D&D 5E First 5E PC Deaths

[Olaf the Stout]

Well it looks like my 5E campaign had it's first PC deaths last night. We're playing Princes of the Apocalypse and are (were) 7th level.

In the interests of trying to remain spoiler-free, I won't say how we died, other than saying that my Drow Rogue and another player's Wood Elf Ranger met a rocky end. There is a small chance that we could be rescued, but it seems unlikely.

Funnily enough, both PCs had previously "died" earlier in the campaign against the fire cult (my Drow was taken down by a fire elemental, the Ranger scorched into a pile of ash), so we're both halfway there to completing the set of being killed by all 4 elements. So my Rogue can't die yet. He still needs to drown and suffocate!

So give me your tales of your first 5E PC deaths.

 

[Shiroiken]

In the depths of the Temple of Elemental Evil, our bard fell beneath the crushing wheels of the juggernaut. This enraged her sister, who unleashed a barrage of fire spells, reducing it to rubble. The cleric in the party had just learned Revivify, so she was returned before it was too late. To this day she's slightly thinner and slightly taller...

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Already 2 deaths and one petfification. Also 3 deaths just before we started the adventure.

 

[GameOgre]

We have had many many deaths starting from the first night we played 5E. Too many foes will finish off a downed party member.

When intelligent enemies realize that a downed pc is just a heal away from rejoining the fight they tend to finish them off.

Now a lot of enemies will not do that but enough will that death is always lurking.

 

[Lancelot]

Our first death occurred due to the first attack in the first round of the first combat of our experience with 5e.

My five players had rolled up a mix of characters, and we were kicking off with the module Murder in Baldur's Gate. In the first encounter, they were attempting to stop some pickpockets working a crowd. There were two 1st level enemy rogues; 7 HP each, 12 Dex, armed only with daggers for a mighty 1d4+1 piercing damage, plus potential 1d6 sneak attack. Pretty easy for a party of five fully-geared characters, yeah?

The party spotted the thieves at work, demanded they surrender immediately, and rolled for initiative. The PC rogue was the first to act. He ran up to the nearest pickpocket and grappled him. The two NPC pickpockets were next in initiative order. The ungrappled pickpocket stepped up to the PC rogue and tried to stab him, hopefully giving his buddy the chance to break free and run for it. I rolled a natural 20 with my first enemy combat roll for 5e; 2d4+1 from the dagger, and 2d6 from the sneak due to adjacent ally. Two 3's on the d4's, and a 5 and a 6 on the 2d6. The PC rogue took 18 damage, which took him to negative maximum HP in a single shot. Dead PC; first attack roll of first round of first combat. And my players had just come out of five years of 4e. There were some white faces at the table. And then we had a good laugh about it, and Paul rolled up another character.

...138 permanent character losses later (no joke; we keep records), we're still enjoying it.

As for Princes of the Apocalypse, our first losses in that module came in the Earth Cult Monastery. Orogs, man. They are tough nuts to crack at low level. Formidable AC, good damage. They accounted for an elven cleric and a gnome wizard. In general, the earth cult did most of the damage in that campaign. 9-of-12 permanent losses were thanks to the earth cult, and 4 of those were in a TPK against Ogremoch himself. Fun!

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Our first death occurred due to the first attack in the first round of the first combat of our experience with 5e.

My five players had rolled up a mix of characters, and we were kicking off with the module Murder in Baldur's Gate. In the first encounter, they were attempting to stop some pickpockets working a crowd. There were two 1st level enemy rogues; 7 HP each, 12 Dex, armed only with daggers for a mighty 1d4+1 piercing damage, plus potential 1d6 sneak attack. Pretty easy for a party of five fully-geared characters, yeah?

The party spotted the thieves at work, demanded they surrender immediately, and rolled for initiative. The PC rogue was the first to act. He ran up to the nearest pickpocket and grappled him. The two NPC pickpockets were next in initiative order. The ungrappled pickpocket stepped up to the PC rogue and tried to stab him, hopefully giving his buddy the chance to break free and run for it. I rolled a natural 20 with my first enemy combat roll for 5e; 2d4+1 from the dagger, and 2d6 from the sneak due to adjacent ally. Two 3's on the d4's, and a 5 and a 6 on the 2d6. The PC rogue took 18 damage, which took him to negative maximum HP in a single shot. Dead PC; first attack roll of first round of first combat. And my players had just come out of five years of 4e. There were some white faces at the table. And then we had a good laugh about it, and Paul rolled up another character.

...138 permanent character losses later (no joke; we keep records), we're still enjoying it.

As for Princes of the Apocalypse, our first losses in that module came in the Earth Cult Monastery. Orogs, man. They are tough nuts to crack at low level. Formidable AC, good damage. They accounted for an elven cleric and a gnome wizard. In general, the earth cult did most of the damage in that campaign. 9-of-12 permanent losses were thanks to the earth cult, and 4 of those were in a TPK against Ogremoch himself. Fun!

138 permanent deaths! Wow! How many sessions have you played?

We've had about 30-odd sessions of 5E so far. The only other times a PC has gotten close to death was the fire "deaths" I discussed in my OP (one "death" was saved with Revivify, the other by a ritual which, as per RAW, should not have worked, but the DM allowed).

I couldn't imagine having so many PC deaths in a campaign.

 

[Zardnaar]

138 permanent deaths! Wow! How many sessions have you played?

We've had about 30-odd sessions of 5E so far. The only other times a PC has gotten close to death was the fire "deaths" I discussed in my OP (one "death" was saved with Revivify, the other by a ritual which, as per RAW, should not have worked, but the DM allowed).

I couldn't imagine having so many PC deaths in a campaign.

We had 33 in an AD&D game but we were being very silly.

 

[ccs]

Of the 5 characters I've played so far in 5e, only one, a Warforged Eldritch Knight, has been killed.
Thanks to a massive crit he got his head stomped flat in one heck of a fight against Thrume (? whatever her name is in HotDQ in the caves with the black dragon eggs) & her minions.
As he wasn't actually alive & had the variant noble background, his loyal retainers (a trio of tinkerer like gnomes we called the "pit crew") took his body away & began fashioning him a new head.... Project VII shall return better, faster, stronger - as Project VIII!
Unfortunately the game fizzled out a few weeks later before the gnomes could complete their repairs.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

We had 33 in an AD&D game but we were being very silly.

How many sessions was that in?

Obviously the number of character deaths depends on how hard your DM is pushing and how many risks your PCs are taking. For example, if your DM is running you through Tomb of Horrors I could imagine a lot more deaths than if you were running some sort of AP or level-appropriate adventures.

 

[Dualazi]

First death in 5e for my group was the party rogue, who got swarmed at low levels by some Shadows and succumbed to the strength drain. The fortress the party was clearing was posthumously named in his honor. The second was the party fighter to some Ettercaps, on account of the party trying a pincer maneuver and one side having abysmal rolls, leaving the poor fighter to his spidery fate. Last death so far was to a Bouda from Tome of Beasts, which flattened the party mage and the group was unable to keep it off her while she was downed.

It's worth noting that we play with essentially permadeath, since the only resurrection magic in the current campaign is True Resurresction and Wish.