D&D 5E Death and Dying in 5e

[iserith]

My experience is that it's about the same as D&D 3.Xe, D&D 4e for me. I don't really recall AD&D 2e well enough to say. To me, it's not about the death and dying per se. It's just about a challenge and stakes the PCs care about. Something they'll strive to achieve, but where it is interesting enough that failure isn't necessarily desirable, but still enjoyable. Where stakes are concerned, life-or-death is the low-hanging fruit of D&D. It's exceedingly easy to present a sufficient challenge in D&D 5e with life and death stakes. So really, if it's too "easy," that's a DM thing rather than a game system thing in my view.

In my gritty town-to-dungeon campaign, The Delve, there are 20 PCs (but only four PCs for a given expedition). While at least one or two PCs per session ends up with the dying condition - it's worth XP - I've killed only 2 PCs, a gnome monk and an elf ranger/monk, both by massive damage. So I guess you could say I decimated them. Since that session, there have been many close calls and a couple of petrifications last game, but no deaths. In this campaign, you're encouraged to have a couple of active characters. If you die, you die... now your backup character jumps in. My goal here is to make sure that the player has a quick way back to the primary mode of participation in the game.

 

[Croesus]

One of the problems with "gain a level of exhaustion" is that it can indirectly contribute to the "5 minute workday" issue. The only way to remove levels of exhaustion is a long rest. So as soon as a character gains one, he'll want to (long) rest. It's taken me a year to convince my players that they don't have to (long) rest after every major battle, so I'd prefer to avoid something that encourages long rests.

Another issue is that levels of exhaustion can quickly create a death spiral for a character. The penalties build up quickly, making the character less likely to avoid dropping, which adds another level and so on. And since the only fix is a long rest, if the character can't avoid a fight, they're going to be fragile.

If I were running a grim and gritty game, I could see doing this. As I prefer a more heroic tone, I simply see characters dropping to zero as the hero being stunned (if quickly brought back to 1+ hp), or knocked out (if stable, but not healed). Doing so multiple times in a combat isn't a problem with my type of game, other than the risk of death. And yes, we've had two characters die over the past six months, both to massive damage from failed saves when they were at less than full hit points, no death saves involved. You pays your money, you takes your chances.

 

[iserith]

One of the problems with "gain a level of exhaustion" is that it can indirectly contribute to the "5 minute workday" issue. The only way to remove levels of exhaustion is a long rest. So as soon as a character gains one, he'll want to (long) rest. It's taken me a year to convince my players that they don't have to (long) rest after every major battle, so I'd prefer to avoid something that encourages long rests.

Yeah, it's really important to examine the potential game outcomes a dying penalty would likely produce given reasonable players making informed choices. The fix might create a whole other problem.

 

[pdzoch]

I occasionally have vicious villains known to ensure a character is dead. I mean, the villains and monsters know this is a fantasy world full of magic and healing, so my smarter and more villainous villains have no problems taking an extra hit on a downed hero. Any damage to an unconscious character is an automatic failed death saving throw. If it is a critical hit, it counts as two failed death saving throws. A villain who takes an extra attack on a recently knocked unconscious hero does so with advantage and does critical damage. A hero starting with two failed death saves before he/she even gets a chance to roll for a death save is a serious disadvantage that gets the whole party thinking stabilize quickly.

But I preserve this tactic for predictable encounters. Few beasts employ the tactic (such as the crocodile (death spin), canines (head shake), etc). Most monsters do not unless they are prone to rage like conduct or destructive attitudes (demons, etc.). Military or savage humanoid monsters do (hobgoblins, lizardfolk, orcs, etc.). Humans are most likely when they have evil motives.

This causes death to be much more likely and the enemy to be treated with much more respect. Death happens when the monsters are not mindless objects the players get to beat on.

 

[thalmin]

One of the problems with "gain a level of exhaustion" is that it can indirectly contribute to the "5 minute workday" issue. The only way to remove levels of exhaustion is a long rest. So as soon as a character gains one, he'll want to (long) rest.

Good point. So much for that idea.

 

[Lidgar]

It certainly doesn't help (from a lethality standpoint) that those level 6 deaths could be reversed with a simple Revivify, where earlier editions would have required a Raise Dead.

That's a good point. The party in the current campaign lacks a cleric, so no revivify option for them.

 

[Mouseferatu]

One of the problems with "gain a level of exhaustion" is that it can indirectly contribute to the "5 minute workday" issue. The only way to remove levels of exhaustion is a long rest.

Or greater restoration. Which, yeah, is a pretty hefty price, but it's an option. (The fact that my group currently has two clerics--yes, really--may play into it.)

Thing is, it doesn't really contribute to the 5MAD for us because we normally only have characters dropping during majorly difficult combats--and I expect the party to rest after one or two of those. So the fact that dropping = a level of exhaustion may work for us because of the quirks of our play-style, but it does work.

 

[LarryD]

My 3rd level cleric got critted by Cyanwrath in HotDQ - he had 1 hp at the time, and took just the right amount of damage to fall below negative max hp. Basically turned into a pile of smoking ashes.

As DM, I killed a 3rd level Druid in Feathergale Spire. Very dramatic. I had the Earth Cult attack the Spire (in retaliation because the PC's beheaded the Earth Cult's outpost leader in order to prove their worth to the Air Cult - they were trying to infiltrate), and bulettes weakened the tower at its base to make it collapse. The druid failed his dex save on the final round while trying to escape, and he fell into the gully along with the tower. Very cool, very dramatic.

I've also killed a 2nd level monk in Legacy of the Crystal Shard when a Yeti hit him with a crit, and then grabbed him. Too much damage, and again, negative max hp. In the same campaign, I downed a 2nd level sorcerer who disengaged from fighting a wererat, only to move into a spot where three other mobs moved into melee with him on their turn and took him down.

Haven't killed any other PC's yet - the highest level in any campaign atm is 5.

I've houseruled that any PC's brought back to consciousness are at Exhaustion level 1 for 24 hours.

 

[Magistus71]

I have a touch of death saving throw in my game for people to come back to life on any spell that would bring some one back.

 

[Shiroiken]

Once you get to 3rd level, death becomes pretty uncommon compared to 3E and AD&D, but Levels 1-2 are still very deadly. It's far deadlier than 4E was IME. In 2 years (4 hour sessions every other week) I've had a total of 5 or 6 deaths. All but 2 of them were recovered by Revivify, and those two were because the caster of Revivify was the one that died.