Killed by Ape

[Frostmarrow]

In the campaigns I've been in and DMed myself I have found that most characters (about 40%) die from encounters with dire apes! This saturday it happened again. My Wood-Elf Infiltrator (from Kalamar Player's Guide) was torn apart by a summoned fiendish dire ape. I was at full health 24 hp and the ape hit with both claws and executed a free rend attack. Dice were rolled... 37! Lothos Ravan was sent to -13 in one hit.

Have you had a character killed by an ape or is there some other monster that seem to get all the fun in your game? (Remember that trolls and hags have rend, too).

 

[KnowTheToe]

That is one tough creature. I think they are actulally rated a little low for their power. I am sorry you were rended, but if you are going to summon something, that is one great choice.

 

[Bonedagger]

In the campaigns I've been in and DMed myself I have found that most characters (about 40%) die from encounters with dire apes! This saturday it happened again. My Wood-Elf Infiltrator (from Kalamar Player's Guide) was torn apart by a summoned fiendish dire ape. I was at full health 24 hp and the ape hit with both claws and executed a free rend attack. Dice were rolled... 37! Lothos Ravan was sent to -13 in one hit.

Have you had a character killed by an ape or is there some other monster that seem to get all the fun in your game? (Remember that trolls and hags have rend, too).

Have you ever considdered some kind of "Protection from Evil" item?

 

[Frostmarrow]

Re: Re: Killed by Ape

Have you ever considdered some kind of "Protection from Evil" item?

If I was summoning a planar ally I would consider it. But in this case I was too busy trying to hit the hasted half-hobgoblin sorceress who had summoned it.

 

[mmadsen]

Have you had a character killed by an ape or is there some other monster that seem to get all the fun in your game?

When I first learned to play D&D as a kid, my older brother DMed my 1st-level Fighter through the same dungeon, over and over. Each time, I killed the Goblin, opened the next door, and died to the Carnivorous Ape. Over, and over, and over. "How 'bout you try a different door this time?"

 

[Mark]

In over two and one half decades of DMing I believe that player characters have only DBA'd (Died By Ape) on a few occasions. Sorry about your luck.

 

[Frostmarrow]

In over two and one half decades of DMing I believe that player characters have only DBA'd (Died By Ape) on a few occasions. Sorry about your luck.

A few occasions you say? Hm. How often do you throw apes at your party I wonder? It seems that DBAs are even more common than I originally thought...

 

[Asheron]

the closest thing I can think off is my 'dwarven 101 Hp fighter' being shredded by a group of Girallons

 

[Mark]

A few occasions you say? Hm. How often do you throw apes at your party I wonder? It seems that DBAs are even more common than I originally thought...

Oh, I don't mean that all of the PCs died when they encountered Apes. Nonetheless, apes being encountered a handful of times in more than 25 years (thousands of games and many times that encounters) doesn't seem like much to me.

I remember a time (not at band camp) when a PC decided it would be fun to mock a tribe of baboons, even though the baboons were basically ignoring the PCs. He was promptly torn asunder, and so was the wizard, while the remainder of the party escaped to the nearest town. There, they complained to the town constable and guards of their troubles and begged for a posse to be raised to combat the baboon scourge. The PCs were asked to leave the local fauna alone in the future once the laughter had died down. Ah, yes. The fun we had...

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Uh, sort of.

You see, I played a druid in our D&D campaign, and he just loved shapeshifting (his "normal" strength was 7, so he would have been bloody useless in melee otherwise).

At the time, we were trying to stop some fire giants who were shelling a walled city with some kind of bombs that they were slinging from their catapult. Our mission was to destroy the catapult.

My druid shifted to dire ape form so that he could enter melee, and still climb and grapple things if neccessary.

Well, the fighting grew pretty intense, and we saw some more fire giants heading this way. So my druid decided to get one of the bombs and throw it at the catapult to destroy it.

He succeeded. Unfortunately, he hadn't quite expected the radius of the explosion...

Even after he was resurrected, the party's wizard was somewhat annoyed at this, especially since his spellbook was destroyed in the conflagration.