D&D 5E Death and dying houserule

[Antonlowe]

I imagine many folks here have read the Angry GMs treatise on this topic? http://theangrygm.com/fighting-spirit/

I think his solution is a bit overcomplicated for my needs. But I do want something other than the binary options currently presented. Jester's idea of increasing exhaustion level every time the character hits zero is very nice in my opinion. It gives meaning to having your bell rung/being stabbed. You start to suffer even if you're given some temporary relief by a spell or potion.

It's a much better explanation of hit points - they then become an indicator of the "fight" left in you, rather than a record of damage taken and actually maps much better to combats we see in the movies where opponents are worn down to a point where they start making mistakes and risk injury.

Thanks for pointing out the article robus.

Angry DM is dealing with a related, but different, and larger problem.
The article makes me want to change my rule to state that a character at 0 hp is still conscious but dying. They must make a death saving throw each round. Or gain a level of exhaustion. But they can still act. This gives the emergency state angry DM was talking about, but in a different way.

maybe even give PCs the option of falling unconscious to automatically stabilize?

 

[The Crimson Binome]

It's a much better explanation of hit points - they then become an indicator of the "fight" left in you, rather than a record of damage taken and actually maps much better to combats we see in the movies where opponents are worn down to a point where they start making mistakes and risk injury.

That depends on which movies you're actually watching. I think one of the best portrayals of HP that I've seen in recent cinema belongs to the end of Winter Soldier, where we see a steady accumulation of physical wounds until one side eventually falls. Another excellent, earlier depiction can be seen in a particular episode of a Batman animated series, where we see the hero fight off wave after wave of enemy minions who occasionally manage to land a blow on him until he eventually succumbs at the end of the number.

If you use HP to reflect some sort of abstract will to survive, then it creates all sorts of problems with how characters view and interact with the damage that they've taken.

 

[robus]

That depends on which movies you're actually watching. I think one of the best portrayals of HP that I've seen in recent cinema belongs to the end of Winter Soldier, where we see a steady accumulation of physical wounds until one side eventually falls. Another excellent, earlier depiction can be seen in a particular episode of a Batman animated series, where we see the hero fight off wave after wave of enemy minions who occasionally manage to land a blow on him until he eventually succumbs at the end of the number.

If you use HP to reflect some sort of abstract will to survive, then it creates all sorts of problems with how characters view and interact with the damage that they've taken.

I dunno - I feel like the characters look at HP very much like a gas tank. How you doing? Oh I'm about half full? You - I'm pretty low, going to run out soon. They don't talk in terms of hits sustained and they certainly don't change their tactics much.

My main memory of the winter soldier was that ridiculously long fight at the end between too many people!

 

[Springheel]

As others have mentioned, exhaustion levels are very hard to heal. Creating a new system that works the same way as exhaustion levels, but is slightly easier to heal, might serve you better. That was essentially what I did for my games: http://www.mindplaces.com/pictures/wound doc.pdf

 

[abirdcall]

At my table failed death saving throws are only removed by long resting.

This maintains tension and adds memory to the event. For the rest of the day everyone knows that character is a bit closer to dying.

That is sufficient for us. If we wanted to make it scarier to drop to 0 we would probably have either a death saving throw or an automatic failure as soon as the character dropped rather than waiting until their turn.

I also like the idea of expending a hit die when they get revived from 0 with a cure spell. That means that healing is strained a bit if characters are dropping to 0 frequently. That's probably a bit too fiddly for me to use though.

 

[robus]

As others have mentioned, exhaustion levels are very hard to heal. Creating a new system that works the same way as exhaustion levels, but is slightly easier to heal, might serve you better. That was essentially what I did for my games: http://www.mindplaces.com/pictures/wound doc.pdf

That's very cool. I would have called the condition "Wounded" rather than "Staggered". But that is a very nice system and avoids the entanglement with exhaustion but easy to grok.

 

[Flamestrike]

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.

The problem with this rule is exhaustion forces long rests on the party (several even). A consequence of your rule change is it will encourage the 5 minute adventuring day.

To make the game more lethal, I suggest simply bringing back negative HP (equal to Con score perhaps).

 

[robus]

The problem with this rule is exhaustion forces long rests on the party (several even). A consequence of your rule change is it will encourage the 5 minute adventuring day.

To make the game more lethal, I suggest simply bringing back negative HP (equal to Con score perhaps).

It's not common in my encounters for the characters to reach zero hitpoints. If it happens the character pops back up after a heal and keeps banging on. It definitely feels weird when it happens. I agree that if the characters hit zero at every encounter then this would encourage caution. But given that, at my table at least, it's infrequent it seems that having some short term consequence might make things feel a bit more "real".

 

[Flamestrike]

It's not common in my encounters for the characters to reach zero hitpoints. If it happens the character pops back up after a heal and keeps banging on. It definitely feels weird when it happens. I agree that if the characters hit zero at every encounter then this would encourage caution. But given that, at my table at least, it's infrequent it seems that having some short term consequence might make things feel a bit more "real".

Exhaustion isnt a short term consequence though. It requires a long rest per level to remove.

 

[robus]

Exhaustion isnt a short term consequence though. It requires a long rest per level to remove.

Agreed which is why I leapt on [MENTION=6828720]Springheel[/MENTION]'s compromise.