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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 6486824" data-attributes="member: 58197">The reason it's hard is that the instant death threshold in 5E is equal to your max hit points; you have to take that much damage in a single hit. In fact, you have to take that much damage plus your current hit points. At low levels, this is quite possible. A 4th-level wizard with Con 12 has 22 hit points; if you're already down to single digits and you take a good solid crit to the head, or even just a normal blow from an ogre that rolls high on damage, it can kill you dead right there.However, things change at high levels, because damage per hit does not scale at the same rate as hit points. Like PCs, high-end monsters increase their damage output partly through getting extra attacks, and instant death only happens if you take all the damage in a single blow. The same wizard at level 10 has 52 hit points, and very few monsters of CR 10 or less can deal that much damage in one hit. Even an adult red dragon, at CR 17, only deals an average of 63 with its biggest gun; and since the dragon is likely to open the fight by using its breath weapon, the wizard will probably have enough hit points to avoid outright death in the first blast.Now, you can still die by failed death saves, of course. But that takes a minimum of 3 rounds, and usually 4-5. Most of the time, the other PCs can get to you and stabilize you in time to prevent that. Even if they don't, you've got a better than 50% chance to stabilize on your own.The upshot is that 10th-level PCs are unlikely to die unless a) they get caught in area attacks while unconscious, or b) monsters go out of their way to finish them off.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 6486824, member: 58197"] The reason it's hard is that the instant death threshold in 5E is equal to your max hit points; you have to take that much damage in a single hit. In fact, you have to take that much damage [I]plus[/I] your current hit points. At low levels, this is quite possible. A 4th-level wizard with Con 12 has 22 hit points; if you're already down to single digits and you take a good solid crit to the head, or even just a normal blow from an ogre that rolls high on damage, it can kill you dead right there. However, things change at high levels, because damage per hit does not scale at the same rate as hit points. Like PCs, high-end monsters increase their damage output partly through getting extra attacks, and instant death only happens if you take all the damage in a single blow. The same wizard at level 10 has 52 hit points, and very few monsters of CR 10 or less can deal that much damage in one hit. Even an adult red dragon, at CR 17, only deals an average of 63 with its biggest gun; and since the dragon is likely to open the fight by using its breath weapon, the wizard will probably have enough hit points to avoid outright death in the first blast. Now, you can still die by failed death saves, of course. But that takes a minimum of 3 rounds, and usually 4-5. Most of the time, the other PCs can get to you and stabilize you in time to prevent that. Even if they don't, you've got a better than 50% chance to stabilize on your own. The upshot is that 10th-level PCs are unlikely to die unless a) they get caught in area attacks while unconscious, or b) monsters go out of their way to finish them off. [/QUOTE]

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