How do you kill your Players!

[arbados]

With the new rules concerning ressurection characters have a much greater opportunity to be brought back from the death regardless of its cause. Not that this is a problem, however, I was wondering ways that other DM's use to SCARE your players into thinking this might be the end if I get knocked out.

Recently one of our players was swept away by a fast flowing river and was eventually swept into the rocks and out to sea where they were lost forever. My group now sees the threat of the waters regardless of the opportunity of being brought back to life.

Any thoughts or game instances!!

 

[Darkness]

Eating them might work - or dissolving the body in acid. Or burning...

 

[gfunk]

Well IMC it really depends on the level of the PCs,

At levels 1-5

In these cases we were too poor to afford a Raise Dead spell and since levelling at these levels was rapid, we basically rolled up a new PC. Our policy is that you can bring in a PC at the lowest party member's level.

At levels 6-10

Here dying can be a bitch, b/c you lose a level if raised. However, PCs at this level were always raised if their body was available. In rare cases where a Raise Dead was not possible (e.g. PC turned into undead or body destroyed) then we would roll up a new PC.

At levels 11-16

At these levels the PCs have reached high levels of reknown and prestige and can receive a Resurrection spell w/o too much problem. The only way of removing a PC from a campaign at this level would be high level spells like Imprisonment or, perhaps, capture and incarceration of the PC by powerful foes.

At levels 17+

At this point, a True Resurrection can be cast by the party cleric...

ADDED:

To scare the PCs into fear of death, you should lay the ground rules for the various resurrection spells. For instance, what is available at the local temples, who it would be given to, and how much it would cost.

Our DM told us point-blank that True Resurrection is only reserved for the greatest heroes and champions of a faith and can never be purchased. So, IMC, fear of losing a level gave us a healthy fear of death.

 

[BMF]

Eating them is a good way. A paladin in our group was eaten just last week.

You might also try making resurrections less common. I personally don't like how easily some characters can come back.

Also, you might not want to kill the players, you could go to jail. Best to stick with their characters....

 

[Shin Okada]

Water, acid, fire, etc may work if there is no True Resurrection available. Under current rule, True Resurrection can resurrect a characters even if his body was not found.

In my play group, we are adapting a house rule that even True Resurrection need some considerable amount of target's dead body. So if the dead body is lost, or completely destroyed, he will not come back. It is not just for PCs, but for NPCs, too. Because without this house rule, enemy with more than average resource (say, a member of religious knightly order, etc.) never die. It may be OK for villain of the world or something (say, Sauron is not destroyed yet!). But we did not want to face all the enemy captains again and again.

Apart from house rule, there are some ways to let PCs permanently die, or gone.

1. Fed by a Barghest ...... Even Wish, Miracle or True Resurrection fail in 50%)
2. Trapped by a Devourer and then all the life essence are used up ...... It will take time to do so. But may work.
4. Turned into something ...... Such as Yuan-ti variants, Driders, etc. They are not dead. But their mind is altered and thus gone as a PC.
3. Exile/Bankrupt or Kill all the Clerics!...... They need someone who can and will resurrect PCs, or they will not come back.

 

[Wippit Guud]

OK, after laughing for the last 5 minutes...


I beleive you mean "How do you kill your player's characters?"

I mean, my group may annoy me sometimes, but not enough to warrant killing them.

 

[Darkness]

OK, after laughing for the last 5 minutes...


I beleive you mean "How do you kill your player's characters?"

I mean, my group may annoy me sometimes, but not enough to warrant killing them.

But do you, you know, whip them good?

 

[Wippit Guud]

Just for the record...


... I hate that motherfBEEEEPng song.

 

[Kershek]

Two Words: Mind Flayer


All they have to do is grab a PC and plane shift. The PC is lost forever (unless, of course, you can follow it).

 

[Zhure]

I've found the best way to create this dread of character death, is the Total Party Kill. The TPK is what can mess up a group, regardless of level. If an encounter goes so badly the entire group may die, there wouldn't be anyone left to start the resurrection process. There's little need at low levels, since the generally can't afford a rez at that point anyway, as noted by an above poster.

One of the features I really enjoy about 3e is the monsters scale so well all the way to 20th level. It's possible for a powerful group to meet a creature or mob so deadly they can all die in a few rounds. In earlier editions to achieve this required insta-kill spells (finger of death, plane shift, etc.) While this still works in 3e, a series of good criticals can take out even the Dwarf Barbarian with a 25 Con.

Greg