Constitution is will power? No it's not....

[Rya.Reisender]

Jeez, I cant believe its been 5 pages and no one has pointed out it doesnt matter RAW if he adds his con bonus, his charisma score or a billion to the roll. The only thing that matters is the roll being a 10 or higher (not the total). So things like Bane, Bless, Paladin Auras etc dont help.

Not true, these abilities help just fine with Death Saving Throws.
Anywhere in the rules where it says "If he rolls X or higher" always refers to "including the bonuses explained above" and not to what it shows on the die.



Edit: I want to add: If you don't want the PCs to die, why do it via weird rules like adding con modifiers and not just remove death saving throws altogether? Just make all mobs use the "Knock unconscious" action, so PCs just go stable directly.

 

[Lanliss]

Not true, these abilities help just fine with Death Saving Throws.
Anywhere in the rules where it says "If he rolls X or higher" always refers to "including the bonuses explained above" and not to what it shows on the die.



Edit: I want to add: If you don't want the PCs to die, why do it via weird rules like adding con modifiers and not just remove death saving throws altogether? Just make all mobs use the "Knock unconscious" action, so PCs just go stable directly.

Are you asking the OP that? Because he never said he was trying to keep PC's from dying. It is one of his players that has decided to add con to all of his own death saving throws.

 

[Lehrbuch]

So I have a friend, who thought that death saves were a constitution save, when they are not. I told him this, his answer was "That's stupid! They are now." When I asked him why he thought this way, he said that constitution was the "Will to keep going" I told him Constitution was bodily health, but he refused to believe me. What do I do?...

It does make a certain amount of sense to use the CON modifer in Death Saving Throws because Constitution is bodily health. However, you are quite right that it doesn't add because a Death Saving Throw is not a Constitution Saving Throw. The relevant quote from the RAW is "Unlike other saving throws, this one isn’t tied to any ability score." (Basic PHB, page 76).

The reason that it doesn't apply is that, as the DC is only 10, it rapidly becomes virtually impossible for fighters and the like to die, as they have proficiency on CON saves + (typically) high CON scores. If the DC was adjusted so that fighters had a chance of dying, then it would be virtually impossible for characters without proficiency on Constitution saves to survive.

It is still a Saving Throw, however, so PCs with spells/features that generically affect Saving Throws will still apply. Bless, for example, applies to the Death Saving Throw.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

Are you asking the OP that? Because he never said he was trying to keep PC's from dying. It is one of his players that has decided to add con to all of his own death saving throws.

No, it's just that this topic was discussed in half the thread.

 

[Ovinomancer]

The first rule of Glorious Game of Gimmie is dont talk about the Glorious Game of Gimmie:

I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to spot the glaring inconsistency between your quote and your advocated position. I'll leave a hint, though: EGG wasn't speaking about players.