D&D 5E "If They Have a Name They Get Death Saves. . ."

[Don Durito]

I had an incident in one game when the party rogue followed a masked NPC into a build, got spotted and got into a fight with the NPC and then reduced him to 0 HP.

He then took off the NPCs mark realised that the party was potentially in big trouble and there followed 3 rounds of failed attempts to stabilise the NPC before they finally gave up the ghost. Big turning point in that campaign.

 

[Cadence]

As a player I'd expect nothing less, and I would be annoyed if it turned out NPCs worked differently than PCs in this regard.

Either give the NPCs death saves, or do away with the mechanic for PCs. (or better yet, come up with a different mechanic that preserves a "dying-but-not-dead" condition yet doesn't need die rolls every round for anyone in that state)

In another thread the issue if how things like persuasion and intimidation rolls work against PCs came up. Would you expect a group that is pro PC-NPC symmetry yo expect persuasion rolls and the like to work similarly in both directions?

 

[jgsugden]

"Guys - why is every creature suddenly screaming out their name the second they see us? Weird..."

 

[Blue]

In 13th Age there's a sidebar about a table rule Jonathan Tweet uses, that I think he stole from 7th Sea (1st ed) - a PC won't die to an unnamed mook. Now, something bad will happen if they would die, such as being captured and taken to the Named shaman to be sacrificed to the volcano god, but they wouldn't die to someone nameless.

 

[loverdrive]

Me playing a character who sold her own name:

 

[Fallen star]

My rule is all NPCs friendly or hostile automatically fail death checks. Players have 3 rounds to stabilize anyone they want to save. Only summoned creatures vanish the instant they hit zero.

 

[Blue Orange]

I'm kind of leaning toward the OSR view on this--the game ought to involve some degree of skill, and giving characters special abilities to avoid death takes away from that.

As I've said elsewhere, though, that's my opinion and you can enjoy the game differently from me...

 

[Lanefan]

In another thread the issue if how things like persuasion and intimidation rolls work against PCs came up. Would you expect a group that is pro PC-NPC symmetry yo expect persuasion rolls and the like to work similarly in both directions?

Yes, but perhaps not the way you expect: IMO persuasion, intimidate, and similar social-interaction mechanics are generally bad for the game. My preference would be that they be stripped out, and thus work similarly in both direction by not working at all.