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<blockquote data-quote="Grog" data-source="post: 3766913" data-attributes="member: 6183">No one is being cagey - the question cannot be answered because the details of 4E are not known. But for the purposes of this discussion, I'm willing to grant for the moment that your assumption might be true, and there will be a significant chance of PC death in many 4E encounters.Now, how is that any different from 3E?The chance is considerably higher than .0001%, and you know it.&nbsp; 25% is the expected resource expenditure. But I'm sure we also know that things can vary considerably from expectations. Indeed, this fact is incorporated into the design, and it's part of what makes the game fun.A hill giant is a CR 7 creature which attacks twice per round for 2d8+10 damage. That is a lot of damage to a 7th level party. On average, it's probably over one-quarter of the fighter's hit points per hit, probably well over a third of the rogue's, and probably about half the wizard's (which means he's capable of dropping the wizard in one round). There is a significant chance of PC death in that encounter - the giant is fully capable of killing a PC with just a bit of luck on his part - and we're talking about a bog-standard 3E encounter here with the party going in at full strength and no special disadvantages for the PCs in the fight from the battlefield or the giant ambushing them, etc.So I'm not seeing the difference between your proposed 4E scenario and the way 3E already is.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Grog, post: 3766913, member: 6183"] No one is being cagey - the question cannot be answered because the details of 4E are not known. But for the purposes of this discussion, I'm willing to grant for the moment that your assumption might be true, and there will be a significant chance of PC death in many 4E encounters. Now, how is that any different from 3E? The chance is considerably higher than .0001%, and you know it. 25% is the [i]expected[/i] resource expenditure. But I'm sure we also know that things can vary considerably from expectations. Indeed, this fact is incorporated into the design, and it's part of what makes the game fun. A hill giant is a CR 7 creature which attacks twice per round for 2d8+10 damage. That is a lot of damage to a 7th level party. On average, it's probably over one-quarter of the fighter's hit points per hit, probably well over a third of the rogue's, and probably about half the wizard's (which means he's capable of dropping the wizard in one round). There is a significant chance of PC death in that encounter - the giant is fully capable of killing a PC with just a bit of luck on his part - and we're talking about a bog-standard 3E encounter here with the party going in at full strength and no special disadvantages for the PCs in the fight from the battlefield or the giant ambushing them, etc. So I'm not seeing the difference between your proposed 4E scenario and the way 3E already is. [/QUOTE]

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