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Message: <blockquote data-quote="scholz" data-source="post: 1587133" data-attributes="member: 10028">You might want to look at Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed's system.I don't have it handy, but it is very similar in that you can't do it easily. Personally I think the regularity of death and the kind of game you play should be factored in.Are your games (A) episodic campaigns, (B) unrelated 'situation' adventures, (C) tournament style-dungeon dives. In (C) - having people die is no big deal, they die, and make new characters the  next time you play. Some small penality (fewer magic items, lower level) is a fine penalty for playing incautiously.In (B) or (A) I think the situation differs. If dying is permanent (usually) then people may be overly cautious (B) and deeply depressed (A) when their character dies from a bad roll. I would reduce the CRs of  all encounters to make accidental death less common, and maybe drop critical hits. Or add Hero points or something like that to avoid instant/accidental deaths. I think losing a character, especially at high level, if you've worked you way up, can be a real pain. It is frustrating and annoying as a player. As a DM I get annoyed when subsequent characters tend to be resistant to whatever killed the previous (if it was getting hit too often, they make a high AC character next, if they fail a save they make a character with higher saves), if helping another character got one killed, they next character might not help the others.  Having had a character die twice last game, I do not relish having to lose two levels, while everyone else will probably go up a level. Tha is pretty punitive. So... what kind of fixes...I think if you are running a type A game, deaths should be rare and heroic (at least at high level). But when a character dies it should be a big deal. One way to handle this would be to make death less common. Possibilities...Different consequences for being reduced to negative hitpoints..(a) A la Castle Falkenstein make running out of hps 'finishing blows' so you lose the fight, but to actually kill someone someone needs to make the decision to kill you. Ex. A fireball does 10d6 to Fred who has 25 hp, he fails his save take 36hps and (in RAW he is dead) is Unconcscious and Helpless. The mage can just walk up and finish him off, but if left alone he will eventually wake up. Of course, the mage could choose instead to put him in a death trap or hold him hostage.(b) extend the disable and dying ranges... Onte Cook's Arcana Unearthed does this, you get yor con bonus appended to the range of being staggered/disabled. A Con 14 person reduced to -1 hp is disabled, not dying. And you get your Con in negative hitpoint before you die.  I've heard tell of games where you add your level to one or both of those numbers. This would definitely prolong the lives of PCs. (c) add in injury rules of some kind. Maybe whenever a character is put into negative hitpoints, he or she must make a fortitue save or suffer some more permanent injury (broken arm, deafness etc..) This would complicate the game considerably, but it might keep peoplle from taking combat too lightly. (d) A la, Sean K Reynelds home rule, have normal death/dying rules, but when you are raised from the dead, you add a negative level which disappears when you next level up. I think that is punitive enough to discourage dying, but it doesn't permanently hurt you.</blockquote>

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