[Heroic Sacrifice] Going out in a blaze of glory

[Inconsequenti-AL]

My favorite character death.

Played a half orc barbarian called Mong. The worst statted character I can ever recall using, but extremely long lived in a very fatal city campaign - partly down to his 'rapid fleeing speed' class ability... he finally met his end performing a 'charging grapple' on a gargoyle - causing him and it to fall 100ft from the top of a clock tower. He'd realised he was going to die along with all his friends, which had prompted this heroic sacrifice.

Unfortunately it survived, he didnt.

It went back and ate his friends (in a near TPK!). The idea was sound, end result not so good! Ah well.

 

[drnuncheon]

Not me, but a friend's:

In a modern-day HERO system campaign loosely inspired by The Guyver, the PCs had found the source of the rampaging beasts that had been terrorizing the city - a biotechnological starship buried under the park. They came up with a plan to destroy it - while the others attacked as a distraction, one of their number would sneak inside with high explosives, plant them, leave, and signal the others to set them off.

It worked perfectly - the first half, anyway. While the others distracted the ship and its defenders, Harold was able to make his way in, crawling ever closer to the ship's "brain". Until it spotted him. Tentacles came writhing out of the walls, grabbing him. One pulled the bomb out of his hands and brought it towards the brain for closer inspection.

Harold turned on his radio. "I'm clear," he said. "Do it."

J

 

[Henry]

One pulled the bomb out of his hands and brought it towards the brain for closer inspection.

Harold turned on his radio. "I'm clear," he said. "Do it."

I can see "Movie Blockbuster" in that one. Wow.

Let's see - very little heroic death in our game. The two closest I can recall:

1) A Cleric of Tempus I played in an alternate earth history volunteered to self-detonate a magical "bomb" in the center of Vlad the Impaler's Castle, to destroy Dracula forever.

2) A Mad Doctor played by another player in a d20 Modern Game (when I say mad, I mean looney NUTS) sacrificed himself to buy a few seconds for his fellow agents to gain a few car lengths distance from a Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath. Considering he was the one who released the creature in the first place, the other players didn't feel too badly about it.

 

[ForceUser]

Not me, but a friend's:

In a modern-day HERO system campaign loosely inspired by The Guyver, the PCs had found the source of the rampaging beasts that had been terrorizing the city - a biotechnological starship buried under the park. They came up with a plan to destroy it - while the others attacked as a distraction, one of their number would sneak inside with high explosives, plant them, leave, and signal the others to set them off.

It worked perfectly - the first half, anyway. While the others distracted the ship and its defenders, Harold was able to make his way in, crawling ever closer to the ship's "brain". Until it spotted him. Tentacles came writhing out of the walls, grabbing him. One pulled the bomb out of his hands and brought it towards the brain for closer inspection.

Harold turned on his radio. "I'm clear," he said. "Do it."

J

Wow is right. That's an amazing sacrifice.

 

[Zappo]

I don't know why, but for some reason whenever I try to die heroically I always survive.

The time I stood between a gigantic, monstrous tentacled creature and my retreating comrades, I managed to survive long enough for them to kill it from a distance.
The time I attacked a sort of demigod by myself to prevent it from destroying a city, again I managed to escape after slowing it down enough.
The time I dragged the entire party with me to an encounter I estimate at 6/7 CRs above us, we won without a single casualty.
Every single time I dive somewhere to save another party member from certain death by drawing the heavy-melee monster to me, I invariably get either missed entirely or reduced to single-digit HPs instead of being killed.

Last Star Wars game, we had to go through a room full of destroyer droids to get to our ship, so we made a careful plan involving a shield wall from blaster doors. By round three, our shield was in shreds, my wookie barbarian (sorta) was down to single-digit HPs without having had a chance to attack, and due to crappy AC on the next round I was sure to die from the first hit; the party shooters had taken down only a few of the droids. So me and another meleer charge towards certain death so that the rest of the party may escape.

And we cleave through all of the remaining droids in the same round as we charged.

All of this with different DMs, different games, different everything. It seems that I can only die pointless deaths. I don't know if the universe is trying to tell me something.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Hm. I can only remember very stupid deaths.

* Dying to the hands of trolls because I missed a climb check to get the hell out of the pit they were in.
* Getting roasted by two successive fireballs while stuck on a boat (I was a wizard who couldn't swim and didn't want to dive with my spell book).
* Getting cut in half by another player's Frenzied Berserker.
* Failing miserably a simple Fort save against a Ghoul (the ghoul Coup de Grâce'd me the next round).
* Moving in on the big guy to try to disarm him (he wielded a nasty greatsword that healed him when he hit us), failing miserably, and getting killed on the next round.
* Dying twice to Sphinx death symbols.
* Dying in a random encounter with Air elementals.
* Dying in a random encounter with displacer beasts because we couldn't outrun them.
* etc.

The only memorable death I remember (and it isn't even mine, neither is it a death) is when a disabled fighter (0 hp) partial charged a naga and crit it, killing it, all the while falling unconscious.

AR