It happens
in almost every game, the point where a character decides that it is time to
slam a mug of poor choices down their throat and run face first into a wall of
pain. Of course some parties avoid having situations where the final outcome of
their actions leads to death, but instead they fall victim to the dice which
can take someone from hero to zero with the flick of the wrist. A trapped door,
ambush, monster of unknown origin that sprays them with acid, all sorts of
situations can pop up. For many death is a sudden thing that leaves the player
questing for a printer or a second character sheet. There are no second chances
unless the players provide it, and often the DM will even consider the death a
'solution' to a bad plan or a foolhardy player.
For myself,
I never hand out death immediately unless it is in a tense battle. Even players
who are playing kick down the door characters are going to get one 'freebie'
from myself when they encounter a situation they either stumbled into or
purposely charged into. There are better ways to handle suspense and to convey
the danger of a situation than outright murdering a player the first time they
make an error or act like an idiot.
I have found
that the first method that really pushes the message home is targeting their
equipment. If I roll the damage on an attack and see the total damage will
bypass their current HP and leave the total so far in the negatives they can't
be Cure'd back to active duty, I will hand them enough damage to bring them in
the high single digits and then roll the damage over to gear. The player
instead of finding themselves wiped off the planet instead are forced to limp
out of battle, while making saving throws for a few pieces of gear either in
their bags or in their hands. It is a first and final warning of what they are
dealing with, and the players can see that the creature is wielding abilities
that can quickly turn a battle against them if they press against it. This method
is best used when creatures use attacks that hit from a distance or can hit
multiple targets. In my Escargo game, the players stumbled upon an artificially
created Fire Elemental for the first time at Level 1. It was guarding a door
silently, and when the players entered the room it turned to look at them.
Unlike most elementals, these are giant floating metallic eyes that have three
- four rings of fire circling them in a constant vortex. They hover several
feet off the ground and can set things ablaze by moving by them as long as they
have an active ring. The players stood there for a moment, and the ranger
decided to take a pop shot at it with his bow. The arrow flew through the air
and struck home, dealing a minor amount of damage.
The
elemental sprang to life as one of the fiery rings flew across the room and
slammed into the poor ranger, exploding and causing reflex saves all around.
The
resulting damage was somewhere in the 20's for the poor ranger who had failed
his reflex save. I knew that killing him outright because of a first time
encounter with the elemental was out of the question, so instead he took enough
damage to drop him to 4 HP, and then he was forced to roll saves against
magical fire on his bow and a few items in his bag. His bow cracked and was
snapped in half by the bow string being too tight for the stressed wood, and
the fires licked him enough that a few items in his bag melted or caught fire
briefly. Immediately, the ranger ran and the party followed, hopefully to
return another day.
This method
is very effective against high speed, low drag players who like to kick in
every door and proceed to Spin to Win. It usually causes them to fumble and
sometimes causes them to re-think how they handle situations (which your party
can be thankful for).
Aw hell who
am I kidding they just go back to brainless hack and slash mode anyways.
For this
style of player a second method is useful: the setting and situation. Many
times a character will stop and take heed of upcoming danger when they pass
through the doorway and get hit in the face with the smell of the corpses
littering the ground of the room. Seeing the bodies of previous foes,
especially fresh ones, can pass a sense of danger on quickly which for some
will cause them to immediately double back and force the party to huddle for
discussion. Other characters might also be inclined to quickly run forward and
stop the aggressive character from entering the room. This is also effective
with traps that reset themselves, such as arrow traps or magical traps.
When it
comes to sudden ambushes with the ability for the party to flee, having the
threat appear and take out an innocent NPC such as an animal or a men-at-arms
is enough to cause players to get the hint and proceed to exit stage left. It
shows the creature is here for business, and is willing to target anything in
its path without reservation. This is effective with encounter roils more than anything
else as players generally have a feel if a certain system favors placing danger
on the high or low spectrum of the roll. Some players will gauge how the
creature is encountered as a method to determine if they can stay and get some
easy XP from the beast then move on, or if they need to keep going.
At the end
of the day it all depends on what style of game is being run and how the
players and the DM expect situations to unfold. The above methods work best for
games where equipment is easy to replace
and everyone involved is on the same page in regards to the seriousness of the
threats. With most of my games being lighthearted in nature, the above has
worked wonders and has even lead to a few laughs.
Give it a shot in your next game, it might work for you!
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