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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8419555" data-attributes="member: 42582">When reducing a character/creature to zero hp you can always choose for them to be unconscious instead of dying (similar to 5e D&D but without being confined to melee attacks). But that is not applicable to the Orc chieftain who stabs Frodo - he is trying to kill, not capture!In this respect 4e D&D is no different from AD&D, 3E or 5e - in all of these games, the default consequence of being dropped to zero hp is death or dying.It contrasts with (say) Rolemaster, Classic Traveller or Burning Wheel, where is is very common for character/creatures to be unconscious but not dying not because anyone wanted to capture rather than kill them, but because those systems have rules that result in a wider range of debuff conditions resulting from suffering injury.EDIT:No one misspoke. I was in a conversation in which I took it for granted that my interlocutor ([USER=7032025]@Lyxen[/USER]) was familiar with the 4e rules. And my point was that in 4e there is almost no way to inflict the unconsciousness condition as a byproduct of trying to kill someone, other than imposing the dying condition by dropping them to zero hp.This contrasts with many (non-D&D) RPGs that have more gritty or "realistic" systems for injurises.</blockquote>