D&D 5E Most amazing PC death
- Thread starter Afrodyte
- Start date
I had a character in a Dark Sun game that was a defiler (casts magic without concern to the corruption of the land around him). We served a lord in some city (not Tyr), investigating his interests. Early in the campaign the Veiled Alliance attempted to recruit the party when we uncovered them disrupting our lord's commerce. The party jumped on the idea (the Veiled Alliance are the Good Guys of Dark Sun), and I didn't say anything. When we got back home, I secretly made an appointment with the majordomo of our lord and revealed the group's treachery. I offered to serve as a spy against the party (double agent seemed like fun) when the door opened and the recruiter from the Veiled Alliance walked in. The DM then told me my drink tasted funny and everything looked fuzzy. Then he asked me what my next character was...
Jester David
Hero
Final boss fight of the campaign. This is it: win this one fight and the PCs are legends. Rulers of a small region. Well... pirate rulers, with the captain as the new king.
Finally, after a prolonged encounter that was really three-and-a-half encounters triggered all at once, the final boss dies and the heroes stand triumphant.
And the ship's quartermaster turns on the captain. Wth everyone running on fumes, one PC goes into PvP mode and drops another. And is promptly dropped himself by more loyal crew who stabilize the captain...
It was certainly easy for me, as I could sit and watch for 30 minutes...
Finally, after a prolonged encounter that was really three-and-a-half encounters triggered all at once, the final boss dies and the heroes stand triumphant.
And the ship's quartermaster turns on the captain. Wth everyone running on fumes, one PC goes into PvP mode and drops another. And is promptly dropped himself by more loyal crew who stabilize the captain...
It was certainly easy for me, as I could sit and watch for 30 minutes...
The PCs have been adventuring in a small kingdom haunted by mysterious deaths and bad fortune. One of those situations where they've been encountering the minions of the BBEG off and on only to come to the slow realization that the real power behind the throne is a master vampire.
One of the PCs, a paladin by the name of Garcon, particularly hates vampires and has dedicated his life to destroying them no matter what it takes. They finally track the the vampire (who was also a mage) to a cave system. They had come close to defeating her but she had managed to escape the grasp of the party and was flying over a deep chasm.
The party was out of spells, beaten up and I thought I was all set up for the next game session with the vampire just getting in a few choice words, a chance to taunt the group before disappearing once again into the darkness.
Then Garcon decided he was going to take the vamp out, no matter what the cost. He made a running leap, grappled the vampire in midair causing them to both plummet to the ground. He positioned his sword so that when they landed, the sword would pierce her body and potentially his as well.
A few rolls later and he had succeeded in critically hitting the vamp followed by critically stabbing himself. I ruled that both the vamp and the paladin died simultaneously (between the fall and the wound), both stabbed through the heart.
To this day, there are rumors of a holy avenger, Garcon's Pride that grants the bearer special powers such as flight, but also curses the bearer to take incredible risks to achieve their goal.
One of the PCs, a paladin by the name of Garcon, particularly hates vampires and has dedicated his life to destroying them no matter what it takes. They finally track the the vampire (who was also a mage) to a cave system. They had come close to defeating her but she had managed to escape the grasp of the party and was flying over a deep chasm.
The party was out of spells, beaten up and I thought I was all set up for the next game session with the vampire just getting in a few choice words, a chance to taunt the group before disappearing once again into the darkness.
Then Garcon decided he was going to take the vamp out, no matter what the cost. He made a running leap, grappled the vampire in midair causing them to both plummet to the ground. He positioned his sword so that when they landed, the sword would pierce her body and potentially his as well.
A few rolls later and he had succeeded in critically hitting the vamp followed by critically stabbing himself. I ruled that both the vamp and the paladin died simultaneously (between the fall and the wound), both stabbed through the heart.
To this day, there are rumors of a holy avenger, Garcon's Pride that grants the bearer special powers such as flight, but also curses the bearer to take incredible risks to achieve their goal.
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Wow... I know that you defeated several challenging foes, but man that's an ignoble death!
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
As both player and DM I've seen deaths horrible, humourous, futile, pathetic, heroic, and - well, amazing. A few follow:
Amazing: in the 1e-based campaign I'm running now a character got cut off from the main party by a group of wights and was sinking fast. He'd lost all his levels (so was just a 0th-level commoner) by the time his initiative came up, so with a cry of something like "so you don't have to see me again!" he used his attack to run himself through and commit suicide; this to prevent himself from being killed by the wights and thus rising as another wight shortly after.
Amazing: in a campaign I played in the party was getting seriously clobbered - of something like ten of us there were two or three still alive, all sinking very fast. We knew from prior information gathering that a particular suit of armour somewhere in here had a ring of wishes built into one of the gauntlets, so a dying character (ignored by the enemies) crawled off to look for it. It was in fact just a room or two away, yet by the time he found it he was our last survivor; though the enemies weren't in much better shape. He got the gauntlet on, used a wish (the last one in the ring, as it turned out) to revive the rest of the party...and then himself died.
Humourous: one of my characters in a campaign I'm still in had fighting-retreated herself into a small dead-end passage off a larger chamber and was badly outgunned by her foe, so she went for broke and hauled out her wand of wonder. There wasn't nearly enough room in that little passage for both my character and the elephant she summoned...
Futile: in my previous campaign the party met a beholder. Party's Dwarf gets its death ray, needs a natural 3 to make his save, rolls 2 and dies. Party has field revival available so they grab the corpse, bail out, and revive him a bit later. Next day they go back in with more preparation. Same beholder. By sheer bad luck the Dwarf gets the death ray again, this time needs a 2 to save...and rolls a 1. Auto-fail, thus he becomes one of only a very few PCs to ever be killed twice by the same opponent.
Lan-"and there's a whole lot more where those came from"-efan
Amazing: in the 1e-based campaign I'm running now a character got cut off from the main party by a group of wights and was sinking fast. He'd lost all his levels (so was just a 0th-level commoner) by the time his initiative came up, so with a cry of something like "so you don't have to see me again!" he used his attack to run himself through and commit suicide; this to prevent himself from being killed by the wights and thus rising as another wight shortly after.
Amazing: in a campaign I played in the party was getting seriously clobbered - of something like ten of us there were two or three still alive, all sinking very fast. We knew from prior information gathering that a particular suit of armour somewhere in here had a ring of wishes built into one of the gauntlets, so a dying character (ignored by the enemies) crawled off to look for it. It was in fact just a room or two away, yet by the time he found it he was our last survivor; though the enemies weren't in much better shape. He got the gauntlet on, used a wish (the last one in the ring, as it turned out) to revive the rest of the party...and then himself died.
Humourous: one of my characters in a campaign I'm still in had fighting-retreated herself into a small dead-end passage off a larger chamber and was badly outgunned by her foe, so she went for broke and hauled out her wand of wonder. There wasn't nearly enough room in that little passage for both my character and the elephant she summoned...
Futile: in my previous campaign the party met a beholder. Party's Dwarf gets its death ray, needs a natural 3 to make his save, rolls 2 and dies. Party has field revival available so they grab the corpse, bail out, and revive him a bit later. Next day they go back in with more preparation. Same beholder. By sheer bad luck the Dwarf gets the death ray again, this time needs a 2 to save...and rolls a 1. Auto-fail, thus he becomes one of only a very few PCs to ever be killed twice by the same opponent.
Lan-"and there's a whole lot more where those came from"-efan
Imaculata
Hero
In a Mech warrior campaign, me and another player decided to go see a holographic movie as a form of bonding between our characters. The DM decided that such movies are so realistic, that people actually engage in violence during the movie. Someone in the audience throws a grenade at us, and the other PC dies. Yes, he literally died trying to see a movie.
I guess that DM really didn't like role playing, or players going off the rails.
I guess that DM really didn't like role playing, or players going off the rails.
Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
Very high level AD&D 2ed game. Everyone had multiple characters, and two of the highest teleported to another country in order to follow up on a lead. I think this was while waiting for the rest of the players to show. So we're in a tavern talking to a guy when the inevitable assassination attempt happens. Well, first round we both get hit with save-or-die poison (remember, AD&D 2ed). No problem, we're almost epic level, have protective magic like it's going out of style. The only way to fail would be a 1.
Both of us rolled 1s.
We had no backup in the city.
So we were both killed and all of the magic we had on us taken, our bodies destroyed. IIRC a few days later when the rest of the team started to worry for us they tried scrying, eventually figured out we were dead, and true resurrected us (still missing my paladin's holy avenger and the rest of our items).
And we didn't even get the information we wanted.
Both of us rolled 1s.
We had no backup in the city.
So we were both killed and all of the magic we had on us taken, our bodies destroyed. IIRC a few days later when the rest of the team started to worry for us they tried scrying, eventually figured out we were dead, and true resurrected us (still missing my paladin's holy avenger and the rest of our items).
And we didn't even get the information we wanted.
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