D&D 5E (2024) Feedback wanted: Spend death save failures for additional hit dice

[Stalker0]

I might take a different look at it. Rather than it being a bonus action, have it be a thing that happens at 0 hp.


Unyielding Will: When a PC drops to 0 hp, they can activate this ability once per long rest. They roll and recover hitpoints equal to 3 hitdice (or equal to their max hitdice, whicever is lower), but gain 3 death save failures. The failures last until the next short rest.


The goal is to remove some of the nitty gritty decision making here, and just bring it to a brass tacks moment. Your PC is unconscious, with all of the penalties that brings. OR you can choose to stay up getting a decent check of HP....but you are betting the farm. If you take a death save failure again your dead and gone....so are you taking the gamble?

That way you are removing any of the math and decisions around "hmm 1 hit dice, 2, should I take a bonus action for X or Y"....its a pure cinematic bold decision. Big Chunk of HP....BIG risk of death.

 

[Willie the Duck]

So the idea here is to give PCs additional ability to heal themselves, but with a trade-off: Do I want more hit points now, but be at higher risk of death later?

Comments? What do you think are the pros and cons of such a house rule?

For all the talk about how easy-mode 5e is, if someone is considering trying to get this in-combat healing, it probably means they are headed towards 0. Given that we're talking about a handful of hit points compared to a 1/3* reduction in post-downed survivability, this is going to be a good tactical decision in a handful of cases:
*more, since each click on the death save scale are not equal, what with attacks on downed characters from within 5' mark off 2 death saves.

• At really low levels when it might effectively double (approximately) your HP available.
• When going down basically means dead (maybe your PC is on their own, and facing things that you know will kill them before they regain consciousness)
• when going down basically means not needing death saves (you have a party with plenty enough in-combat healing, coordinate/cooperate well, and you are not in a position to take several hits (especially melee hits) before any allies will get you back above 0.

So I think the biggest downside is that (for most of the game) it is one of those benefit-with-cost effects that strongly incentivizes finding use-cases where the cost isn't really costly. If healing options were less plentiful in 5e, there would be more instances where it would sometimes make sense to use this when death saves had value, and thus more interesting tactical decisions would come about as a result of this rule existing. In the game as it otherwise exists, I'm not sure that's the case.

 

[Brotton Goodfellow]

A permanent loss for a temporary thing is a terrible tactical decision. Permanently crippling your character for, not even full HP in one situation is either useless, or only ever going to be used at the end of a campaign where there'll be no lasting effect.

You may be right, but I still think it’s dramatic as hell. I imagine a character at 1HP, face bloodied, on deaths door, watching as the world burns around them. The party is out of healing. A choice is presented: Push through and continue to fight or get pricked by a goblin arrow for 1 point of damage and start making death saving throws?

Sure the cost is high, but it’s a great tool to use for a more heroic narrative.

 

[GMMichael]

Desperate Gamble: As a bonus action whenever you have 1 hp or more, you may "spend" between 1 to 3 Death Save failures to gain a corresponding number of Hit Dice, which you then immediately roll to regain lost hit points. Hit Dice gained in this fashion do not against your regular Hit Dice which you use for healing during short rests. You can gain a maximum of 3 Hit Dice in this fashion until you make a long rest. If you are reduced to 0 hp, each Hit Dice gained in this fashion counts as an immediate Death Save failure. After you finish a long rest, the failed Death Saves reset.

There's a technical addition that needs to be made here:
"If you spend 3 Death Save failures in this way, you do not die until you reach 0 hit points."

I pressume you dislike the fact you do nothing while you make death saves? I have my own fix for it, if you're interested.

Well, there is a way to get full activity while dying: start your dying when your character drops below 10 HP. That way, you get a 10-point buffer before you're fully dead, and you don't even need to make death saves.

You're also able to lie on the ground and call for the cleric, if that's your thing.

Sure the cost is high, but it’s a great tool to use for a more heroic narrative.

The heroic, sacrificial, bounce-back from death is cool, but I think game theory votes against it. I see the options like this:

• Take up to 3 HD back and maintain a round (or more) of action economy. Returned hit points are limited to HD.
• Take the goblin arrow and lose action economy. Gain up to your max HP, divided across three attacks.

Unless I had a Wish in my back pocket or a really good escape route, I'd rather get a cushion of max HP than get three HD back. Of course, that cushion is useful only if my allies know how to heal, distract, or rescue.