D&D General How Often Should a PC Die in D&D 5e?

[Imaro]

When a manufacturing company has a sign saying X days since last accident, do you think their preferred number of accidents is greater than zero?

I mean, this certainly feels like a gotcha competition, not gonna lie.

That's real... this is make believe. Some DM's prefer more lethal games... if you dont that's fine but you're not everyone.

 

[mamba]

I like to DM a very deadly game where in my players rarely or never die.

isn’t that a contradiction? or do they get captured / revived?

 

[prabe]

It seems like a common response is "I don't want PCs to die, but I require the rules to allow the possibility for stakes/verisimilitude."

The question in the OP is really "Don't you need a PC to die sometimes to demonstrate that the stakes exist? Or are you happy with the odds of PC death being low enough that it will never (or hardly ever) happen in play?"

I want death to be a real possibility, in that if the PCs go looking for a fight, I want that fight to have a real chance to kill them. I don't want PCs randomly dying pointlessly.

 

[cranberry]

That's an interesting one. If you had a TPK 10 sessions into "Descent into Avernus", would your group roll up a second party and keep going?

For my groups, that would certainly be a signal to start up the next game instead.

I had a group who was TPKed. The players rolled up new characters (for the same adventure), and eventually came across the bodies of their former PC's

 

[Imaro]

It seems like a common response is "I don't want PCs to die, but I require the rules to allow the possibility for stakes/verisimilitude."

The question in the OP is really "Don't you need a PC to die sometimes to demonstrate that the stakes exist? Or are you happy with the odds of PC death being low enough that it will never (or hardly ever) happen in play?"

Thank you for summing up a big part of my thinking. If in the end it hardly ever or never happens... and you're ok with (or even desire) that... what does a more lethal game even mean... and why do you even want the possibility and why do greater PC abilities and power matter if they are facilitating what everyone wants...

 

[KYRON45]

so you did it indirectly?

I felt it was a teachable moment.

 

[Imaro]

I want death to be a real possibility, in that if the PCs go looking for a fight, I want that fight to have a real chance to kill them. I don't want PCs randomly dying pointlessly.

Ok so what would constitute death being a "real" possibility? Is a 1% chance enough? 5 or 10% chance PC's die? More and is this in every fight?

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Thank you for summing up a big part of my thinking. If in the end it hardly ever or never happens... and you're ok with (or even desire) that... what does a more lethal game even mean... and why do you even want the possibility and why do greater PC abilities and power matter if they are facilitating what everyone wants...

The point is that the defeat needs to be a real possibility. Otherwise we might just as well save time, and instead of using a lengthy process of going trough combat, just declare that the PCs win. The fact that losing is possible makes winning meaningful.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Have you ever played 1E or Pathfinder?

I played Pathfinder for years. I wouldn't say it's a deadly game.

 

[prabe]

Ok so what would constitute death being a "real" possibility? Is a 1% chance enough? 5 or 10% chance PC's die? More and is this in every fight?

I don't calculate the odds on this, and I won't even try. I dropped the two healers in a 19th-level party on Wednesday, and the party still had resources to not only survive but win the fight. I nearly TPKed a 6th-level party (dropped the tank) this past Saturday, but the one character did a thing to pull their bacon from the fire. In either case, the party was clearly (to me) teetering on the brink of a TPK; both groups, I think, know how close they came--and that I wouldn't have arbitrarily or capriciously saved them by fiat. That's good enough for me.