To be fair that was a joke item from an April issue of Dragon.Or the Robe of Blending 3 Speed.
Doctor Who did it first!Mimics ...
DM: You enter a plain room with a comfy-looking chair.
PC: I sit down on the chair and ...
DM: -picks up d20- The chair grows teeth and bites you !
Over the years I've lost at least 4 characters to those things...Don't forget about cursed items! If you put on a necklace of strangulation, thinking that it was something beneficial, then it's time to roll up a new character!
Not at all, mon ami. You still get to play it, only quite a bit differeently than before.Oh, another fan favorite: The Helm of Opposite Alignment. Here, take my PC and make him an instant NPC! Thanks!
My players succeeded in the tomb of horrors because they were high enough level and smart enough to survive it.Indeed, higher levels do little to mitigate the threats of the Tomb.
A low-level party could get far if they were smart, until Acererak. There are only a handful of spells that even affect him in his Demilich form. Only two types of magic weapons can hurt him, if I recall correctly, and thieves can lob gemstones of a certain value to do 1 point of damage per hit. Even a higher level party is likely to meet their doom before they could figure out it out.