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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sir Whiskers" data-source="post: 1474796" data-attributes="member: 6941">First, concerning character death, some groups prefer it, some abhor it, most probably feel it's appropriate if the characters do something stupid, or if it makes for a truly dramatic scene. I suggest that you talk with your players to see where there comfort zone is with this subject.Concerning killing characters, GM's should never, never, never kill characters. GM's set the stage for the players to have fun through their characters. Parts of that stage include npc's, creatures, traps, and environmental hazards. These things kill characters. I always try to emphasize to my players that I, as GM, will never try to "take out" someone's character, but their in-game opponents certainly will. This helps avoid the "players vs. GM" style of play.Assuming you decide that character death is allowed in your game, a couple simple changes should take care of the problems you stated. For instance, don't ask how many hit points a character has - you, as GM, don't need to know that. It's meta-gaming. My group always assigns one player the job of tracking party hit points, and that player will let the other players know when their character is in danger. If the GM doesn't know the current hit points, it's much more difficult to fudge things.If you find that you've miscalculated and created a killer encounter by mistake, you can still back off - just do it in a realistic way. Maybe the characters are captured, then escape. Or their opponents retreat for reasons the party doesn't understand (btw, listen to the players' guesses - they may come up with something you can use to spice up the session  <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=";)" /> ). This kind of thing should still be rare, as players typically don't like being coddled, but if necessary, it's better than an unfair tpk.Lastly, make healing readily available. Have most npc's carry healing potions, which the characters can acquire if they defeat them. Place more in treasure troves. Have them for sale in local towns. I always start even 1st-level characters with a couple cure light wounds potions just so that the party doesn't die if the cleric is the first to fall.</blockquote>

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