Unearthed Arcana Light, Dark, Underdark - November's Unearthed Arcana

Interesting stuff.

 

[Celtavian]

Depends on how the character dies, but I definitely prefer characters live for the long haul. I like players to become very attached and invested in their character. Hard for them to do if their characters are dying a lot.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I mean lets face it the death of a PC is not fun for anyone it butchers story continuity oh your on some epic quest to save the world from an arch lich awsome i just happen to be a 13th level wizard oh i know right ye theres only like 10of us in the world but im here in sleepy Fallcrest just chilling or even worse why is said wizard sat fully equipped in a dungeon

Nothing drives me nuts more then the POOF into exsitance PC...

what, we are 17th level and fought tooth and nail hearing that no one else can handle these challages, then fighting the lich lords prize death knight we lost our good friend and best healer, Jaminin the cleric/Paladin of pelor. Now devastated we find Draken the bold, level 17 bard who happens to be able to fill in both in melee and healing... hey where did he come from?

 

[Sacrosanct]

Nothing drives me nuts more then the POOF into exsitance PC...

what, we are 17th level and fought tooth and nail hearing that no one else can handle these challages, then fighting the lich lords prize death knight we lost our good friend and best healer, Jaminin the cleric/Paladin of pelor. Now devastated we find Draken the bold, level 17 bard who happens to be able to fill in both in melee and healing... hey where did he come from?

That's sort of the point of role-playing. To answer those exact questions*


*hyperbolic example aside. I.e., very rarely do you have a high level PC die forever and ever. The higher level you are, the more options for death prevention/raising there are. So your example would be pretty unlikely of happening.

 

[Orlax]

Oh my i went to sleep and created a monster! IM not saying players shouldn't die they should crit happens etc but if a pc drops to 0 im not going to double tap him on the floor to force death its not fun for the pcs and well it would make it incredibly easy to kill any pc i wanted at any time.

As for the topic of living worlds and level one dragons im sure it would be common knowledge in the local village that a dragon lived in the nearby mountains hell he has probably been demanding tribute for 200something years so if the pcs asked it would come up if they didnt ask on the way up i would mention strange patches of charred earth, littered with bones(wouldn't want to cook those sheep near ones horde may melt the lootz) and the giant 10inch deep claw marks gouged in the stone if they didn't head this warning id then narrate the giant red dragon flying around 100ft overhead descend into a section of the mountain failure to heed that not so subtle thar be dragons here i would have the dragon demand they strip but naked and leave all their possessions on the ground as he was feeling kind FAILING that(dam these are some dam stoopid pcs) i would have the dragon gobble them all up tpk next game(thats the rule round these parts in my group there are 3of us that DM so its tpk and out if one guys survives new chars it is lets try and figure out why they decided to tag along).

I mean lets face it the death of a PC is not fun for anyone it butchers story continuity oh your on some epic quest to save the world from an arch lich awsome i just happen to be a 13th level wizard oh i know right ye theres only like 10of us in the world but im here in sleepy Fallcrest just chilling or even worse why is said wizard sat fully equipped in a dungeon or it ends up being well sorry lol timmy ill call you when the other guys hit a plausible point to let you in the party maybe 6months from now. It can bring a grown man to tears when his 19th level character hes been playing for the last year dies that has become like his best friend.

Again im not saying you should make it so pcs are invulnerable im a strong believer in dice fall where they may but as a DM its simple to kill a pc even if you throw what the DMG calls a medium encounter at them just set an ambush focus fire one guy in the suprise round with arrows then proceed to double tap him when down then move on to the next guy and the next guy, they try to escape mwuahahah you run into big burt the giant come down from his cave to see what the fuss is.

I agree with this pretty much entirely. Though in the near future I'm going to start experimenting with mix level parties (very viable in 5th). I rarely use experience for determining leveling but in the case of adding a new character that is level 1 to a party of level 11 characters that level 1 should run through the levels real quick because a bare nod towards experience would put them through multiple levels within the first few combats.

 

[Serpine]

Now devastated we find Draken the bold, level 17 bard who happens to be able to fill in both in melee and healing...

On the other side of the coin, having to nurse his cousin Draken the Wimpy through multiple levels before he can even hit the monsters you are fighting could be more trouble then it is worth. And it may not be a lot of fun for the player (having to switch characters is hassle enough).

 

[Azurewraith]

I agree with this pretty much entirely. Though in the near future I'm going to start experimenting with mix level parties (very viable in 5th). I rarely use experience for determining leveling but in the case of adding a new character that is level 1 to a party of level 11 characters that level 1 should run through the levels real quick because a bare nod towards experience would put them through multiple levels within the first few combats.

I tried my players got angry when they were tgr only Guy missing extra attack etc

 

[GMforPowergamers]

That's sort of the point of role-playing. To answer those exact questions*


*hyperbolic example aside. I.e., very rarely do you have a high level PC die forever and ever. The higher level you are, the more options for death prevention/raising there are. So your example would be pretty unlikely of happening.

No the point of role-playing is to immerse yourself in a world and to put yourself into a role. That immersion is harder when random people poop into existence.

As for unlikely I rarely see characters come back from dead unless a PC can do it. So that example is a prime example...aka the divine caster died so no one to raise them. In my 20ish years I've been roleplaying I bet I could count on my hands the number of times NPCs brought someone back...

 

[Sacrosanct]

No the point of role-playing is to immerse yourself in a world and to put yourself into a role. That immersion is harder when random people poop into existence.

As for unlikely I rarely see characters come back from dead unless a PC can do it. So that example is a prime example...aka the divine caster died so no one to raise them. In my 20ish years I've been roleplaying I bet I could count on my hands the number of times NPCs brought someone back...

Last time I checked, role playing your character's background and role playing PC introductions were all part of role playing. The only reason a new PC "poops" (sic) into existence is because the players failed to role play the scenario.

There are many options to raise PCs back that don't rely on one of the party members having that spell option. If you've been playing for 20 years, I'm sure you know all of them. PCs at that high of a level have many resources available to them.

So I gotta ask, in those 20 years, how many high level PCs in your table died for good when the player wanted to keep them alive?

 

[Orlax]

I tried my players got angry when they were tgr only Guy missing extra attack etc

I forget, what is the exp requirement to get from 1st to 5th? And how many level 9 encounters would it t take to get them up to 5th.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

On the other side of the coin, having to nurse his cousin Draken the Wimpy through multiple levels before he can even hit the monsters you are fighting could be more trouble then it is worth. And it may not be a lot of fun for the player (having to switch characters is hassle enough).

ugh! that was my least favorite set of house rules ever. By mid 3.0 no one I knew was doing them... but we had some doosies in 2e and early 3.0.

5 worst house rules

5) Come in at lowest PC level -1d4
4) Come in at 1st level no matter what
3) Come in 2 levels lower then lowest PC, but with random rolls of magic items, 10% chance per level if you get one roll on the DMG charts
2) Come in at 1st level and no gear, the PCs have to rescue you
and the worst comes in at the last time and the straw that broke the camels back of my group...
1) come in as a random PC... that the DM draws up from his NPC list...


We have a few diamond in the ruff stories, like in 2e when our 9th level fighter died, came in as a half elf Cleric/Wizard/thief 1/1/1 stayed in the back and took combat xp for almost no real contribution, stole 2 magic items when no one was looking, stole the wizard PC spell book, rolled learned all the 1st level spells, then 'pick pocketed' to put it back without anyone noticing... and went up to 2/4/8 because of tracking xp seperatly... then he stole the book again the next night and learned all the 2nd level spells in it, then put it back and woke up the 3rd day adventureing as a 3/5/9 Cleric/Wizard/Thief