Death due to stat loss.

[Jcosby]

Death due to stat loss.



I have a situation where a player in my game died due to stat loss, although his stat in question did not reach 0.



What we had was a rogue messing with a pool of tainted water. Anyone going into the pool of water would get a fort save. If the player didn’t make that fort save they would take 2d6 of CON damage. The rogue in question was level 4 (4HD) and was wounded from a recent battle. The party had just slain the “boss” of the area along with his minions and were now gathering up the loot and searching the area. The rogue decided to enter the pool of water and search the bottom of the small pool.



When the rogue entered the pool, I asked him to make a Fort save (Don’t remember the DC.. this 14 not 100% positive), he made the roll and failed with all his bonuses. I then proceeded to roll 2d6 for the CON loss. I rolled a 7. His current state was this.



Level 4

HPs 6 out of 24 total

CON: 14 (normal)



He took 7 points of CON loss which would put him at a 7 con. First thing I did was minus him 8 pts of heath because he no longer gets the +2 CON bonus per level (4*2). That put him at -2, I then realized he was at a 7 CON which gives him a -2 per level on hit points. This also would be -8 (4*2) putting him at -10 and dead.



Basically all I need to know is did I rule this correctly? Would the player take both of the -8 penalties? The reason I ask is I can see him taking the first -8 as he would lose bonus pts he is currently using. The ONLY thing I can see is the second -8 would actually come off his max hps, leaving him at -2 out of 16, not -10 out of 16.



Please any help would be appreciated.



Thank you

JCosby

 

[Gidien]

You ruled correctly. A way to look at it is that he had taken 18 points of damage already. The CON loss reduced his HP from 24 to 8. He still has 18 points of damage, taking him to -10 and death.

 

[ThirdWizard]

EDIT: bah, he's right.

 

[Falkus]

I find it a bit harsh, did you give any reason for him or the others to believe that the pool was anything other than an ordinary pool of water?

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

No, you've got the right of it.

Hit point changes due to Con changes come out of current and maximum hit points - with the caveat that, at no time, can your maximum hit points drop below 1 per character level.

So, if he hadn't taken any damage at all, he would have been at 24 / 24, and the change in Con would have reduced that to 8 / 8.

In other words, if he'd taken less than 18 points of damage (was at 9HP or higher), he wouldn't have died due to the Con loss. The drowning, however ...

EDIT: By the by, be very, very careful with ability damage, especially in the early game. Even 1d6 damage to a particular ability is generally enough to completely hose a character. 2d6 Con damage? That's a lot.

 

[freebfrost]

From the SRD: "If a character’s Constitution score drops, then he loses 1 hit point per Hit Die for every point by which his Constitution modifier drops. A hit point score can’t be reduced by Constitution damage or drain to less than 1 hit point per Hit Die."

He went from +2 per die to -2 per die, a loss of 4 points of modifier. Four points of modifier x 4 HD = 16 points of damage.

 

[Jcosby]

Death...

Yes, I believe throughout the encounter and through interaction that the party had the understanding that this was very dangerous place. As a matter of fact everyone in the party was under the assumpution that nothing should be touched after a couple of the party members had a run in with a cursed item and a obelisk that caused one of the party memebers to be knocked out.

Alas the rogue (young player) didn't listen to the rest of the party and didn't speak with the party before doing what he did. As much as I don't like killing players if there isn't come risk of death then the game loses a bit of it's edge.

As for describing the room, the players were fully aware that the area was very corrupted and tainted with "evil". I'll mark this up to a lesson learned. Was tough cause it was my son. Oh well

Yes, 2d6 CON damage might have been a bit to high, and to that end I will make it a bit easier on him to get ress'd

Thanks Again
Jcosby

 

[Infiniti2000]

I know exactly the pool of water you are talking about.

Hit point changes due to Con changes come out of current and maximum hit points - with the caveat that, at no time, can your maximum hit points drop below 1 per character level.

Character level? Don't you mean HD?

 

[Veril]

Your understanding of how to kill the player throught the application of the rules is almost but not quite correct. You should have reduced the players Hit Points to a minimum of 1 per dice - stat loss cannot reduce it below that. As an example, the rogue could have had 6, 6, 3, 1 as die rolls, applying a -2 bonus would mean a loss of 14 hit points - not 16 hp.

The level of threat of the trap in the room was not appropriate for the level of the party. A pool in a room is just screaming out "investigate me". That pool isn't "tainted with evil" it's bubbling over with something like pure wyvern venom.
It's something like a CR6-7 trap IMO.

Generally most venom type effects (which are what produce stat loss) are done in 2 parts, with 1 minute between then, an initial save and a secondary save - allowing people to try do things inbetween to deal with the stat damage (i.e. Heal check, slow poison etc).

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Character level? Don't you mean HD?

Yes - but for the vast majority of PCs, they're one and the same.