Death Saving throw

Post/Author/DateTimePost
#1

vamp70

May 31, 2015 18:54:04

You fall in a battle and your DM is feeling extra Evil. So he has the Monster with 3 Attacks , hit you three times.

YOU ARE DEAD!

 

fair? Correct? Should you be able to fail all your death saving throws in one round? RAW? RAI..

 

 

~Damage at 0 Hit Points. If you take any damage while
you have 0 hit points, you suffer a death saving throw
failure. If the damage is from a critical hit, you suffer
two failures instead. If the damage equals or exceeds
your hit point maximum, you suffer instant death

 

 

Thoughts?

#2

jaelis

May 31, 2015 19:00:16

Seems OK to me. It would be a little weird if a bunch of determined opponents couldn't actually kill you while you were lying there unconcious. Death happens, puts a little suspense in the game!

 

But it would be a strange thing for the DM to do, the monsters would usually be a lot better off continuing to fight the rest of the party. Maybe hungry monsters who want to rip off a piece of you and run away with it?

#3

Nevvur

May 31, 2015 22:48:07

Totally RAW, but not advised in most circumstances. There are only a few situations where I would do this as a DM. It hasn't occured since I started 5th edition, but the important thing is that the players know of the possibility. Ghouls, for instance, are known to drag off a fallen victim even while the rest of their pack tries to land their own meal. I might either have an IC witness describe such behavior in chilling detail, or OOC just flat out warn the players what will happen if they drop to 0 HP when ghouls are around.

 

One thing I will note, even if conditions are fulfilled where my monsters would attack an unconscious PC, I will probably not follow through if the unconsciousness was purely a product of crappy dice rolls. It's just overly punitive. 

#4

AaronOfBarbaria

May 31, 2015 20:16:02

It is absolutely RAW for that to happen.

 

As for RAI, the intent is that the DM is making sure the game is fun for the players around the table (their self included).

 

If it's fun for the players to be a hyper-lethal campaign where the monsters go for the kill by attacking dying opponents, then that's the right thing to do for that group to match the intent of the game.

 

If the players are annoyed by that sort of event, then it's going against the intent of the game for the DM to make such choices while DMing that group.

 

In my campaigns, monsters almost never have a goal that is achieved by such a tactic - dying PCs are more often stabilized for capture, dragged away as a meal (with time for the rest of the party to stop this), or left dying on the ground while the rest of the party is paid attention because they are still a threat that needs to be dealt with and the chances that the downed character get back up and presents a threat again are slim.

#5

OoftaMeg

May 31, 2015 20:32:14

I'll echo what others have said.

It's legal, but normally I don't. Unintelligent monsters will start dragging the unconscious character away. Intelligent creatures will try to take out the rest of the party.

#6

mellored

Jun 01, 2015 5:51:25

It only takes 2 hits to kill someone who is down, if you are within 5'.

 

When unconcious each hit is a crit (if within 5')

and crits are 2 failed saves.

#7

Synjin

Jun 01, 2015 10:41:14

I'd echo the others as well. Definitely not all the time.

 

As a DM, I would limit such tactics to a few specific monsters or monster types.  If you have every creature doing the exact same thing, it gets boring and stale. However if you chose a few monsters that will do that, then the stakes for those encounters just got raised that much higher.

 

But like Nevvur said, I would definitely telegraph that to the players by way of NPC information if at all possible. For instance a party going up against orcs might be told how fallen comrades get captured and beaten for information, but a party going up againt Ghouls might hear something like: "Be careful. I once seen a man go down, and two of the things fell on him straightaways. Clawing and biting at him, even as his friends tried to get them off him. They've only a mind for flesh.".