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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 5698200" data-attributes="member: 7006">Going into negatives is easy... he's just down.  Maybe he's unconscious, maybe he's out of breath, maybe he's so stunned he just can't get to his knees and lift his weapon.  In any event, he isn't capable taking any combat action.  No big deal. It is the 'third strike and you're dead' saving throw rule that is admittedly the one place where the 4E format breaks down and you have to make the illogical jump from 'he's out of breath' to 'his body went into shock and now he's dead!'  And I fully expected someone to mention it, because you are absolutely correct... 4E combat isn't in any way simulationist across the board.But to be honest... I genuinely don't worry about it.  Having someone fail a third saving throw and 'die' happens so infrequently in comparison to people supposedly getting cut by greatswords or impaled by crossbow bolts or engulfed in fireballs that I usually just handwave it.  When the PC fails that third save, either they went into shock and died, or more usually narratively a monster performed a 'killing blow' on them.  And while yes, it's possible someone might ask of the situation 'wait, there was no monster adjacent to the PC when he died, how did they accomplish a killing blow?' or something like that... but usually the players themselves are so shocked that someone's been cacked that those questions of the leaps in logic don't usually rear their head.</blockquote>

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