History OneHitKill / TabletopGames

* In ''Tabletopgame/BattleTech'', a handful of weapons have enough pinpoint damage to kill a 100 ton HumongousMecha with a [[SnipingTheCockpit single shot to the cockpit]], regardless of how armored the cockpit is. Any weapon can cause a one-hit-kill with an extraordinarily luck CriticalHit roll; a [[ArmorPiercingAttack Through-Armor Critical]], which then hits an ammo bin, causing the mech to spontaneously explode as its entire magazine cooks off.

*** The [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Tyranids']] ultimate leader-organism, the Swarmlord, is armed with [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill FOUR]] bonesabres that not only have the ability to kill anything they wound in one hit, they slice through almost anything and Invulnerable saves are scant protection since the sabres also force any successful saves to be rerolled. Fortunately for most opponents the Swarmlord is almost exclusively a melee-only creature.
*** Any weapon with a strength value equal to twice the target's toughness will always cause instant death. Justified, since in each case the weapon in question should be more than capable of tearing the target in half.

** [[http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/monk.htm Monks]] have a move called [[TouchOfDeath Quivering Palm]] which allows them a one hit kill (a remotely activated one hit kill no less). Its uses, however, are annoyingly limited ("Once per '''''week?!''''' [[TropersDoItWithoutNotability Wizards can do it six times per day!]]"). It's done somewhat better in ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'', where you can use it after resting like all other abilities, and at higher levels can reach a fairly dangerous difficulty class for the saving throw that's on a par with the most over-specialized wizards out there.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':
** The game has several attacks that cause automatic Instant Death, including the D-Cannon (opens a tear in the reality on top of the target), Force Weapons (rip out the target's soul. Before 5th edition this used to be Kill Outright, and would even kill targets that are immune to Instant Death) and Blissgiver (send the target into an unrecoverable coma). However the prize goes to the Vortex Grenade, and its big brother, the Vortex Missile, which sucks anything in the area of effect into the Warp. If a model as much as touches the template they die with no saves of any kind allowed, regardless of any immunity to Instant Death (really ''enormous'' war machines and {{Kaiju}} take D3 structure points and D6 wounds, respectively, and thus might survive). Depending on how the grenade scatters, this may also include the thrower however. This was amusingly proven in a battle report where a legendary and practically immortal hero of Blood Angels single handedly charged into enemy lines armed with a Vortex Grenade, whiffed the throw and sucked himself into the Warp.
** During 3rd edition, Abaddon the Despoiler's daemonsword, Drach'nyen, was a one hit kill against anyone it hit, with only invulnerable saves allowed. The catch was that it was a literal one-hit kill; Abaddon had to trade ALL of his attacks for it and still had (at very least) a 1/3 chance to miss the hit.
** Don't forget the [[FunetikAksent Shokk Attack Gun]]. While it has variable strength, [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique and it can kill the user]], at maximum strength it opens a huge hole into the Warp, killing everything nearby.
** The newest addition to the list being the Space Wolves Psychic Power "Jaws of the World Wolves" which will take anything touched by its line of effect out regardless of wounds, invulnerability or anything else, only a timely reaction can save them.
*** Chaos has had a version of the same called the Gift of Chaos. The difference is that it has a shorter range, only works against a single target and forces the target to do a toughness test instead of an initiative test. However, you can select any individual model in the squad you're targeting, making it very good for eliminating characters in the unit. "Jaws Of The World Wolves" is much the same, except that it can snipe [[GameBreaker multiple]] characters in the same unit.
** In 7th edition Space Wolves got Helfrost weapons, powerful frost cannons that can perma-freeze it's target. In-game any model that suffers a wound from a weapon with this rule has to make a strength test or be removed from play as he's encased in ice. It is most terrifying when given to Bjorn; not only is it a ''free'' upgrade for his assault cannon (which pales in comparison) but because of Bjorn's moderately high BS, the thing will rarely ever miss it's target.
** Anything with a Strength value of "D" for "Destroyer" does just as much damage as a Vortex template, though it can only do it once instead of popping up repeatedly and is not one-shot. The Eldar scout titan is so awesome it can spew out four 5" blast templates with essentially the same effect as the Vortex grenade every turn.
** If you take one wound from Interrogator-Chaplain Asmodai's Blades of Reason, you will die. Luckily, armour protects against it. Less luckily, there's only so many armour saves one can reasonably pass.
** The [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Tyranids']] ultimate leader-organism, the Swarmlord, is armed with [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill FOUR]] bonesabres that not only have the ability to kill anything they wound in one hit, they slice through almost anything and Invulnerable saves are scant protection since the sabres also force any successful saves to be rerolled. Fortunately for most opponents the Swarmlord is almost exclusively a melee-only creature.
** Any weapon with a strength equal to twice the target's toughness will always cause instant death. Justified, since in each case the weapon in question should be more than capable of tearing the target in half.
* ''TabletopGame/RogueTrader'' brings us the Navigator power The Lidless Stare. When mastered, anyone who takes damage from it (so that's anyone within 15m looking at the Navigator who he beats on a Will check) has to pass a Toughness test or die immediately. Yes, I mean anyone. It's a good idea to make sure your friends aren't looking...
* From the other ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'':
** Giants have a random attack table. One of these, Stuff In Pants, instantly kills the unfortunate victim. If you manage to kill the Giant before the end of the game, they escape unscathed though, not that you'd want to live after being through that.
*** For all the American tropers out there, remember that Games Workshop is British, so it is a slightly more {{Squick}} meaning of "Pants"... assuming giants bother with wearing two layers of clothing.
*** There's also "Eat", which has much the same result, but is slightly less disturbing.
** Warhammer also has the Killing Blow rule, which allows a weapon to instakill the target if you roll a 6 to wound. Some weapons can also Slay Outright, which means a single wound inflicted by such weapon causes the target to lose all their wounds.
** The next tier up from Killing Blow, ''Heroic'' Killing Blow, allows the guy with it to instagib not only human-sized opponents, like standard Killing Blow, but giant monsters as well.

** Yet even more {{CoDzilla}} in the form of '''Implosion''', 9th cleric spell. No matter how many [=HPs=] have your target(s), if they fail the saving throw they [[CaptainObvious implode]] and die. Somewhat balanced, however, since one particular creature can be targeted just once per each cast of the spell.

* ''TabletopGame/Monopoly'': Nobody lands on a Boardwalk/Park Place with a hotel and lives to tell the tale!

** During 3rd edition, Abaddon the Despoiler's daemonsword, Drach'nyen, was a one hit kill against anyone it hit, with only invulnerable saves allowed.

* ''{{TabletopGame/Monopoly}}'': A single high rent can make you go bankrupt and lose the game, even if you own all your deeds outright and have built some houses. The worst case is Boardwalk with a hotel ().

* ''{{TabletopGame/Monopoly}}'': A single high rent can make you go bankrupt and lose the game, even if you own all your deeds outright and have built some houses. The worst case is Boardwalk with a hotel ($2,000).

*** Empty Jar OTK[[note]] A deck that uses Cyber Jar to make your opponent draw cards and then repeats until using Card Destruction with Serial Spell to make them deck out.[[/note]] Cyber Jar banned. Card Destruction banned later[[note The US managed to slow the deck by banning the key card Book of Taiyou to one, but the World Championship led to Cyber Jar being banned.[[/note]]

*** Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem OTK: Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem (4400 attack) summoned with with Power Bond (8800 Attack). [[ArmorPiercingAttack Piercing damage]]. No traps until the End Phase when it attacks. For added silliness (and insult/injury) one can add Limiter Removal to the mix, bringing Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem's attack to a whopping 17,600 Attack. All cards involved are Unlimited.

* The "Consumed by Five Fires" shugenja spell in the LegendOfTheFiveRings RPG. If successfully cast, it instantly kills the target and burns his body to ash. The drawback is that you take the same number of wounds it took to kill the target. Not recommended for use against tough opponents, and you should have some serious healing available in any case.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'':

**** Thus, LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards. Of course, the wizard's one problem is that she has to prepare those spells hours beforehand, so she needs to either have a pretty good idea of what enemies she will face, or else [[CrazyPrepared prepare some insta-death for every kind of enemy she can think of]].

* Somewhat subverted in ''TabletopGame/TheDresdenFiles'' because the Fate system doesn't really allow for "instant takeout" attacks that circumvent the normal conflict system; things like Victor Sells' "heart-exploding spell" mechanically simply rely on sheer ''brute force'' to one-shot their target and are correspondingly difficult to actually pull off. (Indeed, that exact spell is the most challenging among all the examples in the book by a decent margin. The writeup goes into some detail on what all it took ''Sells'' to muster the requisite power.)

*** Magical Scientist OTK: Magical Scientist banned
*** Butterfly Dagger-Elma OTK: Butterfly Dagger-Elma banned
*** Rescue Cat OTK: Last Will banned. This did not stop Rescue Cat from being misused, so it was eventually banned too.
*** Chaos Emperor Dragon/Yata Lock: Both Chaos Emperor Dragon and Yata Garasu banned[[note]]Technically its a One Turn you're completely totally screwed with no chance of saving yourself as you get pecked to death for 20 or so odd turns. But the point stands.[[/note]]
*** Cyber-Stein OTK: Cyber-Stein banned
*** Chimeratech Overdragon OTK: Cyber Dragon, Future Fusion, and Overload Fusion all limited to one.
*** Chain Strike OTK: For a while, Chain Strike was limited to one, which killed the deck. Now it's at two, but Ojama Trio, a key card, was limited to one. Recently, Ojama Trio was also brought up to two.

** The boardgame ''TabletopGame/ArkhamHorror'' is based on ''Call of Cthulhu''. It's at least possible, if not easy or probable, to [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu fight most of the Old Ones]] if they awaken, although a lot of them have regular one-character One Hit Kills. You can't fight Azathoth, because its first move is to '''destroy the world.'''

** Yet even more CoDzilla in the form of '''Implosion''', 9th cleric spell. No matter how many HPs have your target(s), if they fail the saving throw they [[CaptainObvious implode]] and die. Somewhat balanced, however, since one particular creature can be targeted just once per each cast of the spell.

** '''Imprisonment''' -- 9th level arcane spell of the PhantomZone type; permanently locks its target in a small bubble beneath the earth. Victims don't die there, but instead have time stopped for them and are placed in untouchable suspended animation, so they can't even attempt to break the spell, because their mind has stopped. And unlike being dead, it takes another 9th level spell to undo. The downside to its overwhelming power is that the player does not get loot from the enemy. Of course, [[SpitefulAI enemy NPCs have no reason to care about loot]]...

*** In the case of casting one of these spells on your home plane, any extraplanar creatures that would be affected by these spells--regardless of whether they heard the spell being cast (creatures who are in their home plane already are only affected by the spells if they are capable of hearing them)--must make a Will save at -4 or be banished to their home plane for 24 hours. It's not lethal, but it's a quick way of putting these creatures out of commission (at least in your current plane) for a while.
** '''Momento Mori''', an [[GameBreaker Epic-level]] spell that takes instant death to its logical conclusion: willing a creature to die. Automatically quickened, and with no form of component, the caster simply thinks and the target falls over dead. It does not work on creatures with unreasonably immense life force (more than 160 hit dice.. which is more than three [[NighInvulnerable Tarrasques]] stapled together), however.

** The boardgame ''ArkhamHoror'' is mostly based on ''Call of Cthulhu''. It's at least possible, if not easy or probable, to [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu fight most of the Old Ones]] if they awaken, although a lot of them have regular One Hit Kills. You can't fight Azathoth, because its first move is to '''destroy the world.'''

* ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' has several different levels of One Hit Kill. On the lower end, we have Yig the snake god, whose instant kill can be dodged or parried and is ineffective if you're wearing some sort of armor it can't go through. Above this, there's the Dhole, which is the size of a battleship, so its attack can't be parried and ignores armor. And then we have [[OneHitPolykill Cthu]][[InstantDeathRadius lhu]]...