Heroic PC death

[coyote6]

You could have him assassinated, to set up a future adventure. E.g., party's just finished a fight & is mopping up/looting/getting their short rest on, when some nasty high level teleporting striker/artillery/lurker/whatever pops out of stealth and eviscerates the dragonborn. For bonus points, let him utter some cryptic slogan, motto, or name, or leave behind some evidence (dagger with a sigil on it, or the like).

Granted, this is a bit harder to pull off by the rules in 4e than, say, 3e, but you might be able to figure out a way. Otherwise, just say, "and Dragony Dave dies".

The assassin can escape magically (some ritual that mimics the bracelet of friends, if that item doesn't exist in 4e), or get cut down by the party. Either way, there can be a clue that will later lead them to some other adventure.

 

[N0Man]

Granted, this is a bit harder to pull off by the rules in 4e than, say, 3e, but you might be able to figure out a way. Otherwise, just say, "and Dragony Dave dies".

The assassin can escape magically (some ritual that mimics the bracelet of friends, if that item doesn't exist in 4e), or get cut down by the party. Either way, there can be a clue that will later lead them to some other adventure.

I think this is a misconception. I would say it's easier in 4E than 3E. In 3E, NPCs were all expected to follow the same rules, have the same available powers and limitations as PCs. This is no longer true in 4E.

In 4E, if you want your NPC to have a power, item, or Ritual that does something special for plot reasons... You just give it to him. They don't have to conform to the player builds or have to be possible to be mimicked by players.

Not everyone thinks that this feature is a good thing and thinks it lacks realism. It certainly does hurt a simulationist approach to D&D to do this, but I'm ok with ditching the subjective notion of realism in order to not have my hands tied in regards to plot devices or encounters.

 

[fba827]

maybe a villian uses a power (or a trap that has some effect) just on dragonborn. have some nameless dragonborn nearby as well to watch them also effected... "Next to you, dragonborn PC clutches his stomach and keels over... as you look around in the crowd, you notice that the other dragonborn are also begining to fall over. Heal check DC 15 reveals it is some sort of magical plague... that, curiously, is only affecting dragonborn.. and perhaps other dragonkin. why would the villian want such a thing?!"

but, also, as someone else mentioned above. the dragonborn need not die. you can have other reasons to have him leave. sure, you said that 'he wouldn't leave his allies' but why not? and maybe there is something more important to him than these allies - his church needs him or something.