Best Character Death

[HistoryDave]

What was the most dramatic/comedic/tragic character death that your characters have experienced?

[Crossfire]

The most pointless character death I remember was not mine, but that of a friend who was running a barbarian through an adventure we were playing. I was playing a ranger/cleric named Redric Parsylvan, but I don't remember the barbarian's name. We had ground through most of the dungeons under this temple that had been overrun by "huntsmen" (I believe this was an adventure out of a Dungeon mag). In the depths of this temple was a cauldron which would immediately kill anybody who climbed into it - no save - and transform them into a zombie.

So, we find this cauldron and the guy playing the barbarian says "A big cauldron? I jump in!". The DM replies "Are you sure?", with the wide-eyed look that really means "Don't do this, you idiot!". The guy playing the barbarian would always go for the laugh, so he though it would be funny somehow, so he reiterates that he jumps in - so the DM let him know he was dead. We then had to fight off the undead version of the barbarian.

As for my own characters? The most memorable - though maybe not the most interesting - was when a group of us attempted to jump over a gap a stone cavern which dropped over 100 paces into a lava flow. My character missed the jump and fell into the molten rock.

"Arrgh! Aaah!" Plop. Sizzle. Glorp.

R.

[TheGothfather]

Ah, now this is one of my favorite subjects!

This is sort of a combination of the favorite character and favorite death topics, but in this case, they're kind of intertwined in such a way that I can't really separate the two. Anyway, on to the character.

Kael Steelshield was a Dwarven Vindicator. For those who don't know, a Vindicator was an AD&D 2nd Ed. race-specific class from the Complete Book of Dwarves. Essentially, it's a cross between a cleric and a battlerager. The character himself was interesting in that the DM and I had decided that the Vindicator class was basically the dwarven equivalent of a Paladin, so Kael's life revolved around fighting evil, and collecting riches with which to open a Temple of Clangeddin.

Vindicators had some interesting rules built into them. The one most relevant to this story is that when they enter into their battle-rage, they gain a number of hit points, but they are not permitted to keep track of them. What this means is that the total is given to the DM, who keeps track of your HP for you, and tells you things like "That hit hurt," or "It's just a flesh wound." Also, like wild boars, Vindicators, when enraged, can continue to fight until they are at -10 HP. Because of this, Kael often found himself laying unconcious and bleeding to death beneath piles of corpses at the end of a battle.

Additionally, we had a very simple house rule about spellcasting while drunk - the inebriated spellslinger was made to roll on the Wild Magic chart. For fairness, we applied this rule to Wizards and Priests alike.

Now without further ado, the death(s) of Kael Steelshield.

We had made it to one of the largest combats in our campaign. Most of the party was quite beat up from previous battles, but we had foolishly pressed on, Kael at the head of the party, a skin full gutshaker - a foul mixture of liquor, goatsmilk, and various random and unidentified potions (the party learned early on in the campaign to hide the healing potions from Kael) - ever at his side. We had come to a large set of locked doors. The theif was off running around solo, so Kael used his own lockpick (read battleaxe) to get the party through. Unfortunately, upon entering, we found ourselves outnumbered about five to one. It would have been a tough fight had we come in fresh, but alas, most of us were already wounded. That never stopped Kael, though.

The first mistake was casting the spell Divine Power while drunk. Sure, it kicked up Kael's strength and HP (and sent him into instant rage per DM ruling), but, the wild magic chart indicated that his feet grew to a phenominal size, affecting both movement and AC. Kael was only able to kill about 4 enemies before he was taken down.

The DM, feeling sorry for Kaels untimely demise due to bad dice rolls pulled me aside and told me that Kael's god was sending him back because his life's mission was incomplete. So, he was resurrected. But the battle still wore on, and Kael, ever the mad dwarf, lept back into the fray, despite having very few HP after being revived. He was quickly cut down a second time, knocked to negative HP. One of the other priests was close enough to cast a cure spell on him, and he returned to conciousness. And lept back into battle. and was cut down again. Then revived again, via a scroll of resurrection. Then back into battle, only to be cut down again. This happened a total of six times, at which point the entire party was left completely drained of healing spells and scrolls, and the DM, despite Kael being his favorite character, could not manage to justify bringing him back to life again. Kael does, however, hold a place of honor at the DM's home - the character sheet, barely readable, was put in a frame and hung on the wall of the game room. He will always be remembered as the only character that DM had managed to kill 6 times in a single combat.

[sersie]

Oddly, I have never had a character die yet. It has been close many, many times, but none have ever died.

[de_master]

This is one of the most unplanned deaths I've ever had:
The group entered a maze, took an unplanned turn and skipped about 20 or so rooms, just to enter a hot cave smelling of sulfur - that had a red dragon in it.
They then looked at the dragon (obviously, they were not meant to fight him at this point. He was 6 levels higher than them, and even a blind bat could see that - as even they admitted later), and walked to it, brandishing swords and wands.
The dragon used it's breath weapon to kill the nearest player - the wizard (ruining my plans for the session).
The group fled, and when later asked what they thought they were doing, they answered: "We thought he'd talk to us before attacking."

[Psyicman]

The coolest character death was in my Eberron game. I was running the adventuer Wispers of the Vampire Blade and the PCs had just got to the part were they were attacked by another air ship. All the PCs scramble on to the ships air skiff and were about to take off when the ranger jumps off the skiff as its taking off and runs back to the wheel house to grab an NPCs body. He just got to the body when the both ships collided and went down in a firey weakage. Anyway it was a pointless death but it was no less specktacualr and we still talk about it to this day.

[Elf_NFB]

I have two favorites....one which happened to an animal companion, and one which happend to someone else.

I had been playing DnD only a few months (I'm a late bloomer) and was playing a 3.0 druid. One of my companions was a hawk which knew several tricks. He had track, attack, fetch, and several others. Our party had been commissioned to retrieve a large gemstone from a prince. We arrive in the hamlet just in time to see the prince come out onto the battlements. He was waving to the cheering crowds and brandishing the large gem. I commanded my bird to fetch. In my EXTREME naivete, I though,"WOW I'm going to end this adventure in record time!" So my hawk get s close to the gem, and the guards man cuts him down in one stroke. The DM positive GLOWED as he said,"...and feathers fly all over the place." This started the great druid grave yard that character had.

Even better is what happened to another player. We had been battleing in the demonweb pits. half the party is banished back to the material plane, the others are surrounded by driders. Those of who were banished had to sit outside. After a LONG time, we found out what happened. The battle didnt go. It was down to two players and one of them was finally dropped. The lone player remaining thought his partner was dead so HE CUT OFF HIS HEAD to take with him...so he could resurrect him. It was great...coup d gras-ed by his own team mate. Good times!

[Jim in Buffalo]

I was running a game of Danger International back in the 80s, and my friend Gary's character was mortally wounded in a shootout with some bad guys as he attempted to thwart their attempt to use a massive heat ray device to destroy San Francisco.

He was mortally wounded, but still conscious and able to run around, having lost a critical amount of BODY but still having STUN points left.

He fought his way inside, nearly dead, and was able to use his skills with electronics and engineering to cause the heat ray to self-destruct before it could rain hot death on the unsuspecting city.

The heat ray exploded in a gigantic ball of death-dealing plasma, vaporizing the entire enemy stronghold, incinerating Gary's character as well as the villainous mastermind behind the whole plot and all of his remaining minions.

To this day, he doesn't resent it. He talks about that adventure with fondness as the time he sacrificed his character's life to save the lives of millions.

[HistoryDave]

One of my favorite moments in gaming was about 19 years ago. We were playing AD&D rules but in a Fourth Age Tolkien Middle Earth campaign. All of our characters had been in numerous deadly situations and survived. We had defied the odds on several occasions and were more than full of ourselves. The DM was ready to show us that we were not all we believed our characters to be and that Middle Earth still had plenty of badass evil in it despite the destruction of Sauron at the end of the Third Age.
He had been dropping hints that a new Dark Lord might be stirring in the lands that had risen from the sea. And our characters went off in search of adventure. We found that the lands described in the first age had indeed risen out of the sea and many of the treasures of that age were waiting to be discovered. In plundering the ruins of Nargothrond my character, Tharfeandol Cleric/Ranger 8/8 of Elbereth, of the Sindaran Elves, discovered an ancient elven sword.
It was none other than Ringil, the sword of Fingolfin. The only weapon ever wielded by a non-ainur to mark the body of Morgoth, the original Dark Lord. Ringil, however, took great offense at such a lowly being attempting to use him in battle. he suffered Tharfeandol's touch only in hopes that he might one day hand the great blade over to one that was deserving. In the mean time my character had to agree to the terms of the blade as its ego was far greater than that of Tharfeandol. He had to agree to never retreat from an orc or any other creation or minion of the Dark Lord. Tarfeandol was honored to make such a bargain and secretly believed that he could one day prove himself worthy in the "eyes" of this sacred artifact. With his vow he had sealed his fate as did many a hero in middle earth when passion led to rash words.
Not long afterword we were scouting a large orcish encampment. larger than any seen in many decades and it was surmised that they must have a powerful chieftain to gather so many and bring them out into the daylight. We snuck through their sentries and had a brief moment where we believed that combat was emminent. Tharfeandol drew Ringil and the sword let known that it thirsted for orcish blood and would not be denied after being unused for tens of thousands years. Tharfeandol was able to convince the sword not to force him into combat just yet so as to complete the mission of identifying the leader of the orcs. He allowed The elf to place it back in the sheath but only after extracting a vow from Tharfeandol that every orc in the encampment would die or flee.
We were cloaked in an invisibility sphere, and thus crowded together, when our entire party was engulfed in an enormous fireball. Through a combination of horrendous saving throws and hot DM dice very one in the party was knoked unconscious or killed except Tharfeandol. His habit was to cast protection from fire on himself befor entering a dangerous situation so our wizard could throw fire spells and not hurt Tharfeandol. This saved his life (temporarily). Our assailant turned out to be a 25' tall black skinned humanoid with huge batlike wings. He had just blasted us with fire so we (wrongly) assumed it was a balrog.
Tharfeandol had nocked an arrow after sheathing Ringil and was determined not to go down without a fight he fired his bow and was rewarded with a string of criticals. We were using an open ended damage system so crits could be really devastating, and Tharfeandol was a bow specialist. Still, after taking his best shot the moncster was only pissed.
It descended to do battle and wounded my character badly with only one strike of its massive claws. Tharfeandol responded with Ringil and scored a damaging hit. (Ringil:+6Holy blade, 2x damge vs. evil) This was a battle that my character had no right to win, it was perfect high fantasy drama. The hero outclassed yet unbowed, desperatley fighting a merciless foe and knowing that his friends lives were hanging in the balance. All my friends were watching the dice rolls as they were helpless to act. Tharfeandol won the initiative for the second round and was able to score critical hits on the monster with both of his swings. The second was a quadruple crit. (a natural twenty, followed by three percentile rolls of over 96) The monster fell to the ground, its headless body to the left, its severed skull to the right.
The orcs in the encampment, who had arrived to watch their master slaughter and devour his foes, stood for a moment in shock. They then began to back away from the elf who had just single handedly slain the creature that had held them in enough terror to enter the lighted world.
Soon they were running in terror from Tharfeandol lest he should turn his glowing elfblade on them.
Tharfeandol succeeded in healing several of the party well enough so they could get moving when a new foe revealed themselves. Three huge trolls came into the clearing and attacked. These were the lieutenants of Gothmog, Lord of the trolls, and they were pissed that their boss was now in two parts. Tharfeandol was able to fell two of them with Ringil but the wounds from Gothmog and the new ones sustained from his minions slew the valiant elf. He had kept his word to the sword, and had never taken a backward step. Even as he fell his revived friends put an end to the last troll, and the sound of fleeing orcs was his requiem.
It was the most heroic moment I ever achieved as a gamer. His body was carried back to civilization and carried through the halls of Rivendale, as well ast the city of Minas Tirith. It was believed for quite some time that he had slain a Balrog, but it was only a winged troll lord with a batch of 16th level fireballs. Still, it was a great way to lose a character. Anything he could have done after that encounter would have been anti-climactic.

[Jim in Buffalo]

Well, History Dave, if you don't win the prize for best character death, you've still walked away for the prize for the longest story, brother!

[terrestrialboy]

I really got nothing here. I was a GM and not a player for almost ten years before I actually played somewhere other than a convention.

So ... no real memorable deaths for me ... such that I can't even remember any deaths at all. I know some of my characters died, I just don't remember how.

Meh.

Ethan Parker

[HistoryDave]

I alluded to this one in an episode of the podcast. It was halloween night and one of our GM's had the "old" tomb of horrors module. We were allowed to bring in ant character we wanted as it was a stand alone adventure to be run for fun in celebration of Great Pumpkin Day. Most of the characters brought in were WAY over powered. Even Monty Haul would have blushed. The most obnoxious guy at the table was a fellow who did nothing except brag about his 20th level ninja/assasin to the point of excruciating boredom. He regailed us with a non-stop barrage of stories about his character all of them ending with a punchline like, "this guy is virtually unkillable" or "none of you guys would have a prayer against Wan Hung Lo the invincible master of Ninja Turtle assasins. We eventually slogged our way through the dungeon and came upon an apparent opening. Perfectly round, pitch black, and framed by an ominous looking carved monster head. The black portal being the mouth of the monstrous stone carving. Several light sources/spells were either tossed or cast into the opening but nothing would illuminate the blackness of the hole. Ninja boy shouts, "I'll scout ahead, there's nothing in there I can't handle. Besides...I am the darkness" And with those final words he cast himself into the blackness. The DM began to laugh histerically, Mr.serious ninja has this puzzled look on his face that is priceless. The DM, after catching his breath, explains that the "hole" is a carefully suspended spere of anihilation and that Wan Hung Lo was irevocably D.E.A.D.

[MrWhite]

A lot of my characters have retired. The one death I can remember was from a Call of Cthulhu game. His name was Loran Sparks a Aviator, Explorer and Surgeon in the Beyond the Mountains of Madness module. The game last 4 month of Sunday playing and we got to the end game. Loran headed back to the plane to get some supplies where he was held at gun point and told they wanted off the mountain. What could I do? Durring the trip away from the team, Loran managed to knock out his capture with some drugs and headed back to the team (FYI: The way I was flying I could not get away, the airstream was against the plane). Durring this outing most of the plane's gas was used up and did not recall where the extra store house of gas was. With no other options and with oxygen low, we headed to the only place with oxygen, the alien structure. We put up a fight, but was over run and killed.

Call of Cthulhu: Beyond the Mountains of Madness Info

Now that I think about it, most of the Call of Cthulhu game I have played have ended in my character's death, except one.

[Zombie Nietzsche]

A short one:


My most fun death was in a White Wolf adventure with mixed races. It was a one-shot deal where we were playing aboard the Titanic, so I felt it only fitting that my character should take the Dark Fate character flaw. After having some fun with some vamps aboard the ship, Pierre Lamontagne, blind drunk, in full Crinos form and howling, went down atop the bow of the ship as it sank.

Somehow, that part didn't make the papers.

[pgholyfield]

The most humorous 'death' that comes to mind for me wasn't a 'character' death but a 'death' in the Board Game Talisman. A group of 4 of us had played Talisman maybe six times and the same guy won every time (luckiest d6 roller I've ever seen).

In the seventh game I finally reach the endgame square first (can't remember the terminology from Talisman). Here you choose a card and your final battle is determined by what is on this card (we used one of the expansion decks that gave you one of around eight endgame cards). And what do I get? "The Void" (or whatever it is called), which basically kills me outright, no chance of avoidance, removing me from the game, leaving the other players to fight it out to reach the endgame themselves.

The same guy ended up winning the seventh game that had won the previous six games.... the bastage.