D&D General How do you feel about Save or Die?

[Monayuris]

In general it is better to die quickly and roll up a new character than sit and roll death saves.

Terrible rule.

 

[Zardnaar]

Depends who it relates to saves. Some critter should have it eg Medusa.

 

[Garthanos]

Personally I want a Basilisk or Cockatrice of or Medusa whatever to be a process its basically a damage type of stoning it may randomly induce upper or lower body slowing and immobilized if you are already slowed or disadvantage on attacks and then weakness on your attacks if they are already disadvantaged or similar if it takes you down to zero hit points you are stoned

And of course everybody must get.. stoned.

 

[Zardnaar]

Personally I want a Basilisk or Cockatrice of or Medusa whatever to be a process its basically a damage type of stoning it may randomly induce upper or lower body slowing and immobilized if you are already slowed or disadvantage on attacks and then weakness on your attacks if they are already disadvantaged or similar if it takes you down to zero hit points you are stoned

And of course everybody must get.. stoned.

Think I flunked a few con saves back in the day.

 

[Garthanos]

A save or die effect to me is just not interesting enough

 

[digitalelf]

And of course everybody must get.. stoned.

Not necessarily stoned... But... Beautiful!

 

[Garthanos]

Not necessarily stoned... But... Beautiful!

Hey ma the system is misattributing stuff again...

 

[digitalelf]

Hey ma the system is misattributing stuff again..

Interesting... Fixed!

 

[5ekyu]

In general it is better to die quickly and roll up a new character than sit and roll death saves.

Terrible rule.

Different tastes.

I was using a homebrew form of death saves back in 3e.

To me the beauty is to have that "vulnerable" period spawn immediate need for response to avoid death, to get you back in play. The drama is the push on the other PCs to get your downed character back up before that dead event occurs.

It changes folks choices and priorities in the immediate moment - especially in circumstances and tactics make it challenging.

Dead does nothing for me but "about go die" creates a challenge.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

That said, I think the "make a save every turn to end the spell, and it's a concentration spell and might end early anyways" mechanic used with hold person, for example, is a bit much of overcompensation, however. I'd prefer some other mechanism that keeps the spell a bit more dangerous than it currently is. I would not be opposed to having different rules for PCs and NPCs, even.

If Hold Person was just one save and paralysed for a full minute if you failed, it would need to be a higher level spell for balance reasons.

More to the point however, a player who still needs to roll a save during their combat round may have time to take a drinks order or similar between turns, but they are still engaged. Dropping dead in the first round is likely to have them start playing on their phone or similar.
You're going to get this issue when players die, which can't be helped. Having it happen more regularly isn't good though.

In general it is better to die quickly and roll up a new character than sit and roll death saves.

Terrible rule.

How does your game implement introducing new characters?