My players are going to hate me...

[The Shaman]

Removed by poster - if you can't say something nice...

 

[DonTadow]

I don't get it. THere's being and evil DM and then theres just killing PCs because it makes great story as in this case. That goes beyond being a good evil DM. First you create a feat that breaks the dmg rules. There are over 20 wotc books and no ones revisted the ranged death attack, why? cause it would be severely broken. That aside, it seems that you were more interested in the story than providing your players an entertaining encounter. Outside of all the invisible, silence, ghost mojo (gee how many spells does this guy get a day), he fires a gun through a window avoiding any other innocent bystander. The window doesnt slow down the ammunition nor does it hit annything else. He happens to stand 30 ft. from this building without anyone crossing his path. You say its winter, if its snowing the snow would outline him. there'd be icesickles and frost on the windows causing his vision to be hampered perhaps. It's a festive party inside there would be people walking about, jollying with the bard.

If anything the window breaks, giving the pc a slight chance to do a reflex save to dodge the bullet. If anything everyone looks once the window breaks being able to clearly see the person firing the shot as he makes an attack (becoming visible) if just for a moment.

This sounds like an "appropriate moment" encounter that we were talking about in another thread about when to kill pcs.

You took any chance of the pc avoiding his death away from him. No gather information to reveal an assain on their trail, no perception checks to notice the odd surroundings, jjust death to make the story awesome.

 

[DarkMaster]

You should have at least allow a spot check for each member of the party. I hope you will also roll the attack to see if the sniper touched.

Don't forget that it's easy for the other member to figure out where the shot came from by looking at the damage on the body. The rule states that you get -20(Perhaps you could put it to -10 because of the silence spell) to hide after a shot so the player should have a chance to spot the assassin after.

What about a paladin in the group that sense the assassin presence when he got around the Inn.

Also how come there is no traces on the ground?

I think that if you use the rule correctly and uses an opponent a few level higher than the party they might have a chance to survive or at least make the assassin pay for what he did (Which prevents them from feeling completly useless) Otherwise what's the fun to put a Pit fiend against a 1st level party?

 

[Rystil Arden]

Otherwise what's the fun to put a Pit fiend against a 1st level party?

Agreed. And if you're really evil, you could always throw this against a 1st-level party:
[SBLOCK=Enter if you dare]
Ur-Apocalypse Beast (Relentless Apocalyptic Three-Headed Great Wyrm Prismatic Dragon)
Colossal+ Dragon
Hit Dice: 780d12+120120 (129480 hp)
Initiative: +39
Speed: 90 ft, fly 380 ft (clumsy), swim 90 ft
Armour Class: 272 (-8 size +87 natural +78 divine +66 deflection +39 Dex) touch 185, f-f 233
Base Attack/Grapple: +780/+866
Attack: 3 Bites +850 melee (12d6+70)
Full Attack: 3 Bites +452 melee (12d6+70), 2 Claws +450 melee (6d8+35), 2 Wings +450 melee (6d6+35), Tail Slap +450 melee (6d8+105)
Space/Reach: 80 ft./30 ft. (50 ft. with bites)
Special Attacks: Breath Weapons, Ultima Blast, Frightful Presence, Spells, Spell-like Abilities
Special Qualities: DR 260/-, SR 270, Arcane Rejuvenation, Blindsense, Keen Senses, Regeneration, Immunities
Saves: Fort +585, Ref +470, Will +497
Abilities: Str 151, Dex 88, Con 318, Int 142, Wis 143, Cha 142
Challenge Rating: 115

Breath Weapons(Su):
Head 1: 350 foot long cone 240d10 fire or 120 Strength damage
Head 2: 350 foot long cone 240d8 cold or Paralysis for 10d6+120 rounds
Head 3: 700 foot line 240d6 lightning or 350 foot long cone Repulsion for 10d6+120 rounds
Any Head: 10x Prismatic Spray effect (DC 203)
3 Heads: 700 foot long cone 240d12 pure magical energy
Ultima Blast(Su): Once per day, the Apocalypse Beast unleashes a concentrated wave of pure arcane energy. The burst slays all living creatures within a 312,400 ft. (about 59 miles) radius as it infuses them with arcane energy until their overwhelmed bodies are transformed into energy themselves by the massive overflow. A successful Will Save (DC 554) resists the death effect, but targets within range still suffer 78d8 points of damage. Any creature that survives this attack has a 78% chance to gain the Enchanted Template.
Frightful Presence(Ex): All creatures within 1080 ft. who see the Apocalypse Beast attacking, charging, or flying overhead must succeed on a Will Save (DC 466) or become panicked for 24d6 rounds if they have 24 HD or less, or shaken for 24d6 rounds if they have 25-779 HD. Those with 780 or more HD are immune to this effect.
Spells(Sp): The Apocalypse Beast casts spells as a 80th level sorcerer, plus it can choose any spell from the Magic or Spell domain or the druid spell list. Best of all, it has spell slots up to 30th level spells. 0-6 1-23 2-23 3-22 4-22 5-22 6-22 7-21 8-21 9-21 10-16 11-15 12-15 13-15 14-15 15-14 16-14 17-14 18-14 19-13 20-13 21-13 22-13 23-12 24-12 25-12 26-12 27-11 28-11 29-11 30-11
Spell-like Abilities(Sp): At will- All dragon spell-like abilities
Arcane Rejuvenation(Su): Three times per day, the Apocalypse beast can absorb energy from the Weave to regain all lost hit points as a standard action.
Blindsense(Ex): The Apocalypse Beast can pinpoint creatures up to 720 feet away. Opponents the Apocalypse Beast can't actually see still have total concealment against the Apocalypse Beast.
Keen Senses(Ex): The Apocalypse Beast sees 12x as well as a human, and has darkvision out to 1440 ft.
Regeneration (Ex): The Apocalypse Beast regenerates 780 hp per round and takes normal damage from legendary weapons.
Immunities(Ex): The Apocalypse Beast is immune to mind-affecting spells, sleep, stunning, paralysis, disease, light, blindness, death effects, ability drain, acid, cold, electricity, sonic, and fire damage.
[/SBLOCK]

 

[Darkness]

500 gp and a day later, they're back in their original states

Ah, so it's a 3.0 game? Yeah, resurrection isn't that expensive, then, monetarily speaking. (It requires a 10,000 gp gem in 3.5. Even a mere raise dead takes a 5,000 gp gem now.)

Though the level loss is probably going to hurt more than the 500 gp.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Ah, so it's a 3.0 game? Yeah, resurrection isn't that expensive, then, monetarily speaking. (It requires a 10,000 gp gem in 3.5. Even a mere raise dead takes a 5,000 gp gem now.)

Though the level loss is probably going to hurt more than the 500 gp.

He said he eliminated the level loss

 

[Darkness]

He said he eliminated the level loss

Ah, good catch - I forgot about that.

 

[BlackSilver]

I can see a conversation like this taking place at my table right after this was scene unfolded-

Player- "That was neat. I'm going to get something to drink, anyone want anything?"

Other Players- "nah- so what are you making next?"

Player- "emm- what do we need?"

GM- "Come on guys that was so cool. No level lose and you guys found a scroll of Resurrection today-"

Player- "nah, save it. I think I'll make a Monk."

GM- "but I just wanted to-"

Player- "its okay, no hard feelings you wanted to show us what the villians could do. Its very sweet and nice. Be right back to work on my monk."

The GM would look and feel like a punk and lose the interest of his Players in keeping their prized characters around. Characters would start recieving numbers instead of names, and back stories would be very short (instead of the four pages that are expected now).

 

[Herobizkit]

A very dramatic scene which reads well, but I may have done a few things differently.

1) I would have pulled the player aside earlier that session and asked him if he would be willing to die for the betterment of the story. Assure him that Resurrection would be available and other than the humiliating bone-fragmenting head shot, no real damage would happen to his chatacter. This way, the PC is expecting the shot but the OTHERS aren't, which gives the DM a back door if the PCs cry foul.

2) If the PC refused (or I didn't want to ask in the first place), I would have had the shot kill a waitress or other random patron in the vicinity of the PC, and then continue to bump off bystanders at regular intervals. Once the population at large catches on that being near the PCs equals a painful and messy death, the PCs will no longer be the "heroes of legend" but "dead men walking". And no one in their right mind wants to be around a dead man walking.

 

[Kurotowa]

On of the guiding rules I'm come to know is this: Not all cool things work as cool RPG things.

What you describe is a great narrative moment. That does not make it a great RPG moment if you do it to a PC. It would just be the DM using his superior power to punk out a defenseless player. Now having them sit down with an ally, smile start to talk when the assassin stikes and blows their friend's grey matter all over their laps, that works. The DM gets his dramatic moment, the players are spared the Smite Button, and you get to follow up with a fun scene where the PCs scrable to protect themselves and survive the assassin. But using the Smite Button directly on a PC is rarely the best idea. It reduces them from a protagonist under another player's control to another figure manipulated by the DM.