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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 6486987" data-attributes="member: 58197">Because the system never causes a monster to attack a downed PC. That's the decision of the DM. If SirAntoine is DMing the game, it will never happen, even if the DM is following every rule to the letter. If The Jester is DMing, it'll happen regularly (if the party lets it).The DM always has the power to decide "I'm going to kill a PC now" and do it. I once had a mid-level (around 6th or 7th, I think) PC deliberately pick a fight with an ancient dragon*. I shrugged and hit him full force with the dragon's breath weapon. End of PC. I don't feel this was unreasonable, but it was a conscious decision on my part: "I am now going to do something that is guaranteed to end in death for this PC." I could have chosen otherwise. The dragon could have toyed with him instead of killing him outright, giving him a chance to reconsider and flee. It would be a dragonlike thing to do--I view dragons as arrogant bastards, smart but prone to overconfidence--and in other circumstances I might have done it. But in this case, I decided instant death was a more appropriate response.Attacking downed PCs is another way for the DM to decide, "I'm going to kill a PC now." There's nothing wrong with that. Used properly, it can make campaigns more lethal and ratchet up tension without being unfair--after all, PCs can avoid it by not getting taken down to zero in the first place. But it doesn't affect how lethal the system is. To me, "system lethality" is about deaths that happen due to the fall of the dice, without the DM making an active decision to kill someone.[size=-2]*I was never quite clear why. He might have been testing to see how far I'd go to keep PCs alive, or he might have just wanted to make a new character. If the latter, he got his wish.[/SIZE]</blockquote>

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