16th level party TPKd by a goblin?!!

[Angcuru]

we're not stoned...we're from Jersey.

 

[Felix]

You fellas been breathing that Jersey air again, eh?

 

[ced1106]

Not a big fan of "teaching the **players** a lesson" camp, not that I haven't done that myself. Might want to pick up Johnn Four's NPC Essentials -- that goblin would have made a very good archenemy. The Hero's Snare PDF is a **very** good, but not TPK, method of telling players not to underestimate their opponent's. It's about a kobold lair and it's for 7th-8th level characters...!


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[The Kender]

Yep, killed them all. Killed 4 first level PC's with a swarm of spiders... Don't ask. They did 1 damage each time they hit times about 200... ^_^

The players were kinda new to the game, so I brought them back.. They were trying to hit the spiders with Slashing and Piercing weapons... *sighs* I need a better group.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Do you think I should have allowed this travesty? Why or why not? And most importantly: What, if anything, could have been done to prevent the disaster without catering to the players' sense of immortality?

I don't think you should have gone through with a TPK. What was to stop the goblin deciding ultimately to capture rather than kill some of them? Powerful people as powerful bargaining chips - or the ever popular "humiliation" of the good guys by the bad guy?

IMO accidental TPKs where suddenly everyone fails a saving throw in the same round are sad but excusable. TPKs where the DM decides that this bad guy is going to finish off every last PC...

 

[RabidBob]

"Nothing is as bad as it seems."
"Master of the Wind", Triumph of Steel
Manowar

"It's always darkest just before it turns pitch black."

 

[bret]

I'm glad someone else mentioned it. First thing I thought of when reading this was "Didn't this party make any friends?"

If Ragu had just left the dead corpses in the dragon's lair, someone could come across them. Assuming that the party had some allies, there really isn't anything that mind bending about those allies going to find out what happened to their friends. That is why the good guys win, they help each other.

I don't think it takes a miracle, wish, or anything of the sort to bring these guys back. All it takes is someone who is willing to investigate what happened, someone who has a reason to worry when the party disappears like that.

How tough it is to scry on the missing priest, see a decaying corpse, and figure out what happened?

 

[jasper]

Let the bodies lie! And rot! Here was SBEG (Small Bad Evil Goblin) who has be scouting around the party. So what happens. The players panic and have super bad rolls. Check out the Tickleberry Story hour what just presenting a dramatic moment can do to a party.
The party basically threw hail mary attacks and ran away. Now the CR should have been 14 by the books but they killed the monster in 1 round. 88 plus hit pts in 1 round from an average 7the level party.

Keep the characters dead unless the players want to role up new characters to recover the bodies.

remember why TPK should not be set up. Don't do a tap back when the dice goes against the group. Is it better to die honestly, than know that next weekend Flash Gordan escape from the time bomb with 3 seconds to spare when last week we saw him still watching the bomb as the clock clicked down to one.

Now imc the monster they were suppose to take out last friday, is mad, and knows they coming. And he is not happy.

Or would yall rather have quick kills on gods with no bad effects.

 

[Christian]

Sure you can. If you can Take 10 on Hide and Move silently checks, you can Take 10 on Listen and Spot.

Generally, Listen and Spot are passive rolls, so you cannot take 10 on them. (The DM is making them for you-if you knew there was something there to hear/see, you wouldn't have to roll ...)

It's not necessarily the case that a character can take 10 on Hide and Move Silently checks. In the case of Move Silently particularly, you'll be doing it *while* someone's getting an opportunity for a Listen check to hear you; this situation would not qualify for a take 10. (One could conceivably Hide before anyone was around to observe, and take 10 at that point, but usually you'll be Hiding from someone who's nearby and will get a Spot check.)

 

[Orryn Emrys]

Besides... It seems to me that if your players have 'devolved' so horribly as to lose any grasp on the tactics needed to handle such an enemy, they are unable to fare so well against the challenges appropriate for the next leg of the campaign.... I feel fortunate that, although I have seen more than one occasion of terrible luck on the part of the party, I have yet to deal with players who fail to review their options the moment a fellow combatant loses his/her life.

And, I admit, although I've thrown some pretty demanding challenges at the party, I do not believe in TPK's. My general approach to keeping control of such events is to provide that the villain generally has a skewed agenda... thus providing ample opportunity for characters' natural habits to provide alternatives to dying. It is a good idea to know the characters... and their players... and be able to generally predict their behavior.