Character deaths

GandhitheBFG · Dec 21, 2005

This has probably been done a lot before, but how often do your characters die in combats?

As far as i recall, only one of mine has died without my own idiocy playing a part...

werk · Dec 21, 2005

I've only lost one or two characters that I've played during combat, always to a grievous blow, bad rolls/good rolls. I play characters as not wanting to die, so I usually cut and run if I'm taking a serious beating. I even had a character named Ran.

As DM, I kill characters in battle all the time, also usually do to bad rolls/good rolls.

Ralif Redhammer · Dec 21, 2005

It used to happen a lot, to the point that my players were getting a little blase about it, so I scaled back. These days it's pretty easy to stabilize a dying comrade, so it pretty much takes an act of supreme idiocy or sacrifice.

dutorn · Dec 22, 2005

Too many to count. My old DM sounds a lot like Jyrdan Fairblade says he use to be. We'd rib him all the time, but he never cut back, and we never really got upset about it.

Lord Ipplepop · Dec 23, 2005

Most of the characters I've lost were to Loki screwing with my dice. There have only been a few times that I had a character die to something other than the hosing of the dice:

1) My very first character was a magic user (1 ed). Within the first 15 minutes, I took my chincy little magic missile and jumped in front of the party to stop a band of orcs... my next character saved them from the orcs 30 minuites later as his way of joining the party.

2) I had a Paladin that sacrificed himself to help the party escape an encounter that was going to kill us all (no magic left, the healing was all used, and we were down to very few hit points.)

3) I also had a Paladin (1ed) that was doing the Paladin In Hell scenario (based an a very famous drawing in the 1st ed books) and went toe to toe with Asmodeus. It was a hard fought battle that lasted more than a few rounds. I lost when we each had less than 10 hp and the next successful attack would do it. He rolled a better initiative and hit me. It is possible to call it dice screwed, however after a well-fought battle, I have a hard time saying so.

There have been a few others (Tomb of Horrors, anyone??) however they are very few.

Haltherrion · Dec 24, 2005

GandhitheBFG said:
This has probably been done a lot before, but how often do your characters die in combats?

As far as I recall, only one of mine has died without my own idiocy playing a part...

In the past ten years, I've played probably eight PCs and have had two die. One was for circumstances the ref considered foolish on our part although I wouldn't say we players agree

. Another was definitely foolishness on my part. Had some company (4 out of 6 of us died

)

As a ref, I haven't killed all that many in the same timeframe, probably 3-4.

I've been playing for many more years than ten but it gets kind of fuzzy for stats beyond that...

Plane Sailing · Dec 24, 2005

I haven't had a single PC die yet. In one case the campaign ended, in another the campaign is on hiatus. I've had two characters retire and a new PC brought in.

I've got a good combination of Canny + Lucky. Not to be mistaken with clucky though. I'm no chicken

Plane Sailing · Dec 24, 2005

As a DM, on the other hand, I've killed the following PCs:

Miranda, Rog4/Sor1 (deceased) Goblin king
Graculous, Ftr5 (deceased) Goblin king
Blodwyn, Clr2 (deceased) 100ft fall
Ynnsfeardh, Mnk4 (deceased) mindflayer ate brains
Kieran, Ftr2 (deceased) goblin hordes
T’kel, Wiz1 (deceased) goblin king
Crail, Rog3/Ftr1 (raised twice, deceased) wererats, backfiring wand, deadly poison
Sula, Rgr2* (deceased) slain by guard captain
Syl, Rog5/Sor1 (raised, deceased) collapsed tunnel when escaping dragon, Lareth the beautiful
Azrin, Clr3/Mnk1 (raised, deceased) , beheaded by Thrindull the metamorph
Auriel, Dru5 (retired)
Lysander, Jaz7/Sor1 (retired)
K’tan, Mage: Savant 9 (retired)
Dala Sor 8 (deceased) scorched by Dyson the fiendish wizard
Bannor, Rog7 (deceased) dissolved by green dragon breath
Arilyn Wiz 7/ Stormlord 1 (deceased) impaled by Krall the troll fighter
Meliamne Elven Bard 7 (deceased) frozen by D’Gran the fiendish ogre mage

The following spoiler-tagged as they are still alive at the current point in my storyhour...
[sblock]
Taran Rogue 10 / Prophet 1 (crushed by a red dragons tail, raised and retired)
Tania (Necromancer 7 Black Wizard 2) (imprisoned in a mirror of life trapping and taken to hell)
Trajan Ftr 2 / Jazumai 5 / Sword Saint 5 (blade barrier and flame strike from Daros the EHP)
Anne-Marie Monk 2 / Ftr 6 / Duel 2 / Guardian 2 (raised half-elven, raised) (enervated to death by Daros the EHP)
Selena (Abjurer 10) (Killed by Daros the EHP)
Zherinda Cleric 9 (killed by Daros the EHP)
M’ir, Mnk1/Mage: Monk 1 / Seer 9 (destruction and blade barrier from Daros the EHP)
[/sblock]

Cheers,
Alex

kanithardm · Dec 24, 2005

Plane Sailing said:
As a DM, on the other hand, I've killed the following PCs:

Miranda, Rog4/Sor1 (deceased) Goblin king
Graculous, Ftr5 (deceased) Goblin king
Blodwyn, Clr2 (deceased) 100ft fall
Ynnsfeardh, Mnk4 (deceased) mindflayer ate brains
Kieran, Ftr2 (deceased) goblin hordes
T’kel, Wiz1 (deceased) goblin king
Crail, Rog3/Ftr1 (raised twice, deceased) wererats, backfiring wand, deadly poison
Sula, Rgr2* (deceased) slain by guard captain
Syl, Rog5/Sor1 (raised, deceased) collapsed tunnel when escaping dragon, Lareth the beautiful
Azrin, Clr3/Mnk1 (raised, deceased) , beheaded by Thrindull the metamorph
Auriel, Dru5 (retired)
Lysander, Jaz7/Sor1 (retired)
K’tan, Mage: Savant 9 (retired)
Dala Sor 8 (deceased) scorched by Dyson the fiendish wizard
Bannor, Rog7 (deceased) dissolved by green dragon breath
Arilyn Wiz 7/ Stormlord 1 (deceased) impaled by Krall the troll fighter
Meliamne Elven Bard 7 (deceased) frozen by D’Gran the fiendish ogre mage

lucky....

Azranod · Dec 24, 2005

I have had only one character of mine die, and it was while I wasn't even present. I had to work late that night, and showed up after my group had already been playing for five hours. They said that since I wasn't there, they just had him tagging along with the wild mage that was his friend. In a fight with a witch, the WM surged and he and the witch switched places. Since the witch was the area of affect, the fireball went off on her and killed me in the process. Talk about being pissed off!!!