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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fanaelialae" data-source="post: 4218595" data-attributes="member: 53980">Kids gloves rules are fine if you want to play that way, but my group appreciates the threat of death throughout the PCs careers (the danger of death is a large part of what makes combat fun, IMO).  Just not insta-death.  I can't think of anything less fun in an RPG than losing your character in a scenario that you had absolutely no say in or control over.At level 1, unless you win initiative against an ogre, you're as good as dead.  Sometimes running is indeed the answer.  Unfortunately the low PC hp and high monster damage of 3.x often made this virtually impossible unless the entire party won initiative (unless we're playing evil characters, most of us are not too keen on the whole leaving friends to die thing- we feel it's very unheroic).They were goblins with bows, not ogres (the CR 1/3 goblin from the MM).  A bow does x3 damage on a crit, doing 1d6 normally.  Rolling max, that's 18 total damage, which was more than enough to kill my level 1 wizard outright.My DM couldn't just ignore the result since my group rolls dice out in the open, including the DM.  We could all see that it was a nat 20.It wasn't my DM that was the problem (he's a fantastic DM who has allowed unconventional tactics and benefits during boss battles that were going south), it was the system.  I feel pretty safe saying this since it looks like, if the same scenario occured in 4e (goblin crits a level 1 wizard with an arrow on the first round of combat), I'd have deducted the hps, maybe used second wind on my next turn, and the campaign would have continued without interruption (for me).  The scenario killed me in 3.x.  The scenario wouldn't have (outright) killed me in 4e.  One of these seems to me to be better balanced in this respect than the other.Saying that the DM can ignore the system when it doesn't work does not make for a good system.  Shouldn't the rules of a game system work toward the goal of fun, even when applied "evenly"?  DM fiat is fine when necessary, but I'd consider this a case where less is more.</blockquote>

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