The best way to do Death Effects?

[Celebrim]

I'm more a fan of "drops you 4 steps down the Condition track and does X HP damage". That way, it *could* kill you, but might not and also leaves you debilitated.

-TRRW

I think that's closer to what we might actually get in 4e, if we are lucky which I don't expect us to be, but the problem with that is that it only works well if you have a well defined and robust condition track. And at some point you have to ask, "If we are doing everything with a condition track, why do we need hit points too?"

Part of the point of hit points is to increase the fun by decreasing the player down time. A condition track with too much detail seems to work counter to that design goal.

 

[Simia Saturnalia]

Finger of Death, on the other hand...

I am, in fact, with you on Finger of Death, which is why I didn't bother to include it.

 

[Wepwawet]

My vote would be "nothing of the above". The way I've handled it thus far: Instant death is changed to "drop to -1d6 hp". Thus, death effects retain a certain lethality while at the same time offer the party a chance to bring their dying companion back into the fray within a certain timeframe. The same holds true for BBEGs and their henchmen.

Good one

 

[diaglo]

0hp = Dead

 

[Pygon]

0hp = Dead

Lots of reloading in that game right there.

 

[D.Shaffer]

Slow death for me, combined with damage over the round.

User has X rounds to stop the source of the death effect or else he keels over. Possibly in tandem with HP/Ability loss.

anyone remember how Ghosts used to physically age you too? There's a possibility.

 

[lukelightning]

The problem with hitpoint damage is that it makes barbarian types the ones most resistant to death effects... shoudn't Arcane MacWizard have a much better chance of surviving a death spell? Even if there is 1/2 damage from a will save (or, in 4e, if the spell "misses the will defense...it'll take a long time to sort out my terminology) the barbarian still has a better chance, since he likely has more than twice the hit points of the wizard.

 

[Celebrim]

The problem with hitpoint damage is that it makes barbarian types the ones most resistant to death effects... shoudn't Arcane MacWizard have a much better chance of surviving a death spell? Even if there is 1/2 damage from a will save (or, in 4e, if the spell "misses the will defense...it'll take a long time to sort out my terminology) the barbarian still has a better chance, since he likely has more than twice the hit points of the wizard.

Agreed. Damage is a poor substitute for a condition of any sort.

 

[Black Knight Irios]

Voted for Slow Death.

I don't know if it is the best, but it offers some nice roleplay options (last words/etc).

• Ability-Damage/Drain every round or over a bigger interval.
• HP-DMG every round or over a bigger interval. (I think this is the most lame option)
• Energy-Drain every round or over a bigger interval.
• Culminating Conditions: Fartigued > Exhausted > Death every round one step worse or over a bigger interval.

 

[3d6]

I kind of suspect that they're changing save-or-die effects to only work on bloodied targets, which seems fine to me. For me, at least, the problem with save-or-die was the first round kill, and unless you dramatically outmatch the enemy, you're not going to get them to half hit points in the first round.