D&D 5E "If They Have a Name They Get Death Saves. . ."

[Cadence]

Everybody just knows everybody in my games. "I went to high school with that goblin."

Now I'm wondering if that could be done with a flashback rule...

 

[el-remmen]

[SNIP] OOTS strip

Order of the Stick is the best D&D based narrative I have ever come across, by a wide margin.

 

[el-remmen]

I certainly hope your player was just curious about the answer, and not actually angry about it. Because the response would have to be to tell them "Look, if you WANT me to roll death saves for every creature you fight, I CAN... but that means you all are going to probably have to use many of your turns just attacking unconscious foes to kill them quickly. If you'd LIKE to add that to your responsibility while playing, doing nothing on some rounds but stabbing prone bodies just to give them two failed death saves... that's fine, I certainly can add it in... but I thought I was doing you a favor by skipping over that tedious part of the game for you."

She was just curious. I think she wanted me to not check for anyone in that particular encounter and just let them be dead. But since one of the party's best allies right now is someone who they once defeated in battle and then stabilized, I doubt she'd want me to be the general rule regarding NPC enemy deaths.

 

[Azzy]

Yup, if an NPC or monster is important enough to the adventure/campaign they get death saves (and names).

 

[Minigiant]

Actual out of character quote I've heard

He has a first name, last name, and an epithet. If we don't double tap, he's not dead. Close range death spells, everyone.

 

[Yora]

"Do you have any idea how many anonymous henchmen I killed over the years? Look at you, you haven't even got a name tag. You have no chance."

 

[jgsugden]

That is a good basic system. I like it.

In my setting I have a concept called God Touched. If you're God Touched, you can advance as quickly as the PCs do, you get to be saved if you make three normal death saves, and you get a few other small 'PC' benefits. Without it:

• You keep tracking hps beneath 0, and you die if you hit negative HPs = your hit dice + your con modifier. A goblin dies at -2, while an ogre dies at -10.
• A failed death save deals 5 damage to you and counts as one of three death saves (with three failures still a kill, for those creatures that happen to get there - rarely relevant).
• Making a death save prolongs the inevitable, but three made death saves does not stabilize you.
• It takes you longer to advance in a class. 50 years of effort will get you 5 levels. 200 for 7 levels. 500 years would get you 9 levels. An elf that is truly devoted might reach 11th level before dying.
• You get lower ability scores.

All PCs are God Touched. Some NPCs are. 99% are humanoids, but there are a few Giants, Fiends, Dragons, Celestials, etc... that are God Touched as well.

 

[coyote6]

We basically learned this rule in the first edition of Feng Shui, where "unnamed characters" were explicitly mooks that were easy to dispose of, and "named characters" were much tougher. "Don't ask what the minions names are!" was the rule.

(The players were fighting some mooks, and for no reason, asked, "What are those two guys' names?" and really wanted to know. I muttered invectives, gave them names, and promoted them to named character status.)

 

[Catulle]

So in our last session, one of the players asked me, "How come some of our enemies just die when we knock them to 0 hps and others get death saves?"

They had just finished fighting waves of nameless cultists but were now in the middle of fighting the cult lieutenants. One of the lieutenants dropped, but then I rolled a 20 for one of his death saves, and he popped up behind the PCs and tried to get away. They got him down again before he succeeded, though - but it momentarily distracted them from the fight in front of them.

I replied, "Basically, if they are important enough to come with their own names I give them death saves."

Subject to the proviso that if they call "taking prisoners" that's cool for the mooks, too. I mean, often I don't but that's because right now I'm playing a neutral-evil-but-affable kind of miscreant with Subtle mind magic.

 

[Libertad]

I'm in favor of the OP's house rule b/c it increases the life expectancy of my pet cat Gregory.