Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 rebel581 Jun 15, 2008 1:56:25	I had an idea that my group is implementing to use the death saving throws to an advantage. First of all, it annoyed me that the death saving throws just seemed to go away (even if you failed two) after you were above 0 hp. So the first house rule was that they didn't go away. Then, on top of that, one goes away with an extended rest. The DM had an idea that it would go away with an extended rest and a DC 15 heal check from another player in the party. I liked that idea, so I said okay. We also came up with the idea that instead of just going down at below 0 hp, you were able to continue standing. Each turn you took while at negative hp, you crossed off one of the death saving throws. If you're knocked to negative bloodied or 3 death saving throws, you're dead. I felt it was a, "Last Stand," type power that would make the game more interesting. Thoughts? Ideas?
#2 koushiro Jun 15, 2008 3:01:03	Ummm..the entire point of the system with healing surges and the new rules for healing was to make it so it was much harder for characters to just arbitrarily die. Dying isn't (normally) fun for players. Dying is counter productive to fun of a gaming session and often derails an entire adventure. The current rules for dying still imply the dangers of death without being the previous incarnations of the 4 hit point wizard gets attacked by 1 swing of an Orc greatsword who is dead no mater what with decent damage role, or the old save or die spells. Particularly tough encounters that I have run have seen a few PC's knocked down into the negatives and brought back up a few times, two of which would simply be dead under your house rules. I'm afraid I don't see why your being annoyed by a mechanic that was implemented just to make things easier then tracking -1 hp/round of not stabilizing. They don't stand for anything beyond a percentage chance you have of dying, just like the 10% rule they implemented in 3rd edition.
#3 arcade Jun 15, 2008 10:29:01	I think it would be good to be able to find another way to remove the death saving throws. My experience is that characters can go down quite easily, which means they're just about always going to have these lingering death saving throws on them. Like Koushiro said, after a fight or two, it will get to the point where almost everyone is sitting near death. I would also think that unless they were down to their last saving throw, every character would always stand on their feet. This would let the majority of characters heal themselves using powers, potions or even a second wind. At the very least, I would make this ability a feat like the die hard feat of 3.5.