D&D 5E How the game changes when a DM starts to target downed PC's?

[FrogReaver]

Out of curiosity, are you speaking from personal play experience here, or are the changes that you list theoretical only?

I’ve not tried this specifically. I have been in lots of games with differing death rules though. So theoretically for me. Sounds like others have actually tried this to some degree though and seem to agree the theory matches the reality.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Or, again, just make "Unconcious" not be "peacefully sleeping as you shuffle off the mortal coil". Downed characters thrash, scream, bleed, etc. If you are wounded to the point where you're actually unconscious and unresponsive, you are likely either dead or very, very close to it. Otherwise, wounded but incapacitated characters are noisy.

Yeah this is really the classic videogame issue though where if, when you shot people, they reacted at all realistically, first-person shooters would be extremely unpopular, because of all the people on the floor screaming, begging for their mother, bleeding horrifically and so on. Movies and TV sometimes do similar stuff, esp. for baddies. If 0 HP was "screaming and bleeding", I don't think it would be great for D&D for most people lol.

I do think the "severely incapacitated but prone and able to crawl 10ft/round" is a reasonable compromise there.

 

[Hussar]

Fair enough @Ruin Explorer . I wasn't wedded to the exact details. That's perfectly fine to leave up to the DM and the table. No worries. But, the point I was trying to make was that "unconscious at 0" is the culprit here. I can totally see the "PUBG" approach to being knocked down. Yes, you can crawl, but, that's all you can do. Which means that you are now a valid target. If something isn't crawling away, that's because it's actually dead.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

This is one "reason" why I don't "Design Encounters for the PC's Capabilities". This ties into it directly; if I "custom make" an encounter to specifically avoid 'picking on' some race/class that the PC's don't poses (or are weak at/in), and then, through bad luck and/or bad decisions, one of the PC's "goes down"...well, as DM I am now VERY much in the position of "If the downed PC gets attacks...it, quite literally, is my fault. I am specifically 'choosing to have the monster kill the PC'. Me. MY choices".

BUT... if I don't care what the PC's capabilities are or aren't, past the most basic of bases (re: "X number of PC's, about Y average level"), and I "Build for the Campaign World"...then the Players know and understand how the 'world' works; it doesn't care about them. It isn't there for them to "get it" and "win" (...I always flash back to the interaction between Jack Burton and Lo Pan when I say that... "...Mr.Burton, you are not brought upon this world to 'get it'..." ).

So, if the Players know that the monsters/NPC's will react according to their own internal consistency that has been developed over months or years (or decades, in our groups case, all things considered)...then they know that when an NPC/Monster "attacks a downed PC", they aren't surprised.

Typical examples: Goblins will move on to the next target...Zombies or Ghouls will drop down and start eating. A Dire Bear may stand over and try and 'frighten' away the PC's, or try and drag the PC off. A group of Orcs may or may not try a Coup de Grais, depending on their 'orders', reasons for attacking, or other factors.

But, "Oh, I shouldn't do that as DM because it will upset the Player"...er...yeah. Not really on our radar, tbh.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Typical examples: Goblins will move on to the next target...Zombies or Ghouls will drop down and start eating. A Dire Bear may stand over and try and 'frighten' away the PC's, or try and drag the PC off. A group of Orcs may or may not try a Coup de Grais, depending on their 'orders', reasons for attacking, or other factors.

I think this is how most DMs play for the most part. Obviously the specific beliefs they have re: behaviour will vary, but in general terms yeah. Some DMs are more likely to have monsters attack downed PCs, some less, but few are likely to never to. For example, because IRL bears ignore downed targets for the most part (to the point where it's a standard defence against them), if there are "up" targets, I would almost always play them as doing that (unless yeah, they were starved and just wanted to run off with the body).

Worlds Without Number (an OSR D&D-relative) has an interesting mechanic I've mentioned a bit before, called Instinct, basically you roll 2d6 and if you roll under the instinct value for the creature, it makes a tactical error - i.e. behaves on instinct rather than sense (for example maybe trying to chow down during actual combat). You flavour it based on the intelligence and nature of the creature in question. Elite veteran mercs are likely to have a very low instinct value - they're rarely just going to do something dumb. Trained militia might have a middling instinct, and something like ghouls would have an extremely high one because they're very likely to do something purely instinctual.

 

[FrozenNorth]

And there's also an exception to every rule

Is there an exception to the rule that there’s an exception to every rule?

 

[Fanaelialae]

Worlds Without Number (an OSR D&D-relative) has an interesting mechanic I've mentioned a bit before, called Instinct, basically you roll 2d6 and if you roll under the instinct value for the creature, it makes a tactical error - i.e. behaves on instinct rather than sense (for example maybe trying to chow down during actual combat). You flavour it based on the intelligence and nature of the creature in question. Elite veteran mercs are likely to have a very low instinct value - they're rarely just going to do something dumb. Trained militia might have a middling instinct, and something like ghouls would have an extremely high one because they're very likely to do something purely instinctual.

Small nit pick. Morale uses 2d6, whereas Instinct rolls 1d10 in WWN. It means that morale checks will be significantly more predictable than instinct.

 

[Democratus]

The very first published module for D&D 5e, Hoard of the Dragon Queen, has a set-piece duel with a bad guy who specifically attacks his opponent once he is down.

This has been an acknowledged tactic in 5e from the start.

 

[Oofta]

Is there an exception to the rule that there’s an exception to every rule?

Death and taxes? Except the latter doesn't seem to apply if you have enough money.

 

[Asisreo]

Death and taxes? Except the latter doesn't seem to apply if you have enough money.

The former also doesn't apply with enough Royal Magic...

apparently, God blessed the Queen alot