Are they dead or not?

[LadyDM]

Sunday night while playing, my party encountered 2 wraiths. 3 different players were hit and had their constitution drained, 1 drained all the way to 0. the player should be dead from the wraith attack, but I didn't realize that their CON was 0 untill after an attack by 4 minor xorns. play for the night ended there with the same player going below 0 HP. here is my question...

do I tell the player that the character is dead and roll up new one or not since it was my mistake for not catching it in the first place? If not do I negate all the CON drains? I really need some input on how to handle this. (I'm blaming the error in judgement on all the cold meds I have been taking.)

 

[Thanee]

Sure, just tell the player, that you didn't realize the CON was drained to 0. The character just falls down dead now (and you simply ignore that he could not have helped with the Xorns in the first place).

It's also not only your responsibility to look after that, the player (who certainly new the number of CON lost (or not!?)) could have mentioned it as well.

Bye
Thanee

 

[TheEvil]

He's dead, Jim.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Tell the player what you realized. These things work both ways. If you'd have allowed a PC to live after discovering such a mistake ("Oh wait, you had Bear's Endurance cast?") then the reverse is true. Both players and DM should be honest about mistakes and how to handle them, not adversarial, only pointing out errors that favor or disfavor certain ingame parties.

I find this inpartiality is very helpful to my game. The players know that I'll revisit mistakes against them, but also revisit mistakes for them. And I can trust my players to point out my mistakes without bias as well.

 

[Nareau]

I dunno; the rat-bastard in me want to say, "He's not dead--he's UNDEAD!" When the wraiths killed him with the Con drain, he became a ghost as well. He just doesn't realize it yet.

Explain away the Xorn fight with the fact that he's able to physically manifest--and he was doing so during subconciously during the fight, not realizing that he's dead.

Have him be incorporeal when the party tries to stabalize/heal him. Maybe give him a chance to return to the location where he was killed, find his physical body (any way you can explain how his physical body might have been left behind unnoticed?), and return to life.

Spider

 

[sullivan]

I dunno; the rat-bastard in me want to say, "He's not dead--he's UNDEAD!" When the wraiths killed him with the Con drain, he became a ghost as well. He just doesn't realize it yet.

I like, but first...

I too am very curious why it is that you feel it is up to you to keep track of this. Do you not let the players know about the stat damage?

 

[der_kluge]

I think the big question here is did the player know what his con was? And a follow-up, does he realize that having a 0 con kills you outright?

If neither is true, then you should adjudicate it in a manner which seems appropriate.

Technically, if a wraith drains you to 0 con, you become a wraith in something like 1d4 rounds.

If the player knew that his con was zero, and knew that having a zero con should mean -dead-, then you should inform him that he is indeed dead, and overlook the combat with the xorn. You can decide how much you hate the other two characters and determine you want them fighting another wraith or not.

If the character didn't know how much con damage he had, or didn't realize that a 0 con would kill him on the spot, then I would probably give him 1 con, and leave his hit points where they are (in the negatives) and just go from there.

 

[Nareau]

I like, but first...

I too am very curious why it is that you feel it is up to you to keep track of this. Do you not let the players know about the stat damage?

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that. I think it's up to the characters to know their stats/status. Whethere's that's hit points, ability damage, or whatever else. But I can certainly see a new player not being familiar with the "Con 0 => Dead" rule, or the "Con 0 from wraith attacks => rising as a wraith" rule. And I'm always forgiving of new player ignorance (wouldn't want to chase them away!)

Spider

 

[Tonguez]

I dunno; the rat-bastard in me want to say, "He's not dead--he's UNDEAD!" When the wraiths killed him with the Con drain, he became a ghost as well. He just doesn't realize it yet.

Spider

Yep same thing came to my mind too - Undead

so Yes tell the PC that he's now dead.

However I wouldn't make him a ghost I'd say his body is still intact and his spirit is still animating it (Liche-like) problem is with no Con score he can't be healed and his body is going to deteriate until it is nolonger viable and then his ghost will be lost into oblivion (ie become a shadow). Give him the option of rolling up a new character or using his new undead status as a plothook - how do you keep an undead body in a usable condition?

 

[Rhun]

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that. I think it's up to the characters to know their stats/status. Whethere's that's hit points, ability damage, or whatever else. But I can certainly see a new player not being familiar with the "Con 0 => Dead" rule, or the "Con 0 from wraith attacks => rising as a wraith" rule. And I'm always forgiving of new player ignorance (wouldn't want to chase them away!)

Spider

Sounds like an honest mistake. I would probably stick the character with CON 1 and let him live.