Dead in your first combat ever?

[Thanee]

An average CR 1 orc barbarian with a greataxe can do as much as 63 damage with one attack.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Dracorat]

He didn't say it crit and really, if you add class levels, those stack with monstrous levels for CR. But regardless, it does seem a bit over the top. Not impossible, just over the top. Especially considering he named the wizard as the target anyway. A level 1 wizard usually has about 4 to 6 HPs, so a difference of 4 wouldn't have amounted to much no matter how you slice it.

 

[Iku Rex]

He didn't say it crit and really, if you add class levels, those stack with monstrous levels for CR.

Orcs don't have "monstrous levels".

But regardless, it does seem a bit over the top. Not impossible, just over the top. Especially considering he named the wizard as the target anyway. A level 1 wizard usually has about 4 to 6 HPs, so a difference of 4 wouldn't have amounted to much no matter how you slice it.

How is it "over the top"? Even a basic CR 1/2 orc warrior could have killed a 2 HP wizard with a single blow, no crit needed. Had he had 6HPs the wizard would probably have lived. (With some help from a healer.)

 

[Dracorat]

Well, I didn't mean it as any sort of personal attack. I'm just letting you know what my thinking was. Take or leave at your whim.

 

[Aus_Snow]

He gets to make a new character... again.

 

[shilsen]

Well, I didn't mean it as any sort of personal attack. I'm just letting you know what my thinking was. Take or leave at your whim.

I think people are just commenting because it's a fairly innocuous thing to regard as unusual, like being surprised that a CR1 NPC spellcaster could have a DC 14 spell. A human War1 (CR 1/2) with a greatsword and a 14 Str is doing 10 pts of damage on average, and a max of 15 without a crit. An orc Bbn1 (CR1) with maxed out Str and a greatsword is doing 19 pts on average, and a max of 24 without a crit.

 

[Hussar]

On the topic of getting turned off by dying so early:

Don't forget that that will basically be their impression of what the game is like. They just spent several hours creating their first character for the game and now they have to do it again. If they don't enjoy character creation they might be under the impression that its normal to die often. They might not realize that they'll eventually make characters faster and live longer unless you explain this to them.

It might just not look like fun from their perspective. WoW might look like a better alternative. So, I guess it depends on whether or not you're trying to expand the hobby or just trying to find someone to play with.

He mulliganed. No time spent remaking the character. Not a big deal.

But, I do agree that this will be his impression of what the game is like. IMO, good. I run a fairly high hack factor, fairly lethal game. That's known up front. This is not about developing the next great fantasy novel. This is about getting the bear before it gets you.

Dracorat - umm, reread the thread. It was a CR 9 creature. I didn't roll any crits. All attacks hit, but, not for maximum damage. If you want to read exactly what happened, take a gander Here. The joys of online play. We have an exact transcript of what happened.

Now what do you think?

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

I went with fudging dice, putting him at death's door, and moving on from there. When my players get attached to their characters, I get attached too. I have a hard time killing PCs. And if it's a new guy... well, I kinda want to encourage him to get attached.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

He dies, but learns a good leason about D&D. We never had this happen, but we did have a TPK the first session a newbie was there.

Unfortunately the lesson learned might be 'This game is not fun.' If the character was not doing something insanely stupid I might be tempted to drop him into the negatives rather than kill him. Then again, I have mechanics to help prevent that in the form of Action Dice/Points.

Killing a brand new player's character in this way after 'nothing much happening' is not likely to have him coming back to the table, asking for more.

The Auld Grump

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

If the dice demanded his death who am I to stand in the way?