D&D 5E 5e Homebrew Rule Comments or Recommendations Sought

[Over the Hill Gamer]

We have a homebrew rule in our campaign:

"Anytime a character drops to zero hit points OR fails a death save their level of exhaustion increases by 1. The exhaustion rules are on pg 291 of the PHB. The purpose of this rule is to make combat a little more gritty and to have some provision for lingering wounds without getting into the more detailed variants in the DMG or hit location/specific wounds."

In a combat last week a PC was fighting a cloaker. He dropped to zero HPs twice in the same fight, rolled a 1 on a death save, and failed another death saved after being healed. Consequently he has 5 levels of exhaustion and was pretty much a incapacitated. We found this to add a little realism to DnD rules since it requires a long rest to restore each level of exhaustion. For the most part this is an extreme example and mostly we deal with a single level of exhaustion.

Anyone else do something similar?

Thanks as always.

 

[GlassJaw]

It's interesting but I doubt I would use it. At least not ina standard campaign. Any rule like this penalizes the players more than their enemies over time. Once the first PC goes down, the odds of a TPK are increased because even if that character is brought back, they will be less effective. The party has to spend the same amount of resources to bring them back but won't reap the same rewards.

You might see a resulting effect that players won't spend the resources (i.e. their actions in combat) to revive fallen comrades. And that's certainly not fun for the player that went down.

You'll probabky also see the party wantingng to long rest more often. No one wants to adventure with exhausted allies.

So again, on paper it certainly accomplishes a more realistic feel but it doesn't add anything positive to the game beyond that.

 

[the Jester]

I'll be honest, that's a game that is grittier than I would be interested in, and I love games that chop off your limbs and put your eye out and so on. I also love the exhaustion rules, but they are severely punishing, and you're basically instituting a "death spiral"- get badly hurt, and it's so much easier to die.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I would never use that sort of rule, or play in a game that used the rule. The exhaustion rules are meant to simulate exhaustion, and using them to represent physical injury is disingenuous.

The important part of any rule, house or otherwise, is the in-game reality which it is supposed to reflect. Someone who is beaten unconscious and literally six seconds from bleeding to death is not someone who should be good as new after three days, without some sort of magical intervention. Granted, it's slightly less ridiculous than that same person being good as new after only taking a nap, but adding the house rule mostly just serves to highlight how ridiculous that is.

 

[Quickleaf]

We have a homebrew rule in our campaign:

"Anytime a character drops to zero hit points OR fails a death save their level of exhaustion increases by 1. The exhaustion rules are on pg 291 of the PHB. The purpose of this rule is to make combat a little more gritty and to have some provision for lingering wounds without getting into the more detailed variants in the DMG or hit location/specific wounds."

In a combat last week a PC was fighting a cloaker. He dropped to zero HPs twice in the same fight, rolled a 1 on a death save, and failed another death saved after being healed. Consequently he has 5 levels of exhaustion and was pretty much a incapacitated. We found this to add a little realism to DnD rules since it requires a long rest to restore each level of exhaustion. For the most part this is an extreme example and mostly we deal with a single level of exhaustion.

Anyone else do something similar?

Thanks as always.

I actually proposed a couple ideas to my gaming group, this being one of them. The resoundingly rejected pretty much everything having to do with "make death grittier." So...yeah, it depends on your audience.

One of the tricks I have learned to solve the ping-ponging adventurers going down and getting back up after healing.... repeatedly... is to change how I describe getting reduced to 0 hit points. It chafes my GM sensibilities (which tend to be more around the AD&D power level), but I find it facilitates smoother narrative transition to go from "knocked down to one knee, disarmed, reeling and unable to see straight much the less stand" to "back up and fighting", than to go from "KO'd" to "back up and fighting."

 

[Over the Hill Gamer]

One of the tricks I have learned to solve the ping-ponging adventurers going down and getting back up after healing.... repeatedly... is to change how I describe getting reduced to 0 hit points. It chafes my GM sensibilities (which tend to be more around the AD&D power level), but I find it facilitates smoother narrative transition to go from "knocked down to one knee, disarmed, reeling and unable to see straight much the less stand" to "back up and fighting", than to go from "KO'd" to "back up and fighting."

In 5e, short of permanent death PCs are completely healed in just 8 hours no matter how much punishment they received and totally without magical interventioni. It almost seems laughable, especially to those of us who played AD&D back in the day. Even with the proposed rule, no injury takes longer than 5 days to heal. Actually a pretty liberal standard when you think about it.

 

[Krachek]

Don't try to put : realism , fight and DnD in the same sentence.

 

[LapBandit]

We do a level of Exhaustion and a lingering wound.

 

[ad_hoc]

We make a death saving throw on hitting 0 and they do not recover until after a long rest.

So if you drop to 0 a bunch in one adventuring day you will probably end up dead.

 

[Shiroiken]

We make a death saving throw on hitting 0 and they do not recover until after a long rest.

So if you drop to 0 a bunch in one adventuring day you will probably end up dead.

This is the best method for preventing the Chumbawumba effect. Helps with the grittiness, but still has the standard 8 hour nap for full recovery of 5E.