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Message: <blockquote data-quote="NMcCoy" data-source="post: 5228170" data-attributes="member: 61546">In the most recent campaign session I was in, our level 9 party of 4 pcs (accompanied by 10 npcs of varying competence) was in a fight that included, among other things:* An enemy with a ranged attack that could rip your soul out of your body on a hit, and a melee attack that inflicted "at the start of each turn, you lose 1 healing surge (no save)".* Draconic avatars of the god of the sun and the goddess of the moon who were oathbound to defend the kingdom (currently ruled by the previously mentioned enemy). The moon dragon was persuaded by a PC to leave without harming us, and conferred a blessing on the PCs in the room before departing - temporary HP equal to her surge value (173 temp HP).In our game, we have a houserule to add Aspects and Fate Points (from the Fate system); this provides a great deal of buffer to what we can survive in the short term, but during the 6-hour-long fight there were about 4 fate points left between all the PCs (of the ~36 we started with), and we only prevailed because (through tactics, creativity, and well-timed natural 20s) the BBEG got sliced in half with a portal, the sun god got teleported elsewhere, and the moon goddess left rather than fighting. And we certainly didn't emerge unscathed - one of the PCs (with a prayer to the god of death, who he became a devotee of after being given a second chance at life) removed the surge drain effect from another, taking it upon himself instead. He died as a result, but remains animated through the grace of the death god. Which is problematic for him, as he now has a vulnerability to sunlight and we're making a trek through the desert next. Other characters have suffered consequences of similar scope throughout the campaign; while death is a very real possibility, there are many other more interesting dire outcomes of the PCs' actions that can and do occur.In short: in or out of combat, provide lasting consequences to the events that the PCs take part in. This can mean a PC dies in combat, gets reanimated by his god, and is now a lich; it can mean that a PC gets a wrenched arm and can no longer wield his sword properly; it can mean that a PC's beloved familiar takes a hit from a god-slaying sword and is irrevocably destroyed. It can also mean that a PC gets crowned ruler of a city in the Shadowfell, or throws a concert so awesome that the collective outpouring of goodwill brings his loved one back to life. (All these things have happened in the campaign I'm in.)</blockquote>

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