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

[DEFCON 1]

My current Death & Dying rules for my Theros campaign that uses the Exhaustion chart in place of '3 Death Saves':

Rests

• A Short Rest is 10 minutes, during which you may spend hit dice to regain hit points and regain features that refresh on a Short Rest.
• A Long Rest is 8 hours of light activity or sleep, after which you regain all of your spent hit dice, regain all features that refresh on a Long Rest, and you lose your level of exhaustion if currently at Level 1 (creatures at any higher exhaustion levels do not lose any.) You do not automatically regain all hit points following a Long Rest. The effects of a Short Rest are included at both the beginning and end of a Long Rest. (I.E. you may spend any remaining hit dice you have at the beginning of the Long Rest to regain hit points, and then may spend any new hit dice you just regained following the Long Rest to regain more hit points.)
• An Extended Rest is 24 hours of uninterrupted bed rest in a safe location and counts as a Short and Long Rest. You regain all hit points, all hit dice, all class features, and may possibly reduce levels of Exhaustion you currently have. At the end of the Extended Rest another character may attempt a single WIS (Medicine) check for that character. Making DC 10 reduces your Exhaustion level by 1, reaching DC 20 reduces your Exhaustion by 2 levels, and reaching DC 30 reduces it by 3 levels.

Dying and Exhaustion

• When a creature reaches 0 hit points, they are Dying. They remain Dying until they are Stabilized.
• A Dying creature has the Incapacitated condition (instead of Unconscious) and at the start of each of their turns make Death saving throws with a DC 10 to succeed. (An Incapacitated creature can’t take actions or reactions but may still move.)
• Every level of Exhaustion a creature has raises the DC by 1.
• Each failed Death saving throw causes one level of Exhaustion.
• Death occurs at Exhaustion Level 6 as per the Exhaustion chart (and not 3 failed Death saving throws as normal.)
• A creature may regain hit points while Dying (via abilities, spells and items as normal), but that does not remove the Incapacitated condition, does not stop the rolling of Death saving throws, and does not adjust or affect their Exhaustion level. They are still considered Dying even though they are no longer at 0 HP.
• To no longer be considered Dying (and thus remove the Incapacitated condition and stop the rolling of Death saving throws) requires the target to be Stabilized.

Stabilizing a Dying Creature

• A Dying creature that makes three successful Death saving throws or rolls a Natural 20 on a Death saving throw automatically Stabilizes.
• Another character adjacent to an Incapacitated character can attempt to Stabilize them by using an Action to make a WIS (Medicine) check with a DC equal to the target’s current Death save DC.
• Stabilizing a creature does not remove any levels of Exhaustion.
• A Stabilized creature has however many hit points they have received (if any) while Dying. A Stabilized creature who was not healed while Dying is still at 0 HP but can act normally.

Combat While Dying or Stabilized

• Any successful attack made on a Dying creature immediately results in one automatic failed Death saving throw.
• Any attack on a Dying creature that has hit points does not cause hit point damage but rather still causes an immediate automatic failed Death saving throw.
• An attack on a Stabilized creature causes hit point damage. If the creature is at 0 HP or the attack drops them back to 0 HP, it immediately ends the Stabilization and they are considered Dying again.
• A creature that begins Dying again has their successful Death saving throws reset to 0. Their Exhaustion level is at wherever it was previously.

Exhaustion Chart

• Level 1: Speed halved.
• Level 2: Max HP halved.
• Level 3: Disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws.
• Level 4: Disadvantage on ability checks.
• Level 5: Unconscious.
• Level 6: Death.

 

[Gubber Bittencourt]

that and recovering from exhaustion depends on the resting conditions (hot food, roof, campfire)

 

[ChameleonX]

I would prefer healing in general go back to 4th edition standards instead of this weird hybrid we have in 5th;

Bring back negative hit points. If you reach negative bloodied value you die, but any healing resets you to 0 and then counts up from there, so healing isn't wasted on negative hit points.

Most healing uses Hit Dice, which heal a set amount that scales with level so it's always half your bloodied value (e.g. One quarter of your max), so it's still a limited resource, but there's no possiblity of pissing away a 3rd+ level spell slot and rolling all 1s and 2s, etc.

Also, Death save failures only reset on a short or long rest, instead of every time you heal.

 

[Stoutstien]

I think trying to make 5e feel deadly is going to take a lot more effort than trying to make falling to zero more punishing or slowing down recovery rates.

Players assume that they have a very good chance of winning encounters because the system says so and it also has no real way of dealing with players who don't want to deal with encounters by directly overcoming them. You can't expect players to view going down as nothing more than a mild inconvenience if they are forced into the situations that lead to it.

At best you just change the pacing and at worse you make players feel like investing into their characters or the game is a waste of effort.

 

[mellored]

I think trying to make 5e feel deadly

I'm not going for deadly.
I am going for scary.

I can always add more monsters to kill them.

 

[Stoutstien]

I'm not going for deadly.
I am going for scary.

I can always add more monsters to kill them.

I mean the thing that is feared here is death/loss of investment so I can't see a reason to differentiate the two.

Now look for ways to crank up tension is always a good goal but you need some player facing choice in the manner or it doesn't work. Try not to drop isn't a new choice if it's a choice at all.

 

[mellored]

I mean the thing that is feared here is death/loss of investment so I can't see a reason to differentiate the two.

Dead characters can't suffer any more loss.

But I can add another level of exhaustion.

 

[Stoutstien]

Dead characters can't suffer any more loss.

But I can add another level of exhaustion.

The PCs don't but players do and that's the intende target audience here.

Stacking penalties for staying near death makes logical sense but it doesn't lead to a better play experience IMO. In the same vein PC somehow live long enough to get past lv 3 doesn't make any sense but leads to an enjoyable play experience.

Pop up healing is losing strategy from the get go so it seems like a strange place to focus. The loss of (player)action is probably the strongest moderator to avoid death and that's pretty easy to lean on by making the turn order less predictable.

 

[Scott Christian]

I'm not going for deadly.
I am going for scary.

I can always add more monsters to kill them.

Scary is a mood. It is created by a setting, an antagonist's motives, and the PC's caring about the world around them. Adding exhaustion does not increase the "scare" factor. Adding music, sharp and concise descriptions of the unknown, and horrid choices increases the "scare" factor. Tension, which can lead to fear, is a slow game. It won't come through mechanics.