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<blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 7840591" data-attributes="member: 6779196"><p>This is a slight tangent, but I actually do like save or die effects, when they are handled with care. Save or die effects are at their best when no one ever actually has to make the save - when the fact that a creature has a save or die ability is sufficiently telegraphed so that the players have the opportunity to take the necessary precautions to avoid risking being targeted by those abilities. The classic example being the Medusa. If the players know they’re going to be going into a media’s lair, either because that was part of the adventure buy-in, or because they see the petrified forms of its victims long before they encounter it, or both. Then they can make the choice to bring mirrors and/or fight blind, and it makes the eventual confrontation challenging because of the tactics the players are forced to use to avoid the Medusa’s gaze, not because of the gaze itself. But I recognize that such things require the DM to do all the heavy lifting to turn an otherwise unfun mechanic into an opportunity for a fun, memorable encounter. So I think it’s for the best that such abilities have been toned down by default, because it’s much easier for me to homebrew a monster with a true save or die ability when I want one than it is for others to homebrew weaker versions of monsters that have true save or die abilities by default.</p></blockquote><p></p>

[QUOTE="Charlaquin, post: 7840591, member: 6779196"] This is a slight tangent, but I actually do like save or die effects, when they are handled with care. Save or die effects are at their best when no one ever actually has to make the save - when the fact that a creature has a save or die ability is sufficiently telegraphed so that the players have the opportunity to take the necessary precautions to avoid risking being targeted by those abilities. The classic example being the Medusa. If the players know they’re going to be going into a media’s lair, either because that was part of the adventure buy-in, or because they see the petrified forms of its victims long before they encounter it, or both. Then they can make the choice to bring mirrors and/or fight blind, and it makes the eventual confrontation challenging because of the tactics the players are forced to use to avoid the Medusa’s gaze, not because of the gaze itself. But I recognize that such things require the DM to do all the heavy lifting to turn an otherwise unfun mechanic into an opportunity for a fun, memorable encounter. So I think it’s for the best that such abilities have been toned down by default, because it’s much easier for me to homebrew a monster with a true save or die ability when I want one than it is for others to homebrew weaker versions of monsters that have true save or die abilities by default. [/QUOTE]

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