Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 3848722" data-attributes="member: 13966">Meh.  Example 1, obviously nobody bothered to detect the Transmutation aura affecting the characters, even though spellcasters have plenty of marginally-useful cantrip/orison spell slots to use for Detect Magic, and nobody bothered to try Dispel Magic or Remove Curse to see if that would get rid of the effect.This is only bad DMing if your party was low-level and had no access to Remove Curse or the like (which comes in at 5th or 7th-level, depending on class).  Not a problem with save-or-die (it could've just been a Fire Trap or something else lower-level, after all, that still could've blown up in someone's face and killed them with damage because they failed to detect or go around it).Example 2, your mage would've died anyway if it was just a Goblin Rogue sneak attacking you, or an Orc Warrior rolling high on his greataxe's damage roll or maybe rolling a crit.  Or if you were higher level, an Invisible Stalker or Dire Tiger.  Still not a problem with save-or-die (or in your case, save-or-Con-damage).Perhaps instead you'd rather eliminate all randomness?  It's certainly an option (say that all dice rolls automatically count being as 1/2 their maximum result).And personally, I didn't find reading stories of Hercules, Perseus, or others was any less interesting just because creatures like the Medusa could kill or petrify enemies with a look.  It just made them challenges of wits more than just stupid brute force.  I have no problem with save-or-die as a player nor as a DM.  Crit happens, and SoD happens.SoD just has the grace to wait until you're mid-to-upper-level and better-suited to thwart it if reasonably prepared for adventuring.  And a lesson learned is a lesson learned; you may still be able to get Raised or Resurrected or Reincarnated, and you won't likely underestimate the importance of Fortitude saves, Death Ward, or similar things a second time.The satyr druid in my Thursday game recently lost both of his polar bear animal companions (3.0 D&D, not stupid 3.5 one-magical-sort-of-animal-esque-pet-for-you D&D), one hacked apart by orcish barbarians and another more recently flash-frozen by a white dragon's breath.  He reincarnated the first as a human, by chance, and the second as a pixie.  He'll pick up new animal companions this week, but he now has two new comrades who aren't quite accustomed to being above animal intelligence.But it'll be fun, and the party's cleric can Raise Dead if anyone else dies (assuming they don't just spend some of their new dragon-loot on paying for a Res or True Res).  They haven't faced any save-or-die effects so far, as they're a party of mostly-warriors and facing primarily warrior-type foes, but the campaign's only been going a few weeks.  And most of the party has gotten themselves awesome Fortitude saves anyway.</blockquote>

Verification