D&D 5E Most Humiliating Way To Go

[Lanefan]

Is there a dislike button? IMO thats some pretty crappy DMing to make you wait 5 sessions to bring in your new character only to have you die from something the other players wouldn't have known about.

I don't see it that way. I see it as the DM neutrally placing me in the dungeon and then leaving it to random chance; and had the party turned right instead of left on first entering the place they'd have found me early in that first session. Just my bad luck they decided to tackle the complex in a generally clockwise pattern and, without realizing it, leave me for last.

And there was a party NPC for me to play in the meantime, so I still had something to do.

The torture-table bit was unexpected and annoying at the time, but it made for a funny story (hence my telling it here); and all was not lost - the party got me revived and that character - who I'm named after here - is still going today.

 

[Lanefan]

A natural 20/crit is not going to lop off someones arm, head, leg or any other body part.

Unless that 20 is rolled by someone wielding a vorpal weapon/weapon of sharpness; in which case might as well open up the butcher shop right now as there's likely going to be a good supply of meat...

 

[R_J_K75]

I don't see it that way. I see it as the DM neutrally placing me in the dungeon and then leaving it to random chance; and had the party turned right instead of left on first entering the place they'd have found me early in that first session. Just my bad luck they decided to tackle the complex in a generally clockwise pattern and, without realizing it, leave me for last.

And there was a party NPC for me to play in the meantime, so I still had something to do.

The torture-table bit was unexpected and annoying at the time, but it made for a funny story (hence my telling it here); and all was not lost - the party got me revived and that character - who I'm named after here - is still going today.

Good points. And I wasn't there so maybe my comment was knee-jerk and somewhat uninformed/unfounded. After reading this it makes more sense but Im just the type of DM who would make the effort to get the player back in action ASAP.

 

[R_J_K75]

Unless that 20 is rolled by someone wielding a vorpal weapon/weapon of sharpness; in which case might as well open up the butcher shop right now as there's likely going to be a good supply of meat...

Lanefans Marvellous Market of Minced Meat.

 

[Zardnaar]

I had that same die. Rarely if ever used it. The idea behind it was to add suspense to combat. A natural 20/crit is not going to lop off someones arm, head, leg or any other body part. The rule, (which was optional), was that you had to make a called shot at a very extreme negative to the attack roll and even if you hit you had to do I think a quarter of the targets hit dice to actually do enough damage for the target to lose an extremity. The critical hit table I remember was from Combat & Tactics and pretty sure it only hobbled a leg, rendered an arm useless, etc. When we used those rules it was across the board so everyone had an even chance of doing critical damage, etc. Even then it got old quick, and we started to just use it in extreme circumstances. I could see if the DM is just arbitrarily rolling a dice to chop off an 8th level players head by a kobold they're missing the point.

Combat and Tactics had that.

The odds of a headshot or whatever were low but yeah could happen.

We used those rules once,not so much having your throat destroyed but damage to legs etc.

I wouldn't use those rules for a normal D&D game.

I would if I was doing Game of Thrones theme but you would get more xp via storylines or whatever.

 

[Richards]

I once ran my players through Palace of the Silver Princess and ended up with a TPK. All of the PCs were slain...by bubbles.

Johnathan

 

[dumdragon]

A random encounter during a 3.5 game. 5 5th level PC's vs. 1 CR 3 Grell. It was a surprise round TPK. Everyone failed their paralysis save.

 

[Swedish Chef]

A couple that happened at my table over the years:

2nd Ed - Player with Helm of Brilliance. Fails his savings throw against a fireball. Rules at the time were that each magic item he had needed to then make saves. Helm was the only one that didn't. Nearly full of gems, left a very big crater where the party used to be.

Also 2nd Ed - player is a mage. Had asked to have a Brooch of Power (Staff of Power in the shape of a Star Trek badge, essentially). We were playing H1 and the player decided to investigate the church (home to a vampire, if I remember correctly) without telling the party. Polymorphed into a boa constrictor to move through the rat holes throughout the church. Of course, the rats start fleeing from the snake but then the vamp notices and commands them to attack. Player rolls terribly and can't get out of the rat holes while in snake form and essentially is nibbled to death. Of course, polymorph ends and the mage returns in extremely cramped conditions. Brooch of Power fails saves vs crushing. Party never did figure out what happened to the mage nor why half the church wall exploded, but they did figure they were connected.

3rd Ed - player is playing a thief. Sticks his hand in a hole in the wall, makes his save, withdraws hand just before blade chops it off. So, of course, he tests his luck again. Fails. Thief is now known as Righty. Two rooms later the party gets into a battle. Thief attempts to get behind the bad guy to back stab, ignoring the Gorillion nearby. Gorillion manages 3 critical hits out of 4 claw attacks. Enough damage that the thief was essentially ripped in half by the enraged Gorillion.

Finally, not a death, but nearly as bad. 3rd Ed 2nd level Barbarian goes toe to toe with a single kobold. After several rounds of neither combatant able to land a blow (really horrible rolls by the player and the DM), the kobold finally lands a critical. Barbarian left with 1 hp. The mage finally is free from combat elsewhere and saves the barbarian with a single magic missile spell. To this day, the player for the barbarian will not start a fight with kobolds, regardless of what class he is playing. He just doesn't want to risk the humiliation again.

 

[Blue]

Have two "I can't believe I died" stories. Both from AD&D 2nd, and at very opposite ends of the spectrum.

We had just gotten one of the new Skills and Powers books and were starting a new party (int he same setting, we had like half a dozen). I had this whole half-orc gladatorial mage. Really cool. Some RP, we head out of town. While traveling, we're ambushed by wolves. They beat me on initiative, and kill me before I even had a chance to act once in the entire campaign. Round 1 of combat 1.

The other was with near epic level characters. Now, one thing about AD&D is that saves were based on the target's level and that's IT. A spell from a 1st level wizard and from a lich had the same save. And when you were really high level those were pretty easy to make, especially with various rings of protection and other items to help.

Anyway, a few players were latew (but we played 10+ hours on the weekend, it wasn't uncommon), so the two of us there teleport off to another city in another country to follow up a lead that was really an assassination attempt. DM has this whole combat ready for us, but the attempt starts while we're meeting with our contact over a meal that's poisoned. Rememebr we're like 18th level or something. The other player is running Gerrian LoCasta, a cleric of Tymora (luck) and can only fail a poison save on a 1, and I'm playing The Lady Nikidaema Roaringhorn, paladin of Lathander (Dawn) and can only fail on a 1 or a 2. So the poison was pretty much pro-forma.

Gerrian rolled a 1, Nikadaema rolled a 2. We both died immediately.

In a foreign city, with none of the rest of the party there to know this happened or recover our bodies. Wearing all our magic items.

Inglorious.

(If I recall, we had some sort of magical warning when one of us died, and was able to True Ressurect us which didn't need the bodies. We geared up with backup (and much inferior) equipment and the whole team went in hard on our slayers.

 

[Li Shenron]

Most Humiliating Way To Go​

I was thinking something like dropping below 0hp by a large margin, but not wanting to believe it, ask for dice recounts, claiming the game is rigged, gluing yourself to the chair and call it a tremendous victory.