here's a good one...

[Darren]

Math!

He proceeded to whirl me around his head for two rounds (I failed the Escape Artist check both times) until he got me up to somewhere around 80 rpm, then slammed me into a 15-foot thick marble pillar.

*blinks*

After several mintues of discussion, the DM ruled that I was dead, no save. He didn't even bother to roll damage - I had 175 hit points (raging). What do you guys think?

I think being whirled around at 80 revolutions per minute by your neck at the end of a spiked chain is grounds for insta-death... but since you asked, and because I'm a nerd...

At 80 rpm, at the end of a 10ft chain, you are moving about 60 miles an hour. That's as fast as you're going after falling about 110 feet. Figure 1d6 for every 10 feet fallen, or 11d6 falling damage, gives about 40 points of damage average, if you want to try to translate real-world physics into D&D mechanics, something about as dubious as whirling a barbarian around your head at 80rpm in the first place...

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

There are no rules for "yank off your feet with a chain" or "whirl around for 2 rounds". You are playing in a very loosey-goosey, fly-by-the-pants kind of DM'ing campaign. To be fair, a certain percentage of people actually like that sort of thing and call it "cinematic".

It is cinematic to allow the NPC to do those moves. It is not cinematic to have it result in instantaneous death for the PC without rolling out the damage. Quite the opposite.

The DM's real problem is he is painfully unimaginative. Why instantly kill a PC when you do "20d6 damage + d4+1 rounds Stun"?

 

[Lord Pendragon]

It is cinematic to allow the NPC to do those moves. It is not cinematic to have it result in instantaneous death for the PC without rolling out the damage. Quite the opposite.

Well, if Hyp and Sejs are serious, then it's an actual ability. You don't get a save versus a cleric's Death Touch, either...

 

[FireLance]

No, it's a feat in The Complete Death Knight. Prerequisites are "You're a Death Knight", EWP: Spiked Chain, Improved Trip, and Str 30+.

With the Escape Artist check and the no-save death, it sounds like the DM was following the mechanics to the letter.

-Hyp.

Hyp, I disbelieve.

Is it still there?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Hyp, I disbelieve.

Is it still there?

What's your Will save like?

-Hyp

 

[Hypersmurf]

Well, if Hyp and Sejs are serious, then it's an actual ability.

Improved Power Trip is a DM-only feat.

-Hyp.

 

[Crothian]

Improved Power Trip is a DM-only feat.

-Hyp.

True, but the Complete Deathknight does have the option of using it, with DM's permission of course, when a PC aquires one of the Deathknight prestige classes and gets to what was, 6th level? Good book by the way, not enough people seem to be aware of it.

 

[tarchon]

The Death Knight is broken.

In fact, my party broke a Death Knight just the other day.

Death Knights are broke too. My Death Knight roommate is always short on the rent. "Oh, I left the money in my other set of demon armor!" Sure...

 

[reiella]

I've got a question for you folks out there... This happened a couple sessions ago to one of my characters.

I was playing a 13th-level barbarian wearing heavy fortification leather armor (+3, if you really want to know). We were going up against a death knight, a high-level bard, and a flesh golem servant. In the final battle, the death knight wrapped his spiked chain around my PC's neck (successful hit) and yanked me off my feet. I failed the Strength check, and I was airborne. He proceeded to whirl me around his head for two rounds (I failed the Escape Artist check both times) until he got me up to somewhere around 80 rpm, then slammed me into a 15-foot thick marble pillar. After several mintues of discussion, the DM ruled that I was dead, no save. He didn't even bother to roll damage - I had 175 hit points (raging). What do you guys think?

Eh, this is mostly a DM Caveat type thing, not so much something the rules would likely support or deny either way.

That the Death Knight was able to get you to 80 rpm is quite impressive though, wonder what the strength checks were for that with your barbarian's weight.

But for fun, 80 rpm, 12 seconds.
Implies that using stupid math that ignores the rather massive acceleration that must occur, he's spinning you around roughly 8 times in a round (as a sidenote, since you would be moving through his threatened area, you'd provoke roughly 128 Attacks of Opportunity (to that Death Knight ALONE) on the last round before flingage. I imagine that the Bard would get in on some of that action too.

I'm having too much fun with this.

 

[Hypersmurf]

... as a sidenote, since you would be moving through his threatened area, you'd provoke roughly 128 Attacks of Opportunity (to that Death Knight ALONE) on the last round before flingage.

Well, no. You'd be provoking one.

"Moving out of more than one square threatened by the same opponent in the same round doesn’t count as more than one opportunity for that opponent."

-Hyp.