I hate death saves. Propose your solution.
FrogReaver
As long as i get to be the frog
I find this worse than the current death save model.
FrogReaver
As long as i get to be the frog
Once at 0 hp, character rolls a CON save. On a fail, dead. On a success, they take one point of CON damage, one level of exhaustion and are dying (crawling on floor in agony, disadvantage on all rolls). Every round thereafter they must make a CON save or die. First aid returns character to 1 hp but they retain the CON damage and exhaustion. Prevents characters from popping up completely fine after healing. Getting to 0 hp has a consequence! Not as brutal but feels a bit more real than those arbitrary 3 death saves and instant KO at 0 hp
I dislike ability score damage which essentially is a death spiral mechanic.
I dislike characters popping up from nearly dead to suddenly healed mid battle too.
If I was going to go with something similar to this system I would probably go with something like: At 0 HP you are dying. Roll a death save immediately upon reaching 0 hp. On a failed save you die. If you pass the save then repeat this save at the end of your turn until you are either stabilized or an ally uses healing magic on you. Such healing magic will only stabilize a dying character. To become conscious again you must wait 1d4 hours or have magical healing used on you again.
Satyrn
First Post
Is this your root concern? Like, what if you leave everything as is (death saves included) but added in a condition called Nearly Dead (or whatever) that gets applied when a character drops to 0, but sticks around even after the character regains hit points. Big magic (restoration, say) or significant rest would be required before the condition is removed.
Then, you make Nearly Dead cause whatever penalties you think would be fun. While the character is hampered, there can be no real death spiral because dropping to 0 again woukd just apply the condition again - and you just make it so the effects don't stack.
I'm going to suggest something slightly different:
Now you can have your "heroic last stand" if you want, or you can crawl into a corner and drink a potion, or you can just lay there and hope the monsters ignore you thinking you're dead.
So dropping to 0 lets you make a difficult decision, instead of just making saves (boring) or sudden unexpected instant death (also boring).
EDIT: To be clear, when you are at 0 and conscious you still make a death save at the start of your turn. So you can die on your feet.
When you drop to 0 hp, you stay conscious for 1 minute. All other rules remain the same: make death saves at the start of your turn; damage causes failed death saves; 3 failed saves and you die, 3 successes and you stabilize, etc.
Now you can have your "heroic last stand" if you want, or you can crawl into a corner and drink a potion, or you can just lay there and hope the monsters ignore you thinking you're dead.
So dropping to 0 lets you make a difficult decision, instead of just making saves (boring) or sudden unexpected instant death (also boring).
EDIT: To be clear, when you are at 0 and conscious you still make a death save at the start of your turn. So you can die on your feet.
MNblockhead
A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site
That would make it better. When you hit zero, take a drag and hold the smoke in until the character is healed or stabilized. If any smoke escapes before then--the character dies. This makes it more obvious and thematic (release the smoke is giving up the spirit) and helps cut down on cheating.
Also, smokers of certain substances are, uh, more practiced at holding in the smoke.
FrogReaver
As long as i get to be the frog
#1. That isn't my root concern
#2. I don't think having prolonged penalties to a character is fun.
Nine Hands
Explorer
I think you've already solved your problem. If you want death to occur at 0 HP, then just do it with the understanding that characters are going to go down and stay down. There is nothing wrong with making the game extremely lethal as long as everyone at the table is in agreement.
If you feel the need to pad out HP a bit, then just give them more hit points (maybe max HP per HD, which is very easy to calculate). It ends up with a slightly similar effect to having death saves with the exception that you can still act at full capacity, instead of being helpless.
If you feel the need to pad out HP a bit, then just give them more hit points (maybe max HP per HD, which is very easy to calculate). It ends up with a slightly similar effect to having death saves with the exception that you can still act at full capacity, instead of being helpless.
Why not keep the existing rule that any damage is an automatic fail?
All I want to do is to change the amount of meta information that is transferred at the table, to prevent people from getting a false sense of security, that's absolutely unrealistic given what would be happening in the real game, that tends to happen as players get comfortable with the rules.
I'll try it, and see if it actually makes the fear of dying more palpable. If it does, while absolutely maintaining every bit of the existing rules, then the players can still be 'meta', but it'll be much more of a gamble, and definitely an increasing amount of unknowable risk.
It's not for every table, definitely, but I think my table would be game for it. They're the types to cheer and get more excited when the stakes get higher and things get scarier.
FrogReaver
As long as i get to be the frog
I have decided a new action should be added to the game as well. A protect Action. As long as you are adjacent to an ally then you may use the protect action. You take and damage from attacks or non aoe spells the ally would take instead of the ally till your next turn. You likewise can move with the ally on his turn up to your speed.
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