TPK last night - 1st one (sniff)

[JiffyPopTart]

I *AM* the weakest link.

Greetings.

As the player of the necromancer, I can say that we COULD have won the battle if a few things had fallen our way instead of the monsters. Playing a variant necromancer (not a stock PHB one) my combat related spells are pretty much relegated to various levels of sleep, fear, and instant death effects. I had been sneaking into the cave (the necromancer variant I am using has hide and move silent as class skills, and I had +12 in both) to scout ahead. The bad guys heard the party and went to investigate when I tried to sneak along the cave wall to get behind them and look for other bad guys, or else to launch a suprise sneak attack from behind to scare them towards the party.

Apparently I rolled poorly for my sneakiness, as one of the bad guys veered off his course from the cleric and came at me. I cast Incorporeal smug in my defence. He swung uselessly at me for a round, unable to damage me (no magic weapon). I was content to use the remaining rounds of my spell keeping him busy, no way of knowing he could dispel at will. The next round he dispelled me, leaving me standing next to him with one chance to get a spell off before I got walloped.

I chose "Eating the Black Lotus" which is a higher level spell that drains 3d6 INT. I failed to beat his spell resistance. He beat a lot of poop out of me on his turn. Lord love the False Life. The next round I hauled butt at a full run trying to give me some room to cast one more spell. He got an AoO and took me down to 9HP. He trotted after me giving me one more chance to cast a spell. I cast "Face of Death" which is basically a 5th level fear spell that gives opponents a -4 on their save. I had used this spell on the Black Dragon in the last battle, hoping he would drop the Dragon Orb and flee, but instead he got lucky and held onto it and fled. I used it again and once again failed to beat the Spell Resistance.

I got hit again, and was reduced to -4. I actually lived through the encounter because I have the Die Hard feat. That is unless my body was eaten. Everyone else was diced up soon afterwards.

We all don't mind the TPK, despite what Wampus worries about. If there isn't any fear of getting whacked, there isn't any excitement in the battles. We are all looking forward to our next characters....I am leaning towards an old-man cleric/wizard type. Nobody else seems to like to play spellcasters.

DS

 

[WampusCat43]

Greetings.

As the player of the necromancer, I can say that we COULD have won the battle if a few things had fallen our way instead of the monsters. Playing a variant necromancer (not a stock PHB one) my combat related spells are pretty much relegated to various levels of sleep, fear, and instant death effects. I had been sneaking into the cave (the necromancer variant I am using has hide and move silent as class skills, and I had +12 in both) to scout ahead. The bad guys heard the party and went to investigate when I tried to sneak along the cave wall to get behind them and look for other bad guys, or else to launch a suprise sneak attack from behind to scare them towards the party.

I was expecting one of them to be Magic Jar'ed and end up fighting the other.

Apparently I rolled poorly for my sneakiness, as one of the bad guys veered off his course from the cleric and came at me. Critter had a +19 on Spot I cast Incorporeal smug in my defence. He swung uselessly at me for a round, unable to damage me (no magic weapon). I was content to use the remaining rounds of my spell keeping him busy, no way of knowing he could dispel at will. The next round he dispelled me, leaving me standing next to him with one chance to get a spell off before I got walloped.

I chose "Eating the Black Lotus" which is a higher level spell that drains 3d6 INT. I failed to beat his spell resistance. He beat a lot of poop out of me on his turn. Lord love the False Life. The next round I hauled butt at a full run trying to give me some room to cast one more spell. He got an AoO and took me down to 9HP. He trotted after me giving me one more chance to cast a spell. I cast "Face of Death" which is basically a 5th level fear spell that gives opponents a -4 on their save. I had used this spell on the Black Dragon in the last battle, hoping he would drop the Dragon Orb and flee, but instead he got lucky and held onto it and fled. I used it again and once again failed to beat the Spell Resistance.

I got hit again, and was reduced to -4. I actually lived through the encounter because I have the Die Hard feat. That is unless my body was eaten. (See "Note from Adulabok" above) Everyone else was diced up soon afterwards.

We all don't mind the TPK, despite what Wampus worries about. If there isn't any fear of getting whacked, there isn't any excitement in the battles. We are all looking forward to our next characters....I am leaning towards an old-man cleric/wizard type. Nobody else seems to like to play spellcasters.

DS

Back to the drawing board

 

[Harmon]

Not sure I understand the casualness of TPKs that some Players and GMs take.

I like to have characters that have a history, that have a connection to the Players and that you know, once you start having TPKs become a casual thing it seems to me that you would lose interest in your character? I haven’t lost a character in quite a while. Hell I haven’t killed a PC in quite a while.

I think if I gamed at a table where the GM killed a character a month I would start naming my characters after numbers and have no history for them. Why should I work on the character’s background, he’s gonna be dead in a month.

Of course, it is just a game and your there to have fun. Course I do not recall having fun the last time I lost a character, or killed one.

With regards to what you did Cat, I think you and your players got a little overconfident, and that caused the TPK. Talk to the Players and see what they want to do. I feel for you man, its no fun when you get your ars kicked.

 

[WampusCat43]

Not sure I understand the casualness of TPKs that some Players and GMs take.

I like to have characters that have a history, that have a connection to the Players and that you know, once you start having TPKs become a casual thing it seems to me that you would lose interest in your character? I haven’t lost a character in quite a while. Hell I haven’t killed a PC in quite a while.

I think if I gamed at a table where the GM killed a character a month I would start naming my characters after numbers and have no history for them. Why should I work on the character’s background, he’s gonna be dead in a month.

Of course, it is just a game and your there to have fun. Course I do not recall having fun the last time I lost a character, or killed one.

With regards to what you did Cat, I think you and your players got a little overconfident, and that caused the TPK. Talk to the Players and see what they want to do. I feel for you man, its no fun when you get your ars kicked.

These guys are at the complete opposite end of your spectrum, despite my efforts to build a world (Forgotten Realms) around them (I actually created a lot of their character history out of desperation). They are true rollplayers, much more interested in tactical combat than anything else. Doesn't mean it isn't a fun game, they just like to try out different character types and don't attach a lot of emotional baggage to their characters.

 

[Harmon]

These guys are at the complete opposite end of your spectrum, despite my efforts to build a world (Forgotten Realms) around them (I actually created a lot of their character history out of desperation). They are true rollplayers, much more interested in tactical combat than anything else. Doesn't mean it isn't a fun game, they just like to try out different character types and don't attach a lot of emotional baggage to their characters.

Oh, well then find out when they bore of their characters and slaughter the whole group, make it a by yearly thing. Learn to have fun with it.

"KILL THE PCs, AND ENJOY!!!"

Me, I like long lasting characters, with lots of history.

If they had fun and you are the only one that didn't then perhaps it was for the best.

 

[Truth Seeker]

Remember, DM's don't kill pc's... monster and traps (and sometimes other pc's) kill pc's.

R.A.

*AHEM!* May I remind this sayer of this, who is in charge or command, of the monsters, traps, and from time to time, some PCs under certain influences. DMs

 

[Kharnage78]

I was responsible for the poor Cleric who was woefully slain before I could escape to attempt to heal my fallen Necromancer. I was roleplaying the character as I felt his God Tempus would have him be played. The God of War and Protection, I waded into battle certain that shoudl the task be more than our party could bear I would be able to protect them. However the party was definately lacking in certain areas that would have been most beneficial in the encounter.

We sadly subsituted a sneaky wizard where a rouge would have been preffered. And not to make excuses for poor roles against a high enemy AC but a pure fighter would have been able to hit more readily, where we could not. I think that it just boiled down to this encounter exposed our weaknesses moreso than any battle prior had. We were trying at first to save our spells for the inevitable return of the Black dragon, which I expected would happen as soon as the encounter was finished. I had never encountered these foes before and had no clue what was in store for us. Belive me had I know I would have used everything in my repetoir before running headlong into it.

I appreciate all of the feedback though and despite the fact that I wept for poor Korrin that night, I am anxious to begin anew. He certainly had a lot of history and that will not be easily replaced. I that sense I am really upset about the TPK. However it is always fun to get a fresh start.