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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Thurbane" data-source="post: 3665152" data-attributes="member: 43273">I've been DMing the same group for about 4 months or so now, and have had no PC deaths. The adventure (and characters) kicked off at about 9th level, and they are now pushing 11th (our games session aren't very long, we're lucky to get in more than 1 encounter or challenge per session). Up until last week, we had no PC deaths, only a couple of allied NPCs.Anyway, last week the party Transmuter was slain by a Dracotaur Barbarian, after a combination of letting himself get into danger, and a critical hit with a battleaxe. To give a better picture, though, the character is a pseudo NPC, as its player is overseas for some time, and other players have been running it.Then this week, the party Knight was slain by a Ghoul Dire Wolf (ToHR) - after he had been paralyzed and mauled for successive rounds.My main concern is that up until this point, the party had been winning encounters pretty comfortably, with few genuinely "life or death" fights. As a result of this, I had been bumping up encounter levels slowly but surely, to give them more of a challenge (and more of a reward when they won).One player, my flatmate (who plays the knight) is now a bit ticked off at the way I run a game, saying I'm putting them up against opponents who are too tough, and that all the sessions are all combat and no roleplay.The leg of my campaign at the moment is unavoidably combat heavy - they are travelling through badlands where few mortals are brave enough to tread, and it is known to be overrun with all sorts of beasts. They knew those going in, but were hired to track down an item.The same player also constantly accuses the Beguiler of being "useless" because he has few damage dealing spells. None of my players are powergamers, or especially efficient character builders - we generally chose a character on roleplay factors rather than crunch.Anyhow, I'm wondering if by slowly bumping up encounters, if I have fallen into an adversrial, "killer DM" mindset. I'd like to think not - most encounters offer opportunities for parley, retreat or surrender, so if the fight is going poorly, they generally have options other than to fight to death. My main reason for pushing up enounters is that due to time constarints, it's easier to get through one tough battle in a session than it is to get through multiple easier encounters.Please offer advice or criticism as you see fit - I'm pretty thick skinned. Also ask me if you need more details on my party.Party:Human Knight 10thDwarf Fighter 1st/Cleric 9th1/2 Elf Beguiler 10thElf Transmuter 10th</blockquote>

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