I'm pondering a house rule to make D&D a bit more gritty. Normally in combat, if you are reduced to 0 hp, you can have two failed death saves and still return to full functioning after having even a single hit point restored. And even if they're reduced to 0 hp again, their death saves are reset. This has the result of making healing spells mostly unnecessary until that point, barring massive damage concerns.
What if being knocked to 0 hp had more lasting effects? I propose that a character who is reduced to 0 hp comes back with either one level of exhaustion, or perhaps one per failed death save. This would ensure that players are more concerned with low hp even if they are not concerned by death from massive damage.
A DM could incorporate this into a standard campaign without altering the difficulty by pairing this house rule with another making exhaustion easier to remove, say by allowing a character to expend HD on a short rest to remove exhaustion, or something like that.
I think the second idea takes all of the impact from the first one away.
It still changes incentives within an encounter to front-load healing and to be more cautious when at low health. Idea two just ensures that you don't end up with a de-powered party between adventures.
adding easy exhaustion removal takes away all the effect of adding exhaustion from death AND ALSO FROM EVERY OTHER THINGS. Llike being super duper tired because your PC decided to chop wood 20 hours long or skip sleep or whatever. Not recommended as it makes PCs super tireless.
Exhaustion is really penallizing in a major way, too.
I recommend you use this instead:
- Maybe Gritty Realism Variant. i.e. less rests! Short Rests must be in a "Sanctuary" or sorts. Someplace easily defended. Sanctuaries can be used only once each. So you spread out two Sanctuaries between each Long Rest. later on when the "Linear fighters, Quadratic Wizards" effect starts, you can put a 3rd Sanctuary especially if you have no warlock. Sleeping would remain important, to avoid penalties. Long Rests only back in town (or equivalent super-safe spot). Suddenly your casters will stop going supernova all the time and hoard their spell slots. Those normally easily dispatched random encounter on the way to the dungeon because casters know they'll regain all their spells anyway? Suddenly it becomes important to try to solve them without spending spells and ressources. Really big dungeons that would require 2+ long rests. Read the module, print the map, use scissors or draw on map to "split" the big dungeoon into sub-chapters. Then put each of the smaller dungeons in a different geographical area: less dungeon crawling, more downtime resting back in town and thus more roleplay opportunities.
- Severe Wounds system. Not the stupid Lingering Injuries which basically make low-mid level PCs becomes 100% crippled. Something less drastic. Any time a Pc gets a crit, or is downed, he takes 1 rank ooff severe injury (so downed on a ctrit means a rank 2 severe injury). There are cool hit locations ice. A smal table with simple penalties. Rank 1 is quite annoying but PC can still do a lot of stuff. Rank 2 PC is a bit more penalizing but is less "extra" penalizinbg, more like the player feels more pressure from the threat of even more ranks stacking up to the same hit location. Rank 3 is you can't do anything anymore with that part. Head = you"re in a coma. Leg = can't move! And so on. Rank 4 that part is GONE, head = roll a new PC etc. Mere normal healing doesn't remove such injuries it takes Long Rests + medicine (surgery?) + healing.
- If a PC is downed, he gets Disadvantage on everything until finishing a Short Rest. For casters, they get 50% spell misfire instead (lose the slot, noi effect).
I wouldn't use exhaustion. PCs are supposed to be able to get knocked down, be healed and get back up.
I use a custom Permanent Injury table. If you go to 0 hit points, then you roll a Con save equal to half the damage that took you down, or 10 if it's higher. On a fail, they roll a d20 and receive a permanent injury. Most of them are scars and cosmetic things (which my players really enjoy) but the barbarian has so far lost his nose (which he got a magical metal replacement for), has a mangled lip crudely stitched back together (disadvantage on positively influencing Persuasion checks) and suffered a head injury (the worst possible roll, resulting in disadvantage on ability checks - but he cured it with Greater Restoration).
I wouldn't go into anything that involves rests. All those can ever do is slow the game down, which is not what you want. D&D is more fun if you can play it at a fast pace in my opinion, and if you naturally have a slow pace, it becomes irrelevant.
One thing you could consider is for death saving throw not to reset until you have a short or long rest or 3 successes. So if Bob has failed 2, gets Healing Word for 3 hit points and goes down again, he's still on 2 failed death saves.
Gritty is: having strong qualities of tough uncompromising realism. Removing magical healing might be more realistic than changing the death saves mechanic. Lingering wounds are definitely realistic. Removing the death save mechanic(no saves, 0 hp = death)might be more realistic as well, but these things may alter the game to the point that it has become un-fun.
I would reach out to your players to find your solution. They are the barometer that will measure the fun of your game. If they are ok with gritty, that's what matters.
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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
I have always believed in narrative storytelling. Special rules should have a purpose.
If I ever stop running AL games, I would probably Session 0 an idea like this: If you fail a death save and then are brought back to consciousness, you have a permanent injury. It will not have a mechanical effect, but cannot be healed with normal healing (greater restoration or regeneration maybe). Have the player describe the injury. Some examples might be: scars, burns, permanent hair loss (or color change), a limp, re-occuring headaches, etc. If you fail 2 death saves and then are brought back to consciousness, you have a permanent debilitating injury. It will not have a mechanical effect that will require specialized treatment (regeneration spell, somehting to drive a side-mission) but cannot be healed with normal healing. Have the player describe the injury and what stat or ability is effected (hearing loss for disadvantage on perception rolls requiring hearing, damaged eye messing with depth perception, causing disadvantage to missile attacks, severe headaches causing wild-magic surges). The DM will have some discretion on this.
Every character is different so when you are healed from dropping to 0, instead of getting an exhaustion, roll a con save, DC10 perhaps: fail then take the exhaustion, pass then you dont.
Hi all,
I'm pondering a house rule to make D&D a bit more gritty. Normally in combat, if you are reduced to 0 hp, you can have two failed death saves and still return to full functioning after having even a single hit point restored. And even if they're reduced to 0 hp again, their death saves are reset. This has the result of making healing spells mostly unnecessary until that point, barring massive damage concerns.
What if being knocked to 0 hp had more lasting effects? I propose that a character who is reduced to 0 hp comes back with either one level of exhaustion, or perhaps one per failed death save. This would ensure that players are more concerned with low hp even if they are not concerned by death from massive damage.
A DM could incorporate this into a standard campaign without altering the difficulty by pairing this house rule with another making exhaustion easier to remove, say by allowing a character to expend HD on a short rest to remove exhaustion, or something like that.
What do you think?
I think the second idea takes all of the impact from the first one away.
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It still changes incentives within an encounter to front-load healing and to be more cautious when at low health. Idea two just ensures that you don't end up with a de-powered party between adventures.
adding easy exhaustion removal takes away all the effect of adding exhaustion from death AND ALSO FROM EVERY OTHER THINGS. Llike being super duper tired because your PC decided to chop wood 20 hours long or skip sleep or whatever. Not recommended as it makes PCs super tireless.
Exhaustion is really penallizing in a major way, too.
I recommend you use this instead:
- Maybe Gritty Realism Variant. i.e. less rests! Short Rests must be in a "Sanctuary" or sorts. Someplace easily defended. Sanctuaries can be used only once each. So you spread out two Sanctuaries between each Long Rest. later on when the "Linear fighters, Quadratic Wizards" effect starts, you can put a 3rd Sanctuary especially if you have no warlock. Sleeping would remain important, to avoid penalties. Long Rests only back in town (or equivalent super-safe spot). Suddenly your casters will stop going supernova all the time and hoard their spell slots. Those normally easily dispatched random encounter on the way to the dungeon because casters know they'll regain all their spells anyway? Suddenly it becomes important to try to solve them without spending spells and ressources. Really big dungeons that would require 2+ long rests. Read the module, print the map, use scissors or draw on map to "split" the big dungeoon into sub-chapters. Then put each of the smaller dungeons in a different geographical area: less dungeon crawling, more downtime resting back in town and thus more roleplay opportunities.
- Severe Wounds system. Not the stupid Lingering Injuries which basically make low-mid level PCs becomes 100% crippled. Something less drastic. Any time a Pc gets a crit, or is downed, he takes 1 rank ooff severe injury (so downed on a ctrit means a rank 2 severe injury). There are cool hit locations ice. A smal table with simple penalties. Rank 1 is quite annoying but PC can still do a lot of stuff. Rank 2 PC is a bit more penalizing but is less "extra" penalizinbg, more like the player feels more pressure from the threat of even more ranks stacking up to the same hit location. Rank 3 is you can't do anything anymore with that part. Head = you"re in a coma. Leg = can't move! And so on. Rank 4 that part is GONE, head = roll a new PC etc. Mere normal healing doesn't remove such injuries it takes Long Rests + medicine (surgery?) + healing.
- If a PC is downed, he gets Disadvantage on everything until finishing a Short Rest. For casters, they get 50% spell misfire instead (lose the slot, noi effect).
Gritty enough for ya? ;-)
I wouldn't use exhaustion. PCs are supposed to be able to get knocked down, be healed and get back up.
I use a custom Permanent Injury table. If you go to 0 hit points, then you roll a Con save equal to half the damage that took you down, or 10 if it's higher. On a fail, they roll a d20 and receive a permanent injury. Most of them are scars and cosmetic things (which my players really enjoy) but the barbarian has so far lost his nose (which he got a magical metal replacement for), has a mangled lip crudely stitched back together (disadvantage on positively influencing Persuasion checks) and suffered a head injury (the worst possible roll, resulting in disadvantage on ability checks - but he cured it with Greater Restoration).
I wouldn't go into anything that involves rests. All those can ever do is slow the game down, which is not what you want. D&D is more fun if you can play it at a fast pace in my opinion, and if you naturally have a slow pace, it becomes irrelevant.
One thing you could consider is for death saving throw not to reset until you have a short or long rest or 3 successes. So if Bob has failed 2, gets Healing Word for 3 hit points and goes down again, he's still on 2 failed death saves.
To make it really gritty, when a character is reduced to zero hit points, they die, and it's time for the player to roll up a new character.
Gritty is: having strong qualities of tough uncompromising realism. Removing magical healing might be more realistic than changing the death saves mechanic. Lingering wounds are definitely realistic. Removing the death save mechanic(no saves, 0 hp = death)might be more realistic as well, but these things may alter the game to the point that it has become un-fun.
I would reach out to your players to find your solution. They are the barometer that will measure the fun of your game. If they are ok with gritty, that's what matters.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
I have always believed in narrative storytelling. Special rules should have a purpose.
If I ever stop running AL games, I would probably Session 0 an idea like this:
If you fail a death save and then are brought back to consciousness, you have a permanent injury. It will not have a mechanical effect, but cannot be healed with normal healing (greater restoration or regeneration maybe). Have the player describe the injury. Some examples might be: scars, burns, permanent hair loss (or color change), a limp, re-occuring headaches, etc.
If you fail 2 death saves and then are brought back to consciousness, you have a permanent debilitating injury. It will not have a mechanical effect that will require specialized treatment (regeneration spell, somehting to drive a side-mission) but cannot be healed with normal healing. Have the player describe the injury and what stat or ability is effected (hearing loss for disadvantage on perception rolls requiring hearing, damaged eye messing with depth perception, causing disadvantage to missile attacks, severe headaches causing wild-magic surges). The DM will have some discretion on this.
Every character is different so when you are healed from dropping to 0, instead of getting an exhaustion, roll a con save, DC10 perhaps: fail then take the exhaustion, pass then you dont.
FYI I haven't fully abandoned this idea. I think the proposed exhaustion changes in One D&D make it more viable.