House Rule for Death Saves to make single encounters matter

[Myrhdraak]

One thing I have experienced with 4th Edition as a DM is that you have to plan 3-5 encounters between each extended rest in order to challenge the party. This is fine when in a dungeon or any other multi-encounter environment, but less so when the party for example is travelling and you want to throw in a single monster encounter during the travel. To challenge the players you have to make the encounter quite hard (either tough monsters or a lot of monsters), which might not really fit the intent as this "wandring monster encounter" takes a lot of game time to run through - which is seldom the intent.

One solution to this problem would be to introduce a penalty to the maximum number of HS you regain after an extended rest when you have had to make one or several Death saving throws. Every failed Death saving throw results in -1 HS penalty to the maximum HSs you regain from an extened rest. You can make a saving throw at the end of every extended rest after the first to reduce this penalty with one, i.e. it will take several days to fully recover if you have taken serious damage (made Death saves).

The benefit of this would be that you can throw in a wandring monster during a party travel, and if it manage to at least hurt one character enough to cause a Death saving throw, it will have a lasting effect that may stay a couple of days and reduce the party member's strength once he or she gets to the actual dungeon. At the same time, it will not affect in dungeon multi-encounters as the penalty only affects the HS you regain after an extended rest. Once you cleared out the dungeon area, you can have ample of time (most likely several days) to recover to full health.

What do you think, would this work? or would it have a side effect that I have not considered?

/Myrhdraak

 

[dave2008]

One thing I have experienced with 4th Edition as a DM is that you have to plan 3-5 encounters between each extended rest in order to challenge the party. This is fine when in a dungeon or any other multi-encounter environment, but less so when the party for example is travelling and you want to throw in a single monster encounter during the travel. To challenge the players you have to make the encounter quite hard (either tough monsters or a lot of monsters), which might not really fit the intent as this "wandring monster encounter" takes a lot of game time to run through - which is seldom the intent.

One solution to this problem would be to introduce a penalty to the maximum number of HS you regain after an extended rest when you have had to make one or several Death saving throws. Every failed Death saving throw results in -1 HS penalty to the maximum HSs you regain from an extened rest. You can make a saving throw at the end of every extended rest after the first to reduce this penalty with one, i.e. it will take several days to fully recover if you have taken serious damage (made Death saves).

The benefit of this would be that you can throw in a wandring monster during a party travel, and if it manage to at least hurt one character enough to cause a Death saving throw, it will have a lasting effect that may stay a couple of days and reduce the party member's strength once he or she gets to the actual dungeon. At the same time, it will not affect in dungeon multi-encounters as the penalty only affects the HS you regain after an extended rest. Once you cleared out the dungeon area, you can have ample of time (most likely several days) to recover to full health.

What do you think, would this work? or would it have a side effect that I have not considered?

/Myrhdraak

It seems very reasonable. If we were still playing 4e I would give it a try. You could even go further and say every save causes a -1 and a failure a -2. That way even being forced into a death save has consequences.

 

[Myrhdraak]

It seems very reasonable. If we were still playing 4e I would give it a try. You could even go further and say every save causes a -1 and a failure a -2. That way even being forced into a death save has consequences.

Yes, maybe both a success and a failure should Count. However, I think a -2 penalty would be to go too far.

 

[dave2008]

Yes, maybe both a success and a failure should Count. However, I think a -2 penalty would be to go too far.

I guess it comes down to how often you see death saves. My last 4e campaign lasted 11 levels and I think we encountered 10-12 death saves over those 11 levels. So, for us i wouldn't have made that much of a difference.

 

[Myrhdraak]

I guess it comes down to how often you see death saves. My last 4e campaign lasted 11 levels and I think we encountered 10-12 death saves over those 11 levels. So, for us i wouldn't have made that much of a difference.

Thanks, great input, maybe the -2 would be valid then.

 

[dave2008]

Thanks, great input, maybe the -2 would be valid then.

What I like about your idea is that it makes the game more "gritty" without having to make all of the combats deadlier. I prefer to have a variety of encounters and I feel this concept makes that easier. One really dangerous fight has lasting consequences, I like it. It might encourage the PCs to find alternate ways to solve their problems.