Post by geoffrey on Mar 7, 2010 16:32:52 GMT -6
I've been poking into 4th Edition D&D out of curiosity, and I've discovered that it is much harder for a PC to get killed in 4th Edition than in previous editions.
Let us suppose that you want to have a campaign of perennial D&D (i. e., TSR A/D&D, a retro-clone, or Castles & Crusades), and at the same time you want the PC mortality rate to be very low. Perhaps you're running a campaign with your young children involved, or whatever. Here are some ideas I've picked-up from 4th Edition:
1. Drop energy level drain attacks.
2. Drop save or die situations. Poison does damage rather than instant death. Some spells will need to be dropped, such as power word kill, phantasmal killer, death spell, etc.
3. Let the PCs recover ALL their hit points (even if it's an 83 hp barbarian down to 1 hp) after a single night's rest. That's what happens in 4E.
4. Drop wandering monsters. That way if the PCs want to spend the night in the dungeon in order to fully heal, they can do so.
5. Boost hp at 1st level. 4E adds your constitution score to your hp. Hackmaster (4th edition) adds 20 hp to your HD. Or you can grant max hp at 1st level, and use the HD for AD&D or C&C instead of for OD&D. Just don't have some little boy's 1st-level fighter have a hp score of 2.
6. Use the ability score generation method found in Gary's Unearthed Arcana.
7. In 4E, you don't die unless your hp reach the negative of half your maximum. Huh? Suppose you have 50 hp when fully healed. That means that you'd have to get down to -25 hp before dying.
8. If all else fails, and the PC death seems unfair, just fudge the d**n roll. We've all done it at least occasionally, and this practice goes all the way back to the early 1970s, so there's nothing to be ashamed of.
Of course, none of the above will save a PC who decides to try to swim across a river of lava in order to reach the treasure chest on the other side. But by implementing some or all of the above ideas, you can ensure that your 7-year-old daughter's elven illusionist princess won't unglamorously croak and ruin the whole adventure for her.
Let us suppose that you want to have a campaign of perennial D&D (i. e., TSR A/D&D, a retro-clone, or Castles & Crusades), and at the same time you want the PC mortality rate to be very low. Perhaps you're running a campaign with your young children involved, or whatever. Here are some ideas I've picked-up from 4th Edition:
1. Drop energy level drain attacks.
2. Drop save or die situations. Poison does damage rather than instant death. Some spells will need to be dropped, such as power word kill, phantasmal killer, death spell, etc.
3. Let the PCs recover ALL their hit points (even if it's an 83 hp barbarian down to 1 hp) after a single night's rest. That's what happens in 4E.
4. Drop wandering monsters. That way if the PCs want to spend the night in the dungeon in order to fully heal, they can do so.
5. Boost hp at 1st level. 4E adds your constitution score to your hp. Hackmaster (4th edition) adds 20 hp to your HD. Or you can grant max hp at 1st level, and use the HD for AD&D or C&C instead of for OD&D. Just don't have some little boy's 1st-level fighter have a hp score of 2.
6. Use the ability score generation method found in Gary's Unearthed Arcana.
7. In 4E, you don't die unless your hp reach the negative of half your maximum. Huh? Suppose you have 50 hp when fully healed. That means that you'd have to get down to -25 hp before dying.
8. If all else fails, and the PC death seems unfair, just fudge the d**n roll. We've all done it at least occasionally, and this practice goes all the way back to the early 1970s, so there's nothing to be ashamed of.
Of course, none of the above will save a PC who decides to try to swim across a river of lava in order to reach the treasure chest on the other side. But by implementing some or all of the above ideas, you can ensure that your 7-year-old daughter's elven illusionist princess won't unglamorously croak and ruin the whole adventure for her.
