D&D 5E (2014) Ahhh: Level Two

[TarionzCousin]

We hit level two last night halfway through our second session and that gives me such a sense of relief. First level is sooooooooo fragile.

[Of course, my PC was taken from full hit points to unconscious in one surprise attack from a grick, but that's not the point of this thread.]

Is First Level where a large percentage of deaths occur in 5E?

Have your low level characters been more "run and hide" than you're accustomed to playing?

 

[iserith]

Most of the characters that have met their end in my games have been around 3rd or 4th level. I'm also having no problem at all slapping around the 10th-level characters in my current game.

My experience is that most players have some awareness of the fragility of 1st-level characters and are a bit more cautious (but not so cautious as to make the game boring). As a result, I haven't seen any 1st-level deaths.

 

[ProphetSword]

I've had more characters go down from levels 7-9 so far than I did during the first 6 levels. Not sure what that's all about, but I imagine part of it is because the campaign started with the playtest rules where the monsters were less brutal. But, even still, I see at least one character go down per session, sometimes more. Not usually in a single hit, but sometimes in a single round.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

My players felt all superhuman on reaching level 2 and quickly found out they're still pretty damn fragile!

 

[aramis erak]

We hit level two last night halfway through our second session and that gives me such a sense of relief. First level is sooooooooo fragile.

[Of course, my PC was taken from full hit points to unconscious in one surprise attack from a grick, but that's not the point of this thread.]

Is First Level where a large percentage of deaths occur in 5E?

Have your low level characters been more "run and hide" than you're accustomed to playing?

Not IME. They still KNOW they're fragile. Most of mine were 2nd level...

 

[Rhenny]

We felt the same way in HoDQ when we hit 2nd level. Since then, we only have 1 person go unconscious every other encounter instead of every encounter. lol.

 

[TarionzCousin]

So to sum it all up: maybe.

 

[KarinsDad]

Our only death: 4th level.

However, PCs have generally been going unconscious less the higher up we go. It still happens in tough fights though.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I haven't changed my style of play. Then again, I come from 1e, so 5e even at level one feels like they are very competent and not fragile at all

 

[MortalPlague]

I nearly killed a PC in my 17th level game the other night. The session before, my buddy nearly TPK'ed us.

PC deaths can happen at any level.