Death's Door [Optional rule]

[Frostmarrow]

Combat is more lethal at higher levels. Once you rise in level the chance of you being beaten unconscious becomes less. Instead you become more and more likely to die. So in effect the result of a battle becomes either you emerge unscathed or you die. It becomes a rare occurence that someone is reduced to somewhere between -1 -- -10 hp and therefore unconscious.

This is due to that higher CR-monsters has more attacks and hit for more damage. A giant might hit you twice for 20 hp damage per attack. An orc hits you once for 9 damage. 9 damage is a lot for a 1st level character but chances are it won't kill him. However, a 10th level fighter gets killed in one round by the giant if he currently has less than 30 hps.

I think that a higher level fighter should be able to survive the onslaught of a giant. He might not win but must he die?

Death's Door (Optional rule)

Dying is a full-round action.

 

[MonkeyBoy]

OK, so we're in the realms of house-rules.

I'd suggest to get the kind of effect you want, you should alter the death's door rule, instead of dying at -10, try making this point -10 - (2 / character level), so that 10th level fighter will be unconcious from -1 to -30 hit points, etc.

Obviously the -2 / level bit can be tweaked to give the exact margin you want...
This would make 1st level characters die at -12, though

 

[hong]

Death's Door (Optional rule)

Dying is a full-round action.

This would have the side-effect of making slowed characters take twice as long to die.

 

[Frostmarrow]

Re: Re: Death's Door [Optional rule]

This would have the side-effect of making slowed characters take twice as long to die.

A positive side-effect. However, being hasted becomes a bit hazardous.

The full-round action is what is required for the soul to leave the body. Once the soul is out it gains a one-way ticket to the life here-after.

This rule presents a very slim chance of saving a character who is about to die. Also it doesn't always work. If you were reduced to -10 at initative 14 and you have ini 13, you will die before the cleric at ini 12 even gets a chance to react.

 

[MonkeyBoy]

This rule presents a very slim chance of saving a character who is about to die. Also it doesn't always work. If you were reduced to -10 at initative 14 and you have ini 13, you will die before the cleric at ini 12 even gets a chance to react.

Not quite right;

if dying is a full-round action which the dying char takes automatically, then the sequence would be...

INIT 14; A deals lethal damage to B
INIT 13; B starts full-round "die" action ("urgh....")
INIT 12; C has option to help
...
...
INIT 14; A does something else
INIT 13; B completes their full-round "die" action (if it weren't so terminal, it would be possible for B to take an action here too )

a full-round action takes a full ROUND to complete, not just your go (thats something like a full-ATTACK action...)

Note that this does give B the chance to utter his dying words as a free action

 

[hong]

...also, it would mean a helpless person would not be able to die. There's a new use for a hold person spell!

 

[Frostmarrow]

A complete full-round action is not exactly what I had in mind. It should be a standard action instead.

A is in pretty bad shape and decides to quaff a potion. He attracts an AOO. The AOO hits home and sends A spinning down to -12 hp. As A still has his standard action left he dies instantly. (The interrupted action must instead be used to die.)

A moves and attacks B. B counter-attacks A and floors him. C moves over to A and tries to save him.

B attacks A and floors him. A takes a standard action to die. C can only watch in horror as his time old friend dies.

A is hasted and is floored. He must use his extra partial action to die.

A is slowed and floored. He must use his partial action to die.

A is floored and held. This makes no difference. He must use his next standard action to die.

Even though it would be pretty cool to allow a free action to utter the last words it doesn't work. The character is still unconscious.


This could work, right?

 

[Frostmarrow]

Dying is a standard action of the soul.

Whenever a character is reduced to -10 hp or less the soul will take a standard action at the first possible opportunity to leave the body and travel to the after-life. After this action is taken the character is dead. This means that sometimes a friend of the dying character will be able to save the character. If a dying character is stabilized by the use of the heal skill (DC20) or by any Cure spell the character is alive and stabilized at -9 hp. A soul cannot be directly affected by any spells.

 

[graydoom]

I think it would be simpler to just say "A character dies one round after he reaches below -10 HP." None of this confusion that way, and it keeps the amount of time given to recover consistent.

That means that a fighter knocked down to below -10 on init 14 would just skip his turn on init 13, then everyone else would have until the next init 14 to heal him back up.

 

[Claude Raines]

I was just cruising through the Lost City Of Gaxmoor preview by Troll Lord Games (see ENWorld front page for link) and it has a great optional rule where the number of negative hit points a character can suffer is his constitution bonus + level. So a 5th level fighter with a bonus of +4 can go to -9 hit points, but at 20th level with the same bonus it is -24 hit points before dying. This makes it a little more lethal for low level characters, but also a bit more realistic, while giving high level characters a bit better chance to survive massive damage. I'm definitely using this rule in my campaign.