dave2008
Legend
I like what your doing and it helps with the whack-a-mole issue some have. However, with your revised chart I would move max HP down:I use the Exhaustion Table instead of the 3 Failed Death Saves. My special rules for them are as follows:
- When you drop to 0 HP you stat making Death Saving Throws. On each failure you gain a level of Exhaustion. 6 failed rolls and you die (you hit Level 6 Exhaustion, which is death).
- Unlike failed death saves after you gain at least 1 hit point, Exhaustion levels do not reset. If you have an Exhaustion level and then are healed some HP and then later drop to 0 HP again... your next failed save drops you to Level 2 Exhaustion. And this continues on until you take a long rest.
- During the very first long rest following you gaining an Exhaustion level, you can 1 or more back. You gain 1 level back for just taking a long rest. You can gain two levels back if a fellow PC spends their long rest doing nothing but nursing you during those 8 hours (accompanied by a DC 10 Medicine check.) You can gain 3 levels back if you take a long rest, a fellow PC nurses you during that time, plus someone casts Lesser Restoration on you during those 8 hours.
- I rewrote my Exhaustion table to be as follows:
Level 1: Speed halved
Level 2: Max HP halves
Level 3: Disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws
Level 4: Disadvantage on ability checks
Level 5: Speed drops to 0.
Level 6: Death
I found that starting with disadvantage on ability checks for level 1 was kind of counter-intuitive... you're completely exhausted, but for some reason can still move at normal speed and attack normally, and yet you have a harder time remembering arcane or religious trivia or noticing things (for example). So I moved things around to decentivize people from fighting when they are exhausted but still allow them to participate in the other two pillars of the game.
Level 1: Speed halved
Level 2: Disadvantage on ability checks
Level 3: Disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws
Level 4: Max HP halves
Level 5: Speed drops to 0.
Level 6: Death