Most Ignoble PC Death
- Thread starter Reynard
- Start date
Humanaut
First Post
Back in high school, we had a gem-dragon nemesis that we one day cornered and killed... while it was just above us on a ledge. When it fell it landed on one of the PC's crushing him to paste. First we cheered at it's death, then stopped jaw open when it fell and killed the wounded fighter. Sucked the wind outta that victory.
Worst I think was a near TPK when we went through some early Dungeon adventure. This was a one off, a tomb I think, where you climbed down some well but about half-way down a gas comes out to petrify you, then the blades swing out to cut your rope, then you plummet and shatter. At the frack'n door. The one PC who was basically still at the top watched us all die and just left. We were ticked. Impossible saves, instant death. I even remember reading letters to the editor later about how that was not a mid-level adventure, that high level partys met similar deaths...
I'm sure in 30 years there have been many others...
Worst I think was a near TPK when we went through some early Dungeon adventure. This was a one off, a tomb I think, where you climbed down some well but about half-way down a gas comes out to petrify you, then the blades swing out to cut your rope, then you plummet and shatter. At the frack'n door. The one PC who was basically still at the top watched us all die and just left. We were ticked. Impossible saves, instant death. I even remember reading letters to the editor later about how that was not a mid-level adventure, that high level partys met similar deaths...
I'm sure in 30 years there have been many others...
Dragonbait
Explorer
I had a game where a paladin in full plate try to jump across a 10' channel of raw sewage. I had already declared that the channel is 15-feet deep. He failed and proceeded to drown in the poo gunk.
Phaezen
Adventurer
Second Edition, the party's mage needs 2 xps to go to level 3, so he decides to spend a bit of time wandering the nearby woods to see if he can find something small to gank.
Happily, he comes across an old decrepid buffalo. Feeling bold he hits the poor beast with a magic missile, surprisingly not dropping it. The buffalo responds with a charge and trample, rolling 2 critial hits.
The player has gone by the nickname Buffalo Soldier ever since
Phaezen
Happily, he comes across an old decrepid buffalo. Feeling bold he hits the poor beast with a magic missile, surprisingly not dropping it. The buffalo responds with a charge and trample, rolling 2 critial hits
.The player has gone by the nickname Buffalo Soldier ever since
Phaezen
demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
I've got that story.
Well, to be fair, the Dark Flumph didn't kill any party members. But he did render the fighter useless with its nauseating spray, kill their riding dog (aka fighter #2) and split the party before being taken down.
None of those players was well-versed in D&D lore. They all now hate the flumph with a fiery burning passion.
This is ignoble, with a strange grace to it.
DM = me...1st edition game about twenty years back. Krastus and his party encounter a slime creature - the kind that eats and grows...touch it and .....bad thing. They manage to avoid the creature, but can't figure out how to kill it.
Just down the way, they encounter the BBEG, and Krastus hatches Cunning Plan #4945. While every other player at the table is screaming at him about how stupid an idea it is, Krastus decides that since the BBEG regenerates and is hard to kill, it might be cool to get some of the slime and use it against him.
The rest of the party, now down a warrior, begins getting thrashed as Krastus gingerly attempts to obtain a sample of the goo on his dagger, and rolls a natural 1. Being a kinder DM, I give him a saving throw...another natural 1. One of the MANY reasons the party didn't want him to try was his history of rotten rolls.
I inform him that he has definitely succeeded in getting a sample - all over the dagger AND his hand/arm. I tell him he has a few rounds to get it off.
Always a trooper, Krastus doesn't bother trying to scrape it off, but instead runs full-out back to the fray and declares he is attempting to punch the BBEG in the mouth...with the slimed hand.
He rolls a natural 20, and Krastus and the BBEG go down in a single undulating mass.
Whenever I think of this story, I am reminded that it is a fine line between clever, and stupid.
DM = me...1st edition game about twenty years back. Krastus and his party encounter a slime creature - the kind that eats and grows...touch it and .....bad thing. They manage to avoid the creature, but can't figure out how to kill it.
Just down the way, they encounter the BBEG, and Krastus hatches Cunning Plan #4945. While every other player at the table is screaming at him about how stupid an idea it is, Krastus decides that since the BBEG regenerates and is hard to kill, it might be cool to get some of the slime and use it against him.
The rest of the party, now down a warrior, begins getting thrashed as Krastus gingerly attempts to obtain a sample of the goo on his dagger, and rolls a natural 1. Being a kinder DM, I give him a saving throw...another natural 1. One of the MANY reasons the party didn't want him to try was his history of rotten rolls.
I inform him that he has definitely succeeded in getting a sample - all over the dagger AND his hand/arm. I tell him he has a few rounds to get it off.
Always a trooper, Krastus doesn't bother trying to scrape it off, but instead runs full-out back to the fray and declares he is attempting to punch the BBEG in the mouth...with the slimed hand.
He rolls a natural 20, and Krastus and the BBEG go down in a single undulating mass.
Whenever I think of this story, I am reminded that it is a fine line between clever, and stupid.
We were playing an Eberron game, with all the PCs aboard an airship carrying some nobility. The airship was attacked by men on griffon-back, who landed and immediately began killing the soldiers aboard. The druid -- nevermind that we're on a fast-flying airship -- casts Obscuring Mist.
The GM looks at him funny, notes that the speed of passage will dissipate the mist in a round, and moves on to the next character.
The druid decides that he will charge into his own (rapidly dissipating) mist, *guessing* at the location of a soldier that he can no longer see, and bullrush the man off the deck of the airship.
Needless to say, he guesses at the wrong spot. There's a griffon nearby -- the DM allows him a chance to run into the griffon instead to stop his rush. The druid rolls a 1. The druid hits the railing -- reflex save to catch the railing. He rolls a 2, then a 1 on his action point die. Feeling generous, the DM allows him a chance to catch himself after going over the railing. The druid rolls another 1. Trying to give him ONE LAST CHANCE, the DM says that he might be able to catch one of the trailing lines of the airhip, used to moor it when it docks. The druid? You guessed it, ANOTHER 1.
So the druid cast mist, charged into it, and vanished forever. It was a running joke throughout the campaign -- 'what do you suppose ever happened to that one druid fellow?' And then we'd come up with a new conspiracy theory, like he was in league with the men from the Griffons.
The GM looks at him funny, notes that the speed of passage will dissipate the mist in a round, and moves on to the next character.
The druid decides that he will charge into his own (rapidly dissipating) mist, *guessing* at the location of a soldier that he can no longer see, and bullrush the man off the deck of the airship.
Needless to say, he guesses at the wrong spot. There's a griffon nearby -- the DM allows him a chance to run into the griffon instead to stop his rush. The druid rolls a 1. The druid hits the railing -- reflex save to catch the railing. He rolls a 2, then a 1 on his action point die. Feeling generous, the DM allows him a chance to catch himself after going over the railing. The druid rolls another 1. Trying to give him ONE LAST CHANCE, the DM says that he might be able to catch one of the trailing lines of the airhip, used to moor it when it docks. The druid? You guessed it, ANOTHER 1.
So the druid cast mist, charged into it, and vanished forever. It was a running joke throughout the campaign -- 'what do you suppose ever happened to that one druid fellow?' And then we'd come up with a new conspiracy theory, like he was in league with the men from the Griffons.
1) 5 seconds into the session, I misteleport and imbed myself in a wall and die. Worse, I'm carrying 2 other PCs in my bag of holding with a limited air supply and now the bag is imbedded, they can't get out and soon they will asphyxiate. Last 2E session I ever played.
2) Due to a severe miscommunication, Clay's cleric ends up armed with bills (little fish gutting knives) instead of a bill-hook (polearm). This leads to his horrible death at the hands of kobolds while on watch duty.
3) Thanks to high saves, a save boosting item and a ring of spell turning, a friend's mage needed only a 2 or higher on D20 to save against Finger of Death cast at him by a lich. Instead, he was killed TWICE in two sequential sessions by the same spell CAST BY THE SAME LICH.
4) Last 1E campaign I played with the group of guys I first played D&D with ended with the party having an argument in the Forbidden City over whether or not to kill a Pan Lung whose lair we just found. The Idiot Druid cast Call Lightning and blasted the pro-Pan-killing Cavalier and then everyone but me went apeshit and began slaughtering each other.
Pan Lung hears noise, comes out, asks me what's going on. Me: "I just got here, I have no clue who these idiots are." So we waited for them all to kill each other, then split their stuff.
End campaign.
2) Due to a severe miscommunication, Clay's cleric ends up armed with bills (little fish gutting knives) instead of a bill-hook (polearm). This leads to his horrible death at the hands of kobolds while on watch duty.
3) Thanks to high saves, a save boosting item and a ring of spell turning, a friend's mage needed only a 2 or higher on D20 to save against Finger of Death cast at him by a lich. Instead, he was killed TWICE in two sequential sessions by the same spell CAST BY THE SAME LICH.
4) Last 1E campaign I played with the group of guys I first played D&D with ended with the party having an argument in the Forbidden City over whether or not to kill a Pan Lung whose lair we just found. The Idiot Druid cast Call Lightning and blasted the pro-Pan-killing Cavalier and then everyone but me went apeshit and began slaughtering each other.
Pan Lung hears noise, comes out, asks me what's going on. Me: "I just got here, I have no clue who these idiots are." So we waited for them all to kill each other, then split their stuff.
End campaign.
Kirnon_Bhale
Explorer
My biggest fear in D&D has come from the most ignoble TPK - Basic D&D (I think it was a very long time ago). I don't remember the whole story but without any fight we all died from Green Slime. I hate Green Slime and find that even to this day I can't bring my characters into a situation that involves Green Slime. Not a lot of TPKs without anyone raising a weapon.
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