Are you a killer DM?
- Thread starter Archade
- Start date
Vymair
First Post
I picked 3-5, but I probably sit on the edge of 5/6 a year. I was DMing weekly but recently went bi-weekly, so that might slow the kill rate down a little 
.
I tend to run encounters which challenge my players, so mistakes tend to be paid for in lives. Of the last three characters deaths in my game since I restarted my game in December 2002.
1) The party split themselves across the bridge on the first fight of Forge of Fury and the 3rd level Halfling Rogue got pasted by Ulfe.
2) Orc Barbarians attacked the party at night and I critted with a Greataxe (Bad luck for the players) on a 2nd Cleric/1st Bard.
3) 6th level Dwarf Wizard got trapped b/w two Barbazu and tried to tough it out, then I critted with a Glaive and polished him off. I think he could avoided this one if he had cast invisibility instead of shield.
I've also sent plenty of people into negatives but my players handle my very tough encounters very well overall.
.I tend to run encounters which challenge my players, so mistakes tend to be paid for in lives. Of the last three characters deaths in my game since I restarted my game in December 2002.
1) The party split themselves across the bridge on the first fight of Forge of Fury and the 3rd level Halfling Rogue got pasted by Ulfe.
2) Orc Barbarians attacked the party at night and I critted with a Greataxe (Bad luck for the players) on a 2nd Cleric/1st Bard.
3) 6th level Dwarf Wizard got trapped b/w two Barbazu and tried to tough it out, then I critted with a Glaive and polished him off. I think he could avoided this one if he had cast invisibility instead of shield.
I've also sent plenty of people into negatives but my players handle my very tough encounters very well overall.
Endur
First Post
Re: Ouch. 
High level combats take longer.
On the plus side, after you've run the party through several combat encounters, you and they will both have a good feel for their tactics and things will go a little smoother and quicker (i.e. less reading of spells to see what they do in situation X, etc.).
High level combats take longer.
On the plus side, after you've run the party through several combat encounters, you and they will both have a good feel for their tactics and things will go a little smoother and quicker (i.e. less reading of spells to see what they do in situation X, etc.).
Jhyrryl said:
I just ran the first encounter of that for one of my groups. While no one died, it was a 7-hour session for a single combat. I'm looking forward to the rest of the module. ::
Jhyrryl
First Post
7 Hours != Newbie Encounter
Yes, but my groups aren't newbie groups. We've all been playing 3rd-edition since very near it's inception. They just weren't quite prepared for the particular encounter that starts the module. Although I will admit that I tacked an extra level onto the main baddie to offset the group's larger than written for size, and modified his spell selection a little bit (we're already playing with the 3.5 haste, so wanted to swap that out; and wall of ice has been a major contributor to wreaking havok amongst both the groups I beat on lately ).
High level combats take longer.
On the plus side, after you've run the party through several combat encounters, you and they will both have a good feel for their tactics and things will go a little smoother and quicker (i.e. less reading of spells to see what they do in situation X, etc.).
Originally posted by Jhyrryl:
I just ran the first encounter of that for one of my groups. While no one died, it was a 7-hour session for a single combat. I'm looking forward to the rest of the module. :
Yes, but my groups aren't newbie groups.
We've all been playing 3rd-edition since very near it's inception. They just weren't quite prepared for the particular encounter that starts the module. Although I will admit that I tacked an extra level onto the main baddie to offset the group's larger than written for size, and modified his spell selection a little bit (we're already playing with the 3.5 haste, so wanted to swap that out; and wall of ice has been a major contributor to wreaking havok amongst both the groups I beat on lately ).
Archade
Azer Paladin
Cool Results!
Hey guys, thanks for the response to my poll! The results on the kill-scale look really interesting! I was wondering if I was being too hard on my players, but maybe not.
However, they are about to enter CotSQ, so I may be moving up to "Rivers of Blood & Stacks of Character Sheets".
Does anyone find that PC deaths come more readily as they go up in levels? Now that they're 7th-9th level, I'm finding a lot more 'save or die' situations.
True?
Archade
Hey guys, thanks for the response to my poll! The results on the kill-scale look really interesting! I was wondering if I was being too hard on my players, but maybe not.
However, they are about to enter CotSQ, so I may be moving up to "Rivers of Blood & Stacks of Character Sheets".
Does anyone find that PC deaths come more readily as they go up in levels? Now that they're 7th-9th level, I'm finding a lot more 'save or die' situations.
True?
Archade
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