Character Deaths

[MarauderX]

Ok, here is one of the two PC deaths I have had as a player...

I was playing a wizard (3rd lvl) when the party storms an outpost with a massive amount of baddies that have ghouls/zombies on their side. Essentially the party falls one by one, my PC being last when he misses a save vs sleep. However, he wakes up, kinda makes a deal with the leader of the baddies so the party can be healed, and then the party jumps the baddies to take them out. That same session, the party is crossing a room of level-draining dancing ghosts when he misses 1, then 2, then 3, 4,...5 saves... you gotta recognize when the dice are telling you to play another character. He went from party saviour to the only death at that point in the campaign.

 

[RuminDange]

Back in an 1e/2e campaign I had players who would start bar fights in town by casting fireballs in the like. In one such case one of the players, an Elven Mage/Assassin, wanted to get even with the assassin's guild that killed him when he failed there initiation test to get in. The party had gotten him raised and he got with his buddy, an Elven Ranger/Mage, to go get the guild back.
Anyway, they step into the small bolthole tavern where some of the guild members the mage/Assassin knows and standing in the doorway, the Ranger/Mage asks the other player if that was them. When the answer is yes, he pulls out a powerful wand of fireballs and blasts the room. Back in these days, fireballs expand to fill the area of effect. Well the room wasn't big enough and so both of the players are engulfed in the fireball as well.
Once the effect is over with many guild members dead or fleeing out anyway they can, the Ranger/Mage dusting himself off and putting away the wand to his friend:
"Sal you ok? Sal?" turned and looked down to find his friend a crispy critter next to him. This was the character's second death which lead to funny ones.

Same group of players right after that get the Mage/Assassin reincarnated, but doing so, he comes back as an Orge Magi. The player thinks he could get to like this form, but the Ranger/Mage tells him to think about and pray to be sure. While the Mage/Assassin (Orge Magi) is thinking about it, the Ranger/Mage says "I can't" and decapitates the orge Magi, this of course prompts another reincarnation that gets the Mage/Assassin back into an elven form. But not the last death that character would ever face.

RD

 

[Taren Seeker]

Thats what happens when the rogue wants to get sneak attack.

That's also why I always say that in my experience, the feat responsible for the most Rogue fatalities is Improved Init.

Acting first is often NOT the best thing.

 

[Malakye]

2nd edition game.

The party had acquired a book or something that belonged to a good npc. When the npc asked for the item, the rogue was totally against it and said we should keep it. The druid really wanted to give the item up, the rest of the party didn't really care. So, the druid and rogue start arguing and eventually the druid attacks the rogue with a spell, can't remember which one but it was lightning or something. Anyway, the rogue decides to give up and they return the book to the npc.

Many game sessions later, we are searching for another pc on an island. He had been turned into a werwolf and gone mad, we were going to try and cure him. During the night, the rogue is keeping last watch and he sneaks over to the sleeping druid and kills him with his poison dagger right before morning. He then proceeds to move the body into the woods and use oil of etherealness to hide the body. The rest of the party wakes up and looks for the druid but can't find him so we figure he was killed by the werewolf. The rogue claimed he was off investigating a noise and came back to find the body missing. What was really hilarious was most of the other players knew what happened but since the rogue had never done anything in the past to indicate he would do such a thing, our characters trusted him. The player of the druid had no clue what happened, he was just told that something killed him in his sleep. Years later, somebody told him what really happened. The look on his face was priceless.

 

[Piratecat]

I once had a player jump into a sphere of annihilation, thinking it was a gate. Worse, the rest of the party tries to follow him. . .