Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Emrick Blackthorn 02-14-05, 10:30 PM	Everyone~ "We" have yet to feel the touch of death, but have been very close. Do you all remember your first PC death? Any good tales out there??? Here is "our" story. To this day "we" have been very lucky! I have been playing D&D since I was 10 with my original character, Emrick Blackthorn. He started out as a lowly magic user, but has grown to great power over the years. But, there has been many close calls (in and out of the game), including a real fire and moving twice where I thought I lost his folder. He even survived the transformation convergence from 1ed to 2ed. The best near death experiences he has had would have been in the adventure that would make him rise and rise again. At this point he was 5th level and still had no magic items, but his Dagger of Venom. The other players agreed that he could keep any one staff/rod/wand, any two magical "armor" items he could use and any two rings. The adventure lasted a little over a month, playing all night on Fridays, all day on Saturdays and most of the day on Sundays. During it he was; green slimed, fell 10 feet into a pit of poisonous snakes, ravaged by a pack of ghouls, had a small acid bath, and basically went head to head with the villain. He almost lost it during all of these, slipping under zero HPs twice. In the end two other PCs died and he got his booty; a Staff of the Magi, a Cloak of the Bat, a Robe of the Archmagi, a Ring of Regeneration and a Ring of Vampiric Regeneration. I'm still wondering if the DM was crazy and if the other players knew these items were going to be in the adventure, anyway I still thank them. As we continued to play over the years most of our characters (including Emrick) reached 20th level. The DM decided he liked our party and started to use the High-level Campaign Rules. During this time the DM tried his hardest to kill off Emrick, but it never work (I bet he wishes he never left those rings laying around). Emrick eventually hit 30th level and was retired from that party. Now these days Emrick is basically used as a NPC in my campaign. I think at this point, if anything would ever happen to him in or out of the game, I would need some professional help. Am I crazy? ~Emrick
DarkSoldier 02-15-05, 02:21 AM	Well, let's see... My first D&D PC, Brother Vincent, was nearly killed by a monstrous spider, nearly killed by a fireball, and then totally killed by a lightning bolt. His sister, Christina, was killed by an evil fighter in her second session. Her replacement, Buck Ronan, was killed by a vampire in his second session. Two days later, in my Star Wars game, my PC of two sessions was nuked by her own teammates; the equivalent of eight thermal detonators went off on her hips. -91, exceeded the next week by Chrome-Plated Death (a different player's character), who was caught in orbital bombardment and blown to -118. I haven't played in two weeks (real life intruded on the DM), but I doubt that my latest PC will survive the next session. No matter what I play, the other players seem to unequivocally hate my characters. :(
Kalanth 02-15-05, 02:38 AM	My first PC death. . . Man that was so long ago. I was cut off from the group, a raging river lay between us and the bridge had just been taken out by catapult fire. As I look about in panic to find a way across, that was when the enemy closed in on me. Flanked and being charged head on by nearly 50 enraged Orcs, I did the only thing I could think of and dived into the river, hoping to swim across or at least to safety. Of course, this was when I was about 12 years old and my brother was the experience DM in charge. What happened, you ask? Well, my dwarven cleric, with all the weight that one could assume a full suite of platemail would have, sank like a rock to the river bed and drowned. Yep, I was the one that died becuase I wanted to ensure the party made it across the river. . . wish I was able to actually think ahead when it came to the rest of the plan.
Emrick Blackthorn 02-16-05, 10:02 PM	Kalanth~ Please don't take this the wrong way. But, that's just to funny. The same thing basically happen to my brother durning an adventure I was DM'n. But, you did go down as a true Hero! You put your party before yourself. ~Emrick
Razoreface 02-16-05, 11:34 PM	My very first character died hugging another mech and jetting out of an open dropship bay door. :D My first D&D character, back in AD&D, died because after being mauled during the enemy's turn, I flew under the floating platform we had to fight on, so I could hide and do some laying on of the hands. A stupid giant floating ball of light followed me under, and did a 20d6 Otiluke's on me and my 56hp, which made me just unconscious, which made the Fly spell wink out, which made me fall into a volcano. Because someone thought a floating platform inside a volcano's crater was a nifty idea for a spot to hide magic rings. I don't know why, but I had the notion that a ball of light would pick other closer to dead targets to butcher (in previous rounds, they'd Firestormed spots that had dying characters in them, making a lot of dead characters), instead of following me down there.
Tazirai 02-17-05, 12:03 AM	Mine is I had a level 4 Diviner, I like to play offbeat casters, to really roleplay and Test out the idea of a Diviner character. So my DM at the time had found a module for solo Magic users, I needed to catch up to group So i decided to go for it. The quest was to investigate a Wizards tower for rumours of a ghost that wandered at night. Being that she was a diviner her attack spells lacked severely. So I decided to attack the tower during the day for safety and daylight. i had around 9 Hp at level 4 so 1 attack could be fatal to me. I get to the tower door and am greeted with a smiling face, the face asks me a riddle then it would admit me to the tower. I had found clues at the town so gave it a shot, I failed the riddle, the face sighed and started coughing, Then the DM informs me that a green cloud flies out of the things mouth landing at my feet. I immediately was poisoned for 10 points of damage and died at the door^^. feeling bad that the adventure lasted only 15-20 min he turned the poison into forgetful gas that stunned me instead. I was kinda ****** that day ^^. But Bianca was squished poisoned Koed on many adventures, hell she nearly died on her first one where she had only 2 hp, and a rock from a kid nearly killed her. Somehow she's survived to make it to the planes and settled on Mt.Celestia. Thats where I retired her to NPC 'dom
Goblyn 02-17-05, 02:28 AM	I cannot remember far enough back to my first PC death, so here is the most painful. D&D, 3.0, Human Psywar 1. The party was investigating the corruption of a river that served as a village's water source. It turns out to be an orc cleric, who immediately throws up a hold person on my PC. Roll: 3. So paralyzed. Next, darkness so that the other PCs would have dificulty helping. CDG on my dude, but the save is made and he hangs on at -5. Another PC, feeling helpless, throws his spear at the preist; in the darkness; Next to the paralyzed psywar. Roll: 1. Confirm roll: 2. DM hands me a note: "Take 5 damage". [Edit]: me spel gud
Kinghappo 02-17-05, 01:42 PM	Trios the rogue: With a ring of substance he was able to be burried in a dirt road by his 3 other adventurers, awaiting a convoy with a evil boss that had a symbol we were employed to get, the plan was the team was going to go foward, slay the horses and carriadge then act like the escorts were too powerful for them, that worked beautifuly, aint nothing like a sunder-mastering dwarf with a large sized warhammer. well they are on foot, the scout walks by, rolls low on finding me, the main team of the escort squad passes over, just make that, rolled a 1% on my pick pocketing and grabbed (the wrong way) the arrow of human slaying that was on his crossbow. ..... rolled a 2 on my saving throw..... not only did i die i got laughed at... by everyone... :weep: but it would of been the most brilliant caper of the century.... :weep:
Wharin 02-17-05, 02:29 PM	Wow... character deaths.. hmmm Well my first permanant character death that i remember, was at the very end of this campaign where my (equivlant of a paladin) character pleaded with my god to stop making the BBEG invulnerable, in exchange for my soul (my character was already dying). In the end, everyone lived but me, and i coudn't be ressurected. The same character also was decapitated in a botch combat lesson (in this system, people could teach each other techs/skills), but got better.
CuttinCurt 02-17-05, 03:59 PM	My first character dies by a green slime in T1 villiage of homlet. I just created it and we walk down the stairs down into the basment area of the moat house, and drip!, the derned green slime fell on me. That was a thief I created back then. I didnt get a chance to get to know that charater well. ' cc
orcslayer 02-17-05, 04:36 PM	One of my players was a bard. The party was fighting heavily armed fighters. He decides to go into melee with a short sword and leather armor. He died in the third round.
ajs 02-17-05, 04:52 PM	Never died, but did have one character whose brain broke so badly that he gave up his class and retired to a monestary.... I tend to game with folks who consider death in a role playing game a last resort. Usually there's an out that just makes the situation a pain, rather than fatal.
MattHawk 02-17-05, 08:39 PM	It happened last week. I got death attacked by a flying squirrel with assassin levels... and rolled a 3. More specifically, I got sneak attacked by a half-elf assassin who had been polymorphed, and my Druid saw the flying squirrel, got a peanut, and decided to get a new pet, hence bringing it right into his tent the night he got killed. I knew it wasn't a good idea, and the fact that it wasn't a good idea got hinted at, repeatedly... but it wasn't in-character to get rid of the little fuzzy guy :) 'Course, my Druid had a Pal/Sorc/Eldritch Knight brother and an Arcane Trickster sister... The pal is my new character, and the AT his cohort, and they'll be out for blood once they find out the fate of their brother :)
Torian_MPJ 02-17-05, 08:49 PM	My first death was as a 12th level human wizard. I was flying across a chasm to secure a rope on the other side so the rest of my party could cross. When a hidden enemy on the other side popped out and hit me with a dispel magic. I fell 480ft into a river which swept out of the mountain and carried me over a waterfall where my carcass was smashed to pieces on rocks at the bottom. I know this because I happened to be carrying the majority of our partys treasure and they never found it again.
Ricochet 02-17-05, 08:49 PM	Dilingo, my first half elf Paladin. My friends were all evil alignments, and when I stopped them from burning the town down, they did. Then in the night they killed me. Those bastards
Super Guy 02-17-05, 09:45 PM	Ugh, the last campaign I was in, you were the odd one out if you hadn't died at least three times. Let's see... Sandor, a character I've had for about two years, and my favorite character. His deaths? 1) Effectively melted by a black dragon's acid breath. 2) Probably crushed to death by something. 3) Tortured to death and became a vampire (before becoming human again). 4) Throat ripped out by a Slaad, first round of battle (20-20-19. My DM rules that as effectively a coup-de-grace). 5) Destroyed by magic missile, during the last round with a lich (the lich died a virtual second later... grr...) 6) After defeating Zenlack, who had plagued the campaign world for... three or four real years and screwed over Sandor horribly (by making him insane, taking away his love, forcing him no choice but to exile himself into the Astral Plane when his party died [and since he was there for about 100 years before being rescued, almost everyone he knew was dead. Fortunately, he was given water from the Fountain of Youth, so that he wouldn't die when he returned], and multiple other things), the underground complex was collapsing. Everyone was dead, except for Sandor, who was at -7 and functioning because of Boar's Ferocity. After destroying the phylactery in a huge finale, he knelt down as the place collapsed upon him, for his own closure.
Scipio 02-19-05, 02:36 AM	My first character death? That would have been Sorltar. The DM gave me a magic item that let me control undead, the only downside is it eventually killed me and made me a lich.
Kalanth 02-19-05, 04:05 AM	Kalanth~ Please don't take this the wrong way. But, that's just to funny. The same thing basically happen to my brother durning an adventure I was DM'n. But, you did go down as a true Hero! You put your party before yourself. ~Emrick I would never take offense, afterall, I thought it was funny myself. We had another death just last night in our Eberron game. We just got to the openning battle in Shadows of the Last War (after completing nearly 6 hours of down time after the mini-module in the campaign book the session before), and we were not all prepared. Maybe its me, and the way I play, but I don't normally run around with all my weapons and armor in town, especially a city I think of as home and normally safe to me (in this case, Sharn). So that posses a problem here, while I fend off two Kobolds with a chair (crit on the first, actually killing him with the chair), one of the party rogues decides to cut off the charging warforged so that he can't make me into a puddle. Well, that did not go so well for the rogue. He first failed his tumble to go through the opponents area (at lvl 2 a DC 25 check when you only have 3 points in the skill. Sure Action points, but come on!?), and gets hit for 11 on the attack of opportunity. Well, the forged did not take kindly to that since he was engaged with another warforged and commented about "interfering with the honorable battle of two titans." This is when he struck, hitting on a crit with his longsword, and doing 17 dmg to the rouge, who was previously at 1hp. The forged had his head shattered the next round, but thats not to say we did not have a casualty already. Guess we need new battle strategies for the future. :)
Kito 02-19-05, 03:49 PM	I will never forget a quest my team and i had, to eliminate the leader of a bandit camp and return the stolen loot to the nearby village. Well, the plan was to go in guns blazing, spells going everywhere, arrow cover. Like i said that WAS the plan. So we are all approching the camp, (im a ranger by the way) we are stood outside the wooden gates and we wait until they open. Suddenly the doors swing open and i rush inside. I kill the first bandit that approaches me then sit back and wait for my friends to make their kills, but none came, their responses were to hide in bushes. Great. So i had about 12-15 lvl 8 bandits jumping on me. Great! Needless to say i was slaughtered and that several swear words were exchanged.