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Saph
2008-03-16, 05:50 PM
We just, at long last, came to the end of our Phantasy Star IV campaign. The BBEG is an entity called the Profound Darkness, which the main group of PCs have been gearing up and preparing themselves to fight for about four sessions now. At the last minute two new players come over to the table and ask if they can join the game. It's explained that they'll have about a 95% chance of dying, but they don't mind. One rolls up a 10th-level warlock, the other rolls up a 10th-level rogue called Shayla.

The PCs reach the demiplane that the Profound Darkness is sitting at the centre of. I read out the description and start up the mood music on my laptop. Every PC gets one round of actions, then the music shifts to "Battle with Magus" from Chrono Trigger and they roll for initiative. Rogue goes first. The Profound Darkness goes second.

Rogue: "I move forward . . . oh, I can't get into melee range."
Other player: "You can use a ranged weapon."
Rogue: "I didn't bring one."
Me: "Its turn. Well, since there's only one active target, it fires a ray of flickering rainbow-coloured light at Shayla." (Prismatic Ray - basically a single-target Prismatic Spray (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/prismaticSpray.htm). The P.D. has three forms, and this is the first and weakest one.)
Rogue: "18? Yeah, it hits."
Me: "Okay, roll a d8."
Rogue: "3."
Me: "Make a reflex save."
Rogue: "19."
Me: "You take 80 points of electricity damage."
Rogue: "Oh. I'm dead, then."
Other player: "What? You're a 10th-level rogue, didn't you take Improved Evasion?"
Rogue: "I didn't think I'd need it."

Fastest in-combat death I've ever witnessed.

The player got resurrected, but later failed his save against the P.D.'s mass-disintegrate effect and was reduced to a pile of dust at -110 HP or so.

So, what's the shortest length of time you've ever seen between rolling initiative and a character dying?

- Saph

Chronos
2008-03-16, 06:00 PM
Is this the same campaign where a couple of PCs went to great trouble to feed themselves to a sandworm? That was fun.


Other player: "What? You're a 10th-level rogue, didn't you take Improved Evasion?"Really, Improved Evasion is the worst option on the list of rogue special abilities. You've got the best Reflex saves of any class in the game; why take an ability which only does anything when you fail a reflex save? Yeah, it'll occasionally save your butt, but Defensive Roll or Slippery Mind will save your butt a lot more often. Skill Mastery has good all-around usefulness, and Crippling Strike is a solid offensive option. I'd have to have a lot more Special Ability slots, or a lot less choices for them, before I'd bother with Improved Evasion.

The lack of a ranged weapon, though, is pretty inexcusable. Even if you're not going to invest any magic on it, at least pick up a bow, or some throwing daggers, or something.

Saph
2008-03-16, 06:10 PM
Is this the same campaign where a couple of PCs went to great trouble to feed themselves to a sandworm? That was fun.

Yeah. This was less hilarious, but still kind of funny. :)


Really, Improved Evasion is the worst option on the list of rogue special abilities. You've got the best Reflex saves of any class in the game; why take an ability which only does anything when you fail a reflex save?

The game's been themed after a console RPG, so the bosses have favoured giant, flashy, explosive spells, because those are what bosses in CRPGs tend to use (and because also they give the PCs a chance to survive, as opposed to spells like Power Word Kill). But to be fair to the player, he didn't have any way of knowing that.

- Saph

Oslecamo
2008-03-16, 06:15 PM
Oh god , so many times I've lost count. Here are the more memorial.

A sorceror lv8 shot down by an hail of arrows from a gnoll army( around 150) after he decided to spend the first turn of battle casting fly and going up "to get out of range".

A fighter lv 11 bursting in the middle of an evil cult we were suposed to spy from a safe distance and stumbling on a pit fiend and his enforcers. Some failed will saves later.

A wizard attacking a group of goblins from distance and a higher position and geting shot back by an hail of javelins. Damnit, humanoid monsters usually carry ranged weapons, you already should have learned that!

A band of digesters circling the party and submiting us to an hail of acid wich took down more than half of us.

an kobold
2008-03-16, 06:18 PM
There's a bit of a backstory to this character's death.

One of the players in my group had a natural tendency to roll natural twenties as a monk. Everyone used the same dice and rolled out in the open, however, it will be apparent, especially as this story progresses, not everyone used the same luck. But this player's luck had kept up, so he decided it was worth the risk to get the DM to houserule that two natural twenties in a row resulted in the target rolling a fortitude save, dc 15, or dieing. As others in the group did not have such luck, we were a little more than uneasy about this since we were relatively low level. Ironically enough, shortly after this rule was verified, the monk was killed due to, ahem, Darwinism.

Enter second player. His initial character, a paladin, had been tied, backstory wise, to another PC, a cleric, whose player had to leave the campaign due to medical reasons. It did not make sense that the paladin would stay with the party. So he rolled up a shugenja, a character both the player and the DM had invested time in, primarily in backstory.

We began the session that night with the shugenja joining the party for the first time as well as the first time of the full implementation of the "double 20" rule. Suspicions abounded as the character's story comes to light and no one really trusts this outsider. The distrust seems to be confirmed when the group is ambushed and we are asked to roll for initiative. That distrust was disproved when the shugenja was the first target of the surprise round. Tragically, as it happened. it was is last round. The DM had rolled a natural 20 twice. Silence. Then the fortitude save. A natural one.

Needless to say, lulz ensued.

Stormcrow
2008-03-16, 06:28 PM
Prior to initiative. In the surprise round. Great Axe, Power Attack, Sneak Attack, Critical.

AslanCross
2008-03-16, 06:33 PM
First enemy round against a Hobgoblin Warsoul and her retinue. One of the casters had webbed the PCs. The Warsoul used her Soul Tyrant ability to raise the DC of her fireball. The druid was scorched beyond recognition before her second turn. I think only the paladin and the bard were left in serviceable condition after that.

In another group (same campaign, though), the cleric was too focused on healing the wizard (who was flying with 0 HP). She didn't defend herself when the boss (a tiefling swordsage) used Elder Mountain Hammer on her. She still didn't bother to move away, so the swordsage did that for her---throwing her 40 feet across the hall and straight into the masonry. She got dropped to-5 from 32 HP. This was turn 3. Not fast per se, but the player sure didn't see that coming.

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll
2008-03-16, 06:35 PM
1st level half-orc vs 1st level orc warrior. Both with Greataxes. Orc wins initiative, and crits. Kills in one blow. Cuts the orc in half at the waist.

Xyk
2008-03-16, 06:41 PM
I think in one of my games the rogue sneaked off and sneak attacked the enemy without telling the party wizard who sees the enemy and fireballs. The rogue dies...so sad...

Kurald Galain
2008-03-16, 06:43 PM
Two cases come to mind.

One was simply a poor DM. One guy was playing a nervous wizard character extremely carefully, resulting in that wizard never really taking any damage (not because he was so uber, but because he was so cautious). Then, at one point, we encounter a small dragon. Dragon wins initiative, breathes flame, and one-shots the wizard. We then proceed to slaughter said dragon in one round.

The other was simply a poor player. This was in a game of Vampire: the Masquerade, wherein one clan of vampires, the Malkavians, are known to be insane. Now if played well, these result in nasty, unpredictable and horrid psychos as seen in various good horror movies. If played poorly, they work like this.

Our group was centered around a rich and influential (albeit crippled) Toreador vampire, a player character who was our de facto leader. The rest of us were his advisors and bodyguards, and having agendas of our own, of course. One day, he was coming out of a meeting in his wheelchair, accompanied by the three of us. And this is when the new Malkavian character was introduced. That player figured that, since his character was insane, the logical thing to do would be to jump out of an alley, scream maniacally, draw a knife, then charge at and stab this leader character. Who needs reasons if you're crazy?

Our own characters made the logical response, which is to say we drew a variety of guns, high-powered shotguns, and a machine gun, and hit him before he could reach our boss. He lasted only a single round, never reached his intended target, and had less than thirty seconds of playtime total.

NullAshton
2008-03-16, 06:43 PM
Thought slayer phased into the material plane and combat started... gaze attack affected my rogue instantly, he failed his fortitude save, and died.

I don't think we even had a chance to roll initiative yet.

AlterForm
2008-03-16, 06:45 PM
I bet the CharOp boards could do it in a free action.

Zocelot
2008-03-16, 06:57 PM
In a campaign that I was DMing, I ran the first battle as a warmup against some kobolds and troglodytes. The Barbarian won initiative, so he raged, and charged in. He one hit on of the kobolds. The next round he got critted by the troglodyte, and was sent to -8 hit points. I got the Kobolds to ready actions to wait for the last kobold to move, at which point 4 kobolds coup de graced the Barbarian at the same time. The barbarian was the only front liner in the party of 4, and I had a TPK in 4 rounds.

Quincunx
2008-03-16, 07:05 PM
Two cases come to mind.

One was simply a poor DM. One guy was playing a nervous wizard character extremely carefully, resulting in that wizard never really taking any damage (not because he was so uber, but because he was so cautious). Then, at one point, we encounter a small dragon. Dragon wins initiative, breathes flame, and one-shots the wizard. We then proceed to slaughter said dragon in one round.

The other was simply a poor player. This was in a game of Vampire: the Masquerade, wherein one clan of vampires, the Malkavians, are known to be insane. Now if played well, these result in nasty, unpredictable and horrid psychos as seen in various good horror movies. If played poorly, they work like this.

Our group was centered around a rich and influential (albeit crippled) Toreador vampire, a player character who was our de facto leader. The rest of us were his advisors and bodyguards, and having agendas of our own, of course. One day, he was coming out of a meeting in his wheelchair, accompanied by the three of us. And this is when the new Malkavian character was introduced. That player figured that, since his character was insane, the logical thing to do would be to jump out of an alley, scream maniacally, draw a knife, then charge at and stab this leader character. Who needs reasons if you're crazy?

Our own characters made the logical response, which is to say we drew a variety of guns, high-powered shotguns, and a machine gun, and hit him before he could reach our boss. He lasted only a single round, never reached his intended target, and had less than thirty seconds of playtime total.

PLEASE tell me this wasn't a LARP session. . .

dyslexicfaser
2008-03-16, 07:26 PM
Ugh, the dreaded Fishmalk.

The only one that comes to mind for myself is in a group of level 2-3 guys in... I dunno... might have been Sharn.

We're exploring the sewers, we've been killing these ratling things left and right, including one as big as a bear. We come to a room with a pool of water. The ranger takes a look. There are a pair of rat-men in the pool.

Ratmen with guns. Bang. Ranger falls dead.

Reltzik
2008-03-16, 07:26 PM
DM: You all edge closer to the strange substance covering the walls, stopping about ten feet away, and bring your light to bear. Knowledge dungeoneering checks to identify.

*the wizard and ranger both pass*

DM: It's yellow mold. It doesn't seem to have registered your presence yet... at least, you're not yet choking to death on a spore cloud. Roll initiative.

*the wizard wins initiative*

Wizard: It's going to gas us any second! I'm holding my metamagic rod, right? Quickened fireball at it and then follow up with a regular one!

DM: O....kay.... Let's play good news bad news.

Other players: IDIOT!

DM: The good news is, the mold's dead, and with the first fireball, even. No need to cast the second one. The bad news is, you all need to make reflex saves.

Wizard: .... oopsies.

Killed himself with a free action right smack at the beginning of the surprise round for the first encounter of the dungeon. Took a fair chunk of party HP with him as he went.

Vonriel
2008-03-16, 07:39 PM
This was probably my second real character, it's been a while so I'm not sure.

We were starting an adventure in Sharn, and the party wizard had just permanently enlarged my dwarf fighter. We encounter a rage drake, which wins initiative. First round, it sees my large dwarf, and charges. DM rolls for its first attack, and rolls two 20s. Enter the critical table. He stabbed me through my heart, and I died in the first round of the first turn of combat. Do I win? :smalltongue:

RTGoodman
2008-03-16, 07:58 PM
Back when we started running our FR Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil campaign a couple of years ago (before it fell apart), I was playing a Half-Orc Monk. (I was originally told that we were going to play an oriental-type party and didn't want to be a shugenja or samurai or ninja, so I just went with monk, despite the weakness of the class).

First combat was a random encounter with an owlbear. The Cleric won initiative and tossed me a potion of Enlarge Person. I drank it down. My first round, I charged in and hit it for a little bit of damage. The owlbears first attack on me? Claw-claw-bite, including a crit on a claw and the bite, that brought be down to like -5 hp. By the time someone hit me with some healing, I was at like -8 or -9. So I survived. Barely.

We got through several encounters, and then ended up fighting some ghouls or ghasts down in the dungeon of the moathouse or whatever. I lost initiative, and was in the back of the party, which soon led to a hiding ghoul paralyzing me on the first round, and then a Troglodyte Cleric came up and used a coup de grace on me. One natural one later, I was dead.

Quxelopqr
2008-03-16, 08:21 PM
My favorite quick death was the party's Paladin, Alonzo. Created by the party's fighter after an unfortunate encounter with dread wraiths (we told him to buy a locked gauntlet a thousand times, so what does he do? Drop his scythe while surrounded by things that drain con on touch attacks), this character was relegated to dmpc after the fighter was revived via my rogue's scroll. Next encounter was a lich. Paladin appears to win initiative and charges the lich, who uses its readied action to cast finger of death. One natural 1 later, the only character in the party who was made to kill undead is down and the next round my rogue is dominated. Slippery mind saved my rogue, but we barely made it out of there.

Second favorite is same campaign, same dungeon crawl actually. Our 17th level mystic thurge spots what looks like a choker on the cieling. He magic missles it, figuring a poor little choker will die instantly. We did not know that this was actually an uber-choker, statted up to almost epic levels. It rushed to the thurge and strangled him with some kind of life draining decapitation attack. The rest of the party almost dies again, due to the thing only being weak to magic (AC 42? Come on.) and our primary caster dead. We now fear the choker, no matter what level we are. (This DM is not evil per se, in fact he is probably the best I've ever played with. We were in a reclematory for prisoners on Carcari looking for a dead God's belongings after all. Gotta figure there'd be some tough creatures in there. The pit fiend though...)

Triaxx
2008-03-16, 08:27 PM
Third play through of Baldur's Gate Remix (My paper version.), first time with the 3.5 rules. The party wizard steps up against the enemy, and casts Magic Missile. AoO goes off, and manages a natural twenty with a Scythe. The wizard had a total of 6HP. The Scythe rolled it's full 8, damage, plus strength bonus... -42HP.

The_Werebear
2008-03-16, 08:58 PM
I have a two round and a Surprise Round

The first, I was playing a Naga Sorcerer, 6th level plus racial stuff. The DM pits us against a Nightwalker. First turn attempt to escape via flight and get Dispelled, dropping into his range and taking severe falling damage. Second turn, while attempting to leave his range, get AoO'd to death.

The surprise round was me DMing for a Gestalt Group. The Druid/Dread Necromancer was stepping forward to try and identify the cloaked figures on the road. Their wizard fires off a disintegrate, which I thought would miss due to me never being able to hit him before. It tags him. He then fails his first fort save of the campaign and is reduced to a pile of dust.

Xefas
2008-03-16, 09:46 PM
I have one, but it isn't very funny.

All during 2nd edition, I had this one DM Screen that had been handed down to me by my older (half) brother, which had been handed down to him by his older (half) brother, of which I'm not directly related to. It was very handy with every single 2nd edition rule I would ever need just sitting in front of me. Anyway, I also always rolled behind it, as DMs are ones to do.

When we switched to 3rd edition, I still used the screen for nostalgic purposes and because I couldn't find a good 3rd edition one for cheap. However, in my group's first 3rd edition game, my players got a little leery about the monsters always making their saves. Which, wasn't really my fault, considering they were very unoptimized (this being our first 3rd ed game), and so the monsters were just making them on their own. Anyway, they ended up accusing me of fudging the rolls too much, and that it was making the game unfun. So, I agreed to not use the screen anymore.

The next battle was against an Ogre. The level 2 Fighter (with 25hp) charges it in the first round and misses, and is then hit for 18 on an AoO and 20 for the Ogre's action, killing him instantly. The screen was swiftly reinstated, and no one else died for the rest of the campaign. Well, in an actual fight anyway. One died for epic plot reasons, and a few deaths were had via stupidity (all by the same guy, who we don't game with anymore).

I have a lot more "knock-out" stories, most of which are probably funnier, but they don't end in death, so they aren't appropriate for the thread. One involved a Minotaur Pimp.

Dode
2008-03-16, 09:53 PM
1st level PCs
Start the campaign in a bar full of miners.
Start a fight with the miners, drawing weapons in a fistfight.
One of the miners swings his pick. Critically hits.
Fastest PC death in combat.

Paragon Badger
2008-03-16, 10:53 PM
Half-Giant throws the dwarf fighter towards a T-Rex, so he can get to him faster.

T-Rex eats him during his attack of opportunity.

Later on, the Half-Giant killed the dinosaur, which fell over on another party member. :smallwink:

Werewindlefr
2008-03-16, 11:09 PM
AD&D 2nd edition, I'm playing a level 4 cleric (that I've rolled 20 minutes before) in a level 6 party. We're walking in a forest and all goes well, until...
A few Yuan-Ti ambush us, they have the initiative. They cast fireball, 6D6 damage, I fail my save; I take 30 points of damage, instadeath.
So, my character lasted 20 minutes, and 10 seconds after initiative was rolled. Feels like playing "paranoia" :p.

Deepblue706
2008-03-16, 11:22 PM
This PC died in the first round of combat, before any NPCs had a chance to act.

Player 1 (Fighter): I charge! *does some rolling*
DM: You mightily swing your greatsword at the armored orc, bringing the blade down upon a small gap located at the shoulder. He is greatly wounded, but still stands.
Player 2 (Elf Wizard): Okay, I don't wanna waste spells, so I'm gonna use my longbow to finish this guy off!
Player 1: Okay.
Player 3: Wait, that's not a good idea...
*Player 2 rolls* - a gasp!
DM: Okay, you just fumbled. Roll again.
*Another roll*
DM: Dear lord, you just got a 20. Roll again.
*another roll*
DM: Another 20? Okay...um...roll damage.
*another roll*
DM: Okay, so your arrow flies astray, and into the back of the Fighter's head, dealing 24 damage.
Player 1: But I only have 14 HP!

Skjaldbakka
2008-03-16, 11:27 PM
My first experience with Living Greyhawk. We ran around for 3 hours trying to find the plothook, since LG modules have no room for going around the plot hook, like a normal campaign would. We finally stumble across a clue, that clue being an ambush. My level 1 wizard took a crossbow bolt to the throat before anyone else got a chance to act. What makes it worse is that he was the only one to spot the ambush, but then lost initiative.

Yeah, I never really got into LG after that.

Ninjalitude
2008-03-16, 11:59 PM
Other player: "What? You're a 10th-level rogue, didn't you take Improved Evasion?"
Rogue: "I didn't think I'd need it."
- Saph

Good god, can you ask that rouge if he ever played in a campaign with an Orc bard, gnome swashbuckler, and a ludicrously overpowered DMPC who managed to construct the perfect ambush for the BBEG that would have killed him instantly, but the rouge charged out and got everyone (including DMPC) killed? because if he has, i have my own revenge to seek.

kieza
2008-03-17, 02:51 AM
Level 6 dwarf fighter, fighting a giant centipede-thingy. It was his first combat. On his first action, he charges, and takes an attack of opportunity, which criticals with a x3 modifier and rolls max damage, about 60, which is enough to kill him. Fails massive damage save, and dies again. Takes 17 Con damage from poison, reducing him to 0 and killing him a third time.

This is the only time that I've heard of someone dying three times in one round.

riddles
2008-03-17, 05:30 AM
Level 2, delving into a dungeon in Ptolus. i was late to the campaign, so this was my first session.

first encounter - 3 large ratmen. i charge, miss but stand in the way of them and the squishy characters. wizard casts sleep. i'm the only failing character. next round - coup de grace

senrath
2008-03-17, 06:55 AM
It went something like this in one of my groups.

1. Our group comes charging into the BBEG's lair (who was expecting us), mostly clumped up.
2. BBEG wins initiative.
3. BBEG casts Wail of the Banshee.
4. Everyone save me dies. I don't die because I was flying high above the others, saving the BBEG's prisoner while the others were supposed to deal with him.

Of course, I obliterated the BBEG a few rounds later, thanks to liberal application of cheeze, and got the party ressurected, but that was funny.

Craig1f
2008-03-17, 11:41 AM
First day of the new adventure, my first time being DM'd by this guy.

We're starting at level 13. We're lead into an antechamber, before we're supposed to meet with the Queen that had summoned each of us individually. ICly, most of the other guys knew each other from a previous adventure. I was new, and didn't know anyone ICly (and had just started playing with these guys, but I'd known them for years and use to mock them for playing DnD).

So we're in the ante-chamber, and the DM rolls a listen check for the monk, who hears "padded footsteps" up in the guard balcony overseeing us. The monk just sort of says "oh, hmmm, wonder what that is." The DM says "... uh, roll a wisdom check. 18. Ok, the guards are all wearing metal boots, and you hear padded feet."

About now, the DM is secretely counting seconds. Round 1.

The monk says "I think I hear something upstairs."
Round 2.

I invoke See the Unseen (I was an eldritch disciple, posing as a single-class cleric)

"You see a few figures up in the rafters pointing hand crossbows at you."

I yell "holy ****, we're under attack"
Round 3

"Crossbolts hit each of you. Everyone make 3 fortitude saves."

Each player had to take saves against:
A) Death Attack from assasssins
B) Poison
C) Human-bane bolts

Our Wizard, who didn't realize that saves from multiclassing stack, rolled like a 3 and died instantly to death attack.

wumpus
2008-03-17, 06:15 PM
<Geezer>one word. "Traveler" </Geezer>

I have no idea how the new editions work, but "classic" traveler characters would often die during the process of rolling them up. My boxed edition included a "module" (more like an adventure framework) that required somebody to get the scout ship (the super prize) while rolling up a character. To get this prize, you had to join the most dangerous service, then volunteer for extremely hazardous duty over and over (still inside character generation rules). Bring plenty of sheets of paper if you want the scout ship.

Frosty
2008-03-17, 06:23 PM
It went something like this in one of my groups.

1. Our group comes charging into the BBEG's lair (who was expecting us), mostly clumped up.
2. BBEG wins initiative.
3. BBEG casts Wail of the Banshee.
4. Everyone save me dies. I don't die because I was flying high above the others, saving the BBEG's prisoner while the others were supposed to deal with him.

Of course, I obliterated the BBEG a few rounds later, thanks to liberal application of cheeze, and got the party ressurected, but that was funny.

Can you detail the fight between you and the BBEG and how you obliterated him/her? :smallbiggrin: How much Gouda are we talking about here?

Swordguy
2008-03-18, 01:34 AM
In 2nd edition, my players complained that I wasn't running BBEG spellcasters to their full potential. "They should be just epic-ly brilliant and able to conceive of every possible cunning plan against them with an INT score of 19!" Thus...

The players rolled into the town under that shadow of the evil wizards tower, with the intention of pumping the inhabitants of the village for information. The first question they asked about "what sort of defenses does the big tower on the hill have?" triggered contingent scrying spells, that transmitted the information to the now-alerted BBEG. Realizing that they presented a threat, the BBEG summoned a major extra-planar being that he had previous dealings with and negotiated with it for a series of specifically uncorruptable Wishes. He then proceeded to use the Wishes to Wish the PCs out of existence.

The game lasted 10 minutes. It never even got to combat.

Ascension
2008-03-18, 01:38 AM
:smallamused: This is why high intelligence stats are better off downplayed.

senrath
2008-03-18, 08:58 PM
Can you detail the fight between you and the BBEG and how you obliterated him/her? :smallbiggrin: How much Gouda are we talking about here?

Not much to detail, it actually only lasted a few rounds. Although I can't quite remember the exact details, it pretty much just involved Shapechange and a few Maximized, Enlarged Scorching Rays. I was a Sorcerer/Wildmage that got lucky with Random Deflector :P

Stycotl
2008-03-18, 10:39 PM
don't seem to remember any particularly quick pc deaths. but there was this one campaign i had made up, an arachnid-mantis-type dragon (don't ask). it was fairly potent, even for 2nd edition, probably an ancient red dragon or so. final encounter. i had set up all of these traps and tricks that the dragon was to play, with all sorts of arachnid-creepy goodness.

stupid rogue gets lucky and manages a sneak attack. stupid dragon ends up taking houserule massive damage-equivalent and rolling a 1 on both saves that i gave him. dragon lasted one surprise round in combat against a stupid rogue.

i think i still might even have the creepy-arachnid-dragon-pansy's lair map stuffed away in a drawer somewhere...

SadisticFishing
2008-03-18, 10:50 PM
The most efficient character deaths I've seen was when my group wanted to try epic play. Level 21, just out of Honest John's tavern in the Hall of Worlds, they get a warning that a Bounty Hunter is out to get them. They ignore it.

Several minutes later, seeing as none have good enough listen and none has See Invisibility up (they're not good at epic)...

Ksssht, Swordsage/Warblade/Bloodclaw Master with Girallon's Blessing potion attacks. Blood in the Water stance.

Surprise Round:
Pouncing Charge, Raging Mongoose. Kills one and a half people, gets Blood in the water to +8.

Initiative:
Fist of Raziel/Ordained Champion attacks, smites, misses. Forgets to full round.
Ksssht goes again, this time using Time Stands Still and Girallon Windmill Flesh Rip. Kills two more people, gets Blood in the water to +19.
They teleport away.

Yeah, my group wasn't very good at planning in epic. I mean, no see invisiblity? Sigh. Forgetting the full round made a bit of sense, he had just switched from a ToB character for almost 18 levels... But still!

Hawriel
2008-03-18, 10:58 PM
AD&D Plane Scape box adventure. Party got into a bar fight with a beholder. The whole six character party was dead by the end of the Beholders first turn. It won initiative.

Curmudgeon
2008-03-18, 11:56 PM
My character, a human Monk, was scouting and stepped from bright sunlight just inside the mouth of dark cave. Since he didn't have low-light vision the orcs there got a surprise round against him. The orc Cleric cast Hold Person and he failed his save. Worse yet, one orc only needed a 5' step to close on the Monk -- and he started a coup de grace ("Start/Complete Full-Round Action"). The rest of the party was waiting for the paralyzed Monk to say something, so they didn't even step into line of sight before the coup de grace was finished. A heavy pick (x4 critical) is not what you want someone to use against you when they get an automatic critical hit. :smallmad:

Mikeavelli
2008-03-19, 12:04 AM
Y'know Rocks fall everyone dies? I got a Rocks rise up, you die moment.

I was playing a Bard with a newbie DM who thought I was a munchkin for having maxed out Hide and Move Silent skills, along with various helping items to push those skills into the low 40's respectively at level 13. This, along with various bard spells, let me slip into the roll of party scout and tactical planner, capable of scouting out ambushes, and breaking them apart rather routinely.

Now I admit being a fan of the CharOp boards, and no-one else in the group at the time was very good at character creation, but I figured going straight bard would mitigate my munchkinry. In actual combat, everyone else shined while I mostly just buffed and sang, so there were no complaints from the actual players.

Unfortunately, our DM hated this, despised it, his favorite thing to do was spring ambushes without spot\listen checks, much less any other warning or logic behind it. We still make fun of him for the plains giants that somehow snuck up on us in the middle of the day in an empty field, but, back to the story.

While I'm out scouting around, I come face to face with DM rage, three earth elementals pop up out of the ground, score several critical hits, and confirm them. I go from full health to about -50 in one turn, with the corpse and every magical item on it destroyed.

That's when I rolled up a druid.

Titanium Dragon
2008-03-19, 12:31 AM
While this wasn't at the beginning of a combat, it was really at the beginning of when the two got in close quarters.

Kadrin, a dwarf fighter, was at full hit points. A group of gnolls was rushing out of the temple, being peppered by gunfire from Kadrin and fireballs from his elf mage friend. One gnoll is a big barbarian weilding a greataxe.

Kadrin clicks his boots of haste, charges forward, and smacks the gnoll a good one. The gnoll on his turn rages, and then attacks twice. Two natural twenties. Oops. Both confirm, and Kadrin dies a horrible, messy death from full HP as he gets chopped to bits in a single round.

Next session he got me a DM screen.

HarmlessPenguin
2008-03-19, 03:01 AM
We just, at long last, came to the end of our Phantasy Star IV campaign. The BBEG is an entity called the Profound Darkness, which the main group of PCs have been gearing up and preparing themselves to fight for about four sessions now. At the last minute two new players come over to the table and ask if they can join the game. It's explained that they'll have about a 95% chance of dying, but they don't mind. One rolls up a 10th-level warlock, the other rolls up a 10th-level rogue called Shayla.

The PCs reach the demiplane that the Profound Darkness is sitting at the centre of. I read out the description and start up the mood music on my laptop. Every PC gets one round of actions, then the music shifts to "Battle with Magus" from Chrono Trigger and they roll for initiative. Rogue goes first. The Profound Darkness goes second.

First, I just want to say that it's awesome that you ran a Phantasy Star campaign =); me and a friend were in a long running Phantasy Star I campaign actually, especially great since my friend (the 'main' PC) had never played the game and developed the plot fantastically well =).

As for fastest death in my experience. I think the fastest one I can think of was once when our party rogue managed to by pass an apparently very deadly trap for the entire party (our DM liked especially deadly traps and even gave XP for disarming/by passing them as if defeating an encounter) and we planned to lure the BBEG down the same tunnel and spring it on him instead and ambush him after he was weakened by whatever the trap was. It worked almost perfectly, unfortunately for us though the big deadly trap was the walls of the entire corridor to close in and crush us all (Reflex save to avoid, but we had huge penalties for being in the middle of the corridor) TPK in the surprise round but we took the BBEG with us =P.

Lochar
2008-03-19, 09:44 AM
In a campaign I was running, one of the PCs died in a battle. Nothing much to it, but he wanted to run a new character. He was a power gamer, and didn't like how I was negating a good deal of that character's overshadowing of the other players.

So he rolls up a different PC, promising to make it less power gaming. He does roll up an Order of the Bow Initiate, so I don't think that's got too much issue there.

So I go to introduce this new PC to the other players. They're currently in an abandoned village among the trees, and the new PC is a wood elf that was sent from another village and found this one. He proceeds to RP that he thinks they're only there to loot the place and proceeds to accost them. A few good rolls by the rogue later, and they've got the wood elf hanging by a grappling hook through his britches off the limbs, over a couple hundred feet of empty air.

They talk for a few moments, and the elf decides that he wants to re enter combat. Not a problem, I ask him what he does. He points to the entry that arrows can be used as daggers of their size for melee. I agree. He proceeds to draw an arrow and slice the rope.

A couple hundred feet later, there's a thud.

Hell V
2008-03-19, 11:36 AM
On a Forgotten Realms campaign, I had one group that was exploring Vaasa, consisted of evil characters: Me, Hobgoblin Ranger, one Tiefling Paladin Of Slaughter, Human Druid and an Orc Barbarian... Ocasionally we would get help from an Imp Wizard...

Sometime at level 8, said Imp asked us to break into other wizard's house and steal some magic items. Ranger being the party's skillmonkey, I was supposed to break into the house and silently bring out the items while rest of the party would distract the wizard by breaking noisily on the other door.
Trick is: only the storage door had alarm cast on it... So when I opened the door, silent alarm goes off and said wizard becomes aware of my intrusion, and goes invisible to check things out. Last thing I see is a wizard coming out of nowhere and conjuring a Lightning on my face. That's Dying on the surprise round

On other tales, I was DMing... The group was 6th level, consisted of Paladin, Knight, Cleric, Druid and Wizard/Remodeled Arcane Archer... While crossing a Swamp, Knight, Pally and Cleric go up front on their horses while Druid, Wizard and Animal companion follow on foot.
Looking up for random encounters for marshlands, the Catoblepas strikes me as a good idea... No one spots or listens him, and on surprise round it uses his Death Gaze on knight... Low check later, Knight is Disintegrated... On surprise round of Random Encounter... Later on he rolled a Scout/Ranger focused on awareness skills...

Fitz
2008-03-20, 06:09 AM
not fast, but very very funny.
party of level 1 characters are fighting an animated table, the mage gets down to 0 hit points and decides to use his action to hide, causing himself to start bleeding to death, he rolls a natural 20, 2 rounds later the party have finished off the table and start looking for said wizard, 8 rounds later no one has rolled above a 4 (and with an 18 wis cleric using spot and a high int rogue with maxed search!) and the Wizard bleeds to death, even the wizards player was laughing by that point!

Fitz

Silkenfist
2008-03-20, 07:36 AM
My record stems from Vampire's Dark Age, unfortunately with my own PC. I have a Setite, optimised for Stealth and Seduction, NOT for combat. Even worse I have a high generation (No ancient Setites in Europe then) and an abysmal Stamina score. The character has yet to meet the party and the plot hook Elysium is in the next night. So what to do? Inspect the local clergy and see what my future enemy will look like.
Turns out the biggest church does not repel my character as much as it should. Curiously, I sneak inside obfuscated to have a look around. A few good perception rolls later and I have found a secret door leading to a long-stretched, crude tunnel. Now this might have been a good time to call in the backup, but IC I don't know that I will have comrades tomorrow. Also, the curiosity gets the better off me OOC and I sneak down the corridor. The DM stresses that the tunnel runs in a straight line for a long time before leading to a T-shaped intersection. I choose right arbritarily and find an exit, leading into the woods outside the city. I decide to peek out to locate where exactly I am...

DM: *rolls* So as you step out of the tunnel, you see a small clearing, well-hidden in the woods about three quarters of a mile east of the city. But more importantly, your hear a sound similar to a sail catching a sudden gust of wind, followed by a heavy 'Thump'.

Me: Gargoyle?

DM: *nods*

Me: Guarding the hallway I just walked through?

DM: *nods*

Me: And my Obfuscate does nothing because it has seen me with Stonesight earlier?

DM: *nods*

Me: And you just rolled whether I would spot it in time to not?

DM: *nods*. Do you want to roll Initiative?

Me: No, I want a new character sheet.



The worst thing was that the character died before it could tell anyone about the passage in the church. So without any way of knowing that IC, our characters later had to face the Gargoyle face-to-face, taking two beatings until we finally get past it.

But yeah...that's the record. PC died before it even met his party. Beat this.

kentma57
2008-03-20, 08:29 AM
There is a bit of back story to this but...

SO I am playing a nearly insane 11th level blaster sorcerer, who worships an evil bunny. The party was in an area that they know is inhabited by two powerful creatures, the real plan is to work with a thrid powerfull creature in the area (CR 18 dragon) and kill the two seperatly, I ruined this.

DM: so your camped at the bast of the mountain, it's night. What do you want to do?

Player1: Well every one but me has rested so I will sleep.

Player 2-4: we will talk to the dragon.

Me: I start playing with my Greater rod of wonder rolls...

DM: a 15ft cone of pure white light erupts from the end...

SO, I basicly managed to fire a flare. The creatures showed up one round later, droped negative levels on all of us then turnd half the party + the dragon to stone :smallbiggrin:

KillianHawkeye
2008-03-20, 07:30 PM
My character, a human Monk, was scouting and stepped from bright sunlight just inside the mouth of dark cave. Since he didn't have low-light vision the orcs there got a surprise round against him. The orc Cleric cast Hold Person and he failed his save. Worse yet, one orc only needed a 5' step to close on the Monk -- and he started a coup de grace ("Start/Complete Full-Round Action"). The rest of the party was waiting for the paralyzed Monk to say something, so they didn't even step into line of sight before the coup de grace was finished. A heavy pick (x4 critical) is not what you want someone to use against you when they get an automatic critical hit. :smallmad:

If it only needed to move 5 feet, it could have done the coup de grace in the same round, since "Start/Complete Full-Round Action" is actually a Standard Action.

TomTheRat
2008-03-20, 07:55 PM
Nobody can beat this:

We're playing ToEE, and we're in the haunted town you're not supposed to go to unless you're suicidal. I'm playing the rogue, and I'm ahead of the group, scouting the lower level of an inn. I make a natural 20 on my Move Silently, so I figure I'm doing ok. I turn to the group after searching for traps, and the GM says: Roll Fort please.

I roll a 9.

He says: you die.

What happened? A ghost, with 5 levels of rogue and 1 level of assassin with a Ghost Touch longsword. He was invisible, and incorporeal, and got 3 rounds to study me and do a Death Touch.

:-(

In conclusion, the ToEE is hell.

The_Blue_Sorceress
2008-03-20, 07:58 PM
Round One:


I go first. I vault over a table to avoid having to go around it to get to the back guys. My check is poor, so while I get up and over, I don't get up to the bad guys to whap them.

Bad Guy Wizard: Daze
I fail my will save
Bad Guy Rogue: Attacks me and hit.
One of our guys: Attacks the rogue
Bad guy rogue #2: five foot steps into flank, attacks me, crits, attacks again and hit.
I die.

It wouldn't have happened like that if our DM had been clearer which direction the table was facing. I intended to get on the table and run down it to hit the wizard, there by avoiding moving into the threatened areas of either of the two rogues in going around the table.

This is why I believe in battle maps.

-Blue

Orzel
2008-03-20, 08:01 PM
Flight + ranged weapons + only visible target + forgot to buff= many quick mage deaths.


In a homebrew RPG, a NPC was killed out of nowhere thus forcing a mental state roll. The party wizard (the NPCs brother) became "Fractured" and took a Will penalty. The enemy wizard casted a Mindbreaking spell "Replay Sorrow". The spell is pretty much "Save or take damage and the spell recasts itself". It's normally not scary but the wizard had 4 will save penalties on him. So wizard sees his sibling die 12 times, takes 12d4 mental damage, and his brain tells him to off himself.

Also
Adventure starts. Fighter throws kobold in air. Thrown kobold triggers a ceiling trap. Trap crits the disarming rogue. Kobold falls on rogue. Rogue dies.

GenLee
2008-03-20, 10:16 PM
Excuse me for interjecting a not-D&D story. The game is Twlight:2000 (post-nuclear holocaust game, for those of tender years). When this story happens, I'm an experienced GM, introducing it to a party of mostly newbies to the game.
The party, just minutes after character generation, is riding down a road, and I spring a small ambush on them-- this is a first fight, to get them used to combat, which is pretty deadly in this game.
Me: "OK, some bad guys pop up and begin firing. They have initiative, but lousy skills." {roll, roll} "OK, Walt, your guy is hit, {roll 1d10} "in the head" {roll 3d6, double for head shot} for 30 points of damage. You have 9. You're dead."
Player B, experienced with me and the system: "This is why you buy a helmet!!"

One combat, one shot, one PC death. That's my record. :smallbiggrin: I quickly retconned it, so that fight didn't count, and his PC wasn't really dead. I didn't want to scare off the whole party and collapse the game.

GoC
2008-03-20, 10:40 PM
SO I am playing a nearly insane 11th level blaster sorcerer, who worships an evil bunny.
Worshipping an evil switchblade-wielding bunny is actualy the safest thing to do.