D&D 5E Dropping to 0 HP - House Rule Variant

[Asisreo]

As a DM that frequently kills their PCs, sometimes accidentally, its still a bit mindboggling when DM's have trouble killing their players.

I'm in a campaign as a player and when we survive a difficult encounter and I have the majority of a creature's abilitiea in the back of my head, I easily realize we survived because the DM didn't affect us with that one effect or spell that could have actually done damage.

So I feel like many DMs hold themselves back far too much then wonder why combat isn't a challenge. I could kill a good portion of players with some relatively standard enemies with simplistic tactics because I don't pull punches.

And before you ask, I actually don't specifically target downed PCs. Sometimes I do if there's a personal grudge or a sadistic need to kill in front of allies, but otherwise I let them make their saves and get healed only to mangle them up again. Trust me, they get fearful alright.

Anyways, I prefer to see if things can be made better from a perspective that doesn't naturally change the game.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I though about such rules and nkticed, that they are usually not necessary at all.
Usually if you go down in the first place, a lot is already lost:

-> You lose concentration on spells.
-> You might skip a round of attacks.
-> you can't retreat to safety, instead the healer might have to get to you.

The only rule I might like is that you don't regain consciousness before the initiative where you were dropped to below zero.
This way, you are always losing a round of attacks which might be fair.

 

[Shiroiken]

I'd simply make it unconsciousness for 5 or 10 minutes as soon as you hit 0 HP, regardless of the number of death saves failed. Death stops the timer, but it restarts when brought back (you don't wake up immediately).

As for methods to wake them up, I think a simple Lesser Restoration would be acceptable. Healing to full is way to contingent upon level, as low level characters would wake up easier than higher level ones. Greater Restoration is 5th level and has a valuable material component cost per casting, which seems far too expensive (no one should ever chose this option).

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

As a DM that frequently kills their PCs, sometimes accidentally, its still a bit mindboggling when DM's have trouble killing their players.

How does this happen in your game? My experience is that while characters going down to 0 is fairly common, the rest of the group will prioritize stabilizing them, so individual death only happens from the massive damage rule or some really bad luck on death saves combined with an unfavorable turn order. And that's only happened like 2-3 times in 7 years of playing 5e.

Unless it's a TPK downed characters almost always survive the combat if the DM doesn't target them.

 

[Asisreo]

How does this happen in your game? My experience is that while characters going down to 0 is fairly common, the rest of the group will prioritize stabilizing them, so individual death only happens from the massive damage rule or some really bad luck on death saves combined with an unfavorable turn order. And that's only happened like 2-3 times in 7 years of playing 5e.

Unless it's a TPK downed characters almost always survive the combat if the DM doesn't target them.

AoE attacks tend to cause an emergency that just one character can't easily fix. Like having an attack that does a good chunk of damage to both the wizard, fighter, and cleric with both the wizard and fighter going down will tie the cleric's hands, setting up for another devastating blow with Multiattack.

Incapacitating members without outright killing helps, especially when incapacitating those that can heal.

Really, its about not being afraid to get nasty with your players. I've basically made a vow to never play a monster that doesn't have anything interesting but the attack action.

I lower HP maximums, target weak saves, drain HP, throw diseases and poisons at them, and curse them with debilitating effects. The fact that they die is no surprise but its still roughly only like 4-6 deaths per campaign and more than half is level 1-4. The players certainly feel like everything is falling apart when a player goes down, though.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Goal: Provide a disincentive to players to allow themselves to drop to 0 HP that doesn't result in a death spiral or 5MWD. Encourage players to avoid unnecessary combat and retreat from combats going poorly to regroup and attempt another direction to achieve their goal. Increase the drama and tension of decision making in a difficult combat that the players don't want to retreat from.

Proposed House Rule:

• When you drop to 0 HP, you fall unconscious and begin making death saving throws as normal.
• Whenever you regain HP from 0 the following happens:
  • 0 Failed Death Saving Throws - You regain HP, but don't regain consciousness for 1 minute
  • 1 Failed Death Saving Throw - You regain HP, but don't regain consciousness for 10 minutes
  • 2 Failed Death Saving Throws - You regain HP, but don't regain consciousness for 1 hour (this time period does not count as a short rest)
• If you are reduced to 0 HP during this period of unconsciousness, your death saves are reset and your period of unconsciousness restarts once you gain HP, lasting for a period of time based on your highest failed death save count since being conscious (so no healing someone to 1 hp with 2 death saves, then knocking them down to 0 and healing them again to get the 1 min time period)
• The period of unconsciousness ends early if you are healed to full hit points or if a spell such as Greater Restoration is cast on you.
• This period of unconsciousness also occurs when being brought back from the dead.

Thoughts?

I agree with those saying this is way overcomplicated for the goal.

@Shiroiken and @Stalker0 both have good suggestions. Make there be one time period, abandon the rest. 1, 5 or 10 minutes (or 1d10 minutes) all seem fine.

The 1hr one is particularly ill-designed as it means the rest of the party get a Short Rest, and that PC doesn't, which is just going to make things more complicated, as it's likely that PC will then want to take a Short Rest, so all you're really doing is causing a pointless and anti-dramatic conflict which only makes any sense in a weird metagaming way. That'll work to punish front-line combatants (who are far more likely to be downed) and not others, too.

And @Shiroiken is right - should be Lesser Restoration, not Greater.

 

[FrogReaver]

Goal: Provide a disincentive to players to allow themselves to drop to 0 HP that doesn't result in a death spiral or 5MWD. Encourage players to avoid unnecessary combat and retreat from combats going poorly to regroup and attempt another direction to achieve their goal. Increase the drama and tension of decision making in a difficult combat that the players don't want to retreat from.

Proposed House Rule:

• When you drop to 0 HP, you fall unconscious and begin making death saving throws as normal.
• Whenever you regain HP from 0 the following happens:
  • 0 Failed Death Saving Throws - You regain HP, but don't regain consciousness for 1 minute
  • 1 Failed Death Saving Throw - You regain HP, but don't regain consciousness for 10 minutes
  • 2 Failed Death Saving Throws - You regain HP, but don't regain consciousness for 1 hour (this time period does not count as a short rest)
• If you are reduced to 0 HP during this period of unconsciousness, your death saves are reset and your period of unconsciousness restarts once you gain HP, lasting for a period of time based on your highest failed death save count since being conscious (so no healing someone to 1 hp with 2 death saves, then knocking them down to 0 and healing them again to get the 1 min time period)
• The period of unconsciousness ends early if you are healed to full hit points or if a spell such as Greater Restoration is cast on you.
• This period of unconsciousness also occurs when being brought back from the dead.

Thoughts?

I'd say your goal isn't fully met because I'd say that having a PC fall unconscious in the middle of the fight with no easy way to pick him back up is also the kind of mechanic that pushes combat more toward death spiral territory. I'd also suggest that same mechanic where a PC can fall unconscious without an easy way to get him back up essentially precludes retreating as it's basically certain death for him if the rest of the party decides to.

I had many of your same issues and what we did was this:

• Instead of falling unconscious when your HP reaches 0 you now will remain conscious and can take actions normally.
• The first time you are reduced to 0 HP you will gain 1 level of Exhaustion at the end of the fight
• Anytime you would gain a level of Exhaustion at the end of the fight and are reduced to 0 or are at 0 and would take damage you must make a death saving throw, the DC is 5 plus the damage delt, on a success you do not mark a failed save, a failed save aginst a critical hit counts as two failed saving throws. A roll of a natural 20 is always a success.
• While you are at 0 HP a monster may decide to knock you unconscious instead of dealing damage, you make a CON saving throw vs the damage dealt, on a success you stay conscious, a faild save renders you unconscious.

 

[FrogReaver]

It does seem a bit fiddly.

The one I've seen that I liked the most is each drop to zero and each failed death save gives a level of exhaustion. They're cured as normal. This will encourage players to not let their friends drop in the first place.

But that can lead to a rather massive death spiral type effect. Which is something that the OP wanted to avoid.

 

[Steampunkette]

Seeing this thread made me propose something for LevelUp, so I'll propose the same thing, here:

Exhaustion.

Apply 1 level when the character drops, and 1 level for each failed death save.

When they get up they're a bit less effective than they were before they dropped. So that's a good incentive to keep them from hitting the ground in the first place. And stacking exhaustion is a -very- good reason to rush over and stabilize the player, since a few death saves can mean being largely useless in the current fight.

And if they drop multiple times in the same fight, they're likely to die of exhaustion, separate from failed saving throws, which increases incentive to run.

 

[FrogReaver]

Seeing this thread made me propose something for LevelUp, so I'll propose the same thing, here:

Exhaustion.

Apply 1 level when the character drops, and 1 level for each failed death save.

When they get up they're a bit less effective than they were before they dropped. So that's a good incentive to keep them from hitting the ground in the first place. And stacking exhaustion is a -very- good reason to rush over and stabilize the player, since a few death saves can mean being largely useless in the current fight.

And if they drop multiple times in the same fight, they're likely to die of exhaustion, separate from failed saving throws, which increases incentive to run.

That's also death spirally.