Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Varlis 06-16-06, 02:46 PM	Well, what deaths have your many and varied groups run across for your poor PCs over the ages? Roughly a third of our group's PC deaths have actually turned out to be quite funny, which is rather a relief for myself, as DM, in that I don't have to worry about whining Players. Recently, however, there was one death that left us somewhat baffled. It involved two of my players- one of which was a halforc fighter and the other, a human blender. They were in combat with an enormous roc, and the creature was flying directly above them, trying to get away with two NPCs in its claws. The blender had dropped his shortbow about 150' away, and started to go back for it when the halforc (so thoughtful!) offered him his own longbow. The blender took it, aimed at the enormous beast 40' up, and rolled. 20. 20. 18. Right through the heart. Dead roc. Then comes the uh-oh. The two PCs realized then that this thing was falling, fast; right on top of them. Reflex saves were made; the blender, being of supple limb and evasion, made it out of the way in time. The halforc, on the other hand, did not. A roc weighs 8000 lbs. It fell from 50 feet up. Seventy-four points of damage. Now, after taking 20d6 points of damage, the 8th level character was stunned; he had six hp left! Then we all start thinking; oh yeah, massive damage... The halforc's player is naturally being very good natured about this; he and the blender have had a touch-and-go relationship in the length of time the halforc joined the group (the player's former PC was killed), and thought it quite appropriate the the blender should be his downfall. So, for some reason, I cannot come up with the DC for massive damage. The number 50 comes to mind, I don't know why, and I apologize for being a terrible DM and go to look it up. In the DMG, it says quite clearly, that after taking more than 50 points of damage in one hit (there's the fifty), the character/NPC must make a Fortitude save or die. I scan down. DC, DC, DC? What's the DC? Nada; all I find is a bunch variants telling me I can change the points of damage dependant upon the creature's side. Wasn't 3.5 DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY to eliminate these flaws? In the end, I took the damage dealt, subtracted it from the massive damage number, and set that as DC (76-50=26). Should he have been small, it would have been more difficult (76-40=36). Sounded fair. Unfortunately for the halforc, he rolled an 18- not quite good enough. The almost-irony at the end was that, while his body was crushed, his bow (still in the hands of the blender), was quite unharmed. Sorry for the length, hope you enjoyed. What other ways have you watched PCs (or had PCs) die and you just couldn't help laughing?
ShadowDragon8685 06-16-06, 02:56 PM	Uhhh, dude? The DC for DBMD is set at 15. Static, unchangable. Always 15. You just DMPwned that poor half-orc.
TheChilliGod 06-16-06, 04:22 PM	All the funnier, then. :D --- I have one particularly bad death that occurred about 4 months ago. There was this half-orc (woah, another one!) in a campaign I was DM'ing, a barbarian/rogue/ranger lvl 3. So he and the rest of the party (half of which is in my sig, it's changed a lot since then.) were sent on a little quest to infiltrate a Yuan-ti lair and make sure that a deal isn't made between the Yuan-ti and the Drow (because there was a surface invasion going on, and Yuan-ti are pretty good allies in such a battle). They trek their way to the entrance of the lair, when they are ambushed by a group of 10 lizards. Oh, not just any lizards, though; these had the Ti-Khana template on them. EL 8. APL 3.5. Surprisingly enough, only the half-orc got pwned, although the party cleric, and the rogue were about 2 Con damage away from the same fate. They had to high-tail it back to town for a two-day, hard-out healing, during which they failed the mission, as the deal was made between the drow & the yuan-ti in-between that time. I should also mention that this was a huge, two-fold mistake on my part. Why? Firstly, I thought that, for templates, the CR increases were in parts, when dealing with fractions. Eg a CR of +2 would send a CR 1/4 to CR 1/2, when it should really be CR 1/4 to CR 2-1/4. Secondly, I forgot that movement into a character's square, even 5-ft steps, provoked AoO's. There, true DM pwnage.
Toloran 06-16-06, 05:12 PM	I was playing in a game a few weeks ago (not DMing this time) when our group was attacking a durger (sp?) cave/fortress. Our group was a small army (14 people!) all at lvl 6 or 7. Although strong, our group had alot of idiots in it (both characters and the players themselves). (note: we play with a fumble table. It only come into play on negative rolls. natural 1s being a -10. It is nicer then some fumble systems because a high attack bonus negates the -10). At one point, one of our fighers gains an unusual form of regeneration: When a limb or other body part gets chopped off, it can grow back either a little bigger or a little smaller (Not sure exactly how it worked since I wasn't DMing). Well, after a particularly heated battle, the fighter got his head bashed in and his arm chopped off (he started dying but managed to stablize himself). His head regenerated normally but his arm (through a series of freak rolls by the DM) grew to a gigantic size. It was about 12 feet long (and just as massive), He got a AC and speed penalty (how do you move with something like that?) and a large strength bonus (using that arm). We continue on eventually and come across a locked wooden door. The figher decides to break it down with his huge arm. He rolls a natural 20 and the door goes flying off its hinges into the room where it hits the door on the far side and knocks IT off its hinges. Needless to say all the enemies in the next room realize we are there but all they can see is this giant arm in the room sticking through the door way. The two enemies in the room go to attack the arm. One fumbles and ends up stabbing the other guy (killing him) and then fumbles again and kills himself (-_-). We enter the room to see the remaining enemies run into another room. We burst into it (no doors flying off hinges this time) and see a wizard standing on a bookcase looking down at our rather strange party (only 2 of us had entered the room, the rest were outside it, the mutated warrior was one of them). The warrior hits him with his huge arm, almost kills the wizard, and the wizard goes flying. The wizard litterally wets his pants and then proceeds to (on his turn) to cast a very powerful fireball. The fireball incinerates everything in the room (including himself and our two party members). The explosion also extends out of the room and damages (but not kill) several of our other members. The fighter didn't mind because he wanted to roll another character anyway. -_-
The_Normal_Anomaly 06-16-06, 05:54 PM	This is why I don't get to DM very often. "How much harm can they be?" It took a long time, but two wolves, standard non-magical wolves, killed a level five half-feind gnome rogue. They get auto trip, and the poor gnome only had a knife. Worst of all he was only getting natural ones litteraly half the time. I read the whole thing on a creature before using it. DM:"Ok, take 2d8 from its claw damage." Me: (Not in that session) "Hey, don't forget to look at it's spell like abilities" DM:"Thanks, everyone make a fort save..." I couldn't let him run a demon so badly. Forgot one... My DM threw a neolithid at our tenth level pary (diffrent game) we had four people, a primary caster, a primary manifester, a barbarian, and some other melee guy I forgot. "Can I play as the neolithid to free you up for descriptions and stuff?" "Sure" I didn't have a character in that game, so the fun got started. Mage shoots magic missile, melee guys attack, psion uses energy ray. Four tentacles, four PCs, four grapple checks, four neolithid snacks. DM: "Remind me to never let you do that again. Ok, restarting that, you see a big purple worm like thing..."
Cthulhu3125 06-16-06, 06:10 PM	Nothing gives quite the same feeling of schadenfreude as slaughering a PC with the main party fighter, who has succumbed to a "dominate person" spell. The party was fighting a mage, who had climbed onto a ledge. The dominated fighter was next to the mage. The heroic party monk, deciding to take the mage down, managed a leap onto the back of a row of seats, a balance check to run across them all, and leaped at the ledge, just failing one roll but succeeding the next and clinging to the ledge by his fingers. The barbarian 5-foot steps and drives his +2 frost greatsword down through the monk's shoulder and into his liver. I think the realisation that I had just killed a player was along these lines (I don't keep track of my players' HP, they do). Monk: "He better not do more than 15 damage..." Me: "Why, will that put you unconscious?" Monk" "No, it will kill me outright. I'm on 4 hp." *rolls* 18 damage. I used to fudge dice rolls quite a lot, but now I have told my players that I have decided to DM with a "let the dice fall where they may" attitude. Dead monk. The following session the party fighter was dissolved in a T-rex's stomach, but that was nothing out of the ordinary.
SokenzanMarauder 06-16-06, 10:17 PM	A friend of a friend of mine had one of his PCs that drowned in a pool of fecies. It wasn't his fault he was a goblin wearing full-plate... Pooooor goblin, -Gene
zae 06-17-06, 09:17 AM	I played a half-dragon ork who was, while smarter than your average human, very very foolish. His personality was based off the pro wrestler known as The Rock. His name.. the Urak' Guy. Now, he had this routine with new, powerful-looking foes where he would say "Hi, I'm the Urak' Guy, what's your name?" As they started to answer, he'd cut them off, shouting "It doesn't matter what your name is!" and roll Initiative. I'd limit this to not get too annoying. Anyhow, we met what was described as a "big humanoid completely enclosed in armour". So I thought it was just that - a bulky human, maybe a tall ork. Wearing full plate. Turns out it was an Iron Golem. Urak' Guy: Hi, I'm the Urak' Guy, what's your name? Golem: *attacks* We fought a few rounds, with me playing with it a bit. The half celestial elf turned to the feral shifer and asked "Think we should help?" "Nah, he can handle it." "Yeah, you're right, he can handle it." "Yeah, I can handle it!" Urak' Guy shouted, trying for a grapple. They turned out to be his last words, as he failed. Next round, it connected with two attacks, and did so much damage I could just put a "-" at the start of his HP (which was around 30 at the time). His head fell off. Great moment, we all had a good laugh about it and think back fondly.
Secrets Untold 06-17-06, 01:20 PM	My players, before a climactic battle with the BBEG, decided to destroy the 300 ft. tall spiral staircase that led up to the BBEG's chambers, so that he couldn't get away. The party constists of a cleric and a monk. After dispatching the BBEG, killing the cleric in the process, the monk is stuck 300 ft. up with no way down. His slow fall reaches to 50 ft. He fully heals himself with a healing potion and jumps, hoping that he doesn't die. I rolled max damage for falling...he was lvl 10...there was a satisfying SPLAT and one monk-patty on the ground. I laughed, sucide due to stupidity is my favorite tactic.
Insanit 06-17-06, 02:01 PM	when my groop slits up the gather information something bad hapens to someone so one the last day of school i gave the other PC my valuables and went to gather info by myself, i rolled a 1. i ended up talking to the BBEG asking if he had the power to bringme to an other plane the he responded "if your trying to get to the heroic domains why did you try to kill me two nights ago" eldrich blast to the face
MysteryGilgamesh 06-17-06, 07:02 PM	He fully heals himself with a healing potion and jumps, hoping that he doesn't die. I rolled max damage for falling... You rolled 20 6's in a row? I find the claim...Highly improbable.
Obezageip 06-17-06, 07:38 PM	I think he means that the max damage for falling is 20d6, even though the roc fell more than 200 feet.
Davos 06-17-06, 11:32 PM	Four words:excited yeti plus tobogan :help:
Steidas 06-18-06, 01:06 AM	The most cruel one. A Ranger and a Rogue get out of a Dragon city and venture into the dangerous woods around. Filled with Trolls, the two Level 5 adventurers where sure that the great magic items they had been lent could save them (+4 armors and +3 weapons). They started fighting against a Troll. The Troll killed the Rogue in a full attack and double crit frenzy, and the Ranger, luckily, with just 4 hp left, managed to hit the Troll and sent it down... ... But... Trolls regenerate 5hp per round... Troll went down at -2, so in it's turn it went back to 3, and FROM THE GROUND, it made a crit against the ranger... Damn, that was cruel.
Khaldune 06-18-06, 02:13 AM	Out DM likes to blow things up in our campaign. Out party is level 15 and are in a major battle against 1/2 dragon lizard men and 1/2 dragon sorcerers on a carrier similar to a spell jammer but run on captive fire based creatures. We invade the carrier and are making or way though the ship fighting our way though tough opponents all the way to the command center at the top. At the top we find about 20 1/2 dragons lizard and sorcerer both we hear and see the other carrier ship explode dropping it upon its troops below. We think nothing of it because we captured the command center. We see though the window that the remaining enemy is fleeing on smaller ships. Again we figure they are just fleeing because we have captured the main section of the carrier. Unknown to us in the battle one of the sorcerers escaped and scratched out some of the runes holding the creatures captive. This causes the creatures to break free and all of the energy trapped inside to explode, sending fire and debris every where. That blast incinerated the rouge and pummeled the cleric and wizard to death. all that remained was the paladin who had a resistance 30/fire and 100% fortified armor. The blast and debris knocked him down to 6hp from 98. Now comes the fall So he heals himself by drinking the rest of his potions and hopes for the best and survives the fall with 3 hp. After it was all done we were a little shocked because of the way the DM said it. "You're all dead from the carrier exploding" We had to argue to roll all the saves and came out with the one alive at the end. We threw d20s at the DM and told him not to pull that crap again. One expects to die in battle but not to get blown at random. After that he said I wanted you to have it for a base of operations and we looked at him dumbfounded and the comment. We took a break for a couple weeks till he could figure out what to do with the story line . Later with other characters he tried to blow us up again in a ship that was carrying greek fire and black powder unknown to us. He is not allowed to blow us up any more we put a stop to that with more d20's being hurrled his way.
Cthulhu3125 06-18-06, 07:52 AM	You rolled 20 6's in a row? I find the claim...Highly improbable. Improbable? Why, the odds are only 3,656,158,440,062,976 to 1 against!
Dysartes 06-18-06, 08:12 AM	I think the funniest char deaths I've had were my first two chars in 3.0. First guy was a Monk I'd managed to shepard through to 6th level - all going swimmingly so far. I'd started using Alchemists Fire recently as a method of dispersing groups of enemies. Now, our party was exploring some complex, and we'd just reached the top of some stairs when the lights went out (darkness from some Drow). I threw my first A. Fire straight ahead as I'd seen the corridor going straight on, then readied a second (had 6 or so in my backpack/belt). Next thing I know, we get hit b a web spell - and, despite being a Monk with Lightening Reflexes, I fail my Ref save. Not good. It got worse a moment later when I heard a click of a hand crossbow, and promptly failed my Fort save against the Drow poison, falling unconscious. On the upside, I kept hold of the flask of fire. Unfortunately, the party Druid cast Fire Blade immediately behind me, and set fire to the web, buring his way out and setting fire to me. :rolleyes: The DM knew about the Alchemists Fire, and made me roll saves for them - cue my backpack exploding as they failed their saves.... Now, I was still alive (though unconscious) at this point, but on fire, and the damage from the fire would probably have been enough to kill me. One of the other characters runs, grabs me, and rolls down the stairs in an attempt to put the fire out. He partly succeeded, leaving me at something like -9, though I had stabilised. I thought I'd gotten away with it, until the DM ruled I must have taken some damage rolling down the stairs, polishing the crispy-fried Monk off :(
NightBreeze 06-18-06, 01:40 PM	Poor monk...anyway i can see why your dm has done that, at a -9hp a chatacter is more than half dead. As it's wasn't your fault but just a bad luck, i would have ruled that rolling down is non-lethal damage.
Wisedragon 06-18-06, 02:09 PM	I only had two PCs die so far, both of them worth a laugh. They happened to the same player too. The first one he played a elf rouge 1 or 2, I forget. Anyway though, he had the bright idea to ransack the local weapon shop. He was hit with a paraylisis dart that only lasted two rounds as a Magic Mouth started to yell at him while the guards drew nearer. They were armed with spears & shortswords in basic chainmail, but enough for someone with like 14 HP right? He then proceeded to have one of the best die rolling sprees I ever had while my purple d20 of general evil suddenly fizzled out. He took out about 7 or 8 guards by himself before they left him to bleed to death. Another one was about three sessions later, he was an elf fighter 1/wiz 1. We were walking along random wilderness when I called for a spot. He got the highest and I said something like "You look up and see three large shadows circle slowly about 60' up" Everyone else got nervous and even my PC (I DM and play) was shaky, being on lv2. He hid in some nearby bushes and took another spot, and I said feathers. He actually stood up and said, "Then I shoot them with my longbow. They have feathers, meaning they are not dragons and can be killed!" He got a good hit on one with a poison arrow, doing about 25 damage. I shrugged and called for initiative as another PC made a spot and saw they had four legs. I burst into laughter when he screamed, "You attacked GRIFFONS?!" My PC and one I was NPCing for ran back to town, and the paladin played dead. The griffons ignored everyone else but the shooter (The other rogue slipped on a ring of invisibility). He remembered his own invisibility potion, but he died before it took effect. I don't think I'll ever forget when I saw that all of the griffons attacks hit, and I blinked, then said, "Uhh I'm going to need more dice..." so now -39 HP is my record for PC overkill.
The_Illusionist 06-18-06, 06:13 PM	This character didnt die but i had a level 1 half-orc barbarian. He was not not the brightest guy ever and was easily angered....... some how.. i forget.. he went into retard rage and a 12 yr old human started fist fighting him........ after a few 1's and some bad luck.... my character was knocked unconcious. He waslaughed at for quite a while by the other people in my group........ the Half-Orc Barb, beatin by a 12 yr old boy :eek: :confused:
Turel 06-18-06, 08:22 PM	40th level monk/psion. thought he was hard enough to flurry a Umbral Blot. rolled 3 1's in a row for his Fort save vs Disintegrate. dust. thing is he was actually doing enough damage to it to have it die on his last flurry. pity he didnt live though his 6 attacks.
Zheon 06-18-06, 09:46 PM	Played a monk once. we were thrown in an arena to fight some captured things for entertainment. turns out we fight a couple azers. kill one, blah blah, then he gets me against the wall with nowhere to go. im on about 5 hp. i try to jump off the wall and over him, and roll pretty good. the DM decides that this should provoke an attack of opportunity. the azer rolls max damage and a critical hit... something like 30 or 40 damage.. he described it as, when i jumped off the wall, the azer put his hammer up and kept my body in one place, while my limbs kept going. my party laughed thier asses off at me.
Toloran 06-18-06, 11:05 PM	(note: I am DMing) My group was assaulting a tower controlled by an artificer (wizard/effigy master) with a tower full of effigies. They sneak into the place through a secret tunnel (that even the artificer doesn't know about) and proceed to fight some dwarf barbarians. The group is fighting them through a doorway (that way they can fight one at time). Then the paladin gets a great idea: He shoves his way through the ally blocking the door and into a space between two of the barbarians. As he says he is going to do that, several people in the group (including myself) tell him it is a bad idea (since it would trigger two attacks of opertunity, one from each barb). He says he is going to do it anyway (since he is big and tough and 2 levels higher then either of the barbarians). So.... He bursts in and provokes the two attacks of oppertunity. The first one misses (at this point he says "see! and there is no way the second can deal enough damage to really hurt me"). The second one rolls a natural 20. Crit-table, hit location: head. His skull gets smashed in, reducing his HP to exactly 0. His Int, Wis, and Cha all get reduced by half (about 6 each). He is on the ground, bleeding, and stupid. We defeat the dwarves and heal him. We don't have enough time to restore him and we can't leave him there so we bring him along (in his mentally retarded state). Eventually they defeat the artificer and proceed to start looting the place. They then notice a large magical orb (about 2 ft diameter) attached to the ceiling. Someone (in character) jokes about it being evil (they do that alot since they've had some funny experiences with paladins). The paladin believes him (a bluff check vs a sense motive check. Normally, he would know it was a joke but because of his head injury, i figured he wouldn't be able to detect sarcasim normally and would have to do a sense motive check. He failed it.) and proceeds to attack the orb. He manages to destroy it before the group realizes it and can stop him I'll take this time to mention one key fact (that had been hinted at in my campaign but never specifically mentioned). The area which this tower inhabits (and a good distance south of it), used to be a dragon run. Ie, many large, old dragons used to hunt in that area but for whatever reason they stopped several months ago (which, oddly enough, occured shortly before the first appearence of the artificer and his demanding of supplies/tribute). What the group DIDN'T know was the fact that the very orb they just destroyed was what was keeping the dragons away (among other things). The group yells at him for a bit but since nothing else happened, they decided to continue to loot the place. About an hour or two pass when they suddenly feel a small earthquake. They look out the tower windows but they don't see anything and assume it was just an earthquake. They eventually exit the tower only to be greeted by a green wyrmling. A few of the members talk about attacking it (the wyrmling is just sitting there stairing at them because it is curious). One of the group members wonders where it came from. It is about that point when the rest of the group decides to attack it. They start moving towards it when the wyrmling cries out and dashes/flys off into the near by forest. Most of the group chases after it only to be greeted by a Great Green Dragon whos son they had just been chasing as well as the rest of the family (his mate and 2 more young dragons). The dragon proceeds to cast hold person, mass (all players fail). The dragon and his family then procceed to enjoy a nice leasurely dinner. In the mean time, the remaining party members (the ones who didn't chase after) bolt it out of there when they see their comrads being eaten by dragons. They manage to escape (they catch a boat at the near by town). About an hour or two after their departure, the town that and all of the surrounding area gets demolished by the dragon family. Moral of this story: Don't bring paladins. =P