I killed my first PC tonight

[Mark]

I killed my first PC tonight

I need advice. What should I do? Help?

It might seem like it is no fun to have a character die but if you remove that aspect of the game, or even hedge it, you're selling it short. You don't, as DM, want it to seem as if PCs can never die or that you will negotiate situations to avoid it. Let the dice fall where they may based on the risks taken by the players. If you have to hedge, do it completely in secret and never let on that you have. In the long run, it will be more fun.

 

[mcrow]

I think the biggest problem was that the party was not balanced. No fighter/Barbarian/paladin. The Druid was the primary healer when in a balanced party she would only be the back up. premade adventures assume that the party will be balanced and if the party isn't you will need to make some changes to the adventure.

NPC use: See how your players feel about NPCs. If they are ok with you inserting an NPC (cleric or fighter) make him/her an interesting companion but just a notch lower in power than the PCs. This make sure they are helpfull but that PCs are the stars of the adventure. I don't like giving PC an abnormal amount of healing items for the most part. It just seems that if the nearest village to the PCs is very small it isn't likely to have a lot of CLW potions or items laying around to just give away.

As a GM I neither like or dislike killing PCs. Here is my general thought:

If the PCs knowingly do something real dumb that puts them in a situation that could get them killed I'm not going to save them. If a character will die because of a bad die roll i will try to find a logical way to keep them alive , but if i cant they die.