D&D 5E New DM let Player Die, now what?

[Shiroiken]

I may feel bad about a beloved character dying, especially if it's one that's good for the story, but I never take it back. Ever. Players have to accept the consequences of their decisions, even if those decisions are made with incorrect information. You might try to give hints, but the player is ultimately responsible.

In my game a few weeks ago, the party is infiltrating the dungeons of an old Temple of Elemental Evil Stronghold. They don't know what's down here, but they've had clues that there are bandits and humanoids within. They fight a group of gnolls (average encounter), but two manage to flee. The party gives chase, even though they're too far behind to actually catch them. I (somewhat) subtly remind everyone of the Han Solo v. Stromstroopers scene in Episode IV, but they continue anyway. The chase ends when the gnolls lead the party into an ambush of Bugbears (hard encounter pre-ambush), who very nearly TPK. I felt absolutely no remorse, and was willing to let the party die for their stupidity. They didn't know they were going into an ambush, but they knew of the possibility of other enemies, and I even gave them a clue (even though it was somewhat hidden in OOC talk).

 

[Rune]

First of all, you are not in any way obligated to change your style of disseminating exposition just because the players don't want (or know how) to ask the right questions. Giving sparse details (at least initially) is a perfectly valid style of DMing.

...But, you might consider practicing this little tool: when a player is about to do something that strikes you as extraordinarily dangerous and/or reckless, say "Are you sure you want to do that?" And then provide some information about why that might not be a good idea.

In this way, you will be providing critical information that you may or may not have made clear in a manner that flows naturally (conversationally, instead of pure exposition) and will also throw the ball back into their court. If they choose to proceed, they will have done so informed of likely consequences.

As for what to do when a character dies? Whatever you want. If you can find a way to bring 'me back that advances the story, great. If it creates plot hooks, even better. But if you just don't think it should happen at all, you're not obligated to do so.

 

[was]

...You did not let the pc die, the player's rash actions caused his own death. Death is part of role-playing. It's not a video game where you reset to your last save point when you die. The player needs to accept responsibility for his own actions and not place blame on others.

...As a DM, you are not required to fully detail every strength and weakness of an NPC or BBEG the pcs face. It's the players' job to ask questions before acting. It's the old "look before you leap" proverb. Your lack of experience has nothing to do with the player's decision to go wading into an unknown group of enemies solo. He has no cause to blame you for his own lack of good judgement.

...I usually allow pc resurrections up to one month, of game time, after death. It does, however, usually require a quest/mission from the church doing the resurrection. Place the group/raised player under a geas to ensure that they don't break their end of the bargain.

 

[Jester David]

How do experienced DMs deal with a PC death?

 

[Jester David]

In all seriousness, talk to the player. Give them time to mourn (and consider new PC options). They may have just been upset at "losing the game", which some people do not handle well.
Really, getting upset over a character death is a good thing because it meant he was invested and it wasn't a disposable PC.

When you talk to them again, you might find they've moved on. Which is very likely.

Or they might still want to try again with that character. Which is fine. The trick is to not make death free of consequence of negative effects. Their returning should feel like it's part of the story.
I recommend having the PC sent back with a mission, and maybe some form of curse. Such as being half a zombie and needing to consume raw flesh. Or being tied to the being that raised them (ala Galvatron being at the mercy of Unicron, an esoteric reference but the one only I can think of off the top of my head).

 

[Sunseeker]

While it is good of you to accept fault in yourself where it lies, even upon a poor description, it was 3v1. Assuming the "humanoids" could be identified as not-kobolds or weakling goblins, the player has a good deal of fault in this situation as well.

Deaths at my table are NEVER undone unless there are mitigating in-game circumstances. IE: you die to a vampire, you come back to life as a vampire spawn and go on to potentially become a vampire yourself. Or other forms of impressive magical resurrection. I won't let a player die when they're not at the table, IE: Bob leaves early and lets Bill run his character, well, Bill isn't a great spell-caster and Bob gets killed. Bob would be left alone by the enemies and if the fight was successfully ended, his pals would have been able to drag him off to recuperate later. Otherwise, Bob would vanish in a strange magical puff in the middle of the fight when he left.

If your players didn't think to bring the dead guy back to life, well sometimes parties make poor choices. I might offer the dead guy a chance to live again, in the way of his spirit, feeling betrayed by his allies, returns to haunt them and basically forces them to undertake a quest to get him a new body or he shall torment them until the end of their days!

Beyond that, it's time to roll up a new character!

 

[Ahrimon]

I'd love to know what these so called mistakes were that you think that you made. From everything I can read in your post your player made a bad decision to chase after 3 other combatants. The rest of the group decided to let him go and not help out. Then, after finding the body, they chose to bury him rather than try to raise him.

From what is in your post this one is completely on the players shoulders. Nothing in the game says that you automatically know the challenge of anyone you face or that it will always be a fair challenge. Act recklessly and you can pay the price. You can also reap the rewards. If that had been my group and the character had triumphed I would have rewarded him with something. XP, boon, reputation, etc.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Based on the information provided, I think the player has a bit more to learn here than the DM. Lone wolves going off away from the pack are easily dealt with. Hopefully this will teach the player the value of team mates and why one adventures as part of a group.

 

[Nebulous]

What kind of mistake did the player accuse you of making? I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the humanoids were hobgoblins (doesn't matter what they were really, i'm just pulling an example). Were they heavily armored? Did they hold their weapons as if very skilled with them? Were they battle scarred or otherwise indicative of being well trained? What did the player think you should have said short of "Don't fight those guys alone, they are very dangerous and will probably kill you."

 

[furysmuse]

Thanks everyone for so much feedback.
Some details:
The group was resting at camp during late morning and had left their horses grazing near some trees and they knew there was forest very near by. They noticed three humanoids accompanied by four spiders taking their horses away. When the PCs come to stop them, the three humanoids run and the spiders stand their ground to allow for escape. The spiders paired off and 5 characters engage the spiders while the three humanoids run toward the forest with the horses. The humanoids have about two rounds of a lead on the PC who decides to give chase. He uses land strider to catch up with them and does so within another three rounds. He sleeps the horses, so the ettercaps turn on him.
There was discussion at the table that these were likely ettercaps. I should have shown a picture, perhaps? But confirmed they were ettercaps when the horses dropped.
This party... Doesn't have a lot of commeraderie. The players all get along well, and we have plenty of laughs around the table. But, due to some role play choices, there are definitely some tensions in the group (I have tried to provide a variety of ways for the group to bond, but, thus far, to no avail). So, once the threat of the spiders was gone, one PC decided to simply return to camp, but the others went... I think more to save the horses.
So, I did not provide warning that this might be a fatal choice for the PC to give chase. He asked about the terrain, which I said was lightly treed, and not yet fully forested. He did not ask about the humanoids, and I did not offer up any info either - which is where my fault lays.
The other part that I got wrong was the poison effect, which he should have saved against each round, but I also did not give him damage from the poison, only the disadvantage to attacks and saves.
My last mistake was asking him to do his death saves at disadvantage because I had written something down wrong in my notes, and didn't realize that it only applied to ability scores. So, what is in question is only his last death save. The others would have been fails regardless of the disadvantage. All my mistakes .