So after now having three of our party die getting near the end of Water Deed: Dragon Heist in about as many sessions, what are some of the best, weirdest, strangest, mismatched, accidental etc deaths out there?

In our party, our first death was when a necromancer unleased Cone of Cold, and he failed the save, the damage he took was more than double his actual hit points - insta-death

Our next two happened the most recently, two of us were insta-killed by a beholder.

We were all about level 4/5 and getting near the end (we think) of Dragon Heist, and I have no idea why we thought we could actually take on a Beholder, but that's how the game rolls :)

One character pushed another off a cliff.

One character jumped into a portable hole. He had the bag of holding. Died while lost in the astral plane.

And never assume there is only one kobald. One if easy to kill, 50 it once is not.

The first PC death in my group was my character. She had tried to climb a steep cliff and fell, not hard but took some damage and healed some of it. Then our group came to a door with a riddle on it. Confidently, my character walked to the door, spoke the answer and tried to pull it open. The blast of ice that followed was just enough to instantly kill her because I was two hp short of full health. She's better now, but I still regret not healing myself completely before walking into an obviously trapped lair.

My first time as a DM, this was back in the 80's playing basic edition. I had a group of 5 players all new except for one of them. I threw a group of 8 kobolds at them. This I thought should be an easy encounter for them to learn the mechanics of the game. My first problem was I came up with a pretty good strategy for the kobolds, and they really had no strategy. Second, my rolls for the kobolds pretty much all where hits, and the players rolled horribly. The kobolds wiped out the party, even with me stopping the use of the good strategy. Luckily, this was not our last D&D session, we played together for close to 8 years. I did come up with a storyline, that a passing group of priests got to them in time, and over a few weeks nursed them back to health. I was happy the group made it their goal to wipe out this group of kobolds, and I made a main rival from this being a hobgoblin that bossed around these kobolds to attack travelers on the road. The group did defeat the kobolds and hobgoblin.

My first character ever, Morgann Solbeard, was part of a living world server with a varying cast of characters with whom to adventure. One such excursion had us sent to liberate a jungle tribe from their oppressors, a Yuan-ti cult worshipping some giant serpent 'god' living in and underneath a ziggurat. After a successful sortie against a pair of Yuan-ti Abominations, the group was taunted mentally by the massive snake, Morgann had taunted the creature right back, and was the first to be targeted by the serpent, devoured as it burst from the ground. While he survived a few rounds, he was in effect removed from the fight and eventually slain within the beast. After the party's subsequent assault on the snake, from a team dragoon jump down onto it from above, to an internalized Wall of Fire spell when the Sorcerer was consumed later in the battle, the party eventually overcame the creature, and retrieved the only remnant of Morgann, a magical sunspear of Pelor. In the antechamber pocket dimension between worlds, the party's other holy man, a Lockadin serving one of the 'big three' old gods of the world, used the spear as a focus in a revival ritual, and Morgann had the choice to either join his ancestors and patron deity in their hallowed halls on the Celestial Plane, or to return to the living world, but be barred from them. Naturally, Morgann chose to return to his wife, daughter, newborn son and friends amongst the guild; the rewards of the afterlife were naught compared to the protection and well-being of his family, and the prosperity and health of his compatriots. His spear became tinged with the old god's influence, sunlight scarred by midnight, and he gained a healthy phobia of serpents, but he was back all the same, and after his second wedding, he used his experiences and built upon his trusted and fatherly position within the guild to become its first full-time counsellor. This was the beginning of his grooming by the guildmaster to an officers' position within the Azure Dawn, eventually finding himself amongst the vice-guildmasters.

I played a Star Wars campaign and my rodian Jedi died to a Sarlacc pit after we crashed in our massive speeder. Basically we had a massive ship with rooms and stuff and I was chilling in the front and then we crashed and I fell straight inside and the dm said sarlacc pits are insta death.

Oof!

We were playing a custom campaign, set in a futuristic city in space. We had successfully patched a space tunnel that was pulling citizens of the city into space, when my younger brother decided they were bored of their character. He turned to the dm and was like, when we all get back to the inn, I take a walk. Then an assassin shoots me through the heart with a laser rifle. After that he gleefully made a new character.

We were fighting a mind flayer at level 5 and the first attack he did was mind blast. My halfling bard and our elvish ranger were the only to succeed on the saving throw in a party of five. So we basically just whaled on the poor guy until our elvish wizard succeeded on the throw at last, but she was at very low health, so the mind flayer knocked her out with tentacles and then sucked her brains out with extract brain. One of our party didn't even succeed on the throw until after we had slain the mind flayer.

My first PC death happened last session. My character is Breeze, a reckless tabaxi monk whose common mode of attack is charging into melee no matter how many enemies she is facing. The typical progress of our combat is:

• Breeze, the rogue, and the Paladin charge into melee on the front lines
• The bard and the wizard use AoE spells from behind
• The enemies, usually giants as we play STK, proceed to drop one or more characters (usually Breeze and the rogue) to 0 hps.
• The super duper healer life domain cleric heals them

In our most recent combat, however, the strategy proved problematic. We were facing an army of 20 barbarians, including a spellcasting leader. Breeze began by charging into melee and killing two enemies. The leader cast spirit guardians, and the rest of the party took their turns. The enemy initiative was directly before Breeze. Several of the ordinary warriors converged on her, and dropped her to 0 hit points. On her turn, the damage from spirit guardians resulted in a failed death save. She rolls her turn’s death save and what does she get?

1

Dead in two initiative slots.

Thankfully, our super duper healer life domain cleric has revivify. I look forward to roleplaying the effect of her not near but actual death experience next session!

Horizon Walker Ranger played “keep away” with Valyndra Shadowmantle.

Archfey Warlock was compelled by their curious patron to draw three cards from The Deck of Many Things. Power! Riches!

…imprisonment in an inter-planar dungeon. In that order.

Cleric was defeated by a fiendish enemy. Ended up transported to the Nine Hells…unarmed & naked…where they were trapped in a pitch-black cell, then confronted by a hulking devil, who then attempted to make a bargain for their soul.

The Cleric complained about how long they were made to wait; and demanded to see the devil’s manager.

Never found out what happened to that Cleric. Probably best not to know.