D&D 5E psychic scream: 0hp or killed

[Xenonnonex]

You seem to have an interesting definition of, "logical application."

Murder Hobo logic is inexplicable.

 

[Flamestrike]

More exploding heads is cool.

This.

I'd happily rule 0 HP = squish.

 

[Morrus]

I don't know, but that's the logical application of (1) "if this kills a creature" and (2) the thing saying that some GMs will not bother with death saves for "monsters". It doesn't seem useful, really, but hey, it's a 9th level spell, it should admit creative interpretations.

But you know it’s a NPC if it’s not a PC. And the PCs are the ones played by the people round the table!

 

[MarkB]

But you know it’s a NPC if it’s not a PC. And the PCs are the ones played by the people round the table!

Well, normally that would be the case, but in these trying times the ones playing those characters are just voices coming through our headphones. This test could help to differentiate them from the voices in our heads.

 

[jaelis]

Just to make the point that psychic scream is not unique here... we see similar mechanics in finger of death, immolation, and the gibbering mouther. I imagine there are more.

 

[jgsugden]

From the PHB:

Monsters and Death

Most DMs have a monster die the instant it drops to 0 hit points, rather than having it fall unconscious and make death saving throws.

Mighty villains and special nonplayer characters are common exceptions; the DM might have them fall unconscious and follow the same rules as player characters.

For abilities like this that trigger on death, they trigger on:

* PCs when they take enough damage in one strike to exceed their current hit points by their total max hit points. Also, if the damage forces a third failed death save.

* Monsters can be treated like PCs at the DMs discretion, but the recommendation is that most monsters die at 0 hp.

I use house rules: In my campaign world, I have a concept of being 'God Touched'. If you're God Touched, you get the PC rules from the books. If you're not, you die when your hps reach a negative number equal to (your con modifier + (1 / hit die)). You also make death saves, but die if you fail one if you're not God Touched and you level incredibly slower (a life long student of magic that is not God Touched might learn third level spells towards the end of their life) if not God Touched. In practice, unless players show a desire to keep a monster alive that has been reduced to less than zero, they die just like the core rules, but this gives a mechanic to determine if one might be saved to interrogate, etc...

 

[Umbran]

Except that this depends on whether your GM gives NPCs in general death saves in the first place. And then I got to thinking "so you can tell whether someone is an NPC in such a setting..."

But... if the GM is playing, it, it is an NPC, by definition. In what scenario does the player not have this information?

 

[Jester David]

It’s a weird wording as written it’s only going to pop heads of low level creatures. Creature at full health with 24hp or creature almost down with 45hp.

It feels like it should pop heads of creatures reduced to 0hp.
But does that make it too strong to use against PCs?

 

[SkidAce]

Look at it like this versus PCs.

They go to zero...they fall down grabbing their head screaming.

Fail three saves (18 seconds if in consecutive) head goes "Pop".

Stabilized or healed? Then they avoided the "Pop".

 

[R_J_K75]

You could be both operatic and psychedelic with exploding heads

Ill raise you this