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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Archmage" data-source="post: 3975984" data-attributes="member: 6760">Seriously, a spider more scary than a demon or a dragon, just because the spider has poison? I think not. There seems to be a grand assumption here that "kill/take stuff" is the only motivation and that disease and poison and level draining is the only deterrent against it. Yes, my players like to kill things and take their stuff, but that is (usually) incidental to whatever goal they're trying to accomplish. The DM should be able to make the players fear whatever their characters should be fearing in the context of the game. You don't need poison rules or energy drain for that. If the temple of the evil war god is the biggest threat the players will be facing, it's up to the DM to make the players feel that. If the players are the type that don't invest anything in their characters and treat them as nothing more than the stats on paper that they are, then there's no need to worry about putting fear into them anyway - their satisfaction is indeed governed by "kill/take stuff."Not if it kills you and takes your stuff first.Why? Shouldn't the character fear death more than a little weakness? I mean, if you're alive the weakness can be fixed.I would think you might be in the minority, forgetting big crits against memorable villains. You shouldn't have to exaggerate to make the point that the big failures can be just as memorable as the big successes - I'm sure everyone has their share of "gaaaah!" moments lined up right alongside their triumphant ones.See, this makes no sense. Yes, negative levels and diseases should be fearsome. But being rent in two is even more fearsome. Heck, with our group if you want to bet how long it will be before they mock and/or glorify a failure or screw-up, take the under. Rolling poorly on criticals is named after one guy's character because on a sneak attack coup-de-gras he rolled one 2 and the rest of the dice were 1s. So yes, failures are memorable. But, I'd rather the players had more good stories than bad.I disagree with that statement. Frustration is a bad thing. Challenge, on the other hand, is a good thing, and it's up to the DM to provide that.</blockquote>

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