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Message: <blockquote data-quote="redrick" data-source="post: 6522024" data-attributes="member: 6777696">Yeah, my first character death as a DM was really hard. The reality is that it is very difficult to create the "perfectly" balanced combat, where players feel adequately challenged, but will only lose a PC if they do something that they admit was stupid. My sense of 5e is that it dispenses with a lot of the pretense of this balance, as combats can be very swingy. So, when a character dies, you feel bad because it wasn't a fair combat. On the other hand, when the players spend 2 sessions cake-walking through each of your CR-appropriate encounters, the game will feel boring and your players might even complain that they want a bit of a challenge.So, I would say to yourself, at the end of the day, D&D just isn't the fairest game. Characters will die and sometimes it will happen because they weren't as aware of the risks as they wish they were. On the other hand, players should always ask for information about combatants before charging in! Just because you didn't say, "you see a CR 2 humanoid in front of you!", doesn't mean they can't ask about the creature's armor, weaponry and general appearance of threat. I think it's DM-cheese to interrupt a travel montage with a save-or-die scenario, but a player charging into combat alone against 3 creatures that he isn't familiar with is definitely not your fault.So I would apologize to the player for mistakes you feel you made, but I would also say that it's time for him to move on. Just saying, "ok, never mind, your character is alive," kind of ruins the game. If the player really misses his character and wants him back, come up with some sort of side quest to find some hermit who will dig the character up and perform a powerful resurrection spell. You can base the challenge of that quest on how unfair you feel the death was. And I would bring the character back at the level he died at, which might mean losing a level or two to get back a character that he was invested in.If the player doesn't care about getting his character back, but is more just giving you a hard time because he feels like you cheated him, again, it's time for him to move on. You'll grow as a DM and make your sessions more and more fun and hopefully kill a few more player characters along the way.</blockquote>

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