What to do about half the pc's party dying

[the Jester]

Making new characters is fun!

That said...

Why not let the players decide?

I like it.

 

[Delak]

After thinking about it some more I could have a major good npc that is going to be helping the PC's. I wanted to save him for later but it might have to be now.

Or I could have a good npc group that was tracking that bad npc group

 

[Man-thing]

If there's a knight shining armour to save them then why not just wait and let him fight the battle. It seems as though you've designed a challenge for your players and you don't believe they can cut it as heroes?