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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tormyr" data-source="post: 6533441" data-attributes="member: 6776887">"Good night, Wesley. I'll most likely kill you in the morning."-Dread Pirate RobertsAs I DM I tend to prioritize telling stories more than killing PCs. We had a DM who was bloodthirsty, and while he was a great storyteller, it was irritating that characters did not have longevity.So my advice would be to stick to what is fun and tells the best story, because that is what I know.  If the PC was captured and is helpless, don't just kill it unless that significantly contributes to the story.In my game, I took one player aside and told him that while he was wondering about town in downtime, he was captured and replaced with a doppelganger.  When the party got to the room his real character was in, the rest of the party saw not only his real PC, but doppelgangers of all the rest of the PCs tied up in chairs. Chaos ensued as each player did not know who the real PC was for the other players.I also had a period of downtime where the cleric was captured by his estranged father and murdered to tie up a loose end. He was resurrected by Heironeous after his body was dumped. At the end of that session, the player told us that a move across the county that had been anticipated for a while was finally happening, and he would not be able to join us anymore. His PC became a pseudo avatar/messenger of Heironeous, popping in when the player was able to join us.The thing I have found that really works to make players nervous is to put in just one more encounter before they get that short or long rest.  On many occasions, the players thought their characters were runnig on fumes and then they got jumped for one more encounter.  The ingenious things they have come up with when their backs are truly to the wall are fantastic.For some DMs, like me, fear is a sweeter scent than death. Last Wednesday, the level 10 party fought and defeated a CR13 cleric of Kyuss, after a room of ghasts, a room of ochre jellies, a room of spawn of Kyuss, and another room of spawn of Kyuss and a Morgh. They probably should have taken a short rest in there somewhere, but they pushed on for various reasons. With his dying breath, the cleric released an ulgurstata (think CR13 undead purple worm with bite, acid breath and aura attacks). So the party has just finished off the cleric and are thinking about a short rest and they hear banging from a previous room as the ulgurstat attempts to break through the ceiling and into the arena above where 18,000 spectators/victims are waiting. When one of the PCs investigates, the doors blow open and I place the purple worm mini that my daughter and I made together on the table.[ATTACH]66946[/ATTACH]The wizard was sprayed by necromantic acid. The rogue fired a crossbow and watched as the bolt that was flying true was batted away by a storm of hundreds of tiny tendrils (40 foot aura, 1d12 damage and immunity to nonmagic ranged weapons). They ran to another room to rest. But the ulgurstata resumed its escape through the roof to the arena. Do the PCs risk their lives, or do they let the ulgurstata go (in which case, BAD THINGS HAPPEN that they don't know about yet). There are things that I have set up that will help them, but they have to rise to the challenge to take advantage of them.So this rambling post is my way to suggest that you scaring the PCs/players and placing them in difficult situations that can still be overcome is more scary/evil is more fun for all than just slaying PCs.</blockquote>

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