As a soft DM, I almost TPK’d my players, and it was the best thing I could’ve done

I’ve always been a soft DM. It takes all of me to be hard on my players, specially since this is my first campaign DMing and it’s the first time playing D&D for the three of them. Also, they’re really good friends so I never want to fuck them over.

We’ve been playing for almost a year now, and everyone has gotten more comfortable, including myself (I have this Reddit to thank for a lot, whenever I’ve had doubts or needed advice it helped so much).

I wouldn’t say I’m good yet, but they love the game I’ve created and that’s all that matters. There’s the perfect amount of RP, and slowly I’ve added more interesting fights (which was the hardest part for me). They’ve learnt so much and that made me realize one thing: it was time for them to face a real challenge. One that put them at the edge of their seats.

They entered an old sea hag dungeon, and she took them by surprise + tried to Death Stare at one of them. I casted area damage in a small space so all of them were struggling and getting damage, the healer didn’t even know how to help. At one point, when the hag was pretty much done for, three of them went down and only one of them was alive. She managed to Help two, but the other one died.

They resurrected her after the fight thanks to the paladin making a pact with her deity. It was honestly epic.

During the entire fight, they were obviously extremely nervous and I’d never seen them that invested in a fight. After it, they couldn’t stop smiling, laughing at how crazy the fight was, and talking about it. they looked so genuinely excited about what had happened.

It made me realize just how important it is for us DMs to put them in true danger so they remember that their lives are on the line whenever they face big challenges. I know this “advice” is nothing new, but if you’re a newbie and soft DM like me and you’re scared to do an epic life threatening fight for your players - do it! You won’t regret it.