Death isn't deadly enough

[MechaPilot]

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?

There are plenty of options.

For an old-school feel you could rule that falling to zero HPs skips the death save process and takes you straight to dead.

One of the nice things about death systems in D&D is that you can basically port in whichever one you want from any edition.

 

[GreenTengu]

Well... there are a few things you need to consider.

Are you doing a simulation system or a story?

In a simulation system, everything is just passive. There are no real characters, just little randomly generated pieces that the players haven't any reason to get attached to and don't really have much control over the fates of. Some random thing is guaranteed to kill each and every one of them eventually for putting themselves in danger. They will need to be replaced at a regular rate, so you'd best have some convoluted system on stand-by for how exactly to do that... unless people just go home or log off or leave your game permanently when their character dies randomly within the first 20 minutes of the 3 hour game session.

If you are doing a story, then the PCs are protagonists. And you might have noticed if you had ever read any books or seen any movies or TV shows that... well... protagonists don't randomly die. In fact, they rarely die at all without good reason. They are guaranteed to survive to the end of the story regardless of the actions they take. You don't have a Sherlock Holmes or James Bond or Indiana Jones story where they get shot and die half way through a case and call the whole movie quits or, alternatively, get replaced by some other main protagonist who was never previously mentioned or established but will pick up the case.
If such a thing did exist, I imagine it wouldn't go over well.

Now, it is fair enough to say that there is a flip side. One of the weird things about the D&D system is that one is either fighting at complete strength or they are knocked clean out and totally unaware of their surroundings. There really is no in-between there. And that is weird. Certainly a protagonist can get hurt badly enough that the villain temporarily wins and they (or, really, other people) suffer terrible consequences because of the protagonist's failing and the protagonist may well be forced to retreat to recover.
Also, there are plenty of times when if you have a group of protagonists one of them might get knocked out and stay out... or get shot in a non-fatal part but still be unable to do anything to continue helping. There is no magical word someone can say that will instantly get them back to full strength and continue on like nothing happened. And maybe that's the thing the D&D system could use.

But you need to be clear on what your goal ultimately is and why exactly you want to achieve it. Make sure it is even a goal that is worth achieving and you aren't misguiding yourself into making a terrible mistake.

 

[Jester David]

A monster hit or a well-aimed Area of Effect spell add some fear of death, since that reduces the number of death saves required. Blocking access to the body can also do it, preventing access for stabilizing or a big cure. Healing word is nice, but it might only heal a fraction of your hit points, leaving the character vulnerable to being knocked right down or even killed outright with a good hit.

 

[GMMichael]

0 HP? -1 CON penalty.

This makes it a really bad idea to start fighting again at low HP, because you might get hit and end up at -2 CON.

PCs can restore their CON by taking a long rest, and offering their firstborn child to Molag Bal.

 

[CapnZapp]

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.

Let me just note that this is a solution to a different problem.

The OP is discussing the fact that less than six seconds after being hit so violently you pass out you can be back swinging with no disorientation or nausea.

The suggestions you point to do nothing to change this. They change other aspects of the game, such as slowing down the adventure while the characters recuperate, but they change nothing about coming back from unconsciousness at zero hp.

Cheers,

 

[Inchoroi]

Let me just note that this is a solution to a different problem.

The OP is discussing the fact that less than six seconds after being hit so violently you pass out you can be back swinging with no disorientation or nausea.

The suggestions you point to do nothing to change this. They change other aspects of the game, such as slowing down the adventure while the characters recuperate, but they change nothing about coming back from unconsciousness at zero hp.

Cheers,

I would say that it helps from a different direction; it makes the players aware of their mortality, thinking, "Oh, if I get dropped to 0, that's more time I'll have to spend healing later, so it's better to be more cautious and not drop to 0 hp at all," therefore avoiding the Yo-Yo of Death.

Coming at it from the OP's point of view, though, I would consider because its Magic, it makes it at least Okay, if not Great. However, easiest fix is to just say, "Whenever you drop to 0 hp, regardless of future healing, you gain a level of exhaustion, and further levels every time you fail a death save. These levels can only be removed via resting when you are brought back to your maximum hit points."

 

[Phineas Q. Conundrum]

Let me just note that this is a solution to a different problem.

The OP is discussing the fact that less than six seconds after being hit so violently you pass out you can be back swinging with no disorientation or nausea.

The suggestions you point to do nothing to change this. They change other aspects of the game, such as slowing down the adventure while the characters recuperate, but they change nothing about coming back from unconsciousness at zero hp.

Cheers,

This was my original focus, yes. I thought about it more, and realized it might be time to change the definition of 0 hit points from "unconscious" to something else. Maybe, at 0 hit points, you are merely staggering and barely conscious. That would make it more plausible for enemies to actually attack them instead of making the player pass out and fall over. If they do that, they're out of the fight from the point of view of an intelligent enemy. It also makes more sense that they could shake it off with a little bit of magic. Or, no matter how much your are healed when you are at 0 hit points, you only regain consciousness with 1 hit point, regardless of how much you were actually healed for.

 

[DEFCON 1]

This was my original focus, yes. I thought about it more, and realized it might be time to change the definition of 0 hit points from "unconscious" to something else. Maybe, at 0 hit points, you are merely staggering and barely conscious. That would make it more plausible for enemies to actually attack them instead of making the player pass out and fall over.

I do this now in my games. 0 HP means you have the 'Unconscious' condition (with all the negative attributes that gives), but does not mean you are necessarily actually out cold. Instead, you've just been worn down so much that you are just physically and mentally incapable of doing anything these next 6 to 18 seconds (while you are making your Death saves). So monsters can and will still often attack you since you seem like still a potential threat (even though they don't know you are incapable of action). Three failed saves (either due to monster hits, or by actual failed rolls) and you usually actually die-- narrated as either the bumps, bruises and wounds you did have caught up to you, maybe your body went into shock and collapsed, or maybe a monster or attack hit you with a killing blow "off-turn" as it were. Whatever makes sense for the narrative of the combat. (And truth be told... sometimes I don't even narrate that third failed save as an actual "death", if the character ends up getting brought back via a Revivify spell within the minute. Instead, they "got the paddles" as it were and came back from the brink of death.)

So what this does is it also means that when PCs with 0 HP are healed, they aren't "waking up" but rather are just regaining the wherewithall and fortitude to reclaim their action get back into the fight. (And in case anyone is wondering, yes, this is how I did and do narrate the Warlord's "healing" abilities, since for my games there are no "massive wounds" to worry about "shouting closed" until the PC is actually dead for real and Warlord healing wouldn't help then anyway.)

 

[Magistus71]

If you want them to worry more just add disadvantage to the saving rolls.

 

[AlmirEldignor]

Typcially I add one level of exhaustion every time someone goes to 0 HP, with the 5th level making it so healing wont wake them up again. Also, make sure to mention that when you're back up after being unconscious that you should be prone as well, as healing magic typically doesn't lift you to your feet as well. Also, as someone else mentioned, monsters dont have to stop trying to kill you just because you fell over. There's nothing stopping them from "finishing" you guild-wars 2 style.