D&D 5E Take Infinity Damage

[Fauchard1520]

The whole lake of lava thing came up in one of my recent games. One of my players failed their don't-fall-in-the-freaking-lava check, and I was left with a conundrum. How do you include the tension and excitement of an insta-death situation without setting up a straight save-or-die? Is it possible?
Bonus comic for illustrative purposes.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

Have this sound effect cued on your tablet?

[video=youtube;9FHw2aItRlw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FHw2aItRlw[/video]

 

[jasper]

You have two choices.
1. Announce ahead of time it a save or die roll.
2. Treat lava as deadly trap were they take x damage per round until they get out of it. SRD 196 4d10 Tier 1, 10d10 tier 2, 18d10 tier 3, 24d10 tier 4. If you go this round I would say the half the max is min.

 

[Krachek]

The cinematic slow down.
Allow all characters present a special reaction. Allowing action, spell casting, or other cinematics idea.
It breaks the rules, but it makes a better movie.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

The cinematic slow down.
Allow all characters present a special reaction. Allowing action, spell casting, or other cinematics idea.
It breaks the rules, but it makes a better movie.

Perhaps in a no-option save-or-die I'd allow something like this. Trouble is, in lots of situations the player has had other options they could of taken but opted not to and is now in a very bad spot due to these earlier decisions. I'm a believer in consequences for taking big risks without reasonable mitigation. That way if you succeed, you really earned it. And if not, well, better luck next time.

That said, I'd play it by the book. If there's damage to be rolled and saves to be made, go for it. Maybe they can pull a miracle save out. But I would only extend special, life-saving options to rare situations where a PC gets into a lethal, one-shot-kill situation with little or no ability to make a decision to avoid it.

 

[GameOgre]

I stack the deck in my favor.

Instead of a strait save or die or fall into lava I would use a three check system.

Fail the first check and lose balance and fall.
Fail the second check and miss the grab whatever it was they were on a a nearby tree branch or rock or whatever. Make it and take minor damage.
Fail the third check and Plunge into the lava dead. Make it and take major damage as they grabbed a outcropping or hung on just long enough to throw off trajectory and instead hit a rock or small ledge whatever.

Only put fail or die rolls in if its ok with you if they die. If a player was poorly role playing and intentionally leaped into the lave or foolishly didn't care if they went into lava because"I got more hit points than that" I wouldn't even give a save just dead but in 99% of the cases I do NOT want my player characters to die and so do not use them.

 

[Blue]

Instead of a strait save or die or fall into lava I would use a three check system.

Fail the first check and lose balance and fall.
Fail the second check and miss the grab whatever it was they were on a a nearby tree branch or rock or whatever. Make it and take minor damage.
Fail the third check and Plunge into the lava dead. Make it and take major damage as they grabbed a outcropping or hung on just long enough to throw off trajectory and instead hit a rock or small ledge whatever.

I like making failure more interesting, and something like this gives options for the rest of the party to spend action, resources and possibly risk themselves to saving a party member.

 

[iserith]

I telegraph the danger in no uncertain terms and... that's it.

The rest is on the player to avoid a terrible fate.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

In instances of lava, 1,000 foot drops off the side of a mountain, a planet landing on Chewbacca, I take a couple of options. I might say that the fall isn’t all the way, but still enough to do damage. Maybe you’re stuck hanging above the lava by a pinkie, taking heat damage. Or you just fall 60 feet before catching yourself. Alternately, I will ask the player to tell me how they try to get out of this. If they can come up with a clever solution or use of ability, then they’re likely to be okay, or at least not dead.

If someone wants to sacrifice themselves or take the hit, I’d allow that too, if they’re in a position to help.

Unless we're playing OD&D or Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Then, well..."you've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"

 

[ad_hoc]

The whole lake of lava thing came up in one of my recent games. One of my players failed their don't-fall-in-the-freaking-lava check, and I was left with a conundrum. How do you include the tension and excitement of an insta-death situation without setting up a straight save-or-die? Is it possible?
Bonus comic for illustrative purposes.

Save or Die sounds pretty tense to me.

What kind of lava is it?

Low viscosity lava is probably instant death.

High viscosity lava/magma however will just deal some damage each turn until the character can get away.

Lowest still is the kind that forms a hard crust over it trapping the heat inside.