a saving throw vs. Petrification to land sprawled on the bridge. If you failed, you were hanging off the bridge: make a Strength check to pull yourself back up. If you failed, you fell into the lava and died. I roll a "20" on the Dex check (1st-ed: you need to roll under your ability score for an ability check, so a 20 is bad). I then roll a "1" on the saving throw. I then roll another "20" on the Strength check. Nothing I could do: dead due to three bad rolls. It was a stupid module anyway.
Unfortunately, I don't have a particularly funny PC death story.
Most memorable death was the first encounter in a cyberpunk game. We're in a small room full of gang members on the third story of a tenement flat.
The first guy in init says "don't worry guys, I got this" and pulls out a full-auto grenade launcher.
I dove out the window on my init. Didn't get blown up (with the rest of the party) but neither did I survive the fall.
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(Un)Fortunately, my Best death, funniest death, and Killer-DM moment were all the same.
I was playing in a level 18 campaign, with a level 16 wizard with a ridiculous ammount of skill points. The DM had actually allowed me to create glass "Baubles" which were ridiculously expensive for their level, but allowed a free casting of a spell when "broken" but only if done so by the spell caster. So my wizard with practically nothing of value besides the clothes on his back funnelled everything into making these. the DM thought I was playing my usual, spell-paranoid self.
Long story short, the party finds themselves in an unwinnable situation. Undead silver dragon (Plus family), minions everywhere, etcetera, etcetera. I thought about it for a moment, and the wizard won the initative. My first move was to send the party to safety, got them out of the immidiate danger. DM was not happy about this, as this was supposed to be his "Epic fight" and hadn't counted on me actually preparing spells from my forbidden school. >_>
As all the baddies charge in after their 'villainous rant' about how I was doomed, I took a 5-foot step, and made an acrobatics check to 'saunter like a baws' into them. I then said 'I voluntarily fail, and fall.' The DM is still confused. "Okay. you fall onto your ass as the enemies charge in, you are now prone." I think about it for a moment. Then wince, and say 'Gee, I guess I shouldn't have been wearing my fanny-pack backwards then. You know, the one with my baubles?' I show him my character sheet. Everything is legit. "Fanny-sack (Worn backwards) Contents: 18 baubles (Wall of iron)." Eighteen simultaneous Wall of Iron spells go off. Filling the room, Practically everything is telefrag'd. The party, meanwhile, has been booking it out, and they make it to the gate just as the 'unbreakable' support beam in our former chamber was shattered by a telefrag effect from those spells. Party receives no EXP, as they did nothing. I received enough EXP posthumously to take me to level 20.
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Most memorable death was the first encounter in a cyberpunk game. We're in a small room full of gang members on the third story of a tenement flat.
The first guy in init says "don't worry guys, I got this" and pulls out a full-auto grenade launcher.
I dove out the window on my init. Didn't get blown up (with the rest of the party) but neither did I survive the fall.
That could have been much funnier (and less lethal for the rest of the party)-- if the GM had decided that none of the grenades exploded. I would have run it that way, unless the PC with the auto-grenade launcher had specifically secured a launcher and ammo with completely non-standard, "danger-close" fuzes. Y'see-- grenades from grenade launchers from Vietnam on up to our present day, do not arm until they've traveled a minimum preset "safe" distance after being fired (last time I checked the specs, it's 14 meters for standard U.S. 40mm grenades-- which is far enough away to be reasonably safe when the grenades go off). I have played Cyberpunk, rather extensively-- and that issue actually came up in a few games. Our presumption was that the people manufacturing grenades still put in fuzes with that minimum arming distance (yes, the Soviets/Russians do the same thing with their grenade launchers-- in RL and in my Cyberpunk games).
(Un)Fortunately, my Best death, funniest death, and Killer-DM moment were all the same.
I was playing in a level 18 campaign, with a level 16 wizard with a ridiculous ammount of skill points. The DM had actually allowed me to create glass "Baubles" which were ridiculously expensive for their level, but allowed a free casting of a spell when "broken" but only if done so by the spell caster. So my wizard with practically nothing of value besides the clothes on his back funnelled everything into making these. the DM thought I was playing my usual, spell-paranoid self.
Long story short, the party finds themselves in an unwinnable situation. Undead silver dragon (Plus family), minions everywhere, etcetera, etcetera. I thought about it for a moment, and the wizard won the initative. My first move was to send the party to safety, got them out of the immidiate danger. DM was not happy about this, as this was supposed to be his "Epic fight" and hadn't counted on me actually preparing spells from my forbidden school. >_>
As all the baddies charge in after their 'villainous rant' about how I was doomed, I took a 5-foot step, and made an acrobatics check to 'saunter like a baws' into them. I then said 'I voluntarily fail, and fall.' The DM is still confused. "Okay. you fall onto your ass as the enemies charge in, you are now prone." I think about it for a moment. Then wince, and say 'Gee, I guess I shouldn't have been wearing my fanny-pack backwards then. You know, the one with my baubles?' I show him my character sheet. Everything is legit. "Fanny-sack (Worn backwards) Contents: 18 baubles (Wall of iron)." Eighteen simultaneous Wall of Iron spells go off. Filling the room, Practically everything is telefrag'd. The party, meanwhile, has been booking it out, and they make it to the gate just as the 'unbreakable' support beam in our former chamber was shattered by a telefrag effect from those spells. Party receives no EXP, as they did nothing. I received enough EXP posthumously to take me to level 20.
Oh my god yes.
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My best death, was my first and so far only death.
So we were playing City of the Spider Queen in the Forgotten realms setting as an evil party.
1. Human Mephistopheles Black Guard
2. Earth Genassi Sorcerer
3. Changeling Psion
4. Shadowelf Rogue/Assassin (me)
We were about level 12, and naturally everyone besides me hated running around in the underdark, very little light, monsters around every corner. The usual dungeon crawl, except we were there for like 2 years. Now at an undisclosed location we bumped into a Huge Nightwalker. (Big scary undead summoning undead).
My character, having been an assassin found a way around the old system so that he could sneak attack and critical hit undead. To boot when in shadows I was always in total concealment. So I move first stealthing over in the usual rogue fashion rolling a 32 on my stealth. Not behind cover because hey I am in total concealment right?
The Earth Genassi is next, who recalls reading the Forgotten Realms Novels and to his knowledge a daylight spell dispels these creatures. So he casts Daylight....
little known fact, shadow elves come from the shadow plane and all our abilities are turned off in daylight. The creature unlike it's like-named cousin from the novels was completely unaffected.
So there I am standing about 10ft away from this creature with 15 ft reach. I argue for a while technically I am stealthed and he needs to notice me, not necessarily look for me. I had confidence that I wouldn't be found, sure enough it got a good glimpse of my 32 stealth with a 41 spot and proceeded to full round, hasted slam me into oblivion.
The Earth Genassi being evil played the "accident" card but to this day I am fairly sure he knew what he was doing. We would try to kill each other on occasion (lots of fun) but he was the only one that succeeded.
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Speaking of PC Death... lol
We are currently playing a Core Game Just the main book and first Bestiary, 20 point buy in back to the basics game. We been playing together a long time and wanted something simple and to get some of the new players some basic rules down pat.
My 11th level Dwarf Cleric of Torag bit the dust to the Killer DM my friend Bob.
First my Cleric was petrified by the BBEG Medusa in the final battle and then recovered due to a DM "save" scroll of arcane trans stone to flesh spell the group found on one of her cohorts after they defeated her.
I don't play alot of casters so I thought, I am good to go... ummm found out I was not. After reading the fine print of the spell... requires a Fort ST or die as the process is reversed. I needed to roll a 4 to save... Natural "1" in the open... New character time. lol
I've been lucky, I really haven't suffered TOO many deaths in the 15+ years I've played... the two most memorable ones... not sure which falls into which catagory ;)
1) Sir Tobias. Don quixote type Paladin. Utterly insane yet noble and willing to sacrifice all to fight evil... He uttered the famous words to his sole companion at the time... "You get the hostages out... I'll Handle the dragon."
In his defense... he did have the VERY best stats I EVER rolled up for a character... Almost the best i ever HEARD of.. 3 18's in 2E... with the rest around 12+... and he DID get the beast down to about 1/2 before being torn to shreds... If he had a little help or a few more levels, it COULD have happened ^_^
2) Gulenor. Elf rogue in a group of chosen's of their Gods... (I joined late and was only 'selected'. Plot required situation where THAT group had been profecied that they would die... and the dwarf insisted that ONLY the orginal group went... My guy threw a fit when the dwarf (in typical dwarf surliness) informed he wasn't 'a part' of that fight... Gulenor followed them anywya... and sure enough. Sphere of Annihalation. Game kept going with the 'B' team of characters, and still ended awesome ^_^
This is by far one of my favorite popcorn threads. These are a few deaths in my current campaign, all of which have been rather funny or awesome. Our group also used these deaths to incur several quests worth of repayment from a certain Nymph who's been reincarnating us.
First I will note that I was not in attendance for this encounter. Later upon hearing about it my jaw dropped in the sheer stupidity of my group.
We were after an artifact level item "The Heart of Winter" that was lodged inside a glacier. The heart was in the center of the town that the glacier had formed around, haunted by a horde of shadows, wights and had had a group of ice giants trying to excavate the ruins. (We dealt with that.) Our group's sorcerer had discovered that the shadows were attracted to heat when he had lit his cigar and had one suck the heat out of it (and him). They retreated and came up with a perfect plan. Cast Fly and Resist Energy on the cleric, set him on fire and have him fly around collecting shadows then use his channel energy to kill them! They only forgot one thing. Death Ward. From what I understand it only took ~2 of the dozen shadows beating his initiative to take him down from 8 to 0 strength. Go figure.
Reincarnated as a Tengu
On a previous portion of the same quest line we decided to just go ahead and kill the ice giant jarl who was off hunting. The same jarl who our DM had had out hunting so we could possibly survive a fight with the ice giant camp. A fight we went looking for after fighting a Red Dragon who was cursed to be an ice giant that the DM hadn't thought we'd survive. (She rolled a 1 on her will save and Barbarian+Ranger+Rogue got to full attack)
Anyway, we tracked him and his two dire wolves down and openly challenge him to combat. Our sorcerer shot him with scorching ray. The Jarl got pissed and threw his hand axe, critting for all of the Sorcerer's HP and CON. Effectively cutting him in half.
Resurrected: Wanted to stay a halfling
This one is actually my character! Logen, the Half-Orc Barbarian! Our group (and army) was sent to route a large group of Gorumites who were marching on a stagnating war our patron nation was fighting. The war had degenerated into trench warfare and Gorum was bored. So he had his Orc clerics summon the First Blade to lead them into glorious battle. Anyway, we challenged the war party's leader hoping to stop their advance long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Since he had managed to fight the First Blade to a standstill, we opted to have a 6v1 combat. Instead of being smart and throwing will saves at him while backing up, our group honored him by standing in once place and playing "Who can kill who faster!" Logen challenged him and got first bout. A lvl 10 two handed optimized fighter can really put out a lot of damage. Hitting Logen's AC on a 2 and min damage in the 40's, it wasn't hard to figure out what would happen. (The party was level 5 btw.) But he survived through the first two attacks. And Orc Ferocity allowed him to absorb the 3rd which would have outright killed the ranger. A truly Glorious death! It took the group's inquisitor dying and the ranger getting knocked out to smarten up the party and have them spread out.
The party later reincarnated him as a Dwarf and the inquisitor as a gnome. Killed him and reincarnated him as a human.
Irony Killed the Thri-Kreen
So I'm playing a Thri-Kreen in an Oriental Game and we're tracking down this lady because she was trying to assassinate people(I think. This was a while ago). After surviving a black tentacles* trap we finally found her and I move in to attack. Turns out she was a Warmage with Sudden Maximize as a feat.
One shocking grasp later and everyone's laughing about how the Thri-Kreen got killed by a bug zapper.
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Recently I was in a party as a paladin 15th level with two 17th level characters with me, and a couple of 12th level ones. We stumbled onto a random dungeon door, once opened we found it to be the door that held four random openings, the equipment shop, the temple, the safe area, and a BBEG, so we opened it to get the shop we bought a bag of holding for me and my ranger buddy while we all shared the portable hole. We exited the shop shut the door and then reopened it, It was a cave, much like the safe area, unfortunately out of the water came a colossal reptilian creature, my fellow party bolted from the waves of fear it let loose. I on the other hand retreated to them, The ranger and witch made there checks and lo and behold the Tarresque!!! I grimaced as I heard its strengths and weaknesses, I than made a knowledge arcana check, and got my ideal. so I walked into the room a portable hole in one hand and a bag of holding in the other. I smiled as I stood and waved to them as they were to shut the door. I than cursed the creature and it charged, In went the bag into the portable hole and boom, we were sucked into some random dimension, wear I fought the thing for two rounds, frist round i hit it with smite evil, and survived the frist hit, only to die form the second. Needless to say the DM brought me back as a saintly creature, and upped me a few levels to do so.
OK, I've been saving this one up.
3.5 campaign. Druid, ranger, sorcerer, battle cleric.
We were fighting in a half-flooded ruin against lizard men. We had reached the central chamber where we were supposed to dispose of a magical statue that was corrupting the area. Because the lizard men tended to mob us, our battle cleric had cast a spell that I called "cuisinart" but was something like "shield of blades" or something. The spell caused a five foot radius wall of flashing blades to surround the cleric. But it was, for some unknown reason, not dismissable. So once you cast it, you had to wait for it to expire.
The spell allowed the cleric to cut a bloody swath through the lizard men minions, until one of them ran up to the statue and grabbed the sword. Upon pulling the sword, he became some sort of superhero, flying around and delivering ranged sword attacks that did massive damage.
Defeating the enhanced lizard man required a specific tactic that we did not figure out for a couple of rounds. Unfortunately, in those few rounds, the ranger went down. Bleeding out underwater, the cleric desperately rushed to his side to cast a cure spell.....
And instantly shredded the ranger into a red mist...
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Another player of mine in a Shadowrun game had a memorable death.
In Shadowrun, for those who don't know, it's Cyberpunk with magic and D&D races thrown in. So, they are trying to infiltrate this corporate compound to steal some swamp vehicles stored on site against need in the swamps. This is set in Louisiana, for clarification.
It's a relatively low-security compound, a few drones on sight, a 20 foot tall electric and barbed wire fence around the place. The team electronics specialist had lost his tools earlier in the game, when he fell in the water after a 15 foot magically awakened alligator ate the bottom off their boat when they hit it (thus the reason for infiltrating the corp vehicle site for a new one). So they are trying to figure out how to get over the electrified 20 foot fence.
One player, playing a heavily augmented troll (he had a strength of 15, in the system, a human can have a 6, a rhino has a 15), told the others to step back, he'd just hack a hole in the fence, and they could go steal the boat and be out before anyone could get on site.
So he takes his axe (a 15 lb laser etched axe head on a 6 foot shaft) and brings it down overhead on the fence. It played out like this :
ME : Ok, you slam the axe into the fence. It cuts through about a foot and a half of links, making small sparks. Then there's a burst of light and the smell of ozone in the air, quickly followed by the smell of burning pork. Reduce 12D (D=Deadly) damage, you need 9 successes to reduce it to moderate, as 50,000 volts of 100,000 amp electricity flows through the fence, up the axe, and into your body and out into the muddy ground.
Player : Wha?!? I only have 7 body, I can't reduce that enough to not die! I already have a moderate wound!
ME : Ouch.. uhm, ok... you guys see Gronk fall over convulsing, his body black and his clothes smoking. All his electronics are burnt out. He looks dead.
Player : No way, wood doesn't conduct electricity!
ME : You have the strength of a large rhino, you think there's a 2 inch thick wooden shaft in existence that can stand up to more than one swing? It's metal.
Player : But.. well, ok, but I have gloves on, those are insulators!
ME : You just slogged through two miles of swamp after falling in and fighting a gateroid. Plus, they're just plas-leather. They're not going to stand up to 100,000 amps.
Player : Oh.. uhm.. but.. Why would they have such a big nasty electric fence!? You're just trying to kill me.
ME : The swamp has 30 foot mutant gators, and 80 foot 10 ton armor plated armadillos with attitudes... what did you think, that a 20 foot chain link fence would even slow down such creatures? It takes that much electrical discharge to even make a 10 ton armadillo notice you. Don't you remember when you had to use a rotary assault cannon to kill one?
Player : Oh yeah, I forgot about those guys..
Player 2 : You're Dead Jim!
Player 3 : I told you to check to see what kind of security was on the fence!
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1st character death was back in the red box d&d days...
I played an elf, named Funterlies (Sounds awfully hippie-like, but hey!). Our party had encountered what appeared to be mind-controlled rocs. Funterlies having just drunk a potion of giant-strength (an having a player not fully grasping the rules yet) believes himself to be like a superhero, so he jumps to tear of that mind-controlling devive on the tweety-birds forehead. The only problem is that the roc gets to attack him first and one peck later, Funterlies is no more. 5th level elf, if I recall correctly. Dead, just "beak"ause!
Another one is in the City of the Spiderqueen. I played a monk that was fast and nimble, and he really pulled his own weight in combat. He was 10th or 11th level at that time, I think. Suddenly there's this drow wizard that fires a horrid wilting at us. Everybody saves, but me. Only needed to roll 5 or more, I think. Massive damage! Need to roll 4 or more... Rolled a 2 or something like that... He's dead Jim! Take his stuff! Ah well... then I got to play this one: Ivy
I noticed a few people mentioned Tomb of Horrors - I always heard that was a TPK module but have never had a chance to play it. Has it been updated to PF by anyone? was it 3.0 or 3.5 rule system?
I have DMed Return to the Tomb of Horrors a total of 3 times: once in 2E and twice in 3.xE. All games ended with a TPK, and there were several individual deaths during the games.
The problem was that it gave the necromancer college an entire evening to prepare better defenses from an obviously powerful party. They animated a dozen wights and outfitted them with amulets that had continual darkness cast upon them. They then set up sentries throughout the city. When the party returned, they were spotted (the paladin stuck out like a sore thumb) by the naga living in the walls. They were immediately dealing with a dozen wights cloaked in darkness, two dozen necromancers of various levels, and the giant bone golem that guarded the front gate. The paladin failed his save versus the golem’s cackle ability, thus paralyzing him. The rest of the party was hampered enough to fall victim to the wights. The paladin had the privilege to watch the whole party die right before his eyes. I can’t remember how the paladin died, but it was not a good death.
*The bony hands in the necromancers college claimed another. Everyone else survived the “entrance exam” (because none of them were good), even if they did take some electrical damage. A paladin (no, not the same one from above) placed her hands in the skeletal hands, thinking what could go wrong. One failed save and her soul was whisked away to Acererak’s phylactery. The player rolled a new character after that.
My favorite moment, however...
Someday I want to run this again... if I can bribe, er, convince a group to play it. Who knows, I might actually get someone through the tomb.
My advice for anyone playing in the game... don't play a paladin. :)
As a follow-up, if I do rum RttToH again it will be using Pathfinder. This might give the PCs a fighting chance.
I believe I still have my 3.x notes. If anyone is interested in them, I can share.
My most memorable character death was a 1st edition ranger, using a 2-handed sword. He was the only one standing after the party was attacked by perytons. Rolled a natural 1, and then double 0's for percentiles on the DM's critical fumble chart. The result was self-decapitation. With a 2-handed sword. To this day, still trying to get a mental image of the logistics involved. All in all, considered myself lucky - the rest of the party had to live with the embarrassment of being TPK'd by elk-headed birds...
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Party "Leader": "Hey new guy, climb down the rope and see what's at the bottom of this pit.
Me: "okay!" grabs rope and goes down...
Tiger rolls a crit and kills me with one claw swipe before I can do anything....
Party "leader": "Damnit. Did anyone see what it was?"
Everyone else: "no."
That was my very first character and that was his very first encounter. LOL
Next character was a wizard, and the DM had a house rule that you couldn't pick your spells, they had to be rolled randomly. This was back in the day before the word "Advanced" was put in front of D & D. I got one spell at first level... rolled.... wait for it.... Comprehend languages....
I was soooo very useful. lol. Next pit he jumped in without the rope...
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Party "Leader": "Hey new guy, climb down the rope and see what's at the bottom of this pit.
Me: "okay!" grabs rope and goes down...
Tiger rolls a crit and kills me with one claw swipe before I can do anything....
Party "leader": "Damnit. Did anyone see what it was?"
Everyone else: "no."
That was my very first character and that was his very first encounter. LOL
Next character was a wizard, and the DM had a house rule that you couldn't pick your spells, they had to be rolled randomly. This was back in the day before the word "Advanced" was put in front of D & D. I got one spell at first level... rolled.... wait for it.... Comprehend languages....
I was soooo very useful. lol. Next pit he jumped in without the rope...
lol... nice. Guess we could ad Best Last Lines to the list of things.
My Favorite last Line... as a Wizard:
Esruc (Ranger) "Did you see that Red Dragon?"
Forgotten One (wizard/my PC) "What Red Dragon?"
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Worst death from one of my characters.
Second edition, I was playing a wizard at level 12 or 13. The party arrived to the BBEG's lair and had to deal with his minions. We knew it would probably come down to 1v1 combat as we already knew the minions, an NPC party of the same level as ours, but with an asian theme.
We got to a room with five doors, each with a sigil and a single lighted circles. A sign over the room's threshold literally invited to choose our doom.
We tried to guess, based on the sigils, who could be waiting for us inside. My character rolled high, I can't really remember how and what, it's been almost ten years since, but it was the equivalent of rolling a 42 on a Linguistics check, to crack the code, and apparently was successful. We each stood on a circle, and when the last one did, they activated and we were teleported inside the rooms.
Only, just before we were 'ported, the sigils shifted one door to the right.
A 12th level ninja assassin was waiting for the wizard, and backstabbed him. As luck would have it, the ninja rolled a natural 20. At 12th level, the wizard had 4 + 11(d4-2)HP (it was a 2e wizard with roll-3d6-for-stats, one-stat-at-a-time-in-order Ability scores). With the backstab and the critical, the ninja did well over 80dmg before I could take a single step around the room.
It was the luck of the roll, really, but still left a really bad aftertaste. After being resurrected I was at risk of dying from a bad sneeze.
I managed to get my draconic sorcerer to level 15 all the way from a campaign starting at level one, then the party casty hating barbarian got dominated. Lesson learned that day, every ability you have is a double edged sword which can be turned against you and I know how badly a double edged sword can hurt, the barbarian had one.
The first time a character ever died in a campaign I played in always sticks to mind.
The group is sneaking into a wizard's tomb for reasons not to be adequately explained, but relate directly back to the fact that the group was quite literally destitute. We stumble across a twelve foot tall rabbit shaped of stone with a ruby the size of our heads in it's stomach.
Brandon: Holy mother I want that ruby.
Me: I think that looks like a golem.
Sarah, our wizard: Definitely looks like a golem.
Brandon: If it was a golem it would have attacked by now, besides think of how much that will sell for.
He then promptly ignores our counter arguments and snags a dagger and starts trying to force the gem out. We step back. The GM reminds that the wizard we are investigating is known for making golems.
GM: Okay the rabbit bounces and comes crashing down on top of you. Rolls dice. You are now a thin paste. The rabbit moves back into position.
Brandon proceeds to look somewhat crestfallen.
Me: I'll scrap him up into a jar and we can sell him back in town as a cheap drink. We've made some gold on this stupid idea after all.
My most idiotic death was in a shadowrun campaign.
First combat on the first run of the campaign. I get shot close range heavy caliber. Looking over my character sheet for armor. I can't seem to find it. I know I intended to buy some during character creation, but.... wait.... drats. DM looks at me and asks what is taking so long. I mention that I forgot to purchase armor. He wishes me luck. Well she lasted a good twenty minutes. I'll go draw up another character.
Funniest near on tpk.
Shadowrun. The majority of the group is in an elevator. Our "self proclaimed demolition expert" decides to lob a grenade down a narrow hallway towards a group of guards. The dm asks him if he's sure. The group is screaming at him not to throw it. He says the guards are thirty feet away and the grenade only has a blast radius of twenty five. The DM asks again if he is absolutely sure. He says I throw the grenade. He rolls his dice for the grenade to hit.
The dm then goes on to explain what was thereafter known as the slushie effect also known as a channeled explosion. Since the hallway was only eight feet wide and the ceiling was only eight feet high the explosion was channeled back into the elevator because the hallway made its integrity rolls. The group might have survived had the elevator not blown its functionally hardness roll and proceeded to drop 46 stories.