Post/Author/DateTime	Post
CrippleMrOnion 09-12-06, 06:44 PM	Okay, here's the rundown. I use a house rule about insti-death spells. I'm just not evil enough to flat-out kill my PCs on a single bad save. Instead, if a player fails a save on an insti-death spell, they fall to -(spell level) hit points and cannot naturally stabilize. For example, a player subjected to Phantasmal Killer who failed both their saves would fall to -4 hit points that turn, then to -5 at the end of the round (as per PH rules), and then to -10 five rounds later if they're not healed. Yes, I know this creates situations where it's better to fail a save than to succeed (like -4 from Phantasmal killer being better than taking the 3d6 when you're only at 1 hit point), so let's not go down that road. The PH makes it clear that players can choose to fail any save they want. Okay, here's the question. Close Wounds, from the Spell Compendium, allows players to "essentially prevent" damage dealt as an immediate action. It's only 1d4+caster level (max of 5) hp, but that means that low-level insti-death spells stand a good chance to not even put a PC down. Now, by my house rules, that's just too bad for me. Would you, as a DM, allow this, or simply add another corollary that Close Wounds cannot 'essentially prevent" damage from an insti-death? There's plenty of justification, obviously insti-death spells don't actually deal hp damage, but still... What's the concensus?
jagggar 09-13-06, 12:58 AM	I'll open with this: I don't have SC, so I'm pretty lost and probably don't know what I'm talking about. Close wounds wouldn't normally save you from an insta-death spell, would it? So why should it change the results of your house rule? It's more like you're setting their HP to -(spell level) than they're taking damage. If you do want to have close wounds have an effect, it could allow them to attempt to stabilize as normal when hit by an insta-death effect..
Slapstick 09-13-06, 05:22 AM	I agree with you that instant-death spells are extremely dangerous. But keep in mind that any magical healing will stabilize a character. Even the healing cantrip all clerics have. So basicly any instant-death spell instead reduces a character to 0 hit points and costs someone a round. Any kind of regeneration has the same effect. I think the idea is good if they have little to no access to ressurection-spells (as they do in my campaign and I'll be stealing your idea ;) ). But if healing and ressurection isn't too hard to come by, the death spells would be too easily dealt with, and the players wouldn't be shaking as hard in their boots when hearing the words "Evil necromancer who can kill you with a flick of a wrist". - Slapstick
Seldriss 09-13-06, 07:43 AM	Without death, life makes no sense. Without the fear of death, your players characters won't be heroes, they will just be careless. Critical hits, sneak attacks, poison, traps and instant-death spells are making the game dangerous and entertaining. This is adventure. This being said, you shouldn't abuse these. One or two of these effects in a gaming session is often enough to thrill your players. More in some adventures. But too much will discourage them. The key word is balance.
Slapstick 09-15-06, 03:56 AM	Except of course if they are after a high level evil necromancer and all his apprentices (who has just learned how to cast finger of death). That's what makes evil wizards so darned frightening.
Thelon Fairblade 09-15-06, 03:12 PM	I'll open with this: I don't have SC, so I'm pretty lost and probably don't know what I'm talking about. Close wounds wouldn't normally save you from an insta-death spell, would it? So why should it change the results of your house rule? It's more like you're setting their HP to -(spell level) than they're taking damage. If you do want to have close wounds have an effect, it could allow them to attempt to stabilize as normal when hit by an insta-death effect.. I think this is all the response you need for your idea. It's a house rule already, just state something in your rule (on a general level, not spell-by-spell) like "The target's current hp instantly become this negative value, regardless of defenses, magic, etc. This is not damage, and cannot be prevented, healed, reduced, or otherwise ignored. Once the effect has occured, the target can stabilize or be healed normally."