Death isn't deadly enough

[Phineas Q. Conundrum]

Isn't it a little too hard to die? I feel like my players are getting a little overconfident.It says (RAW) that you immediately are no longer unconscious if you regain any hit points whatsoever. Doesn't that mean a single healing word has you back in action? (albeit with very few hit points)? That doesn't make any sense. Any ideas on how to make players pay more for falling to 0 HP?

 

[Lwaxy]

You can always house rule it.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Any ideas on how to make players pay more for falling to 0 HP?

A lot of people have suggested the Lingering Wounds rule for anyone who drops to zero, but that seems weird to me. Personally, I would suggest that healing will only stabilize a downed character, without immediately returning consciousness. Maybe someone needs to spend an action to wake the person up, or maybe you give them a Perception check to wake up on the next turn, but there should be a real action cost involved.

 

[bgbarcus]

I saw someone suggest that dropping to zero hit points could impose one level of exhaustion that requires a long rest to undo. That sounds like a good penalty to me.

 

[Inez Hull]

Can death saves and introduce a death & dismemberment table if you want hitting zero hit points to mean something

http://deathanddismemberment.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/the-one-death-dismemberment-table-to.html?m=1

 

[Li Shenron]

I don't understand why people always have to look for the more complicated solutions...

Instead of adding more rules, just add more monsters!

 

[Quickleaf]

Isn't it a little too hard to die? I feel like my players are getting a little overconfident.It says (RAW) that you immediately are no longer unconscious if you regain any hit points whatsoever. Doesn't that mean a single healing word has you back in action? (albeit with very few hit points)? That doesn't make any sense. Any ideas on how to make players pay more for falling to 0 HP?

Welcome to ENWorld!

In D&D this is referred to as the "revolving door of death." It often happens due to a conflux of circumstances: a party has significant healing resources, the DM's encounter design and/or style of running monsters isn't challenging enough for that party, and running published adventures with simplistic encounter design.

Like Li Shenron says, the best place to solve this issue is behind the DM screen by changing your encounters and playing monsters tougher/nastier.

If that doesn't work for you, *then* you may want to implement a house rule. You have a couple options:

• You can implement lingering wounds (DMG 272). This discourages PCs from taking combat risks that could lead to being knocked to 0 HP, and encourages a more cautious play style.
• You can implement a time window (e.g. 1 round) in which PCs can be revived by magic after falling to 0 HP. This discourages irreverence for death where allies don't rush to a dying PC's side, and encourages making tactical sacrifices to reach a fallen comrade asap.
• You can implement massive damage (DMG 273) and track negative HP. This discourages PCs from thinking they have the security of death saving throws, and encourages more uncertainty in combat.

Whatever you think would work best, make sure to run it past your group and let them know in advance about the change you want to implement.

 

[Phineas Q. Conundrum]

Interesting. I think I'll just make everything harder, and the monsters smarter. The lingering injuries table could also help out.

There is one variant on that massive damage rule that I thought of that actually came from me misinterpreting the written rule on PH page 197. I thought it meant you died instantly if if the remaining damage equaled or exceeded your hit points when you were reduced to 0. So if you had 7 hit points, and you took 14 or more damage, you died.

 

[bgbarcus]

Monsters don't always stop attaching when a character falls unconscious. Some are looking for food and will start eating the body until attacked by someone else (ghouls). Others are smart enough to know that adventures have a bothersome tendency to resist dying (gnolls). Some monsters catch everyone in their attacks (fireball, breath weapons).

Each hit caused a failed death save. Three magic missiles at a fallen foe guarantee death - each module is a different hit even f if from the same casting. Smart enemies are very deadly.

 

[Inchoroi]

I plan encounters to be hard so it doesn't generally come up. I want to use Lingering Injuries, but got voted down by literally everyone in my group (I'm the DM, but I don't impose stuff that the party doesn't want to do).

Negative hit points can also work, but find a bit unwieldy for modeling death--death saves aren't any better, but its what the players are used to, so we don't question it for ease of use, considering it something like bleeding out, either from external or internal injuries.

If you really want to make it more deadly, take a look at the DMG, on page 267, and implement the Slow Natural Healing Variant, as well as the Gritty Realism Rest Variant. This means that you have to spend hit dice during a long rest, which is 7 days, to heal yourself outside of magic. It makes taking damage something to be avoided at all costs.