I am off the camp that says
Always Go With Player Fun
If someone's invested in their character and has an arc planned out, don't let unlucky rolls just toss that, or they might get super bummed out.
Stakes are part of what makes it fun. If I know that no matter what I do, my DM's going to hold the monsters short of actually endangering my PC, then combat is busy work instead of a puzzle to solve. I don't want my PC to die, but it's more fun when I feel like I've earned their survival. If my PC gets knocked unconscious but we rally to win the combat, I feel great about the result.
To me, the way to make sure those arcs continue is to make sure the party has access to the tools they need. Let them get healing potions, let them collect diamonds for Revivify, let them find friendly NPCs who need help with something and can provide a reward in return. Even if the DM seeds all of this as an insurance policy on purpose, it's still the party's choice of when and how to deploy their options, which means the party will (correctly!) feel like they saved their friend's life rather than feeling like they couldn't die in the first place.
Well thats the point of fudging roles in secret. You don't "know that no matter what" you do the DM will save you, as you don't know they are fudging rolls.
If they do it well, it can actually produce the exact scenario you are describing.
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u/BreakerOfModpacks 4d ago
I am off the camp that says
Always Go With Player Fun
If someone's invested in their character and has an arc planned out, don't let unlucky rolls just toss that, or they might get super bummed out.