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

[Oofta]

But both groups were capable of the same actions, so it's a matter of running it multiple times to determine the margin for error and the average.

I'm just saying that not all players are the same and I've had to adjust for every group in every edition. So saying version X is deadlier than version Y ... well it just depends. I said it above but I'll repeat: 5E is far less accidentally deadly and you are less likely to run into "Oops, you're dead" scenarios.

 

[Reynard]

It was always up to the DM whether or not they used the save or die effects or energy drain.

That does not seem relevant at all. Everything is up to the GM. But those creatures appeared in modules and on random encounter charts. A particular GM eliminating the dangerous stuff in 1E does not, in any way, undermine the idea that 1E was inherently more dangerous for PCs than 5E.

 

[Oofta]

That does not seem relevant at all. Everything is up to the GM. But those creatures appeared in modules and on random encounter charts. A particular GM eliminating the dangerous stuff in 1E does not, in any way, undermine the idea that 1E was inherently more dangerous for PCs than 5E.

How the people play is not at all relevant to how deadly the game they're playing is? Okely dokely.

 

[Reynard]

How the people play is not at all relevant to how deadly the game they're playing is? Okely dokely.

We are talking about the systems as a whole. I think you know that, though.

 

[Lanefan]

For me, back in ye olden' days we accepted that sometimes your PC dies, and then you make another one and keep playing, because the player was more important than the PC.

Also because the party was more important than the PC.

 

[Lanefan]

Well level drain obviously has been gone for good while and should stay so. But other such things are fine defeat conditions, but they work better if they're telegraphed and their effect doesn't rely on just one roll. If there are more decision points along the way, there is more room for tactics.

If you blow your surprise roll (side note: 5e really needs a more 1e-like surprise mechanic) then sometimes you really will die without knowing what hit you.

Also, intelligent opponents who have - and know they have - insta-win abilities are, one would think, going to try to use those abilities to best advantage. A smart Medusa, for example, is going to try to surprise its opponents and petrify them before they know what hit them; sure there's statues around that might telegraph the presence of a petrifier, but unless the party starts blundering around in blindfolds (in which case the Medusa just steps up and poisons them with her snakes) the Medusa can still appear suddenly and maybe catch them off guard.

 

[Oofta]

We are talking about the systems as a whole. I think you know that, though.

And I'm talking about how people actually play the game. While there were more options to kill off PCs in 1E, there are still plenty of options in 5E. The rate that they are used is up to the DM and group.

 

[Lanefan]

Well level drain obviously has been gone for good while and should stay so.

Which right there points to 5e (and 4e, for all that) being measurably easier than earlier editions: what was once a game with an element of snakes-and-ladders to it (sometimes you lost a level, other times you might randomly gain one) has had the snakes removed.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Which right there points to 5e (and 4e, for all that) being measurably easier than earlier editions: what was once a game with an element of snakes-and-ladders to it (sometimes you lost a level, other times you might randomly gain one) has had the snakes removed.

5e absolutely is easier and I wish it wasn't quite as much so, but that doesn't mean I want to go back to level drain and save-or-die or even the general lethality of the earliest editions. There could be some reasonable middle ground here.

 

[Bagpuss]

I don't really get this poll.

I picked "I prefer a game where no character occurs" but I don't mind a character death every level.

What I really don't like is a character resurrection at all. Death has to mean something.

Hence I'd prefer characters no to die, since they aren't coming back, but it doesn't mean I'd do things as a GM to mitigate that. As a player I'll do everything I can to stay alive, but if a characters death will achieve something important that can't be done by other means then I'd prefer death.

But it isn't something you can put a figure to.