Pathfinder 1E A death & dying system that can't skip Dying

[Wolf72]

wouldn't say the PHb contradicts the DMG, iirc the -10 rule was an option for DM's.

You were still dead at 0 hp, you had until -10 to use a heal spell ... after that it was Raise Dead. Basically you had one minute to perform some sort of life saving measure or your comrade was kaput! (the 'forcing' of a healing potion was quite popular in our group ... we either didn't have a cleric or the cleric had some sort of magic target reticule centered on him)

 

[gamerprinter]

Honestly if a PC is dumb enough not to realize he/she might be one-shotted when at 25 HP or less, and doesn't take the necessary steps to either get healed some before the next attack, or escape the situation by running away - that PC deserves to die. I see no reason to want to add complex rules to enforce PC stupidity by not killing them for not fixing the situation themselves. I think that's a basic precept of the game. Some encounters end where the villain wins, not the PCs, accept that and expect that, so when one is at life threatening levels of low HP, it's up to the PC to decide to risk death by staying in combat, or to save themselves and do something else. I see no advantage, nor game improvement by enforcing a "dying step" between life and death. Its unnecessary.

 

[ZenFox42]

So, you're saying the system has no value to you. That doesn't mean it has no value. There's other groups, with different styles of gameplay, with different kinds of players who have different preferences and/or levels of game-playing skill, that might find this useful.

 

[gamerprinter]

So, you're saying the system has no value to you. That doesn't mean it has no value. There's other groups, with different styles of gameplay, with different kinds of players who have different preferences and/or levels of game-playing skill, that might find this useful.

[MENTION=6746758]ZenFox42[/MENTION] - well, of course, I cannot speak for anyone else, I only ever speak for me - anything I say, only applies to me or my point of view (in any forum post, or any words I type anywhere). I never claimed it has no value (for everybody). Where did I say this point of view of mine applied to everyone?

The OP assumes there is a problem that the game doesn't provide a 'safe zone' between being alive and being dead, as if it should exist, so here are that person's subsystem for guaranteeing a 'safe zone'. For me, and my gaming group (only) we only need our eyes looking at our HP total, our experience in doing game combat, to decide whether a given PC should continue to expose himself to imminent death. We don't need rules or a subsystem to keep characters alive, common sense works just fine.

 

[NewJeffCT]

wouldn't say the PHb contradicts the DMG, iirc the -10 rule was an option for DM's.

You were still dead at 0 hp, you had until -10 to use a heal spell ... after that it was Raise Dead. Basically you had one minute to perform some sort of life saving measure or your comrade was kaput! (the 'forcing' of a healing potion was quite popular in our group ... we either didn't have a cleric or the cleric had some sort of magic target reticule centered on him)

Actually, back in 1E days, a round was one minute, so you actually had 10 minutes.

And, we had always played it that another PC (or ally) merely had to reach the fallen PC to stanch the bleeding. So, no heal check like 3E, no healing surge activation, etc like 4E. Just reaching them to be able to put your finger on the spurting blood was enough. I don't think that's contradicted anywhere in either 1E or 2E PHB or DMG.

 

[Wolf72]

Actually, back in 1E days, a round was one minute, so you actually had 10 minutes.

And, we had always played it that another PC (or ally) merely had to reach the fallen PC to stanch the bleeding. So, no heal check like 3E, no healing surge activation, etc like 4E. Just reaching them to be able to put your finger on the spurting blood was enough. I don't think that's contradicted anywhere in either 1E or 2E PHB or DMG.

good call! ... SEGMENTS! ... but either way you're right (or I think you're right). I could actually get my copy of the DMG and PhB, but that's 45m worth of driving.

We did something similar with 'healing' ... someone needed to get over there and bandage the poor fellow. Standard practice was to force a potion of extra healing (3d8) down their throats.

 

[ZenFox42]

Something else I just realized - let's compare this to RAW if you're left completely alone once you enter Dying...

If you manage to take a hit that takes you to -2 HP, you're unconscious and Dying. Let's say you have a CON of 12. So you have 10 rounds until you're dead, but each round you make a DC 10 CON check to auto-stabilize. Well, this round it's DC 12 because you're at -2, and your CON bonus is +1, so you have a 50% chance of stabilizing (which just gets higher if you have a high-CON character). In such a case, on average you have a 97% chance of stabilizing before you would die! Sure that gets worse the closer that last hit takes you to -CON, but overall you have a pretty good chance of stabilizing. The same character starting at -6 HP (halfway to dead) still has a 70% chance of stabilizing.

On the other hand, once you enter DeathCon1, you have a 75% chance of death, within an average of just 6 rounds, and in as little as 3 rounds if you roll badly.

So entering Dying in the DeathCon system is actually much more likely to be deadly than if you enter Dying in RAW.