New Article: Death and Dying

[mhensley]

Yay! They removed one of the last mechanics in the game that doesn't use a d20- the roll for stability. I hope they got rid of all percentile-based rolls.

Let's look at the odds of dying. I ran this thru a quick javascript simulation with 100,000 tests and got:

Saved=27215 (0.27215)
Killed=72785 (0.72785)

So when using the table in the article, you have over a 70% chance of dying if nobody comes to your aid. That's seems nasty enough to me.

 

[Peter LaCara]

There is a problem here. The character is stabilized, but what does that means? Is he conscious or not? Being stabilized prevents you from rolling a 20 and get 1/4 hit pts!

Well, I've rule that being at negative hp even in 3e doesn't mean that you're unconscious. It means that you're lying on the ground, desperately trying to hold your intestines in and screaming for your mother just as often as it means you're lying face down unconscious with blood pouring from your messy head wound.

It's true, someone making a heal check to stabilize you prevents you from rolling a natural 20 and potentially getting back into the fight, but so does rolling a 10-19 to stabilize normally. We know that the Heal skill can provide you with "healing reserves", so if someone uses Heal to stabilize you one round, they can possibly use Heal the next round to get you back into the fight.

 

[Wormwood]

Though I do like the play 4e now side bar! Hope to see these in every article now.

Hear, Hear!

That is the kind of thing I've been hoping to see in these preview articles. Nicely done.

 

[Thaumaturge]

So when using the table in the article, you have over a 70% chance of dying if nobody comes to your aid. That's seems nasty enough to me.

Thank you for the breakdown. Very cool.

Thaumaturge.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Yeah, I am viewing healing as the actual physical-act of being bandaged up, brought back from the brink. Then pulled out of the front-lines to be fully patched up.

This may take longer but it is a safer way to get back in the fight.

The recovery-method of rolling a 20. I view as simply your character either wakes up, or manages to push himself back on his feet, and continues to fight. Though he is still injured; I imagine Boromir after he went down after the first-barrage of arrows then got back up, rolled a 20.

 

[Sadrik]

Yes. It's very interesting. I think the rolling a d20 and looking at the chart will take some getting used to; I already remember it, but rolling 10% every round has become ingrained.

Thaumaturge.

This is the new "savings throw". So it is ingrained in the system in more than just here.

 

[A'koss]

At least at 1/4 hit points, the character is still bloodied (do we know if there are any penalties associated with that particular condition?)

Good question, I don't think they've said one way or the other. Being the target of many "bloodied-activated" abilities of your enemies is probably penalty enough...

 

[Stormtalon]

Hmmm, seems to be a bit of misinterpretation here on what 10-19 means.

The Table again:

If you’re dying at the end of your turn, roll 1d20.
Lower than 10: You get worse. If you get this result three times before you are healed or stabilized (as per the Heal skill), you die.
10-19: No change.
20: You get better! You wake up with hit points equal to one-quarter your full normal hit points.

Note that 10-19 doesn't say stabilize -- it says "no change." That means you're still in the same condition as last time and you keep rolling. You roll until one of two things happen: 3 results of "get worse" OR a Nat 20, "HAH! It was just a flesh wound after all!" There is no middle ground "stabilize."

 

[Grog]

Also, here's another pretty absurd corner case:

A fighter has 200 hit points at maximum, and is down to 5 HP. An orc stabs him for 6 points of damage, taking him down to -1. The next round, the fighter rolls a 20, and pops back up with 50 HP. So the orc just healed the fighter for 45 points by stabbing him in the gut.

I know that hit points are abstract, but that's pretty ridiculous.

 

[Lizard]

Hmmm, seems to be a bit of misinterpretation here on what 10-19 means.

The Table again:



Note that 10-19 doesn't say stabilize -- it says "no change." That means you're still in the same condition as last time and you keep rolling. You roll until one of two things happen: 3 results of "get worse" OR a Nat 20, "HAH! It was just a flesh wound after all!" There is no middle ground "stabilize."

Good point. Knowing that there could be as few as three rounds until death will force PCs to act quickly to heal a dying partner. (Of course, from what we've seen of 4e, this basically means using any of a number of "I do random action X and this heals an ally" powers, none of this messy trying to run to his aid and taking a round off from attacking stuff...I swear, sometimes it looks like every time you sneeze in 4e, someone gains back half their hit points...)