Second Wind when Unconscious?
The rule is actually a result of 20 or greater on a death save, NOT a natural 20. This can make it quite reliable for some characters.
OMG! You're right! Oh man that so bites. This happened to my character the other day and we all thought it meant burning the second wind so my character didn't burn it to gain extra hit points and so got knocked out the very next round.
Damn, that really could've made a big difference too.
Yes. Instead of attacking for a round and then getting knocked out again, you could have stood around for a round then attacked again, and then got knocked out two rounds later.
If attacks were strong enough to take you back down in one round with 25% hit points, they could have been strong enough to take you back down in two rounds with 50% hit points. It might not have made that much of a difference, it's only a slight gain (i.e. the +2 to defense for one round and the extra round fellow PCs might have taken out a foe).
Infiniti2000
First Post
+2 can and does help. Just last Saturday we had not one but two of those moments, "Does a 19 hit? Yes, by one! Oh wait, did you remember that the 2nd wind adds +2 on defenses? No, the 19 is a miss!" It was enough to turn the tide on a very tough encounter (made difficult by my stupid PC choice)
+2 can and does help. Just last Saturday we had not one but two of those moments, "Does a 19 hit? Yes, by one! Oh wait, did you remember that the 2nd wind adds +2 on defenses? No, the 19 is a miss!" It was enough to turn the tide on a very tough encounter (made difficult by my stupid PC choice)
No doubt. It will change the situation 1 time out of 10. A slim chance, but still, it happens. It's just not likely.
Neuroglyph
First Post
Agreed. The rule for granting the No Action Healing Surge using the Heal Skill is at its most useful when dealing with an unconscious ally. One could "force" a conscious ally to take a No Action Healing Surge, and there might be a few situations where that is useful, but nothing beats stopping your buddy from bleeding out on the floor. The rule seems tailor made to do just that.
DracoSuave
First Post
Well, more often than that, actually. 1 in 10 attacks will switch over, but if, say, they needed a 10 to hit you, and that becomes a 8, that actually means that you're taking 1 out of 5 less hits, reducing incoming damage by 20%. That's not a small amount at the end of the day.
N8Ball
Explorer
That also assumes that you only get attacked one time in the following round.
If the monsters are being played with any tactical acumen at all all they will fight like the players do and kick the man while he's down, because a fighter at 1 hp does just as much damage as one with full hp. You might say that's mean of the DM, but anything less is dumb on the monsters part. (and dumb monsters should be worth less xp)
If you get attacked twice, that +2 to defenses has a 19% chance of being a material benefit, 3 times -> 27% and so on.
A +2 to defenses is a sweet bonus particularly for someone who's got the heat on them. (i.e. anybody that just dropped and got back up)
