Character death

Tell me about the times you died Veeky Forums

We found two identical bags. One was a Bag of Holding and the other one was a Bag of Devouring. My character asked to see the Bag of Holding and the other PC threw a bag towards my character.

>White necromancer.
>Romance with cleric.
>Cleric's wedding ring was the necromancers phylactery.
>Deity demands destruction of all magical things.
>She broke his phylactery, and his heart.
>It killed him.

Party's barbarian wanted to stay behind and fight off encroaching forces from inside a town. My character, being honorable and caring, stood by his side.

It was her biggest, and final, mistake.

A lich popped out and shot me through the heart with a frieza death beam. I negotiated with the god of death, an aspect of my patron god, to let me return to the world of the living to save my friends.

later i got wrestled to the ground by 5 random jews and one of them snapped my neck. stayed dead that time...

My fighter fell into a 30' hole with a gravity trap halfway down. Fell with massive force, crushing bones on the bottom. Barely survived, but gets up at the bottom, and puts on his ring of jumping, thinking he can easily hop back out.

Gravity trap is re-triggered halfway up, get smashed back into the ground with all the extra magical force of the ring included. Splattered to bits.

Another death was for a character that did not even last 5 minutes. Knocked unconscious by a Fire Giant. The sharpshooter killed the giant and described it falling backwards. Not realizing my character was behind the enemy. I know he meant well. Sad thing was that Giant's body was too heavy to lift and could not revivify in time.

Pretty embarrassing one.

My rogue girl seduces a villainous fighter, gets him in bed, pumping him for information as they spend the night together.

She's talking to him and trying to slyly get information as she's being fucked missionary style.

Hugely fails her persuasion roll. He pulls his dagger from beneath the pillow while he's still inside her, and DM deems her grappled, sticks his blade in her jaw up into her brain and kills her instantly.

One of my first ever characters was a teenage druid.

She got into a barfight after insulting a big drunk and he reached over and snapped her neck like a twig.

the context of how i got killed by jews is really what makes the story a kicker i suppose.

we were laying siege to camelot alongside an army of immortal soldiers who were doing all the work, and my character decided to tag along with another raiding christian and jewish temples for some loot. i entered a locked synagogue through a window while my companion for some reason stood around trying to kick down the door and found a handful of jews trying to protect their sheckels. i commanded them to line up against a wall while my compatriot made his entry and they obeyed. one of them decided to be a hero and led the charge as all of them dog piled me. for some reason they had class levels in monk and were specialised as grapplers (again, these are random civilians). so they dogpile me and grapple me since im not built to resist that sort of thing and by the time my companion gets in (he decided to kick down the door instead of following me in even after hearing me call for help) i was knocked out. the leader of the jews threatened to break my neck if my companion didnt let them go with their valuables and he refused and my neck was snapped.

DON'T STAND THERE GAWKING LIKE-YOU'VE-NEVER-SEEN-THE-HAND-OF-GOD-BEFORE!

>warlock character: set off nuke on self
>wizard character: set off nuke on self

>Deathwatch
>Doing the starter module with the GM book
>The GM has done a few alterations here and there though
>Like give the hordes heavy bolters instead of stubbers.
>Entire fireteam died in the second round of combat

Instead of fugging her evil? What an amateur.

>Make a warrior with a badass lucerne
>specializes in knocking down knights and caving in their skulls
>ye I can't wait to knock down knights and cave in their skulls
>oh look a cabin with some bandits
>oh look a trap door with a 20 dex save
>oh look the bulky warrior and the unlucky dragonborn pal fall down the hole, splitting the party
>oh look the hole has unscaleable sides and is like a 30 foot drop
>oh look !!SIX!! Assassin Vines against 2 level 5 characters
>gee, look at all these things that can't be knocked down or have their skulls caved in, and also operate within the range of my polearm
>dragonborn pal why are you crying
>oh it's that you have no spells to help with this situation
>okay
>yeah, nice knowing you too
>what's that crunching sound coming from my ribcage?

That particular dm wound up killing so many of my characters that it became something of a running joke.

Oh, not a death but a near-death

>Be a Tiefling Cleric
>Be very effeminite, very weak, not meant for combat but decent at healing
>Have party of total 3 for a session
>Jump into the front line against an undead ogre
>Take a hit, hellish rebuke
>Instantly go down
>Get thrown at my ally
>Get bitten while down, that's two death saves gone
>Get rezzed
>Get dropped *again*
>Roll 2 failures for death saves in a row
>Only live because the GM didn't make me roll a third death save when combat ended

To be fair the DM claimed he would have probably killed her after he finished anyway, as killing girls was his kink.

She got the chance to roll again to attempt to persuade him otherwise and fudged again, so DM says she managed to get out something pathetic like "Please no!" before...spluk

Gotta admit, rogue had guts to screw someone who kills their partners post-coitus.

She was an extremely confidant, extremely beautiful girl, she thought she could get the better of him, or at least make him fall in love with her like she usually did.

Apparently the last thing she felt was him climaxing as he twisted the knife in her brain.

Also...
Stomped on by sass-mouthing a deity in it's own plane.

GM DETECTED
MAGICAL REALM SENSORS OFF THE CHART

Pyromancer got caught in the entirely avoidable fire breath of a giant magical cat. He died the way he lived.

I wouldn't introduce your DM to any lady friends.

On fire?

yeah, no girls in that particular group. He was tamer with female members when they were there.

>Only War
>Very first time ever playing pnp rpg in a group with 2 others who were also rp virgins and we have an experienced GM
>Playing salvage and recovery regiment, on a mission to recover broken Leman Russ from a battlefield
>Get attacked by Orks
>Already loaded up and ready to head back, have plenty of chances to get the fuck back in our recovery tank and run away
>Being new and dumb, we decide to fight the Orks
>Too many Orks, we're all severely wounded and our comrades are all dead
>GM takes pity on us and suggests we think about what our mission here actually is
>We all facepalm and start hauling ass back to the tank but we're not gonna make it
>Ogryn refuses to get in the tank, tries to make a jump and get on top as we're taking off but slips off
>Bunch of Orks closing in
>We're well provisioned and each have 8 grenades on us
>Pull all pins and meet the charge

Leman Russ was safely hauled back to base, survivors all got medals, and Sandal the Ogryn went out in a blaze of glory.

Any other first time RPers make stupid mistakes like forgetting their actual mission parameters?

On fire.

Worst time would be the time where my cleric was keeping watch for the night, and got snuck up on by a bunch of Orcs and clubbed before he could do anything.
Best time would be my Sorcerer casting their most powerful spell, a big AoE one, on the BBEG's chief minion while he was in five feet of him. Wild Magic Surge then dropped a Fireball on me for additional humour.

...did she orgasm?

nope, he did.

>Long Campaign is coming to an end
>Party consists of two monks, a rogue, a gunslinger, a sorcerer, a bard and a cleric of Asmodeus (me)
>Facing down the BBEG (A high level gunslinger), his bard companion and small army of dire corgis, snipers and skrimishers
>Gunslinger does some crazy action economy abuse to shoot a flintlock pistol 3 times in a single round, sending one of the monks into the negatives
>Rogue falls to a dire corgi who managed to one-shot her after rolling 5 twenties in a row. This was a CR 1 creature. She was level 5 or 6.
>Party gunslinger shoots and explosive barrel to try to hurt the BBEG gunslinger who is wrecking everything
>He saves for half damage (I think 7 damage).
>Both unconcious friends are killed in the blast
>I'm at 2 or 3 HP
>Finally manage to start whittling the BBEG gunslinger down once we are able to close into melee
>BBEG gunslinger uses his last turn to acrobatics himself into the middle of us all and pulls a zip chord that makes all his powder cartridges explode
>I die in the suicide bombing, along with the BBEG
>The sorcerer is in the negatives.
>The bard and the remainder of the forces either surrender or flee.

not a bad way to go out, honestly. I think the medal has to go to being one-shot by a quintuple crit corgi.

I meant, the BBEG gunslinger triple-shot our monk. Sorry.

Went on ahead to check out a keep while the rest of the party decided they'd rather return to town and report what we found. He got past the wall and found people holed up deeper inside and convinced them to let him in. Then they decided they didn't like him for some reason and despite scrambling out of danger the first few times he did something dumb and got cornered and beaten to death.

Battle of two reality warpers. Like mages in WoD but somewhat more thematically constrained.

It started with mental combat which more or less ended in a draw and proceeded to physical confrontation. At the end they trashed a whole city block. A flying anime mecha shooting lasers, plasma and rockets everywhere against a giant scaled red worm that was spraying acid, launching exploding bone spikes and shooting lightning.

Worm lost and his remains were taken to laboratory for a proper killing. But before that I was able to shed a couple of scales that revived one the friendly NPCs and imbued her with a sliver of power.

Wow, a bad lover AND a murderer.

>Be Rogue, Big City type.
>Out in the wilderness for the first time, Jungle area.
>Attacked in the evening by huge Monitor Lizard creature.
>Due to scouting ahead and slightly less than helpful party, it's between me and everyone else.
>Chase time.
>Attempts to get ahead and enter stealth fail due to rolls and monster senses.
>See a chasm with canopy over it and declare "Grappling Arrow!"
>Good Roll, DM says "Looks like a solid hold to you"
>Here... We... GOOOOOO!
>DM rolls, *funny look*... Rolls again... "Reflex Save, please"
> Nat 1
>"Your toes touch the other side just as the rope gives way. You reach for a root protruding from the edge of the chasm, but it slips your grasp"
>DM goes into his dice bag and starts picking out and lining up extra d6's.
>Low numbers on a majority of the dice, Yay!
>Damage kills me by 3 damn points.

Still want to know what the heck table he was rolling on. To this day I've still never seen a Tree Branch Strength Table.

>grappled without rolling or giving the chance for opposed rolls
>instant fatal attack without rolling for attack or damage and while grappling
That's not how any of that works and it sounds like the gm is a horrible That Guy.

>To be fair the DM claimed he would have probably killed her after he finished anyway, as killing girls was his kink
To be fair that's still unfair bullshit if they were going to kill you without any rolls or chance to fight.
If anything it just makes it worse since it seems the dm just decided that your character should die regardless of what happened.

>Apparently the last thing she felt was him climaxing as he twisted the knife in her brain.
WOW, yeah I hope you make that creeper keep his hands above the table at all times.

>WOW, yeah I hope you make that creeper keep his hands above the table at all times.

Seriously. This DM sounds like the kind you want to get the hell away from. Or at least keep away from IRL women and children.

I tried opening a door that had some type of lightning ward or something. Did 40 damage to my wizard but even though I was at full health that was still only 20hp. My corpse flew across the room and knocked someone out a window on the 3rd floor. We weren't even in combat.

I figure he's got a dark imagination or a rather disturbing sexual kink.

I see no problem with how the PC died per se, especially since the player was apparently warned that it was a dangerous, nonstandard encounter. One could prolly argue that being pinned beneath a dude with his cock in you counts as helpless for the purpose of coup de grace.

Hell of a bad end.

The trapped door I get, that's a classic.

But you just happen to fly in just the right direction with just the right amount of force to fuck another character right out a window?

I hope this was a high mortality tomb of horror style game. Otherwise it sounds like your GM was desperate for an excuse to kill that other guy.

Or just a large diameter dick hole.

it was a hallway

oh and he survived

Our Iron Gods campaign has not been kind to my characters

>Be Kasatha monk
>specialized in grappling, because 4 arms
>grapple everything
>everything is great
>suddenly we end up in a tower full of fucking ghosts, in a campaign that's supposed to be about technology
>my character can't do anything
>literally stand around every single combat because everything we fight is incorporeal
>we get to the top of the tower
>in one room there's a leukodaemon, but it seems to be contained by a circle on the floor
>party ignores it, goes on to to fight the BBEG for this tower, which of course is fucking incorporeal
>decide I've had enough of this shit, gonna go grapple that leukodaemon and pummel it a bit
>stepping into the circle breaks the enchantment, freeing the daemon
>it summons another of its kind
>get hit by 2 breath of flies attacks
>ded.

But the cherry on top is the feeling of being blasted up the vag with hot genetic legacy just as the knife twists and the lights go out. I call unnecessary addition of creepy on that.

Without that detail it's just a kinda twisted coup de grace in a non-standard encounter.

With it, it's a gag inducing magical realm of DM snuff fantasy.

That's the most revolting part. I suppose if you REALLY wanna make the players hate the dude, it serves.

It's an oddly specific detail to be sure, and probably points to some very odd fetishes being at play.

That said, mechanically speaking, the death makes sense; such a situation leaves a person particularly vulnerable.

My warbands leader got killed in her first game in a literal sub 0.1 chance hit

>I see no problem with how the PC died per se, especially since the player was apparently warned that it was a dangerous, nonstandard encounter.
Where did they say it was a non-standard encounter and why does that mean you can throw out all the rules related to the interactions?
I mean if I say shopping in the market is dangerous then does that mean I can say the whole party gets grappled and instantly killed, no save?

>One could prolly argue that being pinned beneath a dude with his cock in you counts as helpless for
You could argue that and others could just as much argue that's moronic.

As soon as it changes from fucking to "now I'm pinning you down" you need a grapple-check.
There are specific rules for grappling and how you deal damage during grapples and furthermore creeper dm had the bad guy equip the weapon with no resistance or penalty to grappling.

Even if you did argue that they somehow pinned them without rolling and performed a coup de grace, which is not how either of those mechanics work, a coup de grace is not an instant kill.

In short it seems like you have no idea how any of the rules work and are just twisting them to be whatever you want in order to make excuses for the convoluted creeper gm's shitty fap-scenario.

Sure. I'll agree on the mechanics part.

Still creeped out, though.

Ah, you're a PF board gamer. You just had to say, user.

Don't get me wrong, story-wise I'd probably just...very slowly exit the campaign. If that's something that'll even come up as a detail, I'm not sure that's somewhere I'd want to be. Granted, one of my characters is, in my absence from a campaign, captured and being tortured, but I *planned* that.

>A more or less immortal mutant in world of darkness
GM killed him off while I was away despite not accounting for any of my mutant powers. I just got shot in the leg and died. First session I missed, and the previous session had been almost two months ago.

>A wizard in warhammer fantasy
Due to lack of healers, the GM allowed my life wizard a weak healing spell. I think it was 1d5 1 / day for each target. GM told one of the players that it was pretty heretical (despite me being an official wizard). The player decided that, even after I had saved them all several times, that he'd just suddenly set me on fire. I managed to escape but was killed off by some monster. Other players killed the guy when he returned and they died next encounter.

>Sorcerer in dnd 3.5
GM used some kind of miscasting mechanic. In the first big encounter I had my first miscast and rolled 100, then 89 and 92. Burned myself to ash, damaged the rest of the party and summoned 18 lesser demons. The rogue escaped, everyone else died (including the enemies. Now instead of a bandit problem the village had a demon problem).

>Golem character in some homebrew setting
My character was disguised as a human from the east, wearing a clay mask and heavy robes. He wielded a warhammer called Ellabon. We were fighting some kind of werewolf monster in a maze, and we were all wounded. When we finally found the exit the monster caught up.
The gate could only be locked from the inside, so I pushed the last person infront of me outside and sealed them off, then charged the monster.

Apparently, because of the nature of the setting, golems explode when they die. So a moment after the party turned around to leave, they heard a large explosion and the door was blown apart. One of the players was downed but quickly healed back up. The werewolf thing was dead and the curse of the maze lifted.
The cleric found most of my head, broken and lifeless. She carried it with her and had it fashioned into a mask.

Hell of a Perception roll, user.

Also: kek

>That said, mechanically speaking, the death makes sense; such a situation leaves a person particularly vulnerable.
Bullshit, mechanics didn't enter into it at all based on what the player has said.
You're just arguing for what you feel it should probably work based on flawed real-world reasoning while completely ignoring the rules and mechanics.

That's exactly the sort of shit that leads to That Guying and lengthy arguments of how things should totally work based on your incomplete understanding of the real-world.

Ah, so you're a retarded masterbaiter.
You just had to say, faggot.

Not that user, but death is the least interesting thing you can do to a character.

I dunno. Sometimes a death can be used for great dramatic effect. Sometimes it can be an utterly meaningless shitshow, though.

Did you just argue that the real world doesn't matter because mechanics, and then follow it up with an argument that the real world doesn't work like that?

Not the guy you were arguing with, just a mildly amused bystander.

That user here, I'd argue that death can be the most interesting thing you can do to a character if done right.
A meaningful death can be much more significant than fading away to disuse.

Tech Priest who'd been witch marked, a Keeper of Secrets was using an astropath choir as a conduit to enter the world (I think, this was almost two years ago now). While the priest and Arbites beat on him, he nearly ended the both of them.
My tech priest, figuring he was already screwed whenever the Inquisitor found out about the witch mark, ran around killing the astropaths being used, and taunting the Daemon because hey, that Arbites was his buddy.
Worked for three rounds until I botched a dodge roll and literally lost my head to a face laser. Good times.

Speaking as someone who was stuck playing PF for a long time, finally playing a system where mortality was more of an issue ratcheted up the drama quite a bit.

Even if the death its self isn't that interesting, the understanding that making bad choices can lead to it is.

Also, a player death can have a long lasting effect on other players.

Nah I'm referring to the classic That Guy scenario of "what, I should TOTALLY be able to do x without making a difficult role or anything because it's how I think the real-world works from my flawed amateur knowledge!"

It can be about chopping off arms or spells doing things beyond what's described or whatever. It's always the same bullshit thin veneer of "logic" just to make excuses to allow unbalanced shit.

Morons try to portray the world working in ways it doesn't actually in order to justify their bullshit ignoring rules and balance.

>Swashbuckler
Fighting the BBEG druid/necromancer guy in a temple.

BBEG creates a wall of chains dividing the room in half. Being a swash I clear the dex check with ease while everyone else gets tangled up.

Say fuck it, I'm nearly in Melee range anyway. Start fucking the BBEG up with my lightblade.

A few rounds go by.

BBEG rolls a random power spell.
>20
Hits me with an cube of acidic gelatin.
>Fail save
Dissolve before the party even gets out of the chains.

The world lost a good notary that day.

Reminds me of a BBEG I had. He was a good aligned priest who forsake his faith and became a necromancer because his divine magic couldn't resurrect his dead love for reasons.

The resentful and hateful spirit of his lover that he raised drove him mad.

Why didn't he turn white necro instead of dark necro?
Old age death?

Thanks for clarifying.

And while I do see your point, there is the other extreme where mechanics eliminate story options.

Say you want to quietly assassinate a character who's reached high level and now is a nasty tyrant slaughtering the innocent etc.

You do all the sneaky work and get a dagger into him while he sleeps. You do Dagger Damage, plus strength, plus sneak attack,, plus coup de grace, plus poison, plus fire enchantment, plus etc. etc.

The knife is in his brain stem, but your roll doesn't even stand a chance of taking off a quarter of his HP because of his high level.

Mechanics say he should get up, call his guards, and wreck your shit... With a knife in his brain pan.

Not really arguing against your point rigidly, but both sides seem to have merit when the extremes are encountered.

>Party Wizard launches fireball in small room filled with the party at low level
>Surprised when half the party dies.

He blamed his god for her death (senseless murder by some thief) and for not bringing her back.

He could've learned true resurrection as a white necromancer though.

Ways my characters have died? Let me count the ways:

>Game: Talislanta
>Character: Cymrilian Rogue Magician
>Cause of Death: Petrified by gargoyles after a failed CON save on the first round of combat.
>Lifespan: 3 sessions

>Game: Everquest
>Character: Catman rogue (forget what the race name is)
>Cause of Death: Immobilised by giant spider's AoE webbing, and promptly eaten along with the rest of the party.
>Lifespan: 2 sessions

>Game: D&D 4e
>Character: Human Paladin
>Cause of Death: One-shotted by a cave bear. I don't even know how.
>Lifespan: 1 session

>Game: D&D 5e
>Character: Dragonborn Fighter
>Cause of Death: Scorched to death by adult red dragon while trying to buy time for my allies to escape. They were the ones who picked the fight to begin with. They also refused to escape, meaning my efforts were ultimately in vain.
>Lifespan: 2 sessions

>Game: Pathfinder
>Character: Half-Elf Rogue (Sniper archetype)
>Cause of Death: Attack-of-opportunity'd to death by a cyclops warlord after the tanks got splattered and I consistently failed my attempts to get to a hidden sniping position. The bard and some other fuck had run away on the first round.
>Session Lifespan: ONE FUCKING SESSION


My innately shitty luck paired with brutal GMs has bred this "Redshirt Tendency" from which I cannot escape. Maybe I'm a ForeverGM because no-one wants to drag my cursed ass around...?

>there is the other extreme where mechanics eliminate story options
Sure but at least in the example that started this discussion mechanics wouldn't eliminate the story at all and in fact could make it much better.
Imagine if the character was able to grapple back and even got a bonus while the bad guy tries to grab a knife and stab the player while also holding them down. Could turn into a fight or even a chase scene rather than "you're dead no save, he stabs you right in the brain and you can feel his hard dagger and cock plunging into your sensitive organs rhythmically at the same time".

If you want to be an assassin then there's a class for that but likewise, if you decide to make the bad guy so powerful that he can resist all that damage then either you miscalculated or they shouldn't be able to be killed in a single strike like that. The rules for called shots to specific parts are rather underpowered but it's still better than the alternative of players saying they just stick their pointy stuff in the bad guy's brain on every attack to kill them instantly.

>Mechanics say he should get up, call his guards, and wreck your shit... With a knife in his brain pan.
I'd argue you're misunderstanding the mechanics. Remember that hitpoints are an abstraction. If you didn't do enough damage then rather than the knife being in his brain it probably just grazed his skull or got stuck in his skin.

Did he finish?

Died from complications over being unable to birth a monstrous demigod, it was too big inside her to pass the normal way. Worse that it was all because of rape. Thanks DM!

>Some small recompence, that he let me play the child, which survived.

>Have to steal something from a dragon horde because reasons
>Dragon is way out of our league
>I'm a barbarian, and come up with the idea of distracting the dragon while everyone else loots it.
>I get all the move speed buffs from everyone I can.
>I sneak in, snatch a dragon egg, blow a raspberry and start running.
>The dragon chases after me.
>At full clip, I'm hitting a bit over 250 feet per round
>Actually outspeeding the dragon
>DM rolls survival, I fail and have chosen my direction poorly
>Coming up on a cliff fast
>I figure fuck it, and jump at full speed, with a dragon in pursuit
>Dragon closes the distance in midair pretty quick
>I football toss the egg, the dragon follows it
>Hit the ground from a few hundred feet
>Unlucky falling damage rolls
>I die by a margin of 3 hit points

At the very least, everyone else managed to grab the artifact we came for without a fight. A few weeks later the DM told me that the intended plan was to bargain for the thing, but he really liked the turn things took.

Oh yeah, not my character, but here's another amusing one that happened to someone else in my very first game:

>Game: Palladium Fantasy
>Character: Human Wizard (I think)
>Cause of Death: Got overzealous and decided to loot bodies before confirming a kill. Got an axe to the chest for his trouble by a dying orc. Luckily, the Paladin got to him in time to start stabilising him. UNLUCKILY, the Paladin rolled a fumble and - instead of putting his head on her lap - DROPPED HIS HEAD ON A STONE, KILLING HIM INSTANTLY.
>Lifespan: 2 sessions

>I'd argue you're misunderstanding the mechanics. Remember that hitpoints are an abstraction. If you didn't do enough damage then rather than the knife being in his brain it probably just grazed his skull or got stuck in his skin.

The question becomes, can that high level guy EVER be killed by ANY dagger. Lets go crazy and say he's absolutely immobile. Is there a mechanic that can overcome triple digit HP with a single pinpoint perfect stab?

If not, that's a mechanical flaw that calls for correction.

Yes, there's the DM made the encounter wrong argument. Though, if it's PvP, ally turned evil scenario or the like, the DM has no choice as far as tailoring them to be killed.

Or, on the other side, there's the properly designed encounter, where a DM has to tailor the man to be killable in that specific scenario. What if the player then chooses the option of a standup fight or or botches a bluff, or eliminates the killed-in-bed option in any of the myriad ways that something like that goes bad? Does being tailored for assassination mean it's stupid easy to kill him in any old way? How then did he end up skull-cracking his way to the top of notklingon land?

Anyway, not trying to be super adversarial or anything. The extremes in Mechanics vs RP both draw these sorts of questions out of me.

I might be wrong about this and it might just vary between systems but I thought the rule for things like killing a completely immobile/unconscious/helpless target was that you don't have to roll damage, you just kill them.

Got killed in a silly DBZ style-game. Since I made pacts with the devil and my character was a brilliant engineer, I was allowed to keep plotting and doing business in hell.

>Is there a mechanic that can overcome triple digit HP with a single pinpoint perfect stab?

That's how the Assassin's signature ability is supposed to work, at least. Everyone else has to make do with a sudden coup de gras (with a chance for instant death if he fails the save), followed by a free attack in the surprise round, and then hope you win initiative for a third attack. Notably you could get Sneak Attack damage on all three of those attacks, since the guy is flatflooted until his turn and ambushes are fucking brutal like that.

Got knocked off a boat, and was dragged down to the bottom by my heavy armor.

Remember kids, a steel breastplate does not count as a life vest.

Anyone else's character died and couldn't be bothered anymore

I was the highest level and knew everyone in the group intimately, when my character died I got put to the lowest level and no one gave a shit about my new char

It sucks because the group is good I just don't care anymore

"Oi! we ain't done yet"
>Just fucking kill me then.
"Okay!"
>Wait wha-CHOP.
And so ends the tale of ravendil.

In PF, and I believe 3.x, there's damage rolls and a save. Only the attack roll is waived

I personally like FantasyCraft's ruling on this. If someone has a knife to your unarmored throat, or similarly deadly scenarios, you get no rolls at all. Instant dying state.

If you're dumb enough to end up in a situation where you've let someone get their dagger that close to a vial artery/vein, you've already fucked in a lethal manner, and you're 100% at their mercy.

Sorta eliminates the "No one anything can kill me!" human mechanical ultrabeast that you can run into in many dnd variants, and makes stealth a real weapon again. Not to mention the fact that holding a hostage becomes an actual thing again.

Forever GM, but I've had players die to water more than anything else.

Lava gets rightfully treated as death, but water gets no respect as a proper hazard.

Caligula was right...

All too true.

Don't know how many times my players have climbed into wobbly old watercraft while wearing heavy armor.

>Tell GM I'm retiring character and having them leave the group because their personalirt didn't mesh well with the party.
>GM okays this.
>Character had a secret history as a criminal.
>Return to town.
>GM tells me a quote "sea of paladins" has come to block our path.
>My character is dragged off and interrogated.
>Character is set free.
>As they're leaving the prison GM says that a paladin jumps from nowhere and instantly beheads me.

Is this a dick move?

So one prestige class with a maybe due to a save, and everyone else has to make multiple perfect rolls to even get to a maybe?

I would never preach 100% perfect realism in a fantasy game, but throats are easy to cut and hard to survive losing.

I mean, if you want it RAW all the time, that's fine. But even with the counters you've presented it seems hard to imagine that there are not losses, story option wise.

Yes.

Trial>Conviction>Execution was an option, but instead you get "lolrandomheadloss"

Pretty dicky.

I'm no expert but I would say yes

>multiple perfect rolls to even get to a maybe?

Not necessarily. A coup de gras by itself is a maybe, and the second two attacks would be practically free hits.

>coup de gras
Automatic critical hit, so with a dagger that's double damage before modifiers. If the damage doesn't kill, the target has to make a fortitude save with a DC equal to 15 + damage dealt. Even a little sneak attack damage can get that number absurdly high very quickly. Still, you need sneak attack so you're correct that it takes a specific class to pull it off.

>surprise round
The target is no longer helpless, so no coup de gras, but he still can't defend himself effectively. No chance to dodge (no dex mod, in other words), and unless he sleeps in armor none of that either. You're only missing on a natural 1. Since he hasn't acted yet, he's still flatfooted, so you'd still get sneak attack damage.

>first turn of actual combat
If he's still alive after two consecutive sneak attacks and a coup de gras, the level disparity is way too high. Still, there's a chance to win initiative and get a third sneak attack. The target won't have acted yet, so he'd still be flat footed and unable to use dex to dodge.

On the one hand, a level 10 Rogue could likely kill a level 20 anything-but-a-wizard with that first hit. On the other, a Rogue is required to get the instant death DC high enough that even a Con boosted Barbarian would fail it.

That's more a function of anything in D&D that's above level 6 being literally superhuman, though. Maybe a level 20 dude really can still fight with a knife in his brain stem.

My whole point was the story options that are eliminated by that level of mechanical specificity required to accomplish the task.

What percentage of characters in the game world even have the sneak attack required to jack up that DC? Which the website says is 10+dmg.

If the warlord of notklingon land is a PC, there's no opportunity for the paranoia of seeing knives everywhere that could end his reign, when even a mob the size of a whole town can't beat the DCs and such to string him up before he's slaughtered them all like stepping on ants.

The classic ruler who's too afraid to even let his own wife share a bed with him because even she isn't 100% trustworthy? Nah, he's got the HP to take that all night.

How do NPCs accomplish anything in a world where 10 of them hacking at a class leveled despot amounts to a pillow fight worth of threat level?

With a magical character you can have him set up all manner of tricks to avoid coming face to face with his mortality, sure. But a martial is all of a sudden superman based on training and fighting experience, even when asleep?

If the only thing that says that is the numbers when the fluff says he's a human being like everyone else, there's something wrong with the numbers.

>when the fluff says he's a human being like everyone else

>The fluff...

Unless you're running E6 or another 'powerlevel limiter' homebrew, you need to remember that a high level character is still superhuman regardless of circumstances. People acknowledge that an epic level wizard is like Merlin or Gandalf, but it's easy to forget that an epic level fighter is still like Heracles or Gilgamesh.

If this hypothetical Lord Evader BBEG is at a level where 10 people can hack at him with all the damage of a gentle caress, he must have accumulated enough of a powerlevel that tanking the rare stab in the face isn't too much of a problem. Either he's got enough magic trinkets, or been Achilles dipped enough times or drank enough dragon souls or whatever. The point is that such a person isn't just another muggle with a mean expression, he's the villainous equivalent of the party. Go write about an all-evil campaign where the fighter retires from the party at level 15 takes some magic artefacts as a farewell gift, and goes off to rule a town they conquered along the way by putting a leadership feat they took for some henchmen to good use. That's your BBEG.

Not sure how much that ramble achieved, but still...