NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alcamtar" data-source="post: 5277050" data-attributes="member: 3842">Yes I think there should be saving throws to avoid death. Instant death without even a chance to survive sucks.What I think you are really asking is whether there should be instant death in the game...? Yes I think there should. Not everything should be a gradual whittling away of hit points or resources. Not everything should take time to resolve. Not everything should be a "best roll out of three" challenge.People misunderstand save-or-die. A saving throw is the slim possibility that you'll avoid certain death. Certain death. Or to put it another way:If you are rolling a saving throw... you are already a dead man.The solution is not to fix the saving throw. A save vs death is a good thing, not a bad thing. Without that save you'd have no chance at all. The solution is not to put yourself in a place where you may be killed. Are undead scary? Flee! Can a spider kill you with one bite? Then don't go near it. Can a wizard slay you with a word? Then don't make him angry. This is not rocket science. Want a second chance? You had dozens of chances leading up to this encounter, which you foolishly ignored. Your fault. Adventuring is a dangerous pursuit.Yes sometimes you have to heroically face death in order to achieve your goals. That is noble and laudable. But if you take the teeth out of the risk, you also take the courage and nobility out of the effort. Heroes die. The willingness to lay down your life is what makes you a hero.You cannot have your cake and eat it too. To the extent that you guarantee success, you destroy the glory and the thrill.One last comment: GMs should not force characters into an instant death situation. I don't mean you shouldn't put surprise deathtraps into a dungeon: anyone going into a dungeon does so with their eyes open to the hazards. And it's OK to require a deadly challenge in order to achieve a heroic goal. And I think its okay if the PCs get on the wrong side of the assassins guild to send one after them. But a GM should not put characters on a railroad track leading to a deadly peril against their will. The only defense against these is careful preparation and/or avoidance, and if you take that possibility away it is very unfair and unfun.OK another last comment: <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> When you play D&D, death is your bedfellow. You deal it out, and (sooner or later) you will receive it at the hands of another. The fun is the play in between. IMO accepting this reality makes the game more fun, and makes questions like this easier to answer. So many characters to play, so little time!! Death is not frequent enough sometimes.</blockquote>

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