(animated) D&D 5E Death
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- Опубликовано: 13 дек 2018
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A few characters in my game were knocked unconscious. It occurred to me that many people don't know how deadly 5e d&d can be as a game.
Find Ruin on twitter: @SeanIzaakse
Find Tansy on twitter: @ChickNugs
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Fun fact: A common misconception is that a nat 20 on a Death Saving Throw (DST) counts as two successes. In fact, according to the PHB pg. 197 under the bold term "Rolling 1 or 20" it says the following: "When you make a DST and roll a 1 on the d20, it counts as two failures (video was correct). If you roll a 20 on the d20, you regain 1 hit point." Just an interesting misinterpretation. Unless of course this rule was overturned in Xanathar's or a reprint of the PHB then feel free to chastise me for this comment. I'm just running on the books I do have.
Beat me to it - this always provides for fun 'Ohshit' moments when the fighter who just got clobbered stands to his feet on his own volition.
It wasn't overturned in any reprints, it was just an error in the video.
That 1 hp thing has saved the bacon of many characters in my campaigns.
so I'm the tank of the party, I have a skill that doubles my AC for 3 turns, it's rare for me to ever take damage and while my AC is doubled all attacks towards team members magically goes to me instead. one time an enemy got extremely lucky and managed to knock me down right before my turn, I instantly rolled a nat 20 and stood back up. I started singing *"I GET KNOCKED DOWN, BUT I GET UP AGAIN, YOU'RE NEVER GONNA KEEP ME DOWN"*
But the beauty of D&D is you can change the rules to make the game more brutal or less brutal as you wish if you're the dungeon master.
@@patrickcanttype Actually the death from massive damage is an actual rule. All rules *are* optional and can be changed, but the massive damage is a standard rule, so like, getting roasted by an ancient red dragon at level 1 =/= death saving throws. It's just plain death.
You can also use a Healer's Kit to stabilize a dying person without making a medicine check. Like spare the dying but with money.
Because why bother with faith and dedication to a God when you can do the same thing with the power of MOOOONNNNEEEEEYYYYYYYY!
@@FrostSylph is there a bard class that specializes in flaunting wealth?
Pay to win
@@otakon17 Technically the noble background says you should always spend the most on housing and food you can.
With the Healer feat, they also regain 1hp. It's like a Nat 20, but with money.
Don’t forget the (unofficial but very commonly used) Chunky Salsa Rule! "Any situation that would reduce a character's head to the consistency of chunky salsa dip is fatal, regardless of other rules." God, I love roleplaying games.
Ah, the old ShadowRun grenade in an elevator rule.... that was a good edition!
@@OniNoSweeney what's this rule you speak of?
"The Chunky Salsa" rule from SR 2nd edition: pretty much, if you set off a grenade in an enclosed space, you would first take the damage. Then, if the damage in the blast radius couldn't exceed the toughness of the walls, the rest of the damage reflected back inside the enclosed space.... from each wall! Hen if the blast was big enough and strong enough, more damage could then reflect back off all the walls again, potentially taking 5 Serious wounds, followed by 3 Serious wounds four times, and then 1 Serious wound four more times, (total of 20 Serious Wounds) when the average character will have 8 wounds to take before your dead. It was the first actual printing of the phrase "Chunky Salsa Rule".
funfact if you are downed anyone with magic missile can just outright kill you for one spell slot
for those who do not know the specifics for magic missile, RAW read each 1d4+1 as a separate attack meaning casting MM at level one is three auto-hit attacks blockable only by full cover, 120-240ft distance, or the spell shield.
Counterpoint, you can Fog Cloud on a downed ally for the cost of one spell slot as well, it will heavily obscure i.e full cover anyone in that area-magic missile requires a visual contact of a creature to target, so the evil mage will be foiled. Won't help against fireball tho!
@@dustinjones7458 I was going to retort to your post with "Ah yes, but Fireball doesn't give shit about your silly fog cloud." but you're on your game :D
@@nuru666 but wouldn't that only count as one
@@e4ehco21 Honestly I'd have to go back and look but I think you're right, it would only count as.
One minor nitpick, at least for rules as written: If you roll a 20 on a death save, you instantly gain one hitpoint, effectively putting you back in the fight.
Great Animation, however there was one mistake in 5e DnD rolling a 20 on a death save instantly restores 1 hp so you are back in combat.
Pretty sure that's a homebrew thing, but I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure he got it right since there are only the things he described that can have you regain hp.
@@BatteryPlaza p.197 of the PHB, under Death Saving Throws:
"Rolling 1 or 20. When you make a death saving throw
and roll a 1 on the d20, it counts as two failures. If you roll a 20 on the d20, you regain 1 hit point."
I have acknowledged the council's decision, but considering it's a stupid ass decision, I'm electing to ignore it
No it’s in the official rules. The “Nat 20 is two pass saves” is actually the homebrew thing.
@@OnlyMagoran Woah what? That's cool, I must have recalled it from 3.5 or something, but that's good to know, thanks!
Just recognized Wades in Shadows. He went through a lot.
Heyyy! I just realized Tanzy's friend was Wades In Shadows! Neat.
yeah, wasn't he from the cold road or something?
Yep, I think this is the prequel for cold road 😅
@@noobauditor2898, I was thinking it was a sequel, since Cold Roads says his party consisted of Sweet William the human and 4 dragonborns.
@@carsonrush4152 He also still had at least one of the magical cigars from Wick.
@@somethingotherthanmyrealname, how could you tell he had the cigar? What do you mean?
The one time I've ever seen anyone go unconscious was me. Then I rolled a four and a one on my death saves.
Fortunately the GM remembered at that point that he'd accidentally skipped the turn of an NPC that could use Lay On Hands in the previous round, so he allowed me to retroactively return to life as if the NPC in question had done so.
If you've been playing for a long time, only seeing one player go down sounds like a bad thing. Unless you're not really playing combat-heavy campaigns or something, I guess
When a dragon asks if you've come to look upon its majesty
YOU SAY YES!
_Magic Missile the unconscious_
*INSTANT DEATH!!!*
O.O
That's when you really messed with the DM. So... thanks, I'll remember that
You got to feel bad for that poor girl. When she was awake and conscious all her friends were still there but when she woke up after being knocked out only one friend was left alive. The only bonus that she gets is that she didn't have to watch her friends die one by one.
Note that if you are making death saves, you are unconscious and therefore you become prone, which means that attacks not within 5 ft. also have disadvantage, so they are just flat.
Do some abilities nullify disadvantage to prone creatures?
@@SamJ.J. Yes, Rogues get Elusive at 18th level, so there’s no way for an enemy to have advantage against you, unless you’re incapacitated
Well that's not inherently true. You could be in a chair or manacled to a wall. Unconsciousness doesn't warp reality around you.
@@if7723 the rules as written indicate that reality is warped. Granted, in these niche circumstances, a DM probably would overrule that to be more reasonable
@@missmorbid1439 I'm not sure if elusive would help as it isn't advantage being gained against but rather disadvantaged being imposed. I'd have to double check, though
Our paladin was chasing down a bandit leader. Both were at low hit points. It was a long grueling fight and he used all his lay on hands for the rest of the dying party.
The final showdown the bandit leader rolled a nat 20, took our paladin to 0, and as he had multi attack (within 5ft giving him a critical) and took him down to 2 failed death saves.
It took the rest of the party to catch up to our paladin and he died 1 turn before we could get to him with healing spells.
It was such an emotional moment. Some of our party pummeled the fleeing bandit leader until he was nothing but ashes, and the healer tried administering healing spells to our dead friend to no avail.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget how cinematic that moment felt
Rivivify?
@@kagekiyamitenshi7262 We didn’t have that spell. We were level 2 or 3 at the time 😅
You can actually add modifiers to Death Saves if something affects saving throws in general, such as the bless spell, bardic inspiration or a paladin’s aura. Monk’s actually become proficient in all saving throws at high levels, including death saves.
Anjanae Taylor I actually had to look that up, particularly the monks diamond soul ability, but yeah it counts for all those. I'll keep that in mind from now on
You can modify death saves total value, but it doesnt matter because success and failure isnt dictated the result of the modified total of the save itself, its the roll result of the dice that counts, thus nothing short of advantage/luck can influence them.
ANDELE3025 That’s not true at all except in the case of natural 1s or natural 20s. The DC of success for a death save is 10. If the d20 is an 8 and I roll a 3 on a d4 for bless, I’ve beat the DC of 10 and it counts as a success, just like any other saving throw.
Thanks! I was looking for something like this in the comments, and learned something new.
and you can also use Flash of Genius on other people's death saves, or initiative rolls
Grave Domain Clerics being able to cast the Spare the Dying Cantrip as a Bonus Action at 30 feet when only level 1 has probably saved so many low level lives.
I often play enemies according to how I think they'd function. Basic undead know you aren't dead yet and have no concept of self preservation. Meaning they are relatively easy to kite and trick but if you go down they will keep wailing until you are as dead as they are. Most beasts have some sense of self preservation and prefer to down an active threat before finishing off a downed enemy. Humanoids are a coin toss. The more vengeful ones may prefer to finish PCs off while others may prefer to deal with the active thread first.
Story: Table rules nat 20 on death is wake up prone with 1 hp. My Revived rogue went down 2 times with 2 nat 20s and back in the fight. The party was beginning to win and the dm had me roll an intimidation check since I simply... wouldn't. .. die. The mobs fled and we continued on the quest! Limping.
That's pretty sick Man, that would be pretty intimidating to stab, strike or what have You and they just keep arising, It'd create a systematic panic for sure.
That's not a table rule though, that's RAW. Zee is mistaken here when he says it counts as 2 saves.
Fun fact. According to Jeremy Crawford, in 5e Monks gets to add their proficiency bonus to death saves once they hit the right level and get their class ability. The ability gives you proficiency in all saving throws, death saving throws count according to the designer
the ability is called "diamond soul"
That's super neat, thanks for sharing.
*Fun & awesome fact about MONKS .*
*At level 14 .*
*Monks gain proficiency in all SAVING THROWS .*
*This includes Death saving throws as confirmed by Jeremy Crawford .*
*Also as a kicker in the same ability .*
*If a monk fails a saving throw .*
*They can spend a Ki point to reroll and take the second roll .*
Between that and the immunity to old age, you can REALLY piss off a lich.
@@williamwontiam3166 Ah yes , Timeless body .
Also don't need to eat and drink .
Haha, yeaa😄 I wish Timeless body prevented death from old age, then litches would stright up hate monks.
@@jrgenchristensen7240
Yeah it does not stop natural aging .
Only neutralizes the negatives of old age & stops magical aging .
Just for fun add a paladins 6th level Aura of protection being a +5 to all saves too XD
2:56 Wades in Shadows Cameo. Also just realized the druid appeared in the puzzle video.
Also in the puzzel video wades and poke were in, plus the druid. But no daveh, instead a loxodon named dafi (i think). I wonder what happend to lead up to the puzzel video
ACTUALLY. If you get a crit fail it counts as 2 failed death saving throws (as you said) BUT, a crit success instantly heals you 1 hit point. Currently holding the book in front of me.
oh!
Yeah I remembered that too.
PHB: Monk, Diamond Soul: Your mastery of Ki grants you proficiency in "all" Saving Throws.
Me:
My DM: Sounds legit
Additionally, whenever you make a saving throw and fail, you can spend 1 ki point to reroll it and take the 2nd result.
So not only are you proficient, you also have advantage.
Its not really advantage. Advantage is taking the higher result.
If the 1st roll was a 9, and the 2nd roll was a 1, you'd have to take the 2 death save fails
@@rileysimpson6536 Ah, you're right. It only works like advantage 95% of the time.
Lmao
@@rileysimpson6536 You reroll the failed save, not a new one. So yes, it would work like advantage, only you have to spend a ki point and can decide to do so after seeing the first roll's result
The only other party member alive after the Druid wakes up looks like Wades In Shadows from the Cold Road episodes.
Yeah I was watching that and looks like it. So this might be early cold road cause they did say they had lost most of their party when chasing the kenku
Are we not going to talk about how a pc that only had 13 hp wanted to track down a dragon?
If you're talking about the fighter, it is probably due to the trap that Zee mentioned earlier- it might've just messed him up bad
Yeah I would've short rested or healed somehow. Healing potions people!
@@connorpratt8364 so at most, max hp 50. I still think that's too low. The dragonbreath attack did 60. I think the DM did an oopsie with the difficulty balancing in this encounter. Especially with the Dragon going for an sneak attack from behind, DM was trying to tpk the party.
As many others have said, you regain consciousness with 1 HP on a critical success, but the other thing I'd point out is that your rolls can have a modifier on your save. If you're in a paladin's aura of protection, you get to add their CHA bonus as long as the pally is conscious herself. There might be other things that apply. Basically it's a saving throw, so if you have an ability that affects "saving throws" generally, it should work. Indomitable should let you reroll a death save for instance.
Technically Bardic Inspiration can work too!
@@KanuckStreams Bardic inspiration working on a death save is basically when a side character in an anime calls the protagonists name and he gets back up.
My best friend learned about the death rules really quick in his first campaign. We were doing a quickie for his birthday, with our party (goliath wizard, turtle guy monk, and a kobold cleric because we wanted to mess around for a one-off) coming up to a large tower in an open field that we had been sent to to retrieve an ancient staff which we naturally intended to keep for ourselves. My character (the goliath wizard) kicked in the door to the tower, and it was pitch black inside, as well as eerily quiet. The kobold leaned in to see what she could find with her dark vision and it looked like a totally normal room, though she couldn't see the whole thing due to its size. Then, my friend (the monk) got impatient, so he picked her up and chucked her into the center of the room.
Critical success. His first ever roll.
Yeah, our *healer* just got thrown like a baseball into a giant spider nest on the far end that she couldn't see.
Long story short the battle SHOULDN'T have been difficult, except our only source of health was desperately fleeing for her life further into the building (kobolds are not smart) and the DM was rolling HOT. Somehow, the monk that we deliberately made tanky to AVOID anything like this got completely overwhelmed by the one giant spider in front of him coupled with the two small but venomous spiders on his back (which had disadvantage because of the shell). Unconsious in his first combat encounter because he went a bit chaotic stupid and got insanely bad luck afterwards. The DM let me roll for medicine and heal him a bit because that sucks for your first ever campaign.
It was a fun session though, we even tamed one of the spiders.
𝚊𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚢 𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐
Back in 1990, I created a D&D character and named him using a completely random name generator.
His name?
Zee Walsul
Every other player in the campaign gave me he'll for that. "What kind of name is Zee? that is stupid!"
Feeling vindicated now.
If only you kept talking with the effeminate German accent you could sell that name.
I like the name Zee-
@Tazerfish ahahah, my comment was from 2 years ago and in the meantime I learned intermediate German so hearing this stuff from that comment is fascinating. I guess one could create a halfling named Zee with foot fetish. They have to be seeing more legs and feet than torso and faces.
Dragons: when a monster only fights intelligently for entertainment; not because they need toto win.
Funny thing about this video, the visual for getting hit for your max HP instant killing you, made me misinterpret it to be Half your max HP under 0, so if you had 60 Max HP and got to -30 you died. I DM a campaign and when I brought this up my players all cleared it up for me, so I didn't fuck anyone over YET.
(Also one of them said that death saving throw failures stayed on a character when they get healed up and we all looked at him like "???" and turns out he had one really mean DM)
“this is why you run death ward kids”
-that one cleric
"The elemental steps on your head to make sure you are dead." ~Matt Colville, Villain, Game Master, and quickest funded Kickstarter creator ever.
And then there's Zealot Barbarians, who look at death and say "No"
"Only one party member remained"
Is that Wades in Shadows?
It honestly looks like it is.
The plot and backstory thickens....
It really was a [?]ick move by the DM to put the party in that position. The DM had to have known that pitting them against a *dragon* would mean *certain* death - esp. if there were only 2 characters left, esp. since the dragon was using a clever illusion to get the jump on them, and *esp.* because one of the two characters was severely wounded anyway. I say this from experience, playing under a humdinger of a [?]ick DM. I despise [?]ick DMs. Such experiences made me hate D&D as a system.
@@XpaceTrue why do they make you hate D&D?
@@Liam_The_Great My very first experience with a tabletop roleplaying game was D&D. Unfortunately - and my friends and fellow players will freely attest to this - the DM was a complete jerk. Towards the end, this DM even admitted to my face that the only reason he is interested in running campaigns was to see us squirm in our seats, see the expressions on our faces and witness how we react as our party fails spectacularly and gets wiped. Every time, he sets our party up to fail.
@@Liam_The_Great It was very rare for a character to last long enough to level. We were constantly rolling up new characters. Based on how he ran campaigns, this DM was Neutral Evil with Chaotic tendencies. He was diabolical. He bent the rules to make us more likely to fail and gave us hope when there was none. The only reason we kept coming was because roleplaying was new and interesting to us (we were young) and he was the only one with the sourcebooks and willing to run campaigns.
A ranged attack on a prone character causes disadvantage, so a ranged attack ends up being a standard attack since they are also prone unless the PC is somehow unconscious standing up.
But unconcious is an auto crit right, so itd hit no matter what
@@SpiderconPrime that's not what autocrit means. Autocrit means you crit on any SUCCESSFUL hit, but if your attack misses, you still do no damage.
@@thundersheild926 right but crit while unconcious is 5es coup de grace is it not?
@@SpiderconPrime Not quite. When you an unconscious target with a crit, they get 2 failed death saving throws, not enough to kill them outright. Also, double checking the rules, you only get the autocrit if you are within 5 feet of the target, so ranged attacks don't even get it.
an interesting point as well: RAW, for a prone creature, whether you have advantage or disadvantage on your attack is based on how far away you are, not the type of attack, so if you make a ranged attack, but from within 5 feet, it has advantage (or neutral if the creature is still concious, because ranged attack in melee with a hostile creature imposes disadvantage) or if you have a reach weapon and make a melee attack from 10 feet away it has disadvantage instead. Just a silly little quirk of RAW.
One spell I love, and hope to see you cover is the Heat Metal spell. So we were trespassing on a pirate ship, and behold, our Rouge tripped the alarm. This trapped us on the ship, as the gangplank was then guarded. My Bard then saw that one of them was in Metal Armour. He retrieved a small hunk of Iron from his satchel, and using some fire from the wizard's spells, cast it on that Armour. Rolling for max damage, and a bonus action to do it again, the pirate turned out to be made of water, and was promptly evaporated. So that was the day I fell in love with the heat metal, and the day I first truly fell in love with D&D.
guys look who saved the druid.....its wades in shadows! from cold road
Fun fact, the Monk ability Diamond Soul, that gives proficiency with all saving throws.
Death Saving throws are technically under that umbrella, so you can become proficient in death saves
Pally Pro Aura also can add to this.
@@inqivan As can Ring of protection (or general items of protection that give + to saves)
I didn’t know about any of those, that’s really cool.
I just noticed that the only other surviving member at the end is Wades in Shadows
Last Saturday, our most recent session, we fought against several naval captains (and may have started a war in the process, more at 11). As the evasion tank of the group, I (lv 5 Kensei Monk with a buffed AC of 23) decided to keep the leader busy while my squishy comrades started clearing out the rest. This big bad hombre had 3 attacks, and made attack rolls of 25, 27, and a Nat 20. This guy hit *hard.* The first 2 hits were enough to knock me down to 0 hp, and the DM regretfully said "I already rolled to attack, so I suppose he stabs you in the gut while you're on the floor." On the ground, on the opposite side of a wall of fire, with 2 failed death saving throws already. Immediately afterwards, it was my turn. The situation *did not look good.* Sometimes, you already know what's going to happen, and rather than mourn, you gain a zen-like attitude; no sense fighting the inevitable. Before rolling my DST, I said to the party, in character: "Men, it's been an honor." Nat. Goddamn. 1. The first death in the campaign, and it could not have been more poetic.
Let this be a lesson to all, no matter how well things seem to be going, no matter how high of a hill you believe yourself to be on, it can all come crashing down in one, single moment.
Rolling a 20 on your death save restores 1 hp allowing you to regain consciousness.
Nat 20 on a death save sets you at 1 hp, and allows you to act on that turn.
Monk diamond soul gives proficiency in all saves, including death saves.
Paladin aura of protection applies its bonus to death saves as its a save.
The hardest part in dnd for me is dealing with a characters death that you've become developed and so attached with. Like seeing your favorite character from tv dying.
And of course with the Colville reference.
Never not step on players heads (if thats the game they wanna play, or its shadowrun)
Also worth noting, folks: Death Saves can be modified by spells and special class features. Bless will get you the same 1d4 it gets any other Saving Throw, and a 6th level Paladin can be even more of a godsend.
Not to mention how high level Monks get proficiency in all saving throws.
_That includes death saves_
Wait so a plus three ring of protection on a level 20 monk would be +6 proficiency plus three from ring to all saves which would be plus 9... so anything not a nat one, which has it's own rules, is a success. Or am i missing something
@@deadmuffinman Yeah, that sounds right to me. If I were running, I might get a little loose with the interpretations also: It says a nat 1 counts as two failures, but it doesn't say that a nat 1 doesn't preclude you from succeeding the Save. If you could get a +9 to your Death Save at my table, you might be able to score a success in tandem with scoring those two failures.
That's me being a cheeky DM for my players and shouldn't be an explanation for how the rules are intended. Don't expect like treatment from your DM; it's rude. :-D
deadmuffinman I mean +3 rings of protection don’t exist outside of broken homebrew, but you could stack a cloak of protection, a ring of protection, and a stone of good luck to get the same effect at the expense of all your attunement slots. Unless you’re an artificer. Then you can attune up to 6 items and add the number of attuned items to saving throws, giving you the +9 while still having attunement slots available. At that point, anything but the auto-fail of a nat 1 will pass.
@@deadmuffinman The only issue with this is that +3 rings of protection don't exist in 5e.
A small bit of errata:
1. I'm sure everyone knows that Nat 20's give you 1 hp not 2 successes.
2. Your death saving throws can have modifiers, it just doesn't have an ability modifier. If you have an active spell or ability that gives you a bonus to all saving throws, that includes death saving throws.
3. All attacks made against unconcious creature do have advantage, but because the creature is also prone, all attacks from a distance greater than 5 feet have disadvantage. Since instances of advantage and disadvantage cancel, then attacks made from more that 5 feet are at neutral.
Effectively, if you are further than 5 feet, you attack without advantage or disadvantage and a hit counts as a death save failure. You also cannot agin advantage or disadvantage since any instances of one cancels all instances of the other and you already have both advantage and disadvantage. So for example, attacking an unconcious creature with a bow beyond its normal range.
You get advantage from the creature being unconcious and disadvantage from being more than 5 feet from the prone creature and from being outside the bow's normal range. Even though you have more sources of disadvantage, they don't cancel in pairs. If you have any number of advantages and any number of disadvantages, you are comsidered to have none of either. So adding more advantages doesn't help and adding more disadvantages doesn't hurt.
Ideally, of course, you would get within 5 feet. You have advantage and auto-crit on a hit, dealing 2 death save failures.
Examples of bonuses to the saving throw include Monk's Diamond Soul giving them proficiency in *all* saving throws, and Paladin's Aura of Protection granting their Charisma modifier to *all* saving throws made by all allies withing 10 feet of them, including themselves. The paladin one turns on when they fall unconcious, but the monk one is always on, so paladins make sure to run around protecting your fallen buddies!
@@Daktangle thanks for the examples! I knew examples existed, but I personally haven't had one occur in play.
Does that mean that if you have 3 levels of exhaustion (or something else which gives disadvantage on saving throws) you get disadvantage on death saves? Because ouch!
@@catlover-fp5ig Yeeeeep, anything that gives a universal modifier to saving throws affects death saving throws as well.
Poor girl's friends died. The silver lining of this is least one survive and she didn't have to watch them die
OH MY GOD TANZEE LOOKS SO CUTE
She does :)
I’ve only just realised, the other living party member was the black dragonborne from the cold road
Yeah, it’s wades in shadows, I believe the adventures are linked (or zee got lazy)
@@Overclocked-nm2vu I think they're linked. Wades and Tansy were both in the party from The Countdown Puzzle video along with a Luxodon named Dafyd and Frost Goblin named Poke.
Zee always uses character models consistently as far as I can tell. If you recognize someone from separate videos, they're the same person
Nope, a crit success instantly brings you up with 1 HP.
This is correct. Nat 20 on death save brings you to 1 HP. If you are brought to 0 HP again, you have to roll for death saves but ignore any previous successes or failures.
was just about to say the same, nat20 on a death save is the best thing that can happen, your character is stable and conscious, so nothing can really stop you to take your turn this round
I'm still waiting on a video of that guy shouting: "Transmutation is the key, my boys!"
Tiberius! He mentioned in a stream that he had to find more info on the player since he didnt kept in touch with him
*war flashbacks of my bard falling into a spike trap, bleeding out below while my entire group forgot and carried on with a conversation*
I recognize the tip of that black snout. That's Wades-In-Shadows!
I'm a novice DM playing with novice players so I've kind of ignored death mechanics, saying "0 hp? You're unconscious." Then saying that by some bullshit means they're fine a few turns later. I'm glad I have the real mechanics laid out here.
When it comes to kicking a downed character, i always do it based on what i believe the enemies personality would be. A common orc would probably move on to the nearest threat when their current one is down. But a girallon zombie would savagely rip apart the first thing it gets one of its many hands on.
A doctor once told me the secret to not dying was just not to do it.
"It's not worth it," he said.
So he suggested becoming a Long Death Monk or a Zealot Barbarian, so I could laugh in the face of death.
My goliath fighter had a traumatic experience with griffins at level 2. He fought four of them at one time and kept going down but I kept rolling nat 20s on my death saves so I kept just getting back up. Needles to say I ate all of those flying chickens
Attacks against unconscious targets do have advantage, but anyone who's unconscious is likely to also be prone. So ranged attacks will also be at disadvantage, making them normal again. So just the melee attacks at advantage in most situations.
Man. Wades been through some shit...
so the fighter had 51 or less max HP? fighting a dragon with a 66 damage breath attack? hmm
I was going to say that seems unfair
6d6
@@52nerfguy There's a D&D meme that states: _There's a lot going on in the world. Not all of it is going to be your level._ Sometimes the players need to either be diplomatic or they just need to run.
@@karinamimi For which number, because that's still 36 max
@@52nerfguy The breath attack, so it's even lower than you think
"The Earth Elemental steps on your head!"
I saw somewhere that a DM should do the death saving throws for that player behind their screen because the other players might make choices based on knowing the results of their party member's DST which would be meta gaming.
Ehhh me rolling behind a screen would not diminish their ability to count to three. They are going to prioritize the down player by the following turn.
@@jonr4651 Well, yeah. That’s the point. It’s more urgent.
@@jonr4651 Its more that you won't know if they're doing good or bad on their saving throws. In practice you can actually have MORE than 3 turns if the player rolls a mix of successes and failures (up to 5, on the 6th turn they'd HAVE to either stabilize or die). The party should no know this, as it would be meta gaming.
They ALSO won't know if the player *already* died or stabilized. Even its been 10 turns since your bard went down, as long as you keep the death saving throws secret (and your player doesn't ruin the surprise OOC) then the party won't know if the character is dead or not, and will have to make the decision of whether they should try and help what might be a corpse.
It makes for some VERY fun character interactions!
Actively dying... Just like the rest of us.
2:56
i just realised wades saved tanzy
this means wades is a member that outlived everyone in his groups for so long!
damn he must have some character development
Pour one out for my boy Ruin
Thing to note is that abilities which give bonuses on *all* saving throws specifically, like those of the paladin and monk, do in fact also apply,to death saving throws.
bruh wades is the only one that keeps surviving over and over
On a natural 20 you gain 1 hp and can act on your turn.
lmfao 💀 that would be funny
No I don’t think so
@@maxfreeman2741no you do, RAW
@@josephdbeecherI've done it twice in games. It's the best feeling in D&D, especially since you resolve death saves at the start of your turn
I legitimately had this happen four times in a row for an npc. The player put them back down each round but they just got back up. Fortunately, I misremembered that they got back up on the end of their turn rather than the start so I didn't kill the pc through a stupid amount of luck.
And that's why I homebrewed Haha to crit on death saves 50% of the time.
you should make a video about how to cope with the prospect of your character dying. as loathe as i might be to admit it, some people, myself included, just get too invested in their own characters
always remember: you control how your character came to be and what drives them to do what it is that they do. you have very little control beyond that as to how your character's story will play out. that is up to the will of the gm and the eldritch gods that dwell within your dice.
I think in part it depends on what kind of game you are playing. If you want it to be more about the characters and their storyline, then it's probably better to be more lenient, especially right at the start if you really want them to be level 1s. If it's like one of those detailed backstory and heavy world building, it isn't so easy to start that over repeatedly due to a bad roll.
If however, it's more about the battles and the characters are just the vehicle, then changing them isn't such a big deal.
@@OriasRofocale that's still up to the gm to decide. it's his world. not the player's.
Every character death is the doorway to a new character's birth.
Yeah, but I spent literal years on this one concept, and if I only got to use it once after spending months doing art and setting up a detailed backstory, I would be livid. Not all of us play hardcore more in games, or at least not all the time.
I mean if the character dies later, that I could cope with, but right off the bat it would be too much effort for too little use.
Again, it really depends on what you want out of it, I don't think there's one right or wrong answer and it probably comes down to knowing what your group wants too.
Actually, it's kind of both the players and the GMs world. Without players, the GM is just writing a novel. If a GM doesn't care at all what the players want or just seeks to make them unhappy, then the experience of the game is not going to be very satisfying for either side.
I'm playing my first long form D&D campaign. During one session the party heard a commotion and disturbance outside of the abandon ruin we were exploring. I had my character run to the door and hold his attack until something came through. As the door opened my character stood waiting and watching. An angry medusa burst through the doors. My DM tried to be kind and give me an out, but I knew deep down my character stared into those sullen amber eyes of doom. My character spent one turn feeling his life slip away, his feet slowing turning to granite. With his last moments, my character threw the mysterious box he had just found to ensure it's survival. In a moment that will be burned into my memory forever, that box transformed mid air filling the room with a gigantic boat. As my characters chest and neck began transforming, He cried out, "I told you it was magic!" all that remains is a statue with a smug, satisfactory grin on it's face.
It's my first character death and probably won't be my last, but I can't think of a better way for him to have died. No death saves, no remains to bury, just a magnificent statue that will be a memorial. That is, until our cleric gets greater restoration and decides whether or not he wants to brave the Medusa's lair.
Or the Medusa destroys your statue in spite :)
OMG you mentioned Matt colville!! That's bonus points in my book!!
All the Clerics are saying "Spare the Dying", while I'm over here thinking "I'm busy! You're only mostly dead. You'll be fine."
When they're all dead there's usually only one thing you can do. Go through their pockets for loose change.
One of the other players in my group just goes, "it's fine, I have rivivify, you'll be fine."
One thing that was wrong here is that in 5e, if you roll a nat 20 on a death save, you don't actually succeed on 2 death saves. You actually are instantly brought back to consciousness with 1 hp
And get to take your turn as normal, as you make the death save at the START of your turn rather than the end like i believe every other type of save
Yes, a pinned comment from 2 years ago already tries to correct that mistake, but thanks.
@@KnightessTTV No, Death Saves are at the end of your turn.
@@eric_moore-6126 nope. Go read it. As i said, death saves are made at the START of your turn, just in case you roll a nat 20. A nat 20 on a death save is regain consciousness and 1 HP and take your turn as normal
My DM loves to triple tap an unconscious player with a level 1 magic missile...
Fun fact, since technically all damage is done at once it only counts as one attack against the downed person!
@@bananagamr8180 You sure?
@@bananagamr8180 no that's not true cause otherwise magic missile would only cause one concentration check which it causes 3
Your DM sounds like a jerk.
@@bananagamr8180 Magic Missile is three separate hits, meaning instant death to a downed player.
A crit save on a death save wakes you up with 1 hp
I think that's a 5E rule right?
@@Upsilon1984 That's the edition Zee is animating for.
@@Upsilon1984 "(animated) D&D 5E Character Death" my guy
The both of you miss understand, in the video he stated that a natural 20 gives you two death saves successes, however you are stating that a natural 20 returns the players hit points to 1. I am asking whether both rules are in the 5E players handbook.
Edit: my bad for the poorly worded question.
A nat 20 on a death save stabilizes you and revives you with 1hp if I'm not mistaken
Maybe in a past edition, no a natural 20 counts as 2 successes. Nat 1 is 2 failures. By your logic a nat 1 should be insta death.
Just checked it.
Dnd 5e - nat 20 gives you 1hp while a nat 1 equals 2 death fails
Alex Brauner no he is correct, nat 20 bring you back at the start of your turn with one hit point.
that dragon tho
they solved the puzzle and still died xd
You also didn't mention that a party member can skip the medicine check if they have a healers kit available. Always carry healer's kits. There are few things worse than bleeding out because neither you nor your buddy could roll better than a 4 for 3 rounds straight.
Always have the Basic Dungeoneering kit. Rations, water, 50ft. of rope, lantern and matches, 10 foot pole, vials and stoppers, skinning knife and various kits depending on your class. I spend more on supplies than weapons and armor but it usually pans out better.
@@otakon17 what version of DND is that from. The contents you listed don't line up with either the dungeoneer's or explorers pack from 5e. That said ya you should always have one or the other. If nothing else the dungeoneer's pack tools can give you advantage on alot of environmental challenges your likely to come across.
@@merendell Oh I didn't know there was an actual pack called that. I always went piecemeal myself, choosing what gear to take. I was just calling it the "dungeoneering kit". Then again I forgot to mention the pocket mirror...
@@otakon17 ya I normally start either one of the default kits and add a few piecemeal odds and ends. Can't say I'd bring a 10 foot pole however. I understand the use but how the heck would you carry that thing around on a day to day basis. Won't strap to a pack nicely and would be annoying to always be carried in the hand. I'd rather look for something in the environment to use should I need to prod something from a short distance.
My lvl 8 Cleric rolled a Nat 20 for my Dex Save vs. Evard's Tentacles, but due to me wearing Full Plate I had Disadvantage.
Tentacles dealt 10 damage and knocked me unconscious.
I pointed out to the Party "Let it be known, I rolled a Natural 20 and still died!"
This was 2 hours ago.
Your game must have home rules, because by RAW you would neither have disadvantage on the save nor get killed outright by 10 damage at LVL 8.
Important question: why are players of a level where their fighter has less than 50 max HP fighting a freaking ADULT BLUE DRAGON WITH WIZARD LEVELS?
They're what, level 5, vs a CR14 monster?
I agree
Judging from what little information we have.. They went looking, they found.
Maybe the Dragon planned to come out of the ground and hold a partymember hostage, but since the druid catched him with the vines, it turned into combat.
Or just to explain the scenario, the Fighter has less HP than he should have.
Maybe it wasn't an adult blue dragon. Maybe it was a CR9 Young Blue Dragon with wizard levels.
Mixed level party (with their own dragon) vs a young blue dragon.
Nat 20 on a Death Saving throw is an instant stabilize and you get up with 1 HP
Regarding the "step on the head, to make a you're dead":
In military/combat strategy, it's usually highly inadvisable to keep on attacking an incapacitated enemy, as killing them completely doesn't affect the enemies force strength, wastes attacks that can be used on still active combatants AND leaving wounded alive ties up more of those still active combatants in helping them instead of attacking you.
while this is true in real life, in Dnd were you can be back at full fighting compacity from nothing more but a good nights sleep and being at less then 100% hp has no bearing on how effective of a fighter you are, it makes sense to "finish the job" as it were
Especially where magic healing exists where a "disabled" enemy can jump up and right back into the fight
@@beauvillamor621 Indeed, In settings where magic is common and capable of mending wounds and (in some cases) even fully regenerating limbs or organs with little more than a few chanted words or acquired non-medical goods (components for the spell), it makes 100% sense to make sure the crazy murderhobo that just ran roughshod through your village stays down.
Coup de grace existed before Geneva Conventions...
@@beauvillamor621however the action economy is very important in the Dnd and in the action economy if you are not using your turn to benefit your side in one way (doing damage, shutting down other people's actions, debuffing enemies, buffing allies, ect) you're hurting your one sided action economy. Because in Dnd whichever side takes the most actions tends to win.
A unconscious creature can't take any actions so using your action to attack it would be not befitting your team's action economy even if it makes it most difficult for the player own has been knocked down.
And to be fair both Players and DM both Veterans and Newies wast their actions all the time, often without realizing it.
And I think it depends on the creature if it is realistic or resemble to assume they'd make sure you are dead. I'd say it's ironically the Dumber Creatures like Zombies that would make sure you're dead, while smarter Creatures must just assume that it's better to attack the people who are still doing stuff as apposed to the guy who just got knocked unconscious.
a crit success doesn’t actually count as 2 saves but it restores 1 hp instead
Incorrect - if you roll a natural 20 on your death saving throw you immediately gain 1 hp & are awake. (PHB p. 197).
A nat 20 on a death saving throw is actually popping back up with 1 hp in 5e
You don't "pop back up" you regain consciousness with 1 hp. You have to spend half of your movement to "pop up" when your turn comes around.
@@itzybitzyspyder yeah I know I meant pop back up more colloquially not in as you're standing now, like maybe you were laying down Abe now you sit up real straight with a big exaggerated breath in, as say way I almost died or whatever
I have a very dangerous enemy in my D&D campaign known as a Darkwraith (Name stolen from the dork souls obviously). They are powerful Death-Knight like undead, that start out as merely one and a few minions, but as Player Characters die to it, or die anywhere near it's lair, (Of which there have been 3), the Darkwraith will show up in the middle of combat, making a stealth check against the players who are likely occupied with other undead tearing at them, to attempt to drag an unconscious player away. If this happens, and it HAS happened, players have a REALLY bad time.
Because what happens when a Darkwraith drags you away? Not much for that particular session, but in the NEXT session, assuming the players have not rescued the unconscious player character, that player character is killed and reanimated as a new Darkwraith.
Now, that's all well and good, a new undead creature, but here's the kicker: They keep their character sheets, all stats, feats, abilities, they gain new weapons, and more. Their HP is raised by their constitution score, they gain resistance to slashing, piercing and bludgeoning damage, but are vulnerable to Radiant damage and holy water, and any time they are not in combat they are dormant as they patrol the crypts, regaining their spell slots in the same time as a short/long rest of dormant patrol. Now, this gets worse.
Imagine, being a player and coming face to face with the mangled, grievous face of your last character with burning red eyes, reaching out from the dark. These Darkwraiths all have certain abilities on top of their previous ones, including Wraithwalk, which allows them to move through solid objects, consuming double their speed every 5 feet through.
Darkwraiths also have the Dark Hand attack, which is a grapple move, that if it lands on a player, their maximum HP is reduced by up to 12d6 on a failed constitution saving throw meeting or beating the Darkwraith's in-life spell save DC (16 if not a spellcaster in life) and they are restrained until they break free with a strength save meeting or beating the Darkwraith's own strength score.
NOW IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH I GOT MORE.
When a Darkwraith reduces someone to zero hit points with the Dark Hand, since their maximum HP is technically and temporarily reduced, if you lose let's say 30 HP to Dark Hand, but had 45, your new HP maximum is 15, which means you are extremely susceptible to being instantly killed by the next damage of Dark Hand, and if you're KO'd by it, obviously you cannot resist.
If the Darkwraith then kills the player, they will immediately attempt to disengage from the fight, dragging the character away to be converted into a new Darkwraith, unable to move through walls while transporting the body, to give players a chance to intervene.
Now, 3 characters have died in their domain because Darkwraiths are so dangerous, which means there are 4 total Darkwraiths, three of which had player character sheets and ALL of the abilities they had in life. They were a hunting party of undead, powerful abominations of nature. But there are ways to see them coming and escape them; When in the dungeon the Darkwraiths populate, the player characters can always see the Darkwraith's mini on the map, as it slowly patrols, dormant, so they can plan around them. Darkwraiths can sense player characters who are alive within 20 feet of them through walls, and begin to chill the air within 30 feet of players (Again, through walls). So a Darkwraith is unlikely to catch the players off guard as long as they just look out. However, the Darkwraiths typically wait, and ambush when the party is already occupied with other enemies (Of which there are many in the crypt.), making it surprisingly easy for them to appear out of a wall, and begin to assault an isolated PC.
Needless to say; The players became rather afraid of the Darkwraiths and the crypt they inhabited, but they were also interested in unraveling the various mysteries of the crypts.
Very cool idea, I'm borrowing it! Here's how I plan to implement this.
My campaign has some plans on manipulating the dead. There's a faction in my ambientation that catches the souls of who dies and implants them into Warforgeds. before level 6, a character that died could be "revived" as a retaliating Warforged. This faction aims to create a Warforged Army to attack the biggest kingdom. After level 6, the faction stops catching souls supposedly because they have a complete army now and catching souls is power-consuming for whoever runs the faction. A player died and he reincarnated in a Warforged so he knows those informations.
I'm also planning to do a one-shot in the same ambientation. The villain of this one-shot is a very high level Necromancer. He holds a big grudge against the biggest kingdom of the ambientation, so he wants to make it go bankrupt. How? He's allied with another kingdom who is a direct enemy of the biggest one. He wants to make an "army" of undeads and use them as slaves to basically have free workers. They want to monopolize the market of the entire region and the biggest kingdom will basically be economically destroyed because its main source of wealth is the market.
After all this undead manipulation, be it for robots or undead slaves, a Darkwraith spontanously generates from the void. It's Lawful Evil, it wants to punish the entire world for manipulating the dead this much. But it cannot do so alone, so it will slowly pick up build its own army of Darkwraiths. Luckily, a dead person can only become a Darkwraith if it has a strong will and/or abilities in the first place so it cannot just raid a random village and transform everyone in Darkwraiths. It will seek for the ones who started to manipulate the dead and then it will seek the players.
These things sound a little OP and way too strong for mid level campaigns. Maybe tone down the Dark Hand attack?
@@otakon17 it seems that they're random encounters you have to avoid until you're really ready to confront them. You're not supposed to confront them face to face. Maybe just give them a limited time in the "living" world. They leave their crypts to haunt players but they'll flee after some time so players can actually stall the battle somehow or escape.
@@otakon17 They absolutely are OP, but that is the point; They are heavily avoidable, can always be seen on the map and are MEANT to be. If you confront one face to face unprepared you WILL lose someone, and it taught my party very quickly, that the crypt, and to a lesser extent the Darkwraiths, should not be taken lightly, and overconfidence is indeed a slow, insidious killer. My party has wisened up as a result
And I realize I didn't make clear; The first Darkwraith (The one without a character sheet) is non combative, and showed up to steal the dying, the ones who DO have the character sheets patrol and will combat the party.
this sounds like a session that was quite interesting.. would love to hear more about their adventures up to when they met the dragon.. and the fight.
Celebrate he who Wades In Shadows!
Love the Matt Colville reference
Just a side note, bardic inspiration works on death saves
Bardic Inspiration requires that you "choose one creature other than yourself within 60 feet of you who can hear you." The unconscious condition renders a creature "unaware of its surroundings," which could be reasonably interpreted as unable to see or hear, though I don't know why that isn't specified like "can't move or speak" is.
There are probably both narrative and magical reasons that it could be argued that it should work, but this feels like something up to the DM to decide.
I'd probably allow it with a magical instrument or really good improv/role-play in the right situation.
@@RPanda3S no, see, it's allowed even then. It lasts for the next 10 minutes. Those conditions only matter when activating the ability. And the bardic inspiration says saving throws. The page on death saves calls them a saving throw and even says you are at the mercy of the die and and SPELLS or FEATURES that improve your chances of suceeding.
@@whtwolf100 oh yeah, totally.
Nearly lost my first character on *the first session* from riding a magic plant, RNGesus and a crit fail from an arrow. Thank the lenient DM he gave the players just enough leeway to bring me back, since I failed the first two saves, (rolled again for kicks) would have failed the third save, and *was* the Cleric with Medicine.
A Crit 20 returns you to 1 hp, and you immidiately wakes up. Not two successes.
Also if you are stable you wake up with one hp after 1d4 hours if left alone.
Aidan Wulff in the PHB, chapter 9, damage and healing - dropping to 0 hit points.
F in the chat for ruin
I recognize that shoulder and snout at the end, that's Wades-in-Shadows!
You made a small but significant mistake: death saves are not always unmodified, a bonus that ads to all saving throws also ads to death saves! (This is one of the reasons a paladins aura is so good for instance).
College of Foliage
I wouldn’t call it a mistake, more like... an omission of an uncommon situation. Videos like these can’t go over every situation regarding the topic as to keep the video simple. If anything, he didn’t mention that a Healer's Kit can stabilise an unconscious member immediately.
I dissagree. He explicitly stated that it was an unmodified d20 roll. That's not an ommision, that's a false statement. :)
College of Foliage
Because unless you do have a Paladin with their aura up, or Monk's Diamond Soul, or a Ring of Protection or whatever else you have to bosom saving throws... it is indeed an unmodified roll.
I would have completely agreed with you if he'd said "usually an unmodified d20" or something to that effect, but how it's said in the video it seems like it's always the case. I can easily see someone new to the game believing that the roll is always unmodified because of incorrect statements like this. In fact I believed so myself when I started.
From the Basic Rules for 5e:
Rolling 1 or 20. When you make a death saving throw and roll a 1 on the d20, it counts as two failures. If you roll a 20 on the d20, you regain 1 hit point.
Was gonna post the same thing, but you got it already so ill like so Zee can hopefully see it
he messed up
DEATH’S DOOR
Remind yourself that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.
@@pkhitch1117 And now the true test... hold fast, or expire?
"As life ebbs, terrible vistas of emptiness reveal themselves."
The dragon burrowing underground like that is such a cool concept.
I have a modification to the death save in that my players can add their constitution modifier to the saving throw which means a good con score makes it more likely to succeed and a bad one makes it easier for you to die.
I'm pretty sure rolling a nat 20 will bring you back to 1 hp automatically.