I was once playing an evil Jester who leveled up fairly quickly ... she was 9th level when she left Irenicus' dungeon. She picked up a few tagalongs and minions (evil jesters don't have
friends as such) and went to insult some mercinaries in the Bridge district.
The mercenaries had a mage with them. Late in the fight, their mage cast a Death spell ... and killed her entire party, save the Jester herself. The hardest part wasn't finishing the fight solo, it was hauling all the slain tagalong's equipment to a store ...
A 7th level Berzerker with a 19 constitution can have more than 64 HP, but will be permanently slain by a Death spell nonetheless.
The happy ending to this story is: I bought ToB and started over.
-- Nifft