If players, like monks with way of the long death, that have abilities that allow them to drop to 1 hit point instead of 0, does this always apply. Say a beholder drops his hit points to 0 with the disintegration ray, which says once they reach 0 they are dust, could the PC use his ability to not get disintegrated.
It depends on what the exact effect upon reaching 0 hit points is.
The thing preventing the "be at 1 hit point instead" feature from working is not that there is an effect attached to being reduced to 0 hit points, it's that the effect is death (or the equivalent) and the feature that provides the option to be at 1 hit point instead specifically says it only works if reduced to 0 hit points "and not killed outright."
So a half-orc reaching 0 hit points because of disintegrate is dust, but a half-orc reaching 0 hit points because of a giant centipede's poison can instead be at 1 hit point and not poisoned/paralyzed for an hour.
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If players, like monks with way of the long death, that have abilities that allow them to drop to 1 hit point instead of 0, does this always apply. Say a beholder drops his hit points to 0 with the disintegration ray, which says once they reach 0 they are dust, could the PC use his ability to not get disintegrated.
That kind of ability can't save a character, as the disintegration reduced it to dust if the damage is enough to reduce the HP to 0.
https://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/10/01/if-disintegrate-reduce-an-half-orc-to-0hp/
so whenever an ability says, "once they reach 0 hitpoints" in the description, they can't use the ability to save it.
It depends on what the exact effect upon reaching 0 hit points is.
The thing preventing the "be at 1 hit point instead" feature from working is not that there is an effect attached to being reduced to 0 hit points, it's that the effect is death (or the equivalent) and the feature that provides the option to be at 1 hit point instead specifically says it only works if reduced to 0 hit points "and not killed outright."
So a half-orc reaching 0 hit points because of disintegrate is dust, but a half-orc reaching 0 hit points because of a giant centipede's poison can instead be at 1 hit point and not poisoned/paralyzed for an hour.