| Post/Author/DateTime | Post |
|---|---|
| Talmariel07-09-03, 10:28 PM | I've played Legend of the Five Rings and 7th Sea, both made my Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG, now part of Wizards producing dual-system material). Anyway, both games had a little "game," 20 Questions. They were character developing questions, some of which were really good. Anyway, I came across the L5R GM's Guide, which had 20 more questions, most for advanced characters and/or players with really strong concepts. The one question that really blew me away was "How do you want your character to die?" I've found it's one of the best devices for developing my characters, because it helps me decide what kind of story their life will tell. Some are tragic, some heroic, some noble, etc. So I thought I'd bring it up to everyone else on this board: How do you want your character to die? |
| Mr. VanderMeer07-10-03, 06:22 AM | NOT. (Or, if I have to choose: in bed, of old age) |
| Leap07-10-03, 06:51 AM | I second that motion Mr V :) |
| BohbtheArchmage *REMIXED*07-10-03, 11:20 AM | Nah you pansy got it all wrong, One sentance basiclly describes how I'd want to go (in character of course) "My Gawd, nothing mortal could have ever survived that explosion!" :D |
| Ankhalab07-10-03, 11:24 AM | I third that... :D |
| El Ninja Amarillo07-10-03, 11:33 AM | In bed... witha Succubus. :) If you gotta go, go with style. :P |
| ShadeGirl07-10-03, 11:39 AM | To escape hell, my character asked his hated enemy, to kill him and then entrap his soul in a gem. He died miserably. Now my character is in a pendent on the neck of that bastard, his soul incarcerated forever. But I think that it was the best way to go, although it saddens me. |
| Kharne07-10-03, 02:35 PM | I love the concept my brother came up with for his char... His character was Dan...an archer that, even though he looked a little rough and didn't seem to fit in with the "special forces" game I was running at the time, had garnered possibly the greatest respect of all of the members of the group...especially from his teammates. Anyway, he was about to be captured and tortured to discover the location of the rest of his group when he decided to make a stand...so he pulls an arrow out of his quiver of Ehlonna, licks the poison off the tip of the arrow, and procedes to try to take as many of the people pursuing him with him as he can. (the first shot would have been a hunter's mercy on the leader) :cool: Fortunately, since memories of Dan are still some of the fondest of our group...it never came to this...but it was definitely how he wanted to go. "You know who would like this?...Dan....Dan would like this" ---Oft-repeated quote from the game |
| The One and Only...07-10-03, 03:05 PM | I want death to be a reward for my character. Ya know: maybe he proved himself on the mortal realm, and when he died he served his greater purpose at the side of his deity, etc. |
| Mordenkainen's Rubber Duck of DOOM07-10-03, 05:11 PM | Well, if all goes according to plan, he won't, but if so: I second the Succubus motion! |
| Talmariel07-10-03, 09:39 PM | ShadeGirl, Kharne, beautiful stories. Keep 'em coming. I've got two to share, one of my own and one of another player. Mine was for a Star Wars game. We were playing during the Sith Wars in the Old Republic, and half of the party was pretty loose with the Dark Side Points. My Jedi was a paladin-type, very righteous and all that (which annoyed some other characters, but it was healthy party conflict). Anyways, one of the characters was on the verge of turning, and he was pursuing a dark Jedi. The dark Jedi used an ability (called Rage, I believe; it might have been back during the West End days) to boost his stats and speed, and took off. The player decides to use Rage, as well (we had a house rule that Dark Side powers were free reign, so it was easier to be drawn in). I stood in his way. My character didn't stand a chance with his beefed up stats, but it was an example to both that character and the rest. My second story was a traitor within the party. He had been secretly feeding information to the main villain, and was finally caught red-handed by the party when some henchmen reckognized him. The party, including a good cleric and a paladin, dispatched the henchmen and confronted the character. He pulled a dagger and tried to keep them at bay, but to no avail. He was backed into a corner, and they demanded information. Dagger still in hand, he slit his own throat. I think the best deaths for characters are the ones that come by their own decisions. Some characters make all the right choices and die of old age surrounded by friends. Some characters don't, and those can make the most memorable dramatic moments. But if you do play a character long enough that they die of old age, I think that's possibly the most rewarding experience (I've had only one... so far). |
| PyrotheJunky07-11-03, 05:49 AM | My old D&D char, a Kobold sorceror name Sa'ka'reth would prolly want to die in combat, as he tended to be almost suicidal with those fireballs. He figures as long as most of his foes go to hell with him, it was all good. |
| Tzor07-11-03, 09:51 AM | This is an interesting question. I had to think about it for a day before posting. But my original thought should act as a good initial comment. :cool: It should be understood, that how I want my character to die is completely different from how my character wants to die. After all, after playing a lot of Island of Kesmai on Compuserve in the late 80's I developed a saying, "Dying HURTS you know!" Since I tend to play heroic characters I tend to prefer my characters to die in a heroic manner. I tend to not prefer the oopsie, unless it's a really good oopsie. In a good fight, with good odds, where the stakes are high, and the legends are made. Here fell what's his name ... again. |
| dark_kiri07-11-03, 10:26 AM | Hmmm... in one self-sacrifical act, loosin' all controls over the chaotic divine energy within, and consumin' myself and the BBEG in pure chaos, and drainin' our mutual creator-god of all divine power. :P LONG story. |
| Kelida4207-11-03, 10:34 AM | A while back I was playing a CN drow bard named Raziel. She was the resident wild girl of the party, who would do practically anything if she was going to profit from it. She was really smart (17 Int), but I always sort of pictured her dying in some sort of accident as a result of her own misjudgement. She was always the character in the party who did crazy things and cut everything a bit close. Now I am playing a LN Ftr/Wiz who worships Helm and Kossuth in no particular order. Eloora is the artillery of the party and works really well with the paladin of Helm that she is travelling with. I have sort of a vision of Eloora and the paladin going down together in a grand final stand, probably because Eloora will kill them AND their enemies in a spell. But it will be GLORIOUS!! MWA-HA-HA-HA-HAAAAA! |
| El Ninja Amarillo07-11-03, 11:28 AM | The way things are going with my current LN 1/2 Elf Sorcerer, I'm starting to imagine him using his remaining Hp to fuel his Blood Burn feat (found in Spells & Spellcraft) to take down the BBEG in a raging inferno. |
| wanderingmonk07-11-03, 12:34 PM | Character death, or at least final death, is not something I've had to actually face much. Through my own willingness, most of my GM's have handed my characters a good amount of plot, and thusly try to keep them alive, mostly because I go for story-intensive, rather than stat-intensive, PCs. However, there are some good deaths that have occurred within campaigns I have played in. A long running Legend of the Five Rings game has had several of them; it is, however, a samurai drama, and death is very much a part of that genre. In fact, my character, right now, has the distinction of being the highest ranking Emerald Magistrate in Ryoko Owari... because he's the only one of the original party that hasn't either been killed, ordered to commit seppukku, or been forcibly retired. In this campaign, we were once faced with a rather nasty decision: accuse a potential heir to the throne of being illegitimate, or allow her to go unchallenged. The party chose the former... The resident Crane stepped forward to defend our testimony when it was challenged. He was forced to duel the Unicorn battle maiden he had fallen in love with, and lost. Those of us that survived the adventure were disgraced; the Battle Maiden hung herself in grief over killing her love. I think my PC in that game would honestly prefer dying an old man, in his bed, but knows he won't. When you're a cartel head (long, long story) in Ryoko Owari, you don't often die peacefully. As a player, I would like for him to die in an act of noble self-sacrifice, taking down the evil threatening the empire that is partially of his own creation. But let it be said... The Code of Bushido modules are BLOODTHIRSTY. |
| Eagle Prince07-11-03, 05:08 PM | I'd want to die like Buliwyf from 13th Warrior, especially if that was it and I wasn't going to be raised from the dead or anything. |
| Anduin_Lothar.07-11-03, 06:55 PM | I have a CE sorcerer thats evil through years of torment from his noble family who looked down on him for strange occurences and that he didn't follow the family rule that all children entered the church and became clerics and stuff like that. His breaking point, (and the first adventure) was when some adventurers come to town and he gets an idea to join them. He lights his house on fire (non-magical) and kills one of his brothers.(secretly so the party doesn't know) His mother and father are now after him hiring bounty hunter after bounty hunter to kill him or bring him back. They way I always imagine him going out is finally appearing before his parents and sacrifice himself and end the hatred in a spell to kill them. Yup. He always was a loose cannon. |
| kalniel07-11-03, 08:25 PM | In one campaign, a friend died just by slipping whilst climbing a ladder. Not my kind of death, but quite funny. My last character would have wanted to die in a single heroic act that saved the party. Like charging a demon and grabing him whilst diving off a cliff. I usally don't mind dying for the party, I've usually played clerics so they know they're going to a better place anyway. My latest character has had so much bad in his life (murdered family -his fault etc) that he'll again die if it helps stop someone else die. Only problem is it takes me a long time to level compared with the rest! |
| Sevik07-12-03, 05:52 PM | Impaled on the end of a pike, thrust into his chest by random soldier # 487, in defense of his own castle while it is invaded. Thousands will fall to his blade before the numbers become just too many for him to handle, and he will die knowing that all his might and power will be trampled to dust by someone more ambitious then him. ... At least this thought is what keeps him ambitious for now. :b: |
| Dougan Axehammer07-13-03, 07:35 PM | In a campaign I was playing a while ago (2E), I had a half-elf mage thrust forward through time to endeavoring to find his way home. Through his journey he learned (or ended up believing) that there was a threat so great that his father used the artifact to combat banish the threat, resulting in the artifact being shattered and (of course) the half-elf and several others being sent through time. He also learned (or believed) that the artifact, containing emmence power, had the ability to send the wielder through time both forward and backward. So as a result, he decided to find the pieces of the artifact both to go home, and fix a variety of other problems within this "new" land. And if I had continued playing this character (he died more than twice and life started to interfere) I would have had several events happen (the DM had an ear for such things). First, since the artifact is (all )powerful and power corrupts, the half-elf would have had a fall from grace going from the NG alignment that he started with to CE. Second, his fall from grace would come from a result of misusing the artifact to fix the variety of other problems. And third, in atonement, to finally defeat the threat by destroying the artifact in a retributive strike, thereby sending the half-elf to his last death. |
| KotJC_Enigma4207-13-03, 11:00 PM | while not my own character death, in a recent game one of the other players sent his elf cleric charging into an enemy army in defense of the castle. Skewered one... and kept on charging... later on, while fleeing the castle, my halfling rogue picked up her magical spear and commented loudly "Ew. Its got bits of cleric on it." that same halfling I personally imagine dying gloriously... right now hes only working for leige and country because if he doesn't, he'll be turned into a newt. I imagine that later on through some order of events, this threat of a life smaller than it already is will vanish (possibly the wizard will die!!!) and he'll leave the party for a while, only to return at a crucial moment to save the party from immenint doom. My current star wars character will probably get blown up by friendly fire in space combat. All of my otehr star wars characters have ALWAYS died in space combat... However, I would imagine him dying doing something horribly stupid... similar to how he lost his right arm... (a jawa pointed a frag grenade launcher at him. In a reflex, he put his hand over the end of hte tube. The jawa pulled the trigger... yeah. No more arm, and a very damaged jawa.) Because though he may technically have a high int (14) and wis (13) hes also a 17 year old teenager rebelling against his father. Yep. A silly stupid death is the way for him. |
| JeanMontsempeau07-14-03, 09:19 AM | My current character has just recently entered into the epic levels, but that only means he can die all the gloriously. He's multiclassed with Rogue/Bard/Duelist/Blademaster. Currently in the aftermath of this huge war he is the only living member of the party and has kinda been forced into taking the throne, but little does the populace know that he maintains several other identities on the side, the Royal Spymaster, an insanely "lucky" wandering outlaw, a heartless mercenary who is unmatched in combat and the Head of the Theives Guild. Basically my character uses these identities to Play the Game of Houses, or stop the baddies subtely. But behind all of this he is trying to regain his lost love with this now uber-powerful sorceress turned way evil, and he'll do almost anything for her, but at the same time he finds himself falling for the elven blademistress who taught him, and whom he has now surpassed in skill. The sorceress is trying to turn my character to evil because she still loves him, but lusts for power. The blademistress is his Chancellor, Advisor and only friend still alive, they spend a lot of time together. But I see the sorceress confronting me and flying into a wild rage of jealousy because my heart is divided and attacking the elfmaid, but the elfmaid fighting back just as hard because she doesn't want to see her love turned to darkness. I would try to stop the fight, taking a mortal wound in the process, but before I died I'd kiss the both of them and then leave to take out the Lich King whose undead hordes rule 80% of the world before I finally croaked, It'd be hard but I'm supposedly the smartest individual in the land and I've been preparing to take the Lich King out for the better part of twenty years. |
| Random bloke07-14-03, 11:45 AM | Originally posted by JeanMontsempeau , It'd be hard but I'm supposedly the smartest individual in the land and I've been preparing to take the Lich King out for the better part of twenty years. Ooooooook. If that actually happens you will tell us how it worked out. Not "should", not "it would be nice" - we're going to hear it. Let's see... Best death would have to be: Sacrificing the characters for a bunch of innocents. Turning evil, then ditto ^ to stop a greater evil. Turning evil and blowing up the world. Worst: Slain by Orc No535. Not the type for that. |
| maddog6007-14-03, 02:14 PM | My latest character has been a Barbarian/Frenzied Berserker. He's the King of a small group of people who were born of a goddess and a wolf god (its a race my DM made up). The campaign has just reached epic levels, and I'm surprised my character made it. Most of the high level adventures had been spent fighting this vampire lord, the Blood Lord. When three heroes kinda appeared (long story, but a not cheesy time travel version), they set out to take on the Blood Lord. The Blood Lord had conquered most of a single continent, and in previous years had nearly eradicated the Lupe people. Our 4 man party eventually went into a campaign of war against him, culminating in a final battle in his castle. Given how my character mechanically didnt have much survivability. Having less than 20 AC above level 15 doesnt help, and the frenzying with subdual damage only made it worse, I was just hoping to make it to the fight with the Blood Lord and die gloriously there. I thought it'd be fitting, as defeating the Blood Lord would bring freedom to the Lupe, and my character didnt have any else really to live for (his whole village had been destroyed when he was younger). He survived, and afterwards he and the Paladin/Fighter convinced the rest of the party that we had to help the gods who were punished for interfering on our behalf during the war. So, we traveled into the Abyss, and I thought, hmm, freeing a diety, not a bad way to go out. Yet again, he survived though. I just know something really stupid will happen, like failing a random save (and it'll be fortitude too just to spite my character), that will kill him off in a much less than heroic way. |
| Talmariel07-14-03, 10:07 PM | To the DMs and GMs out there, maddog60's story reminded me of something important. The whole point of the question I found in the L5R GM's Guide was that when the characters got a few adventures under their belt, this was one of the questions you were supposed to pull them aside and ask. The point is so you know the player's desires and intentions for the character, so you can plan the climax of the campaign accordingly, and you know if you need to fudge things during the game (some people really do want to be killed by a random encounter; one of my favorite characters from literature, Augustus McCrae, died of an infection because he refused to have his infected leg amputated, and you know what? It was perfect for his character). I think this is an aspect of the game that should be mutually planned, to an extent. The player should give the GM an idea about how and why, but the GM determines the when and where (give or take, of course). It makes for some of the most satisfying gaming to be had. |
| Fox Lee07-15-03, 01:25 AM | In any time or fashion that is appropriate to the story, and the character. I feel that if the characters are supposed to be the heroes, no run-of-the-mill encounter or rope-climbing accident should finish them off (unless it's appropriate to the character). Usually this means "not at all", or at least "a long time from now in a different story". Our character very rarely die during their adventures, as the GMs and players generally all agree that this isn't very appropriate or fun - however, we do sometimes script their deaths at points far in the future. We had one very cool character who became a legend - he was slain while fighting Grazz't, and came back to life during his funeral by willpower alone. He proceeded to go right back down there, finish what he started, and finally died of old age on that same battlefield. BTW, Kharne, that sounds like an immensely cool death. Big points. |
| Mab_Deno07-17-03, 06:55 AM | I dont really want him to die, but I expect him to be beaten to a pulp by the rest of the adventuring party while trying to take the world for himself. I can see it now, standing ontop of the world raising his fist in defiance while simultainiously having his heart torn out, meteor swarmed, miracled and turned into a pincushion by an arcane archer. |
| Vel_Ziliuse07-17-03, 07:53 AM | Originally posted by Talmariel How do you want your character to die? Well it just depends on the characters. There is also a distinction between how I want him to die and how he wants to die. Grimmy (an halfling rogue) didn't understand the concept of dying. Incidentally he died several times (and got resurrected). The first time he was killed by a giant ... that is he killed the giant, the giant fell and killed him (botched reflex). That time he met Tymoria in the "afterworld" and tried to seduce her ... and almost succeded -_-' Ross Skybreaker, a psychic warrior, wants to avenge the destruction of his village once done that he would like to die in an heroic clash with a mighty dragon (Klauth could do it) so that his name will be written in History. I would like him to retire and die of old age with many grandchildren ^_^ |
| Lord of the Ninth07-17-03, 04:11 PM | Well, last character didn't quite die the way he would have liked so I'll start with him. His name was Grogneo Benevicci Laroche, or Grog for short. He was a rogue and a barbarian with levels of Fated. Out of combat he liked to act like an aristocrat and was very self centered and thought he was the greatest thing since sliced bread, but had the charisma and social skills to pull it off. He was also a traitor and lyer, having betrayed his native land, he was a wanted man. He also lied to the group on a regular basis and used the groups knight (non magical paladin) as dupe on at least three occasions. He owned a small keep about 30 miles out to sea, it was in international waters and its primary purpose was to give him somewhere to go in the event that he betrayed every single nation on the map (hypothetically of course). But when he did betray the whole continent (started 2 civil wars and a world war, almost single handedly), the keep was sieged and sacked (it took a whole legion of fiends, and we killed most of them). But in the end it wasn't safe anymore. So he and the group fled in land to some unexplored land, but before we got there I was shot in the back of the head by an iron crossbow bolt. Later, it was reveled that I had also betrayed the group, and my second country, and had been a triple agent (at least). The group then burned my body, through my Fullblade (7'6" sword) into a lake, and made off with my cart (it's a magical item that functions without a horse). Now he would have liked to have died (perhaps at the age of 50 or 60), at the hands of an angry mob who had just realised that he was the primary cause of every major problem known world had experienced in the past few decades. Thus allowing him to go down in history as a notorious villain, and the most hated many in 5 countries. Instead most people aren't even sure he did any of the things he did (makes me wish I hadn't used a Hat of Disguise, but then I wouldn't have been able to frame those two princes for killing the king and kidnapping a foreign princess...) Oh well. My current character plans on becoming immortal, and as a grey elf Chronomancer he just might make it, right now he's 307 years old and ages at half the rait of normal elves, soon he'll be able to stop the process of aging altogether, then all he needs is to avoid getting killed... |
| Lady Pain07-17-03, 06:33 PM | I'm currently playing a Asmir Paladin female (Rowan Greycastle), but before I got to play her my DM gave me the 'The Mother of All Character Questionaires', and that was one of the questions. I believe my response was to die while in the middle of a large group of drow deep in their own territory. Yes, I am going to die, but I'm going to take as many of them as I can with me. |
| JeanMontsempeau07-17-03, 09:54 PM | Okay so I had this other character named Urkain Deathwind, although most simply called him the Deathwind. He was very evil but had a warriors code. He was the Warleader of his Clan of Elves, all evil. Well he and his elite warriors rode griffon and after sacking most of the Savage North in the Forgotten Realms, some stone cold witch of a woman banished him and his Clan from the material Plane, throwing them into Sigil, right into the hands of these interdimensional slavers. Well they sold me and my cohorts as a unit to these Devils from the Nine Hells who ran "the Games", basically gladiator-style stuff, except using my small yet way elite band versus armies that dwarfed us or creatures so powerful it was ridiculous, well eventually my now much smaller, but immensely more elite soldiers dominated The Games, I myself would soon find out that I rivalled the fiends themselves in power, but we never knew how we rated compared to our masters. Well the Blood War broke out with renewed fervor, and our Master revealed themselves to us several Pit Fiends, and we were conscripted to fight for them. So we were elves, and therefore lowlier than elephant poo, and we were given nothing but suicide missions cause they didn't care what happened to us, but we just keep surviving and more importantly winning by a huge margin. My men were insanely disciplined responding instantly to my commands, yet were given free reign to act as the battle unfolded(ala Ender's Game). Soon we were given mission of more and more importance, and I was recognized as the great general I was, and as my plans seemed to get the job done better and more quickly then others I rose steadily in rank, until eventually The Dark Eight made me the first non-fiend to command the Armies of Hell in its campaign to conquer the material plane. The first thing I did was institute the same level of discipline my Clan had, and as victory after victory came our way, The Army soon became more loyal to me than the Dark Eight. That's were my ambition took over, with my influence, I could overthrow the Dark Eight and lead the Devils myself, right? Well I confronted the Dark Eight with my Army and a titanic battle ensued their forces against mine, and finally it came down to a duel between me and the Leader of the Dark Eight. Oh what a fight that was, but as the fight progressed I began to realize that I was outmatched, so I cheated, I used this artifact(actually I still don't know what exactly it was, I just assume it was an artifact) to summon a Solar to the battle and try to drain away the Pit Fiends life force, but then the unthinkable happened the Solar turned on me and began laying waste to everyone and everything, slaughter both sides, so as I turned to confront this new threat, the Pit Fiend I was fighting tore out my heart and seized my soul to torment forever. But I lucked out, my soul managed to escape and possess the body of my infant son, but the ordeal changed me so much, I was a completely new person, and besides that's another story. |
| King of Diamonds07-18-03, 12:17 PM | My death of choice would involve me standing befor a dietie with the dialouge ending something like this The God of Death "You dare acuse me of insolence?!? THAT IS INCOLENCE!!!" |
| Hudson07-21-03, 12:36 PM | hmm I have several characters one is a guy I really want to play: Duncan: ahem a tiefling who has become a demon, the campaign ended that way. my way: getting blow to bits in a apache vs big demon aerial battle in a downtown big city. his way: he doesn't expect to die Dubhchadh Diarmaid: arrogant dark elf fighter who currently is a mercanary looking for cold hard cash.(he's D&D) my way: somehow ends up in the modern world working some other evil dudes, now he would die by getting smkacked on the head by a pregnant (good) demon with a frying pan, falling out of a window into the dark stormy weather drowning. his way: he really more lives in the now more than what's to come, he doesn't know how he wants to die though. Duncan O'Toole: tiefling Gunslinger that's the grandchild of the other Duncan.(D20m character I've yet to play and instead is writing a rather long story about.. you could call it a book). my way: of lung cancer like when he's older. his way: he's also a guy living on the now more than the past and future. |
| DAoC man07-21-03, 11:09 PM | Not like I did a few hours ago :) (I did massive amounts of damage with a whirlwind to five low-level demons. What I didn't know was that they have an aura that reflects my own damage back on me as well...~300 damage. Ouch.) |
| insert-lame-name-here07-22-03, 04:53 AM | My character will never die of natural causes, he's a vampire. But the best bit is, he was a paladin!!! Does anyone else play a vampire, i don't know anyone! |
| insert-lame-name-here07-22-03, 04:55 AM | ....But i forgot to say how i wanna die, i wanna die fighting that b******d Heironeous, bloody do gooder! |
| Mnky07-22-03, 07:22 AM | With a grin and a broken staff of the magi in my hand. :D |
| cowdragon07-23-03, 04:08 AM | This happened to a friends character in a 2E game we played about 8 years agon. He had a CE 1/2 ogre who was always making thins interesting for our group. He had an intelligient axe that wanted to destroy all lawful beings. It sang "Breakin' the Law" whenever he used it on one. Anyway, back to the point. The DM made a map for us, with a legend. He put letters on the map and they were explained in the legend. One of the islands was labeled "E". Well, this 1/2 ogre always wanted to go to "E". He refused to call it by its name. He also had the habbit of thinking he had "magic powers" like the 2 wizards in the group. Whenever something didn't go his way he would say "I cast "you can't do that"".Then, we found a throne of the Gods. He made a REALLY selfish wish to become a God and was destroyed. No ressurect either. He made a new character and we missed the ogre. We played for about another month, and finally as a party we got to go to "E". So we went there, and were attacked by a group of kobolds who were worshipping a statue that looked like our ogre. Each one of them cast "You can't do that" on us the first time we hit them or cast a spell on them. And they all sang "Breakin' the Law". We, a group of mostly CE characters, were laughing so hard, and liked these little kobolds so much...we ran away. We could have slaughtered the lot of them, but we chose to run and let them sing and cast. It was great.:cool: :cool: |
| Trydan07-23-03, 08:19 AM | For my favourite fighter/sorcerer, it would be when he casts lightning bolt while wearing chainmail (or some other metal armour). And when that Arcane Spell Failure roll is failed (about 30% chance), and then the random-effect house-rule d20 is rolled, the result is complete character electrocution. He'd lie there twitching for about an hour - long after his life force had gone. His cold clammy skin'd be branded with the pattern of the chainmail links, and there'd be this awful smell of ozone in the air. |
| Trydan07-23-03, 08:22 AM | Oh... another good one. The party goes into the tavern and orders a meal. The DM asks a random player to make a Fortitude saving throw. It is failed. The DM then shakes his head sadly, and says: "I'm sorry, but NAME-OF-HERO/INE has just choked to death on an olive". Sometimes it is the death-by-trivial-item that is more bitter than death-by-epic-battle. But not for my characters, please! |
| scorchmagus07-24-03, 06:33 PM | My wizard wound up alone in the main hall of a castle and facing a greater evil god. The god started to tell me his evil plot (which I had already learned, and in fact knew more about than he did), and I interrupted him. "Could you maybe tell me something I haven't known for a month?" He stopped and glared at me. Then had his pet demon (think Balrog crossed with a Blue Dragon) tear my spine out. The rest of my group just sat aghast, jaws hanging open, at me saying that. Then they all burst out laughing because it was the most appropriate thing I could have done with that character. He'd made snide comments at the following through the course of that campaign: Forgotten race of elves with no concept of arcane magic(youngest was over 7,000 years old) - level 3 Elder Fire Elemental - level 5 High Lord of a Paladinic order - levels 1-8 (our group's paladin belonged to this order) Wyrm Silver Dragon - level 9 For my current character, I second the (paraphrased) "with a grin and a broken Staff of the Magi." |
| dirk hightower07-25-03, 03:30 PM | The best "death story" in my group was a pyro-wizard. We were all charged by a Mammoth horned beast of some kind and while most of us ran for cover or hid - this guy stood his ground in order to get off a shot of something at the thundering beast. Well, his shot missed and he was promptly trampled to death by the Beast..... however, in the perusal of the characters sheet it was discovered that he still had the 2o brand new bottles of alchemy fire still on his body when he was trampled..... so, the Beast didn't survive the expolsive blast! It was an inadvertant heroic sacrificial death... kind of fullfilling the old cliche - "blaze of glory" |
| hippy's_return07-26-03, 04:24 PM | "I'd want to die like Buliwyf from 13th Warrior, especially if that was it and I wasn't going to be raised from the dead or anything." (bah i dont know how to do the proper quotey thingy) is that the blond haired bloke who gets poisoned? he was cool. well, the only interesting death (e.g. not "dont plan to") for one of my characters is my Thibbledorf Pwent clone who occasionally uses an axe, he wouldnt even consider getting killed a possibility so it would be something like approaching a random horde of enemies, standing on his own on a big flat peice of land, planting his feet, screaming at the top of his lungs and throwing all his weapons (a greatsword and a greataxe), then all his other stuff (a bedroll and barrel of ale), into the approaching flood of enemies then meeting their million strong charge with one of his own, taking down as many as he could using his armor spikes and spiked gauntlets, laughing, collecting random body parts on his armor and screaming like a crazed drunken demigod with ADD the thing is, he'd probably win too, every time we expect him to fall valiantly in battle, he walks off laughing, peeling monsters off his armor spikes and asking when the next fight is, its unbelievable, and he's just reached level 4 |
| Cloud Strife07-26-03, 08:13 PM | My character (lvl 13 Necromancer) doesn't plan on dying. I'm saving up the 112k GP (I think its 112k...) needed to become a lich :) Now my other Wizard (lvl7) is planning on taking on the God of Darkness to take his/her place (haven't asked the DM yet who is the god of Darkness in his campaign :P ) Think something like Raistlin.... Actually it's exactly like Raistlin :D |
| KotJC_Enigma4207-26-03, 11:37 PM | Though I've yet to play a character, I've started creating a (back)story in my mind. I imagine him dying in a one-on-one face off with a Balor or Pit Fiend, where, after a long battle the foe thinks its finally won. It grabs the sorcerer by the chin, lifting him off the ground (the sorcerer is sorely wounded, battered, typical not-quite-dead stuff). Then, the demon says in a sarcastic/sadistic voice "Any last words?" he answers: "Two: Retributive Strike" and breaks his fully charged staff of the Magi on his knee (albiet weakely). The blast of course incinerates both him and the demon (it was weakend by the battle, so the two hundred damage offed him). Naturally he had spent the previous night (in anticpation of the battle) draining the staff of every charge so that he KNEW how many charges the thing had. Then slowly filled it back up (carefully tracking how many spell levels he was putting it) Anyway, I think that would be a great final battle for a sorcerous character. Retributive strikes are such fun! |
| Xalxika07-28-03, 05:27 PM | I want my Devil Hunter to go out after sealing the nine gates of Hell, dying in a battle with the Demons Lords themselves. |
| hiryuu07-28-03, 05:30 PM | I dunno. One of my current characters, "Kim", will technically never die. It's very complicated. I want Shoo to maybe die of old age, happy, living in some village with Morgan, maybe. |
| Matrixy07-29-03, 03:24 AM | My latest character just took a dozen-mile dive into the center of Ghenna and bodyslammed a Balor straight into the ground at terminal dive velocity. It was a good way to go. |
| Darok07-29-03, 02:29 PM | A story, and then current characters Necromancer Orolan. Not a "death" per se, but he had no way of knowing the difference. We had gone to get powerful item X from a Linnorm, living in a temple in the middle of a lake. We killed him, no biggie. On the way out, we were making our way across floating platforms back to shore, and the Linnorms father comes. after a bit of dialogue, Orolan extrapolates the Linnorms plan: to dive under the water, and perform hit and run tactics on the PCs because they'd have no idea where he is. Orolan's response? Cast light on the Linnorm's nose. He couldn't hide underwater anymore, so he was rather outraged, in addition to the indignity of looking like Rudolph. So the Linnorm changes tactics, and is going to take to the air, and destroy us from there. Orolan, is of course, very full of himself now. He levitates up to the level of the Linnorm, expecting to take him on in single combat. Orolan does NOT realize that he can be swallowed whole by the linnorm MUCH more easily in the air, until the dragon begins charging him. I check his spells.... 1 Melf's Acid Arrow. Oh ****. (I must add here we played a less rules-intensive campaign, and emphasized the creative aspects.) Now, Orolan had a staff he had recently picked up, that was of great power, namely a Staff of the Magi. He (and I) had no idea what its capabilities were. So I asked the DM if Orolan could somehow consume the staff, and destroy them both in the resultant torrent of Magical Energy. Our DM grins and says "Sure". Orolan breaks it.... And wakes up on Elysium. Now, his alignment was Neutral Good. So this was (in 2nd ed Planescape) his personal heaven. The DM had rolled the chance to see if Orolan survived, and then to see which plane he ended up on. It took Orolan a long time to figure out he actually HADN'T died there. My current character is a crafty bastard. A mage, very heavy on disguising and so forth. His intent is to help society and change it from the shadows, fixing everything with noone knowing whom he TRULY is, or that he is even doing anything. He has many different identities, each placed within the kingdom and each posessing completely different roles and personas (with noone knowing that each of these people is really just a figment of Dear Taren's imagination). He wants to give everyone what they want, and designs his machinations to that end. So, I would like him to die while playing the villain in one of his scenarios, and then whomever his killer is should learn exactly all the good that Taren has done for them. |
| elijahsound08-01-03, 05:01 PM | Here's a valorous show, I've always thought... We were playing in dragonlance back in second edition and a friend of mine and I had rolled up these twin characters that were both trying to get initiated into the Solamnic Knights. One day we were searching a dungeon infested with goblins, and when we turned a corner the little bastards had set a trap for us. The sharp point of a ballista was aimed at us from the end of the hall. My character's brother was in front of mine and as the gigantic arrow was fired, he pushed him out of the way and took the ballista in the chest. It knocked him through the wall behind us, and we all thought he was surely dead, being only like 2nd level. But it turned out the breast plate he had on was unknowingly a magic item of some power and it had absorbed a good amount of force and left him only seriously injured. I thought he was dead for sure. The DM probably just said the armor was magic so he wouldn't have to die. |
| lordyuri2408-01-03, 07:06 PM | "For god's sake, I have been using magic for longer than you have been alive, I which way to hold a wand of Evocation! Want proof? FLAMESTRIKE!" Not the most noble way to go, but he lived long enough to learn that he wasn't going to die in bed with a Succubus! (that is something he stayed alive for!) |
| Edymnion08-02-03, 01:49 AM | My sorceress is a follower of Selūne. I hope to take her epic, and my ideal way to have her make her exit is fighting alongside Selūne herself in a final battle between her and Shar. She would consider it to be a worthy death if she did nothing more than distract Shar at the crucial point to let Selūne strike. Lol, although I'd be just as happy to have her live through said battle and raise to become a minor storm deity. :angel: |
| Dell Kallyan08-02-03, 05:32 PM | Most desirable deaths: While with a succubus/eriynes or nymph, getting blown to tiny pieces by the biggest explosion ever (preferably while in an enemies castle or something, and the explosion was caused by me), or holding off some incredibly powerful thing or force (an individual or a group) to let my party escape. Or maybe my sorceror could quickened spell teleport my party members away so he can retributive strike, killing the BBEG and himself and saving the party. Worst deaths: Once I was crushed to death by a cyclops I killed that fell on top of me. One person in our party drowned in sewage, and once our NPC paladin fell off a bridge and died when he hit the floor 250 feet down. The worst, though, is probably to mess up, like crit hit insant kill all the BBEG's minions in the final battle and when going for the BBEG, mess up, crit miss, and go down with hardly a fight. I saw a whole thread of worst character deaths, including having a shapechanging spider/human (forget the name, araneid or something) web some guy to a bed and lay eggs in his head, which slowly killed him over a 2 week process. Another was a party of characters were going after a dragon, and the archer had arrows with oil of impact (about 40 of them I think), and the dragon decided to slam attack the archer... the explosion killed the dragon and there was nothing left of the archer. |
| nowiwantmydmg09-09-03, 04:41 AM | I'd love for my character to go out saving the party from some BBEG. Only to reappear some time later(didn't actually die party assumes death) to save the party again in a time of great need and die for good the second time. Either that or in a huge explosion-preferably my fault, preferably that of the astral and ethreal planes collapsing(which would in our campaign world (and most others i thinks) destroy all of reality). |
| Jackshadow09-09-03, 01:09 PM | I think this man summed it up the best: "Crom, I have never prayed to you before. I have no tongue for it. No one, not even you, will remember if we were good men or bad. Why we fought, and why we died. All that matters is that today, two stood against many. Valor pleases you, so grant me this one request. Grant me revenge! And if you do not listen, the HELL with you!" -Conan the Barbarian Years ago, I had a long-time character who had acquired an item allowing him to heal/regenerate himself. Well, the BBEG (and bane of our existence for 3 years of playing) kicked serious party-butt, but my character soaked up a lot of damage, and while hurt very badly managed to finished it off. However, his significant other was bleeding to death and there was really only one choice a hero could make: He gave her his regeneration, and died of his now-unhealing wounds. The DM was really really good, so the whole scene between my character and his paramour was heartbreaking. We had the *players* crying. Now THAT was a good way to go. |
| Disciple of Darkness09-10-03, 01:48 PM | Well, I prefer that my characters would not die, but if they would have to: Evil ones: to be killed by a true hero and to die in a horrible explosion of unholy energy (those of you who have seen Digimon, think of Myotismon's death). Good and neutral ones: to be killed in a desperate attempt to save their loved ones from the powers of evil and altough they are victorious, they die, but their memories will never dim in the minds of their comrades, friends, and those whom they have saved (altough the neutral ones don't usually have this many friends and so on). Or... Evil, neutral, and good ones: To die of old age. :D |
| schnee09-11-03, 06:17 PM | My current character is a cleric of Kossuth. He wants to transcend mortality, to become fire. He realizes it's going to be painful as all hell, but that is the test; to see if the wise can overcome their selfish attachment to comfort and safety to achieve true holiness. He'll probably die by immolation, in a magical fire of his own creation versus a BBEG. |
| gonzofighter09-12-03, 10:41 AM | One of my favorite characters was Hothgar the Kru barbarrian. He and the party went to storm a ruined castle occupied by gnolls. He scaled the wall and charged the first group he sees. The fight goes well until he gets trapped in a tower a little seperated from the group and surrounded. He fought hard but the GM rolled 2 crits at once. Massive damage and Im dead. A few rounds later the cleric comes around and rezzes me, heals me up to full, and sends me on my way to rescue the druid. I defeat those gnolls and the druid is safe. More gnolls coming from the keep so I head them off in the stair tower while the cleric and druid go up to disable a ballista. The last gnoll kills me.(thats 2 times in 10 minutes) The cleric comes again and wishes me back up with full HP. I go into the tower again to take on the next wave, 2nd round of that and the GM pops me with 3 crits!(3 times in 10 minutes!) When the cleric made it around again I was dripping from the celing. But being pulled out of Valhalla twice in one day was enough and we decided to let Hothgar enjoy his well deserved afterlife. (God I love this game) |
| Mushi09-12-03, 02:25 PM | I want to die because I choked on my own spittle. |
| Faeryl Zauvirr09-15-03, 06:11 AM | I ran a solo adventure with my brother and he played a half-orc barbarian. Anyway, he wanted his character to go down with style, she here begins the wierdest dnd game I have ever been apart of... He was on an island, with the mayors of two local towns, looking for a stolen trophy. Whilst inside a light house they came across it, and immediantly the two mayors stared to argue over which town deserved to take the trophy away. In the heat of the arguement one mayor pointed to the half-orc and said, "Well, we can't let the brute of a half-orc take it!" My brother's character stood straight and said calmly, "Was that an orcish slur?" He then repeated again and again, each time getting more furious. Finally he snapped. He broke the glass cabnet the Trophy was in, and scewered one mayor. The other mayor screamed and ran. The half-orc gave chase and butchered the other mayor. He then took that mayor's head, put it on the trophy and went running and screamming out of the tower. The rowboat pilot saw the half-orc running down with the mayors head on a trophy and started to row away. My brother's PC made the jump check and landed on the boat and killing the salior with the trophy. He then rode to town and delieved the trophy. The townspeople started a arguing, and as there was no mayors to calm down their people a riot started. The Half-orc was eventually taken down by a broken piece of glass as the town burned. For all that, when he was resurrected, I changed his alignment from CN to CE. |
| BunnyMaster10-15-05, 01:10 PM | I would want them to die in a heroic battle with a massive armor clad overlord riding a large demonic rabbit, or of sudden heart attacks when they see a goblin :evillaugh |
| Super_Demolition_Christ10-15-05, 04:28 PM | Well I was feeling kind of muchkinesh. I had processed in my mind the fact that I have about 5 ideas for replacment characters if mine dies; My character is a Hyuuga Taijustu Master(Naruto); and info on the transormation stuffs of Werewolves,having the idea of having an afflicted character who fought the transformation, and that if he ever willingly transformed, it would "change him" anyways, I was thinking of this cool scenario of him staying behind and stopping a hord of monsteres while the part ran out of the dungeon for their lives. Knowing he would die he would do everything he could. First you must know that as a taijustu master,by this time he would have unlocked the most of the 8 gates to increase his power(though the after effects would cause great harm to him) so here he is fighting a loosing battle when he starts unleashin the gates. 2nd gate open +4 to attack rolls, 3rd temp HP, 4th +4AC, 5th heal half damage. and in the meantime he transforms into a where wolf hybrid volenterily and pretty much goes into a barbaric rage of power with a little bloodlust do to his changed alignment -------- I was inspired by someones tale of a dwarven defender who died stalling an army of orcs |
| Lhiannon Sidhe10-15-05, 10:17 PM | The most memorable character deaths of mine are the epic ones. I once played a Blue Drackin Barbarian, a home made humanoid dragon race that my DM created and toned down enough not to warrant a level adjustment. We were being hounded by an evil 20th level sorcerer with a divine rank of 0, while we were about level 5. We ended up in a dead end in a dungeon and had no means of escape, until our bard realized that the carvings in the room were actual a portal to... well, who knows where, but we didn't have a lot of options. Only problem was, someone had to remain behind to keep it open long enough for the others to get through. The party rogue suggested drawing cards from his deck, low card stays. My character drew a King, but didn't show anyone and said it was a 2. The rest of the party goes through the portal to saftey, and the portal closes, giving the party a last glimpse of my character drawing his two axes and rushing in to fight the sorcerer as he entered the room. I rolled up a new character and we continued playing, later on, we met a Blue Dragon, with the unusual characteristic of being Chaotic Good - Bahamut reincarnated my character as a full blooded dragon for his noble sacrifice and from then on, he served as the party's NPC mount. I also had a character for Werewolf: The Apocalypse, a Silent Strider Galliard. As the Final Battle of the Apocalypse raged on in the Battlefield Realm, her pack descended into the depths of Malfaes and into the Black Spiral itself, where they lost two members of their pack, their Theurge and their Philodox. At the heart of the Black Labyrinth, they encountered the Wyrm itself, trapped in Weaver's Webs. Their goal: Free the Wyrm in an attempt to cure it's madness. A pack of Black Spiral Dancers immediatly attacked the pack our Ahroun, a Red Talon leaped into the fray with them, going into a suicidal frenzy, hoping to distract them long enough for the rest of us to complete our task. The Red Talon fought without fear, and with all of Luna's Rage, and managed to kill three of the Dancers before the remaining two brought him down and began to feast on his flesh. My Galliard was the one who knew the secret Rite from the First Times that could free Wyrm from his entrapment, and began to preform it, drawing Wyrm's attention, who prompty came to kill her. The Ragabash, a Stargazer, and only remaining packmate, by use of his Gifts, lead Wyrm on a wild goose chase after himself. Of course, no Garou can elude Wyrm for long, and he was soon swallowed whole by the Corruptor. And, in typical World of Darkness fashion, he didn't manage to buy my Galliard enough time to finish the Rite, and Wyrm called forth an army of Banes, which she had to face alone, and fell beneath their tainted claws and teeth. In the end, the Armies of the Wyrm destroyed the Garou nation, slew Mother Gaia, and all life on Earth was extinguished, leaving the world a cold, desolate wasteland. |
| Fithero10-15-05, 10:42 PM | One of my greatest characters was a 2nd lvl fighter who just did *stupid* things (he was the parties clown). He went on a scouting mission at night fall and afterwards he made his way back to the party, which was at the bottom of this rocky slope. Anyway he ran down this slope (at night) which caused a rock slide. He gets to the bottom and somehow manages to survive it and makes it back to his horse. He looks behind him and sees a strange undead creature (a ghast) walking towards him, he races over to his horse and jumps on. Now this horse didnt like my character due to previous entanglements so it decided not to move. So, suffering a massive concussion, my character jumps off the stubborn horse and stabs his sickle into the horses butt. The horse then turns around and kicks the character to the ground and then walks off, putting him into negative hit points as the ghast finishes him off. Later the party found the character... as a ghast... and he died once again. I loved that character. Later |
| erbmjw10-15-05, 11:31 PM | Had a chaotic good barbarian who died keeping a path way blocked off from the orcish war party that needed to escaspe the high tide trap our party had set for them. Our party had been forcing/tricking the orcish warparty to chase us for days in game time and over multiple gaming sessions in real time. :cool: My character could have stepped back and let the NPC's take the hits but it did not seem the kind of thing he would do, first because he knew tehy would not survive long under the onslught and second because his full attack two handed, bastard sword,power attack, viscous blow, and cleave were working so well against the warparty. He stayed up front swinging away until he finally went down. Nothing special to his death he was just finally collapsed from hits - but by the time the orcs had killed him the high tide had killed almost all of the remaining orcs from the warparty. The GM let me take over one of the remaining NPCs as a player character so that I could continue playing. That's how I got my first taste of playing a non-violent cleric with very high ability scores, I think the GM was worried about my next character being ultra-violent and thought that this would be a good test of how well I could role play ;) |
| Faramir15410-16-05, 01:50 AM | Either Peaceful, or horribly violent. Anyway I see it, I'd rather see my characters dying in bed, surrounded by living loved ones and friends and going away peacefully. Or in a glourious fight, for good and all that good crap, and dying with the knowledge that his life was not in vain and that what he died for was successful. |
| 2E Ranger10-16-05, 03:24 AM | I played a 2E ranger for around three years. We had a lot of time invested in those characters. The party had been together since around day one. We had killed dragons, helped gods to depose other gods, fought armies, and survived. We had a habit of taking on bigger, badder stuff and winning by awesome tactics. We once lured a warrior (who our DM had intended to be invincible) out onto a boat in the middle of a bay...high seas chase deal...and then sunk his boat. Full plate doesn't float. Anyway....after all of that, we go to this foreign city where everyone is a jerk. There is a church in control of the kingdom and they are tyrants, though supposedly good-aligned. We found out that they had a bit of an undead problem in their cellar. We told them that it was their responsibility. Three days out of town we get word that the undead had broken loose and were ravaging the town. They had decided that we were who we said we were, track us down, and beg for help. We went back and proceeded on the most ridiculous dungeon crawl ever. We were a thief, a paladin, and a ranger. We're in there tearing it up, kill some skeletons, have a tough-ish fight with some death knights, manage to take out a lich with a super lucky disintegrate spell, beat three demons, two of whom were major deals and are headed out... Only to get wiped out by a fireball from a death knight we missed along the way. NOT how I wanted that character to go. |
| Ferere10-16-05, 04:54 AM | Well my most memorable death was also my highest lvl character I ever played. I was playing a lvl 21 LE Rakshasa that my DM wanted to kill really badly. I ended up getting backed into a church with no escape and a whole score of archons, angels and good-aligned demi-gods. Basically it was one of those "you're gonna die and you have no way out DM tricks." Knowing my character is in for it I call for these various good align npcs to duel me one after another and I won't heal in between fights. They know I am Lawful so they agree. Basically I manage to kill quite a few of these guys including heros, archons, angels etc... According to the Book of Vile Darkness the area inside this temple is now an area where an act of darkness like the world has never seen before has taken place and the entire area is effected as if by an unhallow spell and eventually I am killed. I decided at this point that even if my char was resurrected the DM would kill him again so also as per the Book of Vile Darkness I use the dying curse. Due to the fact that I am a lvl 21+ in the chart the effects are DM's discretion but should be more powerful than a wish spell as it is the category below. Basically I use the dying curse to permanently open a portal to the ninth layer of hell right in the middle of the Holliest place of worship on the particular world we were playing in and to boost the death the church was also under the effect of a pernament unhallow spell from the evil acts committed in it. |
| GilaMonster10-20-05, 02:54 PM | Current character is a fighter/cleric of the Red Knight (Faerun deity of strategy and tactics) In a crucial, world-altering battle. Cut-off from allies and surrounded by enemies. Calling a maximised flamestrike down on herself, killing all foes in the process. Nothing like going to your goddess in a literal blaze of glory. :ghosted: :cool: |
| Berzerker_prime10-20-05, 07:35 PM | My group just had its first character death, ever. Which in and of itself is pretty impressive, since we've been going for about two years now. Our Halfling Rogue, a gentle-shorty by the name of Alton, went prowling around an old tomb with the rest of the group. As they had already encountered a number of nasties, the heavily armored Dwarf was going first on the theory that he could take a few hits. So, the Dwarf walks into a room. Directly after him comes Alton. Boom! Floor drops out from beneath him... the same floor that the 350 lb Dwarf had just crossed. Down poor Alton drops through 60 feet of chasm and onto a bed of very very sharp spikes. "Err... how many hit points do you have?" asks our GM. "29," answers Alton's player, "why?" "Because you just took 42 points of damage..." "Uhhh... that's more than -10, isn't it?" says another player. "Yeah," says a slightly stunned GM. After much casting about for things that we missed, rolls Alton could still make, things the other characters could do, it was decided that there was nothing that would avail poor Alton. RIP Halfling. Later that night, the former player of Alton made the following comment: "I am a leaf on the wind. Watch as I soar." ^_^ Sweet water to you! Berz. |
| Faramir15410-21-05, 12:42 AM | "I am a leaf on the wind. Watch as I soar." R.I.P Wash *tear* |
| Blakeman10110-21-05, 01:45 AM | Let me tell you the story of Coleck the half-elven bard. He was a 11th level bard. So we had to basicly kill an evil 18th level wizard. But after almost dying he teleported to the plane of the abyss. In the game the abyss was off limits unless you were dead or an evil spell caster so I had the party kill me and I ended up in the abyss and killed the wizard. So I rolled up a new character and play continued. But later in the game we went to an inn and inside was a Bard singing of the bravery of Coleck the hero amoung Bards. But you know what was funny? The DM made the party Barbarian CN after he killed me despite my protests that Coleck had commited suicide |
| Elvis Gone Warlock10-21-05, 01:59 AM | My epic level sorcerer's death is already planned out and ready to go. He actually saves an epic spell slot every day so he can kill himself this way... He's going to cast a custom spell with the Slay, Harm, and Energy seeds that deals 20d6 fire damage and 40d6 negative energy damage to everything within 60 miles, and then tries to kill each seperate creature. The save DCs for these effects is 87 each. Oh, and it repeats every round for a year. Sound great? Except there's 5000000d6 backlash. Imagine that, disintegrating yourself along with everyone and everything anywhere near you... |
| Berzerker_prime10-21-05, 10:29 PM | R.I.P Wash *tear* *hands Faramir154 a plastic dino to hug in sadness.* |
| Debug0x2a10-23-05, 03:51 AM | My ranger/assassin, kinda annoyed at his lack of damage output in comparison with the party decided to make a drastic action for the sake of the party. Party sitting there with damage still on em from a previous encounter runs into a black dragon. If we were at full health it would have been a fair fight, but we weren't, and the mages' spells weren't quite full at that point. Figuring I had the lowest damage output of the group, I grabbed the Shugenja's wand of fireballs, and took a leap down the winged serpents throat and started blasting. I actually was very very close to surviving the encounter too despite taking massive damage from my own fireballs, but alas, poor Curuwath didn't make it. On the bright side though, he probably saved the Shugenja and the Black Flame Zealot because of his sacrifice. |
| nissir200010-23-05, 12:03 PM | My half-dragon half-halfling rogue wanted to die of old age, sitting on her pile of gold :) |
| obrysii10-24-05, 09:40 AM | We had a TPK (it was supposed to be) near the beginning of our Evil campaign. Three of the five party members died right away, and the two remaining were a Kobold Wilder and a Bullywug Hexblade (my character). In the end, we nearly defeated the Level 14ish wizard (we were level 4), but we were overwhelmed. Dying while not backing down to a clearly greater foe, particularly when there is much at risk, would be the type of death most of my character would prefure. |
| Amphetryon10-24-05, 04:21 PM | DM - Alright, Garvin, round four starts. Grogg fell victim to the Vampire Sorcerer's mind-effecting magics and leapt into the magma. He is alive, but unconcious as a result (lucky for him he was ejected by the erupting crater), and his father's Double-axe is destroyed. Gemina's attempt to turn the creature was in vain, and he rewarded her with a meteor swarm. She and Merridac were caught in the blast, because he aimed at her and because Merridac was trying to skulk into position to Sneak Attack the Vampire with his halfling-sized Sunblade. That Feat he thought was wasted looked good until he failed the save. Gemina and Merridac are both at neg 8 and stable. Only the Fly spell you cast and your Ring of Improved Invisibility have kept you up this long, Garvin. *rolls* You have initiative. What do you do? Player - I break my Staff of the Magi for a retributive strike. Only the Vamp Sorcerer and I are in the blast radius. The staff had 31 charges. With my last breath, I spit at thee, Vampire! DM - :OMG! :censored: Party - :clap: :cheer: |
| Archangel_Arcanis10-24-05, 05:00 PM | While i've had some character die fighting the bbeg none were as great as my gnome giant slayer who died when defending a party member that was out. He tounted the obviously superior giant and took him on 1 on 1 to save the party member and several near bye vilagers. When he wouldn't come back to life the other players cryed thats when i decided that no mater what that character was truely successful. also in a Wheel of time game a freind was in their character was realy being picked on by the gm. He fell in love with a woman, she became a darkfriend and betrayed him. She comes back admits her betreyal and kills herself with him unable to stop her. He as an archer sneaks up on a fist of trollocs chaseing his friends and fires at the myrdrall leading them. He did heroicly kill the mydrall before dieing, not bad for a 5th lvl woodsman. |
| Order 66(6)10-24-05, 11:36 PM | I think this is a fantastic question, and one that can tell you a lot about people's characters and what they hold dear. But what I'll give is an example of a character death I played out in this campaign that I had a ball doing. Basically, I was playing a good ranger named Jaques throughout the campaign, kind of a badass who didn't really talk much and was there when you needed him. The token decent, dependable guy. And then as the party started getting wracked with tension and intermember squabbling he started going over the edge, doing things he wouldn't normally do as per his alignment until finally he mistakenly thought his best friend in the party (Seth) was cheating on the woman he had supposedly given his heart to....the woman he was desperately searching for who was kidnapped by the enemy (it's a Dragonlance game, so the enemy was the Knights of Takhisis). Finally, he snapped and realized that if these people were the best and truest of heart the world could hope for everyone was screwed. It shattered his faith in all that was good and just and he sided with Takhisis. Fast forward some months in game time. My character has since become an NPC and I started playing a 12 year old. My ranger reappears as one of the Dragon Highlords leading the assault on Krynn, meets up with the party, throws the party's Kender off a cliff just to spite them, taunts them, it is revealed that that Seth's aforementioned girlfriend who was kidnapped is now in league with the knights (zing!) and possibly in a relationship with Jacques, and gets away. Then, final battle (in which the DM let me play my old character), he chops off my 12 year old character's arm to start things off, in the heat of battle kills our noble's loyal bodygaurd and talks trash the whole way in the vilest most catty manner possible. And then the tide starts to turn...the 2 powerful mages (one of whom was Seth's girlfriend) turn on him. Seth's girlfriend, seeing the party ganging up on Jaques quips "Everybody has to die some time Jaques..." At this point Jaques was getting beat up pretty bad, and Seth was doing most of the beating. Finally, knowing that death was imminent Jaques really started to lose it, sprouting pithy sayings and trying to get away, really revealing his true nature. Finally, Seth decapitated him as he tried to turn tail and run, but it was far too late. To me, that was an awesome character death and was the perfect way I wanted to end it for this turncoat....on this plane anyway... ;) |
| Scyld10-25-05, 07:57 AM | I want my character to die in a room full of his enemies while uttering a word of creation that causes him to explode in an awesome blast of cosmic power, causing his current HP + 50 damage to everything in the room, thus saving the world, and the party. |
| VagueZ10-28-05, 12:08 PM | Few good, old stories: had a CG female human rogue who turned out to be the missing piece in the rite to ressurrect the campaign's ultimate evil thing (that's what we called it... only the DM could pronounce what he named it). Well, the cult of the UET has us trapped. Half the party's dead, including the half-orc paladin (one of my favorite characters to play with, ever), and the rest of us are basically doomed. So my party murders me to prevent me from being sacrificed and having the world destroyed in the process. *sob* That was my favorite character... she'd've preferred to die fighting, not backstabbed by the party. A bit older, but not fatal: a CG (favorite alignment... despite me being LG) male elf bard who was, more-or-less, useless (bad stat rolls...). We meet the demon lord who's been plaguing us the whole campaign. I pass the DM a note saying, "I ready an action to interrupt as soon as he starts monologuing." Sure enough, he starts talking about his plot, when I yell over him, "I am the Lord of Darkness! You will learn to fear me! If you will not bow your knee, I will remove it for you! And now, let all the planes know of my might! Tremble in..." ad nauseaum, until the demon recovers from his shock of having this mildly insane elf steal his speech, and he clobbers me. -8 HP in one hit, stabilizing check made. I just lay there half-dead while the rest of the party got through the climatic encounter. The rest of the players kept randomly busting up during the fight, though. It would have been a perfect time for my character to die, though. He always planned to die in such a way that he'd end up remembered by other bards. Probably the best death, ever, comes from a several-hundred-player, online, non-DnD campaign still ongoing. My character is a cleric, Lirae, who ended up meeting the king of one of the campaign's more powerful nations and marrying him. This campaign (weirdly...) manages to have two generations going at once and keep things still pretty clear, so while she's still a newlywed in 'her' generation, her two kids are already out adventuring in the younger generation storyline. At the end of the story for the first generation, an evil, artifact-scythe-weilding sorceror, will try to conquer the world, and the higher-level PCs will eventually stop him after he devastates half the continent. In the younger generation, he returns, even stronger, and actually does end up conquering the entire campaign world. This hasn't happened just yet, but it's very nearly set in stone: Lirae's husband, King Ryan the Great, ends up in single combat with Valistrix, and dies. Lirae, normally the healer, but still epic-level, snaps. "I'll avenge you, Ryan, and then I'll join you. In life or death, we will never be apart..." She *very nearly* takes on all the evil armies all by herself, but in the end, surrounded by the mangled bodies of hundreds of the BBEG's soldiers and lieutenants, she dies without fulfilling her final promise. The children, not yet high-level enough to take the super-epic BBEG, are forced to flee and take the reigns of the nation-in-exile while still dealing with the loss of their parents. We haven't planned what happens after that... but what a way to go! |
| Blakeman10111-02-05, 11:32 PM | :bump: |
| Talmariel11-03-05, 03:07 AM | Original poster here. I'm amazed this thread has gone on so long - for the record, it was begun over two years ago. :) Just for old-times' sake I'll share a brand-spanking-new character death. This is a Star Wars one I participated in as the GM during a playtest of my d20 Future conversion (see sig). I discussed the character concept with the player beforehand, and he showed interest in turning to the Dark Side. Through the course of the game I found a particularly dramatic fashion to bring it about, and the player went for it. Not one to NPC-ify characters, I had the player continue on as a Sith apprentice. The character was bent on destroying his Sith master and taking his place, turning his old padawan (another PC) into his new apprentice to rule the galaxy. Very classic stuff. Anyway, he manages to get his padawan to come with him, fully intending to initiate her into the Dark Side of the Force, but she's grown to become a full Jedi Knight all her own. Besides this, his master is persistent and potentially able to kill him with naught but the Force. He reluctantly takes her to his master, hoping they can destroy him together. As his master begins to wear down the young Jedi's will, reaching a crecendo of dramatic dialogue, the Sith player swears an oath and strikes, dropping the d20 with the declaration to emphasize how deadly serious he is. Natural 20 - confirmed critical. This is d20 Modern rules, mind you, so massive damage thresholds and hit points in general aren't so high. He scrapes together 59 damage, killing his master outright. The master explodes in classic Palpatine fashion, but the energy retreats to a hidden chamber. A few cuts of the lightsaber later, and the two discover a Sith burial chamber. The Sith lord had been dead all along, bound as a kind of Force spirit to this place, and now his revival was nearly complete. The two combined their efforts to collapse the chamber with the Force, which brought down the entire underground Sith school the master had created. The pair escaped to the surface, only to be confronted by the risen Sith lord's spirit once again. The battle was fierce, and the Jedi was wracking up Dark Side Points trying to injure the Sith spirit somehow. The fallen Jedi knew it was inevitable, and knowing what fate awaited both of them realized he did not want his padawan to follow in his dark path. He loved her. Instead, he stepped between his master and his former padawan, raising his lightsaber in defiance. The master cackled madly at the futility, and struck him down for his impudence, knowing full well how close the padawan was to turning. The former Jedi redeemed himself through his sacrifice, through simply not fighting, and merged with the Force. Once there, he was able to strengthen his padawan, both against the Dark Side and in efforts to unbind the Sith spirit from the sorcery that tied him to the planet they were on. Eventually, the pair succeeded, and the new-redeemed Jedi was able to bring a ship to his near-fatally-wounded former padawan. That was quite a character death, if I may say so, and I know the player couldn't have been happier. Despite both the players' penchants for tragic stories and characters, the two found a path - however narrow and trecherous - that did not follow the Dark Side. As GM, I secretly ensured that this decision would not go unrewarded. The redeemed Jedi's player got his tragic hero, sacrificing himself to save his former student, and the two managed to overcome nigh-insurmountable odds. That is truly the greatest value that can be placed on a hero's death, at least in this GM's humble opinion. :) |
| Pan_Ai_Khan11-03-05, 08:57 AM | This may be slightly off-topic, but I used to DM D&D 2.0 for a particularly wacko group of individuals whose common sense was a little lacking. Some unusual and untimely deaths: The Rogue: Attempting to backstab a dragon in mid-air, and missing abysmally. The Fighter: Ushering his battle-cry before charging a regiment of Orcish bowmen - from 100 feet away - who were all using poisoned arrows. The Mage: Calling out a Demon wielding a Vorpal Sword, for a one-on-one dual. The Paladin: Turned by a high-level evil Cleric. 'Poof'. The Monk: Turned into a narcotic substance after failing his save Vs Alhazred's Horrid Wilting The Bard: Used a 'Wand Of Wonder' in Myth Drannor, causing all the party's charged magical items to explode. Only 3 of a party of 8 survived that one... |
| Atar11-06-05, 03:52 PM | My character Sador is currently the frontline fighter of the party, he takes his job seriously and I'll be taking levels of Devoted Defender soon. Towershield, Bastardsword and Fullplate combo, works well at level 5. Anyways, if he knew it was possible he'd probaly like it if his knowledge of the blade and tactics in combat were forged into a nicely buffed Adimantine Bastardsword. Anyone worthy (as defined by the intelligent sword) would instantly know some of the tricks he knew. Maybe gain a feat or two or sumsuch. So, the short answer would be: To end up as an Intelligent Bastardsword. :D |