Killed lately?

[loki44]

I'm just curious here and I'm looking for opinions. Has D&D gotten progressively less lethal for PC's with each new edition? It's purely subjective, but that is my impression. Whether it's true or not I'm not trying to put a value judgement on it as if to say that more, or less, lethal is a good or bad thing. I'm just asking in general here. Forget about exceptions like Tomb of Horrors or "another TPK in Barakus". It takes a heck of a lot more time to create a character in 3.5 than it did in OD&D, so are DM's more lenient because of this?

 

[Rystil Arden]

I'm just curious here and I'm looking for opinions. Has D&D gotten progressively less lethal for PC's with each new edition? It's purely subjective, but that is my impression. Whether it's true or not I'm not trying to put a value judgement on it as if to say that more, or less, lethal is a good or bad thing. I'm just asking in general here. Forget about exceptions like Tomb of Horrors or "another TPK in Barakus". It takes a heck of a lot more time to create a character in 3.5 than it did in OD&D, so are DM's more lenient because of this?

I don't think so. One session when I was DMing for less experienced players, I TPKed the characters twice, causing us to start 3 new campaigns on the same night. It seemed like everyone had fun making the new characters though.

 

[loki44]

It seemed like everyone had fun making the new characters though.

There's nothing quite like the thrill of rolling up a new character. I've witnessed the same sort of frenzy of creation.....when death didn't seem so bad because the joy of rebirth lay just around the corner. You said that you started 3 campaigns that night. Did the third finally take hold? Once you got the campaign out of the blocks, have there been any PC deaths? I guess I should revise my question to exclude one-offs. I'm more interested in long-term campaigns.

 

[Rystil Arden]

There's nothing quite like the thrill of rolling up a new character. I've witnessed the same sort of frenzy of creation.....when death didn't seem so bad because the joy of rebirth lay just around the corner. You said that you started 3 campaigns that night. Did the third finally take hold? Once you got the campaign out of the blocks, have there been any PC deaths? I guess I should revise my question to exclude one-offs. I'm more interested in long-term campaigns.

Well, the third time the entire party barely escaped a TPK by retreating. Then the two conscious characters stole money from the others and used it to buy the most expensive suite in the most expensive inn in town to recover (the healer was down). I think they enjoyed having the lavish descriptions of the opulent luxury their characters were experiencing while the other players laughed at their own characters' misfortunes (or growled, upset that they didn't get the same). When it looked like the other characters were about ready to wake up, they moved them into a ramshackled and flooded wharf shanty to awaken there as a joke.

 

[Rystil Arden]

There's nothing quite like the thrill of rolling up a new character. I've witnessed the same sort of frenzy of creation.....when death didn't seem so bad because the joy of rebirth lay just around the corner. You said that you started 3 campaigns that night. Did the third finally take hold? Once you got the campaign out of the blocks, have there been any PC deaths? I guess I should revise my question to exclude one-offs. I'm more interested in long-term campaigns.

As for my ongoing campaign with my regular players that went from level 1-20 so far, I would say recent precedent averages in about one death of either a player, a cohort, or an NPC ally per battle (sometimes nobody dies, and sometimes lots of them die).

 

[DaveMage]

There's nothing quite like the thrill of rolling up a new character. I've witnessed the same sort of frenzy of creation.....when death didn't seem so bad

The thing about 3E is that there are now *so many* options with characters that even though it takes longer to make them, I enjoy trying new classes, new class combos, and just trying to sample all of the options that I can. I haven't run out of options yet, and I don't think I really will in my lifetime.

As to your initial question about D&D being less lethal, I'd have to say "no" since monsters are monsters, and there's always one out there that can destroy a party very quickly. That said, however, some of the spells of D&D have become less lethal (such as harm and disintegrate)

 

[IronWolf]

I had a PC in a campaign I DM get killed last session. It was the sixth session for the campaign and first character death (though there had been a couple of times characters went to the negatives but were healed before death fell upon them).

 

[loki44]

I had a PC in a campaign I DM get killed last session. It was the sixth session for the campaign and first character death (though there had been a couple of times characters went to the negatives but were healed before death fell upon them).

My condolences.

 

[loki44]

As to your initial question about D&D being less lethal, I'd have to say "no" since monsters are monsters, and there's always one out there that can destroy a party very quickly.

Right you are. Maybe I'm wrong in thinking that the progression of editions has anything to do with a lessening of lethality and more to do with style of play changing over time (which may or may not have anything to do with the evolution of editions). Or maybe it's just me making this postulation based on a relatively small sample of experiences.

 

[Talmun]

I think that the game is maybe a little less lethal now than it was in previous editions, although that may be the way I run 3.5 vs. the way my former DM ran 2e...

My game tends to have a low PC-death rate, although that's mostly due to my players being smart and careful...they do get hurt a lot, and someone drops to 0 or negative HPs pretty often. I had two PC death in two weeks recently, but that was due to some big encounters (creature with a vorpal attack and a Balor); before that it had been months since a PC death (we play every week for 4-6 hours).