D&D (2024) How many of you would implement the drop to 0 HP, get 1 level of exhaustion house rule?

[ECMO3]

Sure. They are also designed to take it. There's a reason the "squishies" are called that.

Squishies are not very squishy in 5E.

Upcast False Life and the Shield spell alone or Armor of Agathys, will put Wizards, Sorcerers and Warlocks on roughly the same level as Barbarians and that is without trying.

Add in Absorb Elements, Silvery Barbs and other options like Strength of the Grave, Tomb of Levistus, Arcane Ward, Misty Step, etc and "squishies" are generally way less squishy in play than martials.

I had my Wizard get swallowed by a purple worm. I simply used my action to access my familiar's senses and misty stepped right out of the stomach. I was pretty heavily damaged from the bite and being swallowed, but would have been a lot worse off inside the worm's stomach. That is not all though, I could have just as easily used absorb elements from inside the stomach to reduce the damage to a mediocre amount or used absorb elements and dimension door to accomplish the same without a familiar and taking only half the acid damage. If I had lightning Bolt (which I didn't), I could have used absorb elements and probably made the worm cough me up from taking excessive damage.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Optimized spellcasters is not the norm across hundreds (and certainly not millions) of players.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Optimized spellcasters is not the norm across hundreds (and certainly not millions) of players.

Frontliners who get downed less often than casters are also not the norm.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

Optimized spellcasters is not the norm across hundreds (and certainly not millions) of players.

Quite true but Healing Word yo-yo healing is also not the norm, and Venn diagram between players who utilize that advanced combat tactic and players optimizing their characters would likely show significant overlap.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Frontliners who get downed less often than casters are also not the norm.

I understand that you believe that. I disagree.

 

[ECMO3]

Optimized spellcasters is not the norm across hundreds (and certainly not millions) of players.

Neither are optimized martials.

I am playing 4 games a week right now and have been playing between 2 and 4 every week for years now. Martials go down much, much more often than spell casters in virtually every game I play.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Neither are optimized martials.

Who said anything about optimized martials? I'm talking about an average game. Most of which have little to no optimization of anyone. I don't think casters get particularly knocked down more often than martials (a claim that I never made) but that I don't believe that martials get knocked down across the board more often then anyone else.

The claim that I disagreed with was that having a wound system overly punishes the front line. Now, I also don't think that finding a mechanical expression of injury is punishment because I enjoy the story of the underdog, and enjoy winning a fight while injured (and feeling it) - but that's another story.

I simply feel that who-gets-knocked-down is entirely dependent on the party make-up and somewhat random, and not, say "always the front-line". Someone else brought up optimization - which may or may not make any difference. I wouldn't know.

 

[ECMO3]

Who said anything about optimized martials? I'm talking about an average game. Most of which have little to no optimization of anyone. I don't think casters get particularly knocked down more often than martials (a claim that I never made) but that I don't believe that martials get knocked down across the board more often then anyone else.

The claim that I disagreed with was that having a wound system overly punishes the front line. Now, I also don't think that finding a mechanical expression of injury is punishment because I enjoy the story of the underdog, and enjoy winning a fight while injured (and feeling it) - but that's another story.

I simply feel that who-gets-knocked-down is entirely dependent on the party make-up and somewhat random, and not, say "always the front-line". Someone else brought up optimization - which may or may not make any difference. I wouldn't know.

There are a lot of people here that worry about balance (I am not one of them). I think a wound system increases the martial-caster divide more than it already is.

I don't consider that "punishment" as long as the players know it ahead of time, but it would make non-caster characters generally weaker as compared to casters. That is ok with me though.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

There are a lot of people here that worry about balance (I am not one of them). I think a wound system increases the martial-caster divide more than it already is.

I don't consider that "punishment" as long as the players know it ahead of time, but it would make non-caster characters generally weaker as compared to casters. That is ok with me though.

Again - I simply disagree. IME many DMs have monsters specifically TRY to murder spellcasters (for good reason) and my evidence is that the entire game is built around that vulnerability. Yes, the front line steps in the way - that's their job - but I have never seen it uncommon for that defense to be bypassed. I play near as many games as you and have done for decades, with many hundreds of players. It's just not a done deal. Maybe it's common in your games. That's fine. But I don't agree that it's a Universal Truism.

 

[Vaalingrade]

But I don't agree that it's a Universal Truism.

A general, observable trend doesn't have to be a universal truism