Never TPK'd

[Moe Ronalds]

I always balance encounters fairly well I think, so there's yet to be a single death in my games (except for cases where death was the only way to get the player to LEAVE), and all of my past DM's have been against letting players die, so no deaths in those campaigns either (kinda frustrating).

 

[fenzer]

No, in over 20 years of gaming I have never TPKed my players. I have lot's of dying characters and have had a death or two but never TPK.

I have good players.

 

[seasong]

TPKs can happen in an instant in D&D3e.

In my current campaign, the level-3 characters went up against a Medium spider with a few spell-like abilities (one of which was a non-burning web) and a few levels of priest.

The save DC for the web was high enough to worry about, and there were only three PCs. All it would have taken was three failed rolls, and everyone would have been stuck, while the spider attacked from a distance and its minions (Tiny Spiders) bit them into STR paralysis.

Fortunately, only one of the characters was completely stuck, and she was also the one who could inflict light wounds without somatic components, so the fight went how I expected.

If it hadn't, I'm not sure exactly what I would have done. I might have fudged tactics a bit - the spider had never fought humans, so there was no reason for it to be aware of their recovery speed, so maybe they would have been coccooned and left for a later meal.

 

[Guilt Puppy]

Hasn't happened yet, although it's come close.

In campaigns, I generally avoid TPK situations, unless the party is high-level enough to start raising/resurrecting virtually at will. IMO (both as a player and a DM) the game isn't as fun without the risk of death -- suddenly your accomplishments don't count for as much (there just isn't enough risk associated with them.)

In one-shots, I like to ensure that TPKs can and will happen if the players aren't smart, cautious, and/or lucky... Naturally, most of the danger is saved for some final encounter. Last one was with 5 incorporeal entities that could cast Hold Person by touch, or deal some major damage by touch, plus 3 knight constructs that were about the equivalent of 12th-level fighters... The enemies were played as vicious as possible, with a singular focus on killing the PCs. The party was seventh level. All of them survived: They showed a lot of daring and a lot of luck on the dice, came very close to dying but didn't -- IMO, that's an extremely satisfying encounter, both as a player and a DM.

 

[smetzger]

I've only had one TPK. This was due to a bad roll for a player on a saving throw and an inexperienced player making bad tactical choices. If I had to do it over again I would have given the inexperienced player some advice, which would have likely saved the day.

 

[drakhe]

I'll never TPK out of principle. I consider it my duty to give my players a fair chance and a helping hand in their quests. I don't mind pushing them to the limit, but I've been in one too many TPK's as a player and as a players there's only one thing I hate: having a character killed because some other player(s) find it necesary to make a mess. I guess the only reason for me tpk'ing a party would be if the party as a whole s*cks. Actualy I don't even think I'd TPK in that case, I would just drop the whole campaign. So : NO I would never TPK

Then again (evil demon whispering in my left ear) IF they decide to go play with the dragon ...

 

[s/LaSH]

Well, because I've got this whole elaborate destiny planned out for the PCs, I really don't want to TPK - and the villains want the PCs alive too, for nefarious reasons. The PCs don't realise this, of course.

There have been some tough battles, and the player instinct for trapped areas isn't that great (I still remember when they fell in the hellcat pit because they didn't check the door before walking in... ooh, I just remembered the swinging blades from that encounter too), but they've largely survived. The only time I've purposefully killed a PC was for plot purposes.

I could have killed them easily in the first adventure. The climactic fight was against a hellhound,and when they defeated it... the owner showed up. See here for details. (It's in colour.)

So yeah, TPK only comes when you're really stupid. And unlucky; I have vested interests in keeping the PCs alive. After all, when you're dead you can no longer suffer.

 

[roytheodd]

You know, I've been in this DMing racket for a long time too and Total Party Kill isn't something I do lightly, but I've been in a situation or two where it's been necessary. I've had the group running from a whole army of goblins, towards the exit, and choose to hole up in a corner room so as to slay all of the goblins. I rolled for a little while as the goblins streamed in, then I just read the party their own eulogy. To make a meta-game decision like they did (they were in it for the xps) and not choose safety over the overwhelming hordes - well, they had it coming. I'd be a pretty big weenie DM to let them escape that one. I had the goblins take some of the party as prisoners (the tanks were slain), but the PCs were so indignant and unwilling to go along as captors that they were put to rest. It was not my high point, but the players all realized that had had many opportunities to save/doom themselves and they chose doom at every turn.

I do not create Total Party Kill situations and I do what I can to keep the PCs alive. I'm very much a DM on the side of the party - in terms of planning and playing - but when they do things to foil themselves then I do what I must.

 

[Ramien Meltides]

I've got an interesting TPK story for you, featuring a 5th level party decimated by ... 1 troll.

Our group was essentially hit with a random encounter. One of those "you're taking care of normal business in town when you hear screams from down the street" situations.

Three of us began making preperations while the headstrong ranger moved out to investigate. Some troll-lings (small baby trolls) were running around causing havok. The ranger engaged them while the other three of us kept prepping. We thought we were in good shape... we had acid and fire, full hit points, the works.

When the troll mom showed up, we started laying into her with spells and weapons... or so we thought. Every time the damage came up for a vial of acid, it was a 1. Every alchemist's fire rolled a 1. Melf's acid arrow did a total of 5 points of acid damage. Meanwhile, the troll is rampaging through the party. I was playing a gnome wizard, and when the troll attacked me I thought I would be mostly okay... I had the gnome bonus vs. giants, mage armor, shield, and a dex bonus helping me out. I actually held her off a couple of rounds, but the troll made a lucky grapple attack and suddenly I was merely a snack. While I was dying, the fighter was rolling nothing higher than a '4' to hit and cursing the dice gods mightily. The cleric darted in to try and heal my wizard, thinking his 22 AC would surely protect him from one AoO (due to the Troll's reach). The DM rolls a 20, confirms the critical, and the priest joins me in death (he was actually at -9). The Ranger (miraculously unhurt during the battle) chooses not to use the wand of cure light wounds to heal the cleric (settling his fate as he failed the 10% chance to stabilize and died) and instead kept firing arrows at the troll. Arrows from which it was regenerating every turn

The fighter had 20 hit points remaining and tried to cover the Ranger's retreat. The troll hit with both claw attacks, thus gaining it's Rend damage... for a total of 36 hit points!

The Ranger fled the scene and we had a TPK. Our new characters have had one game after this so far.

What's funny is, our party did just about everything right. We had solid tactics, the right gear (including fire and acid), and were freshly rested for the battle... what killed us was the DM's dice rolling. Lot's of 19's, a very telling critical, and our dice wouldn't roll above a 1 when it came to damage the troll couldn't regenerate

There wasn't any one thing you could point to and say "that's where we screwed up", it just happens that way sometimes. TPK's, like a four-letter-word I won't say here, happen.

 

[jdavis]

I've got an interesting TPK story for you, featuring a 5th level party decimated by ... 1 troll.

Our group was essentially hit with a random encounter. One of those "you're taking care of normal business in town when you hear screams from down the street" situations.

Three of us began making preperations while the headstrong ranger moved out to investigate. Some troll-lings (small baby trolls) were running around causing havok. The ranger engaged them while the other three of us kept prepping. We thought we were in good shape... we had acid and fire, full hit points, the works.

When the troll mom showed up, we started laying into her with spells and weapons... or so we thought. Every time the damage came up for a vial of acid, it was a 1. Every alchemist's fire rolled a 1. Melf's acid arrow did a total of 5 points of acid damage. Meanwhile, the troll is rampaging through the party. I was playing a gnome wizard, and when the troll attacked me I thought I would be mostly okay... I had the gnome bonus vs. giants, mage armor, shield, and a dex bonus helping me out. I actually held her off a couple of rounds, but the troll made a lucky grapple attack and suddenly I was merely a snack. While I was dying, the fighter was rolling nothing higher than a '4' to hit and cursing the dice gods mightily. The cleric darted in to try and heal my wizard, thinking his 22 AC would surely protect him from one AoO (due to the Troll's reach). The DM rolls a 20, confirms the critical, and the priest joins me in death (he was actually at -9). The Ranger (miraculously unhurt during the battle) chooses not to use the wand of cure light wounds to heal the cleric (settling his fate as he failed the 10% chance to stabilize and died) and instead kept firing arrows at the troll. Arrows from which it was regenerating every turn

The fighter had 20 hit points remaining and tried to cover the Ranger's retreat. The troll hit with both claw attacks, thus gaining it's Rend damage... for a total of 36 hit points!

The Ranger fled the scene and we had a TPK. Our new characters have had one game after this so far.

What's funny is, our party did just about everything right. We had solid tactics, the right gear (including fire and acid), and were freshly rested for the battle... what killed us was the DM's dice rolling. Lot's of 19's, a very telling critical, and our dice wouldn't roll above a 1 when it came to damage the troll couldn't regenerate

There wasn't any one thing you could point to and say "that's where we screwed up", it just happens that way sometimes. TPK's, like a four-letter-word I won't say here, happen.

It's in situations like this when alot of DM's will step in and bend the rules to stop the TPK, Monsters have mild strokes or develop a strong need to regroup (even if it is just one monster) or the DM just ignores some of his dice roles that would just be to much (why a DM should role his dice behind a screen). Of course the characters never know, they just think they barely made it out alive. Bad dice roles happen and I hate to see prepared characters tpk due to bad luck with dice, of course that really wasn't a TPK as one character made it out and one character with enough funds can bring everybody else back.