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<blockquote data-quote="Fanaelialae" data-source="post: 8986822" data-attributes="member: 53980">If you want to preserve some of that sense of mortality, you could just add a once per turn damage boost at higher tiers. For example, +1d6 at tier 2, +2d6 at tier 3, +3d6 at tier 4. For monsters as well as PCs. Adjust to desired flavor. More damage generally means shorter combats and a greater likelihood of going to 0 HP.That said, I've seen fighters get dropped in a single round even at tier 4 (albeit, not from a single hit/crit like you see at low levels, but most monsters at that tier have multiattack).IME, what really makes high levels less deadly are the features. Raise Dead et al for starters, since it becomes relatively trivial to undo death. Also spells like Heal, Teleport, and Wish can make the game significantly less deadly. And that's before you get into shenanigans like having summoned/bound monsters or a simulacrum take all the risks for you.High level is meant to be kind of wahoo, including death being relatively trivialized. If your 1st level character dies, you can have a new one rolled up in 30 minutes or so. If your 20th level character dies, writing up a new one is likely to take hours.Your idea of making certain high level abilities available is a good idea because this way you can curate what they get, and avoid giving out abilities that might undercut their sense of mortality.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Fanaelialae, post: 8986822, member: 53980"] If you want to preserve some of that sense of mortality, you could just add a once per turn damage boost at higher tiers. For example, +1d6 at tier 2, +2d6 at tier 3, +3d6 at tier 4. For monsters as well as PCs. Adjust to desired flavor. More damage generally means shorter combats and a greater likelihood of going to 0 HP. That said, I've seen fighters get dropped in a single round even at tier 4 (albeit, not from a single hit/crit like you see at low levels, but most monsters at that tier have multiattack). IME, what really makes high levels less deadly are the features. Raise Dead et al for starters, since it becomes relatively trivial to undo death. Also spells like Heal, Teleport, and Wish can make the game significantly less deadly. And that's before you get into shenanigans like having summoned/bound monsters or a simulacrum take all the risks for you. High level is meant to be kind of wahoo, including death being relatively trivialized. If your 1st level character dies, you can have a new one rolled up in 30 minutes or so. If your 20th level character dies, writing up a new one is likely to take hours. Your idea of making certain high level abilities available is a good idea because this way you can curate what they get, and avoid giving out abilities that might undercut their sense of mortality. [/QUOTE]

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