D&D 5E New Death and Dying Rules

[Dausuul]

I, personally, can't stand that idea. Presuming that ("spike") healing - or some other immediate method of putting unconscious foes back on their feet - exists, then intelligent monsters should know to take an action to make sure that the enemy they just put down stays down, as your footnote noted.

Which is why I think spike healing of that sort should not exist--or at least, it should be quite rare. One of the things I hated about 4E was the way front-line fighters behaved like jack-in-the-boxes. He's down! He's up! He's down again! Ugh. When you go down, you should stay down for the rest of the fight.

Going to zero should sting. It should be a fate that PCs strive to avoid. It just shouldn't be an automatic death sentence.

The very idea of being unconscious and helpless as being a superior defense to being conscious and able to act just seems incredibly backwards to me.

It's not much of a defense. All it does is buy your buddies time to save you. If they don't, you're screwed.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

Ultimately, I would prefer to have characters start with more hit points and die at 0. Then, I would like a module to make unconsciousness (as well as wounds, staggered, and similar effects) become a possible result of taking significant damage.

 

[MarkB]

Only because, for some reason, NPCs that drop below 0 hit points are never healed by other NPCs, almost as though it just didn't occur to them...

In other words, PCs don't do that because GMs don't reinforce this idea on their (that is, the GM's) side of the fence.

And 4e actually codified that convention - most monsters and NPCs only have one healing surge, and only a handful have the ability to trigger that surge on an ally from a distance.

So the question is, should DDN retain the informal convention, or enshrine it formally in the ruleset as the previous edition did, or do away with it?

And if they do away with it, is some other method used to blunt the game's lethality toward players' characters, or will that increased lethality be considered an acceptable consequence?

 

[Sanglorian]

Going to zero should sting. It should be a fate that PCs strive to avoid. It just shouldn't be an automatic death sentence.

I love the way Dungeon World handles it. You take your last breath when you're reduced to 0 or below:

When you’re dying you catch a glimpse of what lies beyond the Black Gates of Death’s Kingdom (the GM will describe it). Then roll (just roll, [2d6] +nothing—yeah, Death doesn’t care how tough or cool you are). On a 10+ you’ve cheated death—you’re in a bad spot but you’re still alive. On a 7–9 Death will offer you a bargain. Take it and stabilize or refuse and pass beyond the Black Gates into whatever fate awaits you. On a miss, your fate is sealed. You’re marked as Death’s own and you’ll cross the threshold soon. The GM will tell you when.

 

[frankthedm]

Note that taking damage while dying counts as a failed death save. If you're dying,a goblin can stab you three times and you're toast.

Sigh, having to spend multiple rounds to saw through a neck was something that I would have like to see left with 4E.

 

[GX.Sigma]

Sigh, having to spend multiple rounds to saw through a neck was something that I would have like to see left with 4E.

Coup de grace is still a thing. In D&DN, it's a full action to do an attack (almost always with advantage) for instant death.

 

[Cyberen]

Which is why I think spike healing of that sort should not exist--or at least, it should be quite rare. One of the things I hated about 4E was the way front-line fighters behaved like jack-in-the-boxes. He's down! He's up! He's down again! Ugh. When you go down, you should stay down for the rest of the fight.

Going to zero should sting. It should be a fate that PCs strive to avoid. It just shouldn't be an automatic death sentence.



It's not much of a defense. All it does is buy your buddies time to save you. If they don't, you're screwed.

My thoughts, exactly.
Maybe I could envision healing (mundane or magical) putting back an ally on his feet SO HE CAN RUN FOR HIS LIFE. But not come back to fight !

 

[NewJeffCT]

Only because, for some reason, NPCs that drop below 0 hit points are never healed by other NPCs, almost as though it just didn't occur to them...

In other words, PCs don't do that because GMs don't reinforce this idea on their (that is, the GM's) side of the fence.

I guess I just played for bad DMs, as villains, NPCs and monsters receiving healing was a pretty common occurrence in the games I've played in over my 30+ years of gaming. And, when I DM'd my 3.5E game, healing was tossed back & forth across the battlefield by both my bad guys and the PCs. Heck, in the penultimate battle of the campaign, the party's dwarf fighter died 3 times in one combat - getting hit with two Revivifies and a Miracle (5000xp to allow True Resurrection as Standard Action, instead of a 10 minute casting time) to get him back on his feet each time.

One of the things I disliked about 4E when I DM'd it was that the monsters did not have the same access to healing as the PCs. So, I often gave monsters and NPCs access to additional healing - so, if something granted 5 temp hit points or healed 5 hp of damage, I'd change it to 15 temp hit points or healing 15 or similar.

 

[NewJeffCT]

And 4e actually codified that convention - most monsters and NPCs only have one healing surge, and only a handful have the ability to trigger that surge on an ally from a distance.

So the question is, should DDN retain the informal convention, or enshrine it formally in the ruleset as the previous edition did, or do away with it?

And if they do away with it, is some other method used to blunt the game's lethality toward players' characters, or will that increased lethality be considered an acceptable consequence?

One of my big dislikes in 4E - I did not like that monsters and NPCs did not have the same access to healing as the players, so I often changed things up to allow it for them, or increased the mini-healing they already had. Like, when a low level elite used an encounter power that allowed it an attack and to heal 5 hit points. I'd change the 5 to something that would actually be useful, like the equivalent of a healing surge, be it 15 or 20 hit points.

 

[Alzrius]

I guess I just played for bad DMs, as villains, NPCs and monsters receiving healing was a pretty common occurrence in the games I've played in over my 30+ years of gaming. And, when I DM'd my 3.5E game, healing was tossed back & forth across the battlefield by both my bad guys and the PCs. Heck, in the penultimate battle of the campaign, the party's dwarf fighter died 3 times in one combat - getting hit with two Revivifies and a Miracle (5000xp to allow True Resurrection as Standard Action, instead of a 10 minute casting time) to get him back on his feet each time.

That wasn't bad GMing...the entire point of my previous post was that this was an example of good GMing.