D&D 5E How has your DM handled death before and after the party getting the spell Revivify?

[Gavin O.]

In all my experience playing DnD, every DM I've had would stop attacking a character immediately upon them falling to zero hit points. Now, that makes a lot of sense from the monsters' perspective. The character is no longer a threat, so they should move on to other threats. However, I've also yet to have anyone die of three failed death saves. In almost every case, the battle is over before the downed character has taken three turns. And all this makes total sense, because until the party gets access to spells that can bring party members back from the dead, any party member death usually either means the DM has to handwave some reason for an NPC to revive them, or that player has to scrap their character and build a new one. But as soon as one party member gets access to the spell revivify, that dynamic changes. Now a player death is no longer a huge disaster, it's merely a drain on the party resources. I'm curious, then, as to how many DMs will start being willing to kill off characters after the party has access to a spell to bring them back, and how they contextualize that in play where previously the enemies would ignore unconscious party members. Or, if they are willing to kill of party members before the party gets access to this spell, what happens to the characters who get killed?

 

[not-so-newguy]

Giving a PC a level exhaustion whenever they’re lowered to 0 hp might do the trick. The downed character is weakened and needs a long rest to heal; unless there’s a Greater Restoration spell available which is a 5th level spell that costs 100gp in components.

 

[tglassy]

Have the ghoul try to drag the player off to be eaten.

 

[Jester David]

Done it a few times.

Once, when the party hit an enemy with debuffs and then feel back, the only PC within range of the Big Bad was a fallen paladin. So the enemy took a party shot on the dying PC then fled.
Another time, during an awkward fight a character was knocked down and bled out before anyone could get to them, based on the cramped quarters and some blocking walls.
A third time, a PC ended up surrounded by bad guys and alone, and made some poor strategic decisions. This led to their death.

In the first two instances, the player just rolled up a new PC. In the third instance, I'd given the PCs a "get out of death free card" with a well that could resurrect the dead once. So they used that.

In all my experience playing DnD, every DM I've had would stop attacking a character immediately upon them falling to zero hit points. Now, that makes a lot of sense from the monsters' perspective. The character is no longer a threat, so they should move on to other threats

Smart monsters will also know that magic can rapidly bring back fallen foes and will recognise clerics, and know that their odds increase if they can keep a downed enemy down.

 

[tglassy]

I had a party member have his head cut off. The bad guy critter and rolled max damage, we were lvl 1. No save. Just dead.

He was given a choice. Make a new character, or take the DM’s “resurrection” choice, which was to be made into a Revenant by some unknown force, bound to help him.

He chose option 3. He made a new character, but decided to hide his consciousness inside the Ring of Mind Storing he’d been wearing, so his old character could still pipe in from now and then.

 

[ad_hoc]

At our table monsters sometimes kill off fallen characters. It depends on the monster.

If they are bloodthirsty or savage they might. If they are predators they might be happy with just 1 kill, they aren't there to kill the whole party, just get a meal. If they are smart they know about healing magic. If they are enemies of the PCs they might even be looking to take them down 1 by 1 over time.

What spells are in play doesn't change this.

 

[the Jester]

The party's resources and access to resurrection magic have no effect on the way I run monsters. I am perfectly willing to kill pcs at any stage of the game, and bringing them back is firmly on the shoulders of pcs. It's far more likely that a player will end up making a new character, or bringing another pc already in the game into the group.

 

[jgsugden]

The story dictates. Some monsters are trying to get a meal. If the PC falls, they drag it off to eat. Other monsters are there to destroy all life. They'll turn on the next greatest threat. Some have other goals and will act according to those goals... And all of this is irrespective of the player spells, generally. An intelligent villain that knows the PCs have spells for raising the dead may facot it into the paln for facing the PCs, but that would be rare.

 

[Inchoroi]

I have a few houserules involving HP and death saving throws and stuff; however, to the question: I always enforce material components! If the player who has revivify, or the characters as a whole, don't have diamonds, well, they're screwed.

 

[Blue]

Giving a PC a level exhaustion whenever they’re lowered to 0 hp might do the trick. The downed character is weakened and needs a long rest to heal; unless there’s a Greater Restoration spell available which is a 5th level spell that costs 100gp in components.

Exhaustion on Death saves leaves to death spirals like Shadowrun. It starts by making you bad at EVERY SINGLE THING outside combat besides spells - because the only mechanical support for anything outside combat is an ability check (all skills are ability checks) and you have disadvantage on them. Then you become worse at combat, so you get more, and then you likely die.

And because of the slow recovery of exhaustion (1 per long rest or 4th level Greater Restoration), it can tag along for days. So a few bad rolls at the beginning of an adventure can leave you bad for all of the rest of the encounters that day and others, which leads to move death saves, more exhaustion, and sucking more and more.

As a general rule, death spirals are unfun. Exhaustion has a large negative impact on play.