Death's door part 1: The biggest problem with D&D 5e

In D&D 5th edition, there are often tense scenes as a character is bleeding out on the ground, rolling death saving throws. They're potentially just two rolls from dying! However, as a group gains experience, this tension begins to feel hollow and artificial - at least in the case that they have any magical healing (and if they don't, then any of the published adventures is likely to kill them as soon as one of them goes down, unless the DM fudges to allow them to escape).

Death, or rather the lack of it, is becoming my least-favourite part of 5e. It's the one part of the system that I wish would be given a long hard look by WotC in any edition to follow, whether it's 5.5e or 6th edition. But before that happens, I have to try to hack at it and fix the rules myself.

In this first part of a series, I will examine (in excruciating detail) why I think this hollow feel arises from the mechanics of 5e. I will outline some design goals for any hacks that would attempt to solve this problem. And in the next parts, I will present a couple different hacks of variant death rules that might accomplish that.

How does zero HP work in 5e and what's wrong with it?

• (1) You’re knocked unconscious at zero HP. Zero HP is very easy to reach because of low character toughness relative to the encounters presented in the books, and also because of the swinginess of the d20.
• (2) You’re very easy to get back up to consciousness - any magical healing will do this instantly.
• Because of (1) and (2), magical healing is essentially a must-have.
• Because of (1) and (2), there is a yo-yo effect: characters are bobbing up and down in any tough fight, even though the fight is winnable. While this can make fights tense at the table, they make them ridiculous in-universe.
• Because of (1), being unable to act, there is no way to escape once you’re at zero HP. A character could, in theory, carry their unconscious comrade away, or a wizard could block the enemy off with a spell to cover their retreat. But most of the time, the best option is to double down and keep fighting. (Having bonus action healing spells that allow healers to still attack on their turn enforces this.) There are also no dramatic last words, desperate last stands, or characters going down in a blaze of glory, aware of certain death, giving their friends time to escape.
• While being knocked out is easy, dying is actually quite hard. Healing allies has no urgency, because savvy players know there is at least two or three rounds to heal someone before they die, unless they are threatened by a coup-de-grâce. (In my opinion, this introduces dissociation.) Death save failure tallies are reset on receiving healing. All this introduces the "need" (real or imagined) for DMs to employ disintegration, lava pools and acid pits.
• Because of the last two points, there is an assumption that any encounter the DM presents to the players is winnable, thus causing players to rarely consider retreat as an option, reducing the potential for strategic play, scouting etc.

 

What should any fix to these rules achieve?

• It must be harder for characters to become unable to act, whether by making it harder to fall to zero HP (not my preference), or (more interestingly) by giving them a chance to continue acting past zero HP. Their actions may be less effective or restricted in this bleeding-out state, but at the very minimum they should be able to attempt an escape from an enemy they realize is too powerful. Killing things should be harder than normal, but running (limping) away should be possible.
• To compensate for the increased action economy, the fix must make zero HP more dangerous. Death must come easier, and not be essentially nullified simply by receiving any healing within three rounds, or there must be some added risk in acting while bleeding out.
• The fix must make dramatic scenes more possible.
• OPTIONAL: Since there are other mechanics in 5e like class features that interact with death saving throws, the fix may include death saving throws as not to obsolete these.
• OPTIONAL: The fix may make pre-emptive healing more worthwhile (healing before someone reaches zero HP), as it is currently worthless.
• OPTIONAL: The fix may make the Medicine skill and healer’s kits more worthwhile.
• OPTIONAL: The fix may include injury charts, and may give the players some control over when these happen. (Personally, I would avoid long-lasting injuries, because limping away from a battle is dramatic, but limping for the rest of your life means retirement from adventuring.)

There are a couple different ways to implement PCs pushing on to avoid unconsciousness. One is to leave the choice to the player (with associated risk of course), and the other is leaving it up to random chance. In the next part, I will present some simple rule changes that give players the choice.

Go to Part 2