There was a thread about a Necromancer who wanted to drain the life out of dying monsters and transfer them to other characters as healing. It pretty much got shut down, since DM's are advised to let anything reduced to zero just be dead without need of death checks. Only important NPCs would need to go though the whole deal.
It got me to thinking. The way I have been playing it is that aside from the effect on Death Checks, if you go into the negatives, at the end of the round you go back to zero. I can't seem to find anywhere that it says.
If you are at zero, and you take more than your maximum hit points you die from Massive Damage. But if you're at zero, and you get hit by one guy, you fail one death check, you get hit by another guy, you've failed two, but if both of them added together isn't enough to kill you from Massive Damage, and nobody else does damage to you, what then? How many hit points do you have at the beginning of your next turn?
If you have 0 HP and you take damage equal to half your max HP, you fail 1 death save and still have 0 HP. If you are hit again for half your max HP again, you fail a second death save and have 0 HP still. Then at the beginning of your turn you have 0 HP and make a death save (and hopefully succeed or die).
As DxJxC says, you can never have negative HP. However, as I understand the rules, you can still take damage at 0 HP, it is simply recorded as failed death saving throws instead of negative HP.
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.
Ok. Good enough. I'll keep playing it the way I have been. You have to keep track of how far you go down for the purposes of massive damage, but you don't actually go below zero. The only difference from what I have been doing is that I don't have to worry about turns.
You don't need to keep track "of how far you go down for the purposes of massive damage". Let's say you are at 0 hp and have a maximum HP of 40. If you take 39 damage - you lose a death saving throw and are still at 0 hp. If you take another 39 damage - you lose another death saving throw and are still at 0 hp. The only time massive damage would come into it is if you took 40 damage or more.
So if you are at 0 hp and making death saving throws - you can only be instant killed by a single hit that equals or exceeds your maximum hitpoint value. There is no accumulation of damage while you're at 0hp.
That's been part of the problem. It doesn't say "single hit". What if two people are beating on you? Unless one of them crits, you'll only have lost two death checks, and you still get to try and make one Death Check.
If you make that one, you're Not Dead Yet. If you crit you might decide to go for a walk, and even if they do kill you, you're only Mostly Dead. (Monty Python and Princess Bride jokes there)
That's been part of the problem. It doesn't say "single hit". What if two people are beating on you? Unless one of them crits, you'll only have lost two death checks, and you still get to make one Death Check. If you make that one, you're Not Dead Yet, and might eventually decide to go for a walk. (Monty Python joke there)
That's been part of the problem. It doesn't say "single hit". What if two people are beating on you? Unless one of them crits, you'll only have lost two death checks, and you still get to make one Death Check. If you make that one, you're Not Dead Yet, and might eventually decide to go for a walk. (Monty Python joke there)
If they're in melee range of the unconscious target, they crit automatically.
Thezzarus already quoted the rule. When you take damage at 0 hp you follow that rule for taking damage - not the general rule for taking damage - and it specifies that you take a death saving throw - or 2 for a crit - or you die outright if the damage exceeds or matches your maximum hp. There is nothing about accumulating damage in that rule.
There was a thread about a Necromancer who wanted to drain the life out of dying monsters and transfer them to other characters as healing. It pretty much got shut down, since DM's are advised to let anything reduced to zero just be dead without need of death checks. Only important NPCs would need to go though the whole deal.
It got me to thinking. The way I have been playing it is that aside from the effect on Death Checks, if you go into the negatives, at the end of the round you go back to zero. I can't seem to find anywhere that it says.
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No, 0 is the minimum in 5e. If you are at or go to 0 and take additional damage greater than your max HP, you die instantly.
Nothing about negative HP. And 5e also doesn't really deal with rounds either.
If you are at zero, and you take more than your maximum hit points you die from Massive Damage. But if you're at zero, and you get hit by one guy, you fail one death check, you get hit by another guy, you've failed two, but if both of them added together isn't enough to kill you from Massive Damage, and nobody else does damage to you, what then? How many hit points do you have at the beginning of your next turn?
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If you have 0 HP and you take damage equal to half your max HP, you fail 1 death save and still have 0 HP. If you are hit again for half your max HP again, you fail a second death save and have 0 HP still. Then at the beginning of your turn you have 0 HP and make a death save (and hopefully succeed or die).
As DxJxC says, you can never have negative HP. However, as I understand the rules, you can still take damage at 0 HP, it is simply recorded as failed death saving throws instead of negative HP.
What the PHB says about it.
Ok. Good enough. I'll keep playing it the way I have been. You have to keep track of how far you go down for the purposes of massive damage, but you don't actually go below zero. The only difference from what I have been doing is that I don't have to worry about turns.
<Insert clever signature here>
You don't need to keep track "of how far you go down for the purposes of massive damage". Let's say you are at 0 hp and have a maximum HP of 40. If you take 39 damage - you lose a death saving throw and are still at 0 hp. If you take another 39 damage - you lose another death saving throw and are still at 0 hp. The only time massive damage would come into it is if you took 40 damage or more.
So if you are at 0 hp and making death saving throws - you can only be instant killed by a single hit that equals or exceeds your maximum hitpoint value. There is no accumulation of damage while you're at 0hp.
Mega Yahtzee Thread:
Highest 41: brocker2001 (#11,285).
Yahtzee of 2's: Emmber (#36,161).
Lowest 9: JoeltheWalrus (#312), Emmber (#12,505) and Dertinus (#20,953).
That's been part of the problem. It doesn't say "single hit". What if two people are beating on you? Unless one of them crits, you'll only have lost two death checks, and you still get to try and make one Death Check.
If you make that one, you're Not Dead Yet. If you crit you might decide to go for a walk, and even if they do kill you, you're only Mostly Dead. (Monty Python and Princess Bride jokes there)
<Insert clever signature here>
The rule is for a single "when you take damage".
If they're in melee range of the unconscious target, they crit automatically.
Thezzarus already quoted the rule. When you take damage at 0 hp you follow that rule for taking damage - not the general rule for taking damage - and it specifies that you take a death saving throw - or 2 for a crit - or you die outright if the damage exceeds or matches your maximum hp. There is nothing about accumulating damage in that rule.
Mega Yahtzee Thread:
Highest 41: brocker2001 (#11,285).
Yahtzee of 2's: Emmber (#36,161).
Lowest 9: JoeltheWalrus (#312), Emmber (#12,505) and Dertinus (#20,953).
Ok. If you've got two people beating on you that's Certain Death (bu-bu-bu-boom. Labyrinth joke this time.)
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Or a single creature with multiattack.
D&D is conspiring against me to ruin all of my jokes. :-) Thanks all. At least I'm finally clear on the rules.
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That's so lame though