Death changes
- Thread starter Umarth
- Start date
CombatWombat51
First Post
Go ahead and call me a big ol' newb.... but huh? What's so broken about being dead? I.... really don't see what you're talking about 
--Confused n00b
--Confused n00b
This is one of my pet peeves. Here is a little write up I made of the problems:
Turns out being dead isn't as bad as you may have thought if your playing by the official rules.
"Dead: The character's soul leaves his body permanently, or until he is raised or resurrected. A dead body decays, but magic that allows a dead character to come back to life restores the body either to full health or to its condition at the time of death (depending on the spell or device). Either way, resurrected characters need not worry about rigor mortis, decomposition, and other similar sorts of unpleasantness. A dead character cannot regain hit points."
Lets take a look at some effects here.
1)Your soul leaves your body: This seems to be just flavor text as there is no really penalty listed for your soul leaving your body. Indeed the "soul" concept is never really defined in D&D.
2)A dead body decays: This again is possibly flavor text or just poorly defined. Still there is no listed downside to decaying so anything that your DM dose is just a homebrew rule.
3)Dead characters cannot regain hit points: While this is interesting it really doesn’t matter that much. Once your below -9 hps you no longer track damage.
Things having the Dead Condition do not stop.
Movement: All movement is permissible just as it is with any other condition that doesn’t expressly forbid it.
Gain Exp: No listed condition stops you from gaining exp.
Sight/Listing/Senses: While dead you are not listed as being blind, deafened, dazzled or anything else that effects your senses. (Unless of course you have those conditions from another effect)
Interesting side effects. It is impossible to do specific damage to a creature. When a creature dies it remains a creature and gains the Dead condition. Therefore you can not chop a dead person apart as you can't make called shots.
This works out quite well if you've been looking for an interesting way to light your stronghold. Spit a kobold and light him on fire. Since fire can only do HP damage to creatures the kobold will burn nicely forever.
Example of the rules:
Elvash (lvl 1 elvish commoner) is late feeding Gordo (cat) his pet kitty cat. Gordo in anger surprises Elvash with a serious of 3 vicious blows sending Elvash to 0 hps. (At this point Elvash is now Disabled with all that states). Angry beyond reason at his cats attack Elvash lashes out at Gordo sadly missing by a mile. (The attack changes Elvash condition from Disabled to Dying) Sadly at this point Elvash bleeds to death eventually going below -9hps (This changes Elvash condition from Dying to Dead.
Having had a bit of time to calm down while he lay dieing Elvash remembers poor Gordo hasn't been fed yet. Elvash hops up and feeds Gordo before heading off to work in the....well what ever it is elves do.
Turns out being dead isn't as bad as you may have thought if your playing by the official rules.
"Dead: The character's soul leaves his body permanently, or until he is raised or resurrected. A dead body decays, but magic that allows a dead character to come back to life restores the body either to full health or to its condition at the time of death (depending on the spell or device). Either way, resurrected characters need not worry about rigor mortis, decomposition, and other similar sorts of unpleasantness. A dead character cannot regain hit points."
Lets take a look at some effects here.
1)Your soul leaves your body: This seems to be just flavor text as there is no really penalty listed for your soul leaving your body. Indeed the "soul" concept is never really defined in D&D.
2)A dead body decays: This again is possibly flavor text or just poorly defined. Still there is no listed downside to decaying so anything that your DM dose is just a homebrew rule.
3)Dead characters cannot regain hit points: While this is interesting it really doesn’t matter that much. Once your below -9 hps you no longer track damage.
Things having the Dead Condition do not stop.
Movement: All movement is permissible just as it is with any other condition that doesn’t expressly forbid it.
Gain Exp: No listed condition stops you from gaining exp.
Sight/Listing/Senses: While dead you are not listed as being blind, deafened, dazzled or anything else that effects your senses. (Unless of course you have those conditions from another effect)
Interesting side effects. It is impossible to do specific damage to a creature. When a creature dies it remains a creature and gains the Dead condition. Therefore you can not chop a dead person apart as you can't make called shots.
This works out quite well if you've been looking for an interesting way to light your stronghold. Spit a kobold and light him on fire. Since fire can only do HP damage to creatures the kobold will burn nicely forever.
Example of the rules:
Elvash (lvl 1 elvish commoner) is late feeding Gordo (cat) his pet kitty cat. Gordo in anger surprises Elvash with a serious of 3 vicious blows sending Elvash to 0 hps. (At this point Elvash is now Disabled with all that states). Angry beyond reason at his cats attack Elvash lashes out at Gordo sadly missing by a mile. (The attack changes Elvash condition from Disabled to Dying) Sadly at this point Elvash bleeds to death eventually going below -9hps (This changes Elvash condition from Dying to Dead.
Having had a bit of time to calm down while he lay dieing Elvash remembers poor Gordo hasn't been fed yet. Elvash hops up and feeds Gordo before heading off to work in the....well what ever it is elves do.
...are you creating a computer game, designed to perfectly emulate the letter of the rules, but only the letter?
are you using some sort of automaton or nonhuman sentience to DM?
if not then why, exactly, would you need to add rules that are presumably covered by the common sense law aka Rule Zero? maybe there's a reason, but i just don't see it. why is that necessary?
are you using some sort of automaton or nonhuman sentience to DM?
if not then why, exactly, would you need to add rules that are presumably covered by the common sense law aka Rule Zero? maybe there's a reason, but i just don't see it. why is that necessary?
Shirt Guy John
First Post
I assume you're joking.
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