Save or Die!

[DDK]

I have a new pet peeve. Which is odd because most of my pet peeves about D&D stemmed from 2nd ed. but this one has only recently surfaced. In fact, it surfaced about a half an hour ago after reading through the thread about players getting lucky and screwing up encounters.

Basically, it's the whole 'save or die' concept. It's something I've always disliked but now that 3.5 ed. is coming up and it's addressing a lot of the pet peeves I had about 3rd ed. and 3rd ed. addressed most of the pet peeves I had about 2nd ed., I think I'm now refocusing and finding new pet peeves!

It really bugs me when, just because of the roll of one die, your character dies. Or, worse, when there is NO save. I had a character die just recently because of this. Blade Barrier... first save failed, OUCH, next round, no save: death.

Am I alone here or does there need to be some sort of mechanic to be put in place to stop or alter this sort of thing?

 

[Sagan Darkside]

Salutations,

The problem is a bit annoying, but is not limited to saves. In d20- if you botch a swim check, then you might be in the same position.

In the last d&d campeign I ran one of the pc's got turned to stone, the rest of the party screwed around and ended up blowing up the statue. It was not a happy moment.

In my upcoming campeign, I am going to do my best to avoid such situations. I will try to avoid save or die spells/creatures, and definitly stick to my stupid rule. (Stupidity gets its own reward- and the dice fall as they will.)

SD

 

[DDK]

The problem is a bit annoying, but is not limited to saves. In d20- if you botch a swim check, then you might be in the same position.

Yeah, but with things like swim, at least you've got some chance to get out of it through ingenuity or other characters coming to the rescue.

I think my blade barrier example was a bad one. Even though it was a no-save situation, I had a chance to do something before the damage and I should've used my Cure Critical Wounds spell and then ran out, which might've let me at least cop the damage and still survive.

It's more the times when there's absolutely nothing a person can do and it all comes down to the mechanics of the system that annoys me. I don't like it when mechanics rule... they're dirty and oily

 

[Bagpuss]

Personally I'm all for random deaths, that's life get use to it. Besides most save or die occasions are random, if you didn't get within 30ft of the medusa then you wouldn't be a statue, you only have yourself to blame.

 

[Sagan Darkside]

Personally I'm all for random deaths, that's life get use to it.

I thought I was playing a game. Sorry about that.

SD

 

[Tsyr]

I thought I was playing a game. Sorry about that.

SD

I'm not sure exactly how to phrase this, but I agree with that on so many levels. That's been something that's been bouncing around in my head for the better part of a year as I play under a player-killer GM. I can't put in words why it bothers me the way he acts, but I think you summed most of it up right there.

 

[Nail]

I thought I was playing a game. Sorry about that.

SD

Heh, heh.

A game? You think this is a game, buddy?

...anyway: "Save or Die" might be annoying...but it's got a counter-weight --> Raise Dead. Unlike many other games, D&D has a relatively simple and common method of bringing dead things back to life (real life or undeath). In fact, as you go up in level you begin to take this into account when killing bad guys.

Stick your sword in 'em, and say "See you next time."

This, actually, should be your "real" pet-peeve. 'Cause how fun is it to have all of the past villians come back from the dead to kick yer a$$?

 

[Jeph]

An easy fix for this is save or -1 hp. It gets the character unconcious and out of the fight, even open to a CDG, but gives them a chance to be rescued by another character.

 

[diaglo]

I thought I was playing a game. Sorry about that.

SD

choose the top hat next time instead of the dog or flat iron.

if you don't have a risk of your character dieing from some random act. then you are missing some of the fun of the game that others of us enjoy.

 

[Tsyr]

choose the top hat next time instead of the dog or flat iron.

if you don't have a risk of your character dieing from some random act. then you are missing some of the fun of the game that others of us enjoy.

Actualy, hard as it may be to comprehend I guess, some people *don't* think there is anything fun in having a lot of hard work and development obliterated by a random act.