D&D (2024) Gain 1 exhaustion when dropping to 0hp?

[DMZ2112]

I've toyed with the idea of a level of exhaustion applied to PCs healed from 0 HP mid-combat, but I had it wear off at the end of the PC's next turn. Even with that limitation, I've never gotten a table of players to agree to even test it out. They must grow 'em different where you folks are.

 

[mellored]

Additionally, healing magic is terrible. Pretty straightforward terrible. First level spells do about 3d8 damage plus 1d8 per level above 1 at range. Healing spells do 1d8+ability damage -- so basically 2d8 -- plus 1d8 per level above 1 at touch (or half that for a bonus action at range).

Except attack spells need a d20 roll.
Healing spells doesn't.

I won't get into other defenses like rage or evasion, but those indirectly make healing better too.

But even if you double the healing from cure wounds, wack-a-mole would still be the most strategic option.

 

[FrogReaver]

Except attack spells need a d20 roll.
Healing spells doesn't.

I won't get into other defenses like rage or evasion, but those indirectly make healing better too.

But even if you double the healing from cure wounds, wack-a-mole would still be the most strategic option.

*Note - whack-a-mole is only strategic if the DM doesn't target downed PC's. If DM does, even sometimes, it's risky as heck.

 

[Olrox17]

*Note - whack-a-mole is only strategic if the DM doesn't target downed PC's. If DM does, even sometimes, it's risky as heck.

While what you say is true, that tends to go into "mean GM" territory according to a lot of people. If you have a group that is 100% ok with ruthless coup the grace style, great, problem solved. Otherwise..you may substitute an in-game problem (whack-a-mole gameplay) with an out of game problem (hurt feelings, personal resentment).

 

[Enrahim2]

I initially was on the pro exhaustion side, but after thinking deeper on it I conclude I would rather play without it.
My reasoning is as follows. I see mainly 3 big issues with the standard 5ed way of handling 0hp:
1. It do not make much sense from a realism perspective
2. It is far from dramatically satisfying
3. It promote other player behavior than what I prefer
While I do see that adding exhaustion might help a bit on point 1 and 3 for me, I don't think it is sufficient to justify the added book-keeping.

The current system is incredibly smart from a game design perspective, as it takes the worst spikes off the swinginess. This allow for designing adventures where characters are likely to hit 0, (hence having negative consequence), while making it very unlikely that character's actually die due to some unexpected high rolls. And it achieves this while actually simplifying book-keeping compared to keeping track of negative HP.

So this change would weaken the one strong point with the current system. I think if a change should be justified to me it would have to either at least conserve that strong point, or be significant enough to be able that it fully fixes 1, 2 or 3 (Making a new strenght)

 

[FrogReaver]

While what you say is true, that tends to go into "mean GM" territory according to a lot of people. If you have a group that is 100% ok with ruthless coup the grace style, great, problem solved. Otherwise..you may substitute an in-game problem (whack-a-mole gameplay) with an out of game problem (hurt feelings, personal resentment).

Sure. As a DM I tend to like to roll dice to determine monster behavior and do so openly. That does tend to eliminate resentment on things like this. I've never liked choosing to directly target a downed PC unless it made overwhelming in game sense - like villain who is extremely ruthless or something.

 

[FrogReaver]

More on the OP topic, currently playing in a game where each exhaustion level is simply a -1 to everything (up to 10 levels) and dropping to 0 causes exhaustion. The DM has made it so that 0 hp doesn't down a character, it just means all subsequent hits cause exhaustion. One session in and it's felt good. Exhaustion still gets removed slowly (1 level per long rest). Also eliminates the issues of DM targeting a downed PC.

 

[mellored]

The DM has made it so that 0 hp doesn't down a character, it just means all subsequent hits cause exhaustion.

That might be the best version yet.

It would actually let characters get beaten and run away. Putting a 10 hit gap between failure and dying.

 

[Scott Christian]

For D&D, I prefer to keep it as simple as possible. So my vote was no. zero back to hero in one round seems to suit the game's playstyle in my opinion.

 

[mellored]

70% in favor.
Think it's worth playtesting at least.