Do you kill PCs?

[Bassar]

without death is there life?

I'm of the opinion that the core rules need a major injection of realism and the raise dead spells are a good a place to start as any.

These spells merely give the PCs a "Get-Out-Of-Hades-Free" card that, in the standard setting, they can routinely play given enough gold.

The way I see it, a PC whose character can simply get raised from the dead will be less cautious and far more aggressive during encounters. Combat becomes a "last-man-standing" proposition where PCs are constantly going toe-to-toe with the monsters/villians until someone gets to -10 HP.

Why be careful or creative if you can just use a spell to cover your mistakes?

I've found that the lack of the true death creates an almost comic-book environment in which roleplaying and gamesmanship becomes less important that stats, magical items and Feat Stacking.

Additionally, this lack of reality often translates into a lack of drama.

When death is real, the characters will be real. You made a mistake and charged that Orc who turned out to have 5 levels in Exotic Weapons Master and killed you with a chair? Too bad --- go watch TV, roll up a new character and get back in the flow next week.

It's all about taking responsibility for your actions.

In the last group I played with I finally had to beg the DM to stop with the re-rolls and kill someone already. My fighter ended up dying that session but it is a night that the group would remember for a long time.

Why? Because someone paid the Hero's Price during that adventure.

And isn't that what it's all about in the end? Putting your character in situation where they reap the rewards or suffer the consequences of their decisions?

Of course, it all depends on what kind of game you want to run. If comic-book is your thing then go ahead and raise the dead.

just my thoughts,

bassar

p.s. - does anyone know of a collection of "realism" house rules?

 

[Happy Monkey]

My pcs die, sometimes quite a bit.

The level loss and inherant competition amongst them means that they do not like it at all.

I have instituted an xp cost for reviving magics to up the price for npc spell casting. This creates a considerable drain on their resources that usually requires the pawning of magic items or the pooling of party wealth. It also limits the level of how widespread this magic is to most folk.

By default, I too have virtually all souls reject resurrection magic as they are loathe to leave the afterlife (except for evil, but noone usually cares enough for them).

Losing a level is a big deal except for when new characters are able to be brought in at the previous level. I as a dm will always ensure that new pcs are weaker than revived characters to discourage abandoning the dead characters.

 

[Balthasar]

every PC needs a good mace to the nadgers once in a while....keeps them honest....

 

[hammymchamham]

I have run 3 campaigns (well 2, just started a 3rd). My first one was an OA one, I tainted the hell outa those charecters, and some PC's came close to dying. My next campaign had a Gnomish Druid who died when the group was fighting a vampire. But since they were helping the Chuch of Pelor (who basically controlled the town the Vampire was in), the Church offered to raise the Druid.

My new campaign has had 2 combats so far. I won't hold back from killing them. Actually, one of the PC's almost killed the other. There is an item from Magic of Farun that has pebbles in it that when they are thrown turn into gigantic boulders dealing 3d6 damage. One of the PCs decided to throw the rocks in the bag at a fellow PC who asked for them (they didn't know what they were) and, well, did 6d6 points of damage. (he is a 5th level monk). Luckily, the Monk lived.

I've been playing about 1 1/2 years and have lost quite a few PC's, and each time instead of ressurection or what not, I rolled a new PC.

 

[Datt]

In the game that I play our DM came up with what I think is a good way to res. Each PC earns Divine Favors. The PC doesn't not keep track of these points only the DM does. They are earned through our actions, or taken away because of our actions. If the killed PC does not have any Divine Favors then the gods do not decide to spend their energy to bring the soul back. It makes for an interesting game as we are all a little more religous than we used to be.

 

[jasper]

I Play what most of you would call stick an another quarter in the slot.
I have had npc clerics get rich over raising the party.
Unless I had a problem with the character, any cleric would raise them if they met the price. Of course, the price was never the suggested retail price.
I have been called the deadliest DM by some of my players. But the raises were back in town. Hope the party makes it back before your time is up.
This quarter a life makes me able to be mean. You jack slap grandma who wearing combat boots. Surprise granny is a fifth level fighter and has a wicked left jab.( I wonder if I have grandma’s stats.)
I show very little mercy and generally will not fudge a die roll. Occasionally, if just want to be nice that night, I will change the amount to drop you into the negatives but not kill you.
Most players after two or three deaths don’t want to come back.
Also imc I allow god calls. 5% chance of the god hearing you and helping you. But remember the gods move in mysterious ways. Just as Floppy the Elf. (check out the adventurers of Darryl in the story hour look deep).

While some my games would make great scifi movies of the week, some faces and adventurers would have to change to keep the cast down.

In my current campaign we had two final deaths and a couple of raises. So people want their character back some didn’t. No big deal. The raises are their to raise the spirit of the gamers.
.

 

[hammymchamham]

Of course, one way to look at it is, DM's don't kill PC's, Dragons* do

*Insert appropriate monster, ncp or pc here

 

[Sanackranib]

threat of death

it doesn't matter weither the danger is there so long as your players BELIEVE that it's there. I have been in a lot of games where the players assumed that there was more danger then there actually was - and their characters behaved accordingly.

I learned long ago that the DM can kill the players off any time he wants to. so, as a DM you don't have to run every encounter as a death encounter. characters die and it's part of the game but when they die because of their actions as opposed to you "killing" them then I have found that they tend to react better to it. As a player I know that I do.

 

[Anubis]

All I know is that it is an undisputable fact that raising is better for the game than forcing a player to create a new character. That's no fun, usually. Creating a Level 1 character can take an hour or more, and creating characters above Level 1 can take hours that are better spent gaming. This kind of interruption is a disaster for most campaigns, not to mention it's hard to care about a character if he dies three sessions later. Rolling up new characters KILLS continuity pretty much every time.

 

[Cameroon]

In my campaigns, when a PC dies, they die. The rules are there to be followed in a stern, but fair manner.