Dying PCs [Archive] - Wizards Community - Pages Merged by Solauren

Dying PCs [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
EmeraldFox
09-01-04, 12:43 PM Out of pure curiousity, I would like to know how many times your PCs have died and been resurrected. Personally, I haven't been PnPing very long and haven't had that much chance to die. My first character, the typical human fighter, died twice before I abandoned him. My current character (see sig) has yet to die, and hopefully he never does. So... how about you guys?
GothicDan
09-01-04, 01:46 PM Let me think of some of my characters from major campaigns...

Faerie Elf Thief/Wizard: Got tired of the human world and stepped into a mushroom patch, going home.

Aasimar Fighter: Got dead by two werewolves. No resurrection.

Aasimon Fighter (agaithanon, or somesuch.. Not so good with Celestial names as I am Fiendish): Got dead by a hydra. No resurrection.

Tiefling Invoker: Got dead by a pack of ghouls. No resurrection.

Fire Genasi Fire Elementalist: Lived to 6th level, and the campaign had to end.

Silvanesti Elf Undead Master Necromancer: Currently still alive in a campaign.

So, maybe it's just because I tend to play low-level campaigns IRL, but none of my characters have ever been resurrected.
Another Gnome
09-01-04, 02:09 PM My all-time most succesful character (and alter ego on these boards) died once and retired later when everyone else in his party was wiped out. Most succesful in that he actually had the chance to retire, that is.

Every other character has simply ended up dead via a TPK (though a rare few were on their second life when it happened) or suffered a premature termination of the campaign, which I don't count as retirement. All in all, no character (PC or NPC) I've played has continued adventuring after dying more than twice even if we've not had any rules on that in the 3E era.

Dying once is bad luck, dying twice is plain stupid...
paradoxmage
09-01-04, 03:33 PM My human rogue/wizard/arcane trickster who I played for 2 1/2 years died 2 times, each time he had the money set aside for a true resurection spell. First time he was killed by some doplegangers, second time was killed by 2 Anathemas(and he was 14th lvl at the time).
EmeraldFox
09-01-04, 04:22 PM Anyone ever been offed by orcs?
Another Gnome
09-01-04, 04:34 PM Well, my brother's character was killed by orcs in the first battle of the campaign I'm currently running, then there was an NPC ranger in the same campaign who was killed by orcs (and raised - and then he got killed again by orcs), and the monk, and the other monk that replaced that monk.

That's just the deaths by orcs, of course. I've long since lost count of how many deaths in total there have been in the campaign. :D
GlimFolkor1234
09-01-04, 09:20 PM Since 3e, I've been DMing more than playing, but the City of the Spider Queen campaign I've been in, my half-drow ranger/rogue was killed by the first trapped door he came to. He had money set aside so he was resurrected right away. He's gotten quite a bit more...cautious since then.

As a DM, I think all of the PCs have been killed and resurrected at least once, at least the ones who have stuck with the campaign through the last 2+ years. The most entertaining one was the dwarf monk who, while the party cleric was busy getting ready to cast a deathward spell, tumbled up to a bodak, swung, and missed. One gaze attack later, and the party was down one dwarf monk. Nobody else could quite believe that the dwarf didn't exercise a bit more care with the undead. The paladin was killed during the last session. He didn't quite understand how much damage a young adult red dragon could put out in a full melee attack. ;)
Board_Rider
09-01-04, 11:02 PM Not big on ressurection as a player. As a DM I allow it because I like to see people wanting to continue playing thier PC and, as a bonus, keeps my job as a DM easier. Of course it depends on the characters and their reputation in the area they operate in. I've never used a ressurectted character as far as I can remember. Wait scratch that....I just started with a Lvl. 4 Mage working for Blood Mage and the backstory of the PC says that he was ressurected because the PrC requires it.
Your Immortal DM
09-01-04, 11:51 PM I typically see one PC death every 5-7 levels...I'd say 2 deaths by 12th level is standard IMC (usually the get brought back since its 5th-7th level before they bite it).

Your Immortal DM
warlockco
09-02-04, 01:17 AM The last time I had a character raised was back in 2E when the DM after about 16 hours of running, had some Daemons gate in more Daemons, and those gated in more and so on. Most of the party got wiped out from the mass Flamestrikes, I was unharmed (Immunity to Fire) and got taken by sheer numbers.

My current Epic Character has never died, and she won't get a raise even if she does (She was created via an Epic Spell by her "mother", and has no soul of her own, so she can't be brought back; basically a superpowerful simulacrum).

If any of my characters die, its usually due to party stupidity, or I get too overconfident and try to do something myself. And if it is party stupidity, that usually results in a TPK, and if its due to my own stupidity, then I rule that my god thinks I don't warrant a second chance and won't allow me to be raised.
EmeraldFox
09-02-04, 09:00 AM How about elves? Do you guys use the canon that they don't like taking souls away from Arvandor?
Crust
09-02-04, 12:00 PM My gamers always die. Typically, it would take the larger majority of party funds to pay a cleric to cast ressurection. That was when they were lower level...

Now that they're around 18-22nd level, deaths don't occur very often, but when they do, the cleric casts true ressurection, and we continue. In the field, that same cleric wields a +4 ghost touch holy mace that can cast true ressurection 2/week, among other things.

PCs die for good when the player wants to roll up another character, or if that character is destroyed in an odd way. Two PCs were removed from the game when they were made into vampires and annihilated with a sunburst (they made new characters and combatted the newly-made vampires).
GothicDan
09-02-04, 12:46 PM "How about elves? Do you guys use the canon that they don't like taking souls away from Arvandor?"

If an elf dies from old age/natural causes, then I think it's Corellon and Sehanine deciding that it's time for that elf to stay. If they simply "will" themselves to Arvandor, then it's the same - no resurrection, because the Seldarine themselves are directly involved. Another good reason for elves to worship the Seldarine, and a proponent of the fact that they're infinitely more tied with their worshippers than the Faerunian pantheon.

Died in combat? Sure. Resurrect away.
Cold Napalm
09-02-04, 10:39 PM I had a rogue dies 4 times once...the fourth time he was offered a raise, he decided he had enough of painful deaths and stayed dead.

Most of my charactres don't like to be brought back, so I almost never take a raise/resurrect...but a few of them have. I usually die once every 5 levels or so...usually because somebody is being stupid as mentioned. I have yet to be in a TPK...no scratch that I was in one in a RPGA game. I've been if a few ALMOST TPK...like one party member alive due to die hard almost hehe.
dragonheart
09-04-04, 04:26 PM I generally don'tbelieve in ressurections - but then most of my characters have managed to survive without ever dying. I am looking forward to being able to cast clone soon with my most powerful (epic) character but that is not the same :) . As for elves I do run them but none have need resurecting yet but I doubt I would - once with yoru gods why come back?

I did play (briefly) with a real killer DM who kept wiping out parties for his amusement - so I left the campaign and simply brought all the pre-existing characters back as they had been before starting with him - it never happened as far as they are concerned.
Erianys Coldrage
09-08-04, 05:26 PM as a player, i dislike the use of raise dead or resurection. if one of my character die, well he's dead and that's all. My 9th Paladin died because he stayed behind while his party was escaping a lair of cyricists. He killed the high priest of the place but was overwhelm by the priest followers. I find that death honorable so i decided not to resurect him. The only character i made raised was my mage. she was lvl 16 and a spell went wrong and she got eleport into the abyss. She died there but my party went over the abyss brought back my corpse. Given the circonstances, i had no choice but to accept.

However as DM, i tend to restrict use of resurection. As an example, one of my pc in my evil campaign is a priest of Bhaal(or cyric if u like, i resurected bhaal IMC) and he died versus a Paladin of torm. Instead of makin him raised, he returned as an intelligent undead(bone creature dunno where i read that), now he's freaky intelligent skeleton who want his vengeance upon his killer. :D
Dassadec
09-16-04, 02:14 AM In the game that I'm in now, the DM has raised the prices of spells required to bring a PC back to life. Though it helps to have a rich benefactor that casts Raise Dead for free. One particular character (Wizard) in the game has died and come back more times than I can count (8+). We play once a month and its a miricle if the wizard doesn't die at least once during the day. His record stands at three deaths in one gaming session.
Usually though I set a death limit when I'm the DM. As in, the 3rd death is permanent. Or if I'm being mean, the players won't know they're truely dead until after the expensive spells have been cast.

In my personal experience:
6th lvl Sorcerer true resed by diety, later killed by party after a Vampiric Touch spell gone ary.

Insane cleric executed by town, needless to say he/they stayed dead

Good Monk worshiping an evil diety that went nuts after praying at shrine, killed the wizard and then killed by benefactor. stayed dead.

I had two characters that needed a true resurection and the party couldn't aford it. One had a temple collapse on them, and the other turned into an undead by the same said temple that turned into level draining dust after the party destroyed him.

Word of advice, never enter into a fight in total magical darkness when another PC has a Vorpal sword. Character raised but not happy.

A psion killed by his own Fire Walls decided not to return.
A Bard killed by one swipe from a Water elemental, never got the chance to come back. (Evil Party didn't like him very much)
Lashan
09-19-04, 08:37 PM I remember a really old gaming product. It was a game about giant robots fighting each other (as there used to be a lot of them). One thing about this game that stood out for me after many years was something about player death. It was a chart that you rolled on when your character died. It determined how quick your death was and how much you got to say before your character died. If you rolled low, you just died quietly. If you rolled high, you got to give an epic speech about whatever the heck you wanted to before you expired. It was hilarious! We got to use it to dramatic effect whenever a character died.

"I did my best to stop the evil baron. It was all in the name of good....."

"I never thought it would end like this, but at least I am surrounded by friends...."

"Rosebud....."

I saved the game for years just for that chart, but lost it and can't even remember the name of the game now.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
EmeraldFox 09-01-04, 12:43 PM	Out of pure curiousity, I would like to know how many times your PCs have died and been resurrected. Personally, I haven't been PnPing very long and haven't had that much chance to die. My first character, the typical human fighter, died twice before I abandoned him. My current character (see sig) has yet to die, and hopefully he never does. So... how about you guys?
GothicDan 09-01-04, 01:46 PM	Let me think of some of my characters from major campaigns... Faerie Elf Thief/Wizard: Got tired of the human world and stepped into a mushroom patch, going home. Aasimar Fighter: Got dead by two werewolves. No resurrection. Aasimon Fighter (agaithanon, or somesuch.. Not so good with Celestial names as I am Fiendish): Got dead by a hydra. No resurrection. Tiefling Invoker: Got dead by a pack of ghouls. No resurrection. Fire Genasi Fire Elementalist: Lived to 6th level, and the campaign had to end. Silvanesti Elf Undead Master Necromancer: Currently still alive in a campaign. So, maybe it's just because I tend to play low-level campaigns IRL, but none of my characters have ever been resurrected.
Another Gnome 09-01-04, 02:09 PM	My all-time most succesful character (and alter ego on these boards) died once and retired later when everyone else in his party was wiped out. Most succesful in that he actually had the chance to retire, that is. Every other character has simply ended up dead via a TPK (though a rare few were on their second life when it happened) or suffered a premature termination of the campaign, which I don't count as retirement. All in all, no character (PC or NPC) I've played has continued adventuring after dying more than twice even if we've not had any rules on that in the 3E era. Dying once is bad luck, dying twice is plain stupid...
paradoxmage 09-01-04, 03:33 PM	My human rogue/wizard/arcane trickster who I played for 2 1/2 years died 2 times, each time he had the money set aside for a true resurection spell. First time he was killed by some doplegangers, second time was killed by 2 Anathemas(and he was 14th lvl at the time).
EmeraldFox 09-01-04, 04:22 PM	Anyone ever been offed by orcs?
Another Gnome 09-01-04, 04:34 PM	Well, my brother's character was killed by orcs in the first battle of the campaign I'm currently running, then there was an NPC ranger in the same campaign who was killed by orcs (and raised - and then he got killed again by orcs), and the monk, and the other monk that replaced that monk. That's just the deaths by orcs, of course. I've long since lost count of how many deaths in total there have been in the campaign. :D
GlimFolkor1234 09-01-04, 09:20 PM	Since 3e, I've been DMing more than playing, but the City of the Spider Queen campaign I've been in, my half-drow ranger/rogue was killed by the first trapped door he came to. He had money set aside so he was resurrected right away. He's gotten quite a bit more...cautious since then. As a DM, I think all of the PCs have been killed and resurrected at least once, at least the ones who have stuck with the campaign through the last 2+ years. The most entertaining one was the dwarf monk who, while the party cleric was busy getting ready to cast a deathward spell, tumbled up to a bodak, swung, and missed. One gaze attack later, and the party was down one dwarf monk. Nobody else could quite believe that the dwarf didn't exercise a bit more care with the undead. The paladin was killed during the last session. He didn't quite understand how much damage a young adult red dragon could put out in a full melee attack. ;)
Board_Rider 09-01-04, 11:02 PM	Not big on ressurection as a player. As a DM I allow it because I like to see people wanting to continue playing thier PC and, as a bonus, keeps my job as a DM easier. Of course it depends on the characters and their reputation in the area they operate in. I've never used a ressurectted character as far as I can remember. Wait scratch that....I just started with a Lvl. 4 Mage working for Blood Mage and the backstory of the PC says that he was ressurected because the PrC requires it.
Your Immortal DM 09-01-04, 11:51 PM	I typically see one PC death every 5-7 levels...I'd say 2 deaths by 12th level is standard IMC (usually the get brought back since its 5th-7th level before they bite it). Your Immortal DM
warlockco 09-02-04, 01:17 AM	The last time I had a character raised was back in 2E when the DM after about 16 hours of running, had some Daemons gate in more Daemons, and those gated in more and so on. Most of the party got wiped out from the mass Flamestrikes, I was unharmed (Immunity to Fire) and got taken by sheer numbers. My current Epic Character has never died, and she won't get a raise even if she does (She was created via an Epic Spell by her "mother", and has no soul of her own, so she can't be brought back; basically a superpowerful simulacrum). If any of my characters die, its usually due to party stupidity, or I get too overconfident and try to do something myself. And if it is party stupidity, that usually results in a TPK, and if its due to my own stupidity, then I rule that my god thinks I don't warrant a second chance and won't allow me to be raised.
EmeraldFox 09-02-04, 09:00 AM	How about elves? Do you guys use the canon that they don't like taking souls away from Arvandor?
Crust 09-02-04, 12:00 PM	My gamers always die. Typically, it would take the larger majority of party funds to pay a cleric to cast ressurection. That was when they were lower level... Now that they're around 18-22nd level, deaths don't occur very often, but when they do, the cleric casts true ressurection, and we continue. In the field, that same cleric wields a +4 ghost touch holy mace that can cast true ressurection 2/week, among other things. PCs die for good when the player wants to roll up another character, or if that character is destroyed in an odd way. Two PCs were removed from the game when they were made into vampires and annihilated with a sunburst (they made new characters and combatted the newly-made vampires).
GothicDan 09-02-04, 12:46 PM	"How about elves? Do you guys use the canon that they don't like taking souls away from Arvandor?" If an elf dies from old age/natural causes, then I think it's Corellon and Sehanine deciding that it's time for that elf to stay. If they simply "will" themselves to Arvandor, then it's the same - no resurrection, because the Seldarine themselves are directly involved. Another good reason for elves to worship the Seldarine, and a proponent of the fact that they're infinitely more tied with their worshippers than the Faerunian pantheon. Died in combat? Sure. Resurrect away.
Cold Napalm 09-02-04, 10:39 PM	I had a rogue dies 4 times once...the fourth time he was offered a raise, he decided he had enough of painful deaths and stayed dead. Most of my charactres don't like to be brought back, so I almost never take a raise/resurrect...but a few of them have. I usually die once every 5 levels or so...usually because somebody is being stupid as mentioned. I have yet to be in a TPK...no scratch that I was in one in a RPGA game. I've been if a few ALMOST TPK...like one party member alive due to die hard almost hehe.
dragonheart 09-04-04, 04:26 PM	I generally don'tbelieve in ressurections - but then most of my characters have managed to survive without ever dying. I am looking forward to being able to cast clone soon with my most powerful (epic) character but that is not the same :) . As for elves I do run them but none have need resurecting yet but I doubt I would - once with yoru gods why come back? I did play (briefly) with a real killer DM who kept wiping out parties for his amusement - so I left the campaign and simply brought all the pre-existing characters back as they had been before starting with him - it never happened as far as they are concerned.
Erianys Coldrage 09-08-04, 05:26 PM	as a player, i dislike the use of raise dead or resurection. if one of my character die, well he's dead and that's all. My 9th Paladin died because he stayed behind while his party was escaping a lair of cyricists. He killed the high priest of the place but was overwhelm by the priest followers. I find that death honorable so i decided not to resurect him. The only character i made raised was my mage. she was lvl 16 and a spell went wrong and she got eleport into the abyss. She died there but my party went over the abyss brought back my corpse. Given the circonstances, i had no choice but to accept. However as DM, i tend to restrict use of resurection. As an example, one of my pc in my evil campaign is a priest of Bhaal(or cyric if u like, i resurected bhaal IMC) and he died versus a Paladin of torm. Instead of makin him raised, he returned as an intelligent undead(bone creature dunno where i read that), now he's freaky intelligent skeleton who want his vengeance upon his killer. :D
Dassadec 09-16-04, 02:14 AM	In the game that I'm in now, the DM has raised the prices of spells required to bring a PC back to life. Though it helps to have a rich benefactor that casts Raise Dead for free. One particular character (Wizard) in the game has died and come back more times than I can count (8+). We play once a month and its a miricle if the wizard doesn't die at least once during the day. His record stands at three deaths in one gaming session. Usually though I set a death limit when I'm the DM. As in, the 3rd death is permanent. Or if I'm being mean, the players won't know they're truely dead until after the expensive spells have been cast. In my personal experience: 6th lvl Sorcerer true resed by diety, later killed by party after a Vampiric Touch spell gone ary. Insane cleric executed by town, needless to say he/they stayed dead Good Monk worshiping an evil diety that went nuts after praying at shrine, killed the wizard and then killed by benefactor. stayed dead. I had two characters that needed a true resurection and the party couldn't aford it. One had a temple collapse on them, and the other turned into an undead by the same said temple that turned into level draining dust after the party destroyed him. Word of advice, never enter into a fight in total magical darkness when another PC has a Vorpal sword. Character raised but not happy. A psion killed by his own Fire Walls decided not to return. A Bard killed by one swipe from a Water elemental, never got the chance to come back. (Evil Party didn't like him very much)
Lashan 09-19-04, 08:37 PM	I remember a really old gaming product. It was a game about giant robots fighting each other (as there used to be a lot of them). One thing about this game that stood out for me after many years was something about player death. It was a chart that you rolled on when your character died. It determined how quick your death was and how much you got to say before your character died. If you rolled low, you just died quietly. If you rolled high, you got to give an epic speech about whatever the heck you wanted to before you expired. It was hilarious! We got to use it to dramatic effect whenever a character died. "I did my best to stop the evil baron. It was all in the name of good....." "I never thought it would end like this, but at least I am surrounded by friends...." "Rosebud....." I saved the game for years just for that chart, but lost it and can't even remember the name of the game now.