I didnt let a PC die

[Hejdun]

In this case...

I, personally, would have left the paladin dead. It is VERY obvious that the players have lost all sense of the omnipresent chance of death. The party forged on even when they were low on hit points, and apparently low on healing. They make the risk that they would be ok, they lost. One of their party was killed because of it. You didn't do anything wrong in DMing, the players chose their fate. They wanted to take the risks, and they lost, big time. Too bad. You can't expect to just heedlessly throw yourself into combat while low on hit points and expect to always get out of combat spotlessly. The players were stupid, and they paid for it. I feel bad for the paladin, especially since he was a good role player, but his actions were unwise, and in a life or death game, that meant the death of his character.

 

[jasper]

bring out your dead

in my campaign death has taken 5
One good god call (Roll 96% to 100%)
And 1 raise dead.
in another as player I have died twice um thrice.
The only reason I not roll up a new character there is the mu has reincarnate.
So I been halfing, stone giant, orge, troll and now half orc. A face only mommy could love

 

[Pielorinho]

Last night, I had a similar situation. A PC under the effect of a suggestion spell went stumbling off into an area of magical darkness, looking for the PC sorceress he was supposed to kill.

He bumped into the barbarian and, not knowing who it was, attacked. Not doing much damage.

The barbarian attacked back in the confusion. And criticaled, with a greataxe. And, since he was under the effect of several spells and rolled phenomenally well, did 51 points of damage -- 17 more than enough to kill the PC.

This was the PC's first session, although the player had spent the last two weeks working up his background.

I didn't let the death stick. Where would be the fun in that? The player had built all these cool plot hooks and mysteries and stuff into the character background; if I killed the PC off, the player almost certainly wouldn't bother to put all that work into the next character, and I wouldn't have all these cool toys as a DM to play with.

Besides, the game is about fun, and that death would have broken the fun, broken the pacing, just generally made it a sucky evening of non-fun.

It wouldn't have been a Greek Tragedy death -- those can be good. No, it would have been a Quentin Tarantino death with a decidedly non-Tarantino character.

If you're playing D&D as primarily a game of tactics, that's one thing. But if you're trying to build mood, theme, character, and story -- if you're going for a cinematic or epic effect -- then arbitrary death can be a great hindrance.

So I fudged, and my players were immediately and universally relieved. The combat was still exciting; there was still a sense of danger. Just not danger from stupid arbitrary stuff.

Daniel

 

[Hejdun]

True, I probably would have spared teh character in that case as well. But, if a character with 1 hit point starts taunting a great wyrm... too bad. You be an idiot, you'll pay for it.

 

[UD]

This is kind of semi-related, but my PC's became very careful what they say in-caharacter after one of them bad mouthed Cyric. In his temple. And was promptly stuck by lightning. *Snigger* If they wont roleplay without talking OOC all the time, I shall make them, oh yes...

 

[Doc_Klueless]

I seem to recall this same subject coming up before, but in a slightly different tone. This one is by far less combative. heh, heh, heh.

My take on the matter of PC death/No PC death has been made before, but since that was on the old board, I'll say it again.

Saving the PCs at the last moment through a God Roll is not a bad thing. It probably won't affect the game much at all. Why? Because, so far as I know, this was an isolated event in your game. The players shouldn't be counting on it to happen all the time. They should still fear death. However....

It should be noted that not everyone feels that the prospect of death is what is needed to feel heroic. You should sound out your group and find out how they feel about the matter. Do they want to play in a game that has the aspect of little to no PC death? Or do they want the chance of dying?

Take my own group, for instance (yes, I'm actually playing now. 4 weeks in a row! Yippee!!). I had gone back into my old DMing mode of not killing PCs. They figured it out and basically told me that they wanted the chance of dying. Now I make all attack and damage rolls in front of the Players so they can see them. It really adds to the feeling of tention and suspence at the table.

But, I had to ask them. You should ask your players and supply for them the type of game they want with the caveat that you get to have fun, too.

Sooooo, (yes, I know. I'm rambling. I just woke up and am having my first cup of coffee.) it's not a matter of wrong or right. It never really is when it comes to gaming. Rather it's a matter of "what does the group (players and DM included) want for the game?" Once you have that answer and you stick to it, you can't go wrong.

 

[Darklone]

Death is Death

I am biased. On the one hand I am firmly on the Death is Death is Death side.
On the other hand, I don't like to kill PCs at all. But it happens.

Two PCs broke out of a jail. The whole fort was alarmed, troups were running around searching for all the prisoners. What did the two guys do? "Where are our weapons?" ... They walked straight to the weapons room. Ok. There were guards. They were unarmed. The whole building was bristling with guards. Sloooowly they started to hide. After long pushing and cornering from my side, they hesitantly left the building through a window... Only to reenter it through the main entrance. Well. At least they tried since there were the guys who wanted to search the city.

Another PC death: PCs were attacked while finishing an artefact.... They managed to fight the enemies off, three of them fled. Two unhurt, the third was the enemies boss with a magical short sword. He was rather hurt but drank a potion. The halforc barbarian charged after them cause "We cannot let that sword go!".

Well. Those three guys tried to flee, but his speed was superior and they turned and chopped him to pieces. He managed to kill their boss and the other players drove the two others off but he was done.

Those deaths... I call them stupidity. And I don't let players survive by all odds simply cause they are players. I don't kill a single player cause he had bad luck. But my fights are tough and sometimes the players better run. If they are stupid or greedy at the wrong moments, they die.

Classical last quote from the paladin on the dragons hoard: "Hah, now I got your magic sword you ugly oversized lizard!"

Then I had a player who made his last stand to buy time for the others (players had pretty much screwed up everything in that campaign and he saved their butts, the story and the kingdom). Classical situation, he was hurt badly, blocked a bridge and fell into the water (-2hp) after fighting defensively for a long time. Couldn't have planned it better. Well. I had a nymph in that river down there that could have saved him ... Actually she owned a lot to the group but alas: the player didn't want to. Would have ruined the heroism

Short summary: Players who are cautious will not die. Players who are heroic will usually/hopefully not die. Players who are stupid will perish.

 

[Rashak Mani]

I too suffer from Overprotection syndrome and so decided to roll openly the attack and damage... oh my ... the players panicked !! They are too used with DM that pull punches... I do take a lot of care in balancing my Monsters and not playing them until death.

It seemed to make them more cautious... and more than the need or not for death its the idea of it that is more important... you can pull all your punches but the players MUST NEVER know that...

 

[Numion]

I think that fate points of some kind are still a better choice than fudging all the time, or some deus ex machina divine interventions.

If you're prone to using the latter, then just have all the monsters deal subdual damage only, ok? With fate points the players can cheat death only a certain number of times. This can prevent the unfortunate thing of a character dying in the first run. Fate points can be kept either secret or public, if it bothers someone that they'd affect a players actions.