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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Geron Raveneye" data-source="post: 3738545" data-attributes="member: 2268">It's funny, but i'm a bit ambivalent about death effects, insta-kills, save or die effects, etc. On the one hand, I think they should be in the game for the simple adrenaline-raising shock effect. Nothing gets my blood pumping like a danger that cannot be shrugged off by enough hit points, or by throwing enough damage at it. It reminds you that sometimes, a little luck is all that separates the heroes from the commoners. At least if you care for your character, and would like him to stay alive a little longer. Risk of instant death is something that makes me sweat for my character, moreso than level drain. Having to balance over a pool of fuming acid on a pole a handspan wide, knowing that the only thing that keeps my PC from dissolving is a successful Reflex save in case I don't manage the Balance check is exciting for sure. Seeing an ally hanging from the spikes of a death trap can drive the fear of death home as well. And for adventurers, a little adrenaline should be part of the job.On the other hand, it heavily depends on the flavour of the campaign...and in some, it shouldn't ever happen. Nothing destroys a heroic character worse than a pretty meaningless death. Examples: Trinity in Matrix 3, Wash in Serenity. These were, in my opinion, completely senseless and useless deaths that shouldn't have happened to the characters like that. In a heroic D&D campaign, it can severely dampen the enjoyment of play for some players. It'd be as if the Fellowship of the Ring had just escaped the orcs of Moria, running out of the mines, only to have Aragorn fall in an old dwarven pit trap and break his neck.So what I'd like to see would be the possibility of those threats that directly affect the character and sidestep hit points (which after all mainly represent how hard the character is to kill with weapons or physical damage spells), but also an extensive piece of advice in the new DMG about how to adjudicate and use these effects in context of campaign flavour. After all, if one doesn't want his BBEG to fall from a simple Disintegration, there's always the possibility to give him a defense against it in the form of a new spell, a magical ability, or a magical item. In the last case, it even means the adventurers have some interesting new item afterwards, or a new spell.I simply believe that it's better, in the long run, to teach folks, especially the newcomers, how to be more flexible with more options in a game, instead of having people wonder why the heck something as deadly as Curare is simply not able to kill a character, even if the guy is riddled with blowpipe darts, because deadly poisons were removed...or why a spell is called Disintegration if all it does is hit point damage like the Fireball. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing    :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" /></blockquote>

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