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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Benjamin Olson" data-source="post: 8764726" data-attributes="member: 6988941">Rules need to crossreference each other, rather than make it a "memorize it all and figure out the connections" test.To me a lot of the problem with how D&D books are laid out came clear the other day in a discussion of how attacks on dying characters cause two failed death saves. Now we all figured this out at some point, and it logically follows from the rule that melee attacks on the unconscious characters are automatic crits, combined with the rule that crits on unconscious characters are two failed death saves, that melee attacks are 2 failed death saves. But asking players and DMs to immediately put this two and two together on their own while they are in the process of digesting a whole vast rule system is unreasonable and unnecessary, and I would hazard to say that most people only learn that melee attacks on the dying are 2 failed saves when they see it actually come together that way in play, often as a DM accidentally killing a character. Lets read the passage on the latter rule from the SRD:Damage at 0 Hit Points. If you take any damage while you have 0 hit points, you suffer a death saving throw failure. If the damage is from a critical hit, you suffer two failures instead. If the damage equals or exceeds your hit point maximum, you suffer instant death.Think how much clearer this would be if they were willing to put in a parenthetical reminding us of the other major rule this is interacting with:Damage at 0 Hit Points. If you take any damage while you have 0 hit points, you suffer a death saving throw failure. If the damage is from a critical hit, you suffer two failures instead (NOTE: All successful melee attacks on a dying, unconscious character are automatically critical hits, see page XXX for details). If the damage equals or exceeds your hit point maximum, you suffer instant death.And that's probably all you need to do, though having a further note cautioning DMs about declaring multiple attacks against a low HP PC at once being likely to cause death because of the above rules might be prudent and helpful. For my tastes it would actually be best handled by footnotes, though I find many people never read footnotes.</blockquote>

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