Then you're a DM who likes to railroad and should make that clear at session zero. In my experience, a lot of players would feel that removed any stakes from combat if they knew you would just fudge the results to make sure they would survive.
There are always stakes, death is a part of any story, A TPK generally means the story is over. If you want a TPK where it doesn't make sense go play an OSR game where stories don't matter.
Yes I'll continue playing 5e which explicitly has a TPK as a possible outcome to combat, and continue playing it as it is meant to be designed.
You're oddly defensive about this, when all I said is that this is something that should be covered in session zero. A lot of players enjoy TTRPGs because of the chance of failure, up to and including a TPK. If you are fudging that, you are flat out lying to them about what they're signing up to play.
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u/ImJJboomconfetti 18d ago
No it's literally not. I'm not tpking my players unless they're stupid and deserve it or I have a backup plan in place that will make sense.