DMs - how often do you get nervous that a big encounter will be a TPK?

[evilgenius8000]

In 3.5, I was never afraid of killing the PCs, since I knew the system so well and had a great grasp of the PC's abilities. In fact, I'd often design encounters that probably would've killed a lesser-optimized group. Instead, usually only one character died, if any. The only time I ever came really close to TPKing a party was in a prewritten adventure: the Whispering Cairn, the first adventure in the Age of Worms. The entire party, save one who managed to activate the elevator and escape, died to swarms of acid beetles and various other insects. We never played that Adventure Path again.

In 4E, I am much less familiar with how the encounter levels play out, so I keep finding myself going back and editing my adventure to shift around the difficulty.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

I don't worry about TPKs at all, except insomuch as I check the encounters carefully when desiging the adventure. If I didn't have one in 20+ years of Fantasy Hero and 3E/AE, with zero fudging, I don't expect one in 4E, where I have even more tools at my disposal for measuring threat. It helps having players that will look for every scrap of information and will happily avoid encounters or run away when in trouble.

That said, I usually set up my tough fights so that a clever party can find a way to lower the overall threat, if only through divide and conquer. I always set up the "overwhelming" fights this way.

 

[Olli]

If you wish to count me as having "met" you (online obviously) then I go against this trend. I always roll in the open and the players know whether they got missed or critted. I find that it heightens the drama and makes the game exciting when they are low on hit points and any roll I make could be their last.

well, it wasn´t meant literally, it was more in the vein of "the dm´s i played with"

 

[el-remmen]

Have I posted to this thread, yet?

Have I said "every time"? Because it is every time. . . That's what makes it a big encounter.

Of course, the worry is mitigated or exacerbated as the encounter develops, but it is always there until the tide definitely turns in the PCs' favor.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I tend to second guess myself in regards to encounters - and TPKs do happen, usually early in a campaign before the players realize that advancing to the rear is not always a bad thing. I do worry about them (agonize, really) but I do not stop them from happening, just feel bad afterward.

Then there are the times when the PCs have the tools to survive an encounter, I know that they have the tools to survive an encounter, but the wizard decides to save his fireball or sleep spell, the rogue hoards the alchemist's fire until it is needed, or the cleric thinks that the front line fighter is holding up just fine without a healing....

TPK by PC stupidity sucks!

The Auld Grump

 

[S'mon]

I try not to worry; usually it's not the set piece battle but the minor encounter that goes badly; eg IMC recently there was nearly a TPK when the PCs met 4 ghouls and kept failing their Fort saves, then again against some bugbears when they rolled badly and failed to hold a doorway effectively so the bugbears poured in and threatened to overwhelm them.

 

[kiznit]

TPKs happen.

It's not something that either side of the DM's screen wants to happen, but it is an occasional occurrence that is built into the mechanics of the system. If you're a group that strives to follow the rules as written, than in a way it's an inevitability, because sometimes the dice just roll that way.

I think it's okay to occasionally loosen the rules as a DM in order to prevent it if you see it coming - giving the a PC an extra out-of-turn action, knocking off some hitpoints off of a monster or whatever - just like it's okay to hand-wave the results of a TPK with some sort of plot-twist ("You all wake up in a dingy prison cell", "You wake up being cared for by some passing elves, but stripped of your possessions" or the like), as long as it's not an obvious deus ex machina and doesn't become a habit.

All things considered, I actually look forward to the big huge "might-be-TPK" fights, because they tend to be really fun session-cappers and campaign high-points, and so nervousness rarely plays into it. I'm aware that some encounters are extremely deadly, but so are the players - and as a DM I think it's important to make it clear to my players that a very challenging encounter is coming up - so they've signed up for it, and they know the risks, which means I certainly don't need to feel too guilty about it if it happens.

If you're nervous about an encounter being a TPK, that might be a sign that your players aren't okay with the occasional PC death. If that's the way of it, it may be worth changing the campaign style to be a little less deadly.