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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lauberfen" data-source="post: 4815742" data-attributes="member: 71418">I think death should occur as infrequently as possible, while being a genuine risk in difficult encounters.I think random death (such as save or die, or criticals at low levels in 3.5) does nothing good for the game.My experience of 4th consists of playing and DMing (we swap each adventure):1 party of 4 to 9th level1 party of 5 to 7th level1 party of 5 to 4th level (TPKd)1 Party of 4 to 2nd levelA few more characters and short adventures around 1-3rd.Over the course of these groups (all started at 1st), we've seen:1 TPK- 5 characters, 4th level vs black dragon- We would never have won this fight.1 Character killed at 1st level (on low HP, no surges left, criticalled to -bloodied by an orc. We had not yet grasped that no healing surges is like no HP in 3rd).1 Character (mine) Killed in a tough final battle at 2nd level. He was the Cleric, he used all his healing on the party, who struggled through and ended with everyone bloodied and one other character unconscious.So we've seen 5 deaths in a TPK (due to an overpowered monster), one death from a near TPK, and one death from a random critical (but only dangerous because we misunderstood the game.If the games were DMed and played as well as we do now, the only death would have been my cleric in the near TPK.I think TPKs suck.I think random deaths are not cool.I think deaths in a tough encounter are fine (such as mine).I think that lone characters  dying is rarer. I think this is ok. This partly depends on the healing available- a group with only one leader might well have an odd character die, without it being a near TPK.I think that the 'sweet spot' of a dangerous fight with real risk is not one where characters die, or roll death saves even, but one where all the healing is used and several characters end bloodied. This is quite easy to achieve, without a serious risk of TPK. This does have a real risk to characters, as once your out of healing and bloodied a few rolls here or there could mean character death.In summary, an encounter where a party have to go out of their way to keep people alive is as threatening as it should be.</blockquote>

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