Sweet death

[Haltherrion]

It's only somewhat related to the original (thread ) but it got me thinking that my most memorable moments are generally PC deaths, not PC successes in killing some bad guy. I can still remember years later the death of a loved PC yet can't recall how we dispatched the boss for that campaign.

How about the rest of you? Looking back over the years (or decades for us old farts) what do you recall the most? Deaths or victories?

I remember a beloved thief getting one-shotted in a tunnel. Ref thought we should have been more aware of folks coming up behind us. Oopsie.

Or an infamous campaign start where the ref killed one of the PCs with "the Dwezilator" a pit fiend's huge mace jokingly intended for another PC named Dwezil.

Or my mage's death when I tried to use a magic collar to control a demon poly'd as a human. Trouble was the demon detected us, turned into his normal 12' height and I popped the collar on to the nearest anatomical point, his knee. It was meant to go on the neck. The knee didn't work so well. I spent the battle flying around chained to his knee until he killed most of us with fireballs and such. That was the closest thing we've come to a party wipe in decades (4 of 6 dead and I can proudly claim my scew up as the cause.)

Or once when I was ref'ing and I asked a friend's son (7 yrs old) to "pick something out of the cabinet of figures." He picked out a demon with a vorpal axe that promptly chopped the head off a PC. Of course, it didn't help that I was drunk at the time (bad ref ). At least the player was forgiving. And yes, I learned a valuable lesson and never did that again. But we were breaking in these new goblets... and the wine was good...

We don't usually play with ressurrect so all of these were permanent deaths. We still talk about most of these deaths and more.

When it's D&D, I'd say, death is good

I guess per the original thread, yeah it would suck to have my 18th level character die from failing some swim checks and drowning but I sure would remember that death and bring it up with a chuckle for decades.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I have reffed so much more than I've played I can't remember many of my PCs. Looking back many of them didn't die , the campiagns just fizzled out. 2 that I do remember:

Paladin, 1st level. Him and his buddy, another lvl 1 Pally, needed to cross a fiery mote by balancing across a log. The log was set so as to spin along it's long axis so you had to balance really well to get across. Both of us just decide to walk across the log. In our heavy armour. Didn't even use any of the chains that are attached to the log to strap our selves on. GM was VERY nice. Gave us many rolls to avoid our own stupidity. Wisdom to realise we were being in idiots to start with, balance checks, checks to grab things, checks to haul ourselves up without spinning the log, a check to grab the other PC as I fell past. All to no avail. 2x roast pallies. Sure skill checks can help but in the end stupidity conquers all.

2nd one: also a 1st level paladin. In a brawl with some Hobgoblins my paladin got knocked out. Stable but unconscious. Hobs are losing to the other 2 PCs (Also paladins, we were trying a Knights Errant game.) Hobgob boss grabs my PC puts a knife to his throat and yells out that he'll kill my pally unless unless the others swear to let him and his remaining men go. Other player doesn't trust him and charages. My guy gets his neck sliced open. And the hobgob boss still got away. Not so much his men.

This makes me want to play a paladin again.

 

[Rune]

How about the rest of you? Looking back over the years (or decades for us old farts) what do you recall the most? Deaths or victories?

Both. Some of the sweetest (and definitely most memorable) victories involved character death. And it really solidified the players' hatred for the villain involved.

Also, you might really like this story.

 

[Doctor DM]

We were in a sunken city looking for some magic item or something, swimming around underwater with breathing spells. We ran into a couple of super beasty dire demon sharks. Combat went really badly and they were just tearing us up. Our cleric was dropped, and the party retreated back to this sunken tower the sharks couldn't fit in. EXCEPT for the Barbarian, who stayed back raging and holding off the sharks. Well his rage wore off, he had next to no HP and tried making a break to safety were the rest of the party was, while some wizrd summoned monsters drew the attention of the super sharks. The sharks quickly tore up the wizards summoned monsters and started after the Barbbarian with a vengeance. The DM did a really good job of setting the scene, as he desperately swam for his life towards us with the shark closing fast, ALMOST making it before a giant shark slammed into him and dragged him down in it's jaws. He was SO CLOSE. Straight out of Jaws. You had to be there to fully appreciate it. In a world filled with demons, dragons and countless unspeakable horrors, sharks are still scary as hell.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My oft-told tale of death #1:

One of my most memorable PCs of all time was a 1ED Fighter named Bear. I made a deal with my DM- give me maxed out physical stats and all of his mental stats would be 6-7s. Bear was a gentle giant, he fought because he was trained to do so by those around him (what else was he going to do?). Despite his nature, though, he had hooked up with a manipulative thief who treated him well...in order to have the most loyal and dangerous bodyguard he could find. That thief was- to Bear- brother, father and God all rolled up into a diminutive package that was his only true friend.

The thief eventually took something he really shouldn't have, and the City Watch boiled out of their barracks like fire ants from a kicked-over mound. As the party fled, the thief told Bear to protect him...

As they crossed a river on a narrow bridge, Bear turned and faced the entire Watch himself, taking down one after another until he died. By then, the party was safely away.

My oft-told tale of death #2:

Original Dark Sun campaign: My Dwarf charges, ignoring the summoned cloud interposed between them by the evil caster, relying on his Dwarven nature to keep him safe.

He charged in...and failed his dwarven magic resistance check (only 1% chance) and he failed his save vs the poison (only 1% chance), meaning he fell retching to the ground.

Judging the Dwarf to STILL be the more dangerous threat, the caster followed up with an attempt to polymorph him into a toad. Again, he failed his dwarven magic resistance check (only 1% chance), then he failed his save vs system shock (only 1% chance) and died.

As the fight continued, the dwarf's remains were within the AoE of a fireball that went off. For giggles, I rolled to see how he would have done. Yep- more failed saves.

 

[Stormonu]

I definitely prefer to recall my player's victories with much satisfaction (I rarely am a player, usually a DM).

However, of the noteworthy deaths:

1) The party lowering the halfling rogue into a well to check out the bottom. Unfortunately, the halfling was supposed to shout if there was a problem, and the bottom of the well was filled with 20' of water (and some skeletons to hold him down) and he couldn't swim. Poor guy drowned and no one thought to pull him up (even though he was furiously yanking on the rope, they just kept giving him more slack) until it was too late.

2) In a fight with a drow assassin, the drow dropped the cleric into negative hit points with a hand crossbow bolt. The party paladin managed to stabilize the cleric so he wouldn't die, but didn't have any healing magic on hand and left the cleric to jump into the fray. At the end of the fight, the group returned to try and patch up the cleric, only to discover the poison on the drow's bolt had done him in.

3) (Different group) Fighting the slavelords of Suderham in module A3, the party's paladin got embraced and smothered by a shambling mound before the fight even started. The cleric was preparing to use Raise Dead on the paladin when the rest of the slavelords burst in and an epic fight broke out. Both sides were dropping one after the other and the 16-man fight eventually came down to the point where the only surviving members not in negative hit points were the two familiars (the party's pseudodragon and the enemy's quasit), both of which were invisible and hunting each other...the psuedodragon detected the quasit first, but missed with it's attack. The counterattack from the quasit paralyzed the psuedodragon - effectively TPKing the entire party (though they got resurrected for A4).

 

[Thasmodious]

My favorite PC death was also a victory. We had found the hidden temple of the evil cult that we had been opposing for some time. They had the last artifact needed to open a gate and summon a long dead uber-God to enslave the mortal races. The DM put us on a timer to get to the head priesties before they finished the ritual. We got into the room in time, but their minions held us off for round after round. We were too late, the gate opened, the god approached, doom was at hand. My wizard, low on spells and nearly dead, cast Dimension Door, appeared in the middle of the obelisks that formed the portal and snapped his Staff of the Magi, blowing himself, the portal, and the nearest high priests to bits.

 

[Jhaelen]

Looking back over the years (or decades for us old farts) what do you recall the most? Deaths or victories?

Definitely deaths. Apart from those dying extremely early in their career, I remember them fondly.

This is probably because I've never played a character who stopped adventuring for any other reason short of death. I had planned for one of my Runequest characters to stop adventuring and become a farmer and village priest, but my DM had other ideas and razed the village to get me going again.

The only other ending for my characters so far, has been gathering dust after a campaign fizzled.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I have actually retired a few PCs, including one this year.

 

[kitsune9]

PC deaths of course for me. I have more invested time (both real and game) in the PC, so naturally I would remember their death far greater than some BBEG that we demolished in some end game module.