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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Li Shenron" data-source="post: 6154665" data-attributes="member: 1465">I know I have been writing this so many times that readers are starting to get nauseated by my posts, but there is NO answer true to all gaming groups, because it is a PLAYSTYLE issue.The two "extremes" of RPG gaming style, wrt PC death are:(a) Old-school high lethality - Think of it like watching a horror movie, a main part of the fun is watching PCs die horrible and creative deaths. Zapped-dead from traps, save-or-die spells etc. ARE NOT a problem, they are a wanted feature. (b) New-school low lethality - Think of it like watching a TV series, a main part of the fun is watching PCs develop their story and/or their tactics, thus death just gets in the way because it forces a restart. Zapped-dead ARE a problem.RPG books are often afraid to make a clear choice, and fall in-between the two, e.g. they give both save-or-die effects AND easy cheats like resurrection spells. Some RPG games make their choice and stick with it, which makes their lives easier, but D&D cannot make a choice because it has too large gamers base, and choosing one style over the other could alienate too many fans.But OTOH, this means D&D can support your favourite style between those 2 extremes, as long as you are aware of the problem, and have some ideas or experience on how to tweak the rules (or just exclude some spells & monsters) to achieve that.</blockquote>