Little Known Rules of D&D

[eamon]

The PHB covers the normal case of natural healing. A normal dying character can't survive for a day without stabilizing, which is why the section on dying mentions natural healing in the most appropriate section - recovery - which can take a day or more. It does strongly suggest that you do not heal naturally while recovering without help, but doesn't mention the case in which you could naturally heal while not yet stabilized (since this is impossible normally). It does say that a stabilized creature has a 10% chance per day to start healing naturally once more, which almost, but not quite, spells out that you don't heal naturally when unstabilized. It's not hard to extrapolate that an unstabilized creature is worse off than a stabilized creature, so allowing an unstabilized creature to naturally heal "fast" makes no sense unless you also allow a stabilized creature to heal if it has fast healing.

"A creature with the fast healing special quality regains hitpoints at an exceptionally fast rate, usually 1 or more hit points per round, [...]". The exceptional healing ability is exceptional in the rate of healing. The ability does not mention dying in any way, nor recovery therefrom, but does say that it works like natural healing otherwise. Natural healing does not work while recovering unaided, and neither does Fast Healing therefore. The fact that it would exceptionally heal several hitpoints per round doesn't help since the ability isn't functioning at all, since it's no different from natural healing in that respect.

Cheiromancer is correct in saying that Fast Healing doesn't work when dying - i.e. when below 0 hit points.

Unless... you think that a dying creature does heals naturally but stops once he's stabilized. In that case I wish you much luck with a creature that has fast healing 1, and drops to -9. (Do you first roll to stabilize at the beginning of your turn, or first heal fast, at the beginning of your turn?) Once the creature is stable, it stops Fast Healing. Then it has a 10% chance per day to start healing again, but otherwise loses 1 hitpoint per day, (which isn't unstabilizing) which might still kill the creature.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Unless... you think that a dying creature does heals naturally but stops once he's stabilized.

That's what it says.

Creatures heal naturally.

What is the exception to this?

A character who becomes stable on his own (by making the 10% roll while dying) and who has no one to tend to him still loses hit points, just at a slower rate. He has a 10% chance each hour of becoming conscious. Each time he misses his hourly roll to become conscious, he loses 1 hit point. He also does not recover hit points through natural healing.

The exception - creature who do not recover hit points through natural healing - are those who become stable on their own by making the 10% roll while dying.

A creature who has not become stable on his own by making the 10% roll while dying is not a member of this set. So the dying creature with Fast Healing who has not stabilised is not prohibited from healing naturally; he thus gains his hit points back, and in so doing becomes stable. But since he has not become stable on his own by making the 10% roll while dying (he became stable because he was healed of at least one point of damage), he is still not prohibited from healing naturally.

-Hyp.

 

[eamon]

That's what it says.

Creatures heal naturally.

You mean, that's your interpretation. That's certainly not mine - the rules on stabilization cover those cases there where they're necessary, and that means, they don't describe what happens after hours if such a stage can only take a minute. The entire segment paints a cohesive, consistent picture of a creature that loses hitpoints slightly more slowly once stabilized. The section on "not healing naturally" can certainly be read as considering those two states to be mutually exclusive, which makes much more sense.

Given the context, it's logical to mention the rule about natural healing in the rules about stabilization. This isn't an exercise in computer programming, but in reading comprehension.

If somebody tells you not to cross the road when a car's approaching, do you cross when a truck's coming?

So, ignoring the fact that D&D's rules about death and dying are supposed to mimic mortally wounded creatures, and placing them in a semantic vacuum, you would consider "natural healing" to halt when stabilizes and presumably not when unstabilized. Of course, in a semantic vacuum, you probably couldn't make sense of any of this, so it's something of a moot point? Fortunately, it's written in english, and that means these texts have meaning. Considering that the PHB is written for players and covers player characters, and considering that these only need to deal with natural healing once stabilized, and considering what stabilizing represents and how the rules present it, it makes perfect sense to place a note concerning natural healing in the most relevant section - namely that about stable but still dying characters - and makes no sense to allow healing to "stop" once stabilized, ergo the statement should apply to all dying creatures.

 

[mvincent]

You can increase your hp if you start drowning while below 0 hp:
"When the character finally fails her Constitution check, she begins to drown. In the first round, she falls unconscious (0 hp)."

 

[Fifth Element]

You can increase your hp if you start drowning while below 0 hp:
"When the character finally fails her Constitution check, she begins to drown. In the first round, she falls unconscious (0 hp)."

I hope you're being facetious?

 

[erf_beto]

You can increase your hp if you start drowning while below 0 hp:
"When the character finally fails her Constitution check, she begins to drown. In the first round, she falls unconscious (0 hp)."

Oh, that's why people say thermal springs have curative properties
I just never tried drowning in them...
lol

 

[mvincent]

I hope you're being facetious?

Of course. This thread seemed a good enough place for RAW vs. RAI oddities. Here's my complete list (I've provided it on these forums before, but I recently added some new ones):
1) “A defender wearing spiked gauntlets can't be disarmed.” Taking the Rules As Written literally here would imply that spiked gauntlets prevents someone from disarming any of your weapons.
2) “A creature can’t hide within 60 feet of a character with darkvision unless it is invisible or has cover.” RAW implies that a dwarf cannot hide within 60’ of himself
3) “Evasion can be used only if the rogue is wearing light armor or no armor.” RAW implies that a rogue cannot use a ring of evasion while in armor, even though other PC’s can.
4) "Speed while wearing elven chain is 30 feet for Medium creatures, or 20 feet for Small." RAW implies that elven chain would make Dwarves go faster, but Barbarians, Monks, Flyers, etc. would go slower.
5) "When the character finally fails her Constitution check, she begins to drown. In the first round, she falls unconscious (0 hp). " Taken literally, this could allow someone below 0 hp to have their hp increased when drowning.
6) "Suffocation: A character who has no air to breathe can hold her breath for 2 rounds per point of Constitution. " Strictly as written, the suffocation rules would technically apply to non-breathing creatures.
7) "a hasted creature may make one extra attack with any weapon he is holding". As written; natural attacks, unarmed strikes, armor spikes and animated shield bashes cannot benefit from haste’s extra attack.
8) "If people are observing you, even casually, you can’t hide. ". So a rogue could not hide from the enemies while being observed by his allies.
9) Strictly by RAW, a monk is not given proficiency with unarmed strikes (i.e. a monk does not have proficiency with simple weapons, which unarmed strike is).
10) The jump skill description says "Long Jump: A long jump is a horizontal jump, made across a gap like a chasm or stream. ", so one could not long jump over something that is not a gap.
11) Although ranged attacks are listed as provoking AoO’s in the Standard Actions table, full attacks (included ranged full attacks) do not provoke according to the Full-round actions table.
12) No rule says you’re prone when you lose consciousness.

 

[werk]

12) No rule says you’re prone when you lose consciousness. [/SIZE]

re:#12
"Unconscious
Knocked out and helpless."

"Melee attacks against a helpless target get a +4 bonus (equivalent to attacking a prone target)."

So they re not prone, but they are treated as such...they get none of the benefits of being prone and all of the penalties except having to stand once the condition has changed.

One could make an argument that it is a typo and should say 'knocked down' which is an actual condition rather than fluff text...but it'd be a pretty hard argument to win.

 

[Hypersmurf]

You mean, that's your interpretation. That's certainly not mine...

It's not your interpretation that creatures heal naturally?

the rules on stabilization cover those cases there where they're necessary, and that means, they don't describe what happens after hours if such a stage can only take a minute.

Fast Healing doesn't happen after hours. It happens after seconds.

The section on "not healing naturally" can certainly be read as considering those two states to be mutually exclusive, which makes much more sense.

The section on 'not healing naturally' is attached to the paragraph describing the creature who has stabilised on his own by making the 10% stabilisation roll, not any dying creature.

Considering that the PHB is written for players and covers player characters, and considering that these only need to deal with natural healing once stabilized...

... unless they've acquired Fast Healing.

-----

Even if you elect to ignore the rules text regarding dying characters, there's still the issue that Fast Healing is like natural healing except where noted here, and one of the notes is that the character heals X hit points each round.

A dying character who has stabilised on his own by making the 10% stabilisation check does not heal at all, X hit points per round or otherwise; A dying character with Fast Healing who has stabilised on his own by making the 10% stabilisation check, as noted here, heals X hit points per round, since this is a way in which Fast HEaling differs from natural healing.

-Hyp.

 

[ivocaliban]

Has anyone considered compiling these little known rules in a file format? They'd be somewhat handy to print out and stick in the back of the core books.