The Correct Procedure to Die

[Dragonbait]

I am currently playing in 2 4e campaigns and each one handles the Death roll differently.

In one group, the Death roll goes like this: When in negatives, make a save. On a 20, you can spend a healing surge and you can stand on your turn. On a 1-10 you move one step closer to death (you are dead on the third roll of 1-10). If you roll an 11-19 you stabalize and do not need to roll for the rest of the encounter.

In another group, you keep rolling unless you get a 20. On an 11-19, you just delay either a recovery or slipping closer to death, and have to roll again the next round.

The first one is much more kind on the player, but in extended fights the player is often sitting on their thumbs and waiting for someone to heal them (in said group, a player was doing nothing for an hour and a half until someone was able to reach his character to heal him). The second one lets the player roll at least a d20 per round, but is much more dangerous to the character's wellbeing in epic fights that last for many rounds.

What is the standard procedure?

 

[Tale]

2nd one is correct.

This is a mistake my DM was making too. Now it's a houserule.

 

[CovertOps]

The correct method is that 10-19 does nothing. You roll every round:

1-9 Mark off a death save failure checkbox (3 and the character dies). These only reset after a short (5 minute) rest.
10-19 You are OK for now, but keep rolling every round as long as you are in negative HPs.
20 You recover. If you have a healing surge left you may spend one and stand up with 1/4 HPs, otherwise you stand up with 1 HP. (Note: you are still prone and must spend a move action on your turn to stand up and sometimes it might be worth it to just lie there and play dead).

I apologize if I am fuzzy on the details or got something wrong as I am doing this from memory without the books from work.

 

[Grazzt]

2nd one is correct.

Yep. But, it's also 1-9 (instead of 1-10) for the condition to worsen.

EDIT: What CovertOps said above. I had replied, but never hit submit. Go figure

 

[Dragonbait]

So -that's- how it goes. Thanks for the quick responses, folks!

 

[MrBeens]

The correct method is that 10-19 does nothing. You roll every round:

1-9 Mark off a death save failure checkbox (3 and the character dies). These only reset after a short (5 minute) rest.
10-19 You are OK for now, but keep rolling every round as long as you are in negative HPs.
20 You recover. If you have a healing surge left you may spend one and stand up with 1/4 HPs, otherwise you stand up with 1 HP. (Note: you are still prone and must spend a move action on your turn to stand up and sometimes it might be worth it to just lie there and play dead).

I apologize if I am fuzzy on the details or got something wrong as I am doing this from memory without the books from work.

Two things to add to this -

Any healing gets you back up - you are still prone however.
Someone can use the heal skill to stabilise you. If you are stabilised you are still down but no longer roll saves. This is useful if there is no healing available.

 

[ExploderWizard]

So what exactly are they gonna do to you if you get it wrong?

 

[CovertOps]

Two things to add to this -

Any healing gets you back up - you are still prone however.
Someone can use the heal skill to stabilise you. If you are stabilised you are still down but no longer roll saves. This is useful if there is no healing available.

I believe this is incorrect. IIRC if you have your second wind left you can make a DC 10 heal check and the character may use their 2nd wind. If you have already used your second wind then the DC goes up to 15 and you get 1 HP. I don't think there is a stable, but unconcious status.

 

[fba827]

So what exactly are they gonna do to you if you get it wrong?

Agents of "the Coast" will storm your game session and take all your books.

 

[logopolis]

I believe this is incorrect. IIRC if you have your second wind left you can make a DC 10 heal check and the character may use their 2nd wind. If you have already used your second wind then the DC goes up to 15 and you get 1 HP. I don't think there is a stable, but unconcious status.

Actually, MrBeens is correct. It's described as part of the Heal skill description on page 185 of the PHB.

You can make a DC 15 Heal check to stabilize a dying character. If you succeed, the character no longer has to make death saves until damaged again, but doesn't regain any HP and stays unconscious. When the encounter ends, a stabilized character goes back up to 1 HP and regains consciousness.

Since allowing a character to use a healing surge is only a DC 10 Heal check, I guess stabilizing is only used a last ditch effort to keep a character alive.