Which is better: Character death or item destruction?

[Jin_Kataki]

In any game I ever played in character death usually ment the loss of any items that character had. Now the party may keep that characters possesions but that does not mean the new character will be allowed use it.

 

[Piratecat]

Until I get a single 5th lvl spell that restores all of my destroyed items, I'm pretty sure I know what my answer will be.

 

[FireLance]

Until I get a single 5th lvl spell that restores all of my destroyed items, I'm pretty sure I know what my answer will be.

That seems pretty powerful for a 5th level spell.

Such a 5th-level spell should probably require 5000 gp of diamonds and reduce all your items by one "plus" (for items with power expressed in "pluses"), or drain 3 charges (for items with charges), or impose some other penalty for other items (perhaps a flat 5% chance that it does not work every time it is used).

 

[Nyeshet]

I couldn't really choose an answer, as it is level dependent. At lower levels recovery from death is harder and magic items are uncommon enough that while losing one is terrible it is not crippling. You can make do until you get another. If you lose your life at lower levels, you may as well create a new character. There will be no hope of bringing you back in a realistic time frame. Loss of a magic item you were only just starting to get used to, however, is less problematic. You are not yet defined by your magic items, and as you rise in level (and thus in wealth) you can soon enough replace it. Even if it takes a long time, you at least can still play and are not overly burdened due to the loss.

At higher levels, however, recovery from death is much easier, and a character - especially a non-caster - is all but defined by their magic items (esp the permanent or semipermanent ones). Thus loss of magic items would be more terrible than loss of life, as they would be more expensive and time consuming to replace.

As the question did not have a level dependent choice (losing items better at lower levels, losing life better at higher levels), I chose not to vote.

 

[GwydapLlew]

I will always prefer to keep a character alive and try to surmount whatever obstacles that the DM throws at me than lose my character and start over from scratch. Items are replaceable, a character (in my mind) is not.

 

[IamTheTest]

Break my stuff...it just makes a better story/opportunity for my PC. I tend to have trust in the DM, I rarely feel cheated.

 

[delericho]

As a DM, I haven't played enough to have much experience with either, so don't feel qualified to vote. However, I do know that I always get stronger negative reactions when destroying a character's stuff than when the character dies.

(Incidentally, the same is true of permanent level loss as well. For some reason, it seems to be considered a fate worse than death.)

 

[DragonLancer]

I'd rather losethe equipment, which can be replaced.

 

[Umbran]

Items can be replaced. Personalities of my PCs cannot. And generally, the major setback followed by a comeback is far more dramatically interesting than simple death. There are some times when it'd be better dramatically for the charackter to shuffle off the mortal coil, but usually item destruction would be preferrable.

 

[diaglo]

Item loss is easy to adapt to; character loss requires rolling dice.

i remember Angelsboi getting very upset over his items being stolen/lost. he wanted his character to die instead of lose them. cuz "that's what his character would do."