Player Character Deaths! (GM Tips w/ Matt Mercer)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ธ.ค. 2024
- Critical Role's Dungeonmaster Matt Mercer is here with another installment of GM Tips!
Player death is inevitable in a campaign, and Matt Mercer gives us some tips to handle the event properly. Thematics, last words, mourning, and properly moving on are just a few ways to help soften the blow.
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I had a PC die, and one of the other players, on his own, grabbed up the PCs sword and swore vengeance for his dead comrade and he carried the sword in order to end the killer with his friend's weapon. It was pretty epic.
Brandon B the question remains, did he end his friends killer?
We want to know.
@@Andrew_H43 Yeah, did he?
We need answers
Hey FUCKER
My first ever character death, his last words were, "Well, shit." Before a stone golem pounded him into mulch.
Literally laughed out loud when I read this!
Don't know why I imagined Varric from Dragon Age doing this.
I laughed my ass off at this comment.
LvL 1 Gnome, wild magic sorcerer, last words was "FIREBOLT" with a voice crack, batched the roll, DM had me roll on the wild magic table... I got fireball centered on self.... I rolled almost max damage... and lost my reflex save. I miss that pipsqueak
2nd PC was a Dragonborn dragon sorcerer was part of the cult of Tiamat in the cult of the dragon module, got captured by the group and tortured, they then released me, I go back to the cult and became a spy inside the group for the cult, eventually came clean and the group never trusted me again. But it was hella fun I'd rate it 7/10 would sell out group that tortures me again lol
I remember my first character death, he didn't get any last words. He got killed in combat for not paying attention as punishment for me reading a book during the fight. Honestly, i should have payed attention to the guys and not be a dick by reading a book. It was a good book though...
Matt Mercer: "Allow the Player to have some last words, before they die."
PC's dying words: "Resurrect me...."
Lmaoooo
...I have ray gun... blegh
Rez plz!
or “dm please target x player next for not helping me”
The other PC's try, using various spells to ressurect thier long-time friend, but alas, the GM says a few words, that tear hope away from the party
"There are no ressurecting magics"
*PC dies*
*Player writes "Jr." next to their name on the character sheet*
"I'VE COME TO AVENGE MY FATHER"
Isn't this the plot of infinity blade
"My name is [pc] jr. You killed my father, prepare to die!"
El padre dekavzae, it what his son says when he comes to avenge his father
Wouldn't you have to reset your stats?
@@BlazeDupree1525 probably depends on your dm, since you would probably want your new character to be at a similar level to the rest of the party. Although you might want to switch around a little, just for flavor.
There's a system I like to implement in my games called "Final Stand". When a character is knocked to 0 HP, I give them a choice (provided it isn't instantaneous death, like a nuke), either submit and fall unconcious, with a chance to stabilize yourself, or defy death and make a final stand. In a final stand, you are given the following:
1 action type of your choice (reaction, main action, bonus action)
Half your movement speed
And one free spell slot of 5th level or lower
What you do with this is up to you, you can fire one last fire ball, you can make one last sword swing, you can do anything you want for one last turn to go out in a blaze of glory.
However, keep in mind, if you choose this, you *will* die. It doesn't matter if you get healed during your final stand, you will still die. Final Stand is the choice of letting your character go out with a bang.
Now, some DMs will say that that's OP, and frankly, I don't care. I have fun with it, my players have fun with it, and as long as I and my players keep having fun with it, I'll keep using it
That's seems really good, do you mind if i steal it and add it to my campaign?
@@DND20 I don't mind at all, go ahead!
I won’t lie, it’s always been a fantasy of mine to go out in a blaze of glory like that
I love this idea, 1 last shot at glory before you drop
I like your funny words magic man
*character dies*
*rolls dice for funeral arrangement*
*rolls 1*
*the funeral has failed*
*Coffin kicked open*
"I'm back b*****s"
The funeral has failed; you get resurrected.
When they didn't ask to be cremated, but the wizard didn't know fireball went that far.
th-cam.com/video/f4n1h1uig6E/w-d-xo.html
That would explain what went down at William the Bastard's funeral
Just had a cleric get swallowed by a dragon.
"I hope I give you indigestion!" Were her final words.
Lmao hahahaha
Brilliant
Legend.
Going out like a champion.
Did she?
“Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice i am willing to make!” - my DM
Lord Farquad is that you?!
Wow. It was the other way around for me lol. My PC tackled the BBEG of a cliff. We both died. (I got re alived later because of cult related backstory and became a warlock but it was a good 4 weeks before she came back when we thought she was big dead)
Also what most Wizards and Sorcerers yell before blasting a Fireball into the middle of the party to kill the dungeon boss.
So you've played in one of my campaigns.
I like how he thinks.
Pc: walks off cliff because they wanted to see what would happen
Dm: actually lets them kill themselves off
Pc: wait what?
He tried to test if there was fall damage in the game.
*surprised Pikachu*
Classic last words "Is there fall damage?" or "I wonder what that lever does"
why do I suddenly hear Marisha‘s voice saying “we‘re basically gods“? xD
Wait, didn't that happen in critical role?
In my first campaign, the first death happened to one of our bards. He touched a horse's balls and promptly got bashed in the skull and failed his saving throws. It was a fitting death for him.
that's honestly one of the most hilarious player deaths ever
GM: "OK he's dead bad luck, time to create a new character"
Player: "But .... "
GM: "What Race !"
Moax Lycan what?
Say what again, say what again. I dare you, I double dare your!
Pulp Fiction is one of the best movies!
Tarantino is one of the best filmmakers
this should be on a shirt!
When I started RPing a couple years ago I would roll up 2 to 3 back up characters each time we started a new game in case this happened.
After only one PC death, albeit one that occurred twice before it took, I find myself sitting on close to a bakers dozen of backlogged backups these days.
Wait Matt, "Player death is indeed a real possibility?" Um... don't you mean Player Character death... I really hope so. :p
I hear he's been known to go full Patrick Bateman on people for getting pizza grease on the dice. Which is understandable.
Well, maybe they are pretty hardcore into realism.
RaoGung Well... everyone dies eventually
XxOvermind
: Sooner or later. Hopefully later. Unless they turn into undeads in RL, which would be quite unusual.
Yeah, live by the d20, die by the d20...
PC's last words: " Delete my browser history! "
The Party: " WTF is a Browser History?! "
"Burn my books"
@@frozencloudzzful That's what Kafka said to his best friend Max, who famously didn't follow through.
Player character has just died, a stunned silence. Then in chorus the surviving adventures shout " I loot the body!" /sigh...
Ah yes the murder hobos
@@zellafae Murder hobo players should usually get bounties on their heads and have to fight against bounty hunters. I like to send in an npc after the group that has Iron Bands of Binding to pokeball at least one of the guys. So pretty much send a fantasy boba fett after them.
Was actually gladly accepted on our campaign,knowing how we were set to be the villains by our DM,which is pretty hilarious.Mass murder is a common phenomenon aswell.
I remember an absolute struggle of a fight me and my friends had in dnd where a PC died, and I was the one who killed him. It was a tense moment, the boss was on his last legs and was currently gripping the downed form of the Bard that he’d just rammed though with a sword of ice.
My Sorcerer could end the fight, but kill the Bard in the process, or he could prolong it and risk the TPK as basically everyone except me and the another were downed, though we had very little HP left.
I remember the Bard shouting “DO IT!” At my character as I released a Fireball directly on top of both the boss and the Bard. To this day, my Sorcerer carries the guilt of killing what was essentially his best friend for the sake of saving the rest of the party.
The last time I played with my friends.... I got killed because a paladin who didnt like my character threw a dead rat at me when I had 2 hp.
Death by dead rat.
It's too bad that armor in D&D does NOT protect you by absorbing damaging like it does IRL...
Shouldn't that just do 1 HP? :D
Marcus Langdale Stiff corpse.
No healing or death saves? If it was 5e you only insta-die if you hit negative max hp, if you have a cruel dm, or if in the climactic final battle the dm wants to cinematically kill a character right before the thing ends. Otherwise, in 5e, you're just unconscious till someone saves you, or until you fail/succeed on 3 death saving throws. Just wanted to lob this info chunk out there
I once got coup de grace-d by a boar.
Saddest death I ever had to describe was my friend's fighter getting blown apart by a black powder chain reaction. He was tough, survived so many other deadly attacks, and was the backbone and defacto leader. A bear of a man but an honorable and fun individual to his friends, but a terror to his enemies. He was a champion of the people, and a bane to their foes, as well as a true gentleman.
The hobgoblin general of the BBEG was nearly at their mercy, cornered in his stronghold. The party had to fight through the fort to get to him though, and they were prepared to siege the place if need be. Waves of enemies and rooms filled with ambushes, traps, and pitfalls led to the final chambers; the powder storage room. There he was, the hobgoblin general with a contingent of high guards and mercenaries, all armed with explosive impliments. The party went hard in this fight, nearly losing several to the blasts. But the warrior knew he needed to get in close and end the general ASAP, so he cut in close and laid into him. A few turns later, and a fumble on the general's part saw a bottle of alchemist fire light the room ablaze. They all knew this was bad, and they needed to go, fast. But the way was blocked by the flames and explosions for the warrior and the hobgoblin. With a heavy heart he called for his friends to run, to escape as fast as they could. They relented at first, trying to douse the flames, but they only grew back in strength with more explosions and soon the room and fort were starting to buckle. With a final smile and a tearful nod, the warrior laid into the general again as his friends fled, needing to drag the warrior's love interest away lest she die as well. The whole keep collapsed as they escaped, the warrior and the general impaling one another on their weapons. This hobgoblin, who had been a menace to them for going on a year had a moment of respect for his long time enemy, laughing with him as they both were crushed under the tons of stonework. And then, all was silent.
The party found their ally with help from some magic, his body bloodied and his armor crushed by stone. But he died with a smile on his face, content in knowing that his friends were safe, and one less evil was free to roam and sow terror. He was a hero, and he is still remembered in that world; Nidhogg, son of Grisall, child of the hill dwelling nomads, champion of the people, hero of Faerun, and a friend who will never be forgotten.
That is how a death should be, and that is how my first ever PC died. Tears were legitimately shed, and a character with nearly a year of development and growth, with great deeds and songs written of his and his allies' accomplishments passed as a warrior should; with a sword in his hand, fighting a foe who was worthy of his steel.
That was totally EPIC!!
Damn, I've read Viking sagas that weren't as glorious as that.
Man you made me shed a tear
that’s so epic! glory to nidhogg!!
Nidhogg.
We will never see his like again,
and now his watch has ended.
Character Death in DnD: A tragedy, a possible fight with the GM, all around difficult to work with
Character death in Call of Cthulhu: Welp, saw that coming
You know, I played CoC today. My character got buried under and promptly crushed by a shaggoth. My last words were "Yeah, sounds about right..."
Call of Cthulhu is the dark souls of tabletop RPGs
*looks sideways at Vtm*
*laughs in weird west TPKs*
The last time we played CoC my PC would have come out alive if we runned away like 1 hour after the start of the session
In my favorite campaign I ever played, my character was fighting a vampire godlike being. I had been separated from my party because my character had a tendency to act way to heroic. As this vampire is kicking my ass it becomes obvious that my character made his last mistake. The vampire was bragging that my character wouldn't get to Valhalla (he was a follower of the Norse religion) because I was going to die in his realm. So this hand to hand rouge gets pissed and does the viking death chant "lo there do I see my father..." as I start to fight in what I thought was my last round. I rolled a crit and fought back pretty well. Right before the vampire lines up the killing blow. My faith was rewarded however because a champion of Valhalla felt my faith pull them to the scene and save my ass. It was a great moment
Are vampires evil
@@rete4725 most of them are but you can make a vampire who is not evil, maybe he hates his vampirism and tries to fix it.
@@rete4725 Only if the [DM / author / God / whoever is making the rules of the universe] is a fundamentally boring and uncreative person.
@@zeeee8305 That sounds almost as boring and uncreative as "all vampires are Evil."
Dylan Darnell is everything boring and uncreative to you?
use the name of a fallen PC character as a warcry?
...
"LEEROOOOOYYYY JENKIIINS!!!!"
MaxUniverse lol
Never played d&d ever bro but want to play to just do yell out Leroy jenkiinnnnggss and roll a 1 lol
FREEEEDOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Mine would be “RANDOM KENKU BARD WHO DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO SAY HIS NAMMEEEEE”
many died after yelling this warcry, i wonder why...
Long may he reign..
I was looking for this comment, thank you
Long may he reign.
Nice likes my man
Long may he reign.
Ngl this sounds morbid to me for whatever reason, like Jeffery's crowning in game of thrones who died a horrible death haha
My favorite death of one of my characters was the group's paladin punching him in the face, not knowing he had only a handful of HP left, accidentally killing him, losing his class and becoming a warrior (lol), and then as last rites my group tossed the body in a moat to distract the crocodiles XD
God it's been 22 years ago...
The crocodile thing is ingenius and I love it a lot!
Bruh im 22 years old. Am i your character reborn??
@@mattk750
**Oh Shit**
I had a mage PC die by teleporting from a dragon fight ...sadly in his panic he ended upi n a volcano
AS someone who has 21 player character deaths over the course of 7 years of RPG's, my nickname is Boromir. The most heart wrenching one has to be, Markus Ironhorn minotuar fighter big ol' drunken fool who was best friends with his human cleric. This was me and my buddies not only first long campaign it was my first character i built myself. This was 4th edition at the time. Around lvl 19 we were fighting the main antagonist at the time who had us dead to rights, we were unarmed, unarmored, and in chains. The only way we could of won the fight was if the Antagonist died and freed her minions from under her control. We had this dagger called the Dagger of Zyhir (?) which could kill a god BUT it kills the user with it. So without the party's permission i took the dagger charged the antagonist, taking 4 opp attacks, then roll to hit....Nat 20. We was amazed. But something funny happened, the shield i had been wielding since lvl 10 (about 1 year real time) started to glow. Turns out the shield that we found in an old mansion was the Shield of Bahamut. So I was allowed 1 death save. Well the lord giveth and he taketh away, nat 1. Any way more adventures happen to actually bury me,Politics am I right. But something my DM did last christmas. So we got groundhog day-ed so we had to fix time. Well guess who shows up. My Big ol' drunk and my buddies edgy elf, who died as well in the campaign, taken right before they died to help fix time. At the time of death it wasn't emotional but when he came back, well when you lose your main bro then he appears again all the man tears show up.
SonofYmir Your DM sounds like a pretty awesome dude
21? I play dnd, shadowrun , ds schwarze auge, you name it sine 27 years... and i only died about 3 times in all that time....
And i don't have the feeling that my campaigns i play in are less dedly than that what matt is playing in crit role
@@Typoopie I just made my first character that I'm actually really proud of, and I'm watching this to mentally prepare myself for the possibility of death
Thats a great story, hope I can do something that good some day.
"Give them their finals words to inspire their party"
I nat 1 slipped in oil and was lit on fire by a goblin. A party member decided to light a bigger fire to kill the goblins. He burned the forest down and they left my unconscious body there as they ran. They did not want to hear my last words...
F to pay respect for the dead. Rest in charcoal, sir Rob!
Well at least we know now why you chose the name Krisp
My first roll EVER in Dungeons and Dragons was a death save. I failed.
Edit: For those of you who are curious as to what happened, I will post here and in the comments.
I had just joined the group as they jumped through a portal that was apparently hinted to be higher-level than them, which ended up teleporting us into a pocket dimension filled with dinosaurs (aptly called the Dino Dome by us). During the very brief discussion we had prior to entering, the barbarian took off his great axe and took out all twelve of my hit points. They stood around for a few seconds deciding whether or not to heal me as they just met me, and in that time I was asked to roll death saves as they talked. Failed the first one. Pretty sure the next one succeeded, though. Either way, the cleric healed me and we went on our merry way.
However, the story does not end there. One of our players went next to a river (I, for one, was under the impression it was a glorified stream) and peered inside, and I, playing a helpful character, decided to stay nearby to make sure nothing goes wrong. The moment he got up to the river, a giant dinosaur jumped out of the water and got a surprise round on us both, mauling my friend (dropping him to zero but not dead) and one-shotting me. Died from the hit, I had 12 health and it did I think 25 damage or so. Got about two and a half hours or so out of that one, they were a good few hours though, given that we were just a bunch of high-schoolers trying very poorly to form cohesive thoughts, let alone strategize with any semblance of effectiveness.
Fun group though, even with that blip. Went on to play a much better character who I believe played a somewhat major role in me figuring out my gender identity less than a year after this event. Good times, makes for fun stories.
You didn’t even roll for initiative? Just got insta killed? What a shitty dm
@@pokerbuddy62 maybe he did something else before combat that got him in that situation, seeing it as his first roll he's obviously inexperienced and I can see a couple of ways to take action and kill your character without entering combat.
@@pokerbuddy62 tim: "I attack the heavily armoured king's guard with my dagger!"
Dm: "wait. What? Are you sure you don't want to just continue your way to the tavern?"
Tim: "no. I attack!"
Dm: "but why? He's just standing there, doing his job, not even looking at you, and you are a very new, inexperienced druid. Why don't you just join the others?"
Tim: "BECAUSE!"
dm, sighs. "Well, then. Grab the d20...."
Gotta hurt, man.
I had a pretty similar experience. If you nat 1, rules as written mean you die when you're rolling death saves. I houserule to make it so that you fail two rather than dying, when I DM, but my first session that happened to me.
Love this series. I'd love to see an episode on party down time. I think it's one of Matt's strengths as a GM and it's something that's rarely addressed.
yeeeessssssssssssssssssssssssssss
100% second this. So few GMs talk about down time that a lot of newer GMs don't even know that's a thing and just string infinite instant quests together.
think that's why GMs that are new get into the railroading business of campaigns, cause they don't know how to implement down time. I've been playing as a GM for 9 months so I'm still very much new to it, and only now is it that understand downtime
Definitely, I'd love that.
can someone explain what downtime means in dnd terms?
So a man walks into the bar a readied axe
The barkeep asks why the need of his axe in the bar
The man replied "mimics"
The barkeep laughed, the man laughed, the table laughed.
They killed the table, it was a good time.
I shall steal this joke, apply it in my campaign, and honor it till the end of time!
this happened back in the 80s in a game session where i played Harold Half-ogre. We'd just finished an adventure and went into a crossroads inn. Harold sat down on a chair, and for some reason his 340-odd pound frame caused the chair to scream and try and get away. Turned out half the furniture were mimics and the innkeeper was a doppelganger...
@@Grey_Shard And I thought my idea of a whole Inn being a mimic populated by ghost of unsuspecting travelers was original.
Nice 👌
I did steal this joke for my campaign. My players were at a tavern called “The Smiling Table”, the table (group) next to them found out how the pace got its name. I wasn’t going to risk killing my party over a dumb joke.
"The bounty hunter laid mortally injured on the ground. As his allies rushed to his aid he yelled "STOP!" and with his last breath muttered "It's High Noon after all" as he unholstered his revolver and gunned down the entire envoy of assassins."
Player: "But it's the middle of the night..."
Matt: "Yes, but it is always High Noon somewhere..." ( O__0)
Can we convey, sir?
_It's five o'clock somewhere... na na na na, na na na na..._
@@SuperLMGamer Is this a legal matter?
@@darrenfleming7901 yes, and it's important to me
@@SuperLMGamer ayy ma man, aftter a whole year lmao.
Matt: “Go out together”
*My players who live in different countries*
My players who live in 2020
@@leotheleopardnz my players who don’t exsist
Then How Do You Play?
@@pdinx discord
@@donovanmariandrexel7901 Can I Play With You Guys?
Characters enter room
“It’s high noon”
Party all die
Lmao
It's funny since Matt voiced McCree himself
The tip about giving the moment of PC death appropriate weight and poignancy is excellent advice. Great advice as always Matt! -Ryan
But what if it's caused by dumb actions? For example if a player character with no athlethic ability tries to jump over a chasm when there's a bridge?
+odin lindeberg Then you could do a sudden and traumatic tone change, so if (and when) they still die its a little less stupid. If I may borrow Mercer's dramatic narrative style:
"What the PC's thought of as harmless fun turns in an instant into a battle for survival that they got themselves into through sheer stupidity. If they jump off a cliff like idiots they can suddenly be get caught by the giant tentacle of a monster that lives in a cave on the cliffside, previously hidden by the angle of the drop, and now they're at the mercy of a foe they cannot possibly beat. Or they could still fall, and just before hitting the water, a huge magical portal in the shape of a glowing whirlpool opens directly below them and takes them to the lair of a powerful sorcerer, and if they survive, it can be a minor plot point that a great ancient evil has awakened due to their lack of prudence. Or maybe they just fall off a normal cliff and desperately manage to hold on to a rock or three branch while the rest of the team try to save them. Again, pretty stupid ways to die, but it'd be *a little* less ridiculous and anticlimactic."
Disclaimer: I'm not a GM, just a writer. but I feel like this applies
+Dudemitri Moxemberg "Or maybe they just fall off a normal cliff and desperately manage to hold on to a rock or three branch while the rest of the team try to save them. Again, pretty stupid ways to die, but it'd be a little less ridiculous and anticlimactic." Usually what happens. Fun every time anyway.
Nerdarchy srry had to ruin it being at a perfect 500 likes now its at 501
Well... Me and my party had some really dumb deaths...
Death by trying to swing through a window and just jumping against it, followed by falling into the burning bush you incinerated a minute ago to distract the guards is one of them...
or healing your enemy and taking the hp healed as damage... then get one hitted by the enemy...
Yeah we had some dumb deaths and we made the best out of the deaths... "To do the *Charakter name of a dead PC" for example...
I've had two of my characters die. The first one was level one, so I wasn't upset, but my Level 6 wizard actually got killed when I neglected to note an attack of opportunity. She was slain by . . . I think an undead wielding an axe. It absolutely broke my heart - UNTIL one of the guys after the fight used Breath of Life and brought her back.
If you don't think character death is emotional then don't talk to me, man. I was nearly in tears.
TJ Metamorphosis are you 5? tears? lmao
Oh no, someone has emotions...
starcrafter13terran It was a level 6 character.
TJ Southam a Character is almost litterally an extension of the Creator. It's almost like your own being. Losing them is emotional, but as what Matt said. It's only a game :) have fun with your friends, look at the life your first character had and again like Matt said. Use it to inspire in some way shape or form. Dunno if it will be allowed but maybe have the fallen's weapon be used for the party or your new character to use. The wonders of RPGs is your character is all up to you. You have complete control of your character. Have fun
Every story has to come to an end. If your character doesn't die in combat they would still eventually succumb to natural causes. I've only just started my first campaign and am already fairly attached to my character even though he's only level 3. If he dies next session I would obviously be sad about all the backstory I've written for him being essentially trashed, but there's so many potential amazing characters you can make. Hell I've been making random characters on Orc-Pub to figure out what to play next if I either start a 2nd campaign or if my guy dies. Plus if your character is in the good alignment, they're in a far better place once they die anyways.
My very first campaign I ever played, I was a Feylock for Oberon (I'm still really new and not 100% sure how everything works) and our Ranger's wolf got hella acid damage and we had to put it down during our camp (because none of us were healers, whoops). It was pretty sad, but my character did give a moving eulogy, blessing the dog to now "ride with the pack on the eternal hunt." I got an inspiration point, I was pretty proud!
*dies from slipping on a banana peel* "DesCriBE tHe DEatH CInEMatICALly"
(pc) was walking forward when their foot connected to a banana peel, causing them to slide into a graceful arc. As they hit the ground with a thud that seemed to echo, their neck snapped with a sound that their party members would remember for the rest of their lives.
@@scouttyra That is deserving of a slow clap>
*Slow clap*
@@Cultureghost *bows with an exaggerated flourish*
@@scouttyra Saw your first comment, I'm feeling lazy so I said "nah too long to read", saw the next comment, went back to read your comment... gave a deserving slow clap. You Sr. deserve the gold for that XD
@@mahuk. thank you!
My character just died in a hostage situation. Instead of putting down their weapons and conceding defeat to the bloodied assassin holding a blade to my throat, a couple party members decided it was a good idea to try and attack him. The monk hit me multiple times instead of the assassin, who then proceeded to slit my throat. She was a cheery half-elf bard who went down reviving a dying party member, and she didn't even get any last words... I cried for hours last night. Rest easy Menyn, you're with Milil now...
When my PC died by kicking a door into 9 man firing squad, I don't feel sad or bad. Cause other players goes "Hmm whatcha say"
EricPaz I actually talked my first PC death over with my DM, at Level 4 my drow rogue still had only accomplished being worthless, only getting some goblin kills near the start. I then studied for a few weeks, rolled a new rogue, and because my old rogue hid an entire city's money in his bag of holding and was stupid enough to write down the contents so in case he died it would not go to waste, an NPC told him to meet him in the alley behind the tavern we frequented (it was a note addressed to him in thieves' cant so my guy believed it was important). Ten seconds later, a rogue walks in wearing his tinted bifocals, reading his book, and blatantly says he killed my old rogue. Our Goliath Barbarian automatically decks him on the jaw, dealing 12 damage. My new guy was also level 4, so it was luckily ok. He then explained the situation, and was eventually accepted after he proved himself a much better rogue, flipping off of a wall to avoid a hug from the bard, who hated my old rogue. My new rogue was FROM that city, and was actually one of the refugees that the party militarized to help take it back, so our Goliath, after seeing my flip, remembered seeing him doing stuff like that on the battlefield, and bought himself a pint to apologize to me. That was a fun session. Our sorcerer also cut out my old rogue's skull, which made our Lawful Good cleric and paladin very mad at him.
Sorcerer: I'll just take this as a keepsake to my fallen comrade. It'll also make a good paperweight.
Cleric and Paladin: ...
+keaton Lord of the Quizzes very interesting, but what was the reason for killing your old rogue in story wise?
Do you mean you kicked a door in and there was the aforementioned firing squad on the other side or did you kick a door *into* the squad
"Hmmm watcha say" , im dead
Basically, Matt is getting this out there before he perma-kills a couple of players tonight. :P
*2 years later*
*3 Months Later*
*18 hours later*
Jean-Philippe Nault 2 days later
Moooolllllllyyyyyyy¡!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One of my PC's walked straight into a darkness spell in the underdark after his friends repeatedly told him not to. He was stabbed and dragged into a drider pit, with no recoverable remains.
Adam Decker It's really funny how PCs will do that. A similar thing happened in my game with a golem summoning pressure plate.
You should've attacked the darkness! On a less joking note, I enjoy when characters make poor decisions and here's why: they've never been through 50+ sessions of Dungeons & Dragons or consumed a bunch of popular media with similar tropes. To the character, this is all happening to them for the first time and it's all explored terrain. I guess it's the difference of whether a person plays RPGs to "win the game" or to tell an interesting, entertaining story. I'm not saying the former's wrong, but I've come to prefer the latter. -Ryan
My party once saw a half-ogre washing itself in the river. I even mentioned that its weapon lay on the shore 10ft off.
They just casually walked up to it, discussing that they should take his weapon away. He noticed them from a 100ft and one of them was almost killed. That happens a lot with my players. "You hear goblin noises about 50ft in front of you!" They proceed to talk loudly what they should do (not even trying to be sneaky) and get ambushed by the goblins who got around them. xD
I think you as a GM have a responsibility to remind them that Ogres have eyes and can see just as far as the party can. Also that talking loudly in a cave isn't exactly stealthy an their tones should be kept to a whisper.
Especially if this is a party of casual D&D players who don't really understand that enemies have perception too. The last thing to do as a GM is to punish players for forgetting stuff. That's not to say if they make a stupid decision not to let it have consequences. I'm simply saying that not telling them to keep their voices down might be a helpful reminder to players who forget that in caves, sound echoes.
Some of my PCs almost got killed when they killed a lieutenant of the big bad and then decided to sleep on top of what basically was the main base of said lieutenant. They knew where the Hag had come from, they were there when she flew out of the well. But after killing her they just walked into a house and took a long rest instead of investigating the well. So, when some minions come to take revenge and the PC that was the lookout ran outside when he saw the window open, there were two PCs already unconscious in their beds before he got back. That took some good rolls to come back from for them, but they did it. Still, it was nice for me to get to put the fear of god into them(if you catch my drift) since I hadn't rolled over a 6 on any d20 rolls in the last 2 bossfights making them take a grand total of about 3 hits as a party in about 5 sessions.
Matt: "Maybe they use the deceased PC's name as a war cry"
Me: "Why do that when u can scream their catchphrase? JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM!?"
Story time: my very first time playing DnD I wasn’t told my character would be played by the DM without me when I was gone (I assumed since I was going away on vacation I’d be taken out of the game entirely) and I’d only played two sessions. Right after I’d told everyone I had to go, the DM, my best friend, messaged me the morning I was heading off on vacation “hey hope you don’t mind but your character died while I was playing them”. I said I did mind IMMENSELY and begged my friend to bring my character back because I hated the idea that I couldn’t even roleplay their death, or be present for it (or that their death wasn’t at all due to my own player choices so it felt unfair). They said they couldn’t do that because it was “the rules”. And somehow I convinced myself that I was the bad guy when I got really emotional and told them how upset this made me.
I stopped being friends with them for months. And we’re friends again but I can’t remember in all the conversations if they ever admitted what they did was... pretty shitty to a new player and a close friend.
You’re reaction was pretty shitty too. Like the tale of two wrongs. I get being invested in your character, but when you play enough the character doesn’t matter, the experiences do. When my friends play we all take turns being the DM because while we don’t mind DMing, we like to play too. That being said, we all almost always brain storm several characters up at the start, especially when getting ready for low level stuff. Our “tank” got crit by the dire wolf fight, goes down, then crit fails his death save. He died before my healer cleric could even get to him. This was on our FIRST session. I’d be a little annoyed that my character died on the day I was out with no resurrection arc, but maybe you made and played a really annoying character and the group wanted you to change.
@@jordanharrison8769 It was his first time playing. Regardless of anything else, it's a dick move. No talking to or stating the point. No communication or anything. It's just bad behavior on the DMs part when you have a first time who has NO idea what they're in for. The blame here is entirely on the DM.
@@iliveameme4930 Totally agree. They shouldn't have even played without him, he was going on vacation not into the military or a trip overseas for months. They should have waited to play when he got back or play prior to him leaving. That fact aside what is the point of anyone to even play DnD... To bond with and connect with their chatacter, to roleplay from creation to death which he didn't get to do.
@@randolorian7157 Even when I left for my military training, my DM just took my character out of the picture and set him on an individual quest for his deity. I got to roleplay his departure and return (which the party was ecstatic about) and now we’re back at it, like there’s ways for them to work around a player not being there. The DM the OP is talking about sucks for doing that to them, especially since they were new.
People have lives and can’t always make it to every session. Any DM who can’t wing it with a PC not being being there and insists on playing that character sucks. Too lazy to adjust their planned session to account for one character being gone.
Oh man. I remember playing d&d all the time when I was younger. More middle/high school. We had a player who always ended up dying somehow. His character would make it maybe 2 game times but then something would happen usually due to him being stupid. For example, we crossed this river in the swamp one time to get to the darkened castle beyond and we ended up in battle with some large crocodiles. With one slain and the group out of the water except for my friend who decided to try and take on the crocodile when he had plenty of time to escape. Well the crocodile grabbed his leg and at this time he was in fact trying to get out of the water. He said “it’s ok I got this” the GM asked him what he was going to do and inquired about trying to hit the crocodile with his greataxe again? My friend “no I swing the axe at my leg in hopes of chopping it off and freeing myself” we all told him that was a bad idea. But he does it and the attack ends up dealing enough damage to kill himself hahahaha omg. He always ended up in these situations.
That's fucking haliarious. I've successfully chopped off my arm up to the elbow in the current campaign and avoided dying by a single hitpoint lmao. If you can pull it off its the funniest shit in the campaign tho
Lmaoo that guy is a fucking legend
Reminds me of a Starfinder session where I ended up nearly TPKing me and my whole team of players in the explosion of an entire moon's barrier generator. All because I failed a diplomacy roll against a suicidal teenage Drow.
always have a character idea or two in reserve if your character dies
"Justin Case; Gentleman Adventurer, at your service..."
*****
I concur. There are times when I'm writing up some throw away NPC types and I come across some combination of skills thatI hadn't thought of before and I en up writing up a PC (that I will never get to play) instead.
Yeah, I have a backup of a different class and race ready to go if my character dies
Actually, just write up an entire nation to choose from :D
Only 2?
For me, 200,000 units are ready, with a million more well on the way
Don't you love that moment when you spent 2 months crafting a character and his backstory, only for the GM (who I found out likes to run deadly campaigns), insta-killed him in the first session. Not even kidding, this is what happened: "You're offered a drink in the tavern by a person you've not seen before"...."Can I insight check him, see if he's up to something?"....."Sure" (Rolls a 19 [at level 3])....."You're pretty confident that its fine, he seems friendly enough"....."Ok, I drink the drink offered to me"...."Make a consitution saving throw"...."Ok....(I'm thinking its just how well I handle my beer)...Natural 1 haha"....."Unfortunately, the drink was poisoned, and everyone watches as you fall to the floor of the tavern, dead". I don't think I've ever been more pissed in a DND game
VictorianFerret He was apparently a plot hook, and if I'd had a better insight roll, I'd have survived
George Johnson I call B.S. You rolled a 19 insight. Nuff said, I hereby resummon your character from the Shadow Realm in attack mode
fhmcateer *Apparently*, and I did grill him about it afterwards, the guys crit on his deception. So, he just said the dice decided he was going to die
That's a shitty DM, honestly. He was just looking for an excuse to kill someone. You cannot "get a crit on Deception", or any skill check for that matter. You can roll a 20, but even that doesn't guarantee success.
does if he didn't roll higher with stat buffs
my character died last session and even though it was planned it shocked me and made me cry simply because of how the DM explained it, it was kinda wild, hyped about my new character though!
Matt: *talks about character death*
Me, on the verge of tears, imagining my PC dying
I can't imagine my sexy 6'9" Dragonborn with high charisma and is beloved by most men and women and is also known as a sex beast, dying. Tragic thought indeed
The best piece of advice I've ever received regarding PC death was to let them survive whatever "killed" them, but inform their player that the character *must* die by the end of the session, so that they may choose the time and place for their death scene to be as awesome as they want. I feel that gives them enough time to cope, doesn't disrupt the party synergies in the middle of a session, and also lets the player "write the epilogue", as Matt suggests, by actual role-play, rather than just last words or posthumous narration.
Hm that sounds interesting, but how does that work in practice? If they get critted and killed by a big monster for example, do you just use a worse roll for that monster, and then tell the player after that session that they have to die next time?
@@Lawrencelot89 "You get slammed against the wall by the monster. You suffer mass internal bleeding. You fight through the pain" Then you have them finished the combat and tell them they will be dead in an hour. Or if its magical you say they suffered damage to their soul and can only stay bound to their body for a short time.
@@Twiska if another fight were to happen, are they allowed to attack or do they just hide?
@@imhulki463 Give them exhaustion and let them fight. Fight too hard they just die.
I recently started my first campaign. I was incredibly excited, i gave my character, a wood elf rogue, tonnes of backstory, spent an hour figuring out a voice, spent the week before the first session preparing in any way i could. First battle, the party against 4 wolves and a dire wolf. The first wolf to attack me *one shots me*. And on the life or death saving throw, i got a *nat 1*. The dice hate me.
Press F to pay respects. M, 2-26
more "roll 2d12 to pay respect."
Long may he reign.
Long may he reign
I am on episode 27. I needed this, he is god. Long may he reign
Shine bright, circus man.
My character just died. It was only our fourth session, but our DM handled it wonderfully and my fellow players and I were all very much affected by it. We've been trying to come up with a group name, and one of the players suggested naming the group after my character. Watching this was actually pretty comforting, and I am a little excited to bring in my new character to the game next week!
My first death as a player:
GM: as you lift up the heavy door using both of your hands, you see a pile of gold under it.
Me: can I get it?
GM: not without help otherwise you'll get crushed
Me: I reach for the gold
Why would you think thats a good idea
@@hyperbannana9262 No idea, I thought the DM was messing with me I think. But I can't remember for sure.
@@tylerg.9418 ahh i see
Honestly that's on that king shit lmao. Died for the grind
U could've slides through the door, than moved the gold next to the door, than lift It up again and moved it all out with your foot.
Than slide back out
Hey I wonder why this old video popped up on my feed. I'll just watch this and then finish up the second half of episode 26 of critical role.
Dylan Duval *:’)*
still too soon
Looooool
Long may he reign.
My last session I had a PC die 4 times within an in game hour.
Travis Stone I had a character die 4 times in the same combat.
It was nice of them to resurrect your PC so frequently.
The paladin in the group had just leaned Breath of Life. The party had ran into a cult all wearing necklaces of fireball. The fighter that fell learned AC means nothing if you cant reflex.
Core Brute 3 of the 4 times was the same combat.
After the first 2 times, it's probably safer to just wait behind the pearly gates until the coast is clear.
As someone said on a reply to my comment on another video of GM Tips: It takes a good player to die ingame.
My players must be incredible then. Why for a while one player had a character die every session. (He has a fondness for his characters wandering off by themselves)
We all know 'that guy' who wants to play the sneaky or lone wolf character and inadvertently commits suicide every couple of game session through stupidity.
Kevin Sullivan this kind of player is often called Alrik and no one understands them.
After four years I decided to make a wizard for the first time, this character brought new life to our party and was a breath of fresh air since he was very cheerful and friendly. By the end of the second session, I died a hero.
While I havent played D&D in years now it helped me forge memories of a lifetime and friendships that exist to this day . It enriched my life so much . I was the DM of my group and over the years there were times when I was as totally shocked when a player character as the player was and often just as disappointed as our group were very close friends but we always dealt with the tragic end of a beloved character , created a new one and set the stage for a new story .
Just can not help but express my appreciation for this series. Not much about G&S is that appealing any more, but this is great.
Really!!!!??????? You put this DM tip before the fight with Thordak later today!!!????? .... Now I'm even more scared :(
We're going against Tiamat soon
or you could be like my group an reanimate the body as a zombie
you did that too?, AWESOME!
Once my players zombified their friend because they didn't want to carry him all the way to the healers... they saved the space for more loot, used him as a beast of burden, then re-killed him and had him resurrected :D
XthegreatwhyX the party rogue was zombified and then thrown by the warrior against every wall/door/stairs to trigger any trap
Reciomane We used to do that without zombifying them. Gone but not useless, as we'd say :)
Player: "Hey Joe, do you remember which way the washer-woman said the warlock's tower was?"
Joe: "ERRRRGGGGH."
Player: "Yeah... I really do need to work up the gold for a resurrection spell."
I was playing a campaign that had been going on for almost a year, my character was a bard that haven’t really helped much that whole campaign. While we were fighting the final boss everyone was failing saves and on really low health but I found an opportunity, I was on 1 hp and the villain was behind me and our archer had a clean shot that would definitely kill the villain through me, I tried to move out the way and failed the roll, I looked at the player (one of my closest friends) smiled and nodded in reassure meant, the rolled a nat20. That was the first character death that everyone cried about even the dm.
Funny... I'm here after my first TPK
Hearing Matt talks about the subjects kinda helps with the pain (I was not expecting a "death" of a make-believe character to impact me so much)
had to comment, since I am often the person that dies in our campaign. Our group has become more roleplay oriented, and in doing so have actually crafted characters and backstories in a new world that we are playing in. one that our characters have lived in and been experienced.
Our group brought together to stop and evil wizard from gathering crystals and charging them with the bones of ancient kings, in the hopes of releasing a devil that could end the world. We odd few, a disheartened king looking for his lost brother, a monk and rogue(a separated viking couple) hunting down the man that led a mutiny on their boat without any leads, a dwarf bloodhunter that looks for a good fight and father of a future character he plays, and myself, a self exiled Goliath on a quest to power an artifact of his tribe, committing to a pilgrimage that cpuld redeem him and lead him to see their gods (Tempest Cleric).
I created Karnak Skywatcher of Clan Thuliaga, his tribe, his diety Guramesh, and his family, and what transpired briefly before his self exile. Karnak was an elderly goliath a rarety among his people, and seeking a honorable death and to complete his pilgrimage.
We begin our travels, and gather a few of the crystals, discovering fantastic places, and then Karnak discovers one of the places of power, and a few members of the part follow, and after defeating a few giants gain access, power the staff partially and Karnak is happy.
He's completing his journey and helping the world, he gets to be the advisor to many of the other characters, and becomes close to them.
Fast forward slightly, I few weeks, and we have defeated an entire goblin and HobGoblin war camp, with Karnak calling upon the storm to aid him. and striking down foes, keeping his allies safe, we reach the place the crystal is being charged, an stop the ritual, but the evil wizard appears, wanting to see the meddlesome group that is interfering with his plans. After the villains speech, our party tries to escape, with Karnak calling a fog cloud to interfere with sight, and helping the monk viking fight the villains, and his wife running with the crystals, the Wizard teleports out of the fog, and Karnak rushes after. He sees the Wizard preparing to cast a spell aimed his allies,his friends, and decides that this will be his legacy.
Karnak saying his full title, calling the Wizard a coward, and brings a bolt of lightning straight down on the Wizard and his ally. The Wizard in a rage, being attacked, and mocked releases a bolt of disintegration at Karnak who knows he has given his friends and escape chance, and chooses to take the bolt dead in the chest, knowing he cannot avoid it. Karnak dies knowing he's saved them, and gave them a chance.
The party is very shocked and mournful of his death, especially the monk viking, who was becoming very close to this old goliath, decides to take up his pilgrimage, but cannot find the staff, and realizes, it must have returned to his tribe, by some magic. He leaves in the dead of night, without saying a word to anyone, but leaves a note explaining. Our party is more broken, but eventually meets a pair, a bumbling Wizard and a thief of a sorcerer.
Separately our DM takes myself and my friend, and we take on the pilgrimage, with the Monk Viking, Kadal and Karnak's Daughter Vela.
Vela, unknown to all, is the most disheartened, she is ready to break into a rage that only goliath know, when she finds a blade, a blade that calls to her, wanting her to seek vengeance on the man that killed her father. Together she and the Kadal, find all but 1 of the places of power, but stumble upon the group. And after a reunion with his wife, Kadal explains what has transpired. They begin traveling with the group, and we discover the last place of power has never been found because it's in a storm, a storm so large, that cities disappear when it passes.
We, unsure what to do, with the storm approaching, look at the staff and see it glowing, Vela clutches it, and looks up seeing the ghost of Karnak holding the staff up amd disappearing. Following her father, she holds the staff up, and the party rises into the storm and see a giant palace. we approach and find it is home to Storm giants, and we see the largest storm giant we have ever seen, who introduces himself as the original giant, Guramesh. Vela in awe of being here, is almost in tears, and asks what they must do, amd they need to complete one more challenge, and 3 large storm giants appear and the fight begins, and the party after a hard fought, amd near lethal fight, concludes, the party is allowed to the final place of power.
There they charge the staff, and Vela sees her father once again, the party sees him as well, and he tells them how proud he is of all of them, and not to mourn him, but to celebrate and to be live their lives, and complete their journey. Defeat the evil the Wizard is bringing to the land. They all say goodbye to their old friend, and they all are ready for the final battle.
I am sorry, that this was so long, but I had to share, this amazing way, that our party was affected by a character death, and how amazingly our DM handled our characters death.
This is annoyingly underliked.
Wow... that is beyond badass
I still giggle about Vex's idea for a reroll named Vix if the worst is going to happen
Loving these tips videos but let's be real. I would watch a video of Matt reading a car manual. He'd make it interesting somehow.
When he was talking about giving the PC a few last words I thought it reminded me of a Fire Emblem game.
And then I remembered that he's the voice of Chrom.
Is that some kind of twisted joke?!
He's the voice of who now? Wow that's surprising.
The Fire Emblem thing is funny because I think my last PC's death quote was something akin to "I'm sorry everyone"
It was in character
"ANYTHING CAN CHANGE!"
I had my PC die on the first session of a new campaign. He fell holding back a wave of goblins from overrunning the rest of the party as it fled. 3 out of 5 players cried, and still get sad when his name comes up in converstation.
If you die in DnD you die in real life
^no
Bokatisha1234 According to the chick tract/movie yes
But I'm a DM. ^o^
Rest in peace Nightleaf.
not like this
Who's here to cope
i am
"I am your god .... long may I reign"
Eyes never shut.
I killed a player this night using a balista on a PC
my chaotic neutral paladin died after being pushed off a ledge at complete random after pulling a natural one and the beholder pulling a natural 20. telekinesis is no joke man...
I am first time DMing the Mines of Phandelver with new players and the Half-Orc Monk got killed in the first dungeon. He got knocked out by a wolf and roll a fail and a Nat 1 fail for his saving throws and I forgot to mention to the new players they had potions of healing and could have helped him up. So what I did was have his group take him to Phandlin and see the Shrine of Luck to see what they could do. I basically had the qoddess Tymora or Lady Luck bring him back as her secret champion. I gave him secret orders he had to keep from his dead experience. So he is alive for now but I applied a frighten of Wolves penalty to him for the time being as a consquence of death. Not sure how other think I did on that :P
Agreed, this is a pretty good way of salvaging a GM mistake. And it gives a very interesting plot point if your groups carries on past Phandelver
Enh... it's okay I guess. Though I wouldn't just tell the players that there's a temple they could resurrect their buddy at. I'd let them roll history or intelligence checks to see if they could recall a way to do that.
Yeah, I'd have them roll and give it a low DC
Reminds me a little of when my pacifist wizard nearly died and was unconscious for a full session's worth of time (I wasn't able to show up OOC).
When he awoke, he was still more or less peaceful, but when it came to anything arachnid, he was very, very not peaceful.
sounds like good improvisation to me.
i've only had 1 of my characters die permanently (I had 1 that technically went to the land of the dead due to a cursed object, but that was quickly fixed by another character removing the object from my possession but the dm described my character as technically being dead for about 3 minutes)
The 1 that died permanently went out like a badass. our party was essentially stuck in a groundhogs day scenario but my character messed with the bbeg in a way he didn't like and decided my character needed to removed from the simulation and ended permanently. playing a sorcerer knowing i was going to die, my dm allowed me to channel all of my spell slots available into becoming a bomb. my party became aware of my death and had to continue on (i had the leave the group due to a change in work schedule so the death was semi planned with the dm, we knew my pc needed to die within 3 sessions) that character was weird because no one knew the character's real name (including me but we won't get into that) he was a master of disguise and took on many aliases. my favorite was best Narcoleptic Sorcerer on this side of the Emerald Sea (granted there was only 1 other narcoleptic sorcerer, but still)
I have been up for nearly 24 hours at this point, and I swear I had a point when I started typing. but i forgot it but don't get a chance to talk about this character ever so i'm leaving this.
Great tips. I did indeed alert my players that player character death was in my campaign at the beginning, but regardless of that when a character finally died the attachment was that strong that the player shut down. I spoke with the player and managed a resolution he was happy with, but that reaction was scary. It really pays to not only mention that perma death is active like I did but to remind players every session or two like I didn't. Turns out the player didn't hear me the first time.
good tips so far, but one thing always tips me ofguard....the new charackter, how much XP would you grant them? would you let them start as a lvl 1 char, evan in long term adventures where the party is way ahead of them, or would you give them maybe 75% of the party XP? and if you grant them start XP, what about magical items...if for example a "brand new" level 10 charackter would show up, it is highly unlikely that this charackter has no eqipment aquired over the years what so ever.
GirlPainting Up until half my party members kept making new characters every week, I let them start at one level below party average. After that, level one, and I try to do a smaller or solo session to introduce the new character to the world and give them a chance to get somewhere.
A brand new character should start with the same amount of xp as the old character had when they died. The player still earned that xp, through contributing to a long and enjoyable storyline - they're already losing their character, there's no reason to invalidate all the time they put into it as well. Roleplaying games shouldn't be about winning, they should be about telling enjoyable stories, so it doesn't make sense to punish the character for failure - their failures are part of the story as well. When I stopped docking xp for failures, the PCs came to enjoy the game a lot more.
From what I generally know, as a fairly new player, it's normally the lowest possible amount of XP of the level of the lowest leveled PC. But it's ultimately your choice, if you want to incorporate story and your opinion of their character.
1 level below average, 1/2 to next level.
1 less magic item than party character average.
15% less gold than player average.
Let them buy what they want then adjust as needed so they aren't too UP.
I let my new party members start one level below the players, and then get them up to normal level after one or two sessions of combat. I hate unbalanced party XP so I normally level the players up at the same time with exceptions.
Otherwise known as the video Matt threatens the rest of the players with if they don't take him seriously.
does this mean someone dies tonight?
seems like bitter foreshadowing
Gulp
Relax people, its not like death hasnt happened before, and not like they don't have multiple people that can res them, even if its Pike that dies
I think it's pretty much stabilished that permadeath isn't a real threat in CR.
wartincrowley well it's not an incredible treat but is much more dangerous than the original rules. It's like a 50/50 vs a easy revive.
Famous last words: "Hold my mead and watch this..."
When the Red Viper's shantyman Old Tom Sawney died in my 7th Sea campaign, he sat on the deck looking out to sea, and sang The Parting Glass.
Not a dry eye at the table.
He was an NPC.
Really... I come to TH-cam to get campaign 2 episode 26 out of my head after watching it live and THIS is at the top of the recommended list?
Same
Long may he reign.
This is totally relevant, especially for what happened lately.
I my long running DnD group I had a Dwarf cleric named Eberk. One time we had to fight a military battle focused on confronting the big bad evil guy. The encounter had just begun and I attacked one of the extras. I did some damage and so did my allies and when the time came for the enemy I was face to face with to take its turn, it rolled a natural 20. To spice up our encounters we usually play with a critical hit/failure table for extra effects and so our DM rolled the percentile die. 100. He got a perfect 100. We looked at the table as my heart sank into my stomach, it turns out a 100 is instant decapitation. So I am sitting there speechless and feeling a bit sick when one of the PCs asks what weapon the guy used to decapitate me and the Dm looked and told us that it didnt say, I was decapitated by A weapon, it could have been a butter knife for all I know. That helped raise the tension hanging over the room as we laughed but thats when my DM had an idea. To prevent any possible resurrection of Eberk, an exploding potion hit my dead body, turning it into a fine mist. Rest in Peace Eberk, you loved cheese a bit too much.
RIP. Here's to Eberk! #forevermissed
To the memories of Eberk, his life was (brie)f
I feta bad. :(
Player character dying: "I buried a treasure deep inside a cave..." "It's located in..."
*dies*
Half the time my player group ends up using the corpses of our fallen PCs as door battering rams.
Seeing this on my reccomended list after what happened in critical role
watching this back now is really depressing
y
I still remember my first character's death, at least she heroically saved a fellow party member with her final act.. RIP Ressaven
This will never been seen but I've seen all of your videos and now I will be dming my group in either an evil campaign or Skyrim edition I make from scratch. Thank you for the indepth breakdowns!
I'm uncertain why this is showing up just now, but I'm grateful to have seen it. Good advice Herr Mercer!
Let's start a "Last words of a cocky adventurer" list! I will go first:
"I will talk to the Lady of Pain"
gtkall I attempt to mount the dragon
"Dormammu, I have come to bargain".
TheHypno15 mount as in "ride" or mount as in "seduce"? because if it's the second, I hope it was in humanoid form, otherwise you're playing a very weird character.
"Dire what?"
Drew Taylor "dire kraken" yeah, you heard me. you wanted an epic battle? you got it.
I walk over to my fallen ally and I look down at his face... I then lower my crotch to his forehead, and I stand up again.... I then lower my crotch to his forehead, and I stand up again.... I then lower my crotch to his forehead, and I stand up again....
*No teambagging*
Do this as a cleric and insist that it's Bahamut's version of last rites.
@@Anthropomorphic Baha*Nut*
when my first Character died it was brutal. like a scene from Game of thrones so quick so sudden and without any way of recovery. ( i was HOTD eaten by a dragon stealth attack esc) it was something me and the DM had thought of for a long time and was incredible watching the faces of my party and friends just in shock as i gathered my things and left the room to go and chat with the girlfriends and other halfs kids in the other room.
For some reason whenever a character is at deaths door and the situation is probably resulting in a death, I always sit there and shiver for the entire rest of the session. I don’t know why it happens 😂
How fitting that this is trending after the latest episode of Campaign 3...
Oh, I'm so glad this showed up in my recommended after the last episode of critical role... I appreciate you as an idol Matt.
This aged well
wait what happened
Jei *****CR S2 SPOILER****** a character in Season 2 of critical role died, with no way to revive them. Very unfortunate circumstance, but it was handled very well, making use of several tips listed in this video!
@@tommyberk.2793 I cried
@@jei4682 episode 26. You will understand in time friend
@@tommyberk.2793 About that "no way to revive"
In one of my sessions i had 2 of my players die in one fight, it was a large group (7-8 players) that killed everything they fought within 3 turns and kept saying they wanted an actual challenging fight. So i threw them up againts 4 basalisks, 1 got turned to stone and the other got bit in half essentialy
Greater Restoration can fix someone turned to stone. As for the other guy... unless he wants to become a flesh golem, yeah there's no way to fix that.
Yeah but they were all lvl3/4 so none of them had Greater Restoration
I answered their call for the challenging fight though haha
Only character death I remember was a player who ALWAYS charged forward, even though he's squishy. He relied on his high AC from Dex all the time. There was a demon with wings and a huge flaming sword behind 4 pillars that had infernal arms reaching for anyone walking by. He ran past them and then got grabbed by the last one, the demon could only reach him and pounded into him. Then he went down and other players were getting stopped by the arms on the pillars / by other monsters.
I went "ya know, the demon WOULD do a coup de grace wouldn't they..."
I had the demon laugh at the foolishness of the party and how his master would rise again and this was a sacrifice in his name. Then the character was killed.
Everyone unleashed their dailies (4th edition) and expended everything they had to kill this demon (who was strong, but not the main bad guy of the dungeon). It was epic how everyone was literally screaming to kill the demon and what they did with his body after killing it.
Writing this in 2019, having DMed about 5 sessions, this is fun to watch because my players were on the edge of death 3 times already XD
these situations were emotional indeed, even for me beacause lethal threat wasnt intended
I love these videos, what would be extremely interesting is seeing examples of how you used these methods in past episodes of the Vox Machina story... Granted, I realise that adds some homework but I feel it would be a valuable and extremely interesting thing to see - I thought this especially with the GM mistakes episode. I would love to know about times when the party was trying to pull the story in one direction and how you turned it back to where you needed it to be going, or times when the party was just not grasping the hints you were giving them and did something completely wrong and you had to make it possible for them or they would never have accomplished a goal...
I had an npc fall that I was fond of. It was a friendly mummy who my character was attached to as one of the few elves he felt he could talk to (he is a dark elf not even raised among dark elves except his mother and his step father is a half elf so lack of elven cultural connection there too). So I had my character mourn them and the town threw a funeral to honor them. We also treated the leaving of a few members of our party (life changes and job situation) as kindly as possible, letting the npcs know about what became of them (weren’t killed but bamf’d away by a higher force that had a history of it before) so they too could mourn about it my character crafted a special item that ended up serving as their Druidic focus later but was crafted in memory of their friends. Haven’t had a player death yet in any campaign I’ve been in, and by now that’s quite a few, but I anticipate I’m due for one. This is simply my closest approximation for one. Ok well…during one shots yes that was a few but those were one shots and level 20 ones at that. You go in expecting that for those things. Still, none of my characters passed. Probably because I play more of an archer roll.
Life update since this post. So that campaign I mentioned above actually wrapped up and no player or npc deaths others than that one.
I did go on to have two party member pc deaths in other campaigns. Both wizards who got oneshot killed but doing so really was the better option in the battle situations we were in. We managed to achieve our victories because of their sacrifices. To be fair, we did manage to revive the first one and my party is currently working on this second one. We are off to raid a dragon’s hoard for a diamond of the needed value (with permission from the dragon) but this means battling through a bunch of cultists and possibly returning to our friend’s body which is in a town that is under martial law right now and so politics are going to be very precarious there for a bit. Still! Been good fun. Knock on wood but I haven’t yet had a character die. Again, probably because I mostly play an archer, though I have been playing some frontliner fighters as of late. Anyway, that’s my update. Oh! And I will say, proudly, that the campaign we are going to a dragon’s hoard to get a diamond? That is actually an Exandria campaign set in Wildemount. I play a wood elf samurai fighter of the Cobalt Soul, a linguistics researcher, and from Port Damali originally.
How could you possibly inspire your comrades when you get eaten by ghouls wile you where trying to put on your armour atop a tree?
I'm a bit late on the comment
but in that case you could start bashing the ghouls with armor parts, fall of the tree, and with your dying breath scream at the top of your lungs a warning to the party (drawing in undead with the noise)
I had my first player character death only recently.
It could've barely been worse.
We were discussing wether or not to follow a fleeing enemy into what we later found out was supposed to be the location of the final battle, so we weren't yet ready for the fight there, we only were able to go there because we found a way that wasn't planned by the GM.
Most didn't want to follow, among them my character, but it was ultimately my character that changed his mind, leading to us going in.
Then, in the fight, my character got knocked out, his companion then attacked but also got knocked out shortly after.
My character made it, but his companion didn't.
My character was broken and after brutally killing the weaker of the two enemies (with the stronger one having fled) in an epic rage, was ready to just stay behind and die at the hands of the oncoming army.
But his teammates succeeded in convincing him to leave with them, at the hopes of bringing the companion back to life.
The next session I couldn't attend, so I asked the GM if he could just have my character be in silent contemplation, which he did.
The session after that we stumbled upon a temple which my character foolishly and for no actual reason damaged, enraging a water elemental that dragged him into the river as the entire party had an unlucky streak of rolls to free him. He has been lost since.
What makes it worse is that the death not only came directly after the character finally opened up to one of the team members he never was that close with and had gained new motivation to keep fighting.
And also there was a change at that temple for an ironic death, yet the exact opposite was his demise.
In the very first session of this character, he accidentally started a forest fire during his first battle.
The temple had a fire elemental residing in a tree in the middle of the temple.
If he at least had died at the "hand" of that burning tree, it would've been ironic.
Instead he gets dragged into a river by a water elemental and it was his own stupid fault.
Quite the opposite of an honorable or dignified or even symbolical death.
Luckily, last session I got to play my new character and they seem to be very liked among the party and it will be much easier for me to rp with this more outgoing, silly and quirky character, as opposed to the brooding introverted rebel teenager I was playing before, who really only had any interactions with his companion and the one party member he'd been with from the very beginning of the session until now.
*"What's the view up there?"*
*"The best you've ever seen."*
Taken from another video reading of a D&D tale with an epic death.