New Article: Death and Dying

[Spatula]

I haven't had time to check the page numbers myself, but I imagine they're accurate.

That proof enough?

PHB pg 105: "If any creature reaches 0 or negative hit points, it is dead." Only mention of negative hp on the page.

EDIT: someone already got the DMG quote, which (surprise!) directly contradicts the PHB one... Ah, AD&D.

 

[JDJblatherings]

Actually, that used to annoy me, players trying to smack things within -1 and -10 hp so they could revive them after the battle and "interrogate” them (meta-playing crap)."

Beating the heck out of something/someone and trying to revive them to interrogate them isn't metagaming.

 

[Derren]

I wonder if with this rule "kill healing" would be feasible like in some team online shooter games.
In those games the medic sometimes kills a badly wounded teammate and then revive him because that uses less energy than to heal him.

In D&D that means that someone high level/HP whos current HP are below 10 is killed by the team and now has 2 turns to roll a 20 to heal 1/4 of his HP for free before the party stabilizes him and heals him normally (maybe just 1 point to kill him again for another chance of a free 25% healing).

But depending on how healing works in 4E this might not be necessary as the PCs might be able to heal up after every combat automatically. Still, in 3E using this rules it seems like a good strategy to save some cure serious wounds spells.

 

[Steely Dan]

Beating the heck out of something/someone and trying to revive them to interrogate them isn't metagaming.

Read my post again.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I wonder if with this rule "kill healing" would be feasible like in some team online shooter games.
In those games the medic sometimes kills a badly wounded teammate and then revive him because that uses less energy than to heal him.

In D&D that means that someone high level/HP whos current HP are below 10 is killed by the team and now has 2 turns to roll a 20 to heal 1/4 of his HP for free before the party stabilizes him and heals him normally (maybe just 1 point to kill him again for another chance of a free 25% healing).

But depending on how healing works in 4E this might not be necessary as the PCs might be able to heal up after every combat automatically. Still, in 3E using this rules it seems like a good strategy to save some cure serious wounds spells.

I suspect that most healing will be based on the "Second Wind" mechanic, which means that it doesn't matter whether you get healing from the healer or you get healing from rolling a 20 on your "stabilization" rule. The end result is always the same. The only thing that matters is the timing - you can't count on rolling a 20, but you can count on the healers heal spell working (barring special circumstances, off course).

Implementing this rule in 3.x creates artifacts that should not appear in 4E.

 

[eleran]

That's the problem. The GM should be held to the same standard as the other players at the table. It's one of the biggest turn-offs for outsiders because it's seen as sanctioned cheating; the solution isn't to make special cases for the GM, but to make the standard ruleset universally fair and elegant. It's not like it hasn't been done.

Your attitude is precisely why a lot of players, myself included really dislike DMing in 3.x.

I prefer to use Phobos advice of "Just say yes" when the PCs ask if anyone on the battlefield is left alive to interrogate. It seems pretty simple to me.

PCs: We will check the bodies to see if anyone is still alive.
DM: Orc #5 seems to be barely hanging on, his breathing is shallow, but it is breathing.
PCs: We tie him up and try to stabilize him with a heal check.
etc.

Why does that bother anyone? It gets the job done insofar as providing someone for them to interrogate, rescue, whatever. And it keeps me from making endless rolls to and taking endless notes to keep track of whomever might have survived. If they don't ask then no one survived, unless for the sake of the story I want someone to survive. Then I can either have the PCs notice some groaning as they are lotting the bodies or whatever, or have someone crawl off the battlefield after the PCs have left.

 

[HP Dreadnought]

I like it.

 

[Grazzt]

Monsters die at zero hp in 3e right now? Must have missed that bit in the rules...

Only Constructs and Undead I believe.

 

[Stalker0]

One thing I think would be good to add is that if you roll a 1 on the die, you get 2 strikes against you.

Then you have a nice 2-7 round spread of unconsciousness, and then you can really never take unconsciousness for granted.

As it stands, you will always have a few rounds, and you will often have a lot more than that.

 

[Professor Phobos]

2) Monsters are dead at 0 hit points, unless they've been predetermined as being important to "the plot". So, I guess PCs now can't nurse one of those goblins back to positive hit points in order to pump him for information, then?

Nah, if the PC's want to pump one for information, then he automatically becomes important to the plot, yes?