This is why in Session Zero I ask my players what they love about D&D, and I record their answers. I want to know if I have players who are emotionally attached to their characters. I actually try to get players who are more invested in their characters, it makes it easier to create an immersive experience. They will give me NPCs I can add in, and I don't have to think them all up on my own. It also inspires me to make combat more varied & strategic, "is this an enemy the players can reason with? How much intelligence does this monster have?"

Sure there are players who live for the wild magic TPK or a fumble chart TPK. But I don't want that to happen frequently to characters I wrote two pages of backstory for, with multiple NPCs approved by the DM.

I don't think it's soft to care about the character. In fact we could argue it's soft to create burner characters. If you don't write a backstory and you don't care if the character is killed off, are you playing the game to the fullest? If the DM isn't creating social experiences, is the DM playing the game to the fullest?

Originally Posted by SorcererVictor
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.
It's immersive if the wizard tries to use Animal Handling or Misty Step to just avoid the bear. Not all outcomes should end in combat, what if the bear is starving and just looking for food? Can the party toss food at the bear to satiate it? Could the bear get distracted by Prestidigitation?

It's also un-immersive if characters are dying left and right. Do the characters really have no emotional response to another's death? Would the surviving party members not consider a different career path? Would they turn to the simple life of farming after seeing so many of their friends die? Would the wizard go back to being a cloistered scholar?

Originally Posted by Niara
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...


What is not cool is denigrating other players for favouring different styles and putting their fun value on different things.

Agreed 100%