Buttercup
Princess of Florin
So at today's session, one of the PCs died. Earlier in the same session, an encounter with orcs very nearly ended up as a TPK, except that I fudged a bunch of rolls. Here's what happened:
The party, who was travelling in the mountains, was ambushed by orcs. They were travelling along a 20 ft wide path, with a high ledge on their left, and a sheer drop off on their right. It was snowing, so visibility was low. When I asked for spot checks, no one rolled higher than a 6. The 12 orcs rapelled down the cliff and surprised the party. 5 orcs in front, and the rest ranged along side. The orcs proceeded to roll natural 20 after natural 20, while the party was rolling 1s, 2s, 3s, and once a 10 (which, given that players BAB, actually hit). In the first round two PCs were in negative hit points. By the third round, another one was dying, and only two orcs had taken any damage at all. So I started fudging big time. Orc warriors that I had statted with 20 hit points, suddenly had 8. I "stopped" rolling criticals. They all managed to survive, but only because the orcs ignored any PC who was down, and concentrated on hacking up the ponies. By the end, I think the party had 12 hit points left among 7 PCs. Ok, so I was feeling a bit shaken. I mean, they were only orcs! I didn't expect this to be a tough battle, since the party has been mowing through everything with ease. Too much ease, frankly. Well, not any more, eh?
So they finally make it to the village of Duvik's Pass. They had helped the town out about 6 weeks previously, and were considered heroes. So when the gate guard told them that some scruffy guy had been asking about a party travelling with a woman and a newborn, and then two days later who should show up but our good friends, with a woman and a newborn, well, the bard and the monk/cleric decided to go check the guy out while the rest of the party high tailed it to the temple with mother and child.
So these two idiots inquire about the guy at the inn, then go upstairs to investigate. He is sleeping in his locked room. Do they go and get a meat shield? Nooooo. They knock on the door and ask to talk to him. And then they pick a fight with him. And guess what? He rolls a critical in the first round, and drops the bard to -6 HP. See, he had Weapon Focus, Longsword and Improved Critical, Longsword. The cleric would have died too, but he ran out of the room and down the stairs while he still had 5 hit points left. The bad guy ran after him with his longbow, but the village watch didn't take kindly to the sight of a guy shooting arrows at a fleeing hero, so they knocked him out.
What's my point? Well, the monk/cleric is an idiot. He almost died three times in one session, because he charges into battle with no weapons & no armor. If he had died, I might not have minded so much. He actually deserves it. And for a PC with a wisdom score of 16, he is being played remarkably like a PC with a wisdom score of 8. Clearly I'll have to talk to the player about this. But anyway, he didn't heal his companion, instead choosing to save himself and let her die. I don't think that's the action of a good character. I mean, he cast sanctuary on himself so he could rummage in his pack for a healing potion, which he then drank himself, instead of curing the bard. Then he threw something at the villain, thus cancelling the sanctuary spell, and ran. He could have swapped out another spell for a CLW and healed the bard before negating the sanctuary spell. So, I have a PC who isn't being roleplayed according to his ability scores and alignment. (This is my most experienced player, so he can't use that excuse.)
And now, I also have a dead bard, who until today, never did anything stupid. That one dumb decision killed her.
The rest of the party blames the monk/cleric, even though they don't know the details. They figure that he's always doing stupid things, and the bard never did, so he must be responsible for her death.
Do the other DMs out there grieve a little when a PC dies?
The party, who was travelling in the mountains, was ambushed by orcs. They were travelling along a 20 ft wide path, with a high ledge on their left, and a sheer drop off on their right. It was snowing, so visibility was low. When I asked for spot checks, no one rolled higher than a 6. The 12 orcs rapelled down the cliff and surprised the party. 5 orcs in front, and the rest ranged along side. The orcs proceeded to roll natural 20 after natural 20, while the party was rolling 1s, 2s, 3s, and once a 10 (which, given that players BAB, actually hit). In the first round two PCs were in negative hit points. By the third round, another one was dying, and only two orcs had taken any damage at all. So I started fudging big time. Orc warriors that I had statted with 20 hit points, suddenly had 8. I "stopped" rolling criticals. They all managed to survive, but only because the orcs ignored any PC who was down, and concentrated on hacking up the ponies. By the end, I think the party had 12 hit points left among 7 PCs. Ok, so I was feeling a bit shaken. I mean, they were only orcs! I didn't expect this to be a tough battle, since the party has been mowing through everything with ease. Too much ease, frankly. Well, not any more, eh?
So they finally make it to the village of Duvik's Pass. They had helped the town out about 6 weeks previously, and were considered heroes. So when the gate guard told them that some scruffy guy had been asking about a party travelling with a woman and a newborn, and then two days later who should show up but our good friends, with a woman and a newborn, well, the bard and the monk/cleric decided to go check the guy out while the rest of the party high tailed it to the temple with mother and child.
So these two idiots inquire about the guy at the inn, then go upstairs to investigate. He is sleeping in his locked room. Do they go and get a meat shield? Nooooo. They knock on the door and ask to talk to him. And then they pick a fight with him. And guess what? He rolls a critical in the first round, and drops the bard to -6 HP. See, he had Weapon Focus, Longsword and Improved Critical, Longsword. The cleric would have died too, but he ran out of the room and down the stairs while he still had 5 hit points left. The bad guy ran after him with his longbow, but the village watch didn't take kindly to the sight of a guy shooting arrows at a fleeing hero, so they knocked him out.
What's my point? Well, the monk/cleric is an idiot. He almost died three times in one session, because he charges into battle with no weapons & no armor. If he had died, I might not have minded so much. He actually deserves it. And for a PC with a wisdom score of 16, he is being played remarkably like a PC with a wisdom score of 8. Clearly I'll have to talk to the player about this. But anyway, he didn't heal his companion, instead choosing to save himself and let her die. I don't think that's the action of a good character. I mean, he cast sanctuary on himself so he could rummage in his pack for a healing potion, which he then drank himself, instead of curing the bard. Then he threw something at the villain, thus cancelling the sanctuary spell, and ran. He could have swapped out another spell for a CLW and healed the bard before negating the sanctuary spell. So, I have a PC who isn't being roleplayed according to his ability scores and alignment. (This is my most experienced player, so he can't use that excuse.)
And now, I also have a dead bard, who until today, never did anything stupid. That one dumb decision killed her.
The rest of the party blames the monk/cleric, even though they don't know the details. They figure that he's always doing stupid things, and the bard never did, so he must be responsible for her death.
Do the other DMs out there grieve a little when a PC dies?
