How much risk do parties enjoy?

[airwalkrr]

Death is a mandatory part of D&D. I make sure there is a lot of it in my campaigns.

 

[Seonaid]

I voted option 3, because that's the way I want it as a player. If I'm dumb or unlucky, my character should bite it (if that's how the dice fall). I don't want to cheat death, or the rules.

However, in practice, I've hardly ever had a character die. Most of the GMs I've had went out of their ways to find reasons for my character to not die, or to come back relatively easily. While this is nice, it tends to make the sessions less risky. That's fine for some, but not what I prefer.

 

[KB9JMQ]

If you do stupid things that might get you killed then the dice fall where they may.

I make the game risky but I don't want to deal with a new character or one levels behind if I don't have to.

 

[Dragon Vindaloo]

I have a player in a 'near epic' game (that we only play every six months or so) who alway gets killed, no matter what.

In our that game he is waaaay behind the highest level character in the group, lol. The group has five members, a human fighter lv 20, human sorceror lv 19, human wizard lv 19, half elf psion/monk lv 18, and mr unlucky air genasi monk who is stuck at lv 15 forever!

He was a wood elf ranger, died. Started a human fighter, died. Started a air genasi monk, died, raised. Died again, raised. Died again. He's currently dead and getting raised again next game.

The party make fun of him all the time and pretend to cough like a sick little child and call him 'Tiny Tim'.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

1 in 4 sessions a PC will die. Raise dead and similar spells are usually very limited in the games we do to, though we do have the number of negative HP you can drop to increased (though at the risk of permanent injury) and we allow 1 hand of god per PC (get out of certain death).

Usually PCs die of stupidity or bad luck.

That said I can't remember the last time there was a TPK, or even more than 50% of the party getting killed in single encounter.

 

[derelictjay]

Me personally I like a few deaths now and again.

When I DM I usually have a possible TPK encounter now and again (sometimes my players believe I have one every session). But usually its the way the dice roll that determine the death rate. Most of my players hate it when I try and keep a character from dying, they prefer the natural course set by the casting of the dice.

As to bringing back PCs, about 60% of the time our group just makes a new character.

 

[Ghendar]

Death is a mandatory part of D&D. I make sure there is a lot of it in my campaigns.

Well, I'm not sure it's mandatory but having no death whatsoever is (imo) silly and unrealistic unless you're playing a totally combat free type of game.

The possibility of death is mandatory.
For my games anyway.

 

[Mycanid]

I voted for "We die when we are stupid or heroically unlucky".

 

[Arkham]

I voted for a death every 4 sessions, though I was torn between that and Every session is a possible TPK. It all depends on how the players are doing that day. The average party level is 23, and their opposition varies from EL 23 through EL 30. But if they aren't careful, they could all die at a moment's notice. But to ease things, True Resurrections flow as fast as the PCs can cough up the cash. They have been fortunate, so far, to avoid a TPK.

 

[The Grackle]

I enjoy all the above levels of risk, as long as the DM tells me what to expect ahead of time...