D&D 5E Death and dying houserule

[Illithidbix]

I would be somewhat concerned about my players enjoyment with added death spirals. My experience is they sound great on paper, but become kinda tiresome in play.

But if you do want to do it, I think Jester David's suggestion of "gain one level of Exhaustion when you hit 0 hit points" is the most elegant.
Also means that if you choose to knock a target out when you drop them to zero HP, this still has unpleasant side effects.

On a minor note you might want to allow the Path of the Beserker barbarian to ignore extra exhaustion gain if they drop to 0 hitpoints whilst under a frenzy, because they already gain a level of exhaustion when their rage ends, and being knocked unconscious ends.

Note, Exhaustion is very hard to remove, a long rest only removes one level of it, likewise Greater Restoration (5th Level Bard/Cleric Druid) which has the material component: "diamond dust worth at least 100 gp, which the spell consumes" only removes a single level of exhaustion.

There is also the (very rare) Potion of Vitality.
When you drink this potion, it removes any exhaustion you are suffering and cures any disease or poison affecting you. For the next 24 hours, you regain the maximum number of hit points for any Hit Die you spend. The potion's crimson liquid regularly pulses with dull light, calling to mind a heartbeat.

Which might be exactly as harsh as you want it to be.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I thought I would post my hose rules for death and dying.
Problem: Combat in DnD can feel like ‘wak-a-mole’. A character is dying and then instantly better and can continue as if nothing happened.
Solution: Apply some penalty to a character who is reduced to 0 hit points.
Brief Overview: Anytime a character fails a death saving throw, they gain one level of exhaustion. This replaces the ‘three strikes and your out’ death saving throw rule.
[h=1]Death and Dying[/h]When an attack would reduce a character to less than 0 hit points, that character is dying.
whenever you start your turn with 0 hit points, you must make a Special saving throw, called a death saving throw, to determine whether you creep closer to death or hang onto life. Unlike other saving throws, this one isn’t tied to any ability score. You are in the hands of fate now, aided only by Spells and features that improve your chances of succeeding on a saving throw.
Roll a d20: If the roll is 10 or higher, you succeed. Otherwise, you fail. If you fail, you gain one level of exhaustion. If you reach six levels of exhaustion, you die. If you succeed three times, you stabilize.
Rolling 1 or 20: When you make a death saving throw and roll a 1 on the d20, you gain two levels of exhaustion. If you roll a 20 on the d20, you regain 1 hit point.
Damage at 0 Hit Points: If you take any damage while you have 0 hit points, you suffer a death saving throw failure. If the damage is from a critical hit, you suffer two failures instead. If the damage equals or exceeds your hit point maximum, you suffer instant death.
Exhaustion
1 Disadvantage on physical ability checks.
2 Speed Halved
3 Disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws
4 Hit point maximum reduced to half.
5 speed reduced to 0.
6 dead.

I like this a lot. Exhaustion is very hard to remove in 5e however, and is a major penalty at 1 and 3 especially.

Low Fantasy Gaming fixed whack-a-mole by making heal spells take 1d3 minutes to work if you are zero hp. It also has Rescue Exploits to avoid hitting zero hp in the first place, however.

 

[Dualazi]

The goal is not to make healing take longer. The goal is to add some 'realism'. The problem is that a character who just received an injury which took them to the brink of death, can be up and running again without any consequences.

Well, to be blunt, you failed. In multiple ways, actually. First, nothing about the PC’s strategy has changed, they still want to get people off the ground ASAP and now it’s just slightly less optimal. However, it’s still better than leaving them down to make death saves or get attacked, so you’ve changed nothing. Secondly, HP is already such a nebulous gameplay device that your method has simply changed the way the abstraction is viewed; your players are still just as good at 1 hp as they are at 100, and until you fix the HP pool at large then the death process is irrelevant from a realism standpoint.

At best all this does is make the adventuring day shorter as players will find ways to rest to clear exhaustion and then resume the same strategies as always.

 

[Li Shenron]

Exhaustion
1 Disadvantage on physical ability checks.
2 Speed Halved
3 Disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws
4 Hit point maximum reduced to half.
5 speed reduced to 0.
6 dead.

It might end up being a bit annoying to keep track of after the combat, but overall I like the idea.

Do you intend for the character below 0 to stay conscious (and take turns) or be unconscious? Because I think the former would be more interesting.

 

[Fanaelialae]

I agree with those who say that this has a bit too much of a death spiral mechanic built into it, and that Jester David's solution is a good one.

As an alternative, should you decide that you'd prefer less lingering penalties, give the player disadvantage on their rolls (and advantage for the enemy against any saving throws that character inflicts) for a round after being healed from zero (or perhaps the character needs to make a saving throw for the penalty to go away). The character was down and dying, and it takes them a few moments to comport themselves. This means that downed characters will want to play defensively for a short time after being healed, since they won't be effective on offense. That further discourages whack-a-mole since they will seek more healing or otherwise look for a way to stay vertical until their penalty ends.

Personally, I've always wanted to do a reverse death spiral system in the spirit of the Tenra Bansho Zero RPG, where characters actually get meaner the closer they are to death, but I haven't found a mechanic that's a good fit for it in 5e (yet).

 

[Kabouter Games]

Well, to be blunt, you failed. In multiple ways, actually. First, nothing about the PC’s strategy has changed, they still want to get people off the ground ASAP and now it’s just slightly less optimal. However, it’s still better than leaving them down to make death saves or get attacked, so you’ve changed nothing. Secondly, HP is already such a nebulous gameplay device that your method has simply changed the way the abstraction is viewed; your players are still just as good at 1 hp as they are at 100, and until you fix the HP pool at large then the death process is irrelevant from a realism standpoint.

At best all this does is make the adventuring day shorter as players will find ways to rest to clear exhaustion and then resume the same strategies as always.

This right here.

Cheers,

Bob

www.r-p-davis.com

 

[jrowland]

I second the issue is one of HP as a concept/abstraction

For versimilitude consider this (I haven't played it yet):

HP is more akin to stamina. Dropping to 0hp means you take on a level of fatigue instead of falling unconscious and dying, and every instance of damage reduces your HD pool by one per incident. If you are out of HD you are Dying per normal rules. A dying character cannot be healed, only stabilized. Healing magic automatically stabilizes but does not heal a dying character.

 

[Blue]

Exhaustion is very hard to get rid of, you only get rid of one level in a long rest and even spells like Lesser Restoration won't touch it. That's why I've never seen a Barbarian (Berserker) - exhaustion is too rough.

This rule means characters who take more damage and therefore have a greater chance to get knocked to zero - your front liners - will be more penalized in this system then other PCs. I would never play a tank with this. Maybe an archer - lots of HPs but generally out of melee.

It also increases the roll of luck - someone falls to a lucky crit or failed save in an early encounter and they have a problem for the whole rest of the adventure. It gets even worse if you update the damage when down is a failed death save to more levels of exhaustion, since it's fairly easy to get tagged in an AoE.

Oh, and monsters won't be penalized except in very rare cases, just PCs.

While you have achieved your goal of more realism, the currency you have paid for it with was fun. You can decide if that's a win or not.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

At Exhaustion 3 you get disadvantage on (death) saving throws. I like what you're getting at here and it has a place as an optional rule, IMHO.

 

[GameOgre]

Or just take a page from Old School and 0 is Death unless the attack was specified as non-lethal.

PC's will die a lot more but dang it if it wouldn't put that old fear of death back into the game.