First Character Deaths

[D-rock]

My first character death was a my human fighter Griff killed by a pair of monsterous spiders.

I was six then and I later learned that my older brother who was DMing used spiders as his tool of choice when he wanted to end a game quickly or kill somebody. Its funny how decades later now that I'm the DM he has an unusual fear of them now that there in our games.

 

[GandhitheBFG]

Danzerran, Elven fighter (or ranger, not entirely sure).

After traipsing through a sewer, defeating a black dragon while hunting for a specific thief, he reached a wooden door, leading to the hidden thieves guild above. There were only two of us in the party (people in Yateley don't RP! idiots...anyway). He put his ear to the door, and heard nothing, so, feeling rather annoyed by this point (covered in sewer muck, having to put up with the other party member's ineptitude <in character>, he kicked the door in, and ran through.

The reason he couldn't really hear anything, was because on the other side of the door was the mess hall. 15 members of the guild all leapt to their feet, surrounded him, and he was sneak attacked. repeatedly. to DEATH. i never did THAT again...

 

[Orm]

Human rogue/fighter around level 7 or 8 in 3.0

The party is cleaning the Temple of Elemental Evil. Behind one door we hear a strange noise, kind of wailing. Someone suggests a silence but doesn´t cast the spell. we open the door and see this dead elf´s tormented body on a bed. After some seconds the ghost of an elf appears and starts to scream. Killing three of us immediately.
Luckily, our druid was able to reincarnate the dead characters.

 

[STARP_President]

I've had precisely two characters die in the ten years I've been playing. Sometimes I abandon a character and the DM rules them dead, but I've only had two characters die that I didn't intend.

The first was an elven fighter/thief (yes, fighter/thief - that's how long ago it was) who I actually really liked and was sorry to see go. She died because an enemy of a friendly NPC put a geas spell on her and made her bring the NPC to him. She refused to co-operate and betray a friend, and it cost her her life.

The second was much simpler and easier to deal with. Paladin + sleeping + many kobolds + failed listen check = ambush without armour. Result: one dead paladin, plus one other dead PC. Didn't really miss that one, to be honest.

 

[Ds Da Man]

Ry Golin, Paladin of Torm, 9th level, full plate of fire giant strength, +3 holy avenger (mace), ring of elemental air command, called to Temple by symbol of Torm in sky. Arrived, found dead tarrasque w/ skeletons surrounding it, stabbing. Flying in attacked by black dragons (3), hurt, retreated to inside temple to get healed, outcomes many drow. Game session ended with only Ry left standing, all party dead, Ry surrounded by drow and two black dragons. Hmmmm.....couple of twenties......maybe could've made it......not!

Played him for years, miss'em!

 

[Greenstone]

First character death was in second session ever played, sometime in 1983... Demmonwrath the dwarven thief (not sure how I got that right, as shouldn't have been allowed in Basic D&D) slain by Troglodytes while protecting the party M-U in Quasqueton (B1, In Search of the Unknown)... he only had 3hp... I felt brave because I had 5hp! Go figure.

Second character, human thief Arnax the Backstabber, died a few weeks later... slain by fellow party members after stealing their treasure in the Caves of Chaos (B2, Keep on the Borderlands). He ran into the Minotaur's cave and made a deal, but the party killed both of us. The group split after that, as we all fell out over my theft... I guess at 15 we didn't know how to separate character actions from player actions. Boy, were we dumb.

Anyway, at least it forced me to start my DMing career...

Nowadays, I tend to have an NPC in each campaign setting who is essentially 'my' character, and serves as the DM's voice/plot instigator...

 

[Eli-kun]

Deiowd, Half orc sorceror
She only lasted slightly more than one session. The entire party was captured by enemies(not sure exactly what they were but they were human). My character was the first to break free from binds(I don't remember if they were ropes or spells) so she was killed in one hit.She broke free by brute strength. Unfortunately she had a low constitution(the stats weren't really explained to me).

 

[Kid Socrates]

Found this a bit late, still chiming in. I've been gaming since 1997 and I've never had a character die. I've had games die, but never my character. Our most recent near-death that killed the other person in the party and ended with me turning my sheet in was fairly incredible.

Fourth-level characters in an Eberron campaign, as we were playing survivors. I was playing Corden, my friend was playing Vel. We weren't cowards, we were just smart. The lightning rail we're on gets attacked by Valenar elves, their leader engages Vel in combat. Vel disarms him, they wrestle for a while, until Vel finally bests him. And then the rest of the elves show up and surround the car I and the NPCs were in.

Cor: "Vel! What's going on out there?"
Vel: "Um... well, I think our options are limited!"
Cor: "What do you mean?"
Vel: "Surrender or die, that's pretty much how it's going to be!"

So we surrender.

Later, the elves get jumped by half-orcs, and a great battle rages. We're expected, I believe, to join in the battle on one side or the other. We weren't expected to engage in a bit of Grand Theft Equestrian and put a ton of distance between us and them.

Later, we appropriate a stagecoach to continue transporting a coffin, and we're being pursued. Vel's driving, such as it is -- his Handle Animal is a bit low, but higher than Cor's. Cor is holding onto a rope and is braced on top of the stagecoach with a crossbow, firing at his pursuers. We are going far too fast, and Cor wisely gets off the roof (spending action points on just Balance checks to survive) and gets onto the seat with Vel.

Vel, sadly, proceeds to blow three Handle Animal checks in a row, and we roll and crash right into some poor gnome's shop.

Cor's a rogue -- Evasion. Reflex save to take half damage as we are thrown free. Vel misses his, I make mine for Cor. Something like 55 damage. Vel hits the wall of the shop and the stagecoach follows immediately, killing him instantly. His animal companion, Van, a Talenta raptor, makes its save and has two HP left, crashing through the window into the shop.

Cor, with his evasion, leaps off the roof of the stagecoach, through an open window, hits curtains, rolls through them, and skids on the floor to a stop below a bed on his back, crossbow still in hand and loaded.

We ended the campaign there because we didn't want to break up the team of Cor and Vel, but man, that's easily our best escape. I had no business surviving that.

I'm just in one game right now, and I'm playing a dwarven paladin with 64 HP at 5th level, so as not to die on one failed damage save. So I don't know if he'll be my first character to die. I'm hoping not -- I'd like to keep this streak going.

 

[A'koss]

My first character death I can only vaguely recall (cut me some slack - we're going back 25 years here!) but it was in a lunch game where I joined in a high level 1st ed adventure. It was just a pre-gen character, I can't even be certain what class... but I do remember the Marilith taking exception to my foaming at the mouth battle cry, "Die, Type Five Demon, Dieee!"

I think that character lasted a whopping half an hour all told...

 

[Selenim]

My first dnd experience was with a killer dm who gave me about 2 minutes of gametime before dying in a pitfall trap. Another lame kill was suggesting a player to look into a keyhole and then telling him that the medusa inside just happened to be looking at the door.....

It was a long time ago (early 80s) and it was a pregenerated character so I can't remember who he was (not that it mattered anyway ). We were playing low-lvl characters obviously.