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Is Dying really hard?
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<blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 7238905" data-attributes="member: 6877472"><p>As I was posting in another thread, I realized that I had more to say about this mechanic. I've heard a lot of complaints about how death saves turn the game into "whack-a-mole". Player gets hit for a lot of damage, but not enough to instantly kill him (a very common event), starts dying, someone Healing Words him...lather, rinse, repeat.</p><p></p><p>But I haven't seen that happen as much. What I actually see happen goes more like this...</p><p></p><p>DM: Ok, so, the monster hits you for...27 piercing.</p><p>Player: Damn, that drops me.</p><p>Healbot: Ugh, I just healed you on my last turn!</p><p>DM: Ok Player, it's your turn. Make your first death save.</p><p>Player: Come on, natural 20! 19, figures. Well that was my turn.</p><p>DM: Ok, Healbot, you're up.</p><p>Healbot, thinking out loud: Ok, so if I heal you, you have to survive until your next turn before you can do anything...but if I heal the Barbarian...</p><p>Player: Hey! I'm dying here!</p><p>Healbot: I only have so many spell slots, and we need to win this fight or we're all dead. You know what, screw this, I'll Guiding Bolt the bad guy. Oh hey, nat 20, let's go 8d6 damage!</p><p>Player: can I get a heal now?</p><p>Healbot: Sorry, I'll throw Healing Word at the Barbarian, I bet he can kill the monster for sure now...</p><p></p><p>Some Time Later...</p><p></p><p>DM: Ok Player, it's your turn.</p><p>Player, watching videos on his phone: Huh? Oh, yeah, right, death save. Come on, 20...oh what the...I rolled a 1.</p><p>DM: Sorry Player, you're dead.</p><p>Player: Whatever, I'm out of here.</p><p></p><p>Is this not common? It may be "easy" to revive people, but what I keep seeing is that it's not possible to heal everyone, it's not always tactically viable to use spell slots to heal fallen instead of other options, and that even if you do heal them, the amount of healing received is so pitiful that chances are very good you get knocked back down. I also keep seeing players get knocked down right before their turns, when nobody has a chance to do anything so that they have a 90% chance of losing their turn, a 5% chance to die outright, and a 5% chance of actually being able to do something (though, at 1 hit point, they'll probably get knocked down again in short order)...A LOT. I don't know why that is, and again, if that's something that's rare at most people's tables, I'd like to know.</p><p></p><p>The short version of all this is, while I know "whack-a-mole" situations can happen, my anecdotal experience has been very different, and I'm curious how common that experience is. Sure, I've seen the "guy takes 47 damage, doesn't die, gets brought back up before his next turn, no loss of uptime" happen. But the "guy takes damage, doesn't die, suffers loss of uptime, and is at serious risk of actually dying" scenario has been, again, in my experience, a lot more common.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="James Gasik, post: 7238905, member: 6877472"] As I was posting in another thread, I realized that I had more to say about this mechanic. I've heard a lot of complaints about how death saves turn the game into "whack-a-mole". Player gets hit for a lot of damage, but not enough to instantly kill him (a very common event), starts dying, someone Healing Words him...lather, rinse, repeat. But I haven't seen that happen as much. What I actually see happen goes more like this... DM: Ok, so, the monster hits you for...27 piercing. Player: Damn, that drops me. Healbot: Ugh, I just healed you on my last turn! DM: Ok Player, it's your turn. Make your first death save. Player: Come on, natural 20! 19, figures. Well that was my turn. DM: Ok, Healbot, you're up. Healbot, thinking out loud: Ok, so if I heal you, you have to survive until your next turn before you can do anything...but if I heal the Barbarian... Player: Hey! I'm dying here! Healbot: I only have so many spell slots, and we need to win this fight or we're all dead. You know what, screw this, I'll Guiding Bolt the bad guy. Oh hey, nat 20, let's go 8d6 damage! Player: can I get a heal now? Healbot: Sorry, I'll throw Healing Word at the Barbarian, I bet he can kill the monster for sure now... Some Time Later... DM: Ok Player, it's your turn. Player, watching videos on his phone: Huh? Oh, yeah, right, death save. Come on, 20...oh what the...I rolled a 1. DM: Sorry Player, you're dead. Player: Whatever, I'm out of here. Is this not common? It may be "easy" to revive people, but what I keep seeing is that it's not possible to heal everyone, it's not always tactically viable to use spell slots to heal fallen instead of other options, and that even if you do heal them, the amount of healing received is so pitiful that chances are very good you get knocked back down. I also keep seeing players get knocked down right before their turns, when nobody has a chance to do anything so that they have a 90% chance of losing their turn, a 5% chance to die outright, and a 5% chance of actually being able to do something (though, at 1 hit point, they'll probably get knocked down again in short order)...A LOT. I don't know why that is, and again, if that's something that's rare at most people's tables, I'd like to know. The short version of all this is, while I know "whack-a-mole" situations can happen, my anecdotal experience has been very different, and I'm curious how common that experience is. Sure, I've seen the "guy takes 47 damage, doesn't die, gets brought back up before his next turn, no loss of uptime" happen. But the "guy takes damage, doesn't die, suffers loss of uptime, and is at serious risk of actually dying" scenario has been, again, in my experience, a lot more common. [/QUOTE]
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