D&D 5E Most Humiliating Way To Go

[Lanefan]

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.

In a game I played in, to one character his own death was a tremendous victory!

He (not one of mine) and another PC (also not one of mine) had a very serious bet going as to which would outlive the other, and out of [courtesy? foolishness? the influence of several beer?] each had bet on the other to last longer.

So one of them dies, and if memory serves either fails his raise roll or for some reason can't be raised. This other guy immediately sits down and starts praying to any major demon he can find, offering up his own soul in exchange for bringing the dead guy back to life - all because he didn't want to lose this bet.

A demon accepted. Goodbye Kaali, dead forever. Wakey-wakey Baranfindel, winner of life but loser of bet.

 

[Lanefan]

Another humiliating way to go is to somehow manage to get killed twice, at different times, by the same opponent*.

Over the years I've seen this happen to maybe four different characters. One of them was mine: a mid-level Cleric who died against a massive great Red Dragon when, flying, I was somehow forced to land and then the damn thing - all 15 tons of it - crash-landed on me when we shot it down.

Thinking the Dragon's dead, we scoop its loot and go about our careers (my Cleric was revived) until a few adventures later some old guy in a dungeon complex invites us to dinner and once we sit down polymorphs into this same bloody Dragon! It opens with a breath weapon for a crazy amount of damage. Failed save. I died where I sat.

Another was one I DMed. Party meets a Beholder. Its death ray hits a Dwarf PC who, needing only a natural 3 to save, rolled a 2. Party book it out of there, use a scroll on the Dwarf to revive him, and sack out. Next day, knowing better what they're up against, they buff up and go back in. Sure enough they meet the same Beholder, and by sheer bad luck (i.e. I was random-rolling a) which eye-stalks it could bring to bear and b) which of those then went for which character) the death ray hits the Dwarf again. This time he only needs a natural 2 to save...and out comes the 1.

* - or ally: one poor unlucky schlub in our parties in days of old got killed twice, months if not years apart, by mis-aimed lightning bolts from the same caster. (I played neither the caster nor the victim here)

 

[pming]

Hiya!

I was DM'ing "Quest for the Heartstone" (or, as we called it, "The Dozen-Adventure"...seemed like everything came in dozens...). Anyway, one of my players (the other guy who DM'ed almost as much as me) had a female elf. He was trying to get her our of very hot and sticky situation; fell into a pit of tar that was then lit on fire. Long story short, she and all her gear was on fire. She barely managed to shed her backpack, cloak, armor, and had climbed out with just her boots left. She had one round to take them off, which she did, but took 1 point of damage in that time. She only had 1hp left. She died.

The player was not impressed...everyone laughed, but felt I was "too hard" on her. Didn't stop them from laughing their butts off and bringing up "Make sure your boots aren't on fire!" anytime some form of fire-damage was encountered by the group....in any game...for years afterwards.

Her character sheet had "Killed by flaming boots" written on the top. It's there to this day....

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Voadam]

We were playing 4e in mid paragon levels (teens) and had just had a game where the rogue missed three saves in a row against a beholder's petrification ray leaving my ranger multiclass-paragon path wizard and the fighter to whittle down the solo monster over dozens of rounds of just rolling. Everybody but me was sick of 4e, the fighter felt he was too effective and that the combats became bogged down with him just doing the same sequence every time, monsters felt too reskinably similar mechanically, and the combats continuously took too long for most everybody but me's taste.

So we switched to pathfinder 1e to continue the campaign and my character became a ranger/wizard/eldritch knight. In the conversion I spent the resources to know and scribe a scroll of stone to flesh so that if a similar situation came up we could get the stoned person back into the game quicker.

In the first Pathfinder game we deal with a hostile cloud giant who has a shiny Little-Engine-That-Could apparatus of Kawilsh complete with happy face on the front and steam whistle like its a child's ride at an amusement park. We also know he has an ally copper dragon that works with him. I talk down the giant explaining how what he has heard of us is lies from agents of a demon lord we are opposing, how I am a demon hunter, and how we are not his enemies.

I feel good about actually convincing him enough to avoid a fight when it hits me, I stop and say, "Oh! That's not an Apparatus . . ." The DM gives a smile, says it spreads its mechanical cow catcher prongs and lets out a "Chu-Chu" whistle sigh as the happy face gives a nasty grin. "Roll initiative." he says. The retriever beats me on initiative, shoots a petrification ray at me from one of its shiny happy gem decorations, and I miss my save.

I sit out the whole fight petrified and the group plus the giant and his invisibly hidden copper dragon ally eventually defeat the now revealed advanced abyssal construct.

First round, first fight, one low die roll on my strong fortitude save and I was taken out before being able to take any actions, a scenario that specifically could not happen in 4e where petrifcation is a multistep progressive process.

At the end the party says "Didn't Voadam scribe a scroll of stone to flesh? Yeah, he did!" The rogue says he can use his maxxed out use magic device skill to activate it. "Who is carrying the scroll?" Then they turned to my statue, their eyes going to the petrified scroll pouch. "Huh."

 

[LordEntrails]

I was DM, 5E, first level of Undermountain. Party was second level. Found an armoire in an otherwise empty room. Everyone was afraid to approach fearing it was trapped. The wizard got impatient and walked up and opened it. It was a mimic. It got a surprise attack, rolled a crit and max damage. Instant death. Everyone else was like, 'yep, that's the Undermountain!'

 

[Eltab]

Has anybody read Grimtooth's Traps? Some of those over-the-top contraptions would qualify. For instance, the giant-size crossbow that shoots telephone poles down a (long narrow) hallway.

10' deep pit trap full of Cool Whip. You sink to the bottom but you cannot eat all the whipped cream before you suffocate. Killed by a dessert.

Almost death: first time playing 4e, my ranged Dual-Stat Star'lock* is surrounded by fey polecats. Try Eldritch Blast on one (which bloodied it) and triggers AoO from all of them. Now at 1 HP and surrounded ... Fortunately the group came to my aid. The character ever afterward wore a cloak of black fur with a white stripe down the back as a trophy and a reminder to not do tactically-stupid stuff.

*later determined to be the most poorly-designed subclass in the game

 

[R_J_K75]

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

Yeah neither would I these days. When the book came out we gave it a try, it was fun for awhile but the shine wore off quickly. Although if a series of circumstances played out in a combat that were such low odds that unfortunately came to pass then I might consider using the crit table. That would be once in a blue moon, unless we were actually playing on a night of a blue moon then Id use it for every hit.

 

[R_J_K75]

Has anybody read Grimtooth's Traps? Some of those over-the-top contraptions would qualify. For instance, the giant-size crossbow that shoots telephone poles down a (long narrow) hallway.

Yes I have there are some really cool traps. I've used them from time to time but at the moment I cant recall which ones. I pull them out when I run a trap heavy dungeon. Those books are edition neutral imo and a worthy addition to any gaming bookshelf. I maybe wrong but I think there is a 5E update.

EDIT: For anyone interested.

Goodman Games| Grimtooth's Traps|Your Source for Adventures

goodman-games.com

 

[Tom Bagwell]

As a player. AD&D (1e). My mage character was taken to zero hit points by a giant ant. The group won the fight and proceeded on their way. That night they asked what watch my character was taking. I just looked at the DM, who said, "He's, um, not there." They finally figured out what had happened. One said, "Well, we couldn't have done anything anyway." To which the DM replied, "Well, he wasn't dead when you left. But yeah....he's pretty dead now."

As a GM. Rolemaster. Player running a mage had a ferret familiar. The group was getting pasted by a high-level evil cleric. The ferret attacked. Small animal crit. Rolled 00. Instant kill. It was wonderful.

 

[Sacrosanct]

My most recent less than stellar or fun death was in CoS. 1st level. Exploring the haunted house in the very beginning.

What's that? We just woke a shambling mound right next to me? And it did a total of 25 points? And I only had 10? Welp, that adventure didn't last long.