D&D 5E Wound Levels instead of Death Saves house rule

[Uller]

We've been playing with a house rule where death save failures result in levels of exhaustion being applied and they can only be recovered by the rules for removing levels of exhaustion. This has the effect of being dropped to 0 hp having some lasting consequences and my players seem to enjoy it. They get much more careful about being dropped to 0 hp and if they get beaten down badly enough they have to take a few days to recover completely regardless of getting back HP and HD with a long rest.

But I want to expand it a bit. I think being at 0 hp and unable to act other than just making a death save is a bit boring and I want to add ways of removing levels of exhaustion in the short term at some cost in resources. I enjoy the Death's Door Mechanic in the CRPG Darkest Dungeon where, as long as you have HP, you basically are immune to dying, but as soon as you are at 0 hp, you are now in danger but can still act.

So I'm thinking of going with the following but I'd love to hear the thoughts of others. Tbis is a very rough first cut and is completely unplay tested.

When a characters reaches 0 hp they are "On Death's Door" and can now gain Wounds. Each Wound adds to the characters level of exhaustion by one. If the amount of damage taken minus the character's hp at the time the damage was taken is greater than the character's maximum HP the character immediately gains 1 wound.

If a character "On Death's Door" receives hp through any means they lose the On Death's Door condition. (as long as you are above 0 hp you cannot be wounded except from massive damage)

Wound Saves: Whenever a character On Death's Door takes damage, they must make a "wound save" vs a DC of 10 or half the damage taken, whichever is greater. Nothing can modify this roll. A roll of a 20 automatically succeeds and restores 1 hp to the character.

Healer's kits can only be used during a short rest and only give the second benefit.

During a short rest a wound may be removed in the following manner:

1) Expend 1 HD
2) Receive magical healing. 1 wound is removed per level of healing spell cast or per 5 hp of healing recieved.
3) Expend one use of a healer's kit and make a DC 15 Medicine check. If the character performing the check has the Healer feat the check is made at advantage and (once per short or long rest) restores hp according to the Healer feat. Only one check can be made per Wound. If the check fails, the Wound becomes a level of exhaustion.

After completing a short rest, any character that is On Death's Door automatically receives 1 hp.

Any wounds that are not removed by the start of a long rest immediately become levels of exhaustion (note: I always apply short rest benefits before a long rest is started...we assume that a group of exhausted/wounded PCs will spend some time eating, binding wounds, etc early in the rest)

Levels of exhaustion can be removed in the following ways:

To remove 1 level or exhaustion:
1) Complete a long rest while having adequate food and water
2) lesser restoration

Remove all levels of exhaustion:
1) Greater Restoration
2) Heal

Dying: At the start of a dying character's turn they make a death saving throw vs DC 10. After three successful death saves or if a 20 is rolled on any death save the character stablizes and is no longer dying.

When a character makes a death save at the start of their turn they may opt to remove the incapacitated condition in exchange for an automatically failing the death save and losing all successes that have been accumulated so far.

Each failed death save results in gaining one level of exhaustion.

Grim-dark alternative:

For an even grittier level of play apply the following two changes:

PCs only gain HP up to 3rd level. After that they only gain HD.

Expanded Exhaustion Table:

1 Disadvantage on Initiative
2 Disadvantage on Ability Checks
3 Speed halved
4 No Reactions or Bonus Actions (or bonus action in lew of action)
5 Disadvantage on Attack rolls and Saving Throws
6 Attacks against you have advantage
7 Hit point maximum halved
8 Can move or act but not both
9 Speed reduced to 5 and cannot stand, cannot cast spells
10 Death

With this, PCs start making wound saves earlier and use up HD faster to stave off the effects of being wounded.

 

[robus]

When a characters reaches 0 hp they are "On Death's Door" and can now gain Wounds. Each Wound adds to the characters level of exhaustion by one. If the amount of damage taken minus the character's hp at the time the damage was taken is greater than the character's maximum HP the character immediately gains 1 wound.

Isn’t that insta-death in the regular rules? I would argue that every time they drop to 0 they should gain a wound. i really like Eric Pommer’s Wounds pdf which now only exists on scribd it seems: wound doc | Wound | Role Playing Games

 

[Flamestrike]

My problem with these kinds of rules, is they further enforce the 5MWD.

Players with PCs that get a level of exhaustion, or wound levels or whatever at 0 HP will not want to push on and deal with more encounters; they will be more inclined to fall back, long rest and nova stuff.

Id make any penalty gained last 'until the end of the session' (removes long rest temptation) or use a different mechanic (each failed death save by a PC grants a death token to the DM; each death token [reduces earnt XP by 5 percent/ grants the DM 1 re-roll/ whatever]; or something similar).

Maybe even have a failed death save by a PC lead to advantage to all monster attack rolls, skill checks and saving throws till the start of that PC's next turn.

That last one wires in an incentive for the PCs to keep each other in the fight, and to avoid getting dropped to zero HP.

 

[DND_Reborn]

While I completely understand your drive for something like this, to me this is too complex. We have some simpler house-rules, but are even thinking for removing those.

So, my question to you would be this: how can you simplify this and stream-line it?

 

[Flamestrike]

While I completely understand your drive for something like this, to me this is too complex. We have some simpler house-rules, but are even thinking for removing those.

So, my question to you would be this: how can you simplify this and stream-line it?

The more approppriate question is what is the effect of these rules.

The answer is 'push the players into long resting and the 5MWD'. Accordingly I would avoid them like the plague.

 

[DND_Reborn]

The more approppriate question is what is the effect of these rules.

The answer is 'push the players into long resting and the 5MWD'. Accordingly I would avoid them like the plague.

Yeah, our table had a lengthy discussion once about what hit points really mean to us. In the end, we decided on a more cinematic approach. This mirrors more the SWSE idea of Vitality. It also makes more sense to us when a brief rest can recover the expended energy represented by hit points.

 

[Uller]

The more approppriate question is what is the effect of these rules.

The answer is 'push the players into long resting and the 5MWD'. Accordingly I would avoid them like the plague.

Noted. But 5MWDs has not been a problem at my table ever, really. Two reasons I think:

1) I think my players seem to stick to an unspoken compact that their PCs aren't really all that interested in just resting all the time and as long as their are plausible story based consequences to taking too long they will push on.

2) We have other house rules that addresses this. Short rests only take 15 minutes or so but you can only benefit from them 3 times between long rests and long rests take 24 hours and require a place that is safe, comfortable and well supplied. There is no such thing as a long rest on the dungeon floor while monsters are actively lurking about or on the side of a frozen mounting during an overland journey.

Also, long rests are not as beneficial for us as the PCs recover -no- hp during a long rest but instead regain their full HD, which they can spend at the end to recover some HP if they like. So if they are low on HP but still have most of their spells and other powers and some HD available there is not that much point in taking a long rest. I have observed that my players will tend to press on as long as they have at 25% or more of their powers and slots available.

The reason this has come up is my players have found the "whack-a-mole" combat encouraged by RAW to be silly. Part of that is a consequence of the Good Berry spell I suppose...we have a Druid and a Ranger so every time someone goes down it basically just costs the party an action or at most two to restore that PC to fighting with no other real consequences. So we implemented that exhaustion thing and they really like it. I am just considering taking it this one step further to entirely remove the "whack-a-mole" effect but then that will make gaining exhaustion that much more common...so I want to give them a resource trade off for that...sure you can stay in the fight but it will cost you wounds and that will cost you HD

 

[Uller]

While I completely understand your drive for something like this, to me this is too complex. We have some simpler house-rules, but are even thinking for removing those.

So, my question to you would be this: how can you simplify this and stream-line it?

If you have any ideas on streamlining it I am all ears. That's why I posted it. As with any house rule we will play with it for a session or two before we fully adopt it AND house rules can always be abandoned if they become tedious.

With our current rule (which my players like so far) the only complication is we have to track exhaustion. We play on Roll20 so we solve this by just adding colored dots to the PC's icon so everyone can see how wounded/exhausted everyone is.

This expansion will add having to track wounds for the day which might be the point at which it is too much.

 

[Flamestrike]

Yeah, our table had a lengthy discussion once about what hit points really mean to us. In the end, we decided on a more cinematic approach. This mirrors more the SWSE idea of Vitality. It also makes more sense to us when a brief rest can recover the expended energy represented by hit points.

Thats what they are in the core rules.

Hit points are expressly luck, the will to live, fighting/ parrying/ dodging skill (why fighters and martials get more) experience (you get more as you advance in level) and health.

 

[DND_Reborn]

The reason this has come up is my players have found the "whack-a-mole" combat encouraged by RAW to be silly. Part of that is a consequence of the Good Berry spell I suppose...we have a Druid and a Ranger so every time someone goes down it basically just costs the party an action or at most two to restore that PC to fighting with no other real consequences. So we implemented that exhaustion thing and they really like it. I am just considering taking it this one step further to entirely remove the "whack-a-mole" effect but then that will make gaining exhaustion that much more common...so I want to give them a resource trade off for that...sure you can stay in the fight but it will cost you wounds and that will cost you HD

Our current house-rule is this:

When you reach 0 hp, you make a CON check (DC 10 or half damage, whichever is greater), or fall unconscious for 1d4 hours. If you remain conscious, you suffer a -2 penalty to your armor class and saving throws. You may make reactions and move normally, but you may only make an action or bonus action on your turn.

You have Wound Points equal to your CON score + character level. This represents your "meat body" and experience to deal with the pain of injury. High level characters with good CON can have scores well over 30.

1. A critical hit results in one WP lost.
2. Any damage (critical or not) greater than your current WP is one WP lost.
3. Going to 0 hp results in one WP lost.
4. Each round (except the first due to #3) making death saves is one WP lost.

#1, 2, and 3 can all be combined for a potential loss of 3 WP at once.

When your WP is 0, you die.

WP are recovered 1 point via Long Rest (24 hours for our table). Spells restore 1 WP per die of healing, but no HP if used to heal WP. Heal restores all WP. Potions only restore HP and do not help with WP.

Since you are still making death saves, you can die from those as well. We allow successes and failures to cancel each other out, so it can last longer than 5 rounds max to die or stabilize. If you are stabilized in some other way with death save failures, they stay with you until a Long Rest (removes one per rest).

While I like all this, it is still a bit too complex and we are working on it as well.