D&D 5E (2014) 5e necrotic damage has me a little confused.....

[UngeheuerLich]

that max hp reduction has other side effects:

you are dead at -maximum hp. That has killed one of our characters.
Massive damage also depends on max hp if you chose to play by this variant.

 

[the Jester]

If the character has 14 HP out of a max of 19 HP and they take 20 HP of necrotic damage, then they are dead.

Just dying, actually- in this case, the character would have to suffer 34 hp to instantly die from the hit.

 

[Otterscrubber]

I think for those corner cases I would rule that the temp hit points absorb 5 of the damage and only the damage dealt to your actual hit points reduce your maximum hit points.

This is my interpretation as well.

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

Just dying, actually- in this case, the character would have to suffer 34 hp to instantly die from the hit.

No, dead. In the monster manual and basic rules, the stat blocks for creatures that have level drain (wraith, mummy, etc) state something like "The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0."

If your maximum HP has been reduced to 0 or below then there is no way you can stabilise.

 

[the Jester]

No, dead. In the monster manual and basic rules, the stat blocks for creatures that have level drain (wraith, mummy, etc) state something like "The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0."

If your maximum HP has been reduced to 0 or below then there is no way you can stabilise.

Necrotic damage doesn't reduce your hps by default. I thought you were talking about necrotic damage in general in the post I quoted. In the context of life drain or something similar, you're correct.

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

I thought you were talking about necrotic damage in general in the post I quoted.

Sorry, bad phrasing on my part.

Depending on the monster, they could be undead!

Good point!