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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lancelot" data-source="post: 5227150" data-attributes="member: 30022">Over 50 characters dead since the start of 4e. I've got a list of all of the casualties (race / class / cause of death), but not on hand at the moment.I'm hardly a "killer DM". All dice are rolled in the open, so no fudging. No encounters higher than level + 4 (and most are level + 1 or 2). Players are all 10+ year veterans. Very few encounters designed to specifically challenge the party's strengths. However, raise dead is rarely if ever available, and there are no magic item shops. Nor can the PCs craft any magic items other than the basic "plussed" items with no special abilities. Here are some recent deaths, as a representative sample:Dwarf runepriest ate a forbidden fruit in the Undertemple of the Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun (...you'll know what I mean if you've read the module). Rather than requiring a 1e System Shock Survival roll, I treated it as rolling on the remove affliction table vs a 15th level effect, using the PC's Endurance skill. Dwarf had +14 Endurance (so rolled on the table at net -1 modifier). Rolled a natural 1. Instant Death.Eladrin fighter got caught in the death blast of two oblivion wraiths [Open Grave]... with no surges left. Negative Bloodied.Eladrin fighter (yeah, same one) on bloodied value, mobbed by minions. Cleric "forgot" to heal him, despite a mind flayer in the vicinity. Mind flayer tagged him once, action-pointed, and then tagged him attack with bore into brain. Instant Death.Human bard got on the wrong side of a giant crayfish [Village of Hommlet DM reward], with just-over-bloodied-hp. Crayfish hit him twice in the same round, with one hit being a crit. Negative Bloodied.1st level human ranger on max hp steps into a cellar. Three poisonscale slitherer lizardfolk [MM2] lurk in the shadows. They win initiative and throw three javelins, two at the ranger and one at the PC behind him. Both javelins hit the ranger, and both poison attacks also hit. No crits, but 6d6+12 damage... Negative Bloodied.PC is slowly reduced in hp by [creatures] and eventually collapses unconscious. The [leader] (if there is one in the group) has used his minor action healing spells. Other PCs are fighting for their lives, and ask the player if he needs urgent help. He says "no worries; I've got no death boxes yet". He also knows if they take a round to trigger his Second Wind, he may just get ganked again as soon as he gets up. 1-2 rounds later, he fails a death save. He begins to grow slightly concerned, but another PC is also on the ground now, and the survivors are now fighting at least 8 squares away (or behind enemies, or in difficult terrain). Another 1-2 rounds pass, and he fails another death save. Suddenly, everyone knows they have to stabilize him. Half of the party is too far away or in no condition to try. One of the PCs won't do it (perhaps because the player is "roleplaying" / being a jerk). Which leaves one guy who runs over to the body, takes at least one opportunity attack, and then fails their Heal check (untrained). Approximately a third of all our PC deaths occur this way... with another third being a TPK variation on the above (i.e. one PC dies in this fashion, and then the rest quickly follow).Good times, good times.</blockquote>

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