Quick deaths in D&D

[Ethalias]

My first ever D&D experience when I was at school was a homebrew AD&D game. The other players had played before, and they needed a rogue/thief to complete their group. OK, I said full of enthusiasm, and duly roll up a character with few enough HP that the first room we enter, I get bitten BY A RAT and fall over, dead.

Put me off for a while, and I haven't played a rogue since.

 

[Thanee]

We had a character die twice... in one encounter!

Dracolich killed him, ok nothing special so far, then he got raised by the Paladin during the fight (some Paladin spell, name eludes me right now, that raises a character that is dead mere minutes, but only for a short time), jumps to his feet and with a cry of revenge charges the Dracolich, AoO, 50+ damage, Massive Damage Save: Natural 1.

That was definitely one of the shortest time frames between being raised and being dropped again.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Fastest Death was in our Savage Tides Campaign.

My character (a Fighter and elected Mayor of Cauldron) was affected by a magic jar spell and had been teleported away. For the time being, the DM offered to play an angelic creature (I don't know if it was a Deva - she's part of the plot) to help the party out. This started with a new session, following immediately my characters capture, still in the room of that battle. The DM had just narrated how the angel would appear and offer some cruicial advice and her help. The Bard PC then decided to check out some vases or something like that standing around. And he immediately triggered a trap (Wail of the Banshee like). I roll a Fortitude Save, roll abysmally low, and my temporary replacement character dies before I even had a chance to do anything in-character!

Only later I figured out that she could cast Death Ward at-will and would have probably been immune to the effect... Well, at least we had the resources of a True Resurrection spell for her.

Mustrum "Or why I hate Save or Die" Ridcully

 

[Henry]

The quickest death I've seen yet was in the playtest of a "Slavelords" adaptation to 4e I'm doing for an upcoming Gameday. In the very first combat encounter of the session, the halfling rogue was immobilized, hit three times, one of them a crit, which took him below "negative bloodied" in TWO ROUNDS. Thanks to him, I adjusted the scenario accordingly. I actually found several places that needed improvement, and have never been happier for a playtest in my life.

 

[Bluenose]

Quickest death I've seen is a close match between three dwarf fighters in different campaigns. None in the first round, but all three in the first fight.

One time the player announced that his dwarf could take three goblins on his own, and not to get in his way. Turned out there were five goblins, and someone who falls over a trip wire can be sneak attacked quite effectively.

Another time, a replacement character was a hastily rolled up dwarf who we encountered inside the dungeon. The first encounter was a mummy, he failed his saving throw against fear and fled, encountering the rather large group of hobgoblins we'd earlier managed to avoid and alerting them to the presence of intruders as he died.

The last of these dwarves was killed, drowned when a trapped section of bridge gave way as he was charging a group of bandits near Nuln.

My quickest character death was in my first ever D&D game. I'd realised that a wizard with one spell wasn't going to be much use in most fights, so bought as many darts as I could afford to throw at people. Unfortunately this was when I still went to school, and we were playing there during free periods. I was the only person going to a particular class from the group so left my wizard in the care of one of the other players. When I got back, he was dead, having gone into melee with a hobgoblin. The other player hadn't realised that darts were a type of weapon, and the only other thing I had was a quarterstaff.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

A fellow player had a string of unfortunate deaths. His character died, so he made a monk. First combat, we get surprised by dire lions. 2 pounces later, the monk was dead. He rolls up a fighter (or paladin) and we enter a dungeon, in which the enemies were kind of waiting for us. A lone, hidden assassin shoots his character with a ranged Death attack and his character fails the Fortitude save. 2 characters dead without even having made an attack.

AR

 

[Ander00]

And he immediately triggered a trap (Wail of the Banshee like).
...
Mustrum "Or why I hate Save or Die" Ridcully

Oh yes. We checked all the vases, just to be sure. It helps when you have a paladin who can take 11 on saving throws.

I'm actually a bit surprised not more of our PC deaths were from save or die effects. A standout though was the random encounter a party ran into at level 10 or so. Three Beholders, who got a surprise round. It wasn't pretty.


cheers

 

[Halivar]

My very first game of AD&D was during the closing months of 2E, during the 3E beta. The house rule on new characters was iron-clad: all new characters are level 1. The party level was 18.

I died 4 times in that one session.

PS: I would not play another game of D&D until 3 years later, when I picked up the core rulebooks on a whim.

 

[Lancelot]

My record was a particularly brutal encounter in the Savage Tide AP featuring basilisks...
Most of the party fell in the first encounter, and we created new characters. Mine was a dwarven fighter. We returned to the basilisk lair, and I charged. As I charged in I had a choice of averting my eyes or not. I chose not to (to not get the miss chance) and rolled a natural 1 (the only thing that would have failed the fort save from memory). Turned to stone without even rolling a die, and the character sheet was still half filled in. That one got stunned silence and then a round of laughter from the table. It was a record that I'm pretty sure still stands... (I've since moved city, and don't regularly game with that group anymore).

...yeah, I can confirm this one given as I'm the DM for that group. Howdy, Gribble! It's a record that I don't think can ever be beaten - dead in the first roll of the character's career. 3e, of course.

Some other death highlights from nearly 25 years of DM-ing:

• Fastest campaign end: 4e; TPK in 2nd session thanks to two Deathjump Spiders.
• Most ludicrous death: OD&D; Chaotic headsman (assassin) PC is adventuring in aquatic realms. Kills a small patrol of mermen and loots the body. Notices they're carrying several dead fish. Decides to bite the head of a couple of the fish, Ozzy Osbourne style. Doesn't realize the fish are actually special weapons (sort of like puffer-fish) that expel poisoned darts from their mouths when they are squeezed. Inserts the head of the fish in his mouth and...
• Most lethal campaign: 3e; Red Hand of Doom. Three complete TPKs.
• Most embarrassing DM death: 3e; Red Hand of Doom. Boss monster (advanced behir) comes storming over a ridge. I spend 5 minutes describing how utterly terrifying and lethal this thing is. Loses initiative. Hit by three characters with a variety of orb spells and other ranged effects. Slides to a halt, dead, in front of the group. Players roar with laughter and do fist pumps for about half an hour.
• Most pointless death: Star Wars d20; players enrage a captured wookiee that is a potentially friendly NPC by repeatedly attempting to deceive and harrass him. Wookiee proceeds to tear them limb-from-limb in classic style. TPK and campaign end.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

My quickest death was the second character I almost rolled up. Yeah, original Traveller. As for D&D, its kinda blurred as I lost several early on to spider bites in their first encounter. (Save or die isn't anything new!)