On getting mauled in one round

[Bullgrit]

D&D3.5 party:

Human druid 6 w/ wolf companion (flies and summons dire wolves)
Human sorcerer 6 (flies and ranged damage)
Dwarf fighter 6 (tank)
Human cleric 6 (tank) – me

Last night:
We were having to fight various dire animals in a series of battles, and we had done pretty well, planning and executing smart strategies and tactics. But when a pair of dire lions came at us, I made a terrible tactical blunder. I stepped out into an open area right in line for both dire lions to charge and pounce.

Right after that double move, I realized what I had done. “Oh &%&^$#!”

Both dire lions charged and pounced, getting 5 attacks each on me. I was thinking this one, dumb mistake of moving into the open would be the end of my character.

My cleric tank has a normal AC 24, but fortunately had shield of faith up also, for a total AC 27. The lion attacks took my cleric from a fully healthy 51 hit points down to 2 hit points in one round.

Fortunately, our party works as a team, and the other PCs poured on the attacks and drew the lions off my mauled cleric. I withdrew completely from the fight and spent the rest of the fight healing myself and the dwarf fighter (who also retreated after taking some heavy damage from one of the dire lions).

I haven’t played a PC as much as I’ve DMed (although I’m catching up with our group’s current round-robin game), so maybe this kind of thing happens all the time to you and your PCs. But for me, this was “Wow!” Not only was it the first time I can remember where my PC took such a clobbering in one round, but I think it is totally cool that my PC was saved from death by a single first-level spell (shield of faith in this instance -- my cleric would have taken two more hits from the dire lions if not for the extra +3 AC).

Tell me of some of your instances of making a dumb action that ended up getting your PC mauled, but not killed. How close to death have you had a PC get in one round from full health? Also, how often do you see a low-level spell be directly responsible for saving a PC life?

Bullgrit

 

[Storminator]

In a recent 4e game I played the dwarven trap detector. I led the group by a comfortable margin... no one wanted to be standing nearby as I approached the thorn and vine entangled wall around the cursed tower.

I neared the obvious gate, failed my perception checks, and got surprised by the pair of giant snakes hidden in the thorns of the gate. Charge attacked by both, hit by both, secondary poison attacked by both... from 37 to 8 hp in the surprise round... and roll for init!

During the first round our fighter got tail-slapped into the thorns (another attack! have some ongoing poison damage!) and we collectively panicked. Only intense teamwork and every resource in the group prevented the TPK.

PS

 

[Verys Arkon]

In a recent 4e game I found myself next to a skeletal bone guardian. Two crits, a 'ghetto' crit, and one-less than crit later, my just-at-bloodied warlord was flat out dead. No save.

Good times

Silver lining - I get to play a new PC.

 

[Dragonwriter]

In one game (3.5e), we were resolving a major plot point which was destroying this minor artifact that was a demon, forced into the shape of a weapon. When our wizard got the dispel right, we found out that the demon was a Huge advanced Vrock. It teleported out of the forcecage before we could hit it with anything and came back 20 minutes later (after nearly all our buffs were gone) with another Vrock buddy. It hit the druid I was running with a full attack (minimum bonus on the attacks was 25 or 26. It would miss the highest AC person on a 1 only...) and dropped him from about 104 HP to 24.

Then, trying to get back to our world from the Abyss, we ended up on our world's version of Dinosaur Island. Our Elf Ranger nearly got ripped in half by a pair of T-Rexes...

After that, our party wizard got fried by two Juvenile Green Dragon breath weapons (he survived!), but then their big brother popped out, bit him in a surprise round and killed him. Cheap shot...

So, there are my stories from the now-15th level T13K game, For More Than Glory.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Those dire lions got pretty lucky, they need a 14 to hit AC27 with their claws, a 15 to hit with rake and a 20 to hit with bite.

 

[Aloïsius]

charge = +2 attack ?

 

[greatamericanfolkher]

Those dire lions got pretty lucky, they need a 14 to hit AC27 with their claws, a 15 to hit with rake and a 20 to hit with bite.

They could have been advanced from MM standard.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Not my character, but two dire lions did the same thing (worse, even) to a monk in the surprise round of his first combat. Yes, the monk died before having taken 1 action in its existence.

As for tactical blunders, we were nearing the end of a fight, and the BBEG was down to his last remaining hp, when my sword-and-board paladin (who was also hurt) decides to drop his shield and hold his sword two-handedly to deliver the killing blow in true cinematic fashion. I roll "1" on my attack. The BBEG retaliates and rolls enough to hit my AC, but would not have hit me if I still had my shield, and knocks me out.

AR

 

[Humanaut]

I once, early in my 3.5 days, tried to introduce a new PC by having him being chased by a troll, into the PC's midst. Using the CR system, and party level, i thought it would be good to add one level of it's favored class (barbarian) only one level...

I killed another players PC after it raged and became a killing machine... :^(

Maybe not one round, but pretty close!

 

[Nightson]

One of my players though sneaking around a wall to get behind some monsters the PCs had bottlenecked up was a good idea. He learned why it was a mistake when he moved within charging range of the kobolds. Two turns later he was dead.