C’mon folks let’s be real here. PCs die in D&D. I have literally had more characters die since I started playing than have survived.
We’re talking about Adventuring and Questing here. People die adventuring and questing IRL, even in the modern world. Why should D&D be any different?
Look at some of the most popular D&D adjacent franchises and you will not that lots and lots of people die in them. Watch GoT. Read The Hobbit and LotR. Party members die.
How would you play a monster, lets say a moderately intelligent one (Kua-Toa/Bandit/Cultist) in this situation.
Player char goes down to 0 HP. Do you go for the kill as a dm or do you go for another PC? I am really not sure and often try to not end a character immediately.
I know my players pretty well and kmnow that one player would relly "hate" it if I killed her character. To be fair I killed her level 11 character in our first campaign with desintegrate... and it hurt me probably more than it did her.
When I drop a player to zero health I've always changed my targets to the standing players, even if the monster is an intelligent one. It might make more tactical sense for them to finish the job, but I think that might be taken a bit hard by most players, and could easily come off as unfair. I have no interest in sending one of my players home angry or upset. I feel player death should really be decided by their saving throws, so they at least feel like they have some ownership on what happened to them.
Plus I'd like to give the healers the opportunity to feel heroic as they restore their allies back to their feet.
When I drop a player to zero health I've always changed my targets to the standing players, even if the monster is an intelligent one. It might make more tactical sense for them to finish the job, but I think that might be taken a bit hard by most players, and could easily come off as unfair. I have no interest in sending one of my players home angry or upset. I feel player death should really be decided by their saving throws, so they at least feel like they have some ownership on what happened to them.
Plus I'd like to give the healers the opportunity to feel heroic as they restore their allies back to their feet.
Agreed on these points... although sometimes there isn't a saving throw... if you leap into the pit of Mount Doom, you just die. No death saving throws there...
In terms of striking downed characters -- how does the monster (intelligent or not) know that the PC isn't already dead upon going down? It seems to me an awful waste of time to keep hacking a probably corpse "just to make sure" it is dead. Especially while the corpse's moving, living, attacking companions are still up and doing things to you. I could see, perhaps, a monster with Multi-attack, dropping a character on the first swing, and not being able to take a 2nd swing because everyone else is too far away, deciding to hit with the 2nd swing because otherwise it's wasted. But except for that edge case, most of the time I would think a monster, especially one who may be rather severely outnumbered, would not ignore moving, active, attacking enemies in favor of making sure a downed one is "really and truly dead."
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
The only time I'd have a monster try to finish off a downed character instead of going after a live one is if that particular creature is noted as being especially sadistic and fond of doing that. Otherwise, not even an ogre or troll would act that way.
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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.
The only time I'd have a monster try to finish off a downed character instead of going after a live one is if that particular creature is noted as being especially sadistic and fond of doing that. Otherwise, not even an ogre or troll would act that way.
Or hungry. I've had starving creatures take a bite out of downed PCs before.
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
Gatta let players die and move on. Players always have an option to break contact and live to fight another day (At least in my campaigns). If they decided to keep fighting, then I say time to roll a new character.
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C’mon folks let’s be real here. PCs die in D&D. I have literally had more characters die since I started playing than have survived.
We’re talking about Adventuring and Questing here. People die adventuring and questing IRL, even in the modern world. Why should D&D be any different?
Look at some of the most popular D&D adjacent franchises and you will not that lots and lots of people die in them. Watch GoT. Read The Hobbit and LotR. Party members die.
Besides, with no risk, what’s the bloody point?
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Agreed.
If there is no chance of dying, then it means that the PCs are all wearing that artifact magic item, "Plot Armor."
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Player Characters die all the time in D&D. But it seems they are only Mostly Dead.
<Insert clever signature here>
There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
How would you play a monster, lets say a moderately intelligent one (Kua-Toa/Bandit/Cultist) in this situation.
Player char goes down to 0 HP. Do you go for the kill as a dm or do you go for another PC? I am really not sure and often try to not end a character immediately.
I know my players pretty well and kmnow that one player would relly "hate" it if I killed her character. To be fair I killed her level 11 character in our first campaign with desintegrate... and it hurt me probably more than it did her.
When I drop a player to zero health I've always changed my targets to the standing players, even if the monster is an intelligent one. It might make more tactical sense for them to finish the job, but I think that might be taken a bit hard by most players, and could easily come off as unfair. I have no interest in sending one of my players home angry or upset. I feel player death should really be decided by their saving throws, so they at least feel like they have some ownership on what happened to them.
Plus I'd like to give the healers the opportunity to feel heroic as they restore their allies back to their feet.
Agreed on these points... although sometimes there isn't a saving throw... if you leap into the pit of Mount Doom, you just die. No death saving throws there...
In terms of striking downed characters -- how does the monster (intelligent or not) know that the PC isn't already dead upon going down? It seems to me an awful waste of time to keep hacking a probably corpse "just to make sure" it is dead. Especially while the corpse's moving, living, attacking companions are still up and doing things to you. I could see, perhaps, a monster with Multi-attack, dropping a character on the first swing, and not being able to take a 2nd swing because everyone else is too far away, deciding to hit with the 2nd swing because otherwise it's wasted. But except for that edge case, most of the time I would think a monster, especially one who may be rather severely outnumbered, would not ignore moving, active, attacking enemies in favor of making sure a downed one is "really and truly dead."
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
The only time I'd have a monster try to finish off a downed character instead of going after a live one is if that particular creature is noted as being especially sadistic and fond of doing that. Otherwise, not even an ogre or troll would act that way.
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.
Or hungry. I've had starving creatures take a bite out of downed PCs before.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
or just run away with their prey to eat it in its lair! :)
If he dies, he dies
Gatta let players die and move on. Players always have an option to break contact and live to fight another day (At least in my campaigns). If they decided to keep fighting, then I say time to roll a new character.