I'm managing a campaign (3.5) for the first time and I have a few questions!

[Tibs]

Hello! I've been a forum lurker and OotS fan for years but just made an account today! I'm DMing a 3.5 campaign and I've never done it before. I'm familiarizing myself with the rules (only using core rulebooks) and I could use some advice from those more experienced in tabletop RPGs. I also have a few questions as I absorb everything!

I understand that when a character reaches -1 hp they fall unconscious and when they reach -10 hp, they die. Does this rule apply to everything in the game, or just the player characters? For example, as one of my group's first encounters I'm having them face some Small Monstrous Centipedes. Do the Centipedes also die at -10, or at 0? Page 135 of the PH does not say, so I can only assume that this rule is true for everything.

Like I said, I'm new at all this and could use any beginner advice you have to offer!

[Story]

It applies to most creatures, but Undead, Constructs, and Swarms die at 0hp rather than -10. Also, there's various abilities such as Diehard and Delay Death that can complicate things.

At any rate, knocking someone unconscious is almost as good as killing them since you can just Coup De Grace everyone after the battle unless they have regeneration or something. If you want to speed up combat, just treat the enemies as dieing at 0 and assuming you did the cleanup afterwards.

[jiriku]

Welcome to the forums!

To expand on the advice that Story gave, in some groups, players may be tempted to fall into in-character arguments about the relative morality of dispatching unconscious opponents after a battle. If that's not your cup of tea, it's a convenient houserule to say that all enemies reduced to negative hit points are dead unless the PCs were wanting to capture them.

From the player's perspective, I'd also like to point out that the purpose of the negative hit point range is to a provide a buffer where PCs are down but not out, and can be rescued through quick action by their friends. At high levels, though, the rule tends to fail because monsters hit for so much damage that players can quickly go from moderately wounded to dead in a single full attack. For less lethal games, I recommend that you have intelligent monsters with multiple attacks roll attacks one at a time, and stop attacking or switch to another adjacent target once the PC falls. You may also want to extend the range at which PCs can survive, perhaps to a negative hit point total equal to their Constitution score, or equal to half their full normal hit point total (if that number is greater than 10). These changes make the trip into negative hit points a little more survivable, which I feel adds more drama and tension to the game than just saying "Your fighter takes 42 damage, looks like he's dead again, Bob."

[Venger]

Hello! I've been a forum lurker and OotS fan for years but just made an account today! I'm DMing a 3.5 campaign and I've never done it before. I'm familiarizing myself with the rules (only using core rulebooks) and I could use some advice from those more experienced in tabletop RPGs. I also have a few questions as I absorb everything!

I understand that when a character reaches -1 hp they fall unconscious and when they reach -10 hp, they die. Does this rule apply to everything in the game, or just the player characters? For example, as one of my group's first encounters I'm having them face some Small Monstrous Centipedes. Do the Centipedes also die at -10, or at 0? Page 135 of the PH does not say, so I can only assume that this rule is true for everything.

Like I said, I'm new at all this and could use any beginner advice you have to offer!

welcome!

everyone's walked you through the basics already and their suggestions are all solid. like jiriku, when I DM, I'll just say enemies are out of the action when they're in the negatives as well to prevent rolling a zillion stabilizaitons every round unless the PCs need to interrogate them/use death knell/etc.

whenever you want to look up a basic rule the srd (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/injuryandDeath.htm) is your friend. it has all the OGL content about stuff like this handy for you in case you need to check things like AoOs, death and dying, or similar issues.