The best way to do Death Effects?

[Anthtriel]

Most of us will probably agree that iconic spells like "Finger of Death" and "Wail of the Banshee" need to be in the game in one or the other, but opinions are divided how exactly they should work. Given that we don't know how they are handled in 4E, I thought it would be interesting to see what is the most popular way to do it.

The different ways to implement them (that I'm aware of) are:

1. The traditional way: Make the save and take minor or no damage, fail it and die instantly.
Example: Finger of Death - Int against Fortitude Defense: Target opponent dies.

-Advantages: It's D&D tradition, it plays very differently from other effects, it is uncomplicated.
-Disadvantages: It is an all or nothing effect and thus very swingy (BBEG might drop dead in the first round, half the party might die in the first round), scales poorly (it's not much less deadly in the hand of mooks than in the hand of the BBEG), has no synergy with other effects (whether the enemy has 1 or 200 HP doesn't matter), quite likely to cause frustrating play situations.
-Ways of improving it: Do away with the "1 automatically fails" rule, warn DMs, heavily restrict them, especially in the hand of enemy mid-level casters.

2. Conversion to damage: Make the save and take some or no damage, fail it and take a significant amount of damage.
Example: Finger of Death - Int against Fortitude Defense: Target takes 2D6 + (5 * caster level) negative energy damage, or 2D6 + caster level if you miss.

-Advantages: It scales very well, and streamlines the system. One resource (HP) for all threats.
-Disadvantages: It plays very similar to Evocation spells.

3. Death dependant on HP: If you have enough HP (and make the save), you survive, otherwise you die.
Example: Finger of Death - Int against Fortitude Defense: If the target has less than 2D6 + (6 *caster level) HP, it dies. (Alternative: "is bloodied")

-Advantages: Avoids most problems of the traditional method and still plays differently.
-Disadvantages: Requires knowledge of enemy's hitpoints, very meta-gamey.

4. Ability (Fortitude) Damage: If you have make the save and have enough constitution, you survive, otherwise you die or are weakened.
Example: Finger of Death - Int against Fortitude Defense: Target takes 1D6 + caster level Constitution damage. (Alternative: Target takes 1D4 + 0.5 * caster level Constitution damage every round until it makes the save)

-Advantages: Plays differently from damage spells and still scales.
-Disadvantages: Difficult to balance, because for some classes, Constitution practically scales with levels, for others it doesn't. If the spell scales with level, it ravages high level wizards, if it doesn't, high level barbarians will laugh it off.

5. Level-adjusted Ability (Fortitude) Damage: The same as 4, except that not your actual ability score, but your 4E level-adjusted ability bonus (normal ability bonus + 1/2 level) gets drained.
Example: Finger of Death - Int against Fortitude Defense: Target takes 1D4 + 0.5 * caster level Constitution mod damage. (Alternative: Target takes 1D2 + 0.25 * caster level Constitution mod damage every round until it makes the save)

-Advantages: Plays differently from damage spells and scales very well.
-Disadvantages: The most complicated method.

 

[Ryltar]

My vote would be "nothing of the above". The way I've handled it thus far: Instant death is changed to "drop to -1d6 hp". Thus, death effects retain a certain lethality while at the same time offer the party a chance to bring their dying companion back into the fray within a certain timeframe. The same holds true for BBEGs and their henchmen.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I hope you don't mind, but since the Poll had only just started, I added a #6 onto the list

6. Slow death. If you fail your save it is certain death - but not instant death. There would be a short period of time to allow for famous last words or last-minute reprieves through the help of friends before death actually occurred.

 

[Gothic_Demon]

I voted Ability Damage, but with a simple proviso: Make Save-or-Die saves against Will or (occasionally) Reflex defence. Thus the characters most likely to fail their save (poor Will) are those most likely to survive the Con damage (and vice-versa). The issue with powerful wizards vs. powerful barbarians is mostly covered, and IMO handled quite fairly.

 

[Cadfan]

None of the above. "Death Effect" is a flavorless catch all category for "stuff you can ward against with Death Ward, but you can't use Raise Dead afterwards". Bust it up and distribute its components to other areas of the game.

Wail of the Banshee, for example, would work pretty well as Wisdom damage. Finger of Death wouldn't, it would function better as perhaps Constitution damage.

Or some other mechanic. Point is, don't put them all together just because they were all together before.

 

[hong]

Option 3 is good, assuming it's something like how the power word spells work now (but with a save).

 

[RandomCitizenX]

I voted for option 7, since it enables not only the heroic last words Planar Sailing was talking about but also gives the oppertunity for a rush to find a cure type of adventure which seems like a good idea to me.

 

[Saint&Sinner]

I use "Fate Points" which are provided for solid character play. Fate points may be spent to 'be heroic' adding a bonus to the players efforts. If a character "dies" with at least one Fate point available they may spend it to either add a detail to the death (death solioquy, pyric victory, furry of final attacks before definitive death etc) or they may say they want their character to live (GM call how bad off they are).

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

I like the idea of a slow death. It could be a quest unto itself to find a cure.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Save or drop to -1 (or -9 or -1d10) is a method I've seen and used before.
Unfortunatley it still completely bipasses HP (more similar to harm) and a quickened magic missle or an ally can still instantly finish off the foe.
But it is somewhat of a compromise between pro instant death and anti instand death.