Character death, sort of...
One of my players had a very unusual experience with character death. Through a combination of some of the worst rolls in history and a less than tactical choice of actions the party's bard, an adorable and chipper halfling named Plex, wound up exposed to two doses of fungal creature spores from an unkindness of fungal ravens. Which meant nine fortitude saves in a row each failed save resulting in 1d2 con damage. Fortunately the party medic was there to help, and though the party was level 2-3 (poor Plex was just a few xp shy of hitting third level), no one had anything to stop the poison apart from a high enough heal check to reliably grant Plex a +4 on her save. Even with a+4, a racial +1, and a +3 con bonus (for the first save at least), our poor Bard suffered from 7 failed saves in a row, dropping down to 1 constitution, one more failed save and death would be certain. As our bard took con damage I described how the fungus took root, how it began changing her, preparing her for consumption, (Ironic since Plex has a level of a chef homebrew class I made), and then my player got a curious thought.
"What happens if this thing kills me?"
I knew it had a spawn ability, though I had never imagines someone could get so unlucky as to actually die to this minor foe, so I said
"Well you turn into a fungus person. Like these fungus birds but halfling"
"Like a mushroom person? Oh, that'd be super cute. Do I still get to be me? Or do I go all....veggie?"
"Well, technically, you do loose all your memories and class abilities. But it doesn't actually affect your mental scores at all. And actually the template provides +1 cr, which is equivalent to one level, and you're about to level up...If you want to be a fungus I'd waive the loosing your class and memories thing."
"Sweet, can I just choose to fail my next fort save?"
"Yeah, actually there is a rule for that"
And so my player choose for their character to die and be reborn as an adorable halfling mushroom bard chef. And that is why I love roleplaying games, particularly pathfinder, so much. Because everything can be tweaked here or there, Because a player can be willing to accept defeat and death in order to grow, literally in this case, their character. And because I can tell my player for next week he can design his new mushroom girl bard for extra xp to earn the slightly ahead of time leveling up. And more than loving the personal nature of the game, this is why I love DMing. Because it's full of surprises, even for me. And I have no doubt that this choice will cause a ripple of events that will change encounters, and maybe the course of the world.
