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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lancelot" data-source="post: 5402715" data-attributes="member: 30022">Well... We have a weekly game on Thursday evenings. Every week since 4e was released. The sessions run about 5 hours, and we typically complete 3-5 major encounters in that time.We also do a fortnightly (every 2 weeks, for my American friends) game, even since 4e was released, that typically runs slightly longer.That's... a lot of sessions. Hundreds.They're all experienced players, so you can't put the casualty rate down to not knowing the rules. However...<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">All dice are rolled openly. There is no fudging by the DM to save PCs. Ever. Also, some monsters will go for the coup de grace (e.g. undead, demons, etc), rather than just leaving dropped PCs to get back up again.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">As mentioned above, a massive predilection to playing strikers. Even the leaders and defenders tend to be geared towards damage rather than durability or healing potential.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">No magic items shops, and heavy restrictions on item enchanting. No PC can "pick and choose" their preferred equipment set.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">...and [this is the big one, I suspect] most sessions virtually enforce a minimum of 4 encounters before the party can do an extended rest. How do they do this?<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The party is in a hostile environment. If they try to do an extended rest, the monsters come to find them, rather than just waiting passively for the PCs to "recharge".</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Time limits. Push through, or you "lose" (the princess dies, the villain escapes, the world is destroyed).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">One chance only. The PC are trying to infiltrate a location. If they screw up the first time, the enemies will re-jig their defenses so it becomes impregnable the second time.</li> </ul></li> </ul>As a rough idea, 80% of our sessions have some kind of restriction on being able to extended rest. This is huge. Most casualties occur simply because PCs either ran out of surges, ran out of game-swinging dailies, or (in the most unfortunate cases) failed to use their dailies soon enough because they were concerned about running out of steam in later encounters.But, yeah, also the role mix. If the guys picked Leader as their #1 choice, followed by Defender... and had a few more Controllers... I feel they would have far few casualties.</blockquote>

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