clearstream
(He, Him)
Something my group is trying at present is that when you go to 0 you additionally gain the Stunned condition for 5 rounds.Ive been thinking about Death Saves.
In my current 5E game I house ruled we use the Shadowdark system for Death. Basically a bleeding out effect.
Anyways, after talking with one of my players I've reconsidered Death Saves because it was pointed out that it gives the player something to do on their turn. And as much as I hate multiple saves and think 5E takes it to easy on players, that is a fair point. I may even let this carry over into other D&D type games. This of course would still be an issue if someone gets turned to stone or whatever but hey, don't get turned to stone.
So I reinstated it with 1 addendum, you gain a level of exhaustion whenever KOed.
What that means is that even if you are healed sooner, you remain incapacitated, only able to speak falteringly. Our aim is to avoid the unattractive "whack-a-mole" gameplay without increasing incentives for taking rest downtime.
So far players have responded by putting greater priority on buffs and actions that keep them standing. This in turn makes non-deadly encounters a test of player nerve and assessment, to avoid spending too many resources on them. GM needs to tell players more about foes, so players can make this assessment. We use extended rests for our open world campaign*, so 5MWDs have a meaningful narrative cost.
@EzekielRaiden possible example?
*This is a correction to tempo, where typical actions run hours and days rather than rounds and minutes. Ludically, tempo itself doesn't matter unless you have a meaningful clock... the grind in TB2, the faction game in BitD, and in our campaign a space and resources depletion cycle.
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