OK, I think I must be doing something wrong. I see tons of threads talking about how deadly the AP is proving to overpowered (or, at least, overmanned) groups. My group consists of four characters (admittedly, some power gamer/munchkins are afoot). We're a little over halfway through 3FoE and have had one fatality...and he wanted to die so he could make a new character. We had a close call with the wolves in the Whispering Cairn (strangely enough) and they got a good fight from the Hextorites in 3FoE, but that's been it. Even the kenku in Dourstone never had them in any sort of danger (although I did manage to get them a bit paranoid). Here's hoping the Faceless One can teach them some respect...he at least has advanced warning.
I'm sure you're not doing anything wrong. Many deaths in AoW, and in D&D in general, are often the results of bad tactical decisions coupled with unlucky dice rolls.
In other cases the DM may prepare particularly difficult tactics that play directly to the PCs' weaknesses. I've done that myself, with the thought that I can really challenge my players.
The one death in my campaign so far was simply a lightning bolt followed up with a fireball a couple of rounds later. It was enough to drop a couple of the PCs to negs, and enough to kill one outright. Even then, there were rounds in between where the players could have healed, but chose not to. I didn't do anything particularly harsh... the player failed both saves and I rolled some good damage on the dice.
Of course, that's not the way my players see it... ;(
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I don't think it is all that tough if the PCs use their heads. Every "insta" death trap in there has a very easy solution. All the PCs need to do is stop and think about what they are doing. Preperation is the key. I warned my group this was a tough adventure, and even loosened my house rules to give them more room for character development and a little powergaming. I think they took that as the true sign as to how deadly it will be.
So far they have done everything in WC except visit Filge and hit the True Tomb. No deaths and one close call from the owl bear. They are on the way to Filge's now, just getting the information from one of Kullen's gang they waylaid and bribed. Now they are double timing it because he is sure that the guy is running straight to Kullen to tell him where they are headed.
This is the only thing they have rushed into so it should be interesting to see what happens.
I agree - My party hasn't really been in any real trouble in WC - My group has some good tactitians, and they tend to use their skills and abilities to good use.
I will say that I'm a soft touch though (My old group tried City of the Spider Queen without knowing all the rules - The bard died the first encounter of the module by dimension door'ing into a sealed tomb with three vampires in it).
The only time a character would have died was when I was running a side adventure after WC. Kullen and his axe would have gutted a character whose player wasn't even there that night. I figured that having a PC die on a side-quest when not even there was a little low, so a 19 damage turned to an eight.
I'm coming to learn that the point of DM'ing is that your group and yourself are enjoying themselves. I try not to come at it as the DM vs. The Players, although there were times in my old campaign it felt like that to me.
Bottom Line: If you and your group are enjoying themselves, then you are doing everything correctly. Don't worry, the amusing stories will come up anyways, and you may even get an Obituary post that the Player will be proud of.
I had only one death up to know (on their way to Filge) and it's the paladin who fell 60' to a quick and painless death...rolled a 1 on a climb check!
They are good tacticians, they flank, aid another, they fight defensely and the cleric is keeping everyone at top hp. But they had REAL trouble with the swarms.
They keep their gear and consumables well stocked...no I don't think they'll have TPK real soon.
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I'm coming to learn that the point of DM'ing is that your group and yourself are enjoying themselves. I try not to come at it as the DM vs. The Players, although there were times in my old campaign it felt like that to me.
Bottom Line: If you and your group are enjoying themselves, then you are doing everything correctly. Don't worry, the amusing stories will come up anyways, and you may even get an Obituary post that the Player will be proud of.
Your first part above is key to a good game.
I haven't even had a PC at Death's Door yet, as the players are very wise to dungeon delving. I tried to take a more "me vs. them" attitude with the Wind Warriors and that only made for a grumpy climax to the combat rather than the "hoody-hoo" moment.
A lot of resources are invested into developing PCs players (and DMs) will care about. Having frequent character deaths doesn't allow for any momentum to accrue in the game until eventually it just peters out.
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I've had about 8 deaths in AoW, but I don't pull any punches. So far, my players are somewhat like kittens. They are curious and enjoy pouncing on everything... which causes deaths.
I mean, the first death was RP related: The warlock told off Kullen and the rest of the group walked away.
The second death was caused by a lucky shot from the Faceless One with a magic missle on the cleric.
The Third happened to the whisper gnome psychic warrior in a fight. He was reincarnated.
The Fourth, Fifth, sixth were caused by the party foolishly running head long into the hextor battle ground after a couple of fights.
Seventh and Eighth were caused by a snake. A really big snake.
Bad rolls, bad tactics, and or just luck of the dice for the Dm has caused 8 deaths... Now, this may sound bad: But really, my group eventually kicked the Mindflayer with little trouble. Heck, there hasn't been even CLOSE to a death in two sessions.
It would seem you have some smart players, and smart characters, who didn't have to learn the hard way. This is a good thing.
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So far my group has done everything except visit Filge and delve into the true tomb and we have had 3 deaths. The first one was caused by the elevator with the short life span. All the characters save for the the paladin and the scholar (house class - not important for the story) were gathered around the top of it waiting for it to come back up and the paladin was inside. After round 3 came around, everyone on top felt the floor rumble and begin to give way and consequently give way. This was apparently everyone's cue to jump out of the way, everyone but the ninja, who just barely misses the save. He tries to catch the wall (DC 25 climb check, but I was feeling nice and dropped the DC down to 20 because of his grappling hook) and rolls a 1 slamming face first first into it. He then tries to tumble to reduce some of the falling damage. Some how he manages to roll another 1. Even with us using the Vitality / Wound point system, he still drops down all the way to -7. We also use a variant Massive Damage Threshold rule - Wound point maximum + 2 / level. And he went well over that, and rolling a 1 on that save.
So everyone gets to see the ninja fall and at first they think he'll survive because the see the grappling hook grab hold of the ledge. Then they see the rope slip out of his hands as he smashes into the wall as he careens down the hall eventually falling face first into the remains of the elevator and meeting a bloody and gruesome end.
The second death came as a result of the soulknife trying to fight the acid beetle swarm on his own. Once he realized that his blade would deal no damage, he let himself be swarmed over after pouring oil on his head. and he lit himself and the beetles on fire, resulting in a grand immolation for both. I'm still a little depressed that the party really had no reaction to that, but I digress.
The third, and so far final death of the Whispering Cairn, was the party paladin who showed up in time to save the scholar from multiple swarms of voracious beetles along with a giant bombardier beetle died in a heroic struggle with them.
We almost had our first death in the last session... the players were down in the doppleganger warrens of the Reflections module, and the rogue leading the way through the mirror maze was surprise attacked by two guards with a maxed-out Power Attack and surprise. He went to -9 HP in a hurry. Luckily he spent an action point (Eberron) and stabilized; the player had just gotten off a bad phone call, so he would have been really bummed out if his character had died and he had to sit there for the rest of the night (his words... I never as a DM would have let him just sit there).
I've given the players some suggestions for the future: prepare a will, roll up backup characters if you can't get resurrected (quite the possibility with Eberron's NPCs), etc. They're re-examining the way they approach things, so we'll see how it goes.
I think player death is something that a lot of DMs and players just don't want to deal with; or they deal with it way too much. A little death helps spice up the game, adds some threat to the mix, but the numbers of bodies coming out of the Whispering Cairn are a little disturbing. Then again, it was designed to kill people, you know.
The closest I've had to a kill so far is when the fighter lobbed a throwing axe at the grick in WC... and accidentally hit the rogue that the grick was attacking. Still, owlbear and Kullen next week, so we'll kill them then.
Well, I'd say if you've already had a fatality in the party you are already challenging them a lot. Are you saying you'd rather be TPKing them than issuing minor setbacks?