Do the PCs ever die in these playtest reports?

[UngeheuerLich]

Perhaps with all the MMOG influence, PC's don't die -- they respawn.

thanks for your enlightenment!

 

[cwhs01]

I'm beginning to get the feeling that the classes and their new abilities are too good. All these play test reports and no PC deaths? C'mon...

PC death is not that common in the 3x games i play in. And concluding the lethality of 4e based on playtest reports may beprove a tad bit hasty. I expect it will be as easy to change this to suit the campaign as 3x was.

There are other better things about 4e to worry about

But a discussion about this campaign aspect, would be an excellent topic to include in the new DMG.

 

[Storminator]

They should go back to 1e death rates... half your party dies every single adventure!

PS

 

[Henry]

That would be one question I'd like answered from the developers in one of those "Sage Advices", myself... In my gaming history, the failures have been just as much fun as the successes. After all, where else did "famous last words" threads & lists have their beginnings?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

My last question is maybe more philosophical. 4E looks to be even more tactical than 3.x was. The guys I'm going to be playing with are, with one or two exceptions, not on the same plane of aptitude that I am. I'm worried that I might have to dumb down my monster tactics to keep from wasting them all the time. I guess that depends on how meaningful the decisions that monsters have to make in combat are. Well, plus how meaningful the decisions the PCs have to make are. But honestly, these guys don't even flank unless I tell them they should. (I'm just playing at the moment, but I'm going to switch over to running when H1 comes out.)

It definitely seems not less tactical than 3E. The question might be if it's easier to see the tactical options, since they are not just part of the general rules, but often part of the characters abilities.
Though, if your players didn't even flank when they were playing a Rogue, you might be in "trouble".

 

[WyzardWhately]

It definitely seems not less tactical than 3E. The question might be if it's easier to see the tactical options, since they are not just part of the general rules, but often part of the characters abilities.
Though, if your players didn't even flank when they were playing a Rogue, you might be in "trouble".

We don't have a rogue. We have a Barbarian, a pacifist cleric, a barbarian/pacifist cleric (with some headbangingly stupid things done with alternate class features that I won't get into), some kind of half-assed custom gish played by a guy who would be awesome if he'd been playing D&D long enough to know what makes a good character, and a two-weapon-fighting ranger who is actually a pretty serious badass, even if he doesn't remember to flank.

And me, the lone sorcerer.

 

[Fifth Element]

So you can't have such a thing as a "cool" death???

You're really stretching this time, aren't you?

 

[S'mon]

I've read of at least one death. In that case the PC was returned to life so it wouldn't bollux up the playtest.

Reminds me of the 2002 US Navy wargame where the quasi-Iranians sunk the US battlefleet, so the high command refloated it so the game could continue. Kinda defeats the point IMO.

 

[Fifth Element]

For example how quickly can a new PC be generated.

I expect this is something they already have a solid handle on. You don't need playtesting to determine this, since it is actually done outside of playing the game.

 

[Thaumaturge]

From Wotc_Rodney's blog here:

Last night we had another session of Chris Perkins' newest campaign, called Iomandra and the Dragon Sea. It was a pretty wild session. We had our second death in as many sessions, amid a knock-down, drag-out fight.

This was originally posted in this thread where, oddly, no one talks about this bit of info.

We have evidence of two deaths in as many weeks in one campaign. That's fairly lethal.

Thaumaturge.