You act as if there are no counter or protection against those spells. Deathward, a tier 4 spell can protect you from wail of the banshee, a tier 9 spell.
Ahem, as I said, "Most players don't really think it's fair or fun to have their entire campaign ended by a single bad die roll, or having to reload their game multiple times because their only option is to succeed a random chance roll, with no gradation or middle-ground. A DM who thinks it's fair or fun to levy save-or-dies against their party and risk complete and irretrievable character loss based on a single die roll, beginning from party level 7 or 8, just because, is also a pretty rotten DM."
Your answer bore no relevance to that, especially when the chat was about how someone thinks disintegrate should be a SoD. I reiterate again: "A 5th level spell should not be able to one-shot any creature in existence for free. That's a ridiculous idea and a person who suggests that it should is being equally ridiculous." If you're going to quote me, then at least please address what I'm saying.
No, characters on old school D&D are humans.
Maybe yours are. Mine are usually halflings. What we are, are mortals.
Your lv 20 wizard on 2e will probably have around 40 hp. That means that a bear can mole him to death in a single round if he is caught by surprise without spells or anything supernatural to defend him. That makes me fell far more imersed into my char. ... And make adventuring more fun, threatening and interesting. ... When you finally reach mid to high levels, you fell acomplished because you saw a lot of other adventurers dying and failing to obtain that power.
Except it doesn't really lend itself to individual character immersion, due to the fact that the character doesn't last for any reasonable length of time, and you don't feel that sense of satisfaction or accomplishment the vast majority of the time either, because you burn through a dozen different characters for every one that makes it as far as even the mid levels, because the older editions are designed to be harsh character-burners, comparatively speaking, that will frequently and abruptly kill your characters is silly or unfair ways, and you're asked to just accept that as funny and all-in-good-fun, and part of the game. Well, it's not... Not for me, at least, and not for a great margin of modern players in the present day systems. In the older systems, you aren't ever going to trace a character all the way through their personal journey from 1 to 20 because, short of a party wipe, you're going to lose your character several times in a campaign, and bring in a new one to continue on with the rest of the group. You are not going to finish the story with the character that started it; no-one is without a high degree of player meta and mechanical optimising, and likely not even then. A game system riddled with SoD and OHK spells, traps and abilities is inherently not compatible with people who want to play a game where they develop a long-term immersed character experience, and follow them through a personal journey even as you pursue your main campaign. You can't really do that, in a game setting that expects to randomly kill off characters over singular die rolls with little to no warning.
If you need SoD and OHK spells to "Keep things exciting", then I'd politely suggest that you REALLY need to get a better Dm.
Just as an example, I've got a character who is level 8 right now; I've been playing her for several years... I have a lot of strong emotions tied up in that campaign and the story that we as a group are exploring and creating together. Character death can, and ideally should, be dramatic, emotional and poignant; I'll be devastated if it happens, but it's always a possibility. There is plenty of risk and challenge, and we've had a number of very close calls... it has been a very exciting game, as well as a deeply involving and investing one... However, the idea that I might lose this character beyond any possibility of retrieval due to a random trap containing a 5th level spell in the middle of some random ruin would be complete anathema to the entire principle of what I play this game for.
Now, if a system that heavily skews your odds towards sudden death of characters due to a plethora of OHKs and SoDs, and thus a game style that involves moderately frequent character death, and the loss of a decent handful or more for every one that makes it to the end, is your idea of fun, and fulfills your idea of character immersion and investment, that's great; to each their own... it doesn't really sound compatible with the idea of individual character investment to me, but different people have different perspectives, and that's fine...
If being at more risk of sudden character loss is what makes you feel immersed in playing your character, that's great for you. If it is, then I can certainly understand why save-or-die spells sending you to the re-roll table half a dozen times per campaign might be a positive thing, and might legitimately enhance your gameplay experience. For me, the things that make me feel more immersed in my character are character roleplay with others and building connections and relationships with them while we undertake perilous adventures together, and the idea of heading to the re-roll table multiple times per campaign as an expectation, due to the reintroduction of SoD spells, is not a positive thing and would not in any way enhance my gameplay experience. Both of these mindset and ways of playing are perfectly cool.
What is not cool is denigrating other players for favouring different styles and putting their fun value on different things, as the person you're defending and agreeing with was doing... and seemingly came into this thread with the sole purpose of doing.
