I died in the exact same adventure in the exact same way. RIP Nastar the magic-user, food for a carrion crawler.Just for fun this Throwback Thursday: the first D&D character you had die during play, how did it happen?
Mine was a cleric during the first play of the Metzner Red Box adventure. My two older brothers and I were playing and my father was DMing. All of us were new to ttrpgs, but my dad was a computer gamer and board gamer. It was 1985 and I was 10 years old.
My death was simple, brutal and fast: I decided to rummage under the old gate while my brothers' characters headed up toward the door to the castle. The carrion crawler attacked, I failed my saving throws, and was unceremoniously dragged under the gate to be devoured. My brothers did not even stop to check to see if they could loot my corpse and continued on in the adventure while I frantically rolled up a replacement cleric (who would live much longer before being turned to stone by a gorgon). This death informed my attitude about PC mortality both as a player and GM forever, which can be summed up as: quit drying and roll up a new character.
Related aside: I think "forever GMs" should make an extra effort to site on the player side once in a while.
Maybe don't hang out with EVIL priests?I generally played tough, careful characters for a long time. In 2e I made an elven mage thief who was a change of pace, a jokester not designed for strong combat abilities. At one point an evil Tlaloc priest PC asked me to pass him a potion from the loot that he was claiming so with my juggling non weapon proficiency I tossed it to him and he had to make a dex check to not drop and break it. He barely made it, was kind of sweating it, and was annoyed that this amused me. Later in a fight against a spellcaster who charmed him he immediately turned and attacked my character. I remember pointing out charm person does not make you attack your allies, and it became clear it was deliberate as he started cackling and said he was attacking anyway. Multiclassed elven thief wizards do not have a lot of AC or hp even with tumbling and I did not last long. So a friend cackling over a successful betrayal for petty reasons.
I'm starting to think this is the fattest, happiest carrion crawler in all of D&D history.I died in the exact same adventure in the exact same way. RIP Nastar the magic-user, food for a carrion crawler.
I'm starting to think this is the fattest, happiest carrion crawler in all of D&D history.
GHOULS! Mouhahahaha !
But seriously, monsters that cause paralysis can be so deadly, especially for smaller groups or PCs that decide to go off on their own.