Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Hit Points, Death and Dying

The rules around death and dying vary quite a bit across editions.  For as long as I can remember, I've used the general AD&D rule; 0 hit points and below is unconscious, and at -10 is death.  Unconscious characters lose 1hp per round until treated or death is reached.  The actual AD&D rule is a bit more nuanced - there's mention of permanent injury and scarring in the DMG at -6, a 'severe blow' death below -3.  Like most things in AD&D, nothing is simple.  For simple, you've got Moldvay and classic D&D - zero or lower is dead.

I remember an old post by Cyclopeatron that had Gary Gygax's house rule - I'll dig for the link - Gygax House Rules.  Normal men died at zero hit points, but a classed character would be unconscious equal to his level +1.  A level one character could survive and be unconscious to -2, a level eight character could survive to -9.  Another house rule I've seen is unconscious at zero, dead at anything below zero.

Seems like a good time for a poll, especially since I'm about to ditch the -10 hit point house rule.  A new poll is up:  "How do you handle death, dying and zero hit points in your game?"

12 comments:

  1. I use the alternate rule from the Rules Cyclopedia that allows a character a saving throw when they reach 0hp. If they save, their merely unconscious. If they fail they die. They make a new one every underworld turn or until they're healed.

    This is normally supposed to be used for campaigns that lack raise dead, but the only cleric capable of casting that spell in the entire setting is one of the PCs' mortal enemy.

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  2. I've generally used either Dead at -10 or Dead at -CON, myself.

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  3. Dead at -10 or -level, whichever is lower. Incapacitated at 0. Unconscious at -1. A PC will bleed out at -5 or lower, losing 1 hp per round until death.

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  4. I have two flavors of this house rule for me:

    1) AD&D 1e/2e: The character is conscious at 0, but any strenuous action (attacking, spellcasting, etc.) causes them to lose a HP and go to -1. Anyone at negatives is unconscious and dying. They lose a HP a round until healed or until they reach -CON. At -CON, they die.

    2) D&D 3e/3.5e/Pathfinder: The character is conscious at 0, but any strenuous action (attacking, spellcasting, etc.) causes them to lose a HP and go to -1. Anyone at negatives is unconscious and dying. They lose a HP a round until healed or until they reach -CON. Each round the person gets a Fortitude save equal to DC of (10 + abs(HP)). This means that someone at -8 HP will need to make a Fortitude save of DC 18 in order to stabilize. At -CON, they die.

    Yes, this makes my 1e/2e games a little more deadly than the more modern versions, but that's just the flavor and style of the older editions of (A)D&D.

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  5. We used to give people their CON as a negative buffer, so you were unconscious from 0 to -11 on average, and dying after that. In retrospect it's too easy, but we also used a "double damage on a nat-20 roll" rule, so it worked for us at the time. Now I might go with half-Con or just -10. I'm not all that comfortable with "zero, you're dead."

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  6. I may be being dense, but I've never understood the point of negative hit point values. Why bother with 0 if it doesn't mean 0?

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  7. From my house rules:
    Characters reduced to zero hit points exactly are considered unconscious or incapacitated and can live if treated, bandaged, or healed. Characters reduced below zero can make a save vs death once combat ends to see if they are stable and can live. Characters in both cases that survive are treated as being at 1 hit point, modified by any healing performed.

    More at my blog
    http://thedicearealie.blogspot.com/2011/07/lost-baronies-of-lendore-isle-house.html

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  8. Following up, so far the save vs death rule has come into play twice, with one success.

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  9. Currently use a home tuned Death & Dismemberment table (for PCs only) which is rolled on when reduced to 0 and every time damage is taken thereafter.

    It worked really well for a while, but lately I've been thinking it's too wussy for characters above level 3 or so. Will probably switch to unconscious at 0, dead at negative when the balance in my brain tips.

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  10. I think the -10 death rule is dead to me now. Heh. That Rules Cyclopedia suggestion - at 0 hit points, but make a save vs death to merely be unconscious instead of dead seems like a good halfway point to ease my players away from the -10 crutch.

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  11. Dead at -level in old school games, though the save at 0 is tempting too.

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  12. My crew prefers fast, abstract combat, so I'm not using hit points at all anymore. Rather than observe damage dice for weapons, I simply have little weapons deal one "good hit" and big weapons deal two. Natural 20s add an extra hit's worth of damage. Characters start with three hits, and they add [3e-style CON bonus x2] + level, regardless of class - class seems better represented by the armor they can wear, i.e. how well they can handle jumping into the fray. (Characters with a negative CON bonus simply subtract one from their total hits; thus, they start with three hits at level 1.)

    If they drop to 0 hits, they're unconscious. At -1 hits, they're out of the scene. Whether they're dead or not depends on the player - I have one player who's too invested in his character to let him die; I have another who likes to live on the edge and considers -1 the death threshold.

    I find that letting regular weapon combat deal a max of 3 hits to a level 1 character who averages taking 4 hits makes things plenty dangerous, but gives the little buggers a fighting chance until they can grab another level. It gives a firmer idea of when characters should withdraw, and therefore makes the choice to stand and fight that much more risky and impressive.

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