3E Mortality Rate

[Tom Cashel]

I like that "save game" angle. Perhaps a very powerful magic item or 9th level spell called reality lock.

When the reality lock is activated, several future hours become "hypothetical." The PCs can forge ahead, see what there is to be seen, and even leap into battle with the foes they will be facing. At the end of the reality lock's duration, reality resets to the moment following the one in which the lock was activated. All memorized spells, hit points, arrows, etc. return, and anyone who was within 10 feet of the reality lock when it was activated has full memory of what has transpired. The reality lock's effects can be dismissed by the caster or activator, in the event that they do not wish to return to the moment of activation (i.e. they win the fight, solve the puzzle, etc.).

On the other hand, PCs could just use some divinations and try to prepare in advance....

Nah. Too uncertain. Let's use the "save game" feature.

 

[Dr_Rictus]

I like that "save game" angle. Perhaps a very powerful magic item or 9th level spell called reality lock.

You've just described the 9th-level psionic power time regression.

Time Regression
Psychoportation (Dex)
Level: Psion 9
Display: None
Manifestation Time: 1d4+1 rounds
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Instantaneous
Power Points: 17, XP cost
The manifester can regress apparent time 1d4+1 rounds into the past. The power regresses time to the point along the timestream when the manifester first began manifesting the power (the manifester still has to pay the XP cost of the power, however). Once the manifester has regressed, only he or she retains knowledge of the next 1d4+1 rounds; however, the manifester can communicate that knowledge verbally to companions, if desired. During the rounds that the manifester lives through a second time, he or she can act on knowledge gained by living through the immediate future.
XP Cost: Each manifestation costs 500 XP.

 

[Draxx]

I agree with the posts I've read here. 3e can be very deadly for PCs therfeore I have offset potential TPK situations by adding a couple of house rules. These have helped a great deal and the players like them.

1) characters build on 28 pts.
2) I allow extra pts for disadvantages taken (ala GURPS). Think of them as a negative feat and you get the idea. Example one character is missing an eye so he suffers a minus in attacks and sight based skills. Characters can use these points to purchase one additional feat a first level.
3) I utilize a d30 system of rolls. Characters start with 1 d30 point which they can use in place of any normal d20 roll. They get another at each new level and can buy them with experience points. This can be a real life saver, but does not guarentee success as you can still roll a 1! In addition major NPCs get them as well so your villians are not put at a major disadvantage to the PCs. Got to keep the challenge there!
4) If there are critical hits, there needs to be critical fumbles as well. I use a system where a natural 1 is a fumble threat just like a natural 20 is a crtitical threat.

A critical missed save did end up killing a NPC paladin in my players' party, but that's the breaks! We also had a situation where using a d30 roll to confirm a crtitical saved the party from a stone giant who had put half the party into negative hit points. This I know would have been a TPK without this house rule. Everyone was rolling hideously bad all night!

It might not be a perfect system, but we like it. It gives the game more flavor and is not unbalancing to regular play.

Best regards,
Draxx

 

[Tom Cashel]

You've just described the 9th-level psionic power time regression.

Nice. Except reality lock affects the whole party!

 

[Zad]

I've been in a 3e campaign since just after 3e came out.

In those years, we've had 6 players at any given time. (One left, and was replaced by someone else, no other turnover.) We have had five deaths.

But really the answer doesn't mean much. It's all about the kind of world your DM wants to create, and his skill at creating it. He may want a low lethality campaign, but misjudge and encounter and create a TPK, so both come into play. It should also mesh with what the players want.

We didn't have a death for a long time. As a group of characters, we took it very seriously and continue to do so, despite our more ready access to resurrection magic. I think it gives the campaign a certain slant that I like.

 

[jasper]

I have played all three editions and the death rate has stayed basically the same. Only reason first edition has more body counts is I played it longer.

 

[Endur]

My primary 3e campaign is Living Greyhawk. 28 point build, core rules. In 400+ hours of adventuring (80+ games), only one PC has died while fighting alongside my character and that character died because he left the party and challenged the Big Bad Evil Guy while the rest of the party was busy mopping up flunkies and he didn't retreat after he found out he was outmatched. It helps that everytime I've played LG, we've had both a melee character and a divine spellcaster. PC deaths seem to occur most often in unbalanced parties or unlucky parties.

As a gm in LG, I've killed one character (somebody who should have fled from a BBEG after losing half his hit points, didn't flee, and lost the rest of his hit points the next round).

We've had lots of characters come very close to dying (negative hit points, etc.). My favorite close-to-dying episode was when a friend of mine uses his brand new wings to fly for the very first time, flies over a house, gets shot by a hidden drow sniper, fails his saving throw, falls asleep, falls down gently onto the roof, landing in the exact square where the sniper is. The next round he'll be CDG'd. Nobody in the party knows where he went or even that's he unconscious or that there is a drow up there (we couldn't see him over the roof). If not for the fact that he had an animal companion with scent who climbed up on the roof, he was finished. As it was, the GM was nice and had the cowardly drow sneak away from the oncoming animal companion rather than CDG the sleeping enemy.

1e had a higher death count, but that was mostly for two reasons.

One, it was much easier to build a character (you could build a high level character in a few minutes as opposed to how long it takes to build a high level character in 3e).

Two, it was more dungeon hack and slash oriented back then.

 

[diaglo]

personal observation:

this ed is much less lethal. although mechanically it may seem more so. in practice i haven't seen it. but i blame that on the DM. and some other mechanic changes like the removal of save or die situations, again partly the DM's fault.

i hate kid glove DMing. but i find it alot nowadays.

 

[hong]

1e had a higher death count, but that was mostly for two reasons.

One, it was much easier to build a character (you could build a high level character in a few minutes as opposed to how long it takes to build a high level character in 3e).

Two, it was more dungeon hack and slash oriented back then.

What kind of system does a Real Man use to resolve tasks in the game? In theory, a Real Man could use any task resolution system he liked. Back in the days when adventures consisted solely of 10-foot-square rooms occupied by 50-foot-long dragons, this was of course moot. The only task resolution systems that mattered were the attack roll (see "Real Gaming" above) and the saving throw. Your typical Real Man knew the class attack matrices in the 1st Edition D&D Dungeon Master's Guide by heart, and exactly where the breakpoints were for optimal dual-classing. (Back then, classes were REAL classes. Every cleric was the same as every other cleric, every fighter was the same as every other fighter, and so on. This made it very easy to create new characters after your original ones got killed. These days, you can spend more time creating new characters than actually gaming.)

Let it not be said that the Real Man is averse to progress, however. Many of the innovations that have appeared in the last 25 years have been incorporated into rulesets that Real Men use today. For example, Dungeons and Dragons originally had no task resolution system for non-combat situations, so not surprisingly, people tended to gloss over them. Today, there are lots of ways of handling such situations, so Real Men now have the luxury of glossing over them for its own sake. Some people have claimed that the latest version of Dungeons and Dragons places more emphasis on nonviolent solutions to problems, but after careful study I have come to the conclusion that they were mistaken.

-- from a web page somewhere

 

[Scupper]

Re: Re

One party member died in the belly of a T-rex after his shortsword was destroyed by the breath weapon due to an unlucky save.

Breath weapon?