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Message: <blockquote data-quote="redrick" data-source="post: 6522766" data-attributes="member: 6777696">Death save or no, once a sole character is unconscious in a group of foes, he's done for. Two melee hits from the ettercaps will automatically kill. They melee with advantage vs a paralyzed foe and automatically hit with critical damage, which is the equivalent of failing 2 death saves. Or, as Jester Canuck suggested, they can cocoon him and drag him off to their lair, which at least allows for a chance at a rescue mission. (Which isn't necessary. Nothing wrong with killing a character on screen so we know for sure there is no turning back.)The character's only chance would have been if the ettercaps, once knocking him unconscious, decided to walk away and leave him in a semi paralytic state on the side of the road. Which seems unlikely to me.It's a bummer when you get a rules thing wrong, especially when it tarnishes a player character facing the consequences of his own foolish actions. If the player, or anybody else at the table, had challenged your rules calling on that poison in that moment, you would have been right to double check and, if it wasn't too late, walk back your ruling. Same thing with the death save. I'm sure a player from my group would have whipped out his PHB at that point and gone to the conditions section and shouted triumphantly, "Disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks! Not saving throws!" You could even try to walk back a situation like this in the immediate aftermath of a session, once you realized your mistake. That's where you'd say, "Actually, Bob, your wizard faded in and out of consciousness as the ettercaps wrapped him up in a cocoon," and then tell your players, "Actually, guys, you never found the body." That retcon is probably ok if everything is still fresh. On the other hand, a 4th level wizard going toe to toe with 3 ettercaps should be dead, and I think he would have died even without your misreading of the poisoned condition.It's your job to be the ref on the rules, and you do have to do your best to know them, but it's not your job to know every single rule in the book. I sure as hell don't know them all, and I frequently have players correct me on things. Sometimes, a player disagrees with my interpretation and, in the interest of keeping the game going, I overrule that player and sometimes, after the session, I pull out the books and realize that the player was right and I was wrong. Sometimes this works to the players' disadvantage. Frequently, however, I forget rules or features to the players' advantage. I'll forget that a creature has multi-attack, or forget that a creature has a saving throw proficiency or forget that a creature has a trait that allows them to do something nasty and inappropriate. Nobody mourns when one of my monsters goes early to the grave because the DM forgot he had advantage when an ally is within 5 feet.edit: grammar</blockquote>

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