iserith
Magic Wordsmith
Two wizards, a rogue, and a ranger delve into the dungeon, seeking to capture the wizard Bargle who lay somewhere within.
Exploring carefully, they find an ogre sleeping in an oversized, ramshackle bed, under which the PCs spy a bearskin bag full of something they presume is treasure. The halfling ranger attempts to sneak up to steal the treasure, but fails the Dexterity (Stealth) check. The ogre angrily awakens just as the ranger grabs his sack. Combat ensues and the ranger is dropped from a single blow of the ogre's greatclub! The rest of the party fights a running battle with the brute until it falls, at which point they return to their dying comrade. Lacking any healing spells or potions, they work to stabilize her, succeeding on the Wisdom (Medicine) check.
Now they have some tough decisions to make: They are about halfway through the time they have to delve the dungeon and the ranger might not wake up for 4 hours. And even if she woke up in 3 hours, she'd only be on 1 hit point and there'd be no time to short rest since they'd only have 1 hour left to explore. So there's basically a 50/50 chance that she wakes up in time to get in a short rest and still have time to press on.
Ultimately, they come up with a risky plan since they can't afford to waste time. One of the wizards stands by to stabilize the ranger with the rogue helping. The other wizard stands 10 feet away and drops a damaging spell on them (saving throw, not attack roll). This causes the ranger to accrue a death saving throw and start making death saves again in hopes of getting a natural 20. If the ranger gets a second failed death saving throw, she is stabilized by one of the wizards and the rogue, then the process starts over again. Once the ranger gets that nat 20, they can all short rest and press on, saving up to 3 hours in the process. They describe this as a hilariously dramatic wizardly surgery and ultimately prevail.
Have you ever seen something like this happen at your table? What do you think about this tactic?
Exploring carefully, they find an ogre sleeping in an oversized, ramshackle bed, under which the PCs spy a bearskin bag full of something they presume is treasure. The halfling ranger attempts to sneak up to steal the treasure, but fails the Dexterity (Stealth) check. The ogre angrily awakens just as the ranger grabs his sack. Combat ensues and the ranger is dropped from a single blow of the ogre's greatclub! The rest of the party fights a running battle with the brute until it falls, at which point they return to their dying comrade. Lacking any healing spells or potions, they work to stabilize her, succeeding on the Wisdom (Medicine) check.
Now they have some tough decisions to make: They are about halfway through the time they have to delve the dungeon and the ranger might not wake up for 4 hours. And even if she woke up in 3 hours, she'd only be on 1 hit point and there'd be no time to short rest since they'd only have 1 hour left to explore. So there's basically a 50/50 chance that she wakes up in time to get in a short rest and still have time to press on.
Ultimately, they come up with a risky plan since they can't afford to waste time. One of the wizards stands by to stabilize the ranger with the rogue helping. The other wizard stands 10 feet away and drops a damaging spell on them (saving throw, not attack roll). This causes the ranger to accrue a death saving throw and start making death saves again in hopes of getting a natural 20. If the ranger gets a second failed death saving throw, she is stabilized by one of the wizards and the rogue, then the process starts over again. Once the ranger gets that nat 20, they can all short rest and press on, saving up to 3 hours in the process. They describe this as a hilariously dramatic wizardly surgery and ultimately prevail.
Have you ever seen something like this happen at your table? What do you think about this tactic?