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FeeFiFoFum *splat* goes the giants
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<blockquote data-quote="Stalker0" data-source="post: 8423139" data-attributes="member: 5889"><p>Again it comes down to degrees though. For example, technically those 3 hill giants could kill a 15th level fighter with like 140 hp in 1 round if the dice were red hot (not to mention the wizard). Now that is exceedingly unlikely of course, but its possible..... so are 3 hill giants just too hot to handle for almost any party?</p><p></p><p>This remains part of my issue... if we go with the notion that deadly is "very unlikely to kill, but could"...well that definition fits a ridiculous level range. And meanwhile while trying to protect players from these exceptionally unlikely circumstances we delivery a very large number of "easy wins" in the process.</p><p></p><p>I think I would understand it more if resurrection magics did not exist, but to me that is the literal point of them. Beyond the narrative, they serve as a game mechanic to allow parties to deal with these crazy edge cases where a players gets killed, its the ultimate "reset button". If a character gets killed in a "trivial" way through a "crazy circumstances of dice" the DM can throw a quest to the players to get him raised. And heck revivify is all you need the vast majority of the time unless you have a true TPK.</p><p></p><p>So I feel like 5e already has a safety button, already has a tool for that ".05% chance of deadly that actually happened". So to then throw in even more protection just feels like overkill.</p><p></p><p>I also think the death threshold is a major factor here, starting at 5th level. Now its clear WOTC respects the power bump of 5th level, the encounter thresholds literally double at that level....but I think that still may not be enough. Below 5th level, players are squishy, and I've found little issue challenging players. Even a decent crit can absolutely kill a player if its the right time, and so the threat is always present. But around 5th-6th level, the game transforms. Player death thresholds reach a point where it becomes exceedingly unlikely to be hit. This is partly why the healing whack a mole exists, and why I think the encounter thresholds are so useless. Monsters just don't do enough single damage to really bring potential threat, and with more attacks the chance of a truly high damage number becomes more and more remote, and so its more a question of death save and healing management.</p><p></p><p>Perhaps the easiest solution for me is to early adopt one of the level up's newest rules: Critical hits double <strong>all damage after you roll</strong>. Aka you calculate the damage, and then double everything. This makes crits a lot more swingy, which means a good crit can do a LOT of damage....and suddenly those death thresholds matter again. Perhaps that is the simplest way to reintroduce threat into my game</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Stalker0, post: 8423139, member: 5889"] Again it comes down to degrees though. For example, technically those 3 hill giants could kill a 15th level fighter with like 140 hp in 1 round if the dice were red hot (not to mention the wizard). Now that is exceedingly unlikely of course, but its possible..... so are 3 hill giants just too hot to handle for almost any party? This remains part of my issue... if we go with the notion that deadly is "very unlikely to kill, but could"...well that definition fits a ridiculous level range. And meanwhile while trying to protect players from these exceptionally unlikely circumstances we delivery a very large number of "easy wins" in the process. I think I would understand it more if resurrection magics did not exist, but to me that is the literal point of them. Beyond the narrative, they serve as a game mechanic to allow parties to deal with these crazy edge cases where a players gets killed, its the ultimate "reset button". If a character gets killed in a "trivial" way through a "crazy circumstances of dice" the DM can throw a quest to the players to get him raised. And heck revivify is all you need the vast majority of the time unless you have a true TPK. So I feel like 5e already has a safety button, already has a tool for that ".05% chance of deadly that actually happened". So to then throw in even more protection just feels like overkill. I also think the death threshold is a major factor here, starting at 5th level. Now its clear WOTC respects the power bump of 5th level, the encounter thresholds literally double at that level....but I think that still may not be enough. Below 5th level, players are squishy, and I've found little issue challenging players. Even a decent crit can absolutely kill a player if its the right time, and so the threat is always present. But around 5th-6th level, the game transforms. Player death thresholds reach a point where it becomes exceedingly unlikely to be hit. This is partly why the healing whack a mole exists, and why I think the encounter thresholds are so useless. Monsters just don't do enough single damage to really bring potential threat, and with more attacks the chance of a truly high damage number becomes more and more remote, and so its more a question of death save and healing management. Perhaps the easiest solution for me is to early adopt one of the level up's newest rules: Critical hits double [B]all damage after you roll[/B]. Aka you calculate the damage, and then double everything. This makes crits a lot more swingy, which means a good crit can do a LOT of damage....and suddenly those death thresholds matter again. Perhaps that is the simplest way to reintroduce threat into my game [/QUOTE]
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