D&D 4E Death and Dying in 4E: Propose Your Own Homebrewed Rule!

[Bluenose]

I think there's three things I might try, after going with RAW first:

1. Characters who make the 20 to recover get hit points equal to their level, rather than 25% of maximum.

2. Characters can stabilise unconcscious on a roll of 15-19

3. Characters who roll a 1, are dead. No need to roll any more.

 

[Spinachcat]

I use this rule.

1) There are no negative HP.

2) At Zero HP, you make a saving throw vs. Death. If you succeed, you are dying and if you do not get help in an number of hours equal to your CON, you die. If you fail, you are dead.

3) If a monster decides to snack on you, or if you are on fire or if someone chops off your head, don't worry about them saving throws vs. Death.

4) If you are reduced to zero HP by a Crit, then you die - usually by blood explosion.

 

[Jackelope King]

A simplified version:

Once an attack reduces you to zero hit points (or would reduce you below zero hit points), your hit point total becomes zero. Each round, you must make a Fortitude save to stabilize. The DC to stabilize is 10, +1 per 2 points of damage dealt beyond what was necessary to bring you to zero hit points. If you succeed, you stabilize and are at no further risk of bleeding out and dying.

If you fail, you "bleed out", and lose a number of points of Constitution equal to the amount which you failed the Fortitude save by.

Under this system, "non-lethal" attacks do not force a character to make a Fortitude save upon being dropped: the character is simply unconscious and suffers no risk from "bleeding out".

The Heal skill can still stabilize a dying character as normal, and 1 point of magical healing is still sufficient to stabilize a dying character. Such a character is no longer at risk of "bleeding out" for Constitution loss.

This system has the added bonus of leaving characters who had a near-death experience weakened, adding a bit of "grittiness" to recovery from injury, and further distinguishing between magical healing that works on the battlefield (cure x wounds) and magical healing that is needed for convalescence (to restore constitution damage). It also leaves the door open for weakened characters to be susceptible to disease and infection if the DM likes that sort of grittiness.

...

Of course, given the option, I'd be happiest with a damage save mechanic, but this has served me well when playing D&D.

 

[Warbringer]

Any damage taken while unconscious sends the character into 'dying'. A 'dying' character dies at the end of the encounter.

i thought about adding this but when does an encounter end?

 

[xechnao]

When you are reduced to 0 HPs you must make a saving throw against damage you take with each negative teen of negative HPs counting as a penalty.
That is, if you receive damage that takes you at -22 HPs you have a -2 penalty to the saving throw.
Level gives bonuses so a 14 level character that receives damage that get him at -50 HPs gets a 14-5=9 bonus to the saving throw dice.
So when reduced at 0 HPs you do not keep track of HPs anymore. You only save against attack damage.

Each time you fail the saving throw you double the negative effects your bloodied condition gives you at receive a -1 penalty to subsequent saving throw rolls.

If your saving throw result is 1 (not a natural 1) you fall unconscious. If you fall unconscious you check after the encounter if you are dead or not -depending on your constitution.

 

[Wormwood]

i thought about adding this but when does an encounter end?

We tend to say an encounter (or scene) is over when the conflict is resolved. But yeah, it's a subjective construct that suits our loose, 'cinematic' gaming style. I could see it causing problems with many of the play-styles I see online.

 

[Sir Brennen]

When you are reduced to 0 HPs you must make a saving throw against damage you take with each negative teen of negative HPs counting as a penalty.
That is, if you receive damage that takes you at -22 HPs you have a -2 penalty to the saving throw.
Level gives bonuses so a 14 level character that receives damage that get him at -50 HPs gets a 14-5=9 bonus to the saving throw dice.
So when reduced at 0 HPs you do not keep track of HPs anymore. You only save against attack damage.

Each time you fail the saving throw you double the negative effects your bloodied condition gives you at receive a -1 penalty to subsequent saving throw rolls.

If your saving throw result is 1 (not a natural 1) you fall unconscious. If you fall unconscious you check after the encounter if you are dead or not -depending on your constitution.

What's the saving throw and what's its DC? If it's, for example, a Fort saving throw, adding in level is a bit of double counting. If the DC is damage, adding a penalty per 10 full points of damage is also double counting.

(This sounds pretty much like what I suggested earlier: no negative hit points, just save vs. damage.)

 

[xechnao]

What's the saving throw and what's its DC? If it's, for example, a Fort saving throw, adding in level is a bit of double counting. If the DC is damage, adding a penalty per 10 full points of damage is also double counting.

(This sounds pretty much like what I suggested earlier: no negative hit points, just save vs. damage.)

It's the 4e saving throw. One without a DC.
1-9=failure
10-19=success
20=heroic inspiration

In my mechanics suggestion if the result is 1 (modifiers included) you fall unconscious. If the result is 2-9 you suffer a -1 modifier to your next saving throw and double the negative bloodien condition effects (these penalties stack with each failure). If the result is 10-19 nothing happens and if the result is a natural 20 (this can be a natural only* since you never receive a bonus in this saving throw roll-only penalties) you shake off all these penalties -but still remain at 0 HPs.

*EDIT: perhaps a warlord or a cleric can give you a bonus in this roll -if so a 20 result can be achieved with a bonus added to the roll too. OTOH perhaps a warlock can curse you to the opposite effect.

 

[KarinsDad]

In an attempt to come up with a solution that is similar to the 4E rule, but avoids some of the problems I have with those rules, keep the system as stated with the following changes:

1) If you roll a 1, you re-roll on the same round. This could result in a one round death if the player rolls 1, 1, 1-9 all in the same round.

2) If you roll 10-19 three times (just like if you roll 1-9 three times), you are self stabilized and need no further rolls.

3) If you roll 20, you go to 1 hit point.

This removes the "players know they can wait 2+ rounds to heal the unconscious guy" problem, the "healing to more points than before the last damage occurred by rolling a D20" problem, the "no self stabilization" problem, and the "73% chance of dying without outside assistance is a high death for PCs percentage" problem.

There would have to be a rule added as to how long it takes to become conscious if self stabilized.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

I have asked my group about using this rule, and will probably go with as written in the Design and Development page.

One thought I had was to have the character become 'disabled' when they initially drop to 0 hps or below. The first failed save {result of 1 - 9} takes them to unconsious/dying. Taking anything other than a single Move action incurs a -5 to the Save check.

This would allow the 'last gasp' actions and retributive strikes from 'dead' foes.

{edit} I like the nat 1 = immediate reroll in addition to the failure