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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Majoru Oakheart" data-source="post: 4514088" data-attributes="member: 5143">Death saves aren't what you think they are.  They are a narrative device, not a simulation one.  It isn't saying "You are dying slowly and each one of these rolls you fail causes your bodies condition to get worse", it is instead saying "You are down on the ground.  You might be hurt really badly and about to die or you might simply be knocked out for a couple of seconds.  It is a dramatic moment in the story where the 'audience' doesn't know one way or another.  From the angle the camera showed, you were hit really hard...maybe your neck is broken.  There was certainly a loud noise when you were hit and you fell pretty hard.  But then again, you are really tough and you've been through worse...  Everyone sits around and watches in anticipation as we use some die rolls to figure out what happened to you."Death saves are simply a name given to that narrativistic device.  The moment of tension in the story where you don't know if the hero is dead or alive.  In some stories, the medics rush in and find your neck snapped and you are dead.  In other stories, you get back up by yourself after a tense moment or two and end up winning the fight.To be perfectly clear about this:  When you are making death saves, you are NOT dying.  You may not even be hurt in any way.</blockquote>