D&D 5E Most Humiliating Way To Go

[Guest User]

As a DM. Tomb of horror. A certain devil face with an open mouth. A whole group down because they thought it was a teleport..

As kids playing Tomb of Horrors in AD&D, the DM hadn't gone past describing a green devil face with a floating orb of darkness in it's mouth, when one of my impulsive friends interrupts and exclaims: "I stick my head in it's mouth".

When the DM told us what happened, we laughed so hard, someone snorted soda out their nose.

Fast forward, many, many years later, and I am running a one shot 3e conversion of ToH. A PC gets Dominated/Geased and instructed to kill their partymates.

The Dominated PC, contrives a circumstance to get the Tiny Sized Evolved Quickling Faen Unfettered alone...(imagine a Fighter/Rogue Pixie)..whom happened to be played by my same impulsive friend.. Dominate PC, grappled and threw the Pixie into the sphere.

The Dominated PC told the group the Pixie "had just jumped in", and everyone believed it...because, it was believable.
We laughed so hard, somebody snorted whisky out their nose.
(plus ca change)

That dominated PC killed two more PCs before being slain themself.
It was a Killer DM cakewalk session of ToH...the group killed each other.
I hardly needed the traps.

 

[Schmoe]

A glass bridge over a 600' chasm, in a windstorm, in the rain. The paladin in heavy armor decided to leave the party behind and venture across, alone. There was plenty of warning about how slippery the bridge was, and the paladin was moving very slowly to try not to fall. An air mephit approaches and attacks. Balance check to avoid falling - nope. Reflex save to catch yourself against the wind - nope. There goes the paladin, blown off the bridge!

It was a long way down.

 

[Dioltach]

Anything from the MERP critical hits/misses tables.

 

[Blue]

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."

That reminds me of another PC death, back from AD&D 2nd. Important for those not familiar (I'm sure you are) that you died at -10 HPs, there were no death saves like 5e. You bled 1 HP every round until your wounds were tended. (And also no healing from zero.)

Huge set piece battle at the end of a whole campaign arc, with multiple areas in a temple(?) that the fight was happening. Our wizard falls early in the battle to area of effect damage. We're getting pounded like crazy, mostly by some sort of fire creatures, when I remember our wizard had a Ring of Fire Resistance (we did party treasure, so we all knew who had what). I moved back into the room he was in which was hard to see in, find the body and grab the ring and put it on.

We continue the battle, and manage to finally win though several people were down. At which point I get informed that our wizard had only been at -8 HPs and if I had bound his wounds he would have lived. I had thought he was in deep negatives (well past -10) from the initial attack, I never asked to check out the body.

It was a DMPC and the DM didn't mention anything (like he would have for other PCs, or at least given a secret roll to notice) because he stayed away from any appearance that could look like favoritism towards his DMPC. But still, felt really bad.

 

[Swedish Chef]

Just remembered another one. 2ed again. Random encounter in the outdoors at the campsite. One party member, fearful of attacks from above, had chosen to sleep under one of the wagons.

Didn't help him much that Ankhegs were the random encounter that night.

 

[Lanefan]

Just remembered another one. 2ed again. Random encounter in the outdoors at the campsite. One party member, fearful of attacks from above, had chosen to sleep under one of the wagons.

Didn't help him much that Ankhegs were the random encounter that night.

This one reminds me of another classic death in our crew.

There had been a major argument within the party while making camp for the night, to the point that one PC insisted on sleeping on his own a few hundred feet away from the main camp.

And wouldn't you know it, by sheer chance that night's random encounter came from the same direction this guy was camped in.

Eight Shadows got to that PC. Nine Shadows got to the rest of the party...

 

[Nikosandros]

My first AD&D character was a ranger with great stats (IIRC, he had CHA 10 and everything else was 14 or higher, with a 18/9x STR).

We were playing C3 The Lost Island of Castanamir, I got separated from the party and I met a "cleaning golem". For some reason - that I don't recall - I decided to pick it up; the DM told me that it tried to free itself and I said that I would let it go. The DM ruled that I dropped it and the golem would consider it an attack. So I found myself in single combat against a 12 HD creature with a disintegrating ray.

You can guess the rest...

 

[Oofta]

Every elf PC I've ever had has died by 3rd level. Frequently at level 1 in their first game. I should note - this is only elf PCs, I can't remember the last time a non-elf PC of mine permanently died. I don't remember every death, but I've tried elf PC at least once per version. So starting with 3.5...

In 3.5 my half-elf ranger was off to the side doing the archery thing when he was jumped by an orc who got lucky. I thought the DM was going to cry because he'd never killed a PC before, he even offered to have an NPC druid cast reincarnate (this was in a public game and not technically approved). I just laughed and explained it was a curse.

In 4E I tried a vengeance-style elf paladin (don't remember the actual sub-class name). First game, got dropped to zero. I told my wife to not have her PC stabilize me because I'd be okay for a couple of rounds. Rolled a natural 1, 2 failed death saves. No problem, then nobody could get to me. Next round, another natural 1, dead.

In 5E, wrote up an elf monk. First session, last fight, the DM crit my PC. In an effort to not kill my character outright (he had been wounded) the DM rolled base and crit damage and maxed it both dice. Character died from massive damage. If he had used average damage (like he had been for the rest of the game) I would have survived even with the max crit.

 

[Lanefan]

My first AD&D character was a ranger with great stats (IIRC, he had CHA 10 and everything else was 14 or higher, with a 18/9x STR).

We were playing C3 The Lost Island of Castanamir, I got separated from the party and I met a "cleaning golem". For some reason - that I don't recall - I decided to pick it up; the DM told me that it tried to free itself and I said that I would let it go. The DM ruled that I dropped it and the golem would consider it an attack. So I found myself in single combat against a 12 HD creature with a disintegrating ray.

You can guess the rest...

That cleaning golem is bad news - if it happens to be in the room during a combat and someone goes down unconscious that golem's gonna clean up the garbage...

 

[Andras]

Oh man, I just remembered this one. 2e, another player has a cleric, we find a Pit fiend or Balor (which ever one had the vorpal ax) held in a Magic Circle. Cleric tried to banish the BBEG. Failed, broke containment, and got his head lopped off by the vorpal axe on a 20.

My longest running 2e character died to a disintegration spell. Could have saved on a 2+ and rolled the 1. Nothing but a rain of magic items hitting the ground as he was flying at the time.