My players are going to hate me...

[I'm A Banana]

I have to have a DM gloating moment.

You are a player IMC. You have irked an Evil Empire in a drive to get a member of your party on a throne that they control. "Return of the King" style, you have spread the rumor of the return of the ancient lineage. The Empire is technologically advanced. You have fled out of their lands, into the wilderness to avoid their clerics. The Empire is nearly a theocracy, with a diversity of clerics worshipping a diversity of evil gods. Their clerics are *everywhere*, and they are control freaks.

But you have fled them, for now. You've jumped over their wall, and you have run into wild lands, inhabited by giants and savages that the empire hadn't been able to control. You find a town run by an ogre mage who doesn't instantly want to kill you. In fact, he offers hospitality -- he hates the empire, and the enemy of his enemy his is friend. You go to the tavern in town, drinking with some of the more-civil of the giant folk, in their big tavern room, well-lit and warm in the winter, fire sparkling in the windows. You pull up a stool. Your bard goes to perform. You lean back in your chair, warm and content. Smiling, nearly sleepy, facing the stage.

The DM asks you for a Fortitude save. Of course, you happen to be the party's spellcaster. The DM describes your failure:

"As you set your immense mug of gigas ale down on the table, smiling at the dulcet tones of the bard on stage, you smile to yourself, letting the alcohol warm you. Then, the back of your head explodes. Blood spatters the floor as your body goes limp, and fragments of skull, glistening with what was once inside your head, rain on those sitting around you. Painlessly, you sink to the ground.

Others hear the screams, feel the hot blood, as they see your face crumple with the force of impact, and watch as bone and innards fly out your front with the force of the blow. Looking around the room, they see the window, shattered without a sound, laying in sparkling fragments on the ground."

They rush outside -- seeing nothing. They look around: no tracks in the snow, only a thin trace of gunpowder on the other side of the window, dusting black the snow. Your party member has been shot. By an assassin. Under a Silence spell.

Note to all Rat Bastard DM's: Cleric/Assassins. Trickery + Travel domains.

That is bad enough. Combine it with a few of my house rules: firearms. Hide + MS as one skill. Metamagic feats that are 3/dy uses (Silent Spell!).

I've got another scenario in my head using Ghost Sound to lead them down blind alleys, and being shot from behind again. It's a good thing they're 10th level and can get their paws on some Resurrection magic. But they're gonna HATE me....so much....

 

[Aris Dragonborn]

Ha...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

That is sheer brilliance! Yea, verily, thou art a Rat Bastard DM.

Congratulations.

 

[Anax]

I don’t think I’d be happy with that situation at all... it smacks too much of “No matter what the characters do, somebody is going to get whacked.” Characters shouldn’t ever die (or be saved) just because it fits the DM’s story nicely.

It’s kind of like the rules for mystery stories that someone (I forget exactly who) suggested a long while back. It’s not good for the main character in a mystery to solve the mystery based on clues that were never revealed to the reader: everything has to be in plain sight, even if the reader is unlikely to connect the dots until the solution is revealed. It must be possible to connect those dots, or it detracts from the reader’s enjoyment trying to figure out what’s going on... it’s just not fair.

I feel the same sort of thing applies to a role-playing scenario like this. On the one hand, I must admit that with the mess they’ve stirred up, the players should be expecting something to follow them. But it’s less clear to me that they have a reason to expect anything like that kind of threat. If I were in that situation, I’d be more inclined to think that a large invasion force would be on its way soon.

Which implies to me that the players should be given some hints—not big smacks with the cluehammer, but enough that they have a chance to figure out that they’re in danger from more covert agencies as well as the overt ones. Things like a chance to spot footprints in the snow outside of camp after they’ve been on watch all night. Seeing shadows that aren’t there when they look again. Strange patches of silence in the forest’s background noise. (And, most likely it’s too late for this, but the chance to hear rumours about some sort of assassin types existing... but those rumours having happened long enough ago in the game that they won’t immediately connect the rumours with the footprints or silence.)

Then when you stick it to them with the silenced boomstick, it won’t feel unfair. It will feel like “Oh man! It all makes sense now! The stalker in the woods, the quiet patches in the forest, those assassins we heard about way back when! We should have expected something like this...”


Anyway, that’s my take on things. Being evil is fine, but you have to be sneaky enough about it to be evil and make the players feel like it’s their own damned fault.

 

[ThoughtBubble]

It really depends on your players.
Me, I'd be a bit upset if I died, seemingly without recourse. From the descriptions, it sounds like it was coming, but that's not quite enough mitigation for it. See, as the DM (and also evil empire) you have infinite amouts of time, energy and budget to throw at the players. You can also co-ordinate groups better than they can, and have a much larger advantage twoards being pro-active about the situation. You also have more knowledge about the situation at hand, and will make many fewer mistakes.

All of which leads to your players being sacks of decaying meat if you so desire.

Now, I'm not saying to avoid blowing his head off. I'm just throwing a perspecitve out there that one of my players shared with me.

However, I do urge you to consider what sort of problems and difficulties the assassin might have, just to lend your PCs a chance.


Also, out of co-incidence, how common is resurrection in your game? Is it possible to bring a PC's corpse back to operational without heavy sacrifice?

Anyway, all you need to woory about is how your players will take the failure, and how this situation resonates with the rest of the campaign's percieved feel and tone.

There is always the outcome where the PCs swear vengence and the counter hunt begins while the players are having the times of their lives. It just depends on how your group likes it.

On the other hand, that's one beautiful set of killin. The assassin wouldn't have access to a grenade as a follow up, would he?

 

[Corinth]

Sounds legal to me. So long as it's legal, it's okay.

 

[Rystil Arden]

I wouldn't do this to my players, as there isn't really a point to slaughtering them. But if you're going to do something like this, go all the way, as the cleric/assassins are bound to know the PCs have resurrection. So have the Silent Cleric/Assassin kill them all in their sleep (and/or kill the person on guard duty and then the sleeping ones).

 

[Funksaw]

To me, this violates the first rule of improvised drama: Do not create an ending when you can easily create a beginning.

Sure, you get some "bastard GM" jollies. But wouldn't it have been better for the story for the stealthy assassin to miss - if only because the PC had a sudden, unexplained urge to sneeze at that very moment? Couldn't you tell more stories - and more engaging stories that way?

 

[LostSoul]

Sounds legal to me. So long as it's legal, it's okay.

I didn't want to say this, but I didn't think that you could use the Death Attack with a ranged weapon. Although a melee weapon used at range...

If an assassin studies his victim for 3 rounds and then makes a sneak attack with a melee weapon that successfully deals damage, the sneak attack has the additional effect of possibly either paralyzing or killing the target (assassin's choice).

Although, you know, house rules and all that jazz.

 

[LostSoul]

But wouldn't it have been better for the story for the stealthy assassin to miss - if only because the PC had a sudden, unexplained urge to sneeze at that very moment? Couldn't you tell more stories - and more engaging stories that way?

Some people don't really care much about telling stories at the gaming table. If you do, you should consider using something like Action Points. So you can avoid getting your head blown off before you tell your story.

 

[Corinth]

I didn't want to say this, but I didn't think that you could use the Death Attack with a ranged weapon. Although a melee weapon used at range... Although, you know, house rules and all that jazz.

I accounted for the OP's declaration of house rules being in action within this scenario, along with non-core abilities that extend Death Attack beyond melee range.