D&D General How Often Should a PC Die in D&D 5e?

[AegisRom]

Depends entirely on the group and the kind of campaign! My group? We're pretty crunchy, so maybe one death every 2-3 levels is about right. Keeps things interesting without being a total meat grinder.

 

[Imaro]

I grasp it just fine. When I have to throw extra powerful monsters or powerful monsters at much lower levels to challenge them, it's an easier game. The 5e balance around resource attrition and high hit points makes it harder to threaten PC lives with encounters that would have been a challenge in earlier editions.

Did earlier editions have encounter guidelines?

Edit: And with bounded accuracy aren't mobs of low levels more dangerous?

 

[prabe]

I grasp it just fine. When I have to throw extra powerful monsters or powerful monsters at much lower levels to challenge them, it's an easier game. The 5e balance around resource attrition and high hit points makes it harder to threaten PC lives with encounters that would have been a challenge in earlier editions.

That's definitely a way to judge easier/harder ... But IME it's just as easy to make an encounter that will splatterfy the party, sometimes unintentionally. The fact that, say, a Balor is barely a speedbump for a Tier 3 party doesn't mean it's harder to kill them, it just means you can't do it with one Balor.

(My point being what you're talking about isn't the only way to judge this, not that it's a bad way.)

 

[MGibster]

If your dice are willing your characters to die, perhaps it's time to get new dice..............................or perform an exorcism.

I am just a humble DM. The dice simply express their will through me. The dice gods are fickle, and their capricious moods bring boon or bane to all!

 

[prabe]

Did earlier editions have encounter guidelines?

3e and 4e definitely did, and there's at least an argument that "dungeon level" served as something like on in AD&D. I played a lot of 1e, but I didn't run enough to have an opinion on that, or to make that argument, but I know it exists.

 

[prabe]

I am just a humble DM. The dice simply express their will through me. The dice gods are fickle, and their capricious moods bring boon or bane to all!

Usually my dice have the monsters I'm running performing interpretative dances on their turns, when they should plausibly be attacking the PCs. Once in a while, though, they just decide THE STARS ARE RIGHT AND ALL THE PCS MUST DIE NOW.

 

[Imaro]

3e and 4e definitely did, and there's at least an argument that "dungeon level" served as something like on in AD&D. I played a lot of 1e, but I didn't run enough to have an opinion on that, or to make that argument, but I know it exists.

Yeah I've always been under the impression that 0e, 1e, 2e, b/x, etc. had little to no guidance at the encounter level... but i could be wrong.

 

[prabe]

Yeah I've always been under the impression that 0e, 1e, 2e, b/x, etc. had little to no guidance at the encounter level... but i could be wrong.

My impression is that "dungeon level" was more an overall "level appropriate" indicator than anything else, based on when PCs should/would probably be getting to a given dungeon level. That obviously becomes less useful as the game moves away from dungeons (and the 1e games I was in, in the mid-1980s, very much moved away from dungeons, something I was deeply happy for).

 

[Oofta]

I am just a humble DM. The dice simply express their will through me. The dice gods are fickle, and their capricious moods bring boon or bane to all!

Might be time then ...

 

[Alder'N'Bone]

For me, it's all about the story. If a death serves the narrative and makes sense within the context of the adventure, then it's fine. Frequency shouldn't be a hard rule. Sometimes a campaign goes a long time without a death, sometimes it's back-to-back.