...was the near-simultaneous response from two different people when I mentioned this incident.
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lokicarbis showed up to tonight's D&D game after a long absence. The character (Brian) wasn't quite complete so he worked on him as we started playing.
Last session, we went and arrested the wizard who'd been raising dangerous animals in his Secret Valley. This session, the animals were escaping in his absence and killing people (oops), so we had to go take care of a couple of manticores.
We got to a trashed village and found both manticores in the treetops. They were eating their latest victims and hadn't seen us yet...
Alessandro (my character): So, if it's not paying attention, I can sneak up on it and get a sneak at-
Brian: HEY THERE MANTICORES WE COME IN PEACE!
Manticore: [showers everybody except Brian with sharp spines]
Everybody except Brian: ...goddamnit, Brian.
Brian: How far can I move? Can I get within 50' of the manticore and still cast a spell? [Answer turned out to be no.]
Me: [since Brian was still filling out his equipment] This would be a good moment to retroactively buy a horse.
Brian: Wait, I get an animal companion. Yes, I'll take a horse. I think I'll name him 'Retcon'.
So Brian rode up to the manticore, hit it with an Entangle, and took an entire volley of spines in the face.
Rey: [roll roll roll] That's 33 hit points damage. How many do you have?
Brian: I haven't rolled that yet. Let me see... 5d8...
Me: ...minus five for low Constitution...
Brian: ...is 22.
So, yes, first time I've seen a character die before rolling hit points.
We managed to kill the manticores without further losses, although it was a close thing. Since the town council were stingy, we only got 1000 GP reward for the manticores, but we looted 9000 GP from Brian's perforated corpse, so that worked out pretty well for the survivors. I think we may have reached the point where more of our wealth comes from dead party members than from killin' and lootin'.
lokicarbis showed up to tonight's D&D game after a long absence. The character (Brian) wasn't quite complete so he worked on him as we started playing.Last session, we went and arrested the wizard who'd been raising dangerous animals in his Secret Valley. This session, the animals were escaping in his absence and killing people (oops), so we had to go take care of a couple of manticores.
We got to a trashed village and found both manticores in the treetops. They were eating their latest victims and hadn't seen us yet...
Alessandro (my character): So, if it's not paying attention, I can sneak up on it and get a sneak at-
Brian: HEY THERE MANTICORES WE COME IN PEACE!
Manticore: [showers everybody except Brian with sharp spines]
Everybody except Brian: ...goddamnit, Brian.
Brian: How far can I move? Can I get within 50' of the manticore and still cast a spell? [Answer turned out to be no.]
Me: [since Brian was still filling out his equipment] This would be a good moment to retroactively buy a horse.
Brian: Wait, I get an animal companion. Yes, I'll take a horse. I think I'll name him 'Retcon'.
So Brian rode up to the manticore, hit it with an Entangle, and took an entire volley of spines in the face.
Rey: [roll roll roll] That's 33 hit points damage. How many do you have?
Brian: I haven't rolled that yet. Let me see... 5d8...
Me: ...minus five for low Constitution...
Brian: ...is 22.
So, yes, first time I've seen a character die before rolling hit points.
We managed to kill the manticores without further losses, although it was a close thing. Since the town council were stingy, we only got 1000 GP reward for the manticores, but we looted 9000 GP from Brian's perforated corpse, so that worked out pretty well for the survivors. I think we may have reached the point where more of our wealth comes from dead party members than from killin' and lootin'.
