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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 8941235" data-attributes="member: 29398">Short answer: I'm not sure you can.This isn't a new issue: it was a problem in original D&amp;D (except instead of unconscious, losing that last hit point would make you dead) and hasn't gone away since.Feedback from...?I ask because if your feedback is mostly coming from sources who got their start in D&amp;D during the WotC-edition era it's going to skew toward a viewpoint where combat is the first answer to just about everything in the game; as that's the WotC way.The solution is not to do away with death-spiral design.&nbsp; Quite the opposite, in fact.&nbsp; The solution is to somehow educate players (and some GMs) that the best way to avoid death spirals is for the PCs to, where possible, eschew combat in favour of other solutions - negotiation, avoidance, stealth, bribery - and if you must get into combat make good and sure to do everything you can to ensure the opposition feels the pain and you don't. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />I had a player who would, when asked what his character's hit points were at the end of the session, tell me by saying &quot;I made X mistakes tonight.&quot;&nbsp; By that I knew his PC was down X hit points from full, with each one lost being a &quot;mistake&quot;.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 8941235, member: 29398"] Short answer: I'm not sure you can. This isn't a new issue: it was a problem in original D&D (except instead of unconscious, losing that last hit point would make you dead) and hasn't gone away since. Feedback from...? I ask because if your feedback is mostly coming from sources who got their start in D&D during the WotC-edition era it's going to skew toward a viewpoint where combat is the first answer to just about everything in the game; as that's the WotC way. The solution is not to do away with death-spiral design. Quite the opposite, in fact. The solution is to somehow educate players (and some GMs) that the best way to avoid death spirals is for the PCs to, where possible, eschew combat in favour of other solutions - negotiation, avoidance, stealth, bribery - and if you must get into combat make good and sure to do everything you can to ensure the opposition feels the pain and you don't. :) I had a player who would, when asked what his character's hit points were at the end of the session, tell me by saying "I made X mistakes tonight." By that I knew his PC was down X hit points from full, with each one lost being a "mistake". [/QUOTE]

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