Character Death in Dungeons and Dragons - DM Advice and Tips

[@DungeonDudes]

Dungeon Masters, how many player characters have died across all your campaigns?

[@keigold6633]

3 in total. All three due to ridiculous circumstances. A goblin tried to jump through a window but bled out on the floor, a human tried to fly off a cliff but forgot about gravity, and a Goliath was hit by a poison dart and fell stone-dead.

[@snowman9631]

Just had my first, I improvised an alpha werewolf with lair actions and my sorcerer used spider climb to climb the walls of the cave and he said he wanted to stand above the bonfire that was going in the cave (because he had been jumped at by the alpha) and immediately I had a horribly maniacal idea that my alpha guy would pick up a spear that had been used earlier and to throw it at him, he failed his con save to maintain the spell and he fell about 20 ft straight into the fire :( I felt kinda bad, but I gave hints that it would be a tough fight and they choose the really bad idea of running in guns blazing R.I.P. Roderick But they have said they want to try and revive him

[@mpschauster84]

All my games ever? In the 30s. I've had tpks

[@chrishood4285]

No less than 12 but I have some very heroic player that love the heros sacrifice a little to much

[@harrisondelaine7719]

I've had one, thus far

[@LeetMasterAce]

"Raise a glass, praise the fallen, and give a big hand to the player who just lost their character....before the cleric casts Revivify on his/her next turn."

[@WraithMagus]

Yeah, um... there's a lot of drama put around this, but you guys HAVE to realize that death has never been cheaper in D&D than it is in 5e. You don't even lose levels, it's just plunking a diamond down and getting your character back.

[@BigBoi237]

@@WraithMagus If only there were enemies that permanently killed PCs, or if you implemented bodily destruction like losing a limb or having your head or vital organs removed...

[@WraithMagus]

@@BigBoi237 And that's a totally new thing that wasn't in older editions of the game, including spells and moster abilities that specifically made resurrection through anything less than Wish spells impossible... It's still at the point where it's vastly easier to rez a character than previous versions, and if the monsters are using elaborate techniques to prevent resurrection EVERY TIME someone dies, it's because the DM is overtly out to get you.

[@gregoryegoroff5264]

@@WraithMagus I mean, you can add a DC to the cast revivify your players like what critical role did. Sure adding a new rule like that can make it look like your trying to permanently kill your players, but it beats making it look like your team unstoppable when they just have a cleric. If applying this made up rule, a good formula for the DC would be 8 + 2xnumber of deaths. Or something. This is just something I made you don't have to listen to it. Just an idea.

[@gregoryegoroff5264]

Something o forgot to add it is a wisdom check. So 1d20 + wisdom modifier.

[@johntyler6923]

A death story: My players were in a city to meet a contact, but a couple of them went off shopping and drinking and such. The Barbarian in the mix had been grumbling about not having any "special effects" of his own, so the Rogue, who knew the city well, brought him to a shop to get him something cool. Barbarian was shown a Boxing Ring, which excited him, but he was skeptical of its power. To test the item, he had the Rogue put on the ring and punch him in the face. This, of course, backfired. Rogue crits on the punch and Barbarian Nat 1s on his Save. Next thing you know, there are brains and bone all over the floor of the shop and Barbarian is right dead. Crap! Rogue and shop owner are freaking, and the whole story took a major left turn. The party spent weeks of real-time (months of game time) finding someone to fix their poor friend. It was awesome! When Barbarian was finally revived after incredible effort from the party, it was considered their greatest victory to that point. The player who ran the Barbarian was not othered by all this, and he took control of the party's cook in the meantime. Why the party had a cook is a whole other story... Death is not the end in D&D; it is another chapter....

[@DungeonDudes]

Wow! What a hilarious and awesome story! I love how the accidental death of a party member inspired months of adventures. It's totally true, death is a beginning in so many ways.

[@刘翰鹏]

Now I want to hear the cook story really bad

[@tiefling0564]

This is such an amazing story! Not to mention the amount of "I shot Marvin in the face" vibes from it! That sounds like an amazing playgroup

[@gmailaccount880]

@@刘翰鹏 same here

[@FigNewton7]

We lost our Monk, Ganrey to a horde of flesh-golem-like creatures. We knew after a few rounds that we would not win the battle, but were already surrounded. In an attempt to create a gap between enemies through which we could escape, our Bard, Edmond cast Fear at an angle that caught 4 of the creatures as well as Ganrey. Ganrey fails the save against it and the party learns that the creatures are immune to fear. Ganrey runs away from Edmond and into the arms of the flesh golems. He is grappled, knocked prone, and then is swarmed by the 4 hungry beasts, taking 2d10 per bite. His final words were "Fuck you, Edmond." At which point he spent his last Ki on Flurry of Blows in vain, and died.

[@DungeonDudes]

What a tragic end! A miscalculated spell affecting an ally while having little effect on the foes has certainly meant the end for many characters.

[@alansutton3718]

This anecdote brought me such joy. Especially the PC's last words.

[@blingwraith6951]

Okay I legit cracked up at this 😂😭

[@activekiwi1221]

Our first death was our (my) monk too. I died by a level 7 fireball on Playerlevel 4😂

[@vaughnsandstrom9660]

My first campaign back in the 80's I shouted at a minotaur that his mother was a cow.... Cue the re-roll.

[@donkeysunited]

I shouted at an air elemental that its mother was a fart. I was Level 1. It didn't end well.

[@mathieu7921]

In my game, a had a character that died and then mysteriously be resurrected. I took the dead player aside. I described a vision of 2 creatures fighting (one representing a fiend, another a celestial). I asked him to choose who he'd help in the fight. He chose the creature representing the fiend. I told him that he became possessed by a fiend. The fiend has a few goals that he might learn eventually. If he would attempt something that would contradict with one of the fiend's goal, it would try to dominate him. And on his next critical fail he would get dominated. The first goal of the fiend is to remain undiscovered. So the player could play his character normally, but with a twist that came up once in a while and would become a great plot hook in the long run. The player loved it. And the rest of the group loved it too when they discovered it. This decision also became handy recently. One of my players had to leave the game because he had to move away for his work. There's a slim chance he might come back, so I didn't want to kill his character. So I made the possessing fiend want to change body. After a successful body transfer, he teleported away and the newly possessed character became a recurring villain, that could be saved and become a PC again if the player would return.

[@DungeonDudes]

Very cool, and an elegant solution to your campaign's change-of-player roster. I did a similar thing in a campaign as well (to Kelly's character, in fact!) and it really heightened the drama and tension. It was truly memorable. As long as your players are cool with this sort of thing, it's a blast!

[@snoopanoop7705]

What would be the consequence of choosing the celestial? I'm curious to know.

[@iceruam]

I remember my son's character dying when he was around 11 all dice rolls, I pulled my punches and showed him mercy I gave him a chance to revive but he rolled another 1. He was so devastated but he still remembers that time 15 years later. :/

[@marxrubronegro9677]

Homebrew Death: I run a game based on Ancient Greek Mythology and ressurection magic doesn't work right away. The magic only open the gateway to the underworld and the PC's have to seek the fallen character. Not only it makes death an adventure on it's on, but it also have it's costs, in the case, Hades don't like mortals meddling in the underworld and taking what is rightfully his, in this case, the fallen player soul.

[@wrestlingguy8722]

Excellent

[@DreadPyriteBob]

Heinrich Unter Henry died after contracting lycanthropy. When he heard the howling of the wolves, he jumped off the party wagon with his matchlock and Zweihander, tossing his floppy garish hat inside the wagon. Chugging a glowing potion, Heinrich the Mercenary, Heinrich the marauder, shot a werewolf with a silver bullet, then went down swinging screaming in German "I will not die as one of you Devils!" The party heard the commotion in the night as they rode away, then laughter. The forest light up as if it was midday as Heinrich exploded due to the potion he drank Heinrich's hat is now an item that holds his ghost within it, helping anyone who wears it

[@gabriel300010]

please tell me there was a sorcerer named hans

[@imapopo2924]

.... Is it bad that my main takeaway from this awesome story is that there is a drinkable potion that makes you a suicide bomber? And that I want several?

[@Maninawig]

Oh man. Most memorable death: my first character slept with a succubus and she took him over. Then let him go a week later (with trait conditions). So he rejoined the party and they found a deck of many things... Being aware there is a card that eats armor, he handed the rogue (the inventory person) everything but his underwear and pulled a card. The card was Avatar of Death, and he spent the next three rounds calling out to his succubus and asking his party members for a knife to defend himself with (which he was denied as the rogue thought it would anger Death and the druid thought it was funny)... So my character was slayed by death, betrayed by his friends, abandonned by his mistress and now found himself a corpse in the street wearing nothing but a pair of underwear.

[@johntyler6923]

Great to see some smart young guys sharing our game. I've been at this as a player and DM since the first Red Box, but AD&D has remained my staple over the years. I just keep brewing in and out the ideas and mechanics of 3 to 5. I am blown away and so happy by the recent resurgence and growth in popularity of this great game. I love your vids. I think you guys really get it, and your points are clear and applicable, especially to new players. You make this old man smile :)

[@gtwarden7292]

Basically every death in my campaigns: Me:DON’T GO TO THIS PLACE ON YOUR OWN Player:*goes to [paladin stronghold, Demon Lord’s realm, cloning facility]* Me: Roll Initiative I guess

[@lanefunai4714]

If he dies, he dies. - Ivan Drago

[@AndroskiProductions]

One of my favorite homebrew mechanics that I’ve found it the “Heroic Death.” At any point, a player can decide to enact this. They get to take control of the narrative and the outcome (within reason) and dictate how they choose to die. The only rules are that they have to die permanently and they can’t kill the BBEG. Ive had players fend off enemies when outnumbered and allow for the party’s escape or use the last bit of strength as they bleed out to take monster out with them.

[@Capt.Thunder]

Very good advice. Wish I had seen this a week earlier, because at the time of both the last character deaths in my party, I felt like something was missing, and this is it. This should be in the official books, frankly. As the GM, I kinda needed therapy for the most recent character death, as it happened during a random encounter. Now, the party had been going on a quest to raise a previous party member from the dead, so they had been hauling his body around everywhere. After successfully breaking into the local keep and robbing the corrupt sheriff of some of his stolen wealth, the party had acquired the expensive diamond that they needed for the ritual. They had the opportunity to rest, but they were eager to be off, with two of the party remaining on half health as they set off. Now, I had rolled random encounters ahead of time and gotten insect swarms, which was funny, as they had encountered insect swarms here before, in the farmland a day outside of the city, but they were all a much higher level now, so I decided to up the stakes just a little bit and also expand on the insects' lore a little bit. I had called them Thresher Ants previously, and they had made a beeline for the party's food supplies, which actually forced the party to abandon their tent and food stocks last time. So I decided to do some foreshadowing of the ants swarming by telling them the ambient echoing humming of their wings in the direction they were traveling, and I gave the ants a princess (a tiny psychic aberration that was essentially a bug fairy) who the flying soldier ants would be escorting. The princess is young, but instinctively cautious, and she has the flying ants totally in her thrall, they will do anything to safeguard her existence, but she understands that she is vulnerable with limited resources and will take food without a fight rather than more food with a fight. So she is mostly just trying to bully the party into giving her what she wants, meat for her colony, and picking off vulnerable, low risk targets. The party decided to ignore the warning of the buzzing and set up camp as far north as they could travel. And that was when the princess arrived, drawn to the smell of the dead body they are carrying around. The party talks to the princess and I make the point that this entity seems far from mindless, that the party can feel it's psychic impression on their minds. So they try offering a few bits of dried meats from their rations, but the princess knows that it is a paltry amount and given that negotiations are continuing, she demands more. At that point, the halfling warlock steps forward and decides that the negotiations are over. She stepped forward to aoe the swarm, but bumped into the invisible telekinetic barrier that the princess had made preemptively during the negotiations. And while everyone else was playing cautiously, the halfling decides that she needs to go for the princess and thunder steps through the barrier, dealing a lot of damage, destroying segments of the barrier and weakening half a dozen swarms. Unfortunately, she was on half health, and she was now right next to the princess, threatening the absolute most important thing to the swarm. So of course, six swarms descended and ate her with acid bites in one round. Because the others had been cautious, they weren't tying up the swarms with potential opportunity attacks, allowing them to do as they pleased. Her body was so ravaged that I deemed it "unlikely to be pleasant if you used raise dead on it" but they ended up cutting off her hand and considering a possible reincarnation in future. I was so worried that it would feel cheap, having your character disappear in one round because of a single misstep, but I realised that if she had been rested and on full health, the encounter would have been fine; she was triggerhappy, reckless, and failed to understand what her actions would logically lead to. But I absolutely should have given the final moments to her player, and gone around the table for in character reactions. That was the missing piece. So long story short, thanks dungeon dudes, you helped fill in an important gap in my knowledge today.

[@DungeonDudes]

Great story. Being able to look back on prior events for ways to improve in the future is the mark of great DMing. Glad we could help you!

[@fudgethemonkey3980]

My gunslinger character died the first time he took damage, it was a crit from a zombie, he got scalped, then failed a death saving throw, got kicked by another zombie, and it all came to this last throw. I rolled a 3 and everyone was screaming, I was against the wall laughing and crying! My GM was sat there really solemnly. It was hard. R.I.P.

[@imapopo2924]

Damn... Surviving at a low level is difficult... But damn, thats just sad...

[@Rik3n]

Curse of Strahn, first encounter, first attack, DM rolls the zombie's attack on our monk and then just drops his head. Us: ...you crit her, didn't you.. Him:*nods* I happened to choose protection for my fighter, though, so I forced it to roll at disadvantage. Otherwise, she mightve been in your position.

[@BIFInvaider]

@@Rik3n my monk got killed due to our spellcaster rolling a nat 1 on fireball, aimed at a gobilin infront of me. Even tough "critical fail" is bad, it seemed resonable since he could've aimed at the horde of gobilins that was farther away from us instead of aming it at the one right infront of us. Failed all deathsaves and rolled a dragonborn fighter made to take dmg and having fire resistance. Which later saved me since the dragon later on dropped me to 1 hp in the boss fight. Also the spellcaster hadn't learned his lesson since he burned me, our new cleric and killed our stegosaurus steed, later on to kill a zombie t.rex

[@charlescartier1945]

We had someone die in the very first combat encounter of our campaign. We were going to clear out a cave. Near the entrance of the cave was a small hole, and we could see candle light at the other end. Only our gnome bard could fit through. At the end of the hole was a single goblin. The goblin landed the first attack, resisted the bard's spell, then landed a finishing blow with his second attack.

[@MultiKbarry]

@@BIFInvaider you don’t roll to attack with a fireball is that some home brew rule?

[@DesolatorMagic]

Oh did I not mention my character had an identical twin brother? lol

[@berzerkbankie1342]

There is a friend of the group who when he comes to visit he is basically the cousin or family member of the character he played and died as the last time he was here and plays it exactly the same haha

[@ferociousmaliciousghost]

Did I mention my character had a child who just so happens to have the same exact level, class, and just so happens to acts and know everything my character knew.

[@jofieraymond6528]

Lol

[@MonkeyJedi99]

Quick! Hide behind the pile of dead bards!

[@MonkeyJedi99]

@Hanel Crowley I had it referred to me by a player in my D&D group about OH MY GOSH I"M OLD years ago.

[@yoelbendavid1711]

I play dnd with a few friends and my kids. My 11yr old’s character died to an orc chieftain. He was a dragon born sorcerer. Our dm however did an amazing thing. He was hiding that an NPC fighting with us was actually a young dragon himself and st the death chose to make the reveal. The character screamed out and transformed into a dragon, picked up the fallen dragon born and flew off with him. It was so epic and awesome that my son was able to bare the loss well and is now a very chatty bard.

[@Cuiasodo]

I applaud the resilience of anyone who can roll up a new character fifteen minutes after their last one died, particularly if it was a long lived character. I've been thankfully only suffered one character death myself (though it was in Warhammer 40k and not DnD) and it took me about two weeks before I was able to build a character that got me excited to play again.

[@SpikeKoo]

Im my running campaign I created the "near death rule", where the character doesn't faint when it reaches 0 Hp. He just keeps itself awaken, but cant take any actions in its turn other than do saves and speak - in a very specific manner: 1 word per failed dead save. It evolves into a climatic an tense moment, where the character can still be part of the action or narrate the process of bleed out, call for help or whatever. It's been just amazing what happens in this moments and turns every near death moment a cinematic one

[@dgtlrn]

In my campaign world, Resurrection magic is fairly accessible to those who have the money. But even then, it's extremely rare that it is done because of one phrase in the spells; "free or willing". What this means in my world is that all Resurrection magic works to open the body to be inhabited 100% of the time, but it's not always the PC or NPC that fills that body. Sometimes, something else can get in to the empty body. An undead, a demon, something. For NPC's this means a percentage dice roll to see if they succeed. The chances increase the more powerful and important they are, but there's always the chance something else might inhabit the body instead. For PCs however, I usually run an in-between one on one session of them being judged worthy of their return etc. If they fail, something else inhabits them. If they succeed, they return. Either way, the Player must not tell the others. So far, all have succeeded, but time will tell.

[@ericsmith6996]

Ooohhh... BEAUTIFUL!

[@ericsmith6996]

yes, I want death to have major ramifications. Bringing somebody back needs to be an epic undertaking.

[@jondough9545]

I JUST started playing D&D and jumped off the deep end by volunteering to be the DM. We've had several people go down but not die. It's usually self inflicted because one or two of them split off and explore by themselves instead of sticking together. They had one unfortunate moment where the team was generally moving together, but they skipped a room for some reason. As they entered the farther room, the druid cast thunderwave, alerting everything within 300ft of their presence. The door they skipped smashed open a round later. Our level two Sorcerer happened to be in front of the door, and turned to see three bugbears standing over him. He died, no surprise there. Realizing that this was only the 5th session and not wanting the player (also brand new) to have to reroll a character so soon, I decided that the character was simply bleeding out and that he had one death save failure on the books. The team quickly came to his rescue, but if not for fudging that little bit there, the Sorcerer would have lost his head that turn.

[@leodouskyron5671]

Not everyone is okay with character death. The first group I played with took it like the the weather (“Grinshaw bit it oh well new character” *the lack of a period is intensional). The one I played the longest with it was a horrible unacceptable tragic event that must be avoided at all costs. Both ways worked out and were fun. Point is know your group really well or have a session 0.

[@darrencools]

The first character I ever played, a gnome called Nis, was exploring a dungeon. While crossing a random threshold, the DM asked me make a saving throw. One sad roll later Nis was in two pieces-top half on one side the sliding doors (now closed), bottom half on the other. The party was unable to put me back together, and that was the swift, brutal end of Nis. Still my favorite character I have played to date (sob).

[@hobbiest6831]

I think that you guys have covered this subject very well, it's something that I did bring up with my players on the first session but is still very hard to face when players do spend so much time on back stories and such. Thank you.

[@dennisonwilliams955]

I recently had my character die at the hands of two ogres. It was tragic but our dm house ruled a really cool idea and called it death surge. If a pc dies every character still alive gets a free round. We really enjoyed the mechanic.

[@lightbornadventures]

That's actually really cool, I might just use that idea. And it makes sense, the pc's would be so pumped on adrenaline and emotion they probably get a few more good swings in.

[@danielm8903]

A fighter in our campaign was eaten by a purple worm. The worm did 6d6 damage every round automatically while he was in there. He went negative in Hp equal to his original hp and that was that!

[@nonbiri6966]

Totally get the point about accepting the reality of character death as part of the game. The only issue I have with it is when it happens primarily due to miscalculation or poor planning by the DM, like setting up a completely unbalanced encounter for the level of the party and not giving them a way out, or adding something totally arbitrary and deadly that was unavoidable. A DM can easily kill people off at any time (undetectable instakill trap, surprise attack by a horde of much higher level monsters, tunnel collapse), so a good DM should take responsibility to make sure there is always a fair chance to avoid player death. If the circumstances are fair, then let the dice roll.

[@jordanpickthall0619]

I had a character who was the last surviving (not for lack of trying) member of his original group in a year long campaign. He finally, with the help of his new allies, completed their mission and avenged his fallen comrades. After which he returned home, and hung up his adventuring gear to retire peacefully. It was a very satisfying end to such an enduring character and each PC/PC death definitely shaped who he was by the end of he campaign.

[@DocDoesGamingTV]

My first character (a level 2 sorcerer) died to some kind of Pygmy and the other people just pillaged his body and burnt him, so he doesn't turn into a zombie or things like that Easily one of the most upsetting experiences up to now

[@darkmaster475]

I like how you talked about how the cost of resurrection should be high in order to make deaths seem important and meaningful, I had always thought that resurrections were an easy "get out of jail free" card for characters to be reckless and stupid things and be brought back to life with a spell that seems like any other spell you'd learn and perform. I now understand why we had to go through a lot of trouble to save a party member in one of my earliest campaigns: We were going through a magically tainted territory filled with hostile monsters. Knowing that, we wanted to avoid conflict as much as possible but our ranger didn't get the memo and engaged on one by herself which got her insta-killed. In the setting we played, the land was blocked by a mysterious barrier, which we discovered through this event, that nullified a variety of magic including resurrection. Furthermore in order to succeed in a resurrection, the party had to travel to a point on the barrier which was even more dangerous than where we left. On top of that, we had split our party where one half responsible for dispelling the barrier and maintaining the resurrection had their souls sucked into the barrier where they met our deceased member's soul in a weird limbo and they had to fight against magical forces to return to their bodies. Meanwhile, myself and the rest of the group was responsible for safeguarding our unconscious mates from outside enemies which there were plenty. It was very tense where one wrong attack or missed ability could've killed our other members in the limbo. It was very tense, we were a few bad rolls away from having the entire party wiped but we managed to pull through with no casualties and brought our fallen friend back. That really drove home about the cost of resurrection and you guys have helped me gain perspective why such an event was important.

[@TheAccidentalDM]

Im not looking forward to when the first death happens in my current game, the players all love their characters so much!

[@DungeonDudes]

It does make it difficult! Are your players new to the game? The first one is the hardest, as they say. But even if a character does die, it doesn't always have to be "the end" for that character, though. And, sometimes the characters do well and survive! It is possible to have a challenging and fun campaign without character death, although I find that this works better if that happens by accident than by design.

[@TheAccidentalDM]

some of them are, nearly killed my then gf(now wife's) character in the first session, well she did run solo into 4 goblins so her own fault really. We get a player fall from time to time but havent got anyone roll a 3rd save yet, they are good at getting each other up again so far

[@DungeonDudes]

Many an unwary DM has ended up in the doghouse after killing off their spouse's character. Beware!

[@supermetroidsuperfan]

Can't blame you there. I'm a rather new player though my care and excitement died due to the group falling apart and basically doing very little during the 2 times that we played. Both times, we basically near wiped in just one combat encounter I'm just like... very little interest to listen to much of the session when they kill off my character in 2 turns that I spent probably 10 hours making since it was my first time pouring my excitement to start the game to oh I shouldn't put anywhere that much effort, because half the time you die to things you can't control, cough cough actions of other players.

[@ChrisSmith-ew1eg]

This was quite a few years back playing 3.5 ed. In our homebrew campaign. We have a race of rat folk much like ratlings in Drakenheim. I was playing a chronomancer one named Pei pei. And we were all around 7th level at the time. We were fighting this artifice tyrant on his airship he had docked at the top of his tower about 200 foot up. He was clad in some powersuit that offered him arcane protections and a whole Salvo of offensive capability. During the fight, our kensai thought it was a good idea to jump to the helm of the ship and start playing with knows, dials, and other effects, thinking it may have some effect on his powersuit. The airship lurched side to side. I lost my footing and fell off the side of the boat along with our cleric. Luckily for her, she had a ring of featherfall and lightly touched down a couple rounds later. I cast featherfall on the way down, which saved me. The airship still careened and pitched wildly above me slamming into the concrete and steel dock at the top of the tower breaking it loose. I hit the ground and looked up to see a rain of debris falling straight down atop of our healer. I only had that round to react. So I quickly used one of my chronomancer spells that allowed me to switch places with one ally. As our forms popped out of view and reported back, the cleric turned to look at me. I only had enough time to sadly wave goodbye to her as the debris fell on me. Her scream was cut short by the cacophony of stone slamming down. Unfortunately the group didn't have the money for a raise dead. Our cleric couldn't raise either. She reached out with a speak with dead where I assured her and the group that I was fine.

[@Comicsluvr]

I often suggest that players have a backup character ready, especially at lower levels. It saves time at the table and they can plan for something that they've never played rather than dealing with creating a character while in shock. I might even allow them to give the backup character some play-time so they are already known to the group. In any case, character death should always be a memorable event.

[@trapical]

My party faced a series of unfortunate events that was leading to a TPK. I was a rogue, and seeing the inevitable writing on the wall, I used my stealth and movement to flee and run for my life while everyone else was dying. PRO: I managed to survive. CON: A very real sense of survivors guilt, and the dread of wondering if I could have saved some of the party instead of selfishly running away ._.

[@claduke]

In our campaign, we were fighting a BBEG Beholder, probably our toughest fight. DM got three lucky rolls in a row: telekinesis to pull the Bard closer, paralyzing ray to paralyze, and the disintegration ray to disintegrate. She auto failed the dex save and instantly turned to dust due to falling to 0 HP. It was remedied as it just worked out that we were meeting a god to get our next mission and our Bard player wanted to keep playing her character. She came back with some drawbacks, but it still led to just some serious emotional turmoil as we finished the fight.

[@RatOrchestra]

The last time I lost a character I was playing in a campaign, our bard (who claimed to be a lawful good type) started immediately and unceremoniously looting my corpse as soon as the fight ended.

[@archis84]

My first death. I had made a gnome-artificier character. Had a nice backstory, how he joined adventure to experience joy instead of his mundane mechanical life. First fight, boom, death by critical hit.

[@Mobil3targ3t]

We used to have a mourning after game where we ceremonially burned the character sheet. Kind of miss doing that and I might reintroduce it.

[@jonathanbezeau8213]

I once successfully ran a session where I had pre-planned a character death. The secret is that the player had come to me between sessions and said that they were getting tired of their character and ached to make a new one. Instead of having a player with a death wish, I informed them that I could kill off their player next session, and they happily agreed. We didn't tell the other players anything. Next session I created a fantastic and glorious situation that resulted in a truly memorable death and one of the favorite moments in they eyes of my players. It can work, but only if you and the player are clandestinely in cahoots.

[@VijoPlays]

Thanks a ton for this video! I haven't had time to DM a lot so far (my group is full of students, so finding the right time is just a huge pain), but one thing I was always afraid of was killing a character. I didn't want to kill a PC in the first 20 minutes of the game and then I'd just be like 'Uh.. Your character's dead.' - with them just hanging around for the rest of the session., but these tips definitely helped me, as always!

[@Khether0001]

I always had a really hard time seeing the heroes I liked dying even on novels, then I realized that they'll all die someday, but for this one I had the privilege of witnessing it myself and being with them at that moment, knowing how it happened, whereas some of the others might "die alone, forgotten."

[@Galeigh]

Tragic and Memorable. Some of my best stories come from a party member's, or my own, character's death. The most recent one was where I was DMing and the party was in what was really a minor combat scenario against some bandits... until the monk failed a saving throw and was beheaded. It came so quick there was a quiet pause at the table. The character became the battlecry for the rest of the story.

[@rinconusmc]

I like to give players one free action before death. Helps them for some last words or a heroic death with a chance to take your enemy out with you.

[@sea-bassisabottlecapco3767]

So in my story there are a few Halflings. In fact, three of the starting four characters were Halflings, including me, our Halfling Druid. I quickly chose to be Circle of the Moon and when I became a wolf another one of our Halflings rode on my back like a horse. Allowing me to always use Pack Tactics. Well I started calling him my Pack Tactics Boy. Felix, my character, had a mistrust for most other than the starting members of the party when they proved trustworthy. My Pack Tactics Boy(PTB) was basically his bestest of friends. The first time we ever split up from each other was the day where PTB died. Felix was exploring a castle with a couple other members who didn’t start the campaign with us. PTB was hunting down an evil necromancer with the other original member of the party. Felix watched a goblin kill itself when it was being questioned because it lost everything it loved. Felix became distraught after this. PTB and the other, Hori, killed the necromancer and nearly all of the ghouls he summoned. But they failed their saving throws. Dying as the last ghoul slowly crawled away. We’re still playing in that campaign and Felix hasn’t found out yet. But when he does, it will be a sad time indeed

[@steveclarkreborn]

My first PC death was myself, and I was the DM. I was running my first campaign, something homebrewed and fairly simple. Along the way, a PC finds the Eye of Vecna and has it implanted in her head. Around level 10 or so, I was getting DM burnout, so i let my little brother run a Yu-Gi-Oh themed one shot, so i could roll up a character and see the other side of the table, I had literally never played as a PC, only DM. We fight our way through duel island, and fight many classic Yu-Gi-Oh Monsters, leading up to the final confrontation with Pegasus. My Shadow Monk gets the drop on Pegasus, puts him in a full nelson, grappling him and making him a large target. The bard with the Eye of Vecna was next, and used the eye to cast Disintegrate. Now, something about the Eye of Vecna, if you use its abilities, there is a 5% chance that Vecna consumes your soul and takes control of your body. Well, that happened, and I had to take the reins from my little brother for the way Vecna would act. Vecna aimed for my Shadow Monk instead of Pegasus, reduced him to ashes. I killed myself, in every sense of the phrase.

[@abyssflight3907]

I have a DM that is some what strict with rez, Only allows basic Revivify magic and death causes the soul to degrade. If a character dies 3 times there is no coming back.

[@robw9073]

So I'm new, this is the 3rd time I've played dnd. I joined a group at level 7 with a paladin. We started the night talking to a blue giant that teleported us to an arena where we had to prove our abilities in 3 battles. Two B'rohg appeared on the map and I ran over to attack. On the B'rohg's turn he grappled me DC 16 and i rolled a 15. At the start of my next turn the B'rohg did exactly my hp in damage. If the B'rohg reduces you to 0 with this grapple he rips you into 4 pieces, and at level 7 there is no way to bring your character back. Felt rather extreme to instantly and permanently die on a single roll at level 7, five minutes into the night.

[@HowtoRPG]

One view of death in D&D, which is mostly traditional. I like that you have addressed the topic, it's a shame it seemed to float one direction.

[@DungeonDudes]

We'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter!

[@HowtoRPG]

The tail end of the video was very good, because you offer options. Character death is not always the end, and might mean a new story with greater stakes or complications. I have already talked about Character death on my own channel.

[@split2nd898]

My lvl 3 sorcerer was almost killed outright lastnight with a lucky crit and it made the possibly of losing my character a very real danger

[@trollzynisaacjohan1793]

3:04 it happens when a green adult dragon attacks a party of 6 that has 3 level 6s and 3 level 7s. Bastard killed 2 halflings and the dragon born paladin who was slowly turning into a vampire. My wood elf tempest cleric of course ran for the hills and probably got killed later or retired for life.

[@HundredYearsBoar]

Just rolled my character for my next campaign. Thank you for reminding me to have a back up planned 😜

[@edathompson2]

Best video so far. Really struggled with what to do after a player loses their character.

[@Wisper2099]

Had a homebrew class warlock with an ability that allowed him to, as a reaction, take the damage of a spell intended for an ally and hold that magic for one turn. He must use it when an ally is targeted by a spell but before he knows the damage or if it even hit. His next turn he could use a bonus action, no movement speed, and his only action could be to expend the held magic in a Blast that damaged himself and enemies around him for the same amount absorbed. We worked out that if this damage killed him he would stay dead as his soul was consumed by the expending of the magic... he wound up using this on the BBEG after he hit our fire-vulnerable (cursed by a magical item) fighter with immolation for a grand total of 120 damage. My lock wound up bonus action misty step behind bbeg and exploding in a dramatic scene taking them both out. We called the ability final gambit

[@RegalRegex]

This is really helpful and timely (as usual)! I'm going to be DMing for a group of mostly complete newbies to D&D, and they already are fully in love with their characters (even drawing fanart of them). I'm going to take your advice to heart and make a point of reminding them of the deadly dangers their characters face at least a few times until they *get it.* And if/when a character dies...it's going to be radical. I'll make sure of it!

[@DungeonDudes]

It's natural and normal for players to fall in love with their characters. We'd love to see their artwork! When does your campaign start?

[@RegalRegex]

If they've posted their art to twitter, I'll retweet it and tag you guys! And uhh I'm working on it haha, but maybe a month or two? I've got a portfolio over on WorldAnvil that I'm using to organize this custom world I'm building. I've got the skeleton down, but I need to flesh out the main overarching quests, and build in some worthwhile NPCs. It's going a little slow though because I'm already DMing a "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" game with a different group, and it's really starting to pop off. We're in the middle of Ch 6 "Castle Naerytar," and thanks to your videos and some others, I've finally taken the reins and I'm shaking things up to make it more fun for my particular group! It's really great but also very time consuming heh. Luckily my other newbie group is super patient. So while I'm still world-building, they've already designed all their characters, worked out backstories and inter-character relationships etc etc. It's wonderful. I'm so excited for them : )

[@kyleellis9177]

I always give my new players an NPC healer for the first 2-3 sessions since new groups rarely have someone who wants to play healer. the characters special personality trait is that he has no personality. he does whatever they say never offers a suggestion. looks like a completly unremarkable and forgettable face. Then depending on if the players are to trusting of other npcs, the healer turns traitor and steals the artifact they were acquiring. If the group is not cautious at all i kill the NPC and make it one of their faults like whoever open the door without checking for traps sets a trap off that kills the healer. Or if they play smart and i figure they a group that works good together then i have the NPC kidnapped between sessions and its noones fault (but with a note saying they left on their own so they have to use insight/investigate to see if they go looking for the healer or move on to the actual quest.

[@liv4themoments]

My very first PC, a Paladin that I've played for over a year, died tonight. He and our Cleric were slaughtered and used as sacrifices to summon a Dark Deity while the 3 other PCs did nearly nothing to help for fear of their own families being killed and are now subordinates of said Dark Deity.

[@BVBrocks927]

For resurrection magic I always like for there to be a quite a consequence for it like stat decreases

[@elliotreid7401]

Good advice. I particularly like the idea of a more cinematic death scene, with final words/act from the fallen and reaction shots from each fellow player.

[@taylorfelt5687]

As a player, I have lost a few characters. My DM would have a memorial service IRL where we would "cremate" the character sheet and we had a special tin box for the ashes of the character. We wouldn't bury it and the DM cleaned it out every so often, but it gave a finality to the character death that provided a lot of closure. Plus, we were all just pyromaniacs who liked to watch things burn.

[@h-grid3137]

Tomorrow, I gonna play full day game, most of encounters are just above deadly. I am gonna keep thi video in mind.

[@DungeonDudes]

How did it go?! Did everyone make it out alive?

[@h-grid3137]

Dungeon Dudes There were some close calls, but they managed to keep enemy casters in silence zone.

[@AD_Gray]

We are nearing losing a character (probably mine) soon in our campaign as we keep getting downed. This has been really helpful and I'm sharing it with our DM :)

[@DamienZshadow]

This was really cathartic and a helpful approach to viewing death in real life. Thank you so much for having such a very human and humbling commentary on the matter.

[@jeffreyradaj4938]

This is one of my favorite videos that you guys have done. Thanks!

[@ApparitionGuitar]

The idea of an insta death trap seems kinda cheap honestly

[@fhuber7507]

Avoiding traps is why you don't just walk down the dungeon corridor without looking around. You have a few opportunities to miss getting caught in the trap and a saving throw to get clear of it if you set it off. Generally a DM will make the most deadly traps a bit easier to find and disarm. But even the most careful party occasionally lets loose a 20 ton stone ball that rolls down the corridor, flattening everything in its path. (even then, you might come up with a way to jam it or outrun it Indiana Jones style) I've used a few really nasty traps in the campaigns I have run. I don't run a highly intelligent enemy as if he's failed the IQ test.

[@thesnep4757]

The campaigns I've played in so far, we've not actually experienced a proper character death. The first time it happened it was the spooky haunted house in Curse of Strahd, our Wizard died and my Cleric and the Paladin helped to bring the Wizard back to life. Probably a lot of generosity and such on the part of the DM. He came back to life untouched, In-game we are under the impression they brought him back to life, but out of game we don't actually know. The other time we've had character death has been in Out of the Abyss, the first time it was a homebrew trap the DM created which resulted in our Sorcerer dying, but our Cleric had found two Resurrection scrolls, so she used one to bring him back. We then also had my Bard die in the same campaign to a different monster where I just got destroyed. After the monster was dead and everyone got to safety, she used her last Resurrection scroll to bring my character back. So no actual, proper, permenant character death yet. We've had deaths of NPCs in that campaign, but we've yet to have an actual permenant character death anywhere. Though I'm sure Curse of Strahd and Out of the Abyss will present plenty of opportunities for such things if our track record is anything to go by. The two deaths in Out of the Abyss were in two seperate sessions, right after each other as well.

[@PaulGuy]

Lol, that stone man story. I remember once when a friend's character got his soul stuck in a jar and the body was destroyed. My character wanted to let him die because he thought fixing it would be a waste of time. His character wanted to die because he didn't want to go on as some other thing. Everyone else found an Iron Golem and managed to put his soul in it, making him a truly Iron Man (yes, it was funny for a bit). He was still pretty angry with them for ignoring his wishes, so the lawful good cleric in an iron golem's body became most friendly with the lawful evil mage who wanted to let him die. I love role-playing.

[@tsukinofaerii2208]

Years ago when I was a new DM with a party that was 75% "literally never played before" people, I panicked about character death so much that I devised an entire homebrew world backstory to negate it. It turned out shockingly well all things considered. There were a ton of worldbuilding complications (economic, cultural, political, etc; turns out heirs don't appreciate never being able to inherit). Returning death to the world became a major end-game goal because that was the only way to ensure the apocalyptic-level villains could be actually stopped. Don't think I would do it again, though. It took a lot of work balancing the story to keep the tension. Letting the PCs die would have been less stressful!

[@SmexKingOfTheOzone]

Great tip video. I haven't given PC deaths much thought. Being a new DM, I have not dealt with this yet. Even as a PC, i have only played 2 short homebrew campaigns. Thanks dudes.

[@jeremycharles5928]

I just came across your channel a few days ago and have been watching through yer vids and this one was just perfect because this week I killed my 1st PC(i'm DMing for the 1st time running out of the Abyss.) My player who died was a High Elven Celestial Warlock who had a pact with a solar in the name of Corellon. We also have a battlerager, rogue and necromancer. And now for what happened my players were traveling across the Dark Lake and came across a Duergar Fortress under siege by a horde of gnolls and demons. Unlucky for them the canal they were sailing was gated off by the duergar so they joined in the battle. I gave them all control of some pretty OP enchanted ballista and they are having fun killing demons and what not. Then a chasme lands behind them and crit hits with it's proboscis attack and it just straight kills him. Me being nice has his pact holder instantly show up the solar kills the demon and catches his disembodied spirit asking if he wishes to return to the land of the living or join his wife in the afterlife. So he chooses to stay dead and the angel angry at the lose of his mortal champion leaps into battle and single-handedly takes out the horde of monsters before fading back to his own plane. As soon as he was gone our necromancer raises the corpse of the fallen warlock as a zombie. The other pc's disgusted by him head into the ships cabin just to put some space between them. And in the long run our wizard probably just made a powerful new enemy for my party. The Angel of Death will return!

[@hawkname1234]

Great, great video on a tough, advanced gaming topic guys. I'm really impressed.

[@enelson39]

I've been running a campaign within the Tiamat saga where the heroes encountered in a side quest a Lich of the Red Wizards of Thay who could cast Finger of Death. One of the players died from this spell, and rather than them being resurrected as a zombie, I had the Lich put a little extra effort into the resurrection to pull them back as a Revenant in the service of the Lich. While the Lich was evil, he was also against Tiamat and his purpose in committing sins against the local village was to hinder Tiamat, so his command to the Revenant was to prevent the summoning of Tiamat as well. During the combat, the Revenant player got to play on the side of the Lich. And when the players ultimately were victorious, the player Revenant was released from the will of the Lich, but not the Revenant curse which bound him against Tiamat. The player loved it and being a dragonborn paladin, loved the opportunity to breath necrotic damage and take up the Oathbreaker palladin path (which I let him select at his current level). In all, the player death ended up being the highlight of the night.

[@ashes2steel]

My Oathbreaker Paladin died protecting a party member while being swarmed by reavers, just as she was beginning to regain her faith. She never earned her redemption, which I feel was the real tragedy.

[@LailokenScathach]

**throws dice across room, flips table over and storms out of the room** - that's how I deal with PC permanent death.

[@michaelgibson5504]

I am playing in a league. But my main problem is so many characters are dieing 1-2 every adventure. People are doing missions and doing the bare minimum to try and stay alive. Which causes more players to die. Death should hover over you. Not sit on your shoulder.

[@LiotIV]

One thing I always tell my players before a campaign starts (and frequently remind them of during campaign) - "I'm not trying to kill your characters, but at the same time I am not afraid to kill your characters". It helps ease the tension between me and the players so they don't feel like it's the players versus the DM (me) and also sets the precedent that death is a real and usually permanent thing in this game

[@MonkeyJedi99]

As a DM over the last 35-ish years, I have presided over about three dozen (permanent) character deaths. Often it happens from shenanigans with gravity. Fall off a cliff, tumble down a waterfall, crushed under a wagon while changing a broken wheel (I got two that way)... Most often, it is the "bite off more than they can chew" situation. Three death knights? Zoiks and away! A couple of times, it was just a lucky strike from some foe they had a good handle on. As a player, I have lost a few characters. One paladin held a narrow path while the rest of the worn-down party fled, and died to an avalanche of weapon blows. I lost one to an exploding trap, and I was not even the rogue (who lived). In my current game as a player, I have three backup characters ready to go, and almost had to pull one out last Friday (Two failed death saves before the cleric could get to me.)

[@josephhiess8622]

So. This was while i was playing in a 3.5 edition campaign. So my character was an air genasi stoner. ( home brewed class). And my character had died trying to by my party some time so they could escape. My character inevitably died and my party members came back, tears pouring from their eyes, and completely decimated the enemy. Afterwards they did not bury me, but instead had our half dragon barbarian throw my corpse into the air, and used his breathe weapon to obliterate my remains. They all had to make a saving throw afterwards or get higher than a kite. It was a unique way that they decided to send off a fallen comrade. Hope you enjoyed.

[@mpschauster84]

Been watching the videosast week or so and recently subscribed. Good flow of information and good insight. I dig it Keep up the good work

[@Brawneteer]

We've just had our first pc death in our d&d game. Not exactly happy about it, due to some of the stronger enemies being controlled by a guest DM while the main DM controlled weaker enemies. The character that went down didn't get a chance to make death saves because of the guest DM deciding to use his two characters he had to attack the downed player.

[@DTux5249]

I think about it like this. You don't set your characters up to become Gods, to be forgotten. You set them up to die, and be remembered. Any dead characters I have in play, I incorporate into the world for the next group as Legends, or as tales told in the city

[@rjprice4245]

One trick I've learned to help that works well for my group is to have a lot of NPC's are familiar and similar to certain death prone members of the party. So often times they will take one of the NPC's and just do some tweaking and make them into a PC. We had some random barmaid from one of our first sessions get turned into an awesome PC lol. Called her Ms. Crit since she dropped 20's like you wouldn't believe.

[@starcrafter13terran]

What we used to do was, if the player loses her or his character in the moment, to allow them to control an npc for the battle or even for the adventure. Later, they have a session zero with the DM and can introduce a well thought out character to continue in the campaign. Other than very remote areas, it's usually possible to have an npc around to do this.

[@johnnewton3592]

Pulling punches is something that I tend to avoid as much as possible. Almost all of my encounters allow for the option to run, but that does not mean you are going to get away. I try to encourage my players to use all of the abilities their characters have, which often they forget about. Many newer players forget that they are not playing a video game RPG with respawn locations.

[@zwoq6779]

Ode to Uo-Kurk!!! Uo-Kurk was a Dragonborn fighter conjured into existence by my Dragonborn monk (Kras-Urk) who drew a card from The Deck of Many Things. We found the deck around level 4, and Uo-Kurk was absolutely invaluable to our party. I constructed him to be a pure tank and the amount of battles and feats of strength he helped the party overcome was many. I forget what the exact situation was, but Uo-Kurk gave his life to save the party and did some major damage on the way out. The silence around the table during that last death saving throw was deafening. Everyone was is total shock when it failed, the mighty Uo-Kurk had fallen. Because he came from The Deck of Many Things his body disappeared, no chance of resurrection. He died at level 13 and our party had become so reliant on him that his death totally changed the way we played and approached situations. To this day bards sing songs and recite poetry of Uo-Kurks exploits.

[@BlackShadow1991]

Thank you for making these guides, Dudes, they are fun, informative and well made :D

[@AvenueStudios]

Love the toasting the fallen idea thats great! My first character in PF1e had a sudden death due to GM desire for story and it was not a fun time or memory so I definitely agree with your thoughts on that. I do have a player that wants his character to die for narrative reasons and wondering what advice anyone has for that. Great player very willing to work with it and let the dice make the final decision but does want to aim for that so we are wrestling over that

[@PongzeLor]

I’m dreading this moment. Our stealthy rogue has been in too many situations where theyre ambushed and i run in as the heroic paladin to help

[@dustyamsos]

My character of 5 years just bit the dust last night playing into the abyss The party are trying to gather ingredients to cast reincarnate, but if they don't do it within 10 days she's gone forever Going to roll up a character the party can meet in the underdark to try and help them :)

[@flyingskyward2153]

Did you succeed?

[@dustyamsos]

@@flyingskyward2153 Still trying to get to a certain location where there is a wizard haha Im currently playing a character who is a fanboy of the party :P

[@mrbean3470]

Healing word has helped our party avoid death saves on multiple occasions. Nothing like seeing a giant incapacitate an ally, only for the Bard to healing word said fallen ally who ends up delivering the killing blow upon getting back up.

[@randomjunk1977]

I just joined a new group and we all started new Level 1 characters and are The Curse of Strahd. The very first enemy we encountered was a specter and hit our poor fish person Bubbles with the very first swipe of the game. Bubbles rolled a 1 on the Constitution save, had to take 10 Necrotic damage and died instantly. Very first attack of the campaign. However, it turned out Bubbles brother Bübbles had been following him not far behind and joined our party shortly after the battle.

[@brodericksiz625]

These are some amazing tips and, since I'm starting a campaign in which players are almost always going to be required to face threats much stronger than they are, I feel that they might come in handy soon. It's going to be a campaign with a lot of strategising on both the pc and npc side, with espionage and a few unique quirks that will make the game more tactical and, as a consequence, deadlier. And resurrection magic is more limited than in the core rulebooks as well as less common.

[@Alltaer]

My Way of the Sun Aasimar Monk - Arno (Died on level 3) We were solving a Gnoll problem for a small town nearby, we found their cave, dealt with the guards and took a short rest as Arno's adopted Goblin daughter picked a lock on the door inside of the cave. The corridor lead to an ancient temple, where a Drow, an elf talked about only in legends in this world waited for us, as well as a Giant Gnoll. The Drow, after giving a speech about how humans took all the land, adressed mainly to our Wood Elf Ranger and Goliath Barbarian, created a wall of force around himself, and told the Gnoll he had to prove himself. We fought well, and Arno realized his Scourge Aasimar abilities for the first time, when the Gnoll downed Arno, and in anger struck me again. 2 failed Death Saves. Our only healer, the ranger, was downed already by a Hyena. After getting brought to last few HP, the gnoll turned towards the Drow, whispered something, turned around again and finished Arno. Then the Drow teleported them away. The Warlock of our group covered Arno's body with moss, they planted his quarterstaff as a gravestone and apparently a tree will grow there in time.

[@Bluntz1289]

I love each and every character I make but there is one thing I keep in the back of my mind. "If they die. They die." It sucks when a character dies but if my character dies. Then that is what faith has dictated. Will I cry? Yes. Of course. I put hard work into each character I make and Iove each of them but as in life. You have to keep moving forward.

[@SighingDm]

I've had 16 charcaters die over 3 canpaigns, 12 of those deaths were a single player. And all 12 of those were the results of his own choices

[@BluessNRock]

Thank you so much My players are about to get on a very difficult combat if they don't see the clued that could help them get through So I really hope they don't die but if they do this video helped me a lot !

[@qmoore007]

Death story: we’re playing pathfinder but the world is based off of love craft lore. We were in an underwater dungeon controlled by deep ones trying to unleash Dagon on our world. We accidentally released Dagon to get an artifact and the dungeon started to crumble. Our witch, Charity, rolled poorly on a saving throw that caused her to be paralyzed by fear and unable to move and in the chaos, we forgot she wasn’t running when we all started running. We tried to go back to find her and almost lost 2 other PCs. Her body was crushed under tons of dungeon rocks and water pressure. Our friends new character was actually one of her sisters that we learned about early on in the game and she was scrying on her sister and saw she was in danger so she came to help but showed up too late. So now she’s our new party member.

[@michaelweigand9346]

Had a player with scheduling conflicts betray the party in a pirates campaign and it was amazing. We plotted it out secretly, then the party keelhauled him and hung him from the masts. Most of the players were in another campaign with said player, so the next week his other PC was a beloved ally. But tread wisely with PVP and betrayal.

[@hasalmenot1011]

6th level team of rogue, cleric, fighter ranger and wizard were hired to raid a treasure vault. The vault was at the top of a 300ft tower on top of a 300ft cliff. Members were given bags of holding, partial maps and a small ship with minimal crew to get them there and back. With sneaking, heroics and pure blind luck, the whole party made it to the vault. It was a 200K gp dream haul until the fighter tripped a gas trap, sounding an alarm and sealing their only exit. "Don’t worry, we can float all the way to the boat" said the wizard, casting Feather Fall on the party. Here begins the death extranzagava that still resonates today. It was 600 ft. to the water from the top of the tower. 10 rounds to reach the sea and swim for the ship. 10 rounds for the party to gently and slowly float down on the wind. 10 rounds of range attacks (bow, crossbow and ballista) by the 50 member garrison. 10 rounds of spell attacks by the 20 sect members they had violated. As Feather Fall only affects creatures and not corpses, when a party member dies, the spell affect ended and their treasure laden bodies plunged into the sea or were dashed upon the wave covered rocks. The cleric was first. At 500 feet the Feather Fall was dispelled by the sect leader. They say the screams still echo around the game table. Next was the ranger, for every shot he loosened at least 20 answered back. Full of bolts and arrows, he continued to float down until three straight failures saw him dashed into the surf. A perfectly cast fireball lite up our three remaining adventurers. The rogue and wizard deftly evaded half the damage, but alas our gallant fighter smoldered like burnt bread stuck in a toaster. Of the last 2 who survived their near deaths, only the wizard was blessed with natural luck and was fully awake when she gently hit the water. The rogue, still dreaming of spending his new riches, slipped beneath the waves. Being an observant type, the wizard noted that the dead and bleeding party members had chummed the waters, attracting all manner of things with big pointy teeth. Unable to make it to the rogue, the wizard used her last spell, casting Invisibility on herself and made it back to the waiting ship.

[@MageLeaderInc]

I love the idea of letting someone come back as a Baneling.

[@ChowKnives]

I enjoyed the video. None of it really applied but I just came to mourn the loss of a character I had played for over 30 sessions. We attacked a vampire and a bunch of her minions. We made and executed a plan fairly well but it was my job to initiate the fight by firing the longbow. The vampire retaliated by closing the distance to us where our party members beat her down, but I was KO'd in the process. When I critted my death save and regained 1 hp I thought I was in the clear and started picking off the minions, but the vampire, though she was injured went invisible and retreated. The paladin could sense where she was and she was directly behind me. With a claw and a bite I was down to two failed death saves. Each party member took turns trying to hit this invisible vampire but the luck had run dry. They tried to bargain saying they'd hunt her down if I was killed. With a third strike I was killed and she countered their deal with one of her own: the party goes free if she can take my body away. It was at this point that I (the player) left the game and I don't know what they picked.