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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Deus Ex Machina" data-source="post: 3685903" data-attributes="member: 54010">Nope. I like that too. There should be very few clear decisions and a very real risk of loss to get the adrenalin really pumping. Keep in mind that a character isn't dead until they are -10 DEAD; they are just rendered unconscious. That's quite a bit of damage for a EL 1 NPC to inflict. And sometimes, well, you just get really unlucky.I may be considered a bit tough as a DM, but I usually aim to disable or negate at least one character during each combat. I want players fearing death. I want them in two states of mind. I want the party cleric to have to stop pounding an NPC and rush to the aid of his/her comrades because they are unconscious and dying (and I now have their sheet so that nobody else knows exactly what HP they are currently on). Anyhow, with that said, a solution for those who do want tougher 1st level characters with a bit more longevity...Rather than unbalance the game by permanently giving characters their CON for HP at level 1, simply use CON as a threshold. That is, a character always uses their CON or HP, whichever is higher. By second or third level, a character's HP is higher than their CON anyway, so you can then discard the rule.Everyone's a winner!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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