D&D 5E Dramatic Rules for Dying

[Reynard]

I can see some sort of rules for a great death provided that they are not cheapened by a simple cure of revivify. You die and cannot come back, but you should be able to do something cool on your way out. "Tell them, my death was awesome."

I might allow a PC that chooses a dramatic death a chance to use a full action on their turn. Maybe they Hodor allowing the rest to survive, or diving into the flooding submarine hold to pull the lever. Something cool, but you do not come back.

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That's interesting. "The dying character may take one action. If they do, they automatically fail their death saving throw at the end of the round."

 

[Clint_L]

That's interesting. "The dying character may take one action. If they do, they automatically fail their death saving throw at the end of the round."

This reminds me of Dread, where you can choose to topple the tower on purpose in exchange for some say over how you go out. It's called the "heroic sacrifice" rule, and I wouldn't mind seeing a version of it in D&D. Though death is final in Dread, so the rule has some teeth in it.

A little over a year ago one campaign arc ended with a showdown against a dragon where a character died in the final round. The player refused the subsequent revivify attempt, figuring that he couldn't imagine a more perfect exit for his character. I thought that was a fantastic choice.

Edit: I also set up one of my mini-campaigns at school with a final battle in which players had to close a portal before doom could be unleashed on the city - you know the score. I intentionally made closing the portal with a macguffin possible but very difficult, with the caveat that if a character wanted to carry the macguffin through the portal they could succeed automatically, at the cost of their life. I've run this mini-campaign four times and twice young players have made that choice, with really strong story impact.

Do you folks ever set up this sort of situation in your games, where players can choose to sacrifice their character?