Death Suspense, Lingering Injuries, Armor Saves and more!

[Bjarkmundur]

I've been slowly but surely collecting tweaks and Houserules to get just the right atmosphere for my game. The newest addition are the tweaks made to death and dying.

Failure is always and option, and the fear of dying is one of the greatest suspense generators of any FRPG. Whenever a player goes down I usually find it... Anticlimactic. There's maybe a minor shock on the players side, but then it's usually just a healing word, a familiar + Goodberry combo, and people continue like nothing happened. Sometimes a death saving throw is rolled, but players almost always end up just fine, unless they get included in an AoE attack while unconscious.

In a handful of cases, the exact opposite happens. A character is slowly failing his death saving throws, and no one can do anything about it. The player thinks it sucks, the other players think it sucks, and I'm at he head of the table franticly looking for a suitable deus ex machin that doesn't look completely out of place. Sometimes characters die, but I must say that anticlimactic deaths are even worse that anticlimactic non-deaths.

I want to extend the nail-biting moments as much as I can, for maximum butt-clenching at the table. Nobody likes characters dying, but the narrative loves characters ALMOST dying. I want emphasize this a little bit, by having more consequences to going down. This should have the effect of creating more suspense at the table, without having to kill players left and right to achieve the effect. I also don't want to just mindlessly impose penalties to my players. Some players are really sensitive towards their characters, especially regarding Lingering Injuries. This is why I've kept it as an option a player can use to save himself. I have yet to decide whether falling unconscious should result in a level of exhaustion or not.



Hit Points
Hit Points are a resource that represents your character’s abilities to avoid lethal hits. Attacks that drain your hit points might leave cuts and bruises, but none of them hit you dead on. Essentially, every attack is an attempted lethal hit. When attacked, you attempt to negate the attack with a combination of armor and reflexes represented by your Armor Class, causing the attack to have little to no effect. If the attack ‘hits’ you only half-successfully avoid the attack. The attack can then be visualized as a glancing blow, resulting in only a cut or a bruise, a ‘half-dodge’. The only attack that hits you dead and center is the one that reduces you to 0 hit points.
This clarification is made to emphasize that Hit Points are not ‘Life Points’, and do not represent your physical or mental health, but rather your endurance and resolve to defend against hits.


DM: The goblin charges at you, and attempts to strike you down!
Player: I try to dodge the attack with an AC of 14.
DM: The goblins rolls 15, the attack hits!
Player: Then I’ll use my Hit Points to bob-and-weave, turning it into a glancing blow.
DM: Mitigating the attack costs 4 HP.

Critical Hits and Fumbles
If you roll a natural 20 you automatically hit and roll on the Crit Table (https://growupandgame.com/dungeons-and-dragons/questionable-arcana/dnd-5e-crit-confirmed-critical-hit-charts-and-fumble-charts/).
If you roll a natural 1, you automatically miss and roll on the Fumble Table (https://growupandgame.com/dungeons-and-dragons/questionable-arcana/dnd-5e-crit-confirmed-critical-hit-charts-and-fumble-charts/).

Death and Dying
When you are reduced to 0 hit points, you can either:


1. Use a reaction to make an Armor Save or take a Lingering Injury
2. Fall unconscious and start making Death Saving Throws.

Armor Save
When an attack would reduce you to 0 hp you can use your reaction make a Dexterity saving throw to interpose your armor or shield between you and the incoming attack. The DC equals 10 or half the damage you take, whichever number is higher. On success, you are reduced to 1 hit point, but the item used to block the attack suffers damage and its AC bonus is reduced by 2. If your item's AC is reduced enough for it to no longer provide any protection it can no longer be used to make Armor Saving Throws and is destroyed. On a fail, you are reduced to 0 hit points and the item takes no damage.

Lingering Injury
When an attack would reduce you to 0 hp you can use your reaction to be reduced to 1 HP, and take one Lingering Injury (http://farlandworld.com/injuries.html) instead. This has the advantage over Armor Saves that it doesn't require a saving throw to be effective, but the penalties you suffer are usually more severe. Lingering Injuries can be removed with magical healing equal to your level * 5. This further emphasizes how Hit Points are recovered by catching one's breath (hit dice during a short rest), while direct hits require more urgent attention (healing or prolonged medical attention during a long rest, and ample time to recover).

Exhaustion
When you get reduced to 0 HP, you roll a Constitution saving throw or take one level of exhaustion. The DC equals 10 or half the damage you take, whichever number is higher.


A character drops to 0 maybe once per session in my games. How do you think this will affect the suspense at the table?
How do you handle yoyo-tactics?
Do you use exhaustion or Lingering Injuries in your game?
Do you think my solution fulfills my design goal?

[AdAstra]

I've been slowly but surely collecting tweaks and Houserules to get just the right atmosphere for my game. The newest addition are the tweaks made to death and dying.

Failure is always and option, and the fear of dying is one of the greatest suspense generators of any FRPG. Whenever a player goes down I usually find it... Anticlimactic. There's maybe a minor shock on the players side, but then it's usually just a healing word, a familiar + Goodberry combo, and people continue like nothing happened. Sometimes a death saving throw is rolled, but players almost always end up just fine, unless they get included in an AoE attack while unconscious.

In a handful of cases, the exact opposite happens. A character is slowly failing his death saving throws, and no one can do anything about it. The player thinks it sucks, the other players think it sucks, and I'm at he head of the table franticly looking for a suitable deus ex machin that doesn't look completely out of place. Sometimes characters die, but I must say that anticlimactic deaths are even worse that anticlimactic non-deaths.

I want to extend the nail-biting moments as much as I can, for maximum butt-clenching at the table. Nobody likes characters dying, but the narrative loves characters ALMOST dying. I want emphasize this a little bit, by having more consequences to going down. This should have the effect of creating more suspense at the table, without having to kill players left and right to achieve the effect. I also don't want to just mindlessly impose penalties to my players. Some players are really sensitive towards their characters, especially regarding Lingering Injuries. This is why I've kept it as an option a player can use to save himself. I have yet to decide whether falling unconscious should result in a level of exhaustion or not.



A character drops to 0 maybe once per session in my games. How do you think this will affect the suspense at the table?
How do you handle yoyo-tactics?
Do you use exhaustion or Lingering Injuries in your game?
Do you think my solution fulfills my design goal?

Lingering injuries are something I've always approved of, but never really payed much attention to. Perhaps it might also be good to have minor wounds that cause debuffs, but go away after a long rest, possibly taking lots of hit dice to do so? Could add some temporary stakes without messing up a character indefinitely.

How would this interact with unarmored characters? Does their AC go down too? Also, I could see this interacting weirdly with bonuses to saves, like a 14+ lvl monk next to a paladin friend could easily have a +9 bonus to the save. I had to change some wording for my description to avoid exactly this.

[Bjarkmundur]

it might be good to have minor wounds that go away after a long rest to add stakes without messing up a character indefinitely.
How would this interact with unarmored characters?
I could see this interacting weirdly with bonuses to saves.

I'm not worried about the saves. If I'd be worried about people succeeding on the save, I wouldn't have made it a save. I'm more worried about the unarmored defense though :/

Many of the effects listed can be removed by any source of magical healing. I think that's a good start-off point. I'll play around with it for a while, and then maybe add a clause to the Medicine skill. Something like "during a short rest you can tend to a creature using a healer's kit and make a DC 15 medicine check to remove one Lingering injury that would be removed via magical healing"

[AdAstra]

I'm not worried about the saves. If I'd be worried about people succeeding on the save, I wouldn't have made it a save. I'm more worried about the unarmored defense though :/

Many of the effects listed can be removed by any source of magical healing. I think that's a good start-off point. I'll play around with it for a while, and then maybe add a clause to the Medicine skill. Something like "during a short rest you can tend to a creature using a healer's kit and make a DC 15 medicine check to remove one Lingering injury that would be removed via magical healing"

I didn't do a detailed count, but it seems like around half or more of the lingering injuries require healing spells like Regenerate or Heal, or long periods of time. Plus, some of these effects are crippling to the point of functionally disabling the character. In a lot of ways these could be worse than straight-up dying, which if you're quick can be fixed with 3rd lvl slot and 300 gp of diamonds. Plus even if you aren't revived, you can at least create a good-as-new character, rather than being kinda obligated to stick with someone who's functionally useless. I feel like in almost all cases I'd rather bank on getting some quick healing than risk getting something like having to make a Con save just to do anything. If that's the intention, then it achieves the goal pretty well, except that as it, is there is technically no limit to the number of injuries you can take, since none are lethal except maybe if you stacked 6 levels of exhaustion.

[Corpus]

I want to extend the nail-biting moments as much as I can, for maximum butt-clenching at the table. Nobody likes characters dying, but the narrative loves characters ALMOST dying.

I like your idea, and may borrow from it.

Broken/damaged armour, weapons, and shields work well. This is a great opportunity for skills like smithing and leather working to come into play. Also the use of the Mending cantrip.

Cinematically people without armour or shields often protect themselves from a death blow. An arrow through the hand, a blade into the forearm. At other time the "bad guy" does not rush to the kill but instead stomps on the leg or kicks the knee.

Damaged equipment could be,
- broken/unusable
- reduced damage
- disadvantages to attack
- reduced AC
- movement penalty

Limb injuries could mean,
- no duel wielding
- no 2-handed weapons
- 1/2 movement
- Dex or Str reduction

I would have these fixable with magic and a long nights rest. Some maybe even more easily (Mending cantrip). Most partly members will spend resources to help another out. This is for added drama in the moment. No one wants to go 3 sessions in a dungeon at penalties due to not having the right cure/fix form something the DM imposed to create more drama.

I would be careful of overly penalizing the PC's for added drama especially if you want the narrative of almost dieing vs always debuffed/disabled.

Penalties from broken/damaged equipment or limbs will add enough of a struggle to an already bad situation (PC's going down).

A few thoughts to consider.

[Vogie]

It sounds like you don't have as much for unarmored or lightly armored people, which are also, likely, healers.

Other effects -

Arcane or divine focus shattered (requiring an action to search pack/pockets for replacement) or disarmed & sent flying 30ft in a random direction
Component Pouch incinerated, requiring a bonus action Int(Investigation) or Wis (Perception) check to find a component, or an action to scoop up the components. You can also use the latter when you damage a quiver, dumping bolts or arrows.
Offensive generation of cover - some large object (a table, chunk of earth, bookshelf, upturned cart, ogre corpse) also hits the target, dealing minor bludgeoning damage (another concentration check) and cutting off line of sight of the caster
"FlashBang" effect - where the targets' have to succeed on Con Saves vs blindness, deafness, or both.

[Bjarkmundur]

Just a quick update. Thank you for all your replies. I've added rules for using any item for your Armor Save (DM's discretion). I like that this makes both Mending and mundane Tools a little bit more useful.

Having Armor Saves favor heavy armor users is sorta intended, since tanks take more hits anyways. I'd like to be able to include at least the barbarian, but right now that class drew the short stick. Sorry barb :/

You're right that this does nothing to prevent yoyo-ing, so I'm going to add a "CON save when you hit 0HP or take one level of exhaustion". The whole design goal is to make dropping to 0 hit points scary, more difficult. Having two mechanics that leave you at 1HP instead of 0, and one that adds exhaustion at 0, and none of those mechanics are guaranteed does the job nicely.

[Quoz]

Something I have seen other systems implement very well is conditions. Tired, hungry, exhausted, angry, sick, injured, ect. Each has it's own set penalty, and it's own way to remove the condition.

This is much more appropriate for a low fantasy, low magic campaign where these conditions can haunt you for multiple sessions. It definitely adds danger and desperation, even more so when combined with some looming threat like oncoming winter and a lack of food/shelter.

[Waazraath]

In a handful of cases, the exact opposite happens. A character is slowly failing his death saving throws, and no one can do anything about it. The player thinks it sucks, the other players think it sucks, and I'm at he head of the table franticly looking for a suitable deus ex machin that doesn't look completely out of place. Sometimes characters die, but I must say that anticlimactic deaths are even worse that anticlimactic non-deaths.

I want to extend the nail-biting moments as much as I can, for maximum butt-clenching at the table. Nobody likes characters dying, but the narrative loves characters ALMOST dying.

I don't really understand this part. If the nail-biting moments are approved, then what is wrong with (and more nail-biting then) watching a character lying face down bleeding out and not knowing if it will make it? It also adds another tactical layer: with a battered party and one man down, do you focus on bringing down the foe asap, or do you take the chance to spend an action (and maybe having to eat an AoO) on healing back a team mate? Our own tweak to the rules is btw that the DM rolls the death saves behind the screen; this increases the dilemma of players not knowing how the downed party member fares.

I like the idea of adding non-leathal, meaningful options when somebody goes down, like you suggest; but in the end, when 'almost dying' and 'suspense' are aimed for, the inevitable consequence is that at some point characters do die. Yeah, that sucks, but after a broken weapon and 2 lingering injuries, postponin death even further will take away the suspense, I think.

[DevilMcam]

My dm has the same kind of issues.
So far our "solution" was à follow.

1. Gentleman agreement : à defeated PC that accept defeat Will not die, and getting freedom back may be the next arc of the campaign.

2. Death saves suck, Let's get rid of them.
Once you hit 0 HPs you can either accept defeat and get removed from the fight until you are healed. Or keep fighting as normal, if you do you take 2 level of exaustion when hit by a mêlée attack and 1 if you take Damage from another source

[Waazraath]

2. Death saves suck, Let's get rid of them.


Out of curiosity: why does your group think they suck?

[DevilMcam]

Out of curiosity: why does your group think they suck?

Once you are in death save teritory all you do is flip a coin and hope you don't die while beeing removed from play.
even if you do get some healing, depending on initiative it could get "whack a mole-y" where you are healed, taken down again, and roll your saves, get healed, taken down, roll save, ...

As a player this is very unfun

[Bjarkmundur]

I like the idea of adding non-leathal, meaningful options when somebody goes down, like you suggest; but in the end, when 'almost dying' and 'suspense' are aimed for, the inevitable consequence is that at some point characters do die. Yeah, that sucks, but after a broken weapon and 2 lingering injuries, postponin death even further will take away the suspense, I think.

These are all really good points.

When a player dies, he immediately gets the urge to start looking for a solution to the problem. I've seen many players instinctively look at their spell sheet when I announce that they've fallen unconscious. That's the main problem; the player is unconscious and has absolutely no means of utilizing the tools he is frantically looking for. The moment when a player's eyes widen and he goes into "igottafixthisanddoitfast"-mode is a beautiful moment, full of suspense and intensity. My goal is for the player to get that feeling in a scenario where he still has the power to solve the problem. Sacrificing a piece of equipment (I'll supply an alternative), the integrity of your armor (scroll of mending) or a lingering injury (last resort) are just arbitrary ways of increasing the seriousness of the moment. I thought about just saying "you go to 0 hit points and fall unconscious at the end of your next turn." or just removed the unconscious condition from the dying routine altogether, but I don't think it'll have the desired effect. :/

It does, however, give me some confidence that your group has also made tweaks to the dying process. It means that each table has its own relationship with character death in FRGPs, and rules can be adjusted to better fit that relationship.

If a player has managed to use my "near-death" solutions three times, I think it's either time to simply fall unconscious, and experience the suspense of 'watching a character lying face down bleeding out and not knowing if it will make it?', or invest in a shield or heavy armor proficiency. As already stated, falling unconscious is very dramatic, and in my game would only sometimes result in 1 level of exhaustion, and almost always end with a player using a healer's kit. I'm not trying to eliminate deaths, I'm trying to draw out the experience without having to resort to 'plot armor'.

...I only just realized that adding this feature means adding it to special monsters also, which thinking about has now given me a headache xD

[Bjarkmundur]

Once you are in death save territory all you do is flip a coin and hope you don't die while being removed from play.
even if you do get some healing, depending on initiative it could get "whack a mole-y" where you are healed, taken down again, and roll your saves, get healed, taken down, roll save, ...

As a player, this is very unfun

This.
Just exactly this.
Just updated the OP:

Clarified how Hit Points are not 'Life Points'
Changed Armor Saves and Lingering Injuries to a reaction, requiring some tactical thinking when at low health.
Pointed out how Lingering Injuries require no save.
Clarified how if you fail to interpose an item, it suffers no damage.

Edit: Seeing how lingering injury in my game can be avoided by falling unconscious and take some magical healing, I'm contemplating having all lingering injuries be reversible via some arbitrary amount of magical healing. I'm thinking either an amount of healing equal to or half the damage that dealt the injury. If that scales poorly i'll have it be a percentage of the character's maximum HP, or simple your level * x.

[DevilMcam]

The problem with lingering injuries and various wound tables, etc is that either they are insignifiant and just slow the game down or they are seriously handicaping you and the game get dicey (dicey : when à couple bad rolls removes player agency and or fun).

You get crit by a goblin : you take 5 points of piercing from the arrow and.... (Rolling intensifies) 15 you lost your eye, you now have disadvantage on all ranged attack, too bad you are an archer.

One that happened to me :
"dm :- And the portal open on the endless plane of6water, the surge of water destroy6the temple around you and you are swallowed in it.
Uppon entzring the plane of water there is shark everywhere roll attletics to flee, dc 15
- me the warlock : well ****, 14 minus 2 =12, not enough, would I be able to use some magic ?
- dm : ahah no you are under water you can't speek, so no verbal components.
A bunch of failed physical rolls later (i'm à warlock i suck at6that)
- the sharks bested you roll on the lingering thingy table, Because you patron is native from this plane and somehow assisting you now, roll twice and choose which one you would rather have
- me : 20 and... 20
- welp 1d4 days of unconciousness It is. And now as you drift to the shore you see the figure of "insert epic boss of my warlock personnal arc" roll for initiative
- well i'm still unconcious for 2 days...

General awkwardness at the table.

It's the sae reason you don't put a young red draon against a party of 8 (or 15 or whatever) level 1 adventurers.
someone gonna die if the dices decide it that way without anyone beeing able to do anything about it

[Bjarkmundur]

I'll definitely be vary of all "worst case scenarios" and read the injury before I announce it to the player, just so I can adjust the roll if the resulting injury specifically targets the aspect of the game that player enjoys. A half orc barbarian with a hideous scar that increases his Intimidation check might not be a problem. However, not being able to wield a two-handed weapon because you lost an arm might warrant just retiring that character and rolling up a new one.

Now, imagine that scenario you where in, but think how you'd feel if you were given a choice

1. You can take one Lingering injury
2. You can return some of your power to your Patron to have him save your ass this one time. Your number of Spell slots would be reduced by 1 until you make a new pact to regain it. We'd discuss the details of new pact after the session, and decide whether it happens "of screen" during your next long rest, if your character has to go away for one session, whether the party plays through the quest with you, or whether it's some prolonged activity you'll partake in every long rest/downtime for a set period of time before the reduction is reversed etc.

Now, even if you choose the Lingering injury, you'll be at peace with the consequences, knowing it was your choice and not the narrative's, the dice' or the DMs choice. Going down to 1 Spell slot per rest as a Warlock his pretty huge, but you'd only do that if you are particularly invested in that character.
Invested players and Lingering Injuries are not a good combo, so having an alternative, like armor saves or falling unconscious in my case, they just might see some play without triggering anyone.

[DevilMcam]

This would not be a choice I would be happy with.

Loosing class features (such as slots) is about as bad as some of the usual injuries.

"hey mister player if you are not happy with losing you left arm I have a solution: how about I take your right arm instead?" no thanks.

Not all choices are meaningfull or interesting

[Bjarkmundur]

"hey mister player if you are not happy with losing you left arm I have a solution: how about I take your right arm instead?" no thanks.
Not all choices are meaningfull or interesting

It's supposed to be neither meaningful or interesting. It's supposed to be fear-invoking, without removing player agency when it happens. The idea is to allow a player to face a less terrible consequence than dying, to make him feel like he just dodge a bullet (or arrow). If defying death is a handwave scenario, it won't feel like dodging a bullet will give the appropriate rush.

Dungeons and Dragons, not Princesses and Comfy Mattresses. That's a different system.

Joking aside, getting eaten by a shark is never going to end happily ever after though. I'd love to hear how you would have narrated that situation, and what kind of choice you would be happy with, that you still find a fitting conclusion to a devoured-by-shark level of suspense event. I clarify this, since if your players would face no ill fate after being eaten by a shark, you're not looking at the kind of game I'm running (most of the time. I have Deus'd my machinas a couple of times ;) )

But yeah, you're right. I guess it depends on the design intent.
a) I don't want my players dying

make players invulnerable -> No bad choices
b) increase time spend at low hit points, making it harder and more suspenseful to die, whilst giving the player options on what the horrible consequence of 0 HP can be

doesn't allow any "good" choices, since dying is always gonna be bad.

I did contemplate using option a, but I felt like 'plot armor' was stereotypical enough, and it would encourage a different kind of behavior from my players if implemented. This forces me to come up with bad choices instead. I guess it's a matter of opinion what good bad choices look like. I feel as long as you're failing forward, you'll be fine. I'd love to experiment with your suggestion, but I feel like right now they go against my design intent of not limiting a player's options when faced with death. One flat out removes a character from play, and the other one removes him from a fight. I hope my three choices allow a player to keep playing, although in dire need of healing.

1. Make a save and take -2 AC until a cantrip is cast
2. Take an injury until healed (or 50gp per character level for healing potion), no character-targeted injuries.
3. Make save or gain 1 exhaustion, and follow RAW protocol for dying.

Can we think of any more "bad but not so bad you need a new character" results of losing all your hit points?
I think, while your character is still playable, any condition that's removed after a long rest (or the long-rest equivalent of effort) seems reasonable. Quests can be interesting too, but I feel like that option increases the duration by more than I'm comfortable with.

[AdAstra]

It would probably be best to specify what can be done to repair damaged/broken arms and armor, if anything. Can a Mending spell repair a broken sword? What about plate?

Using weapons and shields as “charges” for armor saves seems rather problematic, as I know my characters almost always have at least three weapons on them at all times, frequently multiple of the same type .

How do magic weapons interact with this system. As is they just kinda break, but do they lose their magic forever, or can they be restored by mending too? Or something more involved?

If armor saves can basically be replenished by pulling out a new sword, the dc is probably too low. 55% chance to avoid dropping to zero, more with a paladin or bless up, as long as you have weapons to burn. My advice would be to put another limit on armor saves or reduce the chance of success.

Also, would this apply only to attacks, or all sources of damage? What about things that should logically go through armor or weapons, like attacks from incorporeal creatures?

[AdAstra]

It's supposed to be neither meaningful or interesting. It's supposed to be fear-invoking, without removing player agency when it happens. The idea is to allow a player to face a less terrible consequence than dying, to make him feel like he just dodge a bullet (or arrow). If defying death is a handwave scenario, it won't feel like dodging a bullet will give the appropriate rush.

Dungeons and Dragons, not Princesses and Comfy Mattresses. That's a different system.

Joking aside, getting eaten by a shark is never going to end happily ever after though. I'd love to hear how you would have narrated that situation, and what kind of choice you would be happy with, that you still find a fitting conclusion to a devoured-by-shark level of suspense event. I clarify this, since if your players would face no ill fate after being eaten by a shark, you're not looking at the kind of game I'm running (most of the time. I have Deus'd my machinas a couple of times ;) )

But yeah, you're right. I guess it depends on the design intent.
a) I don't want my players dying

make players invulnerable -> No bad choices
b) increase time spend at low hit points, making it harder and more suspenseful to die, whilst giving the player options on what the horrible consequence of 0 HP can be

doesn't allow any "good" choices, since dying is always gonna be bad.

I did contemplate using option a, but I felt like 'plot armor' was stereotypical enough, and it would encourage a different kind of behavior from my players if implemented. This forces me to come up with bad choices instead. I guess it's a matter of opinion what good bad choices look like. I feel as long as you're failing forward, you'll be fine. I'll experiment with your suggestion, but only one of them, since the other one goes against my design intent of keeping a players ability to react when facing certain death.

1. Take 1-2 levels of exhaustion whenever you're hit until you regain hit points. (hella suspenseful)

and my three choices

1. Make a save and take -2 AC until a cantrip is cast.
2. Take an injury until healed (or 50gp per character level for healing potion), no character-targeted injuries.
3. Make save or gain 1 exhaustion, and follow RAW protocol for dying.

Can we think of any more "bad but not so bad you need a new character" results of losing all your hit points?
I think, while your character is still playable, any condition that's removed after a long rest (or the long-rest equivalent of effort) seems reasonable. Quests can be interesting too, but I feel like that option increases the duration by more than I'm comfortable with.

Also, in regards to this, you could always steal from some of the lingering injury, madness, etc. tables from the dmg. Not all will fit, but some might. Maybe you could just take from Raise Dead and impose a penalty on most or all d20 rolls, reducing at the end of a long rest. -1 to everything may be boring, but it’s small enough to not cripple you, and obvious enough to feel threatening. Maybe allow adrenaline rush to have the penalty only take place after the combat’s been completed? Regardless, it should encourage parties that take some hard hits to retreat and lick their wounds for a while.

EDIT: Building off this, maybe spice it up a little with this effect:
“when you roll a 20 on an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, that roll now counts as a 1”
This is effectively a -1 on average, with the added bonus of preventing crits for most characters. No unlikely heroics with a hole in your guts, which could be either good or bad for the feeling you want to impart.

[Bjarkmundur]

1. It would probably be best to specify what can be done to repair damaged/broken arms and armor, if anything.
2. Can a Mending spell repair a broken sword? What about plate?
3. Using weapons and shields as “charges” for armor saves seems rather problematic, as I know my characters almost always have at least three weapons on them at all times, frequently multiple of the same type .
4. How do magic weapons interact with this system. As is they just kinda break, but do they lose their magic forever, or can they be restored by mending too? Or something more involved?
5. If armor saves can basically be replenished by pulling out a new sword, the dc is probably too low. 55% chance to avoid dropping to zero, more with a paladin or bless up, as long as you have weapons to burn. My advice would be to put another limit on armor saves or reduce the chance of success.
6. Also, would this apply only to attacks, or all sources of damage? What about things that should logically go through armor or weapons, like attacks from incorporeal creatures?

Now here is some real constructive criticism. I will note that I've designed these rules for me to use, so they are in no mean bullet-proof from metagamers and optimizers, like intended-for-publish rules try to be. These are however good points, and I'll definitely be asked these questions by a player eventually.

1. Maybe reduce it just to armors and shields. I think it's a healthy dose of simplification.
2. Mending allows for 1 foot of fixing, but I don't know if two castings allow for 2 feet. I'd rule that armor can be fixed, while shields cannot. I'll write this in, along with #1
3. Fixed by #1
4. A magic item that breaks and loses its powers would no longer be referred to as a magic item. Mending says it can fix a broken magic item, which means that the item is still magical even when it's broken.
5. Fixed with #1. The DC is supposed to be low. It's the possibility of failure that creates the suspense, not the probability. Keeping it in line with concentration is also a neat little simplification.
6. This is the real kicker! I'll have to think about this to keep a respectable bottom line of verisimilitude.

[Waazraath]

When a player dies, he immediately gets the urge to start looking for a solution to the problem. I've seen many players instinctively look at their spell sheet when I announce that they've fallen unconscious. That's the main problem; the player is unconscious and has absolutely no means of utilizing the tools he is frantically looking for. The moment when a player's eyes widen and he goes into "igottafixthisanddoitfast"-mode is a beautiful moment, full of suspense and intensity. My goal is for the player to get that feeling in a scenario where he still has the power to solve the problem. Sacrificing a piece of equipment (I'll supply an alternative), the integrity of your armor (scroll of mending) or a lingering injury (last resort) are just arbitrary ways of increasing the seriousness of the moment. I thought about just saying "you go to 0 hit points and fall unconscious at the end of your next turn." or just removed the unconscious condition from the dying routine altogether, but I don't think it'll have the desired effect. :/

It does, however, give me some confidence that your group has also made tweaks to the dying process. It means that each table has its own relationship with character death in FRGPs, and rules can be adjusted to better fit that relationship.


Yeah, of course, every group should tweak to their wishes. And seeing what your aim is, I hope it works out this way!

I'll start with a new group (well, actually an old group that's getting together again and hopefullly is done now with making babies buying and rebuilding and redecorating houses and career moves and all that adult sheit) next week with a session 0, my proposal would be to have death saves rolled by the DM, and making 'going down' more scary and meaningfull by resulting in either a level of exhaustion or a lingering injury. Goals is to have the group play more careful and tactical, more scouting, a little bit less 'combat as sport'.

[Bjarkmundur]

Yeah, of course, every group should tweak to their wishes. And seeing what your aim is, I hope it works out this way!

If we have similar goals, you could look at my signature for inspiration. Of course, my tweaks all happened slowly over a period of time, so making your version of each and every house rule is likely to alienate your players, but you might find something you think is worth stealing. :)