I am running the Hoard of the Dragon Queen for a group of 6 players, thought there is generally one or two missing in the average game. So far there have been two deaths. One of them was with the ua revenant and the player respawned soon after. The other was caused when the party wizard got caught up in melee and got taken out by a couple of cultists. The player then whined for a while until I got annoyed and said that one of the random prisoners knew a revive person type spell and that they would happily revive the character. This example lead to me to talk with some other players in the campaign and one not entirely jokingly said that he would probably just go home if his character died.
I feel that the best death penalty would be to have the player go create a new character of a different class at the same level as the other characters. The only problem with this is that many of my players have minimal knowledge of the rules and require either my assistance or the assistance of one of the other players and would thus have to sit out until we'd had a break and I could help them.
Is there a better way to resolve character death or should I perhaps avoid it entirely?
The best thing to do in regards to player character death is to gather together your players and talk with them. Specifically directing conversation to the answers for the following questions:
How common do you think it should be that a character dies?
What reasons for dying are acceptable to you? (i.e. a player might say "it's okay if a character dies when bad choices and bad dice rolls combine, so the player had a fair chance to get their character through alive but didn't quite manage - but it is not cool if it feels like it came out of nowhere or wasn't avoidable in some way besides 'have more hit points' or something.")
Would you prefer that combat frequently have other consequences for losing, such as being taken prisoner, or simply knocked out and left behind?
If characters are going to die, how harsh do you think the consequences should be? This can range from sitting out until the fight is over or someone uses appropriate healing (which is more like being knocked out and left waiting), all the way to having to start a brand-new character at 1st level, but my experience suggests most people prefer something more in the middle (like the by-the-book requirements on spells that bring the dead to life, and the 'death penalty' that applies to most rolls and reduces each time you take a long rest until gone)
And I strongly advise against any strict mandates on what the new character must be like - when you do things like prevent the character being the same general type (i.e. the wizard died, and the new character is a wizard or very wizard-like), you risk the player preferring not playing any more (usually until the next fresh campaign starts, but potentially not any more at all) over playing under your restrictions.
I would also strongly encourage weighing this one thing as more important than all other considerations in this matter; Never let yourself be the reason a player isn't participating in the game, with one exception - that being when you pause the game for everyone in order to make sure everyone is able to participate upon resuming the game (i.e. you don't leave someone out and continue without them, you break immediately to get them back to ready to participate, and then everyone proceeds onward). The point is to have fun, and that means actually playing the game, not sitting around with nothing to do but watch and wait.
Character death is always a pain to embrace because the bond between player and characters is huge.
What I've done in games where players weren't as willing to accept the "People die in D&D games" perspective was create what I called a Death Flag.
Death Flag Wondorous Item - Rare
Players or Dungeon Masters holding a Death Flag can raise it to indicate that the current combat is lethal. All combats in which the Death Flag is not raised will not result in lethal damage happening to characters. Instead, a character who is reduced to 0 HP will suffer one level of exhaustion for every failed Death Save made while unconscious. When the Death Flag is raised, both players and Non-Player Characters can suffer lethal damage.
The formatting is for humor - it's not a real magic item. Just the ability for me as the DM, or them as the players to say "This combat can result in death." If it's not up, even the NPC's can't die for real. I.E. They can't kill the BBEG for real unless someone raises the flag.
It makes death possible (for players and enemies), but only if someone says "This fight matters. I'm willing to die to win it." By doing that it makes it a decision and avoidable.
What I've observed while using this system is that players will actively avoid "Random goblin can kill me." but will raise the flag because "I'm going to make sure that damn BBEG does NOT walk away."
Not perfect, but it makes it a negotiation and possibility but not random and uncontrolled.
Hey,
I am running the Hoard of the Dragon Queen for a group of 6 players, thought there is generally one or two missing in the average game. So far there have been two deaths. One of them was with the ua revenant and the player respawned soon after. The other was caused when the party wizard got caught up in melee and got taken out by a couple of cultists. The player then whined for a while until I got annoyed and said that one of the random prisoners knew a revive person type spell and that they would happily revive the character. This example lead to me to talk with some other players in the campaign and one not entirely jokingly said that he would probably just go home if his character died.
I feel that the best death penalty would be to have the player go create a new character of a different class at the same level as the other characters. The only problem with this is that many of my players have minimal knowledge of the rules and require either my assistance or the assistance of one of the other players and would thus have to sit out until we'd had a break and I could help them.
Is there a better way to resolve character death or should I perhaps avoid it entirely?
The best thing to do in regards to player character death is to gather together your players and talk with them. Specifically directing conversation to the answers for the following questions:
And I strongly advise against any strict mandates on what the new character must be like - when you do things like prevent the character being the same general type (i.e. the wizard died, and the new character is a wizard or very wizard-like), you risk the player preferring not playing any more (usually until the next fresh campaign starts, but potentially not any more at all) over playing under your restrictions.
I would also strongly encourage weighing this one thing as more important than all other considerations in this matter; Never let yourself be the reason a player isn't participating in the game, with one exception - that being when you pause the game for everyone in order to make sure everyone is able to participate upon resuming the game (i.e. you don't leave someone out and continue without them, you break immediately to get them back to ready to participate, and then everyone proceeds onward). The point is to have fun, and that means actually playing the game, not sitting around with nothing to do but watch and wait.
Character death is always a pain to embrace because the bond between player and characters is huge.
What I've done in games where players weren't as willing to accept the "People die in D&D games" perspective was create what I called a Death Flag.
Death Flag
Wondorous Item - Rare
Players or Dungeon Masters holding a Death Flag can raise it to indicate that the current combat is lethal. All combats in which the Death Flag is not raised will not result in lethal damage happening to characters. Instead, a character who is reduced to 0 HP will suffer one level of exhaustion for every failed Death Save made while unconscious. When the Death Flag is raised, both players and Non-Player Characters can suffer lethal damage.
The formatting is for humor - it's not a real magic item. Just the ability for me as the DM, or them as the players to say "This combat can result in death." If it's not up, even the NPC's can't die for real. I.E. They can't kill the BBEG for real unless someone raises the flag.
It makes death possible (for players and enemies), but only if someone says "This fight matters. I'm willing to die to win it." By doing that it makes it a decision and avoidable.
What I've observed while using this system is that players will actively avoid "Random goblin can kill me." but will raise the flag because "I'm going to make sure that damn BBEG does NOT walk away."
Not perfect, but it makes it a negotiation and possibility but not random and uncontrolled.
Eberron creator Keith Baker has a really good recent blog post on this topic. http://keith-baker.com/death-and-resurrection/
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.