Altamont is Dead [or short-lived characters and what to do]

[Altamont Ravenard]

Recently, I've been having a streak of bad luck with characters. I think the last 3 or 4 I made barely made it through 1 or 2 sessions each.

The last few times, the body was irrecuperable, and so I had to roll up a new character (I don't mind too much. I like trying new concepts. Can't say I got to try them for real long).

Last night, my character (4th level diviner, almost enough xp for 6th, but need to train each odd level, and we can't go back to town right now) got fireballed (with 3 other NPC's) to death while he was pretty much stuck on a boat by a naga. Amazingly, it wasn't a TPK*, and the body (badly burned) was recuperated, so there is a chance that the surviving PC's will be able to raise me.

I'm pondering telling the DM that I'd prefer to stay dead, and make a character with more than 20 hp.

That's going to be the 5th character I make in about 8 sessions (3 diffrent DM's).

I guess I was wondering, what's the average life expectancy of your characters, and how do you react when you can't seem to find a concept that "works"?

AR

*Spirit Naga (Charm gaze, DC 18 Con Poison, 7th-level sorceror, CR9) vs
barbarian 6 (got charmed)
paladin 6 (used up his lay on hands to try and heal me, but I was dead already)
cleric 6 (succeeeded in dispelling the naga's buff spells, or it WOULD have been a TPK)
fighter 5 (killed the naga with a successful charge while at 0 hp)
diviner 4 (burned up eral quick and couldn't do much about it)
npc cleric 3
npc fighter 3
npc fighter 2

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

I don't know. In our game, my character (1/2 elven sorcerer), and one of the guy's characters (human ranger) are the only two who have not died. The deaths have been due to extremely bad luck, and some poor tactics, such as rushing into a battle they didn't have to without fully healing. All of the dead have been raised. I have the least amount of HP in the party. Having more HP doesn't always mean you'll live longer.

If your characters are dying so frequently, I have to wonder if perhaps your DM is simply putting your PC's up against monsters that are too challenging for your parties level. Do you find this to be the case?

 

[Lalato]

I haven't had too many characters die... I mostly have to roll up new characters because campaigns are short lived. There was a stretch there where I made 3 new characters in about a month and a half. Only one of them actually died.

--sam

 

[Czhorat]

Most of my characters tend to survive for a long time. The key is to play them with survival as a goal. I agree with Djeta that hit points aren't the most important thing. My last two characters, a mage and a bard, were never leaders in hit points. We did have one mostly-unavoidable death (a sorceror killed in a flame strike), but most are avoidable. Being a couple of levels behind is a big strike against you, but doesn't have to be a kiss of death. Some thoughts:


1) As a wizard you should NEVER get anywhere near melee combat. If the group is faced with ranged combat, get cover and use spells like shield or mage armour.

2) Make sure you keep yourself fully healed. Buy potions if you have to. True, you're not going to take as much damage as the tanks in the party, but you don't have that many to lose. A cure light wounds potion now could be the difference between negative 8 HP and minus 10 later.

3) Talk to the others in your party. Make sure they all see stabilizing unconcious comrades as a priority. This way you'll be there to fight another day and they'll not have to pay to have you raised.

4) Think about tactics. Avoid "fireball formation" when possible. Try to strike a balance between spreading out so far that the group is easilly separated and clustering so tightly together that one spell could kill all of you. Were your group spread out a bit, the Naga might not even have used a fireball. If you have to take a small boat across a river in hostile territory, scout around a bit first to make sure it's safe. Use defensive spells if possible.

Failure to level up was perhaps a big issue. A level 5 spellcaster has access to level three spells. If you had suspicions that an ambush was coming, perhaps a fly spell could have put you in a safer position, for example. I don't know about your spell selection - have you taken things like invisibility, expeditious retreat, or anything else that'd get you out of a tight situation? If not, perhaps that's something to consider.

Were there clues that such a dangerous and unusual monster as the Naga was in the area? If not, perhaps your party should spend more time scouting and gathering information. A level four divininer isn't all that good at learning about the surrounding area, but perhaps the barbarian has some wilderness knowledge that would help in the future. Perhaps you can even ask the DM if there are any clues you missed so you can prepare better next time.

Good luck!

 

[Nail]

...Failure to level up was perhaps a big issue....

Probably the biggest issue, bar none. If the pace of adventures doesn't allow you to level up in a timely manner....consider changing the way levels are advanced. I'd imagine the difference in hp alone would have been enough to keep you alive (at -7 hp, or whatever).

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

And before going on a journey where you don't know what awaits you, if you need healing badly, get it.
Our dwarf was done by 2/3 HP and that's how he died. I asked if anyone needed healing (I have acure light wounds wand with many charges left) and he didn't speak up.

Also, if you are hit, and you know you're getting low in HP, step back. Keep a healing potion around your neck at all times to down, or to have party memebers force down your throat if you're left unconcious.

 

[Czhorat]

And before going on a journey where you don't know what awaits you, if you need healing badly, get it.

That was one of my points too. We might as well add that if you're in a safe place and the group is either low on spells or has spells that are poorly chosen for the current situation you should camp for the night and re-memorize them. Make sure you're prepared for emergency escapes. Try to have potions of invisibility or fly or something to sneak away from a bad situation.

I think our biggest point here - and this is one that would fit Steveroo's issue as well - is that you need to be prepared.

 

[Jeph]

I've been having my players go up against challenges that would be standard for characters about 3 levels higher than theirs on a regular basis (four 8th level characters against a fiendish awakened dire tiger, or against a Retriever with a Half-Fiend Rogue2/Sorcerer5 director, for instance), and none have died yet...of course, they know I'm a bastard and will never give them a "fair fight" so have taken to teleport-fireball-teleport tactics and all plausible variations thereof. And putting the NPCs in the front line.

Funny thing is, the only healing power they have is one Cure Light Wounds per day from the Ranger and a potion or two. And they only got the CLW last level.

Not much blast power either; the wizard is a conjurer with Evocation as their forfeitted school. He has to result to summoning veritable herds of celestial bison in most situations.

But they manage.

 

[Dimwhit]

I have had some characters that never died, some that did. On average, probably once every 10 levels or so. I don't die as often as some of the other players, but I play much more cautiously. I get accused of being the first to run, but that's not really the case. My Wizard never gets close to melee, the Rogue I just finished up learned his lesson early on after dying. He'd get in, do his damage, and get out. And in many battles, when for whatever reason he was useless (like against undead), he would play very conservatively.

We have had some players die because the rest of the party unwittingly left him along to take the brunt of attacks. Or a player will move in to attack, thinking the rest of the party will join, and when they don't, that players is stuck taking all the attacks from the BBEG.

The most important thing to keeping someone alive is to work as a party. Not always easy.

 

[Felix]

Here's an amusing trend I've seen in one of my games:
I'm playing a Gnoll Rgr2/Dru3 who can hold his own very well in combat. He's the fierce type, so he attacks after maybe one or two buff spells, and starts hacking away.

As it happens, the folks we've been fighting recently are kinda under orders to whittle the group down - by taking out the least powerful first (mage, rogue, etc...). So when I chase down a bad guy that's chopping up my wizard friend, they maneuver so as to not attack me! I keep rushing into fights, but nobody wants to go at it!