"1 Hp remaining.... again"

[Stormonu]

In our pathfinder game tonight, the cleric used Channel Energy to knock a group of 6 skeletons all to 1 hp (they had 4 starting). The monk then went around and killed each one, dealing 4 hp of damage (exactly) with each attack that hit - except the last, which was killed by a druid's shillegh for 10 hp damage.

The cleric's channel attack is known as "the minionizer".

 

[The Shaman]

There's an idea. "Minionized."

And once you've killed it, you can have filet minion.



I'll get my coat.

 

[Dilldappe]

We call it an Eddie. It was named after a player who displayed a certain knack of leaving a monster at 1 hp. Over time it became a catchphrase in my group. As a DM i simply state "the monster has an Eddie" and all players know what I mean.
It has spread even to other groups by former players of my group.
2 hp are sometimes called a "double Eddie".

 

[Jhaelen]

I think there are 2 factors at work here.

First, a monster being left at 1 hp is quite memorable, so selective memory probably skews things a bit.

Second, it wouldn't surprise me if there's a statistical basis for this being common, and it only becomes more common if you increase the 'threshold' (e.g. if you count not just being left at 1 hp, but at 2 or even 3).

Spot on!

 

[JohnSnow]

I have been known to fudge this (for NPCs/monsters only) in certain circumstances. For example, if a PC crits with a daily and drops the monster from 30something hit points (or more) to 1...I just fudge it and call it dead.

It's much more dramatic, and I'd rather have the daily do it than have the bard have to insult it to death.

Speaking of, does anyone other than me have trouble visualizing "death by illusion spell?" It's a 4e thing, but my gnome illusionist keeps killing minions with illusions. I'm never quite sure how to describe it. "Scared to death" sounds so lame...

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Not only did this happen quite often in our 1E days, this was also the point where the dice would get nasty and pull out a crit. And not the "do full damage" or "multiply your damage" crits of newer systems. We used Arms Law/Claw Law back then with beheadings, disembowlments, etc. There was a running joke in our games that creatures with 1 hp were to be feared as they usually scored some of the nastiest crits in the game. Maybe the dice were trying to model the creature's last ditch of desperation.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Speaking of, does anyone other than me have trouble visualizing "death by illusion spell?"I'm never quite sure how to describe it.

"It's magic."

Done.

How do illusions work in 4E? In 3E at least the only ones that can kill are partially real due to being made out of shadow. Can that be used in 4E?

 

[Skallgrim]

Nobody knows (until after it dies) how many HP a monster has for me. If someone used a really cool power and the monster is down to at-wills, then it dies at 1hp. If it still has something cool left to do, then it lives at 1 hp.

On the other hand, our Rogue (Shadow Assassin) has the most incredible propensity for kill-stealing. That may be because she is very mobile, and has good ranged and melee attacks, or because monsters take damage when they miss her, or because she does more damage to bloodied targets.

In any case, in most fights, the little female halfling kills most of the monsters.

The last fight (DQE), she killed both the Death Hag, and the Goristro, without taking any damage during the entire fight (then she got freezerburn exploring the Hag's larder)!

That is kind of balanced by her ability to consistently crit on minions, and no one else. One fight, she killed 8 of 10 minions, and (IIRC) killed about 5 of those with crits.

 

[coyote6]

How do illusions work in 4E? In 3E at least the only ones that can kill are partially real due to being made out of shadow. Can that be used in 4E?

Phantasmal killer and its big brother weird are both 3E illusions that kill people and aren't [shadow] spells (and thus not real at all). If I played 4e, I would assume any illusion spells that killed a target worked the same way -- scared 'em to death, essentially.

That, or go for "extreme psychosomatic reactions to illusionary/hallucinatory damage". Which is probably just a more technobabbly way of saying "scared 'em to death".

 

[DrunkonDuty]

We use the phrase "100% effective," joking about the way in which a character can be nearly dead but still fighting just fine. 2hp is sometimes "200% effective."