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<blockquote data-quote="Ralif Redhammer" data-source="post: 7546526" data-attributes="member: 30438">I wouldn’t say you let them off the hook. There was a cost to their overconfidence, and they paid it. And furthermore, you told a story together. What could’ve been a simple, ignoble death was a tight, fraught race back to safety.When I can outsmart death, or the DM gives me a last-minute die roll and I get lucky, I feel cheered and excited. When the DM changes the results to spare a PC, that’s when I feel cheated. When the DM declares 25 points of damage, I say I’m making death saves, and then they say “no, wait, I meant 14,” it feels a hollow save.For my part, as I’ve said before, I tend to softball my PCs. Enemies may try to take prisoners rather than kill. I’ve given them last chance rolls to avoid things like falling to their death. I’ll let another PC take a blow that would kill another. And I’ve destroyed PCs’ fancy gear instead of their lives (which, some players, honestly, get way more bent out of shape about that). But I don’t walk back my calls (unless I’m actually wrong). If you’ve been declared dead or dying, that’s where you are. You’ll probably have opportunities to get better (in exchange for a subsequent quest), but there has to be risk in this game for the rewards to be meaningful.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ralif Redhammer, post: 7546526, member: 30438"] I wouldn’t say you let them off the hook. There was a cost to their overconfidence, and they paid it. And furthermore, you told a story together. What could’ve been a simple, ignoble death was a tight, fraught race back to safety. When I can outsmart death, or the DM gives me a last-minute die roll and I get lucky, I feel cheered and excited. When the DM changes the results to spare a PC, that’s when I feel cheated. When the DM declares 25 points of damage, I say I’m making death saves, and then they say “no, wait, I meant 14,” it feels a hollow save. For my part, as I’ve said before, I tend to softball my PCs. Enemies may try to take prisoners rather than kill. I’ve given them last chance rolls to avoid things like falling to their death. I’ll let another PC take a blow that would kill another. And I’ve destroyed PCs’ fancy gear instead of their lives (which, some players, honestly, get way more bent out of shape about that). But I don’t walk back my calls (unless I’m actually wrong). If you’ve been declared dead or dying, that’s where you are. You’ll probably have opportunities to get better (in exchange for a subsequent quest), but there has to be risk in this game for the rewards to be meaningful. [/QUOTE]

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