Crazy PC deaths

[gerroditus]

So we were gaming yesterday and the current DM is running bastion of lost souls module. Im a 20th level monk 1st level psychic warrior. We made it the the positive energy plane and headed toward this huge snowflake, where this half dragon half demon is suppose to dwell. There appeared to be an inactive portal guarded by several tanar'ri demons which were taken care of quick enough and a gargantuan maybe even larger sized Retriever. I am kinda am the tank of the group so I rush the spider like construct and start beating on it.
The DM asks where im attacking it. I say the neck area on its bottom side. Its turn comes and it squashes me. No save! I used a immediate action to blink failed by 3% and took 3338 points of damage. I have 260 hps. BUT....i am actually not dead yet because the cleric was able to buff me with delay death, and tons of other spells.
But this is unheard of for me: Someone taking 1000+ points of damage, even though it is possible. I was just wondering if anyone else would like to share some epic deaths that happened to their characters or near death experiences.
MB

I happen to be running the same scenario right now. I've up gunned it as it is being run for a group of PCs who's average Lvl is 29 and it's made for an average 18th level party, but I know this scenario well and a few points don't make sense...

There is a tendency when a DM is dealing with very high to Epic level characters to completely go off the board with things like the damage inflicted by non-standard attacks. Hey, a Colossal Dragon, like Ashardalon for instance, who is larger by far than that Retriever does 4d8 + (1.5 x strength bonus) damage with a crush attack. A gargantuan dragon would do 4d6 + (1.5 x strength bonus). So, unless that Retreiver has a Strength bonus of about 2221, in which case you should probably consider a quick intervention for your DM to find out what drugs he was doing that night, he's WAY off base with that.


Isshia

 

[rgard]

Pretty close. There is a gang of sociopathic street urchins- The Bubblegum Gang who take down a few people in the movie series. Apparently, the director hired real street urchins for the parts.

Argh, thanks. I swear I must have BSE (lived in the UK from '89 to '95 and ate alot of beef. Not making light of it where it has hit people for real; I can't give blood here in the US as a result of my residency there.

Anyway...I thought I had come up with the goblin children idea, but maybe it was one of my players (who did see the movie) who came up with the idea.

Thanks again,
Rich

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Its not exactly common, but "dangerous children" is a theme that shows up from time to time.

• The Japanese LOVE it in their horror flicks.
• The Children of the Corn series of movies.
• There was a B-grade movie called The Plague which has pseudo-zombie kids killing adults.
• Even Classic Star Trek got into it- remember "Hail, hail fire and snow, friendly angel, we will go, far away, far to see, friendly angel, come to me..."

 

[SocratesOnFire]

I had a player with a charging jump kick, a 3.5 monk, that was eating by a Tendriculious in the same way...

 

[meltinbradley]

Star bucks II and gerroditus-
You are absoutely right. It was totally gimped and BS. There are rules for crushing damage. The surprising thing was that this DM is SO by the book and everything has to be perfect that I couldnt believe that he allowed that. It was funny though. We have just decided that this particularly DM is a bully and gets off on killing pcs. To me D&D is about the players and though they should be challenged not be killed outright especially when there is no save.
I had no chance of survival. The only reason why I was able to blink was because I changed from a basic monk to a specialized monk who gets invis and blink for the sacrifice of evasion.
Another player called me up to tell me about the rules of crushing damage and that only certain creatures can do it.
So we decided to say who cares. When we reach Ashardalon, the cleric will cast rightious might, then shape change into a earth elemental (assuming there is room) and fall on Ashardalon and do something like 350d6 points of damage and call it a day.
Unfortunately I am going away to south america for 2 months and no one wants to finish the game when I get back, so when I return I will be taking over as DM and finishing my earlier campaign.
It would have been nice to see that happen, or be involved in the arguement if the DM ruled against it.
Hey if a 50 pound weight falls on my head from 10ft im pretty sure i would dead, I dont see why a 50,000 pound rock falling on a dragons head wouldnt kill it even if it is part demon.

 

[WhiteRaven810]

Just last session, the party comes to a sixty foot room with a forty foot long pit that even our keen eyed Elf scout couldn't see to the bottom of with low-light. A rickety rope bridge spaned the gorge and two bronze braziers alongside the walls fed the room with light.

When two orcs made there intention clear that they were going to hack the rope bridge, our comedic idiot, a Goliath Barbarian, successfully performed a standing long jump into the first brazier. The DM, smirking, rolled a percentile. The bones rolled up ought ten. The DM kindly informed the Barbarian that the structure was not meant to hold weight and immediately collapsed. He failed his reflex save to catch the iron pipe that fed the structure with fuel. Our DM didn't say anything as it went to the next card in the initiative. The fate of our falling Barbarian wasn't mentioned as we cycled through the order. When his turn came up, the DM merely mentioned that the Goliath was still falling.

Another cycle of initiative and the DM counts out a quick handful of d6's and lets them roll on the table in front of everybody. Viathok Steel Grasp was dead three times over.

Good times.