D&D 3E/3.5 [3.5] Variant Rule Death from Massive Damage Fort DC?

[Kaelynna]

Hello,

What is the DC for the Fortitude save for the 3.5 Variant Rule: Death from Massive Damage. DC 20? I couldn't find in the 3.5 DMG what the DC is.

Thanks,
- K.

 

[hong]

They dropped death from massive damage?

They dropped death from massive damage.

They dropped death from massive damage!!


Hell, yeah! It always was a stupid rule, IMO, especially at the top end when you could have things dishing out 50+ points of damage every round.

To answer your question, it looks like they left out the DC. You could just use the 3.0E DC of 15 in the meantime.

 

[Kaelynna]

They dropped death from massive damage?

They dropped death from massive damage.

They dropped death from massive damage!!


Hell, yeah! It always was a stupid rule, IMO, especially at the top end when you could have things dishing out 50+ points of damage every round.

To answer your question, it looks like they left out the DC. You could just use the 3.0E DC of 15 in the meantime.

Death from massive damage is a variant rule in 3.5. What's interesting is several pages ahead of this variant rule is the saving throw section that says the default DC for saves is 15 (and between 10 and 20 for assigning DCs). What would have been better, IMO, is if the DC was simply stated in the DMG rather than the DM having to thumb forward just to guess what the DC is suppose to be. Ah well, not a big deal.

Thanks Hong!
- K.

 

[Archade]

Actually, I don't think it's a stupid rule at all. It keeps barbarians from bathing in acid pools and swan diving off cliffs.

In fact, IMC I'd make the save DC 15 for 50hp damage, 20 for 100hp, 25 for 150hp, etc...

 

[hong]

Actually, I don't think it's a stupid rule at all. It keeps barbarians from bathing in acid pools and swan diving off cliffs.

I sometimes wonder why people keep assuming their characters are going to want to take damage just because they don't have to make a saving throw. "Please, hurt me! I don't care that 50 points of damage per round will kill me in 4 rounds! I like pain!"

 

[Cyberknight]

In the PHB pg. 145 it states it is DC 15. It also makes no mention of it being a variant rule.

Pg. 27 of the DMG has a variant rule for size. The size of the creature determines how much damage is needed to force the dc 15 check.

There is no change between the rule and the variant between 3.0 and 3.5.
This isn't really a big deal. At low levels 50 damage is hard to come by and will probably kill the creature outright. At higher levels a DC 15 Fort save is pretty easy to make. (problem is rolling a 1 means instant death).

I think the whole rule should be a variant.

 

[Anubis the Doomseer]

I sometimes wonder why people keep assuming their characters are going to want to take damage just because they don't have to make a saving throw. "Please, hurt me! I don't care that 50 points of damage per round will kill me in 4 rounds! I like pain!"

Because, ime, that's what happened. They would plow through like idiots instead of thinking ways around situations simply because they knew it couldn't kill their PCs outright. Sometimes this was epic/cinematic/heroic (like taking on an army of 1e Orcs single-handedly), but most of the time it was stupid (running full-tilt into traps instead of disarming them because the latter 'took too long'.

Not quite bathing in acid, but just as dumb.

- Ma'at

 

[Archade]

Hey hong,

People are desensitized to taking damage because they aren't role-playing. They're looking at it like a life bar on a computer game, figuring 'hey! I've got half left'!

A little bit of uncertainty and fear might encourage them to play it safe.

Of course, after running Harnmaster for 6 years (with a graphic wound system, no hp), my players are suitably paranoid.

 

[sithramir]

It is stated in DMG as a variant rule. Its DC 15 ( I thought it was 14 before).

I'd suggest using clobbered rules. Those are yummy.

 

[Particle_Man]

I don't think massive damage is a variant rule any longer. It is the rule in 3.5. Any 3.5 game that does not use massive damage is now using a house rule, I guess.

But the DC on the save is pretty low, by the time that kind of damage gets dished out. On the other hand, a '1' on a save always fails now...

Oh, and I don't have the books with me, so may be eating crow.