D&D 5E Whack-a-mole gaming or being healed from 0 hp

[ExploderWizard]

I don't worry about it too much. Since I'm using the default healing rules and everyone heals to full after a night's sleep anyway I figure why make a fuss about pop-up healing? Perhaps if I run a grim & gritty 5E campaign the whole hp recovery system will be changed but for now, I'm leaving it as is.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

e) <add your suggestion here>

As I run it, becoming stable with positive HP does not instantly restore consciousness. You may be in no danger of death, unless you take damage from another source, but you are guaranteed to remain unconscious for at least one minute.

Thus, anyone knocked out during a fight becomes a non-combatant, and there is very little incentive in terminating him or her with a death stroke.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

My guys repeatedly have dropped to 0 but they're a party of three with only one tank and perhaps some suboptimal spell choices...and weak healing.
I dislike the pop up approach but I fear had I gone down a HD reduction or the lingering injuries table they'd be even more unconscious than they have been so far! And the -10 and you're dead of old would've done for one character at least twice, but with death saves he was able to pull through.
I like the idea of positioning it as being dazed and winded, maybe coughing a little blood, rather than just a simple KO, I might try that in future.

 

[pukunui]

My option e: when a character is reduced to 0 hp without being killed outright, they suffer a lingering injury. Yes, some (like broken ribs) go away with magical healing, but not all of them do.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Many of you have observed that a simple Healing Word is all that is needed to "save" a downed ally's set of actions - even at 1 hp, that ally performs at full capacity.

How big of an issue has the fact that being downed in combat mostly means going prone (perhaps the lightest penalty in the entire game) been for you in practical play?

Not at all an issue. This may be because I use AD&D/Speed Factor initiative, and so if there's twelve hobgoblins focus firing on you, they're not going to shift their aim just because you go down. They are in fact going to shoot you with twelve arrows (or however many happen to hit), which likely means eleven failed death saves, ergo death. In theory a player could Ready an action to Healing Word somebody back up to 1 HP as soon as someone goes down to zero, but in practice nobody is eager to get knocked out.

N.b. this doesn't mean that death saves are never relevant or that nobody ever gets healed back up to 1 HP during combat; just that I haven't seen any player behavior that tempts fate by deliberately courting 0 HP.

Except from the Dragonborn death cleric with trollish regeneration that is, but he was tempting fate long before he ever got that trait. (Got ripped to shreds by wolves while exploring alone, and we all thought he was gone for good.) I think "intrepid and heedless of danger" is probably a deliberate roleplaying decision on the player's part.

 

[Sunseeker]

I don't find there is usually an issue.

But I seem to be in very healing-light groups since we lack a player who enjoys playing healer. So our fights are usually fast and bloody.

 

[S'mon]

d) add back negative hp to the game, making tiny heals considerably less effective. (Note: this option does not necessarily mean there needs to be a rule for dying at minus X hp)
-

Whack-a-mole worked ok in 4e's very tight, focused design. For regular D&D it's a silly idea IMO. For 5e I use negative hp, die at negative max hp. Death saves are per hour not per round and hitting people at negative just does damage. This works great, unconscious characters get left alone and tend to survive.

WotC's obsession with no one being out of the game for more than one round sort-of makes sense in 4e, but for 5e it's a silly concern when the actual result of their rules is lots of dead PCs.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Whack-a-mole worked ok in 4e's very tight, focused design. For regular D&D it's a silly idea IMO. For 5e I use negative hp, die at negative max hp. Death saves are per hour not per round and hitting people at negative just does damage. This works great, unconscious characters get left alone and tend to survive.

As a simulationist, I really like the implications of your variant. Don't want to insert it into my existing campaign, but would consider stealing it for a new one. I like the fact that it makes it possible for people to bleed out over long periods of time, and I like the fact that, as you say, it makes sense to just leave unconscious characters/monsters alone until the combat is won, and then you go around cutting throats if you are so inclined.

The one modification I would make, if I were to using this, is to have a narrow band of HP (say, 0 to -Con) where you are incapacitated but still conscious until you fail at least on death save. This supports the narrative trope of e.g. finding a wounded warrior who gives you information before he dies, unless you heal him.

 

[Psikerlord#]

Many of you have observed that a simple Healing Word is all that is needed to "save" a downed ally's set of actions - even at 1 hp, that ally performs at full capacity.

How big of an issue has the fact that being downed in combat mostly means going prone (perhaps the lightest penalty in the entire game) been for you in practical play?

If a problem, what did you do about it?

I see several possible solutions that try not to be too complicated, while still making it significantly more unappealing to be downed in combat:

a) Your "strike count" from failed death saves isn't reset just because you're back at >0 hp.

b) Add a penalty condition such as "dazed" or "disorientated" (aiming for a Poisoned-like effect) to downed characters given small healing. Once you're healed to, say, 10 hp or more, this condition goes away.

c) add a level of exhaustion when downed (too severe for my preference)

d) add back negative hp to the game, making tiny heals considerably less effective. (Note: this option does not necessarily mean there needs to be a rule for dying at minus X hp)

e) <add your suggestion here>

-

Our solution is:

1. We use slow healing
2. We make a "death save" when reduced to zero HP. If you fail, you roll on the Injuries and SEtbacks table - an extended version of the Injury rules in DMG.

Works like a charm. Players no longer want to risk being reduced to zero hp and will often use healing to avoid dropping.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Whack-a-mole worked ok in 4e's very tight, focused design. For regular D&D it's a silly idea IMO. For 5e I use negative hp, die at negative max hp. Death saves are per hour not per round and hitting people at negative just does damage. This works great, unconscious characters get left alone and tend to survive.

WotC's obsession with no one being out of the game for more than one round sort-of makes sense in 4e, but for 5e it's a silly concern when the actual result of their rules is lots of dead PCs.

This is a cool variant but doesn't pop up healing still work? Say a fighter got knocked down to -5 hp, then he gets healed for 10. Is he still down but stable or back in the fight with 5 hp in your system?