Out of interest because of all the recent forum chatter about death and crits in d&d I decided to look at earlier editions for instagib rules. Special mention goes out to D&D Rules Cyclopedia for killing sleeping characters :)
The following is not a definitive listing
D&D Players Manual (revised 1983)
Solo Adventure, 80 p.20
If you are struck down to zero hit points or less, you can grab your potion - if you still have it - and drink it before you pass out. It will cure you somewhat, but only back up to 4 hit points. If you don’t have the potion left - sorry, but you are dead! (Special note: In group games, you will not be allowed to do this. Zero hit points indicates death, with no extra time to do anything.)
D&D Rules Cyclopedia 1991
Chapter 1, Steps in Character Creation, Roll for Hit Points p.7
Your character's hit point score represents his ability to survive injury. The higher his hit point score, the more damage he can sustain before dying.
Chapter 13, Dungeon Master Procedures, Sleep and Unconsciousness p150
A sleeping character is helpless. If an attacker can come up to a sleeping character without waking that character, he can kill the sleeper with a single blow of any edged weapon, regardless of the victim's hit points
If you decide to get rid of the resurrection spells, you can also adopt another rule to make it a little harder for characters to die. For instance, when a character is reduced to 0 hit points or below in combat (or from death spells), he's not yet dead. He's unconscious and mortally wounded; if left untended, he will die. He must make a saving throw vs. death ray every turn. He makes the first roll on the round he drops to 0 hit point; he makes another every round he takes additional damage, and every 10 minutes (one turn) in addition. If he ever fails a roll, he's dead.
AD&D 1e PHB 1978
The Adventure, Damage p.105
Damage is meted out in hit points. If any creature reaches 0 or negative hit points it is dead
AD&D 1e DMG 1978
Combat, Hit Points, Zero Hit Points p.82
When any creature is brought to 0 hit point is (optionally as low as -3 hit points if from the same blow which brought the total to 0), it is unconscious. In each of the next succeeding rounds 1 additional (negative) point will be lost until -10 is reached and the creature dies
AD&D 1e DMG revised edition, august 2011
Wounds & Healing, Expanded. Hit Points & Damage, Effects of Hit Point Damage p.93
At 0 hit points, a living creature is knocked unconscious and dying. A living creature with 0 or fewer hit points loses 1 additional hit point per round unless healed or stabilized… Once a living creature reaches -10 hit points, it is killed.
AD&D 2e PHB 1995
Character Death p.141
When a character reaches 0 hit points, that character is slain. The character is immediately dead…
Death From Massive Damage
In addition to dying when hit points reach 0, a character also runs the risk of dying abruptly when he suffers massive amounts of damage. A character who suffers 50 or more points of damage from a single attack must roll a successful saving throw vs. death, or he dies. This applies only if the damage was done by a single attack.
AD&D 2e DMG 2013
Chapter 9, Combat, Character Death p.103
When a character reaches 0 hit points, that character is slain. The character is immediately dead…
Death From Massive Damage
In addition to dying when hit points reach 0, a character also runs the risk of dying abruptly when he suffers massive amounts of damage. A character who suffers 50 or more points of damage from a single attack must roll a successful saving throw vs. death, or he dies. This applies only if the damage was done by a single attack.
D&D 3.5 PHB Core Rulebook I 2003
Chapter 8 Combat, Injury & Death p145
At 0 hit points, you’re disabled.
At from –1 to –9 hit points, you’re dying.
At –10 or lower, you’re dead.
Massive Damage: If you ever sustain damage so massive that a single attack deals 50 points of damage or more and it doesn’t kill you outright, you must make a DC 15 Fortitude save. If this saving throw fails, you die regardless of your current hit points. This amount of damage represents a single trauma so major that it has a chance to kill even the toughest creature. If you take 50 points of damage or more from multiple attacks, no one of which dealt 50 or more points of damage itself, the massive damage rule does not apply.
Chapter 8, Combat Modifiers, Helpless Defenders, Coup de Grace p.152
As a full-round action, you can use a melee weapon to deliver a coup de grace to a helpless opponent. You automatically hit and score a critical hit. If the defender survives the damage, he must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + damage dealt) or die.
D&D 3.5 DMG Core Rulebook II 2003
Damage, Variant: Massive Damage Based on Size p.27
If a creature takes 50 points of damage or more from a single attack, she must make a Fortitude save or die. This rule exists primarily as a nod toward realism in the abstract system of hit point loss. As an extra touch of realism, you can vary the massive damage threshold by size, so that each size category larger or smaller than Medium raises or lowers the threshold by 10 hit points. This variant hurts halfling and gnome PCs, familiars, and some animal companions. It generally favors monsters.
D&D 4e PHB
Chapter 9, Combat, Death and Dying p.295
Dying: When your hit points drop to 0 or fewer, you fall unconscious and are dying. Any additional damage you take continues to reduce your current hit point total until your character dies.
Death Saving Throw: When you are dying, you need to make a saving throw at the end of your turn each round. The result of your saving throw determines how close you are to death. Lower than 10: You slip one step closer to death. If you get this result three times before you take a rest, you die. 10–19: No change. 20 or higher: Spend a healing surge. When you do so, you are considered to have 0 hit points, and then your healing surge restores hit points as normal. You are no longer dying, and you are conscious but still prone. If you roll 20 or higher but have no healing surges left expressed as a negative number, your condition doesn’t change.
Death: When you take damage that reduces your current hit points to your bloodied value expressed as a negative number, your character dies.
Chapter 9, Combat, Actions in Combat, Coup de Grace p.288
Slaying the Target Outright: If you deal damage greater than or equal to the target’s bloodied value, the target dies.
D&D 4e DMG 2008
Troubleshooting, Character Death
Adventures involve risk by definition. With every encounter, the characters can fail. In the case of a combat encounter, one cost of failure is the chance of death—of a single character or an entire group. Players get attached to their characters. That’s natural. A character represents an investment of a lot of time at the table, and a big emotional investment as well. The biggest problem resulting from character death is hard feelings.
D&D 5e PHB
Chapter 9, Combat, Damage and Healing, Dropping to 0 Hit Points p.197
When you drop to 0 hit points, you either die outright or fall unconscious, as explained in the following sections.
Instant Death
Massive damage can kill you instantly. When damage reduces you to 0 hit points and there is damage remaining, you die if the remaining damage equals or exceeds your hit point maximum.
Death Saving Throws
Whenever you start your turn with 0 hit points, you must make a special saving throw, called a death saving throw, to determine whether you creep closer to death or hang onto life.
Roll a d20. If the roll is 10 or higher, you succeed. Otherwise, you fail. On your third success, you become stable. On your third failure, you die.
Damage at 0 Hit Points. If you take any damage while you have 0 hit points, you suffer a death saving throw failure. If the damage is from a critical hit, you suffer two failures instead. If the damage equals or exceeds your hit point maximum, you suffer instant death.
Thanks for the research it's interesting to see the way instant death was handled over the various iterations of the rules during different D&D editions.
Personally, i like 4E's take with a bloodied threshold and i still use it as reference in 5E as an old habbit.
I wish OneDnD brings this back as it serves as an health indicator HP gauge for living creatures and for dying ones, it was easier to die at 0 HP from massive damage than 5E is currently,
It's funny seeing the 2e rules. I hadn't realized that we played it wrong for many years until just now. I'm petty sure we just kept using the 1st edition -10 'bleeding out' style rules the whole time. It was a good rule. I guess we either assumed it still applied, or decided it was better than none.
I've wondered about adapting it to 5e. Thanks for the effort made here! It will give me a lot to think about.
When we played AD&D 2nd Edition, we used Hovering At Death's Door optional rules from the DMG;
Hovering on Death's Door (Optional Rule)
You might find that your campaign has become particularly deadly. Too many player characters are dying. If this happens, you may want to allow characters to survive for short periods of time even after their hit points reach or drop below 0. When this rule is in use, a character can remain alive until his hit points reach -10. However, as soon as the character reaches 0 hit points, he falls to the ground unconscious. Thereafter, he automatically loses one hit point each round. His survival from this point on depends on the quick thinking of his companions. If they reach the character before his hit points reach -10 and spend at least one round tending to his wounds-- stanching the flow of blood, etc., the character does not die immediately. If the only action is to bind his wounds, the injured character no longer loses one hit point each round, but neither does he gain any. He remains unconscious and vulnerable to damage from further attacks. If a cure spell of some type is cast upon him, the character is immediately restored to 1 hit point--no more. Further cures do the character no good until he has had at least one day of rest. Until such time, he is weak and feeble, unable to fight and barely able to move. He must stop and rest often, can't cast spells (the shock of near death has wiped them from his mind), and is generally confused and feverish. He is able to move and can hold somewhat disjointed conversations, but that's it. If a heal spell is cast on the character, has hit points are restored as per the spell, and he has full vitality and wits. Any spells he may have known are still wiped from his memory. (Even this powerful spell does not negate the shock of the experience.)
Out of interest because of all the recent forum chatter about death and crits in d&d I decided to look at earlier editions for instagib rules. Special mention goes out to D&D Rules Cyclopedia for killing sleeping characters :)
The following is not a definitive listing
D&D Players Manual (revised 1983)
Solo Adventure, 80 p.20
If you are struck down to zero hit points or less, you can grab your potion - if you still have it - and drink it before you pass out. It will cure you somewhat, but only back up to 4 hit points. If you don’t have the potion left - sorry, but you are dead! (Special note: In group games, you will not be allowed to do this. Zero hit points indicates death, with no extra time to do anything.)
D&D Rules Cyclopedia 1991
Chapter 1, Steps in Character Creation, Roll for Hit Points p.7
Your character's hit point score represents his ability to survive injury. The higher his hit point score, the more damage he can sustain before dying.
Chapter 13, Dungeon Master Procedures, Sleep and Unconsciousness p150
A sleeping character is helpless. If an attacker can come up to a sleeping character without waking that character, he can kill the sleeper with a single blow of any edged weapon, regardless of the victim's hit points
Chapter 19, Variant Rules, Keeping Characters Alive p.266
If you decide to get rid of the resurrection spells, you can also adopt another rule to make it a little harder for characters to die. For instance, when a character is reduced to 0 hit points or below in combat (or from death spells), he's not yet dead. He's unconscious and mortally wounded; if left untended, he will die. He must make a saving throw vs. death ray every turn. He makes the first roll on the round he drops to 0 hit point; he makes another every round he takes additional damage, and every 10 minutes (one turn) in addition. If he ever fails a roll, he's dead.
AD&D 1e PHB 1978
The Adventure, Damage p.105
Damage is meted out in hit points. If any creature reaches 0 or negative hit points it is dead
AD&D 1e DMG 1978
Combat, Hit Points, Zero Hit Points p.82
When any creature is brought to 0 hit point is (optionally as low as -3 hit points if from the same blow which brought the total to 0), it is unconscious. In each of the next succeeding rounds 1 additional (negative) point will be lost until -10 is reached and the creature dies
AD&D 1e DMG revised edition, august 2011
Wounds & Healing, Expanded. Hit Points & Damage, Effects of Hit Point Damage p.93
At 0 hit points, a living creature is knocked unconscious and dying. A living creature with 0 or fewer hit points loses 1 additional hit point per round unless healed or stabilized… Once a living creature reaches -10 hit points, it is killed.
AD&D 2e PHB 1995
Character Death p.141
When a character reaches 0 hit points, that character is slain. The character is immediately dead…
Death From Massive Damage
In addition to dying when hit points reach 0, a character also runs the risk of dying abruptly when he suffers massive amounts of damage. A character who suffers 50 or more points of damage from a single attack must roll a successful saving throw vs. death, or he dies. This applies only if the damage was done by a single attack.
AD&D 2e DMG 2013
Chapter 9, Combat, Character Death p.103
When a character reaches 0 hit points, that character is slain. The character is immediately dead…
Death From Massive Damage
In addition to dying when hit points reach 0, a character also runs the risk of dying abruptly when he suffers massive amounts of damage. A character who suffers 50 or more points of damage from a single attack must roll a successful saving throw vs. death, or he dies. This applies only if the damage was done by a single attack.
D&D 3.5 PHB Core Rulebook I 2003
Chapter 8 Combat, Injury & Death p145
At 0 hit points, you’re disabled.
At from –1 to –9 hit points, you’re dying.
At –10 or lower, you’re dead.
Massive Damage: If you ever sustain damage so massive that a single attack deals 50 points of damage or more and it doesn’t kill you outright, you must make a DC 15 Fortitude save. If this saving throw fails, you die regardless of your current hit points. This amount of damage represents a single trauma so major that it has a chance to kill even the toughest creature. If you take 50 points of damage or more from multiple attacks, no one of which dealt 50 or more points of damage itself, the massive damage rule does not apply.
Chapter 8, Combat Modifiers, Helpless Defenders, Coup de Grace p.152
As a full-round action, you can use a melee weapon to deliver a coup de grace to a helpless opponent. You automatically hit and score a critical hit. If the defender survives the damage, he must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + damage dealt) or die.
D&D 3.5 DMG Core Rulebook II 2003
Damage, Variant: Massive Damage Based on Size p.27
If a creature takes 50 points of damage or more from a single attack, she must make a Fortitude save or die. This rule exists primarily as a nod toward realism in the abstract system of hit point loss. As an extra touch of realism, you can vary the massive damage threshold by size, so that each size category larger or smaller than Medium raises or lowers the threshold by 10 hit points. This variant hurts halfling and gnome PCs, familiars, and some animal companions. It generally favors monsters.
D&D 4e PHB
Chapter 9, Combat, Death and Dying p.295
Dying: When your hit points drop to 0 or fewer, you fall unconscious and are dying. Any additional damage you take continues to reduce your current hit point total until your character dies.
Death Saving Throw: When you are dying, you need to make a saving throw at the end of your turn each round. The result of your saving throw determines how close you are to death. Lower than 10: You slip one step closer to death. If you get this result three times before you take a rest, you die. 10–19: No change. 20 or higher: Spend a healing surge. When you do so, you are considered to have 0 hit points, and then your healing surge restores hit points as normal. You are no longer dying, and you are conscious but still prone. If you roll 20 or higher but have no healing surges left expressed as a negative number, your condition doesn’t change.
Death: When you take damage that reduces your current hit points to your bloodied value expressed as a negative number, your character dies.
Chapter 9, Combat, Actions in Combat, Coup de Grace p.288
Slaying the Target Outright: If you deal damage greater than or equal to the target’s bloodied value, the target dies.
D&D 4e DMG 2008
Troubleshooting, Character Death
Adventures involve risk by definition. With every encounter, the characters can fail. In the case of a combat encounter, one cost of failure is the chance of death—of a single character or an entire group. Players get attached to their characters. That’s natural. A character represents an investment of a lot of time at the table, and a big emotional investment as well. The biggest problem resulting from character death is hard feelings.
D&D 5e PHB
Chapter 9, Combat, Damage and Healing, Dropping to 0 Hit Points p.197
When you drop to 0 hit points, you either die outright or fall unconscious, as explained in the following sections.
Instant Death
Massive damage can kill you instantly. When damage reduces you to 0 hit points and there is damage remaining, you die if the remaining damage equals or exceeds your hit point maximum.
Death Saving Throws
Whenever you start your turn with 0 hit points, you must make a special saving throw, called a death saving throw, to determine whether you creep closer to death or hang onto life.
Roll a d20. If the roll is 10 or higher, you succeed. Otherwise, you fail. On your third success, you become stable. On your third failure, you die.
Damage at 0 Hit Points. If you take any damage while you have 0 hit points, you suffer a death saving throw failure. If the damage is from a critical hit, you suffer two failures instead. If the damage equals or exceeds your hit point maximum, you suffer instant death.
Thanks for the research it's interesting to see the way instant death was handled over the various iterations of the rules during different D&D editions.
Personally, i like 4E's take with a bloodied threshold and i still use it as reference in 5E as an old habbit.
I wish OneDnD brings this back as it serves as an health indicator HP gauge for living creatures and for dying ones, it was easier to die at 0 HP from massive damage than 5E is currently,
Awesome work finding all of these!
It's funny seeing the 2e rules. I hadn't realized that we played it wrong for many years until just now. I'm petty sure we just kept using the 1st edition -10 'bleeding out' style rules the whole time. It was a good rule. I guess we either assumed it still applied, or decided it was better than none.
I've wondered about adapting it to 5e. Thanks for the effort made here! It will give me a lot to think about.
When we played AD&D 2nd Edition, we used Hovering At Death's Door optional rules from the DMG;
Hovering on Death's Door (Optional Rule)
You might find that your campaign has become particularly deadly. Too many player characters are dying. If this happens, you may want to allow characters to survive for short periods of time even after their hit points reach or drop below 0. When this rule is in use, a character can remain alive until his hit points reach -10. However, as soon as the character reaches 0 hit points, he falls to the ground unconscious. Thereafter, he automatically loses one hit point each round. His survival from this point on depends on the quick thinking of his companions. If they reach the character before his hit points reach -10 and spend at least one round tending to his wounds-- stanching the flow of blood, etc., the character does not die immediately. If the only action is to bind his wounds, the injured character no longer loses one hit point each round, but neither does he gain any. He remains unconscious and vulnerable to damage from further attacks. If a cure spell of some type is cast upon him, the character is immediately restored to 1 hit point--no more. Further cures do the character no good until he has had at least one day of rest. Until such time, he is weak and feeble, unable to fight and barely able to move. He must stop and rest often, can't cast spells (the shock of near death has wiped them from his mind), and is generally confused and feverish. He is able to move and can hold somewhat disjointed conversations, but that's it. If a heal spell is cast on the character, has hit points are restored as per the spell, and he has full vitality and wits. Any spells he may have known are still wiped from his memory. (Even this powerful spell does not negate the shock of the experience.)