You'll have to hit me harder than that... or that... or that... or-

[stewstew5]

what are all of the "when reduced to 0 hp do X to be brought up to 1" in the game?
for what I can recall right now, its half-orc and shadow sorcerer, but I'd swear there are more.

and assuming you were to build a character around this, what would be the best way to do it?

[ProsecutorGodot]

Samurai have one of the coolest ones, their 18th level feature lets them use their reaction to immediately take a turn (interrupting the current one) when they are reduced to 0 hit points without being killed outright.

During that turn taking damage causes death saves (functioning as normal) but otherwise you act as normal until the turn ends, then you fall unconscious if you still have 0 hit points.

[VariSami]

Samurai have one of the coolest ones, their 18th level feature lets them use their reaction to immediately take a turn (interrupting the current one) when they are reduced to 0 hit points without being killed outright.

During that turn taking damage causes death saves (functioning as normal) but otherwise you act as normal until the turn ends, then you fall unconscious if you still have 0 hit points.

And the Samurai being a Fighter archetype of course means they also have Second Wind which means that as long as you keep that handy, you can try and recover back above 0 with minimal investment during said extra turn.

[CTurbo]

Long Death Monk has the best one IMO.

Mastery of Death
Beginning at 11th level, you use your familiarity with death to escape its grasp. When you are reduced to 0 hit points, you can expend 1 ki point (no action required) to have 1 hit point instead.


That means as long as you have ki, you simply cannot be killed outright from damage. At level 11, you could literally survive a nuclear blast to the face, and walk away.

[pr4wn]

Long Death Monk has the best one IMO.

Mastery of Death
Beginning at 11th level, you use your familiarity with death to escape its grasp. When you are reduced to 0 hit points, you can expend 1 ki point (no action required) to have 1 hit point instead.


That means as long as you have ki, you simply cannot be killed outright from damage. At level 11, you could literally survive a nuclear blast to the face, and walk away.

If you are looking to build a character around the "I'm not dead yet" effect, this is the best one. It can be used multiple times in an adventuring day. Most of them are once per long rest.

Other options I'm aware of are:

Barbarian: Relentless Rage
Wildfire Druid: Blazing Endurance
Celestial Warlock: Searing Vengeance

-pr4wn

[OldTrees1]

Depending on your options, have you considered a Zombie body? Might need help from a Wizard or a DM.

[Crucius]

To sum it up a bit:

Half-Orc Relentless Endurance
Artificer Soul of Artifice (Thanks Stoutstien)
Barbarian Relentless Rage
Zealot Barbarian Rage Beyond Death
Samurai Fighter Strength Before Death
Long Death Monk Mastery of Death
Mercy Monk Hand of Mercy maybe kinda idk?
Ancients Paladin Undying Sentinel (Thanks Guy Lombard-O)
Shadow Sorcerer Strength of the Grave
Celestial Warlock Searing Vengeance

UA:
Wildfire Druid Blazing Endurance
Phoenix Sorcerer Phoenix Spark

There may be more, but this is what I got so far

Edit: I guess the mystic had a feature where it couldn't die, but... yeahhhh.

[Guy Lombard-O]

To sum it up a bit:

Half-Orc Relentless Endurance
Barbarian Relentless Rage
Zealot Barbarian Rage Beyond Death
Samurai Fighter Strength Before Death
Long Death Monk Mastery of Death
Mercy Monk Hand of Mercy maybe kinda idk?
Shadow Sorcerer Strength of the Grave
Celestial Warlock Searing Vengeance
Ancients Paladin Undying Sentinel

UA:
Wildfire Druid Blazing Endurance
Phoenix Sorcerer Phoenix Spark

There may be more, but this is what I got so far

Edit: I guess the mystic had a feature where it couldn't die, but... yeahhhh.

Added one for you.

[Dork_Forge]

Death Ward is a good one, I once played a PvP using a straight level 20 Ancients Paladin, using the capstone to bonus action Death Ward myself between that, the Undying Sentinel and being a Half Orc the other guy had to play whack an Orc quite a few tomes before I went down.

[stoutstien]

Artificer's capstone is another one. Break an attunement to an item to not drop.

[Chronic]

Not sure if it fit the concept exactly but druid with their capstone is probably the closest to unkillable I have seen. Since they wildshape at will.

[Crucius]

Added one for you.

Cheers! ;)

[MaxWilson]

Long Death Monk has the best one IMO.

Mastery of Death
Beginning at 11th level, you use your familiarity with death to escape its grasp. When you are reduced to 0 hit points, you can expend 1 ki point (no action required) to have 1 hit point instead.

That means as long as you have ki, you simply cannot be killed outright from damage. At level 11, you could literally survive a nuclear blast to the face, and walk away.

Yep. Even better: it works even when you're unconscious. You can't even be killed by repeated nuclear blasts in your sleep!

[Quoz]

Just to point it out, a zealot barbarian's two abilities put together - unlimited rages and cannot be killed while raging - make them unkillable by standard attacks. There are a lot of ways around this of course, a level one sleep spell breaks it pretty hard. But against enemies without a spell that can end rage the rest of the party can sit back and crack open a cold one while the barbarian does all the hard work. (And if something does go wrong and they do die, there is no material cost to revive them. So win-win.)

[MaxWilson]

Just to point it out, a zealot barbarian's two abilities put together - unlimited rages and cannot be killed while raging - make them unkillable by standard attacks. There are a lot of ways around this of course, a level one sleep spell breaks it pretty hard. But against enemies without a spell that can end rage the rest of the party can sit back and crack open a cold one while the barbarian does all the hard work. (And if something does go wrong and they do die, there is no material cost to revive them. So win-win.)

I believe the Zealot still dies at the end of a Rage even if they start a fresh one. Not that it matters of course because (by vanilla RAW on pop-up healing) someone will just Healing Word them long before the first Rage even ends.

[ThatoneGuy84]

I believe the Zealot still dies at the end of a Rage even if they start a fresh one. Not that it matters of course because (by vanilla RAW on pop-up healing) someone will just Healing Word them long before the first Rage even ends.

But at that level they dont need to end a rage either.

[stoutstien]

But at that level they dont need to end a rage either.

The question at hand is when you rage while already raging does it extend the duration or does it start a new one.

[ProsecutorGodot]

But at that level they dont need to end a rage either.

Persistent Rage is 15, Rage Beyond Death is 14. There is a small period where this distinction is important.

The rules don't specify that you can't begin a rage while raging, I don't see any harm in letting the duration refresh rather than stop and immediately start again.

[MaxWilson]

But at that level they dont need to end a rage either.

Rage ends after 10 rounds. Not that it matters*** because again, someone will just heal you back to 1 HP before 10 rounds is up.

*** Except to DMs, because as a DM I would loooooove to have a 20th level Zealot who was betrayed by his friends and chained at the bottom of the ocean 20 years ago and hasn't died yet because he's been Raging at their treachery this entire time! And then the PCs get a message in a bottle...

[ProsecutorGodot]

Rage ends after 10 rounds. Not that it matters*** because again, someone will just heal you back to 1 HP before 10 rounds is up.

Here I was thinking Persistent Rage made it permanent, always thinking that unlimited uses was more of a convenience than a benefit, but you've made me realize that Persistent Rage specifies that it only ends early under these conditions.

It still has its 1 minute duration. Honestly how did I miss that for so long? All Persistent Rage actually does is take away the need to attack or have taken damage.

[Tanarii]

Long Death Monk has the best one IMO.

Mastery of Death
Beginning at 11th level, you use your familiarity with death to escape its grasp. When you are reduced to 0 hit points, you can expend 1 ki point (no action required) to have 1 hit point instead.


That means as long as you have ki, you simply cannot be killed outright from damage. At level 11, you could literally survive a nuclear blast to the face, and walk away.
Does that prevent death from massive damage? (I forget the technically name for the rule.)

[ProsecutorGodot]

Does that prevent death from massive damage? (I forget the technically name for the rule.)

Many of the other effects specify "unless you are killed outright" where Long Death's doesn't. The rule for being instantly killed also requires that you fall to 0 and then start counting the negative damage, if it exceeds your maximum hit points you are instantly killed.

The feature not having wording that prevents it from working against effects that instantly kill you also happens to allow you to survive the Disintegrate spell, unlike other features such as Relentless Endurance that would fail to do so as being reduced to 0 by Disintegrate is normally an outright death.

You're dropping to 1 hit point instead of 0. The other effects check if you would be instantly killed before reducing you to 1 instead, but not in this case. Death Ward has similar wording.

[stewstew5]

Rage ends after 10 rounds. Not that it matters*** because again, someone will just heal you back to 1 HP before 10 rounds is up.

*** Except to DMs, because as a DM I would loooooove to have a 20th level Zealot who was betrayed by his friends and chained at the bottom of the ocean 20 years ago and hasn't died yet because he's been Raging at their treachery this entire time! And then the PCs get a message in a bottle...

I had never considered something like this. new bbeg? party are all descendants? °3°

[MaxWilson]

Here I was thinking Persistent Rage made it permanent, always thinking that unlimited uses was more of a convenience than a benefit, but you've made me realize that Persistent Rage specifies that it only ends early under these conditions.

It still has its 1 minute duration. Honestly how did I miss that for so long? All Persistent Rage actually does is take away the need to attack or have taken damage.

Honestly though Persistent Rage is a pretty big deal, because the need to always be attacking (when Raging) is a huge tactical constraint for lower-level Barbarians. You can't even do something like activate Rage you are Dashing towards melee (so that you can do three attacks with PAM when you do enter melee).

[ProsecutorGodot]

Honestly though Persistent Rage is a pretty big deal, because the need to always be attacking (when Raging) is a huge tactical constraint for lower-level Barbarians. You can't even do something like activate Rage you are Dashing towards melee (so that you can do three attacks with PAM when you do enter melee).

Oh absolutely, that's how most Barbarian's end up suffering in early levels in my experience, being kited out of their rage.

[Mr Adventurer]

I've noticed Scourge Aasimar can use their Radiant Soul to inflict minor damage on themselves each round to keep their Rage going. It's half your level each round, but you have resistance to the damage type, so it comes out to one quarter of your level.

[Segev]

I can attest that my barbarian player is continually focused on maintaining her rage. She loves it when she can make herself a prominent target so that others attack her rather than her having to ensure she attacks them; it frees her to dash after them.

[Expired]

Just to point it out, a zealot barbarian's two abilities put together - unlimited rages and cannot be killed while raging - make them unkillable by standard attacks. There are a lot of ways around this of course, a level one sleep spell breaks it pretty hard. But against enemies without a spell that can end rage the rest of the party can sit back and crack open a cold one while the barbarian does all the hard work. (And if something does go wrong and they do die, there is no material cost to revive them. So win-win.)


I believe the Zealot still dies at the end of a Rage even if they start a fresh one. Not that it matters of course because (by vanilla RAW on pop-up healing) someone will just Healing Word them long before the first Rage even ends.
As Quoz pointed out, a level 1 sleep spell can end rage (and outright kill a Zealot Barbarian with three failed death saving throws), but there are also two spells that all Barbarians should be careful of when at low health and they are Disintegrate and Finger of Death—for obvious reasons.

[Sherlockpwns]

Moon Druid at level 6 can wild shape twice into a giant boar, which has the relentless trait.

Stack that with the half orc trait. If you want to be cheeky, stack it with barbarian 11?

In general moon druids are a giant pile of free hp basically at least two deaths before your half orc trait kicks in. Giant boar is easy to hit but it’s 42 free hp plus possibly avoiding death one or more times. Twice. The you still have all your PC hp.

And of course if we are talking to level 20, I still pick pure druid and it’s unlimited wild shape. I mean... you may have to kill one dozens of times if you lack an insta-kill.

[MaxWilson]

Moon Druid at level 6 can wild shape twice into a giant boar, which has the relentless trait.

Stack that with the half orc trait. If you want to be cheeky, stack it with barbarian 11?

In general moon druids are a giant pile of free hp basically at least two deaths before your half orc trait kicks in. Giant boar is easy to hit but it’s 42 free hp plus possibly avoiding death one or more times. Twice. The you still have all your PC hp.

And of course if we are talking to level 20, I still pick pure druid and it’s unlimited wild shape. I mean... you may have to kill one dozens of times if you lack an insta-kill.

Meh, Giant Boar's Relentless only works against attacks that deal fewer than 10 HP of damage. For purposes of this thread it's terrible.

[Sherlockpwns]

I mean, a little aggressive there don't you think? :D But the point is even if the boar ability doesn't fire (and it can fire infinitely if you're fighting things that do low damage), the druid guarantees basically two free returns from "death." So if the goal of the thread is simply to maximize "how many times can I reach zero HP?" I think Druid is a must have, even if its just to level 3 for some of the bigger HP pools.

[Dualswinger]

Supernatural gift Hollow One should get mention here. Might take some begging for your DM to have (Though I don't see the biggest deal with taking it as a feat option if narratively appropriate).

When making a death saving throw, a 16 or higher gives you 1 hit point. Less "can't be knocked down" and more...

https://media.giphy.com/media/b6iVj3IM54Abm/200.gif

[MaxWilson]

I mean, a little aggressive there don't you think? :D But the point is even if the boar ability doesn't fire (and it can fire infinitely if you're fighting things that do low damage), the druid guarantees basically two free returns from "death." So if the goal of the thread is simply to maximize "how many times can I reach zero HP?" I think Druid is a must have, even if its just to level 3 for some of the bigger HP pools.

Agree about druid being good, just not about the 42 HP Giant Boar. Once per short rest, if the attack that reduced you to 0 HP was 10 damage or less, you can drop to 1 HP instead. It's strictly worse than just transforming into something with more than 52 HP, like a Giant Constrictor Snake.

It's definitely not infinite.

But I think Long Death monk wins overall, for flavor. If you want to play the guy who just doesn't *care* that there's a javelin sticking through his chest, Long Death Monk all the way (post-level 11).

[stewstew5]

Supernatural gift Hollow One should get mention here. Might take some begging for your DM to have (Though I don't see the biggest deal with taking it as a feat option if narratively appropriate).

When making a death saving throw, a 16 or higher gives you 1 hit point. Less "can't be knocked down" and more...

https://media.giphy.com/media/b6iVj3IM54Abm/200.gif

This is actually exactly what I wanted. I can't find a source, though.. can you link it?

[MaxWilson]

This is actually exactly what I wanted. I can't find a source, though.. can you link it?

It's from the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount: https://dnd.wizards.com/products/wildemount

[Drache64]

Race: Half Orc
Super Natural Gift: Hallowed One
Level 1 Shadow Sorcerer (Strength of the Grave)
l4 levels of Zealot barbarian (Relentless Rage, Rage Beyond Death)

At level 15 this gives you 5 ways to stand back up at 0, You could also buy the uncommon item Peroapt of Wound Closure for 6 ways the stand back up.

The other classes make you level up higher for less ways to stand up, barbarian is the only class that gives you 2 ways in one class. Luckily this fits well with the Half Orc Barbarian schtick.

What's cool is you could add 2 more levels of sorc to gain magical darkness only you can see through, this could be a fun way to beat people up without them seeing you.

[ProsecutorGodot]

Race: Half Orc
Super Natural Gift: Hallowed One
Level 1 Shadow Sorcerer (Strength of the Grave)
l4 levels of Zealot barbarian (Relentless Rage, Rage Beyond Death)

At level 15 this gives you 5 ways to stand back up at 0, You could also buy the uncommon item Peroapt of Wound Closure for 6 ways the stand back up.

The other classes make you level up higher for less ways to stand up, barbarian is the only class that gives you 2 ways in one class. Luckily this fits well with the Half Orc Barbarian schtick.

What's cool is you could add 2 more levels of sorc to gain magical darkness only you can see through, this could be a fun way to beat people up without them seeing you.

You actually probably don't want a Periapt of Wound Closure, since gaining 1 hit point from making a 16+ Death Save is the entire point of being a Hollow One. If you automatically stabilize, you never use that feature. Periapt also doesn't actually bring you back up, it stabilizes you at 0.