tlantl
First Post
The real problem with character death is: It sidelines the player until either a) the character is resurrected or b) has rolled up a replacement character.
This argument seems just a little off. I get the impression that those who think this way have some deep rooted issues revolving around selfishness and other equally undesirable personality traits.
In my experience the dead guy usually has to wait until the fight is over and the group makes the trip to town, where in most cases the whole affair takes a few minutes of the time allotted for your gaming session. Sometimes this takes a little longer if there are things going on that can't wait.
If your DMing style is at odds with raise dead spells then that is something you need to deal with as the game has mechanics built in to keep characters from dying permanent deaths.
I understand that actually killing a character in the most recent version of the game would take a herculean effort on the part of the DM or a truly inept one.
Of course if the party had an NPC along for moral support, or the dead guy had a henchman or two, the player sitting idle wouldn't be an issue since he could still continue to play only he'd be using a different character. He could also start making a new character if that is how you deal with dead characters in your game. Character creation means he's not sitting idly by while everyone else plays, he's doing something.
As I see it, someone complaining about the natural outcome of a game where characters are put in life threatening situations and they fail is the last thing I want to deal with. Those people can go play a video game or something because I don't have much patience for that sort of thing at the table.
We will get to you as soon as possible, chill!