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

[jasper]

My K/d is 1 per 3 sessions.

 

[Theory of Games]

Did earlier editions have encounter guidelines?

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

The Rules Cyclopedia (BECMI) has optional rules for this:

• creating "balanced" combat encounters (pg. 100-101). Pretty obvious this rule inspired the "Challenge Rating" system of later editions
• If a PC hits 0 HP, they must make a save vs. Death Ray each subsequent round to avoid dying. A Cleric with "heals" or a character with the Healing skill can possibly save them by restoring HP. It's clear 5e's Death Saves rule was inspired by this RC option

Great thread discussion

 

[MGibster]

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.

Are we telling a story or playing a game? That's actually a pretty big question now that I think about it. In short, I think we're playing a game that happens to have story elements to it. If we were just telling a story there would be no need for dice and we could choose the best narrative moments for a character to die.

 

[Reynard]

I think rules do...

I can force the players to describe how they check the door for traps in exhaustive, excruciating detail regardless of the version of D&D we are using.

 

[Reynard]

Are we telling a story or playing a game? That's actually a pretty big question now that I think about it. In short, I think we're playing a game that happens to have story elements to it. If we were just telling a story there would be no need for dice and we could choose the best narrative moments for a character to die.

I think we are playing a game that results in stories. Sometimes, those stories are very short and brutal...

 

[Imaro]

I can force the players to describe how they check the door for traps in exhaustive, excruciating detail regardless of the version of D&D we are using.

Yes, and?? Unless you are also choosing your own resolution mechanic and process... which yes anyone can modify the rules.... then in some games this is just description while in others it is the mechanic and process for finding said trap.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I can't (and won't even try to) speak to how anyone else could or would determine D&D 5e's lethality, but I personally can see how close the parties I'm DMing for come to being wiped. The game is, or at least can be, exactly as lethal as a given DM wants, same as previous editions, IME.

I think the issue here is: how far beyond the game's defaults do you need to go to challenge the PCs at a potentially lethal level?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Or you don't grasp the system as well... or they work together better... or etc. Just because it takes more for you to challenge the characters doesn't necessarily mean the lethality of the system is less.

I kinda think it does mean that, at least from the perspective of what the game expects as a default.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Yeah. I don't really miss the old school save-or-die effects or having to be constantly paranoid due insakill traps. That to me is not a fun sort of a challenge. I think there should be several steps on the road to the defeat, so that they players have genuine chance to correct the course before it is too late.

And you're comfortable with the result that the chance of such defeats would be drastically curtailed, often to the point of being extremely unlikely, or (functionally) impossible?

 

[Micah Sweet]

While in general I think the deadliness of a game has always been up to the group, I will also say that if the DM didn't take steps to change things older versions of D&D led to more accidentally deadly games. It can still happen in 5E, but it's far less likely to have "Oops you're dead" moments. Back in ye olden' days we just had house rules to minimize it or ignored the "save or die" options.

For me, back in ye olden' days we accepted that sometimes your PC dies, and then you make another one and keep playing, because the player was more important than the PC.