Ridiculous death due, in my opinion, to flawed design.

[Vogrim]

Perhaps you're the stupid one for thinking it makes sense to have instant kill abilities in a game where death is permanent.

I don't understand the point of putting so much emphasis on being either resistant to EVERYTHING or getting screwed over.

[Timo Pietilä]

I just lost my level 39 Dunadan paladin to the Lernaean Hydra after getting hit by a roughly 800 damage breath attack, which is almost 200 hp over my maximum life total. Is making a situation like this possible conducive to quality, enjoyable gameplay?

Those kind of deaths are called "Yet Another Stupid Death". YASD in short. "stupid" doesn't mean game here, it means that you, the player, did something you should not have done. Before you think I claim you stupid, that's the only type of death in this game and we all have experienced it. for example I have lost a +30+ speed nearly 1000 point damage / turn, 1000 point HP, almost every resist covered char to Dracolisk once (forgot to wear FA item).

In your case that was fighting a (unknown) monster without resists to handle it. Either mistake was the "unknown" part, or the "missing resist" part. Missing resist poison perhaps? By the time you meed Lernaean Hydra you should have already learned about danger of not having poison resist. You had seen AMHD:s, right? If you had not have fire resist and got hit by that it would have made over twice the damage you had HP.

To answer to your question, yes, it increases the enjoyment of the playing knowing that you can die. This is a tough game, not something that 5-year old kid can play through in a hour and then forget. Winning is actual achievement, though much easier now than it used to be.

[Magnate]

I just lost my level 39 Dunadan paladin to the Lernaean Hydra after getting hit by a roughly 800 damage breath attack, which is almost 200 hp over my maximum life total. Is making a situation like this possible conducive to quality, enjoyable gameplay?

Well someone might as well have a go.

IMO it depends on the extent to which you like knowing all the mechanics of games you play, as compared with finding stuff out as you go. In a game with permadeath, some people argue for the former - i.e. all the edit file contents known to the player from the start. The game is actually designed from the other viewpoint, though there is an option which gives you full monster knowledge.

You got killed by an unresisted poison breath (I assume). If you'd had resist poison, you'd have survived. Next time you'll know that to face the Learnean Hydra you'll need resist poison or over 800hp. If you don't like discovering this sort of stuff by dying, turn on the full monster memory option.

HTH.

(EDIT: There is also a "cheat_death" option, removing the permadeath from the game. You might prefer to turn that on for a while.)

[Vogrim]

I just lost my level 39 Dunadan paladin to the Lernaean Hydra after getting hit by a roughly 800 damage breath attack, which is almost 200 hp over my maximum life total. Is making a situation like this possible conducive to quality, enjoyable gameplay?