Font of Life connundrum and Dying Rules question

[Jack99]

I asked a few questions in my campaign thread (link in sig, in case anyone is curious), and figured I would ask here as well.

We had a little talk about Font of Life (again). According to WotC, Font of Life applies to death saves (I asked during the first Twitter Thursday), and whoever I talked to was pretty adamant on the subject. So that's how we play it. Anyway, this caused an issue during the game. The warden went down, and he started to roll death saves. He rolled twice per round, no matter the result, but after a couple of rounds, it struck me.

The warden shouldn't get the end of turn roll, if he passes the font of life death save. If he does, it would just become a bonus-try-to-pop-a-surge-roll.

Agree? (This is all assuming that you accept the fact that Font of Life applies to death saves)

Speaking of dying rules, there is something that has annoyed me for a while. A dying character has a chance to pop a surge and rejoin combat. A stabilized character can do nothing of the sort, and is left completely at the mercy of his companions' choices. Is this *fair*? Is it merely a balance, meaning that as long as you can die, you can get back, but the moment there is no chance of dying, you should no longer be able to get back in the game on your own?

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

 

[abyssaldeath]

1) The Warden doesn't have to roll the save at the end of his turn if he passed the Font of life death save, but he runs the risk of Failing that save. For the Font of life death save if he fails then there is no problem because you only suffer the ill effects of a failed save for saves at the end of your turn. Failing a death save at the end of your turn is bad because you only get 3 for the entire encounter and there is a much high chance of that happening than roll 20+.

2)It's all about what you said and it's also trying to keep the dying character involved in the encounter even though he is out of the combat. Is it perfect? Nope, but nothing ever is.

 

[DracoSuave]

A stabalized character was made so by a Heal check. The option therefore existed to Heal to pop a surge.

Generally, that means that a stabalized character ain't likely to have been second winding any time soon anyways.

 

[Jack99]

1) The Warden doesn't have to roll the save at the end of his turn if he passed the Font of life death save, but he runs the risk of Failing that save. For the Font of life death save if he fails then there is no problem because you only suffer the ill effects of a failed save for saves at the end of your turn. Failing a death save at the end of your turn is bad because you only get 3 for the entire encounter and there is a much high chance of that happening than roll 20+.

Interesting idea to let the Warden chose. Either play it safe and wait for next round's saves, or take the chance and risk missing a save.

A stabalized character was made so by a Heal check. The option therefore existed to Heal to pop a surge.

Generally, that means that a stabalized character ain't likely to have been second winding any time soon anyways.

Two different rules mate. If you use heal on a dying character, you can pop his Second Wind, assuming he hasn't used it.

When you are dying and roll a 20, you pop a surge, which means it can be done even if you have used up your Second Wind (as long as you have a surge left, anyway)

 

[fba827]

Assuming I understand your question correctly (I'm tired and only skimming here) ...

The warden shouldn't get the end of turn roll, if he passes the font of life death save.

I agree that this is the case.

Scenario: dying warden

warden's start of turn: Font of life bonus save (fail at lower than 10 - status does not change since bonus saves don't illicit 'failed save' effects)
warden's end of turn: Normal save (fail at lower than 10 - gets one step closer to final death)

Next round
Warden's start of turn: Font of life bonus save (success at 20 or higher - warden is healed a surge)
Warden's turn: warden has his normal turn (and is not dyeing)
Warden's end of turn: warden does NOT get his end of turn death save since he no longer at dying status by the time this would be applicable.


Anyway, just my take on it in my sleepy state of mind right now

 

[MarkB]

On your second question: If you, as a player, believe that your 1 in 20 chance per round to get back up and start fighting is worth the 9 in 20 chance to come a step closer to death, you should voice that opinion in advance, and ask your fellow players never to use Heal checks to stabilise your character.

As to whether it's a fair rule in general, it seems a reasonable compromise to me. There should be some penalty for being beaten down to death's door, whether that penalty happens to be a chance of dying or a lack of chance of reviving.