Close to a TPK

>normies don't play high lethality games so survival is all the more sweeter
checks out

Instakills aren't an issue in a system that allows you to avoid them through a combination of luck and skill.
However, in D&D, because defense is a passive action that takes place, it makes combat feel like an MMO or Final Fantasy where you're trading blows until someone's HP goes to 0, unlike say Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga or Undertale where you're actually allowed to dodge and counter attacks as a core mechanic of the game.

In the former, instakills feel like shit because there's no way to defend against it, short of attacking from outside their range. In the latter, when you get instakilled, it's usually because either you rolled too low and/or you didn't properly use your abilities to defend yourself, so the blame is at least partially earned on your end.

At least, in my opinion anyways.

This user gets it. Having le epic good rolls and hyper-optimization doesn't make you hardcore, it just means you has a good roll and know how to min-max. There's really no excuse for instant kills in a luck based game; balance your goddamn encounters.
Even if you make it impossible for your players to win (which is also a shitty thing to do), subtly convey that it's a fight they need to get the fuck away from, introduce the concept and allow them to formulate a plan instead of just dropping rocks immediately.

I don't necessarily think we know enough about OP's encounter to say it was bullshit. I mean, it's perfectly reasonable to have problems that aren't meant to be solved by combat that will go badly if the party tries to.

You should have fudged the dice to ensure the TPK then faded to black and picked up the party's adventures in hell as if that was the plan all along.

This is the answer to op's real problem. But he'll never really accept that.

At the same time though, in a game like D&D where you can compare the numbers, you really should have at least some vague idea as far as where your party stands vs. the monster you're throwing at them.

Magic fuckery notwithstanding.

So? He likes to be a fighter. Though he should change the name.

>you really should have at least some vague idea as far as where your party stands vs. the monster you're throwing at them
I mean, I do generally agree that barring crazy dice accidents that TPKs shouldn't really take a DM by surprise. All I'm saying is that you can't judge things purely on the idea that the party ran up against a high lethality encounter without more context. Sometimes the player agency is in circumventing combat rather than being victorious in combat after all.

Yes, but only if you make him fight the exact same dragon again.

Or for a serious answer, Aragorn II shows up and everyone is freaked out because the surviving party members know he's dead, and Aragorn II is freaked out because they can show him his corpse.

Every time somebody on /tg mentions a MMO, it becomes obvious they have not seen or played one at least since 2005.

Otherwise, good point user.

If your game have instant kills and I'm the frontliner, don't be surprise if I make Bob 1, Bob 2, and Bob 3 in response to the deadliness of the game.

In other words. Don't cry about my character when I don't put much effort in it, because I know he is going to die in the first session of the game.

Let him. There is literally no problem with this. Also, don't instakill your players, that's just dickish.

The old twin brother technique!

I'd allow it with the party getting Aragon the 1st's gear.

a character with a flimsy pretext to give a damn about the party is better than a character with none. should have been a tad more circumspect OP

I have a rule:
If your character dies, your next one can't be the same race or class as the last one.

I mean, sure, he's going to make a Half Elf Barbarian or something, someone that looks very Human. He's likely going to name him Ar'garon.
And there will be 0 difference in how he plays.

But maybe your surviving player can pick up the slack. Treat Ar'garon coldly, reminisce about his friends, shit like that.

Or you could, you know, spend 500 gold on a Raise Dead.

...

I feel like people are missing something important here

>One instakilled (more than double his HP in damage)

So, it was a shit encounter with shit balanced designed by a SHIT GM?

Nearly every post is calling op out on that. Did you only read the op?

What if it's a Wizard with a low CON, who rolled poorly for his hp?
Versus, say a Chasme Demon, that can do a neat little 4d6 piercing and 7d6 necrotic? And it rolled high?

Yes, yes, OP said dragon, but the point stands. Shit can deal lots of XP and still be level appropriate.
Or, shit, what if the party fucked up and went to fight something they couldn't handle, because they incorrectly thought the game was centered around them winning by default?

>complaining about an actual challenge where they might actually lose the fight
This is the nu-male generation of RPG players, Veeky Forums. This is what you asked for, this is what you supported with your laissez-faire and friendliness. A bunch of faggots who want to fuck around with no consequences, want their hands held, want the DM to suck them off. This is where fudging rolls comes from, this is where the "Three Clue Rule" comes from, this is where "you can't make puzzles because low-IQ players will get triggered" comes from, this is where "every encounter has to be tailored to the party because if the barbarian is useless in a long-range combat they will get triggered" bullshit comes from. A load of limp-dick faggot-ass players who whine about everything. If they can't even man up enough to play a goddamn RPG then what the fuck are they worth as human beings?

>a bloo bloo we TPK'd because we fought something without any thought as to whether we should
>a bloo bloo someone caught us off guard with the oldest trick in the book
>a bloo bloo the enemy used tactics and we didn't so we lost
>a bloo bloo i fell off a cliff i was fighting near that shouldn't have happened, this isn't like the nat20 greentexts i read on tumblr! wahhhhh!

Or the players decided to try attacking far outside their challenge rating?

>Every time somebody on /tg mentions a MMO, it becomes obvious they have not seen or played one at least since 2005.
Yeah. He didn't mention lootboxes and pay-to-win at all!

I had a guy like this in my high school D&D group. He'd just reroll the same character with all the same details and just roll up the number after his name every time.

Role-playing isn't for everyone.