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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Faolyn" data-source="post: 9727321" data-attributes="member: 6915329">"Not that type of game" in that the players and GM are building the story together and are aware that being cinematic may take precedence over counting out the exact numbers. Of course, that assumes that the PCs have those abilities, which is not a guarantee. Or that a living pirate will tell the truth (neither bribes nor torture are actually all that good at getting the truth out of people), and speak with dead specifically points out how cryptic and easily misunderstood the replies will be.OK, let's assume that the party sees a skeleton crew on the ship... how do they know that what they see constitutes the only pirates there? That there can't be a couple more hanging out below deck? Have they scanned the ship with X-ray vision? Sure, the PCs have talked to people, and they think they know the correct number, but they can't be off by a few? I have no idea how it was done in 4e, but in Daggerheart, it's clearly stated that defeated doesn't have to mean dead. All it means is that when the minion (or indeed, any adversary) is reduced to 0 HP, they're out of the fight--they could be dead, but they could also be knocked unconscious, dying, playing dead, running away, choosing to surrender, and so on. The player can say that they're outright killing the minion, or the GM can simply assume that the PCs are killing them, but that doesn't have to be the case. They're not coming back as adversaries in this scene (or possibly ever), and that's the important thing. But it also means they don't really have just one HP. Right, and that's not "fair to the PCs" either (especially if you had done this in an edition where such a trap might bring the encounter above the party's level, and since that instakilled four players, it definitely was), nor is there any way for the PCs to have foreseen such a thing--unless you want the players to be seriously paranoid all the time. Meaning that there's really no difference, in terms of "fairness", between this and bringing out some extra mooks to support the bad guy. If you're springing traps that can instantly kill multiple people in a party, then I wouldn't trust your honesty...</blockquote>

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