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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Camelot" data-source="post: 5086556" data-attributes="member: 82617">The only combat I've experienced is 4e, but I believe this could apply to any combat. Death is something to be avoided, obviously, but not just for the player.  A dead character could put a huge dent in a DM's story, forcing the characters to sidetrack or backtrack to either ressurect the character or find a replacement.  It leads to DMs going too easy on the players or handwaving damage and rules. I thought of a simple way to make death a choice for the player, so it only happens if it fits the story, but the rules are not drastically changed.  When a character is "dying," they are instead falling towards uncosciousness.  The only rule that is changed is that they can talk; they still need to make death saving throws, are still helpless, etc. for whatever system.  When a character is "dead," they are instead unconscious, but will not wake up until they have gotten plenty of rest and medical attention.  Of course, if the player wishes, their character could "lose the will to live" and still die upon reaching this point. The benefit of this houserule is that the DM can feel free to be more ruthless with the characters, not having to fudge attacks or make monsters act in a way they wouldn't normally.  Plus, if there is a TPK, this could instead lead to the PCs being captured, or they wake up later after the monsters left them for dead.  The game only ends if everyone thinks it should, which I think is a great improvement over accidental TPKs that result in a restart of the campaign. This also introduces the possibility of serious wounds.  To make falling unconscious a little more scary, and also still involve the player, on their turn they can roll to see if they accrue a serious wound, kind of like a death saving throw (of course, adjustments can be made for whatever system you're using, I'm assuming 4e).  A serious wound acts like a disease: it gives you some penalty, you need Endurance to get better, Heal can help, it gets worse if you don't take care, and can become permanent. The only downside to this system that I can see is that it might make some options less powerful if they deal with coming back from the death, like many epic destinies including Undying Warrior, since even though "unconscious" is still mechanically functioning as death, you come back eventually, so coming back in 24 hours from the dead is not that amazing.  I think this could be circumvented by declaring that a character dies instead of falling unconsciou if it has such an option so that the balance is not skewed. Any thoughts?</blockquote>

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