D&D 5E Weird Situation with Death Saves and Stabilizing

the Jester · Oct 31, 2014

So a weird situation came up in my 5e game a few nights ago.

The pcs had an archetypical gelatinous cube encounter brought on by messing with shriekers, and the dwarf wizard pc got engulfed and knocked to 0 immediately at the start of the ooze's turn. So I cackled with glee, rubbed my hands together and called for a death save on his turn.

Said dwarf has an 18 Con, plus he had bardic inspiration in reserve, so he was going to make all his death saves. So the sequence went like this:

Dwarf is engulfed during the surprise round;
Dwarf falls to 0 on the cube's turn;
Dwarf's turn- succeeds on one death save.
Cube's turn- automatically fails a death save.
Repeat successful and automatic failure on death saves on the next turn for the cube and the dwarf.
Dwarf's turn- succeeds on third death save and becomes stable.

That's where things get weird.

5e Players Handbook said:
The number of both [successful and failed death saves] is reset to zero when you regain any hit points or become stable.

So he's suddenly okay again, and needs to fail three more death saves before that poor hungry gelatinous cube can feast on his jelled corpse.

It's okay by me- if he didn't have buddies trying to save him, he'd fail 3 death saves before succeeding on 3 eventually- but still, it's weird.

Astrosicebear · Oct 31, 2014

Seems like an odd situation, but it looks like it handles itself in the rules. As long as hes still engulfed, even though he stabilized, the automatic death save resets the counter and it starts again. Dwarves are hardy... and apparently rubbery.

the Jester · Oct 31, 2014

Astrosicebear said:
Seems like an odd situation, but it looks like it handles itself in the rules. As long as hes still engulfed, even though he stabilized, the automatic death save resets the counter and it starts again. Dwarves are hardy... and apparently rubbery.

Yep! There is another corner case- if he rolls a natural 20, he regains 1 hit point. Maybe- maybe- there might be an off-turn action that could save him. I can't think of one, but well, you never know when some crazy spell or effect or magic item will break the rules completely.

Paraxis · Oct 31, 2014

As a house rule you could rule that every failed death save caused a level of exhaustion, those don't get removed so easily and when you get up to six of them you die.

Uchawi · Oct 31, 2014

Maybe the dwarf will wake up in 1000 years to a strange new world. Damn gelatinous cubes, damn you all to hell!

Quartz · Oct 31, 2014

I don't see the problem here. It's dramatic and it's fun. Just give the dwarf the cognomen of Ooze-swimmer.

Cernor · Oct 31, 2014

If you'd read a little back in the PHB entry, it says that "Unlike other saving throws, [a death saving throw] isn't ties to any ability score"... So the dwarf's Con shouldn't matter unless you're house ruling it that death saves use Con. Although the saving throw CAN be modified by Bardic inspiration, it's still nowhere near a guaranteed save.

Add in that every attack would be a critical hit (because the dwarf was afflicted by the unconscious condition for dropping to 0 hit points) and so would gain 2 failures per round, and that dwarf should, very quickly, become a dead dwarf.

BigVanVader · Oct 31, 2014

You hear that, Jester? You improved on the original Death save. Good job.

sithramir · Oct 31, 2014

Confused BC death saves aren't related to con. Just a d20 roll to beat DC 20

Tormyr · Oct 31, 2014

Cernor said:
If you'd read a little back in the PHB entry, it says that "Unlike other saving throws, [a death saving throw] isn't ties to any ability score"... So the dwarf's Con shouldn't matter unless you're house ruling it that death saves use Con. Although the saving throw CAN be modified by Bardic inspiration, it's still nowhere near a guaranteed save.

Add in that every attack would be a critical hit (because the dwarf was afflicted by the unconscious condition for dropping to 0 hit points) and so would gain 2 failures per round, and that dwarf should, very quickly, become a dead dwarf.

I don't have my MM with me, but I do not think the acid damage taken while inside the cube on subsequent turns is the result of a hit. In that case, the damage is regular damage and does not result in a critical hit. So it results in 1 failure not 2.

It also seems like [MENTION=1210]the Jester[/MENTION] applied the con bonus to the death saving throws. The dwarf was lucky. As soon as it makes 1 failed death saving throw, it is done for because of the automatic fails from the cube.

D&D 5E Weird Situation with Death Saves and Stabilizing

the Jester

Legend

Astrosicebear

First Post

the Jester

Legend

Paraxis

Explorer

Uchawi

First Post

Quartz

Hero

Cernor

Explorer

BigVanVader

First Post

sithramir

First Post

Tormyr

Adventurer

Similar Threads