D&D 5E How much extra starting HP for PCs in a Death at 0 HP Variant?

Caliban said:

How about instead of extra HP, give every PC something like the Lvl 11 Barbarian ability "Relentless Rage" - everytime they would be dropped to 0 HP, make a DC 10 Con save to stay at 1 HP instead, with the DC increasing by 1 every time they make the save.

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No interest in this? It's not that different from Zombies saving against damage to not get dropped, and it adds and element of uncertainty.

Honestly, it seems just weird to me that one would run a varient of DnD where there is no state between "you act at your full capacity" and "you are dead".

Moreover, if the whole point is to kill off PCs more frequently, why would you add any additional hit points?

I mean, if you did something like "you have additional hitpoints equal to your constitution, but you can't act unless your hit points are above your constitution" you would kind of a very similar system as now, only with the "0" point being different for every character. You will have meaninglessly changed something for the worse simply to have changed something.

I get what you're trying to do now.

I would not give any extra HP, but I would not kill them if they die. I'd have their soul taken by a relevant divine force and let the PC negotiate a way to continue on in a fashion similar to a warlock deal.

Also, I know there are drawbacks to killing PCs, but it does give an end to a character's story. It is worse in some ways to have PCs fade away without an ending rather than have them experience an epic and heroic death. Don't be afraid to let them go when it is a heroic end.

mflayermonk said:

8th level at the time they "died".

Thank you, this is a perfect solution for me. The main PC that wanted this rescue mission was the bard (parallels to the Orpheous and Eurydice myth) and this gives me a way to reward the bard's selflessness and fits the challenge of the setting.

Dead people making death saves was a little too much for me.

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I would like to expand on the use of Charisma as a save for "death" and suggest considering more than just the Charisma score. I'm thinking more of a plane where intelligence would be a strong trait that drives existence, i.e. Mechanus. A plane where wisdom would be a strong for existence might be Elysium. Charisma may constitute existence in a plane such as Limbo. Constitution might be strongly tied to existence in a plane such as The Gray Wastes. I just pulled the associated stats from the air, but I think you get the idea. Depending on the plane you have in your game, the stat that is best associated strongly with existing may a surprise to the players.

Con score + level * (max HD + Con modifier).


That's roughly double, but more at low levels and less at high.

I would just keep tracking hit points deep into the negatives, then have a penalty for them when they come back based on how deep they went.

Naturally you don't tell the PCs exactly what will happen, nor do you let them control the moment they come back.

You have bonus HP equal to your Con score. When this bonus HP reaches 0, you die.

Bonus HP from Con score recovers at a rate of Con mod per long rest (minimum 1).

While you have any damage on your bonus HP from your Con score, you are wounded and have disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws and your speed is halved.

Each time you take damage on your bonus Con HP, make a DC 10 Con save or fall unconscious.

Healing spells recover regular Hp first.

No more death saves.

Something else you should consider is to keep the Death Saves but lose the 'fall prone and unconscious' aspect. It's a very minor mechanical change that i think can dynamically impact combat thematically.

So when they hit 0hp they stay up and when it's their turn they keep fighting as normal but at the end of the turn they make a Death Save, if they fail check it off. Since they are still up and fighting NPCs will keep attacking them and each attack still adds a failure, a crit marks off 2 failures. Get 3 fails and your dead.

So basically it's the exact same system except your on your feet fighting for the whole thing. It seems like the tension will ramp up once you hit zero, but also adds a buffer, and is fictionally keeping with your theme. It will keep the PCs alive longer, but most creatures have multi attacks and hitting PCs isn't very difficult and damage is irrelevant.

If you want to keep the mood unforgiving, you can also make it so that healing doesn't get rid of the Death Save success or failures. You can say that "It takes 1/10min for your Death Save to reset" or a short/long rest, or even that they don't ever reset.

I like the idea of getting reduced to 0hp, then getting attacked twice, then on your turn you know that this could be the very last thing you do so the turn carries weight to it, because at the end of your turn you can roll a fail on your Death Save. Will you attack the creature and kill it and then die with it, will you heal a friend to keep them from the same fate as you, will you dash away desperate to live.

mflayermonk said:

The death saves mechanic doesn't match well with the fiction of the setting.

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What about just having a single death save, instead of 3? Much deadlier but same HP range.

You could always keep the same mechanic and call it a destruction save. As they struggle to keep their spirit together after taking too much damage. Fail and their spirit is destroyed forever. Stabilize and they've kept it together, for now.