D&D General On PC Death

[Gorg]

I think the only time I've been mildly annoyed at a PC death was at a con with the low level table (2nd level PCs IIRC) during an "interactive". This is a game where all the tables are playing the same combat, just different areas. It can be fun.

However, the organizers decided it would be fun to have an modified Mouth of Grolantar* just pop into the middle of the combat, ignored the initiative order, just rearranged minis so he could hit everyone and used the giant's "attack everyone" power. He ignored our enemies and automatically hit all the PCs for more than 20 points of damage automatically killing my character and my wife's PC then left without taking any AOOs.

So it had nothing to do with my strategy up to that point, there was nothing I could have done to avoid it, it was just "you're going to die since you were low on HP because I wandered over to your table towards the end of a hard fight and ignored how the monster is supposed to work."

I mean, every elf I play dies at low levels but now it's just something I literally laugh at. Bad strategy and unlucky dice happen. But just killing off PCs thoughtlessly because you can? Yeah, that's annoying.

*It's the closest thing I ever found. Either they modified it or they simply broke several rules.

And then there are players like me, when I was young and stupid. I actually told my DM "You can't kill MY characters!!!" They were my ridiculously OP high levels I'd had forever.

He did.

Got real creative about it, too. For instance, behind one door was a big statue of a dragon, and every time you'd open the door and try to enter, BOOM!! you get hit in the face with a fireball, Ice Storm, etc. Nothing we did effected this thing in any way. When someone DID manage to get past the "trap", it turned out to simply be a hollow statue, and inside were 2 freaking goblins and a bucket of magic wands...

Or the ol disappearing floor trick- which dropped you onto a sheet of ice. "You hear a strange sliding/scraping noise rapidly coming closer..." <rolls dice> "Take xx damage and you're now sliding helplessly across the ice!" Turned out to be a group of Frost Giants playing ice hockey- with my Dwarf being used as the puck.

Then a room with 2 gigantic rust monsters- and a disenchanter. Which led to a great hall full of hundreds of orcs...

Yup, I never made that mistake again!

Funny part is, when it was MY turn to DM, he became the most paranoid player ever. Took forever to get through anywhere- because he had to check every square inch for traps, lol. There rarely were any, but it was highly amusing to see him so scared, lol.

 

[Oofta]

And then there are players like me, when I was young and stupid. I actually told my DM "You can't kill MY characters!!!" They were my ridiculously OP high levels I'd had forever.

He did.

Got real creative about it, too. For instance, behind one door was a big statue of a dragon, and every time you'd open the door and try to enter, BOOM!! you get hit in the face with a fireball, Ice Storm, etc. Nothing we did effected this thing in any way. When someone DID manage to get past the "trap", it turned out to simply be a hollow statue, and inside were 2 freaking goblins and a bucket of magic wands...

Or the ol disappearing floor trick- which dropped you onto a sheet of ice. "You hear a strange sliding/scraping noise rapidly coming closer..." <rolls dice> "Take xx damage and you're now sliding helplessly across the ice!" Turned out to be a group of Frost Giants playing ice hockey- with my Dwarf being used as the puck.

Then a room with 2 gigantic rust monsters- and a disenchanter. Which led to a great hall full of hundreds of orcs...

Yup, I never made that mistake again!

Funny part is, when it was MY turn to DM, he became the most paranoid player ever. Took forever to get through anywhere- because he had to check every square inch for traps, lol. There rarely were any, but it was highly amusing to see him so scared, lol.

Yeah, the really old school of play where PCs were disposable is another thing entirely.

The reason I was moderately upset was that in 5E (and AL for that matter) it's not supposed to be a "surprise your dead!" style of game. Especially not one where there was absolutely nothing you could do about it - at least in you case you had the option of not entering the room.

For the most part I just give a melodramatic not-serious groan and move on.

 

[the_redbeard]

As a player: "Ooh, I get to try out [new character idea X]!"
As a DM: "Oh, jeez, now I've got to junk all of that character's connections and story hooks, and work another weird rando into my campaign."

As a DM, I have to say that with a continuing campaign world, every new character and new character background is just additional depth to my setting. All that stuff about the last character? That's still going on. All that stuff for the new character is just another layer to the onion.