D&D General Consequences of serious failure... other than death

[Oofta]

You are polymorphed into a gnome paladin.

Consequence? More like EPIC reward!

Exactly! Who wouldn't want to play Sir McStabsalot?

 

[Oofta]

Failure is always an option. I think one of the biggest was stopping the theft of a major artifact that helped protect the PC's city. Unable to stop the predictions of doom and destruction, the city fell and they had to flee. Did I mention that the city was situated in a mountain pass to protect the civilized lands from a region rumored to be where Loki was imprisoned and that evil had poisoned the land? That because of this a power lich was able to gather an army and came close to ruling the entire hemisphere, and when that failed she triggered an apocalypse?

That failure drove the next couple of campaigns.