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

[Micah Sweet]

One of the big failures of modern D&D is that despite being focused on (at least from mid-levels onwards) effectively superheroes in a high magic setting, little attention is put into reversing death beyond the classic reincarnation and resurrection spells. There should be a bunch of game text somewhere about petitioning the gods, stealing souls from valhalla, negotiating with demons and spirits, revenants, possessing people or items, etc.

I suspect they don't emphasize those things because WotC wants death to be a speed bump so players can keep playing their superhero PCs with little interruption, and because WotC worships at the altar of Simplicity, and those factors raise the dreaded spectre of Complexity.

 

[Imaro]

I suspect they don't emphasize those things because WotC wants death to be a speed bump so players can keep playing their superhero PCs with little interruption, and because WotC worships at the altar of Simplicity, and those factors raise the dreaded spectre of Complexity.

I think its because of simplicity but also because the things listed are pretty specific...and thus move more and more towards defining ones campaign setting... There's also the fact that even suggestions in official products are often treated as law by players...

 

[Micah Sweet]

I think its because of simplicity but also because the things listed are pretty specific...and thus move more and more towards defining ones campaign setting... There's also the fact that even suggestions in official products are often treated as law by players...

I think the latter is a pretty poor reason to avoid something.

 

[Imaro]

I think the latter is a pretty poor reason to avoid something.

Eh, I think whether it is poor or not is dependent on how much it has personally caused headaches for any particular DM... Though I'd be curious on how you judge a poor vs a non-poor reason (unless it's just personal preference as that can be assumed). I assume it's not a problem for you, doesn't mean it's not a problem for the majority of games out there.

EDIT: IMO how people can come back from the dead, or if they even can is very much a worldbuilding question that should very much be under the control of the DM and what is in the game should be easily removable or ignored (which it is in D&D 5e)

 

[KYRON45]

Every rule in every 5e rule book is optional. That's the best part of the game.
The customizability of the entire TTRPG genre is part of what makes it so great.

 

[Autumnal]

I’ve decided to dispense with half-measures. All the PCs but one should die in every adventure. The lone survivor will recruit the next batch of adventurers and then die in the next quest. No point in making people wonder about it, right? These are efficiency-minded times.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Every rule in every 5e rule book is optional. That's the best part of the game.
The customizability of the entire TTRPG genre is part of what makes it so great.

True, which is why removing or not including something because some players might assume it has to be true is IMO a bad reason to do such.

 

[Oofta]

I’ve decided to dispense with half-measures. All the PCs but one should die in every adventure. The lone survivor will recruit the next batch of adventurers and then die in the next quest. No point in making people wonder about it, right? These are efficiency-minded times.

Sounds like one of @Lanefan's games.

 

[howandwhy99]

I see the games highest levels as being the vastly most difficult. But from Moment One the game is lethal throughout. The preset difficulty determines how difficult it will be to stay alive for any player. How often they die is really dependent upon luck and their ability to game the game at that point.

Early levels often have a lot of death because people are still grappling with learning the game and how difficult it can be. Mistakes can often lead to death but there are more breaks and forgivenesses at the lowest levels than any others. As long as the whole party doesn't die, the campain can continue with many new first level characters joining the survivors.

Mid levels are when players understand caution but are taking their time to face level appropriate challenges. Death is even more of a threat, but they can pay large sums to the few high level aligned clerics somewhere in the world to raise their dead. So all is not lost on a mistake or misfortunate roll in a risky moment.

High levels have death in their face at seemingly every moment of adventuring. And gameplay is very difficult. But the resources to bring someone back from a mistake in judgment or even a simple misreading of a situation allows for death to have less of a sting. This is when players would want to not have died so often early on, as I put a character maximum on total number of resurrections possible. Still, raising a new character from Level 1 in a very high level party is not impossible and through early to mid levels newcomers will advance quite swiftly.

 

[KYRON45]

True, which is why removing or not including something because some players might assume it has to be true is IMO a bad reason to do such.

I honestly feel like if players want their DM to do things because it will make them happy....is a pretty good reason for them to DM themselves.