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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fearsomepirate" data-source="post: 7934689" data-attributes="member: 7021420">To answer the OP, and having read most of the discussion:As others have noted, random character destruction isn't actually very challenging in itself; it merely makes guessing where the DM put something that will instantly kill you a more prominent element of the game. But on that front, 5e is the 2nd least-challenging edition after 4e. You probably aren't going to be randomly killed by a single bad roll, and you definitely aren't getting level-drained.This means the overall game environment is one where you're much less actively paranoid about getting killed, and need to expend a great deal less effort, such as constantly tapping the floor with a ten-foot pole, to not die. But this is more about changing conventions. There is, of course, nothing in the 5e rules that says I can't throw a save-or-die at my players, but this is largely frowned upon, because most people hate that mechanic. It is still not that hard to kill 5e characters, especially if you frequently have multi-attacking monsters continue to hit downed characters.However, 5e is much more challenging than 3.5 at high level. A decent 3.5 player can pretty easily craft a 17th-level character that controls the multiverse with his farts, and there isn't much a DM can do about it beyond rocks-fall-you-die. An AD&D party with the right spells can make absolute mincemeat of the fabric of reality. 5e characters aren't nearly so overwhelming, due in large part to the Concentration mechanic and Bounded Accuracy.In the end, 5e probably doesn't feel that challenging more because D&D culture has changed than anything. Traps that kill players are a no-no. Orcs aren't supposed to cut the rope bridge over the chasm as the party crosses it. If you know the wizard never learned Feather Fall, you're not supposed to have a Roc pick him up and drop him off a cliff. You're not supposed to have a room the party can't Leroy Jenkins through. An 11th-level assassin who disguises himself as a bartender and quietly slips deadly poison into a player's drink with a SoH check he easily, easily rolls over 20 on isn't the sort of thing you're supposed to do. An Alien-style monster that lays a deadly egg into a player that will certainly kill him in five days if the party fails to check him for diseases after battle is bad form. A dragon is supposed to land on the ground and fight honorably, not hang around in the sky and sweep the party with his breath weapon every time it recharges. That's just bad form.Bad form, but not forbidden by RAW, as my players have learned over the years.</blockquote>

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