How often should PCs die?

No not at all she's a good DM I'm just a bit worried about the difficulty scaling, these were two very early encounters - our third and fourth of the game in fact. The first one was very hard because we weren't rested and all spells had been used, the second because we'd been stripped of all our possessions (which included spell focuses for spellcasters)

I lean more towards the first than the second but I think that the only goal of D&D is to be fun and shifting away from realism and mortality ever so slightly makes that happen.

>How often should PCs die?
Only once.
Fuck undead.

I think it's fair to say that a level 6 PC could kill a king in his throne room given the right circumstances.
>First the King can't be a high level.
>Second it should be a low magic setting so there aren't any magic safeguards to keep the King safe.
>Third the PC has to have gained a fair amount of trust from the King and his guards.
>Fourth the PC should not expect to live for long after killing the King.

>How often should PCs die?
Every 3 hours.

>How often should PCs die?
Whenever is best for the narrative.

Okay, from this
>No not at all she's a good DM I'm just a bit worried about the difficulty scaling
And this, I'd say she just set up a leveled scenario and stuck to it even after you after guys took actions that weakened you, thereby changing the level of the encounter.
Once you guys escaped and didn't immediately find your gear, you should've just ran then.
You guys need to stop thinking like players and start thinking "realistically" like people actually in that situation:
>If you just fought a tough battle, are weak and exhausted, and know there are hostile enemies in the area, how far away is far away enough?
As far as possible. Plus you should sleep in shifts.
>If you are beaten, wounded, weaponless, and just escaped in an enemy cave, do you fight or run home to regroup, reequip, and rest?
You save your own asses first unless babies are about to be eaten.

Git gud.
Your GM just isn't pulling any punches.
I like her.

But if she gets carried away I got story about a halfling in a wall she should read.

If the session ends and a character is still alive, I drop some elephants on him. Never leave survivors, your players won't respect you if they know their characters have a chance of winning.

We did sleep in shifts, it's why we didn't get murdered in our beds, we just lost the subsequent encounter. Hard to say how far is too far really, but I think patrols would be small to cover a wider area and more easily dispatched.

We were given a couple of weapons for free and there wasn't a way out of the cave without avoiding fights completely. And we did run eventually, once it became clear it was too much, which was precisely the correct time to run.

We were thinking "realistically" or at least in character - the mini boss was holding the barbarian-type's weapon which he is obsessively dedicated to, so he tried to get it back. It all snowballed from there.

Alright, git gud, fine, I was questioning if that's the best way to run a game if it results in too many PC deaths.

>I was questioning if that's the best way to run a game if it results in too many PC deaths
There is nothing really wrong with pc deaths, and your idea of "too many" is rooted in the mistaken idea that a pc has a right to live.
Look, user, the point of a game is to challenge the player character as they pursue an objective. Most people don't actually have the guts to kill pcs, especially in groups.
What this experience should be showing you is BE SMART. The GM will not pull back because you had a couple of bad rolls. You will get rolled if you act stupid and assume you have the PC Power some GMs give in game.
And you have now learned Rule #10: Running is ALWAYS an option. You can't win every battle, nor will you.