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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Lethality, AD&D, and 5e: Looking Back at the Deadliest Edition
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<blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 9064961" data-attributes="member: 6801845"><p>D&D has always been and continues to be as (permanently) lethal as the DM and group wants. Yes, there's less "oops you're dead" in 5E but raise dead was always there as a last resort. </p><p></p><p>But I think that goes back to how people played. Have a cleric in the party? Rest up, cast as many healing spells as you can. Rinse and repeat for a few days and you're good as new. I remember playing one of the gold box D&D games that had "rest and heal until full" option. I remember being in a collapsing tunnel towards the end of the game and spamming that button until it completed successfully. Didn't quite work that way in games, but it was close. </p><p></p><p>I think this in part goes back to people simply made the game their own. When I DMed I'd look at entries like the ear worm or trapper (the floor ate unsuspecting adventures), chuckled and then never used them. Same way I'll probably never use the feeblemind spell. Taking someone out of the game because of a single bad roll simply isn't much fun to me.</p><p></p><p>It probably helped that back in the day we had rotating DMs so if one person played a killer DM it would come back to haunt them. So I think people's experiences ran the gamut from "Bring multiple characters, you'll need them" to "We're a bit hurt, let's rest and heal until full" to "Chuck died again, wonder what the cleric in town will charge to raise him this time."</p><p></p><p>Just like today, there are many ways to play the game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Oofta, post: 9064961, member: 6801845"] D&D has always been and continues to be as (permanently) lethal as the DM and group wants. Yes, there's less "oops you're dead" in 5E but raise dead was always there as a last resort. But I think that goes back to how people played. Have a cleric in the party? Rest up, cast as many healing spells as you can. Rinse and repeat for a few days and you're good as new. I remember playing one of the gold box D&D games that had "rest and heal until full" option. I remember being in a collapsing tunnel towards the end of the game and spamming that button until it completed successfully. Didn't quite work that way in games, but it was close. I think this in part goes back to people simply made the game their own. When I DMed I'd look at entries like the ear worm or trapper (the floor ate unsuspecting adventures), chuckled and then never used them. Same way I'll probably never use the feeblemind spell. Taking someone out of the game because of a single bad roll simply isn't much fun to me. It probably helped that back in the day we had rotating DMs so if one person played a killer DM it would come back to haunt them. So I think people's experiences ran the gamut from "Bring multiple characters, you'll need them" to "We're a bit hurt, let's rest and heal until full" to "Chuck died again, wonder what the cleric in town will charge to raise him this time." Just like today, there are many ways to play the game. [/QUOTE]
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Lethality, AD&D, and 5e: Looking Back at the Deadliest Edition
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