On the hazards of looting prisoners (random story)

[Reltzik]

I'm DMing 3.5. The party has decided to capture a level 4 villain for questioning. Though it's not really necessary to advance the plot, it could help them.

They succeed in dropping her to -7 hit points. She bleeds to -8, and then the paladin pokes a single HP into her to stabilize her back at -7.

They go on to win the battle.

Then they start taking stuff off her. They destroy her holy symbol, and loot from her: a potion of invisibility, 2 potions of Cure moderate, a coin purse, a signet ring, a ring of protection +1, and an amulet of health +2.

... THINK about that last one for a moment.

[Xenogears]

Reminds me of a friend of mine. Wished for the room to be filled with gold coins. Got crushed to death.

[Ryuuk]

Ouch, death by con lose. Guess it's not just for Barbarians anymore.

[ghost_warlock]

So...I take it they didn't bother to give her a few more hps before doing this?


If a character’s Constitution score drops, then he loses 1 hit point per Hit Die for every point by which his Constitution modifier drops. A hit point score can’t be reduced by Constitution damage or drain to less than 1 hit point per Hit Die.
source (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#abilityScoreLoss) (my emphasis)

[horngeek]

That wouldn't kill her.
(assuming death at -10)
if she is at -7 with a +2 amulet, she goes down to -9 when it is taken. as she is stabilised, they can tie her up/ otherwise restrain her and then heal her back up to positive HP

[Reltzik]

So...I take it they didn't bother to give her a few more hps before doing this?

They didn't KNOW what the pendant was. They hadn't even detect-magicked. They just grabbed the shiny.

[ghost_warlock]

They didn't KNOW what the pendant was. They hadn't even detect-magicked. They just grabbed the shiny.

It wouldn't kill her anyway, by RAW (see above). Too late to retcon it now, though. :smalltongue:

[Ryuuk]

Actually, this isn't constitution damage or drain. She just lost an enhancement bonus.

[Reltzik]

Nonono. Amulet of Health doesn't give 2 extra hp, it gives +2 con, which translates into +1 hp PER LEVEL. She had 4 levels. She lost 4 max HP. She is now down at -11.

[Aquillion]

So...I take it they didn't bother to give her a few more hps before doing this?


source (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#abilityScoreLoss) (my emphasis)I don't think that means what you think it means. It's just a reiteration of the basic rules for con modifiers: No matter how bad your con penalty is, your hitpoints always go up by at least one per level. Losing con later on still sticks to this rule.

In other words, that's a rule intended to apply to your HP maximum. A level 20 barbarian with 18 con and currently at 25 hp will still die if he suffers two or more points of con loss; but his maximum HP will never drop below 20, because you're always guaranteed at least one HP per HD.

At least, that's how I read it.

[Recaiden]

If losing the amulet counts as damage, then she lives. However, i'm sure that it is not damage, meaning that she just lost 4 HP and died.

[Jerthanis]

Similar thing happened once to our party wizard once. We managed to take a Necromancer alive by stabilizing him, planning on questioning the guy later when the party wizard said, "I take his spellbook and see what spells he's got."

The Fire Trap spell went off, killing the Necromancer, who was still in the blast radius.

I don't think I'm ever going to put that spell on my book as a wizard after seeing that happen.