D&D 5E 5th Edition Character Obituaries

[Rod Staffwand]

Im seeing a definitive pattern here....

either rogues are really weak... or people are playing them poorly.

I can't speak to the class as a whole. Ours died mainly do to bad luck. A wizard in the same situation would have bought it as well, maybe a cleric too. Low-level PCs really can't tank anything and have nothing for crowd control. If the dice go against them it gets ugly fast.

Rogues aren't great on defense, what with generally low ACs, Cons and no Con save proficiency. They're punished if they can't or don't use their stealth and mobility to mitigate attacks against them.

 

[PnPgamer]

Like on the contrary to the previous editions, a ranged rogue is best in 5th edition. You can sneak attack enemies from the maximum range of a longbow (pick elf for proficiency). Keep your distance and you're better than fine. Doesn't work as well with tight corridors, but you can then always stick behind the meatsh... fighter types. If someone gets to your melee range, you can use your bonus action to disengage and move far enough for them.

 

[aramis erak]

Im seeing a definitive pattern here....

either rogues are really weak... or people are playing them poorly.

When two assassins face off, and both have strong poison, whichever hits first kills the other. (It didn't help that the assassin sent after the drow mentioned above not only got the initiative, but got pretty close to maximum damage.)

IME, rogues are not weak at all, but all low-mid level PC's can be taken down in a round or two if the GM is rolling hot.

 

[Gilladian]

Marion the cleric of Light, L3, vs a wraith. She turned it once, but the 6 PCs were unable to retreat far or fast enough (hauling a heavy treasure chest) to get away before the turning wore off, and it came after them. The thing came up out of the floor directly in front of her, hit for nearly max damage, and because she was already wounded, she went down. She failed her death save for taking her HP in negative damage, and died on the spot. Everyone was shocked and horrified (in character, at least). In reality, the player thought it was hilarious.

The PCs spent the next two sessions of game play taking Marion's body home to her family, attending her funeral, and mourning her loss (among other things, of course). Then they hired an NPC cleric to avoid being without a healer and figure he's pretty much expendable. In fact, he avoided being killed by another undead in the very first combat he was engaged in, by a hair's breadth.

 

[MortalPlague]

Tell us about these deaths... I wanna know where to expect trouble with my group.

(Disclaimer: Our TPK came against Aurathator in the playtest version of Rise of Tiamat. He used to be an ancient white, up against a 9th-level party. Now he's an adult white. So the results will likely vary. Many of the other deaths here occurred in a homebrewed dungeon I added.)

Here, in this icy cave, six adventurers went forth to confront a dragon.

San, the urbane male human barbarian from Calimport, who crept on rooftops and read the lips of his wife's enemies.
Xeera, the female elf ranger with a deadly eye for accuracy, who rode a pterodactyl to take down a younger white dragon in a previous adventure.
Floyd, the male human druid, who was the pterodactyl Xeera rode.
Flora, the female half-elf bard, a beauty and a singer.
Aveline, the female elf wizard, who nearly escaped up the rope out of the cave, but for the dragon's spells.
A male human cleric whose name I can't remember, who lacked healing spells but was fond of stoneshape.


The same male human cleric whose name I can't remember, after being the only member of the party resurrected, was later slain by a mummy lord's rotting touch. This time, he stayed down.


Much later, delving into the lich's dungeon (homebrewed)...

Borzin, a male dwarf barbarian, was dominated by the lich, then told to go through a planar gate. Which led to the Abyss.
Melvina, known as The Red Lady, a female human cleric came face to face with the lich, alone. She attacked him and missed. Then she was disintegrated.