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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FrogReaver" data-source="post: 8268808" data-attributes="member: 6795602">The easiest way to solve whack a mole is to have enemies target downed PC's.  Of course at that point you've got to justify why you weren't being a butthole by having the enemy target the unthreatening downed PC instead of his more threatening allies.  This solution puts the DM in a terrible spot IMO and it's why this method isn't actually employed by more DM's. Then you have solutions like: 'PC stays unconscious for 1 minute even after being healed'.  This leads to something very similar to a death spiral in that the PC dropping to 0 has caused all his actions for the encounter to disappear - which makes the encounter much harder for the remaining PCs. Or maybe the solution is death at 0 hp.  This works well - though healing becomes much more mandatory and PC death becomes much more likely (especially melee PCs).  This also has the same death spiral like issue where the encounter gets alot harder for the remaining PC's.Maybe the best alternative solution I've seen was 'character always loses at least 1 combat round when dropping to 0'.  Whack a mole can still happen here, it's just no longer the obvious best tactic.  Meaning there's at least some utility in healing allies before they drop.I think a character going down is a combination of factors - team failure, bad luck, bad player decisions.  Which is actually one reason our system doesn't have the PC drop and lose his actions when he hits 0hp.  Instead, he gets to keep his actions and make decisions to try and survive, putting his survival or the lack thereof much more on him than on his allies.It goes back to tradeoffs.  If you have a system where the 0hp PC can still act (solving this problem you mention), and you don't want any kind of death spiral (solving another potential problem), then the only option remaining to penalize dropping to 0 hp is to add some kind of post encounter penalty.I'm almost always the melee character and often have been the sole melee character.  Our current rules are some of the least penalizing to melee characters (and even others) for team failures that I've ever used.  Nor does anyone feel like they have to be any kind of dedicated healer because the 0hp character still can move and act to get himself out of harms way.  In fact I'd say most in combat healing doesn't do a particularly good job of keeping a character from hitting 0 in the first place, nor do most combat healing spells heal enough to keep the character from hitting 0 again - which by our ruleset does trigger a death save.  So while we usually pack a little healing, it's not often a good plan unless you are using something like the life clerics channel divinity or the paladins lay on hands.I'm fine having that discussion as long as we are on the same page that this is what we are talking about.  I prefer not having that be the main issue and arguing a bunch of other points only to later find out the crux of the whole debate centered on that point.</blockquote>

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