D&D 5E One-shot kills

[cmad1977]

Almost happened in our HOTDQ game. 6 armed trill attacked the Druid. A few hits with a crit or two and she was toast.
Wasn't sure if it would have killed her outright according to RAW. It says a single source right? Does a multi attack count as a single source... Or many sources?
Didn't want to look up the rules about it so it went to death saves.


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[fjw70]

When running the starter set adventure one of the PCs (a wizard) was one shotted by a bugbear that rolled a crit.

 

[Psikerlord#]

Outside the first couple levels? No. Then I modified "death" to occur at negative Con score, got rid of attacks affecting death saving throws. Now even a high-level hero risks death from a real good hit and being at low health, but still alive, matters.

I find 5E pretty safe past level 3. Killing low-level players with nothing but luck doesn't impress me in a system anyway.

I like this idea a lot. I think this would work awesome from 1st - 10th or so. Do you allow a death save when they hit -ve Con hp, or insta dead? I think for my players insta dead would feel a bit harsh, but they would probably go for a single death save when hit -ve Con. Have you seen many deaths in your campaign Shidaku?

 

[Psikerlord#]

I've never seen a one shot kill in 5e, probably because we didn't stay level 1-2 long and then you are out of the danger zone. I would looove a 5e death mechanic which sustained that danger of 1st and 2nd level (well, maybe not first - but 2nd!).

I like Shidaku's idea and think that could work very well. My only real concern would be after 11th level might be too many heavy hitting monsters (given 5e damage inflation) to sit comfortably with -ve Con hp = death.

 

[Sunseeker]

I like this idea a lot. I think this would work awesome from 1st - 10th or so. Do you allow a death save when they hit -ve Con hp, or insta dead? I think for my players insta dead would feel a bit harsh, but they would probably go for a single death save when hit -ve Con. Have you seen many deaths in your campaign Shidaku?

Once a player hits 0(or any number between 0 and -ConScore), they fall unconscious and start making death saves the next round, as per normal.
If they happen to hit -ConScore or higher from a single hit (lets say they are at +2HP to start with), they are dead dead.
--I had a Bard challenge a Barbarian Dire Bear (Dire Bear with 5 Barbarian class levels) to come get him, guardian of the forest type stuff. It didn't go well for the Bard, who issued his challenge while at 4HP. (he was level 8 and they'd already been fighting some of the other, weaker bear spirits a couple rounds)

So far I've killed two people. the Bard and one other guy who was really just unlucky. My players learned to play smart after that. They're up around level 12 now and there are a lot fewer direct fights.

The higher risk of dead characters is balanced out by the rarer fights. There's a much closer stupidity-death relationship now.

 

[Ganymede81]

I've seen two insta-kills of players in CoS, both by critical hit. One character, at level one, was killed by a single hit in the ghoul ambush, while another was killed by the mimic in one hit when she went to listen at the "door."

 

[MerricB]

I've seen two insta-kills of players in CoS, both by critical hit. One character, at level one, was killed by a single hit in the ghoul ambush, while another was killed by the mimic in one hit when she went to listen at the "door."

Oh, mimics! The monster that just keeps giving good stories.

Cheers!

 

[Psikerlord#]

Once a player hits 0(or any number between 0 and -ConScore), they fall unconscious and start making death saves the next round, as per normal.
If they happen to hit -ConScore or higher from a single hit (lets say they are at +2HP to start with), they are dead dead.
--I had a Bard challenge a Barbarian Dire Bear (Dire Bear with 5 Barbarian class levels) to come get him, guardian of the forest type stuff. It didn't go well for the Bard, who issued his challenge while at 4HP. (he was level 8 and they'd already been fighting some of the other, weaker bear spirits a couple rounds)

So far I've killed two people. the Bard and one other guy who was really just unlucky. My players learned to play smart after that. They're up around level 12 now and there are a lot fewer direct fights.

The higher risk of dead characters is balanced out by the rarer fights. There's a much closer stupidity-death relationship now.

LOL! Well sounds like it is working as intended then! I'd be very interested to hear how this system plays out in the higher level games, as monster damage gets increasingly large. But as you say at 12th+ the PCs have a lot more control over whether they engage/or stay engaged, in a fight.

 

[S'mon]

Almost happened in our HOTDQ game. 6 armed trill attacked the Druid. A few hits with a crit or two and she was toast.
Wasn't sure if it would have killed her outright according to RAW. It says a single source right? Does a multi attack count as a single source... Or many sources?
Didn't want to look up the rules about it so it went to death saves.


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Technically the additional hits beyond 0 hp should have been crits inflicting 2 failed death saves each. This is an annoying feature of the 'no negative hp' rule. Personally I just add up the damage and treat as single-source, that's actually kinder on the PC in most cases.

 

[TheLoneRanger1979]

In 5E? Those 3 nasty assassins in HoDQ one hit our paladin (KO-d), but fortunately they didn't want us dead, so we only ended up with lots of bruises, both on the body and the ego.

In 4E though, there was this one encounter with a mature dragon (i was not personally present during that one) on our way to the pyramid of Karavakos, where the dragon score 2 claw attacks and a critical bite on our halfling mage.... and sent him to the never-ever land. We wound up resurrecting the poor guy, but man..... that must have hurt......