Community

I have a different take on the matter:

A good time for a PC to die is when that death matters.

In detail:
I think everybody would agree that telling your players, "rocks fall, everyone dies!" is almost a sure sign of bad DMing.  However, if the DM would spin the whole thing just right, even that can be spun to his advantage.

I remember reading in one of the threads here that there was this one DM who had his group create characters in great detail.  Then the first encounter began with, "You're all dead," causing a lot of unhappy faces (I do believe one player even snapped his pencil at that).  Then once the anger had subsided, the DM continued the adventure by having all the PCs float around as spirits as they investigated the events behind their characters' deaths (who did it? how did it happen? why were they killed? etc.).  Long story short, that session was a pure stroke of genius.

I also remember reading one post where there was this player who talked with his DM in private, then sessions later the DM instantly killed the player's character, no questions asked.  No attack rolls, no damage, not even save-or-die, just "the helicopter blows up, and crashes on the ground with your buddy Jimmy on it".  The shock on the faces of the rest of the group was priceless and the player didn't end up tearing his character sheet and walking away.

I also recall my own PC's death, along with a few other posts about PCs dying in combat.  There's only one thing that I find common with all of them: all of them died for a purpose.

Part of the negativity on PC death is the assumption that PC death equates to the end of a character's story.  I suppose the Gygaxian approach of "don't name your character until he's level 5" is a huge contributor to this perception, but the point is that groups often fear the death of the PCs not only because of the time and effort invested on the PCs, but more because of the attachment involved with the PCs combined with the detachment involved with PC death.  To be specific: the unwritten assumption that a dead character is forcing your character to retire permanently or until they're raised from the dead.

When people think of deep, engaging stories for their characters, only to see their characters die meaningless deaths, it doesn't matter how they died, the result is the same: frustration, annoyance, rage quits.

This is the very thing behind the hate on save-or-die, "gotcha!" moves, and "rocks fall everyone dies".  Reducing the HP of PCs to zero is still a painful experience but there's one thing about normal combat that makes it much more appealing than SoD or insta-kill: if the PCs are going to go, they won't be taking it lying down.  You'll more likely see PCs:

• fighting until they drop to 0 HP and a TPK occurs (even if they see how powerful the enemy is)
• reviving their allies and aiding each other to the best of their effort
• buying their allies time to escape even at the cost of their own lives

And in general they do their best to be heroic. The tension, the dynamics, the fact that you'll always be giving it your all; all that combined results in an enjoyable encounter even though one or two deaths occur (or even a TPK happens).

Remember, the whole point of TRPGs is that you are able to make stories happen, regardless if it's impromptu, scripted or anywhere in between.  Normal folks don't like having their part in the story end prematurely -- which is what usually happens with surprise deaths -- so if they find themselves in a situation where their character dies, make sure that the said character would've first left a lasting impression to, and a legacy on, everyone.

Finally, the most important thing here is trust.  Its presence is what keeps the group together in spite of TPKs and character deaths and the like, and its absence is what fractures a group even if it's just because of issues that aren't as big as character deaths, whatever those issues may be.

I play a hard and fast game, and have a proverbial graveyard of characters that have died in games I was DMing. I remember each character death. The first was a thief played by my little brother, his first character, and played a little too loose with the chaotic nature of his alignment. Among many actions that didn't sit well with the lawful group it culminated in a CvC death. The group encountered a pair of bear cubs chained to a wall after defeating their captor. The druid in the party rolled low on a check to calm the cub so it nipped at his hand out of fear. The thief in question threw a dagger, killing the cub in front of the druid. After a short struggle the thief was tied up and left helpless and naked in front of the other starving bear cub as the party walked away. The player grabbed the PHB and started rolling up his new character. Of course I am an evil DM, so when the party returned to town a week later the druid found a dead bear cub in his bed and the thief became a recurring villain NPC over the course of the next 4 years of the campaign.

The last PC death was a dragonborn fighter named Tarkus during the final battle of H1, lulled into the portal by the shadow dragon on the other side of the veil. He fought heroicly but the dice didn't favor Tarkus last week. I talked with the player after our session, allowing him an out, giving the character a second chance, but he opted to allow the hero tomeet his heroic end.

I remember every death, and only one player in the dozens of character deaths has ever opted to be returned to life.

If every encounter is meaningful, then every character death will have meaning, and be remembered years later. If it is not time for the character to permanently be laid to rest, then it is time for a new adventure to bring the fallen comrade back to the fight. Multiple characters died in Buffy only to be brought back because it makes sense for a high magic setting, but if Wash was to suddenly be resurrected in Firefly the fans would revolt. Unless you set out at the beginning, in session 0 or through some event in game to explain the absence of souls returning to the mortal realm, then the ability to raise a fallen comrade should be an option.

The risk of death isn't a requirement for a fun experience, but I disagree that it should be eliminated for the sake of "fun" or possible hurt feelings. It is a mechanic of the game and should have the same importance as how often you can use a certain power or the intricacies of invisibility versus hiding. Make the quest to return as meaningful as the death and the story will be worth retelling.

I don't care if my charactres die personally. I like to make a new character a lot!

One DM I play with sometimes when I am home lets us players decide if the characters die when the dice go bad. It is interesting point he makes and I will try to explain it. Why in the game do they have things like negativ hit point, THREE death save, and resurection that cost very little money? Why not die at 0 hit points right away?

The reason he says is because the game is not a sport or competitive so there is not a way to lose. If the rule say you can't play anymore, this is stupid because nobody can lose at D&D. A game that is about participation should not say you can not play any more. With every edition they make it more hard to die and more easy to come back. THat is why... because a game that have no competition mean you should not be able to lose.

So in this DM games, if you fail the three saves, you are just out for a few minutes OR you can give your death speech and die. The game is still really hard and lots of people die. I even died three times in one session with 2 characters! Risk is there still but all of my death were awesome because I get to choose when I stay dead.

But anyway the regular rules are okay too. I thought this DM had a fun version of it. 

The deeper and the longer duration the investment of the players into any PC in an ongoing game the fewer situations where it is "a good time" for a PC to die for any particular reason.  Yes, PC's of even epic history should be able to die truly permanent deaths (no recovery or rez) and players should accept that it can and will happen.  But also that it will happen at times that the DM CANNOT ultimately control because it will increasingly happen only by the arbitrary dictates of random dice rolls.

It is nonetheless UNSATISFYING for a PC to die a random, pointless death.  It is unsatisfying because it means the player is suddenly and arbitrarily forced to abandon further investment in the game with a PC whom he was having a perfectly good time with.  It is unsatisfying because significant effort must be expended by everyone to incorporate some new, entirely random character into the combat and roleplaying dynamics of the party.  It is unsatisfying because although the rules have clear expectation of player character death there is virtually zero good advice to the DM or players on how to handle it both in game and out of game so as to not only minimize the immediate negative impacts but actually embrace it as necessary or even good for a game in the long run.

Instead, the game designers only approach has been to simply make it harder to kill a PC at all, much less permanently.  Oh, and the "rules" for resurrection should be different for NPC's and PC's for obvious reasons of setting design.