3.5E Death saving throw rules
SeaHen
the old rules for negative hit points.
Whenever you start your turn with negative hit points, you must make a
Fortitude save with DC of -4 times your HP total. If you fail, you
die. If you beat the DC by 10 or more or roll a natural 20, you
stabilize. In all other cases, you stay alive but lose another hit
point.
If you are stable but have not yet begun recovering, this state lasts
2d6x10 minutes if you neither receive magical healing (in which case
you immediately begin recovering) nor take further damage (in which
case you destabilize). After that time, you must again make a save
with DC of -4 times your HP total. Failure means you die. If you beat
the DC by 10 or more or roll a natural 20, you regain one hit point
and begin recovering at the rate of 1 HP per day until you reach 0 HP,
at which point you begin healing normally. In all other cases, you
lose a hit point but remain stable for another 2d6x10 minutes.
JOanna Rowland-Stuart
D10 (or using percentile dice) to check the 10% chance of becoming stable and/or
starting to recover HP, I use the following:
A standard DC 19 Fortitude roll, (i.e. d20 adjusted by the Constitution bonus, and
irrespective of how many -ve HP the character has), is needed to become stable.
Checks are made once per round. Failure means the loss of 1HP. An adjusted roll of
1 or less brings immediate death.
Likewise a standard DC 19 Fortitude roll, once the wounded character has become
stable, is needed to start HP recovery. The check is made immediately on becoming
stable, and then once per minute (10 rounds). Failure means the loss of 1HP. An
adjusted roll of 1 or less brings causes destabilisation, as does taking additional
external damage.
Once recovery starts, the normal rules apply.
If the character does not recover, the character will not die until their -ve HP
exceeds their current Constitution score (so a character with low Con will die much
more quickly from wounds sustained), rather that at a flat 10HP.
In my view this is simpler and easy to do rather than have to work out -4x -ve HP
(and that calculation rapidly produces a downward spiral i.e. just being -5 HP
means a DC20 Fortitude check, make it or die).
I also apply the same rules to key enemies - so the party had best make sure they
leave no potential foe at their backs!
So a mage with a Con of 5 and a measly half dozen HP is best advised to stay well
out of trouble. Indeed, to stay at home...
One of my players had a Sorcerer with staring scores of
Strength 4, Dexterity 17, Intelligence 19, and Constitution 18. I forget his score
for Wisdom and Charisma - but the others I remember well even after 20 years!
Because he had good HP and kept well out of combat as a matter of principle, being
a mere 4' high (human!) he did very well and survived many encounters that did for
lesser mages in the group. He was 16th level when I left the gaming group. His
favourite spells were Polymorphs, Illusions and Charms - it was rare he had to
engage in artillery duels with other magic users or enter melee - simply because he
could sow huge confusion in the ranks of the enemy and then let the party chop them
up, while any incidental damage that came his way from area effects or the
occasional missile he could generally soak up.
Not ONCE, did he have to make Death rolls, but if he had to, he would certainly
have fared better than the party's other spellcasters over the years, who tended to
have average Con as their players concentrated on buffing up their prime
attributes.
Cheers
JOanna
lbeu...@aol.com
The average bonus to saving throws is approximately:
+6 in level 3
+8 in level 6
+10 in level 9
+13 in level 12
+15 in level 15
+17 in level 18
According to your rule -5 HP result in a Fortitude save of DC 20. To
stabilize you'll have to beat 30? Thirty?? Low-level-characters have a
really good chance to die because of this. Shorten the rule: Let the
characters die, when their hit points are below zero. Less fuzz.
Most people complain about the short range in which a character is
actually unconscious. Your rule cuts that range even shorter. What was
the intention behind the rule?
The range of 1 to 9 negative hit points is essential for characters
with low maximum hit points. Your rule steals from the poor! Do you
compensate by giving characters higher starting hit points?
__
LB
Jim Davies
>On 13 Jan., 19:36, SeaHen <seahen...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Here's a way to do saving throws against death in 3.5E. It replaces
>> the old rules for negative hit points.
>>
>> Whenever you start your turn with negative hit points, you must make a
>> Fortitude save with DC of -4 times your HP total. If you fail, you
>> die. If you beat the DC by 10 or more or roll a natural 20, you
>> stabilize. In all other cases, you stay alive but lose another hit
>> point.
>
>The average bonus to saving throws is approximately:
>
>+6 in level 3
>+8 in level 6
>+10 in level 9
>+13 in level 12
>+15 in level 15
>+17 in level 18
>
>According to your rule -5 HP result in a Fortitude save of DC 20. To
>stabilize you'll have to beat 30? Thirty?? Low-level-characters have a
>really good chance to die because of this. Shorten the rule: Let the
>characters die, when their hit points are below zero. Less fuzz.
Agreed. This is far too steep. If the DC were 5 - HP, you'd get
something more or less playable. Still a bit brutal at very low
levels, but it could work, and it's a bit better than the current
limit at high levels, where -10 might as well be 0.
--
Jim or Sarah Davies, but probably Jim
D&D and Star Fleet Battles stuff on http://www.axsm89.dsl.pipex.com
becaue pipex's technical support is crap and so http://www.aaargh.org doesn't work.
Jim Davies
inscribed:
>A standard DC 19 Fortitude roll,
19? Funny number. Why 19?
Arandor
> On the grave of jrowlandstu...@cix.co.uk (JOanna Rowland-Stuart) is
> inscribed:
>
> >A standard DC 19 Fortitude roll,
>
> 19? Funny number. Why 19?
>
> --
> Jim or Sarah Davies, but probably Jim
>
> becaue pipex's technical support is crap and sohttp://www.aaargh.orgdoesn't work.
At a guess: normally the chance to lose a hit point is 10%. A
"normal" (NPC) has Con 10/11, so a +0 bonus. Whether he has a flat 10%
chance, or has to make a DC 19 check, doesn't matter: in both cases
it's 10%.
In fact, I use the same rule (DC 19 Con check instead of flat 10%).
JOanna Rowland-Stuart
> wrote:
> > On the grave of jrowlandstu...@cix.co.uk (JOanna Rowland-Stuart)
> > is
> > inscribed:
> >
> > >A standard DC 19 Fortitude roll,
> >
> > 19? Funny number. Why 19?
> "normal" (NPC) has Con 10/11, so a +0 bonus. Whether he has a flat
> 10%
> chance, or has to make a DC 19 check, doesn't matter: in both cases
> it's 10%.
>
> In fact, I use the same rule (DC 19 Con check instead of flat 10%).
>
Correct :-)
Cheers
JOanna