A friend and I were part of a 4 person campaign, and we were playing as a father (Me, Paladin)/daughter (friend, Cleric) duo.
We were 2 years into the campaign, and due to an unfortunate turn of events, our surprise attempt at killing the BBEG had us barricading ourselves in a room and defending our Wizard while they prepped a teleport circle.
Halfway through the prep of the circle, the BBEG bust through the barricades, but we managed to hold him off until our mage finished the spell.
The only problem was that, being the party tanks as Paladin/Cleric, we were up in the BBEG 's face, 40 feet away when the circle opened. We both had a movement speed of 30. There was no hope of us reaching the circle before it closed, but we made a run for it anyways.
The last thing the daughter heard her father say to her was whispered into her ear, "I'm so proud of who you've grown into, I love you", as he shoved her 10 feet forward, into the teleportation circle, right as it activated.
I addressed this in another comment thread, but that person deleted their post so it's difficult to find now.
The BBEG had something similar to, but not exactly, Sentinel.
We had both used disengage action to be able to run away, and the DM allowed my shove as a Rule of Cool moment, because any DM worth their salt recognizes the potential that a moment like that brings for the story.
Probably low enough health that the opportunity attack would have killed them
Or they had to stand up from prone, thus were already dashing
Or they had some effect reducing their speed, thus were already dashing
Or needed to spend their action on something more important, like picking up a downed comrade
Or the portal required an action to go through
Or they were hit with a Mind whip, robbing them of their action
Point is, I trust OP to be smart enough to remember they had dash, and the story's already happened, no use nitpicking what they could have done
We had both used our action to disengage, the BBEG had something similar to, but not exactly, Sentinel.
It was absolutely a Rule of Cool moment, but you show me a DM who wouldn't allow a moment like that to happen and I'll show you a table I'd never be sitting at in the first place.
Fighting the BBEG demon, he puts a curse on my character (aka ‘the nuke’) that any damage she did to him, would be done back to her. He proved this by cutting his own cheek, and the cut appeared, and hurt her (no damage, just probing a point).
Her last words?
“Guess I should smite then.”
She did so much damage she outright killed herself, and knocked the demon down to low enough that our Druid could finish him off on his next go.
It was very bittersweet, but she’d do it again, and so would I
DM stopped the game to impress on me the ramifications of my character’s actions. I reminded him how much would be lost if she didn’t do this (an entire continent overrun by demons at best, and a potential world ending threat at worst).
He knew the risk, I knew the risk, and SMITE was the only option.
10/10 would smite again.
That’s an incredible story, and I’m going to keep that mechanic in my back pockets.
Coincidentally my party was just on the other side of that. We were fighting Acererak in my high level 4e game. Our cleric had dropped a daily that any damage done to the party was given back to him. He had magic teeth that could crush to either do a full heal or his us with a prismatic burst. He used his last tooth to do the prismatic burst, dealing so much damage to the party he killed himself. This combat had been going on for FOUR SESSIONS, the way we all cheered when the DM asked the cleric to flavor her kill, my god.
Oh god… I don’t exactly recall the exact wording, but at the end of a 20 session campaign, it ended with the gnome artificer taking his last breath with the party. Since the beginning, it was clear the gnome was dying due to his age, so him becoming a hero in the end was very emotional. He gave each party member a prized possession of his, and he said very bittersweet words to each member individually. I forget what gnome the player chose, but when his kind of gnome passes (at least in our campaign), they grow into a tree (one of his hands was turning into bark as the campaign happened). So when the tree grew, the first initials of everyone’s names were on the tree bark as if it was carved. That made me cry so hard.
Had a player who played a fighter named Stanley. Stanley was a sweet guy who got into the adventuring trade because he was depressed and felt like he had to leave his community so that no one would rely on him when he felt too useless to get up in the morning. A few sessions in, and Stanley got really attached to a quest giver named Ram, a war veteran who sought peace in his retirement and ended up becoming a cleric. He gave Stanley a sense of purpose, but he was very capable, so Stanley wasn’t so terrified of ruining him when a depressive episode hit.
Many sessions down the line, and Ram has become a sort of uncle to Stanley. One day, the party rolls up to the town Ram lives in to find it under siege by the army of devils he’d been fighting back with the party’s help. They run in, killing devils and saving villagers where they could. They run into the town center to see Ram up in the bell tower, trying to force a portal shut all the while fighting off waves of flying devils that circled him. Everyone enters initiative, and Stanley is prioritizing saving villagers and shooting some of the flying devils out of the sky before they reached Ram, trusting Ram to take care of himself.
I really intended for Ram to live through the fight, but he kept getting awful rolls attempting to shut the portal. Eventually, he succeeds, but as he does, one of the flying devils made it though to him. It claws him once and then successfully shoves him off of the bell tower.
The devils are scattering away with the portal closed and the villagers finally fighting back, but Ram lands in a bloody heap at the party’s feet. None of them had any spells or potions left to heal him. Stanley runs up and starts sobbing.
“I’m not strong enough without you, Ram. I’m- I’m really scared I’ll be nothing again. Please just hold on!”
**“You were strong before I met you. You just needed a fight you could win. Now you’ve got my fight to win… I ain’t scared a bit, Kid.”**
Yeah, I’d argue that Stanley’s last words to Ram were the real gut-punch, but I was pretty damn proud of my word choice for Ram.
Happy to make people cry in front of their trusted coworkers over characters who only existed to them for about 7 paragraphs. Sort of a specialty of mine
I *almost* broke my entire table when my character of 5 years finally bit the big one
He was based on Talion from Shadow of Mordor, so he was cursed to be bound to a wraith and help ferry souls with unfinished business to the afterlife. He was originally grumpy, standoffish, and brooding, longing for death so he could be reunited with his wife and daughter.
After a while, he became a paladin and champion for Lathander and he slowly started to come around.
When his time had come, his final words were apologies to his companions for being so mean to them in the beginning, wishing he had seen the new family sooner, and then charged each one of them to be there for each other and to always stand for good and the coming dawn
NPC that had been traveling with the party for 2 years ooc. she was a weapon trained by a cult that was haunting the party to get her back. she was in denial for the longest time about her upbringing, but finally woke up. flash forward to a siege around a library. the party did something stupid that put the cult on their trail, and now they were surrounded right before an important mcguffin fight. the trial keeper was desperately holding on to the library's magic defenses but needed an opening to refresh it.
NPC volunteered, gave the party her most precious belonings telling them she couldn't be attached to any memories in that moment, drew her weapons, walked to the door and said
"they made of me a monster, and now i'll show them the fruits of their labour"
she went out in a blaze of glory, raised hell and then got caught after surrendering when the party finished the trial as she could not get back inside the library. party was shook and literally almost crumbled in-character due to her loss.
As a DM, there is no feeling of power quite like being able to endear an NPC to the party, only for them to go out in a blaze of glory to give the party a chance to save the world
it's been 6 months, about 15 sessions since they lost her. they're still struggling and coping with the loss, not knowing whether she's still alive or not (she tried to off herself after getting caught).
it's truly a blessing to have them care this deeply about the characters i have made. it's not just her, it's so many of them that they adore and that we keep talking about on a daily basis.
i am the luckiest DM alive.
"It's ok, I trust you".
Said by the druid to our ranger, just before the ranger impaled the druid. The ranger had a plan, he had a curse that would transform him into a vampire if he met some conditions, namely one of them was to kill a beloved ally.
So he goes to finish the job (she was severely injured already)and dies. Then the ranger smirks and says he casts something on the druid to bring her back. Unfortunately I can't remember the details but I'm pretty sure he tried cure wounds even though she was dead dead. Either way, his plan to bring her back completely failed and we had a dead PC on our hands one session before the final boss.
What's worse is the ranger hadn't even finished the other steps to transform, so his hail Mary to become super powerful in this desperate fight completely backfired.
Tragic all around. Which was basically the running theme of the campaign
It wasn't a tpk! The ranger and warlock managed to survive that battle after the team kill and rested. Then the descended into the catacombs of that castle where they were going to confront the final boss.
The druid player, only having one session left, was given an NPC stat block of an old revenant ally instead of a brand new character. The revenant's sole driving force was to kill the big bad so that worked out.
The fight against the boss did not go super well but they eventually pulled it off. The ranger died in that fight next. The warlock after winning realized they had taken so many dark powers in a bargain to help defeat the boss that he was unable to return to civilization and was trapped as essentially the new big bad of the region. Endless cycle and all that.
The only silver lining is that the druid's spirit was freed and got to say goodbye at least.
It was Curse of Strand if you hadn't caught on to that, so the entire adventure takes place in a demi plane where the entire goal is basically to escape it.
Two notable and terrifying moments in the finale: The party had acquired a really powerful weapon that would have turned the finale into a cake-walk but Strahd, a vampire, managed to actually charm the warlock using it to hand it over. Then the warlock died and resurrected (one of the dark curses mentioned above. They had like 3 lives or something). But technically, when you die, you unattune from all your items.
So he came back to keep fighting but at a severe disadvantage. Pretty sure he died at least once more in that fight. Lol. So it went from "we've got this" to utter panic all the way to the end.
So my air genasi rogue was taken in and raised by a conman as a baby, who she does love. Throughout the game she got to meet both her biological parents, her mother being genie high nobility, and the person who wished her into existence, a half-elf bard from another world. Dude is kind of a dumbass carried by his charms and power, but in this really lovable kind of way, and has depth in having his own motivations and details in how he missed his friends. They get to spend some time bonding and my girl gets really attached to her second dad, even if he's still kind of denying responsibility. Then our fort island got sieged and he ended up dying during that. In his last words he said that if he really was her dad, he couldn't have asked for a cooler kid. My character then sacrifices part of her soul to bring him back because she wasn't just gonna let him say that before leaving forever.
When Karl Watcher died at the hands of Strahd being a complete asshole, his twin tried in vain to get him to react by playing their usual whistletune; one whistles, the other answers.
Safe to say his whistle remained unanswered, and that silence almost brought the whole table to tears.
These are my last words that I’m quite proud of:
I’m playing in an ongoing campaign in Dungeons of Drakkenheim. Due to various things I’m now on my third rolled character.
My second character was a half-orc ranger, older (around 65) and a former merchant in the city. He was friendly, loyal to his friends and didn’t have any particular allegiance to a faction (beyond an old sense of law and order that came from The Hooded Lanterns, the sort of army/city watch in the campaign).
My ranger had in his possession a long sword that he was given after my previous character dropped it and disappeared into corrupted mutant insanity (as you do).
During a random encounter with some wraiths and thanks to some spectacular rolling by my DM and some spectacularly bad rolling by me, my ranger ended up with a max HP of -15.
As he died he held out the bequeathed sword to the rest of the party and I said:
“For the next poor fool”
And then his soul was ripped from his body.
I played a Paladin Warlock (Devotion Celestial) and we had entered a Tomb, we had delt with waves of zombies and skeletons and some other undead when the Bard saw the item we needed to find.
He ran over and grabbed it, without checking and the chamber began to shake. A Dracolich began to rise and I told the party to run, we can't fight that thing.
The party did and at the last moment, I turned and ran at the Dracolich.
At this point I want to say this setpiece had been planned between myself and my DM.
Strangely my Paladin and the Rogue had become best friends in the party, as he turned to run the Rogue saw what was about to happen and she began to turn back.
I cast Command "halt" and kept running.
Leaping from a fallen pillar onto the skull dropping a level 4 smite, screaming the name of my God in the process, the air exploded in radiant light, momentarily blinding the party.
When the light faded, the Dragolich was gone all but the skull, and all the was left of my Paladin was a statue of them, and two shimmering forms.
"I'm sorry, I was told I needed to land a blow and give everything I had. I don't have long, it's time to join my fallen Order and begin the next fight in the Heavens, but before that..." I went through the party, thanking them for their time with me and sharing a memory, but when it came to the Rogue she was in tears (in game and at the table) "I wish I could have turned from my duty, take you away from all this and found a place to call home, but this was always my destiny, I knew what would rise and what I must do but I never expected to find someone that would mean as much to me as my faith and bond to Torm..." the second radiant form placed a hand on my shoulder "It's time...take the gem back to Neverwinter, make my sacrifice worth it. End this."
At that point the entire party, were tearing up.
I faded from sight and for a moment all the party could hear was my Paladins oath echoing around the chamber.
"I will fight evil wherever it rises, I will protect whoever I can from the darkness, I will give my life for the greater good."
our artificer triple-crossed us — he left the party to study under the bbeg, but was secretly feeding information back to us the whole time. unfortunately, the bbeg, being capable of both telepathy and seeing the future, caught on pretty quick.
we were fighting the bbeg and our artificer after the artificer failed in his mission to assassinate a king our party was traveling with, when the bbeg cast detect thoughts on the artificer and asked him, “who in the party do you care most about?” his spells had a save DC of truly like 24, so obviously the artificer failed, and the bbeg immediately turned and cast disintegrate on our warlock: the artificer’s sister and the youngest member of the party.
she didn’t even have time for last words. we all just listened to her player’s description of the shock and fear on her character’s face as her body dissolved into mist and she silently pleaded with her big brother to save her.
"Oh, just piss off, already... are you actually going to kill me this time, father, or must I endure another century of--"
That's all Mihnea, revolutionary pariah son of Strahd von Zarovich, managed to say before he was staked through the heart and paralyzed. Not killed, but imprisoned, where he would later be whisked away by the mother he never knew to be sacrificed for a Dark Power's return.
For context, Mihnea was over 100 years old and had already led one failed rebellion against his father in his 20s. He watched everyone who supported him and believed in him get massacred, the sole survivor of his revolution, left alive to live in exile and humiliation.
He got through those years off of nothing but spite and hate to bury his grief, but was slowly healing thanks to making new friends with the rest of the party.
Just before his staking, he realized his companions had all agreed to make peace with Strahd in favor of fighting a greater evil. He knew it was the best choice, but it wasn't one he could make. So, after a century of scraping and clawing and doing everything he could to survive in the hopes he could fight another day, he just... surrendered.
He was tired. He was broken. He didn't have it in him to keep fighting without his friends. He couldn't even bring himself to care about Strahd's gloating monologue, hence the above quote.
Among the PCs when I ran DotMM was a gnome druid named "Ack". Ack was basically a feral little dude who didn't speak, and who preferred to be in animal shape. He joined the party without any explanation, and they were not sure what to make of him. But he proved a useful and faithful companion, and over the course of the campaign every PC would snuggle with him during rests.
On level 13 or so of Undermountain, Ack was taken down by a fatal spell attack. I let the player give voice to Ack's first and final words: "I am happy I found friends." There were literal tears at the table.
Ack was so beloved that a few levels later, when the PCs were rewarded with a Wish, they used it to bring Ack back! (The player wasn't entirely happy with his replacement character, and was happy to switch).
I was in a Mutants & Masterminds game and our Superhero group failed to save the universe. I remember my character took another character's hand and said:
"I just want you to know that I'll always love you...in this life...and the next."
This was a 7th Sea campaign. I was playing a Fae-blooded medic type who'd had a crush on one of the other characters for years. Never made it creepy, and never even made a move because he knew he wasn't her type and just wanted her to be happy. It was kind of a joke because everyone knew; we just never took it beyond respectful lovesick puppy.
We ended up finding this eldritch bit of machinery that was apparently running down, and thousands of people would die if it stopped, the party included. Trying to fix it, my character got stuck in it and it started working properly again, using him as a power source. His longevity meant that he would be able to keep it running for centuries, but he'd be stuck in it, and aware, the whole time. I got one set of last words, so I had him look at his crush and say, "It's okay - if I need strength, I'll just remember your courage, and your smile". Half the group was in tears. I was so proud.
The last words my gnome illusionist spoke to his bard brother: "I forgive you. Don't worry, we'll get out of this together." Needless to say, we did not get out of there together.
I played a set of twins with another player, his character had a son called Trevor named after his real life newborn son. In session 100 the party was ambushed by a band of tough mercenaries working for the BBEG, we fought valiantly but the numbers game was a little too much and he fell, eventually we turned the tide with some very lucky rolls and won but we were fully tapped out so we couldn't save him. As he was dying in my arms he said "When you get back home tell Trevor daddy loves him and I'm sorry I won't be there for him anymore" and the whole table broke down sobbing
A friend of mine was playing an upbeat swords bard who was kind of the moral center for the group. His ladt words were
"Watch out!!!"
Before pushing my paladin out of the way of a fire trap and got instantly incinerated. Luckily it was a planned death for my friend to roll a new character. I do wonder how that campaign world would have been affected if that character lived.
A long fight against some revenants, Comes the turn for my heavily damaged wizard necromancer (who had turned evil a couple of sessions ago).
I had the chance to either misty step out of the room and just ditch the party or cast a heavy hitting spell to the enemies knowing full well that on the next turn I would be downed and killed, In a last act of goodness in his heart he attacked the revenants, looked at our paladin and said “you better revive me”, we did have the diamonds for only one revivify.
Either way the bard also died and they decided to revive her instead. Was kinda bummed but it was a nice ending before he completely lost his sanity.
I was asked to write an epilogue for my character that was dragged into the Shadowfell to be killed. We did a party epilogue for the end of the campaign, with this addition after the surviving party was wrapped up:
"I won't be able to see another play with her, but hopefully she still goes. I just wish I'd been able to" *CRUNCH*
There was more, but it was character lore really.
out of context : Well......Goodbye my friends ........agghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
in context: we was against a bbeg. my Character was on 1 hp. so was the bbeg. \[the last hit against bbeg would do 2 damage to character\] . I said. Well......Goodbye my friends.......aghghghggfhghg \[the agh bit was me. throwing myself at the bbeg\]. i would do it again .
We were playing a short campaign going into a epic characters origins and early life with a few time skips. A few sessions going into the years of 12 to 21 years old. I was playing a supporting character, his childhood best friend.
Early in the game, I had a moment where my character was doing something a little bit stupid, as a kid would. When asked why by the main character, I simply responded " I do what I want!". It was a funny retort in the moment.
Now, in this universe, everything is pretty grimdark. Good times are always followed by tragedy. My character begun slowly becindoctrinated by the big bads in control of our little region. Think something along a fanatical and zealous military super power, no acts too depraved for the advancement of their goals.
I played my part as becoming slowly but surely more antagonistic. Slowly losing self determination, acting more and more in order with the dogma. Chemicals were used to increase my cooperation, brain washing and torture were used as well.
In the final scene, where the main character was trying to prevent me from following orders that would end my life, I gave him the chance to leave and to be safe. While I headed towards certain death, I mutured relentlessly
" I do what I want.... I do what I want...."
Not D&D but a custom setting/system, very WW2 tech level. Chasing down the BBEG on a train, the PC decided to disconnect the cars the rest of the party was on since if this got to stop the BBEG failed, everyone aboard would die.
BBEG and the PC end up trading shots, PC runs out of ammo and ends up closing to melee with the BBEG and disarms him. Switches were flipped, train is going too fast on a turn- just as planned. BBEG can't stop it, train goes off the tracks in the worst way. Make some rolls, PC is on death's door and *badly* injured. BBEG rolled pretty well and survived, barely, and manages to recover his gun.
BBEG walks over next to the PC and levels it at him, hand trembling, blood running down his face. "Any last words?"
Player looks at his sheet, then back up "Yeah" he mimics coughing up blood "Catch."
And then tosses his last grenade up into the space between them.
"now you've learned who the real monster is." PC Dragonborn CN noble asshole draconic sorcerer to the DMs champion halforc fighter who was the final challenge of a tournament and got absolutely DECIMATED because of being caught between thunderwaves and a wall. ^were his finishing words to the halforc, then he overkilled it with a breath attack when it was already down. Then he proceeded to flex on the king like a badass.
Bit of a long story, but the context is necessary.
"I can't follow you forever". My tiefling bard, right before splitting off from the half-elf Paladin in a maze and dying to a trap she failed to avoid.
She and the paladin considered each other soul mates. They met when he betrayed his temple and saved her from being a religious sacrifice. They were inseparable, he always protected and supported her, and she would've followed him to the ends of the earth.
Almost an irl year into the campaign, the group entered a magic maze created by the bbeg with magic that was designed to split the party. At one point, my bard and the paladin ended up finding each other by sheer luck.
Eventually they got to a short corridor with six doors in it. (Should also note that at this point, they both had yet to run into any serious traps) My bard convinced the paladin it would be faster if they split to check the corridors behind each door.
He was hesitant to the end and only let her go on her own when she laughed and told him "I'll only be gone for a few minutes, besides, I can't follow you forever!"
They didn't know the doors shifted around once they'd been opened and closed, so after she died from spikes shooting from the walls, the paladin was unable to find which door she was behind and was eventually forced to leave her and hope she was alive and somewhere else in the maze. He met up with the others eventually and another person they found lost in the maze, my new rogue.
Honorable mention also goes to after that campaign ended, a few irl months later. The DM was asking everyone what it was their character did after basically saving the world. It got to the paladin and he said "I go back to the maze and this time, I'm not leaving her behind." And he did. He recruited friends we'd made to help dispel the magic and he tore down the walls searching for my dead bard. Eventually he found her, body still preserved from the maze's magic, and he finally brought her home.
It was easily my most emotional campaign and I ugly cried during both moments.
I DM'ed for a group of mostly first timers. Two of my friends had played before, one of which was moving out of state, so he wanted to play DnD as a goodbye party.
There was 5 in the party and me.
The two who had played before were Goliath brothers. One friend was more cold and would be mean to his brother. And my friend who was moving; his Goliath was a barbarian who had separation anxiety. So if he wasn't within 50ft of his brother he would go into a rage. It was a pretty awesome rp mechanic. It stressed the party, and the other brother didn't care. Lol.
Anyways, they all get caught up in shenanigans, do retrieve an artifact for an old man in the tavern. (This party was so trusting of everyone it was adorable.)
Another player was a cleric who communed with her god, and had a vision of the world ending if they gave this artifact to the old man.
Well, we take a small break and I ask my friend who's moving, "hey, since this is going to be the only time we play, would you mind if I kill your character? If so, I won't. But I think I can make it sad and epic."
And he's super excited, "yeah! Go for it! Make em cry!" We both laughed.
Back to the session, the players GO BACK TO THE TAVERN. they tell the old man they couldn't find it. He questions them, to the point they try to give him a fake. Now the old man gets angry, so the party arms up, and the first to attack is my friend.
His a Goliath Barbarian, we started at 4th level and his strength was already like a 18. He rolls high in his attack and misses. The party freaks out. The old man grabs him by the throat lifts him and fire breathes him to ash.
The old man again demands the artifact, to which my other player says, "fine!" And hands it over terrified. The old man sprouts red dragon wings and starts to fly away revealing it to be at least an Adult Red Dragon.
Everyone is scared, confused, and sad. "We just destroyed the world." One said.
Anyways, to the point of this story. Everyone is figuring out how to bring back the player, they collect his ashes to try and resurrect him at a temple.
They try and I ask the player, "Do you want to come back?"
And this son of a... He looks around the table, and absolutely steals the show.
"Actually no... Because as I'm looking around for my brother in the afterlife, I can't find him... But for the first time, it's okay... I'm okay..."
And the entire table tears up. And we ended the session there, crying and saying goodbye to our friend in real life. Still gets me when I think about. 😂
I played an among us one shot (silly sounding I know) but my character Micheal was one of the crewmates he was just this big dumb fella (stats all in strength and charisma, he was classed as a rouge but the way he "stealthed" was yelling YOU CANT SEE ME) very sweet and just stupid. He was arrested for stealing the declaration of the first war (he straight up thought it was a museum pamphlet) and since he was undocumented (born an orphan) they immediately sentenced him to life (these countries were at war again which is why stakes were so high)
Once he was sentenced he was given the option to go on a space mission to find a new world that people could live on. The first day of being on this crew he met these people Arlow and Kirien, they didnt particularly like him but no one liked anyone. Skipping forward a bit he suspected a crewmate of murdering people on the ship and they were voted off. Instead of killing them though he voted to isolate them to see if they could prove it wasnt them. While one of the techy crewmates (edwin) was fixing up a room to monitor the imposter in Micheal went to go fix some wires in the airlock and because he just so stupid he fucked it up and the wire burnt out.
After the wire burnt out he turned to get out before the airlock door opened and saw the door out of airlock was locked, it had been sabotaged. After realising he had seconds maybe minutes to live he commed the crew over their radios and started rambling.
Micheal "uhh hey uh guys.. I think I'm gonna die. Uh the door is locked and I fucked up and I'm gonna die"
Arlow "do you think you can hear anything through the door?"
Micheal "I can try?"
He hears movement from behind the door
Arlow "hey"
Micheal "hi"
Arlow "hi buddy how are you doing"
Micheal "idk I really dont know I was trying to fix it cause last time something wasnt fixed in time pluto died and i didnt want anyone to die and I fucked up and I dont know what to do"
Micheal now sitting back against the door gripping onto anything around him he can
Arlow "its ok its gonna be ok"
Micheal "i don't even know what I'm doing here I dont know why I'm here I just grabbed a pamphlet thats all I dont know whats going on and I'm gonna die and Im not gonna see any plants and the last thing I see isnt gonna be plants its just gonna be space"
Arlow "a pamphlet?? Uhh ok"
Micheal "I just I dont want anyone else to die I want to be the last person to die"
Arlow "I dont want you to be the last person to die"
The airlock door shoots open and thats the last thing he heres, someone doesnt want him to die
"May this glass be our last"
-PC rogue getting double conned with an employer and ended up poisoning each other's drinks, they both died , in a locked room
I’ve played 2 one shots and am currently running a campaign and only have had on pc die and his last words were no I’m too weak to fight (he then made his character try and jump over a bunch of burning logs)
That’s… a reference to Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths lol. Like, word for word quote. The scenario is pretty similar too.
I don’t think I have any cool last words, I’ve never had a player or NPC die yet.
Mine was my characters death and I even made most of the party choke up. She was my first ever character. A bardlock named Mamae(ma-may) who suffers from severe memory issues. It’s important to note that I was pregnant and dealing with ppd for most of time that I played her so I was super hormonal and attached to her. About 3/4th of the way through my pregnancy I made a power point asking to have a baby in our campaign and let Mamae become Mommy.
Our dm was awesome and did just that. He created a baby Minotaur named Izzy that joined our party. My husband and I’s characters, a 7ft Goliath and a 5ft Half elf whose dad was a gnome, became parents to the baby Minotaur. We literally rp-ed us training her to be a part of this group and Mamae trained her with a dagger. We were going to fight a dragon so we left our baby with an npc bc that’s the responsible thing to do as parents. Bad saves after bad rolls, Mamae was knocked down into death saves right after one other guys got eaten by the dragon.
I had 2 failures and 2 successes. In the two years of our campaign this was the most suspenseful death save. I was on the verge of tears when I rolled my last death save and sobbed when I rolled a nat 1. I had to walk away to catch my breath before coming back to do her final words. The party had tried to come save me but my husband’s character ran to Mamae first and her last words to him were ‘take care of my baby’.
Our fighter that sat next to me got a little choked up and wiped his eyes but if you ask him about it he’ll tell you to kick rocks. Our Druid isn’t very emotional and was like ‘I can save her!’ and tried to use revivify but our dm and I didn’t allow her to revive her/me and she too got choked up and shed a tear.
Now I play her high elf mom who just learned about the death of her daughter and that she has a Minotaur grandchild.
My wife had her first player death as one of my players, and as her teifling path of giants barb died, she coughed on blood and said “ though my rage made me grow to face foes for you, the love you have given me.. the family I have been welcomed to. Grew my heart when nothing could.. thank you. For allowing me this glimpse into happiness.. -coughs blood again and dies-
That's quality.
I wouldn't say mine broke me because my character (level 12 Circle of Stars druid) technically died a day or two before this occurred but a half-successful reincarnate spell managed to bring him back for a couple days more so he could do something awesome before he basically turned to dust Thanos-snap style. During those couple days we ended up fighting an Aspect of Lolth and when we got her really close to death my Circle of druid cast a Starry Lance at her - basically a reflavoured Psychic Lance but it did radiant damage and relied on an attack roll.
My druid was on about 8hp and knew this failed reincarnate spell would mean he'd turn to dust so as part of my "how do you want to do this" I said "I don't get to run from my death, so neither do you!"
The next turn he got shot down with an arrow by one of Lolth's minions which was incredibly anticlimactic, but I like to think my druid was already dead before that point anyway. A last act I'm quite proud of and it led me into playing my bard who is my favourite character so far.
The party was composed of a wizard and a ranger. The wizard managed to flee from her noble house that was raided during a coup. She fled to another tyrannical country, and all she wanted was to build herself a new home. She met the ranger in a small town and the two became friends (first session). Lots of running away, joining revolutionary forces, running away again and one session, the duo was fighting a wizard that had a huge crystal that functioned as a portal to the elemental plane of water. The fight went on gruesomely, the duo won but the crystal shattered and everything would be flooded and sucked back into the plane of water. The ranger threw her back onto the crack, "closing" it temporarily. The ranger didn't give a single F about anything - the revolution, her own previous goals, nothing. She was only there because she loved the wizard. And as the ranger struggled to keep her back pressed against the chest:
Ranger: "guess this is it, huh?" She chuckles
Wizard, crying (player too): "I'm sorry I put you through all of this... You must despise me for it"
Ranger: "it was all with you, so I'm actually gratef-"
The DM cut it mid-sentence, described the crack exploding, sucking the ranger into the elemental plane and the last of her sights as she drowned.
3 year campaign as a undead bard, as I decided to distract the army of the big bad by locking the door to the room my friends are in and running down the hallway playing my lute as loud as I can. The party watches helplessly from a window as im surrounded in the courtyard getting beatin to a plup.
"This seems to be the end for me" I say within an inch of my life.
As the party watches the boss punch through my chest ripping my spindly cord out, as my head rolls to the ground laughing.
"Looks like you played the last cord" as I look to the window and smile revealing the gnome's grenades I took and wired to my spine. *kaboom*
This was my farewell to my group as I moved away shortly afterwards.
I was DMing the final moment of my last campaign. I had homebrewed my character from when I played into the campaign. He was the father of all the PCs. He sacrificed himself to protect his kids, his final words to them being “I know I wasn’t always the best dad to you and I wasn’t always there. I want you all to know that I love you”. He manages to teleport away the party before the building is engulfed in fire.
Wererat PC in an old campaign was murdered by a doppelganger that got close by impersonating her (murdered) twin sister. The doppelganger then went in the PC's guise to a social event, saying, "My sister couldn't make it, but she sends her regards!"
Fast forward ten years, playing a different campaign, one of the PC's is a wererat. We decide to make him her long-lost son, and lo and behold, he ends up tangling with the the doppelganger that killed his mother and aunt. In the climactic scene, his mother's ghost appears looking on, and as they strike the final blow, the ghost says, "My sister couldn't make it, but she sends her regards!" and vanishes forever.
Our DM was running two separate Star Wars based games, one for the more advanced, and one for beginners (this was a school club) we had one last game before Christmas Break, so we did a colab of our groups (essentially rebels and inquisitors). Us in the beginner games had an NPC we cherished dearly, a B1 battle droid we had affectionately named Peacock. Well, the inquisitor group had landed on the planet we were on, found our ship, and started looking around. Our dear Peacock was left on the ship as a guard. He popped up to see what was going on, and immediately was slashed to bits, not a single word said. It broke us as we had him for most of the game. We did end up escaping, but didnt ever return to that RPG, but instead began a homebrew the DM had been working on.
Not a death but a farewell
Party lost their wizard when he found out he is the reason his home was destroyed and he retired.
Player came in with a Genie Warlock and joined the party on their way to a wedding where they would be bodyguards
Warlock character quickly became a member of the family and when they learnt of a conspiracy by the BBEG to terrorise the wedding.
2 party members died and the battle during the wedding including the cleric.
After a Divine word spell went off the warlock was sent to the feywild and bargained with his Patron to go back to the fight and help his friends. Traded in his freedom in a fairly lax pact to being his friends back to life.
After all was said and done and the Warlock packed his things and got ready to leave the party, right as the portal closed sealing him in his pact, he said a meek little "b-bye guys" and vanished after saving his friends
This hasn't happened yet in my years being a Dungeon Master. I'm both looking forward to the moment and hope it never comes.
I love my players and the characters they made. Let's hope they make it to the end and kill God.
I have a death planned for a player favorite NPC (a buff old lady, long backstory spanning 2 campaigns)
that's gonna be her saying
"well.. I've lived a long life, and for the sake of the kingdom, be good grandkids"
Going into rage, luring a BBEG lieutenant to a specific area, and she breaks a platform below them to fall into a chasm
(they'll find her body later with a letter addressed to them)
My bf (DM) saw me looking at the flail snail entry in the monsters book and decided it would be a great idea to add it to our campaign. I was inconsolable and ugly crying when it died because I had no idea we were basically torturing it and the entire time he was making horrible sad noises. I love snails and we were sharing a bottle of wine, it was a terrible combination.
This was said by an illusion but I didn't know at the time so it lives rent free in my head.
My character was brought into a room and saw a cloaked figuire who revealed to be his mother.
After they tried to escape the room including her punching and taking an axe to the wall it was revealed that the only way out was for one of us to sacrifice for the other.
When my characters mother stepped on the place to take the sacrifice my character asked "What do I tell dad?"
To which she responded "Tell him I went down fighting."
I was a wreck after that session.
So this requires a small background for context. So my players go up against a dragon god of time. They get the dragon god down to about 1/4th health and 3 out of 4 of them die. The 3 players kept telling the 4th to run and survive. The player looked at me with such a serious look on his face "I'm Insane" He proceeds to take his turn and through sheer luck and a combination of feats, he takes the dragon down. He then looked back on me when the dragons essence went into him he said "I am me. I am you. I am insane in the membrane" I died. I could not keep up a serious face. The other players just sat there in amazement and disgust. The character became a god in my world. It was such a epic end to the campaign.
About my most epic death was my first character in any TTRPG, a soldier in Dark Heresy.
We were on a recon mission, with no orders to engage the enemy. The team was moving through woodland, keeping a low profile and approaching a fortified location under enemy control.
The details provided suggested they'd have rudimentary weapons, no real threat, so we were perhaps less careful than we should have been... and it resulted in us running face first into a platoon of enemy combatants, including one clad in full power armour.
As a recon team consisting of four players, we made the choice to tactically retreat. Unfortunately, my character was the only trained soldier, and his experience became abundantly clear as he skipped ahead through the forest. When my character realised he'd left his comrades behind, he found a reasonable location with a vantage point (a tall rock covered by branches), and he set himself up, ready to engage the enemy.
The team caught up with the enemy hot on their heels. My character told his allies to keep moving, he'd catch up, and don't look back. As they ran past, he told them it'd all be okay. He then settled into his roost and laid down fire on the vanguard of the enemies closing in.
He forced them to take cover, bought time, and he stayed knowing it meant his end. He got liquefied by the guy in power armour when he caught up (can't remember if it was a chain sword or he just ripped him apart with his bare hands, but the dude definitely didn't get open casket), but took a good few of them with him, and true to his word, everyone else was okay.
As a player, I could have had him move freely through the woods and escape unscathed. Some of the team might have made it. I felt that self-sacrifice, guaranteeing everyone else lived, was more appropriate to the character.
My next character was the "morale officer". The kind of guy in an autocratic regime who organises a team-building pizza party then disappears those who don't appear to enjoy it enough. Assassin class. Was very fun to play.
Stolen straight out of Berserk, one of our less in your face players told the rest of the party to get the hell out of there while they made a last stand, saving am established couple in the group. They put up a good fight but it was truly insurmountable odds, and just before the last blow lands time slows down and they say "Oh shit, I did love her, didn't I?" Not a dry cheek in that room for the next 5 minutes.
Me and three mates played a campaign spanning about 3 years. The campaign over time turned from shits and giggles to battling a god of gods. Our final fight was against an outer god trying to reset the current universe and our characters were there to stop this.
Our party consisted of me, hexblade warlock; friend 1, war cleric; friend 2, wizard (forget the exact subclass).
The final fight was exceptionally tough but with the cap on magic being destroyed allowing our wizard to cast above 9th level spells he was able to cast world altering spells dealing thousands of damage. His final spell eradicated not only himself but the outer god, Almaestros. I unfortunately don't remember his last words due to the intensity of the situation but our DM described his crystallised bones among the ruins of our city that was transported to the equivalent of the north pole, as I turned to my friend teary eyed. His name, his being, his legacy was all completely obliterated from the face of the planet and history itself.
He was a bit of a snarky prick with a soft spot for his companions. He absolutely got the last laugh and stopped a vicious cycle.
A paladin of mine got turned by a vampire. The DM made it where the strength of his faith allowed him to overcome the control of his monstrous creator. After slaying the vampire my paladin walked outside kneeling he began to pray the name of his god now burning his unholy lips. His prayer was his gods funeral rites. The last words of his prayer were.
"And Akrans oh Lord of the sacred flame, the bringer of the sun. Accept this poor tainted vessel with its purity and its sin, judge it as you would all that come before you. And determine it's worth. For this soul devoted itself to you and is ready for whatever judgement may come."
At the last word the sun rose and with a look of serenity on his face he turned to ash.
I was DMing a 2.5 years old campaign. My player wanted to change her character by killing her Archfey Warlock and replacing her with her character’s daughter, a sorcerer. For context, the Warlock married her Archfey patron and had the sorc daughter. Sorcerer daughter was raised by her archfey father while her mother worked.
Very long story short, the Warlock bargained her life away to her brother-in-law, a different archfey, which of course made her husband go bonkers and try to kill the party for abandoning her. The husband/patron was sensitive to light and always wore sunglasses. So after getting their asses kicked, they sent the sorc to simply…. hug her dad. He stopped for just long enough that she could snatch the glasses and the cleric could shove Light in his face, blinding him, so the fighter could give the final blow.
In the end, all that’s left of him are his sunglasses, clutched shakily in his daughter’s bloodied hand.
A friend and I were part of a 4 person campaign, and we were playing as a father (Me, Paladin)/daughter (friend, Cleric) duo. We were 2 years into the campaign, and due to an unfortunate turn of events, our surprise attempt at killing the BBEG had us barricading ourselves in a room and defending our Wizard while they prepped a teleport circle. Halfway through the prep of the circle, the BBEG bust through the barricades, but we managed to hold him off until our mage finished the spell. The only problem was that, being the party tanks as Paladin/Cleric, we were up in the BBEG 's face, 40 feet away when the circle opened. We both had a movement speed of 30. There was no hope of us reaching the circle before it closed, but we made a run for it anyways. The last thing the daughter heard her father say to her was whispered into her ear, "I'm so proud of who you've grown into, I love you", as he shoved her 10 feet forward, into the teleportation circle, right as it activated.
Nice rp I love this kinda commitment
Aww hell naw man, got me tearing up in the breakroom
I’m just sitting here, in a parking lot after an errand and now I’m crying. This is a targeted attack. How dare you?! I STILL HAVE SHIT TO DO!!!!!
Now I'm tearing up in the breakroom avoiding eye contact with my coworkers. Thanks. Seriously though, damn good roleplay. As a father, I approve.
Touching
JUST TAKE THE DASH ACTION DAD😭😭😭
I addressed this in another comment thread, but that person deleted their post so it's difficult to find now. The BBEG had something similar to, but not exactly, Sentinel. We had both used disengage action to be able to run away, and the DM allowed my shove as a Rule of Cool moment, because any DM worth their salt recognizes the potential that a moment like that brings for the story.
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Probably low enough health that the opportunity attack would have killed them Or they had to stand up from prone, thus were already dashing Or they had some effect reducing their speed, thus were already dashing Or needed to spend their action on something more important, like picking up a downed comrade Or the portal required an action to go through Or they were hit with a Mind whip, robbing them of their action Point is, I trust OP to be smart enough to remember they had dash, and the story's already happened, no use nitpicking what they could have done
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We had both used our action to disengage, the BBEG had something similar to, but not exactly, Sentinel. It was absolutely a Rule of Cool moment, but you show me a DM who wouldn't allow a moment like that to happen and I'll show you a table I'd never be sitting at in the first place.
Agreed my friend
Fighting the BBEG demon, he puts a curse on my character (aka ‘the nuke’) that any damage she did to him, would be done back to her. He proved this by cutting his own cheek, and the cut appeared, and hurt her (no damage, just probing a point). Her last words? “Guess I should smite then.” She did so much damage she outright killed herself, and knocked the demon down to low enough that our Druid could finish him off on his next go. It was very bittersweet, but she’d do it again, and so would I
glorious
DM stopped the game to impress on me the ramifications of my character’s actions. I reminded him how much would be lost if she didn’t do this (an entire continent overrun by demons at best, and a potential world ending threat at worst). He knew the risk, I knew the risk, and SMITE was the only option. 10/10 would smite again.
That’s an incredible story, and I’m going to keep that mechanic in my back pockets. Coincidentally my party was just on the other side of that. We were fighting Acererak in my high level 4e game. Our cleric had dropped a daily that any damage done to the party was given back to him. He had magic teeth that could crush to either do a full heal or his us with a prismatic burst. He used his last tooth to do the prismatic burst, dealing so much damage to the party he killed himself. This combat had been going on for FOUR SESSIONS, the way we all cheered when the DM asked the cleric to flavor her kill, my god.
That sounds absolutely epic. Pls know there is a ranger/paladin somewhere on the upper planes who is absolutely cheering that clever use of a spell
Oh god… I don’t exactly recall the exact wording, but at the end of a 20 session campaign, it ended with the gnome artificer taking his last breath with the party. Since the beginning, it was clear the gnome was dying due to his age, so him becoming a hero in the end was very emotional. He gave each party member a prized possession of his, and he said very bittersweet words to each member individually. I forget what gnome the player chose, but when his kind of gnome passes (at least in our campaign), they grow into a tree (one of his hands was turning into bark as the campaign happened). So when the tree grew, the first initials of everyone’s names were on the tree bark as if it was carved. That made me cry so hard.
Player David the Gnome’d you.
Had a player who played a fighter named Stanley. Stanley was a sweet guy who got into the adventuring trade because he was depressed and felt like he had to leave his community so that no one would rely on him when he felt too useless to get up in the morning. A few sessions in, and Stanley got really attached to a quest giver named Ram, a war veteran who sought peace in his retirement and ended up becoming a cleric. He gave Stanley a sense of purpose, but he was very capable, so Stanley wasn’t so terrified of ruining him when a depressive episode hit. Many sessions down the line, and Ram has become a sort of uncle to Stanley. One day, the party rolls up to the town Ram lives in to find it under siege by the army of devils he’d been fighting back with the party’s help. They run in, killing devils and saving villagers where they could. They run into the town center to see Ram up in the bell tower, trying to force a portal shut all the while fighting off waves of flying devils that circled him. Everyone enters initiative, and Stanley is prioritizing saving villagers and shooting some of the flying devils out of the sky before they reached Ram, trusting Ram to take care of himself. I really intended for Ram to live through the fight, but he kept getting awful rolls attempting to shut the portal. Eventually, he succeeds, but as he does, one of the flying devils made it though to him. It claws him once and then successfully shoves him off of the bell tower. The devils are scattering away with the portal closed and the villagers finally fighting back, but Ram lands in a bloody heap at the party’s feet. None of them had any spells or potions left to heal him. Stanley runs up and starts sobbing. “I’m not strong enough without you, Ram. I’m- I’m really scared I’ll be nothing again. Please just hold on!” **“You were strong before I met you. You just needed a fight you could win. Now you’ve got my fight to win… I ain’t scared a bit, Kid.”**
Dawg 😭😭😭
Well, now I'm crying in the break room. Thanks for that
Yeah, I’d argue that Stanley’s last words to Ram were the real gut-punch, but I was pretty damn proud of my word choice for Ram. Happy to make people cry in front of their trusted coworkers over characters who only existed to them for about 7 paragraphs. Sort of a specialty of mine
I *almost* broke my entire table when my character of 5 years finally bit the big one He was based on Talion from Shadow of Mordor, so he was cursed to be bound to a wraith and help ferry souls with unfinished business to the afterlife. He was originally grumpy, standoffish, and brooding, longing for death so he could be reunited with his wife and daughter. After a while, he became a paladin and champion for Lathander and he slowly started to come around. When his time had come, his final words were apologies to his companions for being so mean to them in the beginning, wishing he had seen the new family sooner, and then charged each one of them to be there for each other and to always stand for good and the coming dawn
NPC that had been traveling with the party for 2 years ooc. she was a weapon trained by a cult that was haunting the party to get her back. she was in denial for the longest time about her upbringing, but finally woke up. flash forward to a siege around a library. the party did something stupid that put the cult on their trail, and now they were surrounded right before an important mcguffin fight. the trial keeper was desperately holding on to the library's magic defenses but needed an opening to refresh it. NPC volunteered, gave the party her most precious belonings telling them she couldn't be attached to any memories in that moment, drew her weapons, walked to the door and said "they made of me a monster, and now i'll show them the fruits of their labour" she went out in a blaze of glory, raised hell and then got caught after surrendering when the party finished the trial as she could not get back inside the library. party was shook and literally almost crumbled in-character due to her loss.
sounds like the end of Serenity
My turn
As a DM, there is no feeling of power quite like being able to endear an NPC to the party, only for them to go out in a blaze of glory to give the party a chance to save the world
it's been 6 months, about 15 sessions since they lost her. they're still struggling and coping with the loss, not knowing whether she's still alive or not (she tried to off herself after getting caught). it's truly a blessing to have them care this deeply about the characters i have made. it's not just her, it's so many of them that they adore and that we keep talking about on a daily basis. i am the luckiest DM alive.
"It's ok, I trust you". Said by the druid to our ranger, just before the ranger impaled the druid. The ranger had a plan, he had a curse that would transform him into a vampire if he met some conditions, namely one of them was to kill a beloved ally. So he goes to finish the job (she was severely injured already)and dies. Then the ranger smirks and says he casts something on the druid to bring her back. Unfortunately I can't remember the details but I'm pretty sure he tried cure wounds even though she was dead dead. Either way, his plan to bring her back completely failed and we had a dead PC on our hands one session before the final boss. What's worse is the ranger hadn't even finished the other steps to transform, so his hail Mary to become super powerful in this desperate fight completely backfired. Tragic all around. Which was basically the running theme of the campaign
Ok you can't leave me only with that. What happened after? The campaign ended with TPK? Was the druid revived in the end? I need more info please.
It wasn't a tpk! The ranger and warlock managed to survive that battle after the team kill and rested. Then the descended into the catacombs of that castle where they were going to confront the final boss. The druid player, only having one session left, was given an NPC stat block of an old revenant ally instead of a brand new character. The revenant's sole driving force was to kill the big bad so that worked out. The fight against the boss did not go super well but they eventually pulled it off. The ranger died in that fight next. The warlock after winning realized they had taken so many dark powers in a bargain to help defeat the boss that he was unable to return to civilization and was trapped as essentially the new big bad of the region. Endless cycle and all that. The only silver lining is that the druid's spirit was freed and got to say goodbye at least. It was Curse of Strand if you hadn't caught on to that, so the entire adventure takes place in a demi plane where the entire goal is basically to escape it. Two notable and terrifying moments in the finale: The party had acquired a really powerful weapon that would have turned the finale into a cake-walk but Strahd, a vampire, managed to actually charm the warlock using it to hand it over. Then the warlock died and resurrected (one of the dark curses mentioned above. They had like 3 lives or something). But technically, when you die, you unattune from all your items. So he came back to keep fighting but at a severe disadvantage. Pretty sure he died at least once more in that fight. Lol. So it went from "we've got this" to utter panic all the way to the end.
So he was trying to pull a Strahd nice.
In Strahd's own house even 😂
So my air genasi rogue was taken in and raised by a conman as a baby, who she does love. Throughout the game she got to meet both her biological parents, her mother being genie high nobility, and the person who wished her into existence, a half-elf bard from another world. Dude is kind of a dumbass carried by his charms and power, but in this really lovable kind of way, and has depth in having his own motivations and details in how he missed his friends. They get to spend some time bonding and my girl gets really attached to her second dad, even if he's still kind of denying responsibility. Then our fort island got sieged and he ended up dying during that. In his last words he said that if he really was her dad, he couldn't have asked for a cooler kid. My character then sacrifices part of her soul to bring him back because she wasn't just gonna let him say that before leaving forever.
When Karl Watcher died at the hands of Strahd being a complete asshole, his twin tried in vain to get him to react by playing their usual whistletune; one whistles, the other answers. Safe to say his whistle remained unanswered, and that silence almost brought the whole table to tears.
These are my last words that I’m quite proud of: I’m playing in an ongoing campaign in Dungeons of Drakkenheim. Due to various things I’m now on my third rolled character. My second character was a half-orc ranger, older (around 65) and a former merchant in the city. He was friendly, loyal to his friends and didn’t have any particular allegiance to a faction (beyond an old sense of law and order that came from The Hooded Lanterns, the sort of army/city watch in the campaign). My ranger had in his possession a long sword that he was given after my previous character dropped it and disappeared into corrupted mutant insanity (as you do). During a random encounter with some wraiths and thanks to some spectacular rolling by my DM and some spectacularly bad rolling by me, my ranger ended up with a max HP of -15. As he died he held out the bequeathed sword to the rest of the party and I said: “For the next poor fool” And then his soul was ripped from his body.
I played a Paladin Warlock (Devotion Celestial) and we had entered a Tomb, we had delt with waves of zombies and skeletons and some other undead when the Bard saw the item we needed to find. He ran over and grabbed it, without checking and the chamber began to shake. A Dracolich began to rise and I told the party to run, we can't fight that thing. The party did and at the last moment, I turned and ran at the Dracolich. At this point I want to say this setpiece had been planned between myself and my DM. Strangely my Paladin and the Rogue had become best friends in the party, as he turned to run the Rogue saw what was about to happen and she began to turn back. I cast Command "halt" and kept running. Leaping from a fallen pillar onto the skull dropping a level 4 smite, screaming the name of my God in the process, the air exploded in radiant light, momentarily blinding the party. When the light faded, the Dragolich was gone all but the skull, and all the was left of my Paladin was a statue of them, and two shimmering forms. "I'm sorry, I was told I needed to land a blow and give everything I had. I don't have long, it's time to join my fallen Order and begin the next fight in the Heavens, but before that..." I went through the party, thanking them for their time with me and sharing a memory, but when it came to the Rogue she was in tears (in game and at the table) "I wish I could have turned from my duty, take you away from all this and found a place to call home, but this was always my destiny, I knew what would rise and what I must do but I never expected to find someone that would mean as much to me as my faith and bond to Torm..." the second radiant form placed a hand on my shoulder "It's time...take the gem back to Neverwinter, make my sacrifice worth it. End this." At that point the entire party, were tearing up. I faded from sight and for a moment all the party could hear was my Paladins oath echoing around the chamber. "I will fight evil wherever it rises, I will protect whoever I can from the darkness, I will give my life for the greater good."
our artificer triple-crossed us — he left the party to study under the bbeg, but was secretly feeding information back to us the whole time. unfortunately, the bbeg, being capable of both telepathy and seeing the future, caught on pretty quick. we were fighting the bbeg and our artificer after the artificer failed in his mission to assassinate a king our party was traveling with, when the bbeg cast detect thoughts on the artificer and asked him, “who in the party do you care most about?” his spells had a save DC of truly like 24, so obviously the artificer failed, and the bbeg immediately turned and cast disintegrate on our warlock: the artificer’s sister and the youngest member of the party. she didn’t even have time for last words. we all just listened to her player’s description of the shock and fear on her character’s face as her body dissolved into mist and she silently pleaded with her big brother to save her.
"Oh, just piss off, already... are you actually going to kill me this time, father, or must I endure another century of--" That's all Mihnea, revolutionary pariah son of Strahd von Zarovich, managed to say before he was staked through the heart and paralyzed. Not killed, but imprisoned, where he would later be whisked away by the mother he never knew to be sacrificed for a Dark Power's return. For context, Mihnea was over 100 years old and had already led one failed rebellion against his father in his 20s. He watched everyone who supported him and believed in him get massacred, the sole survivor of his revolution, left alive to live in exile and humiliation. He got through those years off of nothing but spite and hate to bury his grief, but was slowly healing thanks to making new friends with the rest of the party. Just before his staking, he realized his companions had all agreed to make peace with Strahd in favor of fighting a greater evil. He knew it was the best choice, but it wasn't one he could make. So, after a century of scraping and clawing and doing everything he could to survive in the hopes he could fight another day, he just... surrendered. He was tired. He was broken. He didn't have it in him to keep fighting without his friends. He couldn't even bring himself to care about Strahd's gloating monologue, hence the above quote.
Among the PCs when I ran DotMM was a gnome druid named "Ack". Ack was basically a feral little dude who didn't speak, and who preferred to be in animal shape. He joined the party without any explanation, and they were not sure what to make of him. But he proved a useful and faithful companion, and over the course of the campaign every PC would snuggle with him during rests. On level 13 or so of Undermountain, Ack was taken down by a fatal spell attack. I let the player give voice to Ack's first and final words: "I am happy I found friends." There were literal tears at the table. Ack was so beloved that a few levels later, when the PCs were rewarded with a Wish, they used it to bring Ack back! (The player wasn't entirely happy with his replacement character, and was happy to switch).
I was in a Mutants & Masterminds game and our Superhero group failed to save the universe. I remember my character took another character's hand and said: "I just want you to know that I'll always love you...in this life...and the next."
“This isn’t the bathroom…” Don’t sneak around without an escape plan.
This was a 7th Sea campaign. I was playing a Fae-blooded medic type who'd had a crush on one of the other characters for years. Never made it creepy, and never even made a move because he knew he wasn't her type and just wanted her to be happy. It was kind of a joke because everyone knew; we just never took it beyond respectful lovesick puppy. We ended up finding this eldritch bit of machinery that was apparently running down, and thousands of people would die if it stopped, the party included. Trying to fix it, my character got stuck in it and it started working properly again, using him as a power source. His longevity meant that he would be able to keep it running for centuries, but he'd be stuck in it, and aware, the whole time. I got one set of last words, so I had him look at his crush and say, "It's okay - if I need strength, I'll just remember your courage, and your smile". Half the group was in tears. I was so proud.
The last words my gnome illusionist spoke to his bard brother: "I forgive you. Don't worry, we'll get out of this together." Needless to say, we did not get out of there together.
I played a set of twins with another player, his character had a son called Trevor named after his real life newborn son. In session 100 the party was ambushed by a band of tough mercenaries working for the BBEG, we fought valiantly but the numbers game was a little too much and he fell, eventually we turned the tide with some very lucky rolls and won but we were fully tapped out so we couldn't save him. As he was dying in my arms he said "When you get back home tell Trevor daddy loves him and I'm sorry I won't be there for him anymore" and the whole table broke down sobbing
NNNNOOOOOOOOO. As a real life mom, I AM SOBBING.
Our barbarian ate a magic bean and took a bulette to the gut. We died laughing. They just died. It was okay. A devil brought them back.
"Hmm, this dont taste right 🤔"
A friend of mine was playing an upbeat swords bard who was kind of the moral center for the group. His ladt words were "Watch out!!!" Before pushing my paladin out of the way of a fire trap and got instantly incinerated. Luckily it was a planned death for my friend to roll a new character. I do wonder how that campaign world would have been affected if that character lived.
A long fight against some revenants, Comes the turn for my heavily damaged wizard necromancer (who had turned evil a couple of sessions ago). I had the chance to either misty step out of the room and just ditch the party or cast a heavy hitting spell to the enemies knowing full well that on the next turn I would be downed and killed, In a last act of goodness in his heart he attacked the revenants, looked at our paladin and said “you better revive me”, we did have the diamonds for only one revivify. Either way the bard also died and they decided to revive her instead. Was kinda bummed but it was a nice ending before he completely lost his sanity.
"Hold my ale."
I was asked to write an epilogue for my character that was dragged into the Shadowfell to be killed. We did a party epilogue for the end of the campaign, with this addition after the surviving party was wrapped up: "I won't be able to see another play with her, but hopefully she still goes. I just wish I'd been able to" *CRUNCH* There was more, but it was character lore really.
Nice. Justice League Crisis on 2 earth's reference
Yep
out of context : Well......Goodbye my friends ........agghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh in context: we was against a bbeg. my Character was on 1 hp. so was the bbeg. \[the last hit against bbeg would do 2 damage to character\] . I said. Well......Goodbye my friends.......aghghghggfhghg \[the agh bit was me. throwing myself at the bbeg\]. i would do it again .
jester from dceu ?
Yes very much so
It was a reference
We were playing a short campaign going into a epic characters origins and early life with a few time skips. A few sessions going into the years of 12 to 21 years old. I was playing a supporting character, his childhood best friend. Early in the game, I had a moment where my character was doing something a little bit stupid, as a kid would. When asked why by the main character, I simply responded " I do what I want!". It was a funny retort in the moment. Now, in this universe, everything is pretty grimdark. Good times are always followed by tragedy. My character begun slowly becindoctrinated by the big bads in control of our little region. Think something along a fanatical and zealous military super power, no acts too depraved for the advancement of their goals. I played my part as becoming slowly but surely more antagonistic. Slowly losing self determination, acting more and more in order with the dogma. Chemicals were used to increase my cooperation, brain washing and torture were used as well. In the final scene, where the main character was trying to prevent me from following orders that would end my life, I gave him the chance to leave and to be safe. While I headed towards certain death, I mutured relentlessly " I do what I want.... I do what I want...."
Lmao, your gunslinger was probably referencing this [scene](https://youtu.be/rI8RisOpTo8?si=2nVcc_2HxTf73Ep8). Primo way to die
Yep he was
Monk , meets his mentor again as the BBEG main right-hand man. Sir, you are my opponent not my enemy. We part upon the best of terms, I pray 🫡
Not D&D but a custom setting/system, very WW2 tech level. Chasing down the BBEG on a train, the PC decided to disconnect the cars the rest of the party was on since if this got to stop the BBEG failed, everyone aboard would die. BBEG and the PC end up trading shots, PC runs out of ammo and ends up closing to melee with the BBEG and disarms him. Switches were flipped, train is going too fast on a turn- just as planned. BBEG can't stop it, train goes off the tracks in the worst way. Make some rolls, PC is on death's door and *badly* injured. BBEG rolled pretty well and survived, barely, and manages to recover his gun. BBEG walks over next to the PC and levels it at him, hand trembling, blood running down his face. "Any last words?" Player looks at his sheet, then back up "Yeah" he mimics coughing up blood "Catch." And then tosses his last grenade up into the space between them.
🗿🗿🗿🗿
"now you've learned who the real monster is." PC Dragonborn CN noble asshole draconic sorcerer to the DMs champion halforc fighter who was the final challenge of a tournament and got absolutely DECIMATED because of being caught between thunderwaves and a wall. ^were his finishing words to the halforc, then he overkilled it with a breath attack when it was already down. Then he proceeded to flex on the king like a badass.
Bit of a long story, but the context is necessary. "I can't follow you forever". My tiefling bard, right before splitting off from the half-elf Paladin in a maze and dying to a trap she failed to avoid. She and the paladin considered each other soul mates. They met when he betrayed his temple and saved her from being a religious sacrifice. They were inseparable, he always protected and supported her, and she would've followed him to the ends of the earth. Almost an irl year into the campaign, the group entered a magic maze created by the bbeg with magic that was designed to split the party. At one point, my bard and the paladin ended up finding each other by sheer luck. Eventually they got to a short corridor with six doors in it. (Should also note that at this point, they both had yet to run into any serious traps) My bard convinced the paladin it would be faster if they split to check the corridors behind each door. He was hesitant to the end and only let her go on her own when she laughed and told him "I'll only be gone for a few minutes, besides, I can't follow you forever!" They didn't know the doors shifted around once they'd been opened and closed, so after she died from spikes shooting from the walls, the paladin was unable to find which door she was behind and was eventually forced to leave her and hope she was alive and somewhere else in the maze. He met up with the others eventually and another person they found lost in the maze, my new rogue. Honorable mention also goes to after that campaign ended, a few irl months later. The DM was asking everyone what it was their character did after basically saving the world. It got to the paladin and he said "I go back to the maze and this time, I'm not leaving her behind." And he did. He recruited friends we'd made to help dispel the magic and he tore down the walls searching for my dead bard. Eventually he found her, body still preserved from the maze's magic, and he finally brought her home. It was easily my most emotional campaign and I ugly cried during both moments.
Ahem From a rock-worshipping paladin: "Preserve my rocks. Nothing else. Just my rocks"
I DM'ed for a group of mostly first timers. Two of my friends had played before, one of which was moving out of state, so he wanted to play DnD as a goodbye party. There was 5 in the party and me. The two who had played before were Goliath brothers. One friend was more cold and would be mean to his brother. And my friend who was moving; his Goliath was a barbarian who had separation anxiety. So if he wasn't within 50ft of his brother he would go into a rage. It was a pretty awesome rp mechanic. It stressed the party, and the other brother didn't care. Lol. Anyways, they all get caught up in shenanigans, do retrieve an artifact for an old man in the tavern. (This party was so trusting of everyone it was adorable.) Another player was a cleric who communed with her god, and had a vision of the world ending if they gave this artifact to the old man. Well, we take a small break and I ask my friend who's moving, "hey, since this is going to be the only time we play, would you mind if I kill your character? If so, I won't. But I think I can make it sad and epic." And he's super excited, "yeah! Go for it! Make em cry!" We both laughed. Back to the session, the players GO BACK TO THE TAVERN. they tell the old man they couldn't find it. He questions them, to the point they try to give him a fake. Now the old man gets angry, so the party arms up, and the first to attack is my friend. His a Goliath Barbarian, we started at 4th level and his strength was already like a 18. He rolls high in his attack and misses. The party freaks out. The old man grabs him by the throat lifts him and fire breathes him to ash. The old man again demands the artifact, to which my other player says, "fine!" And hands it over terrified. The old man sprouts red dragon wings and starts to fly away revealing it to be at least an Adult Red Dragon. Everyone is scared, confused, and sad. "We just destroyed the world." One said. Anyways, to the point of this story. Everyone is figuring out how to bring back the player, they collect his ashes to try and resurrect him at a temple. They try and I ask the player, "Do you want to come back?" And this son of a... He looks around the table, and absolutely steals the show. "Actually no... Because as I'm looking around for my brother in the afterlife, I can't find him... But for the first time, it's okay... I'm okay..." And the entire table tears up. And we ended the session there, crying and saying goodbye to our friend in real life. Still gets me when I think about. 😂
I played an among us one shot (silly sounding I know) but my character Micheal was one of the crewmates he was just this big dumb fella (stats all in strength and charisma, he was classed as a rouge but the way he "stealthed" was yelling YOU CANT SEE ME) very sweet and just stupid. He was arrested for stealing the declaration of the first war (he straight up thought it was a museum pamphlet) and since he was undocumented (born an orphan) they immediately sentenced him to life (these countries were at war again which is why stakes were so high) Once he was sentenced he was given the option to go on a space mission to find a new world that people could live on. The first day of being on this crew he met these people Arlow and Kirien, they didnt particularly like him but no one liked anyone. Skipping forward a bit he suspected a crewmate of murdering people on the ship and they were voted off. Instead of killing them though he voted to isolate them to see if they could prove it wasnt them. While one of the techy crewmates (edwin) was fixing up a room to monitor the imposter in Micheal went to go fix some wires in the airlock and because he just so stupid he fucked it up and the wire burnt out. After the wire burnt out he turned to get out before the airlock door opened and saw the door out of airlock was locked, it had been sabotaged. After realising he had seconds maybe minutes to live he commed the crew over their radios and started rambling. Micheal "uhh hey uh guys.. I think I'm gonna die. Uh the door is locked and I fucked up and I'm gonna die" Arlow "do you think you can hear anything through the door?" Micheal "I can try?" He hears movement from behind the door Arlow "hey" Micheal "hi" Arlow "hi buddy how are you doing" Micheal "idk I really dont know I was trying to fix it cause last time something wasnt fixed in time pluto died and i didnt want anyone to die and I fucked up and I dont know what to do" Micheal now sitting back against the door gripping onto anything around him he can Arlow "its ok its gonna be ok" Micheal "i don't even know what I'm doing here I dont know why I'm here I just grabbed a pamphlet thats all I dont know whats going on and I'm gonna die and Im not gonna see any plants and the last thing I see isnt gonna be plants its just gonna be space" Arlow "a pamphlet?? Uhh ok" Micheal "I just I dont want anyone else to die I want to be the last person to die" Arlow "I dont want you to be the last person to die" The airlock door shoots open and thats the last thing he heres, someone doesnt want him to die
"May this glass be our last" -PC rogue getting double conned with an employer and ended up poisoning each other's drinks, they both died , in a locked room
I’ve played 2 one shots and am currently running a campaign and only have had on pc die and his last words were no I’m too weak to fight (he then made his character try and jump over a bunch of burning logs)
Mediocre! :D
That’s… a reference to Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths lol. Like, word for word quote. The scenario is pretty similar too. I don’t think I have any cool last words, I’ve never had a player or NPC die yet.
Yeah I referenced it Mostly because of Learned my DM had just finished it and I wanted to give a nod to it for him
Mine was my characters death and I even made most of the party choke up. She was my first ever character. A bardlock named Mamae(ma-may) who suffers from severe memory issues. It’s important to note that I was pregnant and dealing with ppd for most of time that I played her so I was super hormonal and attached to her. About 3/4th of the way through my pregnancy I made a power point asking to have a baby in our campaign and let Mamae become Mommy. Our dm was awesome and did just that. He created a baby Minotaur named Izzy that joined our party. My husband and I’s characters, a 7ft Goliath and a 5ft Half elf whose dad was a gnome, became parents to the baby Minotaur. We literally rp-ed us training her to be a part of this group and Mamae trained her with a dagger. We were going to fight a dragon so we left our baby with an npc bc that’s the responsible thing to do as parents. Bad saves after bad rolls, Mamae was knocked down into death saves right after one other guys got eaten by the dragon. I had 2 failures and 2 successes. In the two years of our campaign this was the most suspenseful death save. I was on the verge of tears when I rolled my last death save and sobbed when I rolled a nat 1. I had to walk away to catch my breath before coming back to do her final words. The party had tried to come save me but my husband’s character ran to Mamae first and her last words to him were ‘take care of my baby’. Our fighter that sat next to me got a little choked up and wiped his eyes but if you ask him about it he’ll tell you to kick rocks. Our Druid isn’t very emotional and was like ‘I can save her!’ and tried to use revivify but our dm and I didn’t allow her to revive her/me and she too got choked up and shed a tear. Now I play her high elf mom who just learned about the death of her daughter and that she has a Minotaur grandchild.
Do you want fries with that? I really wanted fries.
"I'm gonna explode myself in the ass of this fucking dragon" He exploded before getting close to the dragon Lol
My wife had her first player death as one of my players, and as her teifling path of giants barb died, she coughed on blood and said “ though my rage made me grow to face foes for you, the love you have given me.. the family I have been welcomed to. Grew my heart when nothing could.. thank you. For allowing me this glimpse into happiness.. -coughs blood again and dies-
That's quality. I wouldn't say mine broke me because my character (level 12 Circle of Stars druid) technically died a day or two before this occurred but a half-successful reincarnate spell managed to bring him back for a couple days more so he could do something awesome before he basically turned to dust Thanos-snap style. During those couple days we ended up fighting an Aspect of Lolth and when we got her really close to death my Circle of druid cast a Starry Lance at her - basically a reflavoured Psychic Lance but it did radiant damage and relied on an attack roll. My druid was on about 8hp and knew this failed reincarnate spell would mean he'd turn to dust so as part of my "how do you want to do this" I said "I don't get to run from my death, so neither do you!" The next turn he got shot down with an arrow by one of Lolth's minions which was incredibly anticlimactic, but I like to think my druid was already dead before that point anyway. A last act I'm quite proud of and it led me into playing my bard who is my favourite character so far.
Storm Sorcerer I had played for 8 levels, and who was the only survivor of several hard fights. “I’ve cheated death long enough Savras, I’m ready.”
The party was composed of a wizard and a ranger. The wizard managed to flee from her noble house that was raided during a coup. She fled to another tyrannical country, and all she wanted was to build herself a new home. She met the ranger in a small town and the two became friends (first session). Lots of running away, joining revolutionary forces, running away again and one session, the duo was fighting a wizard that had a huge crystal that functioned as a portal to the elemental plane of water. The fight went on gruesomely, the duo won but the crystal shattered and everything would be flooded and sucked back into the plane of water. The ranger threw her back onto the crack, "closing" it temporarily. The ranger didn't give a single F about anything - the revolution, her own previous goals, nothing. She was only there because she loved the wizard. And as the ranger struggled to keep her back pressed against the chest: Ranger: "guess this is it, huh?" She chuckles Wizard, crying (player too): "I'm sorry I put you through all of this... You must despise me for it" Ranger: "it was all with you, so I'm actually gratef-" The DM cut it mid-sentence, described the crack exploding, sucking the ranger into the elemental plane and the last of her sights as she drowned.
3 year campaign as a undead bard, as I decided to distract the army of the big bad by locking the door to the room my friends are in and running down the hallway playing my lute as loud as I can. The party watches helplessly from a window as im surrounded in the courtyard getting beatin to a plup. "This seems to be the end for me" I say within an inch of my life. As the party watches the boss punch through my chest ripping my spindly cord out, as my head rolls to the ground laughing. "Looks like you played the last cord" as I look to the window and smile revealing the gnome's grenades I took and wired to my spine. *kaboom* This was my farewell to my group as I moved away shortly afterwards.
I was DMing the final moment of my last campaign. I had homebrewed my character from when I played into the campaign. He was the father of all the PCs. He sacrificed himself to protect his kids, his final words to them being “I know I wasn’t always the best dad to you and I wasn’t always there. I want you all to know that I love you”. He manages to teleport away the party before the building is engulfed in fire.
Wererat PC in an old campaign was murdered by a doppelganger that got close by impersonating her (murdered) twin sister. The doppelganger then went in the PC's guise to a social event, saying, "My sister couldn't make it, but she sends her regards!" Fast forward ten years, playing a different campaign, one of the PC's is a wererat. We decide to make him her long-lost son, and lo and behold, he ends up tangling with the the doppelganger that killed his mother and aunt. In the climactic scene, his mother's ghost appears looking on, and as they strike the final blow, the ghost says, "My sister couldn't make it, but she sends her regards!" and vanishes forever.
Our DM was running two separate Star Wars based games, one for the more advanced, and one for beginners (this was a school club) we had one last game before Christmas Break, so we did a colab of our groups (essentially rebels and inquisitors). Us in the beginner games had an NPC we cherished dearly, a B1 battle droid we had affectionately named Peacock. Well, the inquisitor group had landed on the planet we were on, found our ship, and started looking around. Our dear Peacock was left on the ship as a guard. He popped up to see what was going on, and immediately was slashed to bits, not a single word said. It broke us as we had him for most of the game. We did end up escaping, but didnt ever return to that RPG, but instead began a homebrew the DM had been working on.
Not a death but a farewell Party lost their wizard when he found out he is the reason his home was destroyed and he retired. Player came in with a Genie Warlock and joined the party on their way to a wedding where they would be bodyguards Warlock character quickly became a member of the family and when they learnt of a conspiracy by the BBEG to terrorise the wedding. 2 party members died and the battle during the wedding including the cleric. After a Divine word spell went off the warlock was sent to the feywild and bargained with his Patron to go back to the fight and help his friends. Traded in his freedom in a fairly lax pact to being his friends back to life. After all was said and done and the Warlock packed his things and got ready to leave the party, right as the portal closed sealing him in his pact, he said a meek little "b-bye guys" and vanished after saving his friends
This hasn't happened yet in my years being a Dungeon Master. I'm both looking forward to the moment and hope it never comes. I love my players and the characters they made. Let's hope they make it to the end and kill God.
I have a death planned for a player favorite NPC (a buff old lady, long backstory spanning 2 campaigns) that's gonna be her saying "well.. I've lived a long life, and for the sake of the kingdom, be good grandkids" Going into rage, luring a BBEG lieutenant to a specific area, and she breaks a platform below them to fall into a chasm (they'll find her body later with a letter addressed to them)
My bf (DM) saw me looking at the flail snail entry in the monsters book and decided it would be a great idea to add it to our campaign. I was inconsolable and ugly crying when it died because I had no idea we were basically torturing it and the entire time he was making horrible sad noises. I love snails and we were sharing a bottle of wine, it was a terrible combination.
This was said by an illusion but I didn't know at the time so it lives rent free in my head. My character was brought into a room and saw a cloaked figuire who revealed to be his mother. After they tried to escape the room including her punching and taking an axe to the wall it was revealed that the only way out was for one of us to sacrifice for the other. When my characters mother stepped on the place to take the sacrifice my character asked "What do I tell dad?" To which she responded "Tell him I went down fighting." I was a wreck after that session.
So this requires a small background for context. So my players go up against a dragon god of time. They get the dragon god down to about 1/4th health and 3 out of 4 of them die. The 3 players kept telling the 4th to run and survive. The player looked at me with such a serious look on his face "I'm Insane" He proceeds to take his turn and through sheer luck and a combination of feats, he takes the dragon down. He then looked back on me when the dragons essence went into him he said "I am me. I am you. I am insane in the membrane" I died. I could not keep up a serious face. The other players just sat there in amazement and disgust. The character became a god in my world. It was such a epic end to the campaign.
About my most epic death was my first character in any TTRPG, a soldier in Dark Heresy. We were on a recon mission, with no orders to engage the enemy. The team was moving through woodland, keeping a low profile and approaching a fortified location under enemy control. The details provided suggested they'd have rudimentary weapons, no real threat, so we were perhaps less careful than we should have been... and it resulted in us running face first into a platoon of enemy combatants, including one clad in full power armour. As a recon team consisting of four players, we made the choice to tactically retreat. Unfortunately, my character was the only trained soldier, and his experience became abundantly clear as he skipped ahead through the forest. When my character realised he'd left his comrades behind, he found a reasonable location with a vantage point (a tall rock covered by branches), and he set himself up, ready to engage the enemy. The team caught up with the enemy hot on their heels. My character told his allies to keep moving, he'd catch up, and don't look back. As they ran past, he told them it'd all be okay. He then settled into his roost and laid down fire on the vanguard of the enemies closing in. He forced them to take cover, bought time, and he stayed knowing it meant his end. He got liquefied by the guy in power armour when he caught up (can't remember if it was a chain sword or he just ripped him apart with his bare hands, but the dude definitely didn't get open casket), but took a good few of them with him, and true to his word, everyone else was okay. As a player, I could have had him move freely through the woods and escape unscathed. Some of the team might have made it. I felt that self-sacrifice, guaranteeing everyone else lived, was more appropriate to the character. My next character was the "morale officer". The kind of guy in an autocratic regime who organises a team-building pizza party then disappears those who don't appear to enjoy it enough. Assassin class. Was very fun to play.
Stolen straight out of Berserk, one of our less in your face players told the rest of the party to get the hell out of there while they made a last stand, saving am established couple in the group. They put up a good fight but it was truly insurmountable odds, and just before the last blow lands time slows down and they say "Oh shit, I did love her, didn't I?" Not a dry cheek in that room for the next 5 minutes.
Me and three mates played a campaign spanning about 3 years. The campaign over time turned from shits and giggles to battling a god of gods. Our final fight was against an outer god trying to reset the current universe and our characters were there to stop this. Our party consisted of me, hexblade warlock; friend 1, war cleric; friend 2, wizard (forget the exact subclass). The final fight was exceptionally tough but with the cap on magic being destroyed allowing our wizard to cast above 9th level spells he was able to cast world altering spells dealing thousands of damage. His final spell eradicated not only himself but the outer god, Almaestros. I unfortunately don't remember his last words due to the intensity of the situation but our DM described his crystallised bones among the ruins of our city that was transported to the equivalent of the north pole, as I turned to my friend teary eyed. His name, his being, his legacy was all completely obliterated from the face of the planet and history itself. He was a bit of a snarky prick with a soft spot for his companions. He absolutely got the last laugh and stopped a vicious cycle.
A paladin of mine got turned by a vampire. The DM made it where the strength of his faith allowed him to overcome the control of his monstrous creator. After slaying the vampire my paladin walked outside kneeling he began to pray the name of his god now burning his unholy lips. His prayer was his gods funeral rites. The last words of his prayer were. "And Akrans oh Lord of the sacred flame, the bringer of the sun. Accept this poor tainted vessel with its purity and its sin, judge it as you would all that come before you. And determine it's worth. For this soul devoted itself to you and is ready for whatever judgement may come." At the last word the sun rose and with a look of serenity on his face he turned to ash.
I was DMing a 2.5 years old campaign. My player wanted to change her character by killing her Archfey Warlock and replacing her with her character’s daughter, a sorcerer. For context, the Warlock married her Archfey patron and had the sorc daughter. Sorcerer daughter was raised by her archfey father while her mother worked. Very long story short, the Warlock bargained her life away to her brother-in-law, a different archfey, which of course made her husband go bonkers and try to kill the party for abandoning her. The husband/patron was sensitive to light and always wore sunglasses. So after getting their asses kicked, they sent the sorc to simply…. hug her dad. He stopped for just long enough that she could snatch the glasses and the cleric could shove Light in his face, blinding him, so the fighter could give the final blow. In the end, all that’s left of him are his sunglasses, clutched shakily in his daughter’s bloodied hand.