Longer dying: more negative HP before death

[Avaya]

Ahhh... but Mr. RBDM you are forgetting the Avaya factor.

Disintigrate takes care of that pesky problem

That and her sharp well worn sacrificial daggers.

"I SEE DEAD PEOPLE"

Avaya

I think I'll reverse my decision on the magical healing. The aim there was to prevent a 1st level adept from succeeding 100% of the time and give non-magical medics a reason to exist where a god's power cannot.

For the large battles with 20+ guys dropping like flies, DM discretion and pregenerated averages against the stabilization and damage already taken will have to be used for the sake of time, just like they are now. The only difference is that the length of time available to die is greater.

The point is to give both heroic PCs and NPCs a wider range in which to survive multiple high-damage attacks in a round. As the AC versus to-hit increase with the levels, the damage mitigation does not match the damage output. This is also mechanism allowing a 19th level character swarmed in a surprise round a greater chance to survive. As smart enemies will decide to chew up one PC at a time, the first target PC might not get the protection or healing before acting. The space of -1 to -10 will flash by with a single hit, with or without stoneskin or other DR.

All characters will already know this to an extent. When they know a cleric is on the field, they may decide to take a few more attacks on a downed BBEG instead of cleaving into one of his minions. Now when that cleric hits his BBEG boss with a cure critical, that BBEG doesn't pop back into action.

One of the last items is abusing the Die Hard feat, of which I would immediately be guilty. Die Hard would only work in the range of -1 up to -10 plus Con bonus.

A commander may also instruct his army on how to fight, such as spare no one or make them beg forgiveness. Whoever wins the battlefield may recover more heroic wounded troops and may also grant mercy to the losers. Or the winner could slay all of those dying enemies, ensuring they will never muster again. Such commands would surely affect the moral of the soldiers in large-scale battles.

 

[MarauderX]

Ahhh... but Mr. RBDM you are forgetting the Avaya factor.

Disintigrate takes care of that pesky problem

Avaya

I'm not forgetting about the spells like Power Word X or Disintegrate. Those still work as normal, and spells like Death Ward exist for that reason.

Die Hard is a pretty powerful feat, basically loaning the character another 10 HP to do partial actions. It also requires Endurance, and I won't be changing anything with those feats.

 

[Brother MacLaren]

I'm not forgetting about the spells like Power Word X or Disintegrate. Those still work as normal, and spells like Death Ward exist for that reason.

Death Ward doesn't stop Disintegrate, because that spell doesn't have the [Death] descriptor after it.

 

[MarauderX]

Death Ward doesn't stop Disintegrate, because that spell doesn't have the [Death] descriptor after it.

Right.

 

[evilbob]

I tried using -10 - level - Con modifier (where negative Con modifiers actually raised this number) and this was just annoying because it was a weird formula that no one remembered. I've recently changed it to -10 - Con score, mostly because it's about the same number, simpler, and also suggested by one of the core book writers on his personal website (can't remember who atm).

I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment that -10 feels arbitrary and annoying, and leads quickly to death at high levels. However, if you're talking about a level 19 party, character death is pretty much a possibility in any encounter, no matter how you run it - once 9th level spells start getting flung around, battles tend to be extremely quick and extremely decisive.

 

[Harm]

Constitution is already figured into preventing you from dying by giving you more HP, it's probably not a good idea to use it a second time (3rd time if you're counting fort saves for massive damage), it's already the number 1 most important stat in the game by a large margin.

-(10+level) is probably the most sense, and give everyone the Die Hard feat for free. Alternatly just give everyone the Improved Toughness feat, which is +1hp/level which pretty much accomplishes the same thing without adding house rules.

 

[Li Shenron]

Constitution is already figured into preventing you from dying by giving you more HP, it's probably not a good idea to use it a second time (3rd time if you're counting fort saves for massive damage), it's already the number 1 most important stat in the game by a large margin.

IMHO the most important stat is Dex, but however it's true IMXP that almost no one chooses to have a Con below 10.

But perhaps if Con is "used a second time" it might actually mean that less character will pump it up even more, isn't it?

 

[airwalkrr]

I think amalgamating some of the ideas found here would be cool. A PC dies when he takes damage in excess of his Con score plus his level beyond 0 hp. Thus, a 1st level PC with 15 Constitution dies at -16. A 10th level PC with a 10 Constitution dies at -20. A PC who takes enough damage to put him below 0 can make a Con check (DC = negative hp total) to stay conscious but disabled. This is optional, so a character could opt to either pass out (and be dying) or attempt to continue standing (and make a Con check).

Perhaps too complicated, but I like the way it works.

 

[the Jester]

I have a custom feat, Cling to Life, that lets you live down to a negative total equal to your level plus your con score. I'm also using it as a rules variant that everyone gets for free in my low-magic game.