I killed my first PC tonight

[Nail]

In the last 7 game sessions, I've DMed 17 PC deaths. We have about 6 players, all of which have PCs in the 13th to 15th range.

PCs die. Often, there's no way to prevent it (DM or player). Everyone playing should realize that.....and still have fun!

 

[ST]

I just don't think character death is that interesting, so I avoid it. (Mostly by using different systems, mind you.) If the player's there to explore the story of their character, and see them evolve over time, then there's no real benefit to killing them off. Yes, the system is designed to be somewhat deadly for low-level characters, but that doesn't mean that's what everybody actually enjoys.

Action points are a good compromise, because they encourage careful play (you don't want to waste them) but they prevent one random bad roll from ending a character that a player's invested in.

As for this particular situation, I think it'd be interesting to have some reason come up for the druid to be reincarnated, possibly even as the same race they were before, but in a different body. Maybe run that by the player, see what she thinks -- it opens up some interesting roleplaying opportunities in the future, trying to convince friends and family that she really is who she says she is. If you're struggling to come up with a reason for it to happen, maybe some old friend or relative paid for a contingency reincarnation a while ago. Maybe it was their way of saying "Okay, try this adventuring thing, but if it doesn't work, I'm giving you a second chance to come home and live a safer life." It could be interesting to explore.

 

[RandomPrecision]

I hope it was an unpleasant experience for the player. Why would you want character death to be a good thing? I'm sure the party will try to avoid death from now on, even more so than before, including potions, more points in heal, etc.

 

[sniffles]

In a day long gone by, having PCs die made the players want to jump in and play all the harder. However, in current times there's a more emotional attachment for characters, and PC deaths tend to be frowned upon. Whether this is a good or bad thing is debated, as you can no doubt tell from other responses in this thread.

I am curious from the answers of respondents like Patryn and Sniffles - what would you consider "meatgrinder-excessive" rates of characters dying off? One per ten sessions? One per four? One per twenty? One per campaign?

Regarding the first paragraph: I want to play a lot of different characters, and live in a constant state of frustration that I can't. However, that does not encourage me to try any less hard to keep my current PCs alive!

I couldn't really say what would be a meatgrinder campaign to me - it would depend on the campaign. If it was set up as extremely deadly, I'd take that in stride. But most of the campaigns I play in are intended to be long-term quests in which it's often difficult to find a good reason for a new PC to join the group. That's something for IamTheTest to think about in deciding how to handle his situation.

 

[Celebrim]

I couldn't really say what would be a meatgrinder campaign to me - it would depend on the campaign.

Yeah. If I'm playing 'Tomb of Horrors' (or a similar dungeon) as a one shot, I not only expect alot of character deaths but to a certain extent enjoy them (as long as they aren't my character). Characters should die horribly as part of the memorable adventure.

If on the other hand I'm play a character in a RP centered campaign, I expect average characters to survive through years of play before meeting a final doom. Obviously, the DM has to be more careful about what he throws at a party if this is to occur.

But, rough guidelines, assuming a 6 character party:

Consensual Campaign: No deaths without agreement between the player and the DM. Pure storytelling.
Character Driven Campaign: Less than .25 deaths in the party per level of advancement.
RP focused campaign: .25 - .5 deaths in the party per level of advancement.
Average campaign: .5 - 1 deaths in the party per level of advancement.
Meatgrinder campaign: 1 - 1.5 deaths in the party per level of advancement. Characters are basically disposable at low levels and will require frequent 'raise' spells at higher levels.
Lethal campaign: More than 1.5 deaths in the party per level of advancement. Generally suitable only for one shots and other old fashioned pure dungeon crawling. At high levels, players will get raised on an seemingly daily basis.
'Tomb of Horrors': Or any campaign in which the DM is deliberately pitting himself against the players with the intention of wracking up a kill list and showing the players that they aren't as smart as they think. More than 3 deaths in the party per level of advancement. Wacky fun, but not everyone enjoys that kind of thing. This is the level I typically run open dungeon crawls at down at the game store.

 

[IamTheTest]

One idea that I am going to bring up to my group is that of a modified action point. PCs will receive one action point at the start of a level, if it is unused you dont end up with a second (read: max of one), this point can be used for an automatic save, automatic skill success, or it will bring you to half of your total hit points. It can be used at any time as a free action. Is this overpowered?

 

[Saeviomagy]

I think a big part of what went wrong is:

You've got a 4th level party who are relying on a druid (not exactly the BEST healer) for ALL their healing, to the point that not one of them has a wand or potion.

Frankly - they should be dying every so often.

 

[IamTheTest]

I agree that I should have made available more healing. This is something I will definately do in the future. That being said, the druid did scribe some CLW scrolls for the rogue to hold onto. Looking back at the battle, had the initiative order been different the druid probably wouldnt have died. Oh well...part of the game I suppose.

 

[coyote6]

A wand of cure light wounds might be nicer; the DC is a nice, easy DC 20, compared to the scroll's 20+spell level (and the scroll also requires the rogue have a Wisdom of 10+the spell's level, or make another Use Magic Device check to emulate a higher Wisdom).
.

 

[IamTheTest]

As I said, I take full responsibility for the lack of healing. They clearly didnt have enough. I suppose everybody learns from a death.