I don't fudge dice at all - all rolls in the open, the result of the dice rolls always stands.
I generally prefer to create adventure environments where PC death should be fairly rare if the players are smart & skilful, given a modicum of luck. Often in my campaigns there is an early TPK or near-TPK, then the death rate goes down a lot after that. Conversely I had one recent campaign that went from sessions 1-17 with no PC deaths, then 4 deaths in the last 3 sessions, with an 'everybody dies' finale as the PCs made a doomed stand holding a bridge against the attacking thousand-ghoul horde.
I generally prefer to create adventure environments where PC death should be fairly rare if the players are smart & skilful, given a modicum of luck. Often in my campaigns there is an early TPK or near-TPK, then the death rate goes down a lot after that. Conversely I had one recent campaign that went from sessions 1-17 with no PC deaths, then 4 deaths in the last 3 sessions, with an 'everybody dies' finale as the PCs made a doomed stand holding a bridge against the attacking thousand-ghoul horde.