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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 4218534" data-attributes="member: 58197">Overpowered?  We're not talking about an overpowered encounter here, we're talking about a properly balanced encounter where the PCs had bad luck and died.  Which can happen very easily at 1st level in 3.X, because a single crit can take you from full hit points to bleeding out, or even flat dead.Take a typical party of first-level PCs against two orc warriors.  Orcs are CR 1/2, so that's a balanced encounter, right?  We'll say the wizard has cast one spell today and has one casting of sleep left.Round 1: Orcs win initiative.  First one charges the 13-hp fighter and crits for 19, taking him to -6.  Second orc attacks the 9-hp cleric and hits for 9, taking him down to 0 (staggered).  On his turn, fighter bleeds to -7.  Cleric heals himself back up to 5, since he can't do anything else without going into negatives.  Wizard casts sleep at the orcs; both make their saves.  Rogue flanks with cleric, attacks and misses.Round 2: One orc attacks the cleric and hits for 6, taking him down to -1.  Other orc moves to attack wizard and misses.  Fighter bleeds to -8, cleric bleeds to -2.  Wizard steps back, shoots a crossbow bolt at the orc attacking him, and does 2 damage.  Rogue steps up behind that orc and attacks for 5 points, dropping it to -2.Round 3: Remaining orc attacks rogue and misses.  Fighter bleeds to -9, cleric stabilizes.  Wizard shoots a crossbow bolt, misses.  Rogue hits, but has no one to flank with (wizard is using a ranged weapon and so cannot threaten) and only inflicts 3 damage.Round 4: Orc attacks 8-hp rogue and hits for 11, then moves to engage wizard.  Fighter dies, rogue bleeds to -4.  Wizard sees the writing on the wall and withdraws.Round 5: Orc hurls javelin after fleeing 6-hp wizard, hits for 7 damage.  Fighter is dead, all other PCs are unconscious and the wizard and rogue are bleeding out.  Even if the DM is merciful and has the surviving orc try to take them captive, there's a good chance that either the wizard or the rogue will die as well before the orc can make an untrained Heal check.This isn't a particularly unlikely scenario.  Yes, the orcs got lucky (especially on the first round, with the crit and the two successful saving throws) and the PCs rolled badly, but there's nothing implausible here--I've certainly seen worse runs of luck plenty of times at the gaming table.  The PCs' tactics were not bad, if not spectacular.This is a silly way to design a game.  If you need DMs to fudge rolls to keep PCs alive at low levels, why not just build a game where PCs have decent survivability at low levels?  Same result, but now you're not relying on DMs to know that you have to fudge to make things work properly.Or, a rule that gives 1st-level PCs more hit points.  Much simpler.  Which, funnily enough, is what 4E is doing.</blockquote>

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