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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5816886" data-attributes="member: 54877">This is similar enough to my proposal that I'll just build off of it instead of write my own. Rename the "Death Save" to different things depending on the rationale and playstyle being used. This could be overtly narrative metagaming, such as "Plot Protection Points," stay as "Death Saves," or even reflavored as some kind of magical resources (via items or something else) that had to be managed totally in game. Then put in some guidelines on how many of these the characters can accumulate over in various playstyles. Don't stop there, though. That's usually the problem with suggestions of this nature, is that we try to cram too much into one mechanic. Mix the above with one or more other mechanics, probably including one like suggested several ways in this topic to change the timeframe over which the nasty result applies. I'd also suggest at least a third mechanic that directly affected probability. With those three, you can get a wide variety of results and feel:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ultra lethal - no death saves, immediate SoD effects, probability low on saving throws.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Lethal but "plot point" out - sizable and automatically restocking death saves, immediate SoD effects, reasonable probability</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Operationally moderate - resource death saves at some cost, rapid but not immediate SoD effects, probability set in tandem with death save cost.</li> </ul>And so on. Three dials, each with three or more settings, means that you have many exact combinations, some of them which can be flavored differently depending on what the rationale is for that setting in the campaign. It's likely that the practical combinations for most people are a subset of those. I'd expect, for example, very few campaigns to use the "ultra lethal" above, as that is tougher than even Killer DM, low-level Basic. However, someone using that is probably going the opposite of Killer DM--i.e. fudging like mad. It's not a playstyle that appeals to me, but if that is what makes the table feel like heroes, who am I to argue? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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