D&D 5E Character Death

[Blue]

5e, and most D&Ds, unlike other game systems, Death isn't a very big speedbump because of the methods to bring characters back to life. And they put in large buffers before you even get there. Even if there is a death, the player is usually out-of-play for about the same time as if their PC was captured. Or returned to play even quicker once you reach the levels that the PCs can raise other PCs. And I love the fear of death, both as a player and as a DM, which requires a real chance of it happening.

I go full out when I run. I set up encounters that are deadly. And then when we run I am my player's biggest cheerleader and "Say Yes!" man - but I still roll all my dice in the open and play them how they fall. My players know I'm on their side, but situations are stacked against them and there is real risk. So when they overcome it they feel like they did good. Because they did.

And for all of that real risk, in my current campaign that just hit it's 3rd year, I killed zero PCs in combat. They know it can happen, so they stay on their toes and prevent it. (I did have one death, where a player wanted to retire their character and pulled a martyr to save another PC.) My previous two campaigns lasted 12 year between then and also have very few deaths, maybe once every 3-4 years. But that's because they respect it, are willing to run, and play smart - especially when the dice go south and the plan goes pear-shaped.

As a player, I get bored at the time wasted for trivial combats. I don't mind a few combats we know we're going to win to wear us down, but an "oh look, one combat today and you win it handily" is boring. (Mind you, I'm not a combat junkie - I have great fun pure RP for a session.) One great memory as a 4e game where I was playing Measure, a warforged warden, and we were trapped on this island trying to use the magic of the island to pull in an airship but it would take a logn time. And the DM threw combat after combat at use, wore us down to where we were done. And then threw another combat. We scraped out every last trick, consumable, and managed to walk away from that utterly drained. And then he three the biggest combat, with Girallon pull people limb from limb. We cursed him - and managed to pull it off without any deaths. We felt like gods.

But all of that circles back to D&D has a large buffer between going down and getting killed, and has plenty of get-out-of-jail-free even if the character dies. So I don't put on any kid gloves and go full out knowing the system has the protections built in - and my players enjoy it.

 

[Istbor]

The dice fall as they may. Fate can be fickle as well as kind.

My players know this and accept it, and it has been this way since time immemorial.

 

[Blue]

13th Age has an optional sidebar that it says it stole from 7th Sea (1st edition, this was before the new one). Basically, the social contract was no unnamed NPC would kill you. Instead if the system indicates you die, you are knocked out but good and the foes get to dictate what happens. Now, it could be to bring you back to the named NPC to be sacrificed in a ritual, but that gave the other PCs a chance to rescue you.

So you knew that unless it was a meaningful scene with named NPCs as foes that you wouldn't actually die.

 

[Shiroiken]

Unless I'm running an epic story, where introducing new PCs is difficult, I let the dice fall where they may. My group knows that I'm an old school DM, so the world is not tailored to their existence ("level appropriate encounters"). This gives the game a challenge that they willingly take up. If I had a new player enter the game, I'd let them know this upfront, because if they couldn't handle character death, they are better off finding a different game.

 

[Iain_Coleman]

In our game, the DM encourages us to develop back-up/alternate characters, and when a PC dies (or permanently retires from the story) the player can transfer half the PC's XP to an alternate character. This has turned out to work very well. Not only is the pain of an unlooked-for death compensated by the opportunity to bring in a new character with an inheritance of sorts from the old one, it also encourages players to go for dramatically appropriate death (or permanent retirement) scenes if they have decided they are more interested in playing one of their alternates than in continuing with the present character.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Unless I'm running an epic story, where introducing new PCs is difficult, I let the dice fall where they may.

When I was running an epic campaign, where introducing new PCs would have been difficult (because these Four are the Chosen of Destiny and whatnot), I let the dice fall as they did... but I also Prophecied in a handful of understudy characters who could Potentially come in to replace a PC if that character was eliminated. They even went on their own adventures together, while waiting on stand-by, so they never fell too far behind the PCs.

It never came up, though. Even without access to Raise Dead, none of the PCs were ever dead beyond the reach of Revivify.

 

[S'mon]

Running a 3e Barakus campaign I used Fate Points from OGL Conan (which seemed borrowed from WHFRP) - spend an FP to avoid death. In my Wilderlands 5e game I use negative hp and PCs at negative are unconscious not dead until total reaches max negative; after an hour unconscious they can spend hit dice to recover - if still at negative after that then the death saves start.

Usually though I go BTB.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I'm curious how other people handle PC death, and what general opinions are. I don't much care for polls; I'm more interested in a conversation.

Here's how I handle it.

First of all, I play with a lot of kids, people unfamiliar with RPGs, and parents who haven't played much in 10+ years. So, a lot of people who aren't super familiar with D&D. I also play some games with a core of hardened grognards.


One house rule I've begun implementing for the groups of new players is, for lack of a better term, Death Flags. In Session Zero I ask each player how they feel about their character dying. Is that something that they recognize is a natural, reasonable possibility? Are they okay with it? Will losing their character before they feel like the character's "story" has been told be something that is really frustrating and un-fun?


If so, I flag them as unkillable. Here's the thing... I think that failure should always be an option. I prefer running unleveled open worlds without encounter zones or tailored adventures. I don't have any interest in fudging at the table, either. None of this probably sounds consistent with having unkillable PCs.


So what happens is simple: If they're going to die, they still die, in game mechanics terms anyway. They make death saves, they stop making them if they get three failures, etc.

But, for the people flagged as unkillable, three failed death saves isn't the end of their story, even if they are too low level to have ready access to resurrection magic. Perhaps I will provide an alternate means of resurrection, that leaves them in the pocket of whoever resurrected them. Perhaps they simply didn't die, and groggily regain consciousness, badly injured, some time later.

Whatever the outcome, it will be based on the situation surrounding their "death" and it will come with some sort of long-term drawback.

In practice, there are two groups I have used this system with. In a party of 5 PCs, only 2 have opted to be unkillable. In a party of 6, we have an even 50/50 split. In both cases, the kids who decided they don't want to be able to die also specifically said they might change their mind later, but they want to get a feel for the character first.

So far, I've had one unkillable character "die," a level 1 rogue who ate a 5d8 thunder damage shatter type effect off a magic item when they were taking on a buffed up Veteran and his guards. 5d8, con save for half, is a tough pill to swallow as a level 1, CON 10 rogue with 8 HP. Died outright, no death saves.

Instead of dying, she's suffered some permanent hearing loss, imposing disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely solely upon hearing. I let her know that I might give her advantage on saves against magic that explicitly requires the target hear the caster, though, such as vicious mockery or suggestion. Assuming she's a decent distance away in the middle of a fight, anyway... someone using suggestion at point blank range during a social scene, probably not.

This policy seems to be working out really well so far. So much so that I might start offering it as an option for my grognards, though I suspect their initial reaction will be to scoff.

If you made it this far, thanks! So, how about you guys? Do you let the chips fall where they may? Do you fudge to save PCs in certain circumstances?

In some campaigns I offer a "karmic" rewrite option. That is, the players get to rewrite history ("Gonzo didn't fail that death save") or rewind time ("you wake up sweating after a dream of Gonzo getting killed") to a point before the PCs got in trouble, and then I as DM will ostentatiously gloat over winning a "karma point" that can be used by the bad guys in exactly the same way at a time I think is dramatically appropriate ("you didn't manage to grapple Strahd and drag him out into the sunlight--he resisted your grapple").

I originally invented this for the bad guys' sake in case I ever want to plot a scenario in a narrative fashion, so that even if the bad guy does escape somehow due to DM/plot fiat and the PCs are frustrated, the players will know they won something (won a karma point). I haven't ever used it that way though, yet. In practice it's been my safety valve that lets me test PCs to destruction without the risk of wrecking the campaign, because I know that if players find a story unacceptable they can always just chalk up a loss and undo it. Interestingly, some players are more prone to spend karma than others. Some people like to just roll with whatever punches the game throws, even a surprise PC death.

BTW, my perspective "karmic undo" is motivated by my knowledge of UX design. When users of an interface have no undo button/hotkey, they are much more hesitant to try new things with that interface. Undo buttons/Ctrl-Z encourage exploration.

Final note: unlike "save scumming" in a video game, there is a cost to rewinding time. If players got too cavalier about scouting out an enemy stronghold and then karmic rewinding to do it over perfectly, well then I'd have karma available to me to e.g. declare that "luckily, reinforcements arrived yesterday" and everything is a lot tougher. Or I could use my own karma to cancel out their karma (I spend two karma points to negate their karma; they can negate my negating but it costs them three karma, etc.). So it winds up feeling quite different from video games saves, at least from my perspective as the DM running the adventure.