D&D General 0 HP Magic Missile = Death?

[MarkB]

@Reynard

Crawford apparently rules them separate sources of damage in regards to concentration.

Would striking someone at 0 hit points with an entire Magic Missile spell automatically kill them?

Assuming the target is able to be hit and does not have immunity to force damage, would firing all three missiles at a target with 0 hit points inflict three guaranteed death saves ergo death? M...

rpg.stackexchange.com

(Of course there are other rulings of his I am happy to ignore).

Yeah, basically if you rule that it's three separate hits for purposes of Concentration, the same should apply to death saves.

 

[ezo]

Former, in any case it would matter. Happened recently in my game too. A raging bear barbarian was barraged by magic missiles. Damage of each missile was halved and rounded down, resulting less damage than if we had just halved the total.

Yes, you should half the damage from each missile, but then tell them the total. If you have them apply the damage one at a time, you end up with the "sometimes auto fail death save and sometimes not" issue.

Yes. You roll the each damage individually and apply them in order they were rolled, and this might randomly result a failed death save.

You do you, that isn't what the rules say. They don't hit in any order, they all hit at once.

But that's not how the rules actually work, and the lead designer has confirmed that.

LOL don't bother with the JC support, as many people disagree with him as do.

Does "simultaneous" have a game rule definition? if not, you are interpreting its meaning.

Pleast stop with such nonsense. Simultaneous is simultaneous, it doesn't need a "game rule definition", the game is written with natural language and we know what simultaneous means.

Only because you are making an assertion as if it is inarguable, which it isn't.

It is inarguable to me. I can't help what it means to you.

 

[Cadence]

What is the rule for massive damage if you are already at 0?

 

[Reynard]

Pleast stop with such nonsense. Simultaneous is simultaneous, it doesn't need a "game rule definition", the game is written with natural language and we know what simultaneous means.

You do realize that the whole point of natural language is to encourage and empower Rulings Not Rules, right? Using natural language as an argument for dogmatic rules interpretation is an 11 on the Morrisette Irony Scale.

It is inarguable to me. I can't help what it means to you.

Right. That is all anyone here has been saying, that there are multiple possible interpretations.

 

[MarkB]

What is the rule for massive damage if you are already at 0?

The rule takes effect when damage reduces you to 0 hp. If you're already at 0 hp, that rule won't apply, and the rule for taking damage while at 0 hp will apply instead.

 

[Maxperson]

Yeah, you have to throw the potion bottle adjacent to them, not at their noggin.

I think the truly impressive part(assuming BG3 uses the 5e conditions rules) is that since I was more than 5 feet away, I rolled that critical hit the hard way in order to kill Gale.

When I told the story to my gaming group at the next session, we all laughed so hard a few of us had tears. It had been a very long time since we had laughed that hard.

 

[ezo]

Ah, the point of the fear is there is no such thing (apparently as per the movie).

Please don't bring that awful movie into this LOL! Exceeding maximum hp is more a tier 1 thing, but can happen at higher levels if a PC gets to low on hp. I've only seen it once. A PC was at low hit points after failing a save vs. a dragon breath, and then again the next round, but the breath did enough more to exceed the PC's maximum hp... so toasty!

So there is some time thing allowable by the rules that is slower then simultaneous. The player wants to make an auto hit magic arrow spell that fires three automatically hitting things of magic energy (kind of like the cartoon) that do d4 each. What level? They could, for example hit the same spot like of you were trying to push a stuck button multiple times like if you were Hawkeye.

Huh?

What is the rule for massive damage if you are already at 0?

and

You do realize that the whole point of natural language is to encourage and empower Rulings Not Rules, right? Using natural language as an argument for dogmatic rules interpretation is an 11 on the Morrisette Irony Scale.

Yeah, I know it. But in this case the use of natural language supports one conclusion.

Right. That is all anyone here has been saying, that there are multiple possible interpretations.

Well, I won't argue that--it's a key point to 5E in many cases. Just not this one IMO.

 

[Oofta]

What is the rule for massive damage if you are already at 0?

Damage that exceeds your HP max. So if you had a maximum of 10 HP and are hit for more than 10 HP of damage you instantly die. It can still happen if the PC is conscious when hit if the total damage minus current HP exceeds the HP max.

 

[Maxperson]

Not really, attack is a specific thing in game and it’s an important distinction because there are reactions and things that respond to “attack rolls”, and magic missile does not generate those.

Maybe, but if the magic missile spell can be used to hit three different targets, each missile is a separate source of damage.

 

[Reynard]

Well, I won't argue that

Ok.

--it's a key point to 5E in many cases. Just not this one IMO.

Lol.