MortalPlague
Adventurer
I have come to the realization that I don't like death saving throws.
There are two problems for me. First, on your turn, all you do is roll a die, and either tick a 'success' or a 'failure'. It's not exciting or dramatic like it should be, unless you're on the verge of rolling a final failure.
Secondly, if you do fail that third death save, you bleed out, which is one of the most boring ways possible for a hero to die. It's become so very rare for a PC to die from anything other than 'bleeding out', since monsters so rarely target a downed PC, and hitting the massive damage threshold is extremely difficult. If a PC dies, I want it to be dramatic.
So I have a solution. I haven't tested this yet, but I plan to trot it out for a one-shot or two to see how it plays.
Last Stand
When a PC drops to 0, they may stay on their feet. At the start of each of their turns, they roll a death save as normal. If they fail three saves, they bleed out and die. If they succeed on three saves, they stabilize and regain 1 hit point. Any failed saves are kept, so if the PC gets knocked back down to 0 after stabilizing, they begin to die once more.
The PC remains on their feet, however, and they have their full suite of actions. They may attack, cast spells, pull levers, throw items, etc. They can heal themselves, if they have the means to do so. They can choose to disengage from combat and duck down out of the fight to try and bandage themselves and stabilize themselves.
The PC will still earn a failed death save for every attack that hits them. They also become vulnerable to damage while they are dying, which means any attack could have a chance to hit the massive damage threshold. The vulnerability is important, since the PC is no longer counting hit points. It keeps things dicey when a big damage attack comes their way.
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The goal is to create a more cinematic system where you can have more of a heroic last stand, and where more heroes are actually cut down in battle, rather than bleed out on the floor. It also means players whose characters are knocked down to 0 aren't sitting at the table, waiting for their turn to come up so they can roll one die and see what happens. I haven't tested it yet, but ENWorld is always such a great sounding board, I figured I'd throw it out here and see what people think.
There are two problems for me. First, on your turn, all you do is roll a die, and either tick a 'success' or a 'failure'. It's not exciting or dramatic like it should be, unless you're on the verge of rolling a final failure.
Secondly, if you do fail that third death save, you bleed out, which is one of the most boring ways possible for a hero to die. It's become so very rare for a PC to die from anything other than 'bleeding out', since monsters so rarely target a downed PC, and hitting the massive damage threshold is extremely difficult. If a PC dies, I want it to be dramatic.
So I have a solution. I haven't tested this yet, but I plan to trot it out for a one-shot or two to see how it plays.
Last Stand
When a PC drops to 0, they may stay on their feet. At the start of each of their turns, they roll a death save as normal. If they fail three saves, they bleed out and die. If they succeed on three saves, they stabilize and regain 1 hit point. Any failed saves are kept, so if the PC gets knocked back down to 0 after stabilizing, they begin to die once more.
The PC remains on their feet, however, and they have their full suite of actions. They may attack, cast spells, pull levers, throw items, etc. They can heal themselves, if they have the means to do so. They can choose to disengage from combat and duck down out of the fight to try and bandage themselves and stabilize themselves.
The PC will still earn a failed death save for every attack that hits them. They also become vulnerable to damage while they are dying, which means any attack could have a chance to hit the massive damage threshold. The vulnerability is important, since the PC is no longer counting hit points. It keeps things dicey when a big damage attack comes their way.
---
The goal is to create a more cinematic system where you can have more of a heroic last stand, and where more heroes are actually cut down in battle, rather than bleed out on the floor. It also means players whose characters are knocked down to 0 aren't sitting at the table, waiting for their turn to come up so they can roll one die and see what happens. I haven't tested it yet, but ENWorld is always such a great sounding board, I figured I'd throw it out here and see what people think.