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Message: <blockquote data-quote="shilsen" data-source="post: 3798827" data-attributes="member: 198">Wrong. See below.An enemy doesn't have to threaten you with death (as the first sentence of yours I quoted above claims) for mistakes to matter. A mistake may mean the enemy survives long enough to escape. A mistake may mean the enemy delays you longer than you can afford (for whatever reason, whether you need to reach some place/thing/person in time, get away from some place/thing/person, etc). A mistake may mean that the enemy uses a magical item that you wanted for yourself. A mistake may mean that the enemy has time to cry an alarm and other enemies are alerted. A mistake may mean that the duration of a spell you're relying on for some reason expires. There are a myriad ways for a creative DM to make a mistake a problem, without death being on the line. If death is the only possible repercussion for mistakes in your DM's game, chances are he needs to think a little more about encounters.  I'm pretty sure that it's a good thing. A model which focuses on every individual encounter rather than one which focuses on potential encounters in the future is significantly better for me, as both DM and player.As noted above, mistakes costing you a few hit points only have to be meaningless in the per-encounter design if the DM isn't exercising his creativity.</blockquote>