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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AlViking" data-source="post: 9746849" data-attributes="member: 6906980">I discuss how likely the characters are to die when we do our session 0 with the understanding that death will never be completely off the table.  Meanwhile we like tough combats which means there is a risk of death.  A few sessions ago, the characters had just gotten done fighting some vampire spawn.  It wasn't a particularly dangerous fight, and wasn't meant to be, but there were some terrain features that made it a bit tricky so a couple of the characters were pretty beat up.  At that point they overheard an enemy group entering an adjacent room, searching the same area they wanted to search.  The players decided it was a good idea to attack the enemy even though they had not had a chance to recover from the vampire spawn fight.  A fireball and some bad rolls later, the remaining characters surrendered.Assuming the players play intelligently is not an assumption I would make, even when we've been gaming together for several years now and they know I don't hold back.  In other cases the player's dice were just cold and I was rolling one 20 after another while recharging abilities left and right.  Sometimes the dice just go against the players.  So I guess I don't know what you're trying to get at, 5e like all versions of D&D, can be lethal or not depending on what the people at the table want.  In early versions it was more likely to accidentally kill off players, but if I want a TPK in the current edition it wouldn't be that hard no matter what level the party is.  I can always stack the deck.Meanwhile the guidance in the DMG for 2014 5e was a bit on the low end which to me makes sense.  A newbie DM with newbie players should be soft-balling the threat a little bit until they figure out what they're doing.  I'm still getting used to the 2024 guidelines while also using monsters from the new MM or more recent books.  I've had to dial back a bit on expectations, but I'm still trying to find a balance.</blockquote>

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