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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Havrik Stoneskimmer" data-source="post: 5559181" data-attributes="member: 6670929">Here is how I personally like to play.I design my encounters to be balanced according to the DMG XP budget guidelines. I take into account the PCs' equipment and abilities and my players' strategic skill. I make every attempt to create an encounter that will be thrilling and challenging but not lethal.Right before combat starts, I get into the heads of the monsters and work out what each one's goals are.And then once we all roll initiative, I play to win. I don't fudge the dice (IMO there'd be no reason to bother rolling them if I did). I might be a little generous with the monsters' tactics if things seem overwhelming (having a monster surrender or run a little earlier than I might otherwise do), but only if it can be justified by the narrative of the combat. And I don't use obnoxious techniques like a coup de gras it really makes sense from a story perspective. But in general, I am playing to accomplish the monsters' goals (which may or may not mean trying to kill all of the PCs).It's pretty darn hard to die in 4e. PCs have lots of ways to heal, even when they aren't near a cleric, and even when they fall down, the rest of the party has at least 3 rounds and usually several more to heal, stabilize, or trigger the second wind on the dying PC.And even if you die, death ain't the handicap it used to be in the olden days. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> If the player wanted to have the PC raised, I would make that possible one way or another. If they want to change to a new PC at the same XP, that's fine too.The only time I would pull a punch is on a TPK. If the entire campaign story shuts down that's no fun for anyone, and a TPK almost certainly means I screwed up building the encounter. In this case I would find some way for the PCs to survive, whether it means being captured as hostages or rescued in the nick of time by a party of NPCs that happened to be passing through.Either way, whether it's a PC death or a would-be TPK, it creates a new and interesting path for the story. Just like failing a skill challenge, failing a combat doesn't shut the game down, it just means the players have to deal with the consequences of failure.</blockquote>

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