D&D 5E A death save house rule proposal

[ezo]

Something I just thought of, you'd have to house-rule the Periapt of Wound Closure with this system as well. This might be all you need:

Periapt of Wound Closure​

While attuned to this item you do not make Death Saving Throws when you start your turn at 0 Hit Points. You still make a Death Saving Throw when you take damage while at 0 Hit Points.

 

[Charlaquin]

Something I just thought of, you'd have to house-rule the Periapt of Wound Closure with this system as well.

And healer’s kits. Anything that interacts with death saves, really.

 

[abirdcall]

There’s a bit too much going on here for my tastes. I like the simplicity of just giving a condition and not setting a lot of additional restrictions on the character’s activity that isn’t tied to a condition.

So no auto-expiration on Stunned, you have to regain HP? That’s pretty harsh.

I prefer Unconscious over Paralyzed, but they are very similar, so it’s a reasonable change if you prefer the downed PC to be aware and able to talk.

Only on a natural 20, so a success just keeps you in your current condition for another turn? Worth considering, but it does make it extremely difficult to recover if you don’t have magical healing available.

I agree, and in fact I prefer a hit actually just forces another save instead of an automatic save failure. I’d either have the DC of the save be half the damage like with Concentration, or just disadvantage on the save if the hit is a critical.

The issue with only having prone (and I would definitely have concentration end) is that the same drop and pop back up just fine situation occurs. So I think there should be something that persists until the end of their next turn. It could be simpler if that is preferred. I just copied the Slow spell minus the AC and Dex save penalties. Slow should have been a condition and then it wouldn't appear more complicated than any of the other ones.

I am assuming the party has access to either healing magic or healing potions which I think is a fair assumption in 5e beyond the first couple levels. A bonus action to regain HP is a low cost so I didn't think of ending stunned or paralyzed only on healing was a big deal. It would be just as fine either way if they still had some sort of other condition persisting when at 0. Also, the current dying rules have them unconscious until they regain any HP and these rules are considered very light. Is your intention to make the dying condition less severe?

Forcing another save is interesting. One issue I have with taking damage while at 0 is that anything short of your max HP is only 1 failure. Taking 80 damage at 0 should have some big consequences. So maybe the DC is half the damage (at least 10) but if you fail by 10 or more it is 2 failed saves. Something like that.

 

[ezo]

And healer’s kits. Anything that interacts with death saves, really.

I don't think you need to do anything with Healer's Kit, do you?

It makes the creature Stable--so no death saves while starting their turn at 0 HP.

 

[Charlaquin]

I don't think you need to do anything with Healer's Kit, do you?

It makes the creature Stable--so no death saves while starting their turn at 0 HP.

Oh, yeah I guess that works as-is

 

[Charlaquin]

The issue with only having prone (and I would definitely have concentration end) is that the same drop and pop back up just fine situation occurs. So I think there should be something that persists until the end of their next turn. It could be simpler if that is preferred.

My issue with “whack-a-mole” is less with characters literally being up and down off the ground, but with them going in and out of consciousness. So, I’m ok with them being able to stand back up from Prone.

I just copied the Slow spell minus the AC and Dex save penalties. Slow should have been a condition and then it wouldn't appear more complicated than any of the other ones.

The 2024 playtest had a Dazed condition that was pretty much like this at one point, which I definitely would have utilized here if it made it into the full version. But at the point that I have to make a new Condition to enable my homebrew death system, I think the houseruoe footprint is getting too big.

I am assuming the party has access to either healing magic or healing potions which I think is a fair assumption in 5e beyond the first couple levels. A bonus action to regain HP is a low cost so I didn't think of ending stunned or paralyzed only on healing was a big deal. It would be just as fine either way if they still had some sort of other condition persisting when at 0. Also, the current dying rules have them unconscious until they regain any HP and these rules are considered very light. Is your intention to make the dying condition less severe?

I have a few goals. The main one is just to resolve the issue of there being no real tension when a character falls unconscious until they’ve failed multiple saves. To that end, I want to make each death save meaningful by itself, rather than just being “you get slightly closer to dying for real.” I’d also prefer to avoid characters going in and out of consciousness multiple times in a fight.

Forcing another save is interesting. One issue I have with taking damage while at 0 is that anything short of your max HP is only 1 failure. Taking 80 damage at 0 should have some big consequences. So maybe the DC is half the damage (at least 10) but if you fail by 10 or more it is 2 failed saves. Something like that.

I’m perfectly fine with the amount of damage only mattering if it’s enough to kill instantly.

 

[abirdcall]

It seems we are in agreement with the general idea but diverge on the level of consequences of going to 0.

I agree with you about keeping houserule footprints small, as I have seen some clunky ones. We differ on how complicated it is as it already exists as a mechanic. Also could be more simply written if the additional attack stipulation was taken out. 'May not take reactions or bonus actions' would be more concise and the same idea.

There is also the Poisoned condition.

 

[ezo]

UPDATED:

Death Saving Throws​

When you start your turn with 0 Hit Points or take damage while at 0 Hit Points, you make a DC 10 Death Saving Throw to determine if you creep closer to death or hang on to life. Unlike other saving throws, this one isn’t tied to an ability score. You’re in the hands of fate now.

If you take damage from a Critical Hit while at 0 Hit Points, you make the Death Saving Throw with Disadvantage.

Success. You keep death at bay for the moment. You are Stable (see below).

Failure. Until the end of your next turn, your Speed is 0 and you have the Stunned Condition.

Failure/Stunned. If you fail a Death Saving Throw while Stunned, you have the Unconscious condition until you regain any Hit Points.

Failure/Unconscious. If you fail a Death Saving Throw while Unconscious, you die.

Periapt of Wound Closure​

While attuned to this item you do not make Death Saving Throws when you start your turn at 0 Hit Points. However, you still make a Death Saving Throw when you take damage while at 0 Hit Points.

Stabilizing a Character​

You can take the Help action to try to stabilize a creature with 0 Hit Points, which requires a successful DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) check.

A Stable creature doesn’t make Death Saving Throws even though it has 0 Hit Points at the start of its turn. If the creature takes damage, it stops being Stable and starts making Death Saving Throws again.

A Stable creature that isn’t healed regains 1 Hit Point after 1d4 hours.

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I think that should do it for you @Charlaquin, barring any additional rules for things like other magical items, etc.

 

[Retros_x]

I solved the whack-a-mole thing by not letting the players go unconscious on 0 HP. They can crawl 5 ft per round and use one action OR one bonus-action, no reaction. Only after two failed death saves they become unconscious for their potential last rolls. Getting hit is still an additional death-save fail. Melee attacks are still auto crit with two failed death saves.

Is it realistic? I don't care. Is it more fun? Yes. Players can still participate in combat, can utter some last words, can do an epic hail mary action etc. Also no whack-a-mole slapstick healing/going unsconcios loop. It feels narratively much better for me and my players.

 

[Stalker0]

UPDATED:

Death Saving Throws​

When you start your turn with 0 Hit Points or take damage while at 0 Hit Points, you make a DC 10 Death Saving Throw to determine if you creep closer to death or hang on to life. Unlike other saving throws, this one isn’t tied to an ability score. You’re in the hands of fate now.

If you take damage from a Critical Hit while at 0 Hit Points, you make the Death Saving Throw with Disadvantage.

Success. You keep death at bay for the moment. You are Stable (see below).

Failure. Until the end of your next turn, your Speed is 0 and you have the Stunned Condition.

Failure/Stunned. If you fail a Death Saving Throw while Stunned, you have the Unconscious condition until you regain any Hit Points.

Failure/Unconscious. If you fail a Death Saving Throw while Unconscious, you die.

Stabilizing a Character​

You can take the Help action to try to stabilize a creature with 0 Hit Points, which requires a successful DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) check.

A Stable creature doesn’t make Death Saving Throws even though it has 0 Hit Points at the start of its turn. If the creature takes damage, it stops being Stable and starts making Death Saving Throws again.

A Stable creature that isn’t healed regains 1 Hit Point after 1d4 hours.

---

I think that should do it for you @Charlaquin, barring any additional rules for things like other magical items, etc.

I think this is a pretty clean way to do it (you might want to specify bonuses to saving throws do not alter this unless it is specifically a bonus to death saving throws). Otherwise like paladins become ridiculously resistant to death.

The ONLY issue is, technically as long as you are only suffering from one source of damage....you are immortal.

Example:

The fighter falls into lava going to 0 hp. They fail their save, and become stunned. On their turn, they are no longer stunned at the end of their turn. After their turn, the lava damages them again....and they become stunned (or maybe even stable depending on how the save goes, but lets just assumed stunned for now).

And this repeats ad naseum. As long as its only 1 source of damage, the fighter does not die.