Death Penalties

Having played various RPGs over the years I still think one of the best punishments for death was that used in Guild Wars.

Upon death your maximum HP/Mana are reduced by 15%. You can decrease the penalty back to 0% slowly by gaining experience. Perhaps it could be made so that the debuff clears if you kill the monster which slew you.

I'm generally against ever making something easier but I did quite like the idea of a maximum HP/Mana buff (say up to 5-10%) that builds over say 50 hours of gameplay as a 'reward' for not dying. Rebalance game as appropriate.


Experience loss is a favourite of mine, perhaps with an option to 'recover' some of that XP if you make it back to your body or kill the monster which caused the players demise. Overall though the rest of the XP should be permanently lost to prevent people from death grinding vs bosses or levels.

Now I remember another point because I do not like to play Guild Wars 1. Loosing HP and Mana because of dead.
Making you weaker because of dead so you will go back and die again is not well.

Of course loosing all you stuff in softcore is even worser.

I think it is almost well as it is.
You loose some tine to get back to the point of you dead if you play alone or some one loosing money opening an TP (TP-scroll is a money in PoE).

Of course this is different in hardcore mode because your char will be moved to softcore.

Essentially, an xp boost reward for not dying is no different at all from losing xp upon death.
The less you die, the more xp you will have.
Any other kind of bonus works the same way. If you are weakened temporarily from death, that is much the same as being strengthened for staying alive (though staying alive will hopefully last longer than a penalty)

Perhaps varying xp loss depending on what difficulty you are playing on. I mean, there is a ladder after all, and if the only way to improve your place on the ladder is to grind senselessly for xp with no death penalty, then once you get to the top you would simply sit there with no change in rank, ever.

XP loss is tried and true. If it's not broken, don't fix it.

Rewards for not dying are intriguing though. Perhaps a skill gem that eats the souls of slain monsters to improve character as you go, and souls are reset upon death, or could be spent in an ability. Though i kind of just described frenzy, kind of...

Obviously the biggest downside to death currently is having to return to where you were. If you were in a party, someone can just put up a Portal and your problem is solved. So, a slightly bigger penalty would make sense. I would say:

- Gaining levels in an RPG is one of the main reasons to play. So, no one wants to suffer a hit to experience points or rate of experience accrual.

- Generally a person only picks up and carries gear that is good. By the second act, there shouldn't be much reason to grab all the loot you're coming across. So, dropping one's inventory or a portion thereof would be extremely bad.

- Corpse runs are extremely tedious and not something that the game type would be very conducive toward. I would strongly urge you to leave them out.

- This basically just leaves a temporary effect. I would say that a debuff which lasts for a one to five minute range would be the most sensible solution for the death penalty issue. The benefits are as follows:

This works for single player games, causing the character to be more cautious for awhile.

More importantly, this works for multiplayer games. If you immediately reenter the action with a Portal, you can't just leap back into the fray.

This allows for a new type of passive skill to lessen the impact or duration of the debuff.

This allows for a new gem or scroll which would dispel the debuff.

I would propose any of the following;

Exp loss on death (old tried and true method)

Small debuff on dead for x amount of time or x number of kills. Could reduce skills, drops and/or damage output. Maybe pay a small fee (based on level) to a NPC to cleanse debuff if its a longer debuff duration.

Loose skill exp (1 level?) on equipped shard.

Add a type of skill support shard that adds a stronger bonus based on the amount of mobs killed but resets on death.

- small buffs rewarded for not dying over a period of time (maybe a title above your name or small increase to damage or health)

- negative buffs for dying (reduction in health, slower XP gain, lower mana pool or recharge)

- definitely loss of xp

- demotion of rarity of an item


i think all things should happen personally, if you sense your having a tuff time with monsters then it forces you to explore, level up, rethink your guys strategic purpose. It would be much more exciting knowing that death has MAJOR consequences, adds some weight and suspense and you will feel a strong urge to support your buddies and make sure everyone survives the battle

How about killing the death penalty? Why should you have one in the game? Just because other games have one?

A game should be fun. Dying is upsetting as it is, and NOT FUN. Why kick a player who's already down?

I have a great distate for mechanics that feel misanthropic and sadistic. Cooldowns on life potions are an example. Death penalties are another.

Please make the game challenging without resorting to these.

I think there should be added gear durability
and after death as penalty all worn items should be damaged for some amount of its durability.

No durabilty on the gear is nice original feature. I like it a lot so taking it just to do it a death mechanic is a bad idea.

I think a lot of good ideas were writed here before.
I like the idea of making the zone you died in harder for specific amount of time. So you have to try harder to beat it or grind other zones untill it would be done. It could have also a small reward. You get short time buff for killing the monster that have killed you. Revange buff. But as I have said you have to try harder to beat something that killed you when it was easier. Or give it a rest for some time.

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vahss3 wrote:

never been very big on deathpenalties , dying IS the penalty for failure
*and often embarrassing*


the most interesting xp loss method i have seen is what ao used several years back :
- when you die you lose dev#xp
- lost xp goes into an experience recovery pool
- each time you recieve new xp a matching amount of xp is returned from the xp pool to your char xp
- you can only lose actual active xp going toward the next level
- you could not lose levels only active 'to-next' xp
*xp and levels were tiered*

the pool was like limbo for xp , useless while in the pool but re-obtainable .



I like this idea and I think it could work. Maybe modify it slightly, but it sets a very nice balance with having a penalty for dying rather than a penalty for playing the game.