Which NPCs get negative HP rule?

[Sejs]

Have you ever had one stabilize on his/her own? I'm wondering how this would affect combat.

Absolutely. It didn't affect combat as the NPC was still quite unconscious, but it did affect the rest of the game as the NPC was eventually able to report back about what had taken place.

 

[Mistwell]

We stabalize and attempt to revive and capture just about all foes who go down. There are bounties for them being turned in alive usually (we play in Ptolus), and in the very least useful information. So, all of them in our game.

 

[ThirdWizard]

The PCs might want to question someone, NPCs might hunt down the PCs later, allies might be savable. There are just too many reasons not to use dead at -1 for me to do that. I also have a House Rule that you stabilize with a DC 19 Con check instead of a flat percentage. Same chance if your Con is 10, but with high con, stabilization becomes a real possibility.

 

[evilbob]

A Vow of Poverty character should also be very interested in keeping at least non-evil things from dying, and possibly even evil ones (that might be redeemable).

 

[Markn]

We use 10% plus 10% per con bonus to stabilize. PC's and NPC's. Oh and bad guys go to -10.

 

[just__al]

NPCs except the extremely important or extremely mookish get a single roll for stablilization. Extreme mooks bleed out.

Important NPCs stabilize, or not, at the speed of plot.

 

[The Souljourner]

'Course, everyone gets a 10% chance to stabilize on their own each round (right?), and if they do stabilize, they have a 10% chance each hour to become conscious and disabled. So I guess you could have a monster bleeding and staggering at half speed across the plains, looking for the PCs...

This actually happened to one of my PCs once. I was foolishly following a fellow PC who had the bright idea to try to sell back to the thieves'/assassins' guild the very loot we had earlier stolen from them. They figured out it was us that took it in the first place and jumped us. We got dumped into the sewer at negative hitpoints and proceeded to try to make stabilization rolls.

I miraculously stabilized at -9 hitpoints and stopped losing hitpoints (the other guy wasn't so lucky). An hour later I managed to roll to become conscious and disabled at -9 hitpoints (where any "strenuous activity" would cause me to lose a hitpoint of damage and die permanently). I slowly dragged my ravaged body out of the sewer and got some medical attention before I accidentally sneezed myself to death.

Needless to say, my character would have been pretty pissed at the other character, if the other character hadn't died.

Good times

-Nate

 

[Corsair]

In our campaigns, non-PCs die at -1 and below, unless the DM wants the PCs to heal said NPC for some plot purpose, and then he'll call attention to his comatose, but still bleeding, state.

And the players say:

"Wow, good point Mr. DM! I go slit his throat."

 

[phindar]

We use 10% plus 10% per con bonus to stabilize. PC's and NPC's. Oh and bad guys go to -10.

We use CON% to stabilize, 0 to -CON bonus for Disabled, and -CON for Death. We got some of that from AE, but Neg CON has been industry standard with most of the groups I've played with since... well, I can't remember ever playing in a "Dead at -10" game.

 

[Infiniti2000]

It's funny that every time I saw something related to this rule (I only looked in the SRD and 3.5 DMG/PHB/MM), they used the general term "character." Maybe that's too nitpicky, though.

But note the definition of character:

character

A fictional individual within the confines of a fantasy game setting. The words "character" and "creature" are often used synonymously within these rules, since almost any creature could be a character within the game, and every character is a creature (as opposed to an object).