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Message: <blockquote data-quote="clip" data-source="post: 5319516" data-attributes="member: 85760">Thinking about it, I think that one of the surest symptoms of an oncoming trainwreck of a TPK is when one player starts to lead the party's direction by taking a lot of unilateral decisions - sometimes dressing them up as roleplaying, sometimes not. In groups I have DM'd, this is also the source of player unrest and the myth that 4e is purely a combat game.The most obvious example of this is when the party knows that an encounter (not necessarily a fight) is imminent - say the party is around the corner from a group of yuan-ti, and is planning what  to do next. There are ambush options, avoidance options, a straight up fight - even parley options. Whilst these are being discussed, one player says something to the effect of "I run round the corner and hit the nearest creature with my sword.", the party is thrust into a combat without planning or consent, and has to take it from there. The player starting it all will then try and retrospectively justify it with "roleplaying" saying some nonsense like "Well, I'm a barbarian,".Stupid decisions in combat, poor general party balance and poor party balance for a particular encounter all play their part, but as outlined above, one of the surest signs is being put into a bad tactical situation from the beginning of a fight. Just about the only thing that can save you then is a mass retreat and regroup (very unlikely, and can quite possibly accelerate a TPK if badly organised) or in 4e - having a battle saving power (maybe Wall of Thorns or some kind of mass slow/immobilise to give the party breathing space) or one of the many Warlord powers that gives mass shifts/charges.</blockquote>

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