Ever try PC death at 0 hit points?

[not-so-newguy]

The title.


Just curious if anyone ever tried this. Even for a short adventure. I’d like to hear about your experiences. Good, bad, indifferent? I don’t care about the theory crafting side of things right now.

Edit
Some questions I have for those who have ran this type of game

What was the character creation process? How long did it take?
How did the DM introduce a new PC?
Did a new PC start at 1st level with 0 experience points in the middle of a game?

 

[Ashrym]

Not since -10 death's door came in to play back in the day. Low level death was common for us up to that point. I definitely prefer either a negative cushion, higher starting hp, or death rolls. Pretty much any alternative is better, ime.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Yep. Then again, I played 1e all the way up to 5e release, so we’ve always preferred the more lethal version. We also play a lot with the house rules for short and long rest HP recovery as in the DMG. It makes combat more urgent as you don’t have three or more rounds before you need to worry about stabilizing someone, which hurts verisimilitude for me.

 

[not-so-newguy]

It makes combat more urgent as you don’t have three or more rounds before you need to worry about stabilizing someone, which hurts verisimilitude for me.

How does that break verisimilitude? I would think urgent combat would make things feel a bit more “realistic.”

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Three or more rounds is deifferent than what I regularily experience in 5e.
Our deaths were all 1 round kills. A 1 at a saving throw and a random area attack and its bye bye.
As soon as that happened two times we fwwl a lot more preasure to help an ally when he is down.

Also 5e is really not made for death at 0 hp. Your chance to be hit at level 1 is way higher and a single magic missile spell has a good chance to drop a character to 0hp.

 

[Raith5]

How does that break verisimilitude? I would think urgent combat would make things feel a bit more “realistic.”

And dramatic. I like the fact when someone goes down that you have to respond and change plans. Some of the best fights I have had in D&D is when a really cool plan is derailed by a PC going down early.

So I think death saves are the best way to go.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

My philosophy as DM is to only kill PCs if their players did an actual mistake. If 0 HP meant dead in D&D 5e, I couldn't even attack any of my players because a single crit might make them drop to 0. I prefer being able to go all out on them.

On a sidenote, I always thought Akitoshi Kawazu's LP system would be perfect for Pen&Paper:
- A character has a fixed amount of LP (let's say: 8)
- When a character's HP drop to 0, he becomes unconscious and loses 1 LP
- When a character is hit while unconscious, he loses 1 LP
- When a character's LP drop to 0, he is dead
- Other than rare consumable magic items or a rest at an Inn, nothing can recover LP

D&D 5e's system is quite similar to that actually, except that you can have more "Failed Death Saving Throws" but in exchange you will need to leave the dungeon to recover them. It has some interesting effects:
- As DM you can be more lenient with resting in a dungeon
- Players might think twice about recovering an unconscious PC when he's still next to the enemies (because they might attack someone else as long as he is unconscious and thus not chip down on the PCs LP), so it reduces the "Drop -> Heal -> Drop" situations

Anyway, I don't really see any "good point" about HP=0=Dead.

 

[not-so-newguy]

My philosophy as DM is to only kill PCs if their players did an actual mistake. If 0 HP meant dead in D&D 5e, I couldn't even attack any of my players because a single crit might make them drop to 0. I prefer being able to go all out on them.

On a sidenote, I always thought Akitoshi Kawazu's LP system would be perfect for Pen&Paper:
- A character has a fixed amount of LP (let's say: 8)
- When a character's HP drop to 0, he becomes unconscious and loses 1 LP
- When a character is hit while unconscious, he loses 1 LP
- When a character's LP drop to 0, he is dead
- Other than rare consumable magic items or a rest at an Inn, nothing can recover LP

D&D 5e's system is quite similar to that actually, except that you can have more "Failed Death Saving Throws" but in exchange you will need to leave the dungeon to recover them. It has some interesting effects:
- As DM you can be more lenient with resting in a dungeon
- Players might think twice about recovering an unconscious PC when he's still next to the enemies (because they might attack someone else as long as he is unconscious and thus not chip down on the PCs LP), so it reduces the "Drop -> Heal -> Drop" situations

Anyway, I don't really see any "good point" about HP=0=Dead.

While everything here may certainly be valid and reasonable, i’m not looking for this type of advice.

I would like to hear about your experience with “death at 0 hit points” and your opinions on that experience.

Please no more advice on how to run my game. Don’t get me wrong. i’m sure my game could improve, but just not looking for it in this thread.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[pogre]

It changed the game in a way at lower levels that I did not enjoy. Extremely careful PCs may be more realistic, but I felt like it bogged down the game. YMMV, etc.