I have yet to have a character die in a 5E game, though I did come close to losing a 1st level rogue after taking a crit in the first round of combat and nobody else in the party having any interest in actually assisting my character for two rounds.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I've lost two characters - one in a TPK, the other to an insta-kill trap. The one that died to a trap was resurrected about 5 levels later, during the final arc.
For such a roleplay-focused group, my table has had some fairly lethal campaigns: 8 deaths for one (includes the TPK) and 6 in another. I wouldn't say that the deaths ruin the game at all; for us, it just adds weight and significance to our choices and a lot of great roleplay opportunities. However, I think our table is happier when resurrection is an option we can pursue. We put a lot into our characters, so our preference is to keep playing them when possible.
I’ve been playing for a very long time so I’ve had many characters die. Some ignominious, some heroic but it’s the bad ones I tend to remember most. I had a Rifts character who suffered a series of terrible rolls that resulted in dropping his own MDC grenade at the feet of his SDC self for instant death. I had an otherwise quite powerful and high level AD&D cleric who could not save herself when she was knocked off a bridge into a river of lava in hell for instant death, while carrying party treasure mind you. I had a Pathfinder ranger who made a series of bad decisions while facing off against a trio of lancers on charging rhinoceroses (rhinoceri?) and found herself in the crosshairs of all three in the same round. It wasn’t quite instant death but she was thoroughly trampled lol. So many more but I’m sure you don’t want me to ramble…
In the 5e campaign I’ve been playing for just over three years now, from level 1 to 14 so far, I’ve had one character die. She actually died twice. Crit from full health to totally dead by a giant owl at level 3. Super lame. The DM facilitated a resurrection by sending us on a quest after the fact. The same DM that killed those other characters of mine BTW. Not all OG players and DM’s are slavish to circumstances resulting in death, as some would claim; neither of us were happy with how it went down so she got to come back. She died again at level 9, fairly spectacularly while fighting a morkoth in a BBEG battle that capped a chapter of the campaign. Much less lame. I could have had her resurrected without any DM fiat that time but it was a good time to try my cool new character anyway.
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Only if you're playing a high-lethality game.
I have yet to have a character die in a 5E game, though I did come close to losing a 1st level rogue after taking a crit in the first round of combat and nobody else in the party having any interest in actually assisting my character for two rounds.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I've lost two characters - one in a TPK, the other to an insta-kill trap. The one that died to a trap was resurrected about 5 levels later, during the final arc.
For such a roleplay-focused group, my table has had some fairly lethal campaigns: 8 deaths for one (includes the TPK) and 6 in another. I wouldn't say that the deaths ruin the game at all; for us, it just adds weight and significance to our choices and a lot of great roleplay opportunities. However, I think our table is happier when resurrection is an option we can pursue. We put a lot into our characters, so our preference is to keep playing them when possible.
I’ve been playing for a very long time so I’ve had many characters die. Some ignominious, some heroic but it’s the bad ones I tend to remember most. I had a Rifts character who suffered a series of terrible rolls that resulted in dropping his own MDC grenade at the feet of his SDC self for instant death. I had an otherwise quite powerful and high level AD&D cleric who could not save herself when she was knocked off a bridge into a river of lava in hell for instant death, while carrying party treasure mind you. I had a Pathfinder ranger who made a series of bad decisions while facing off against a trio of lancers on charging rhinoceroses (rhinoceri?) and found herself in the crosshairs of all three in the same round. It wasn’t quite instant death but she was thoroughly trampled lol. So many more but I’m sure you don’t want me to ramble…
In the 5e campaign I’ve been playing for just over three years now, from level 1 to 14 so far, I’ve had one character die. She actually died twice. Crit from full health to totally dead by a giant owl at level 3. Super lame. The DM facilitated a resurrection by sending us on a quest after the fact. The same DM that killed those other characters of mine BTW. Not all OG players and DM’s are slavish to circumstances resulting in death, as some would claim; neither of us were happy with how it went down so she got to come back. She died again at level 9, fairly spectacularly while fighting a morkoth in a BBEG battle that capped a chapter of the campaign. Much less lame. I could have had her resurrected without any DM fiat that time but it was a good time to try my cool new character anyway.