One of the Half-Orc's racial traits is: When you are reduced to 0 HP but not killed, you can drop to 1 HP instead once per long rest.
The word 'can' (my bolding) seems to indicate that this is an optional ability and the player can choose to have their half-orc just fall unconscious at 0 hp. Does anyone have a different interpretation that this happens automatically?
The main reason I"m asking is my DM is pretty strict on if a player doesn't verbally declare something, regardless of their intent, then it didn't happen. So, for example, my half-orc barbarian is attacking and I am adding in his +2 rage damage but then when he's attacked on his turn since I didn't verbally declare he started to rage then he doesn't benefit from his rage resistance.
I think you should declare what you're doing, so we can understand it at the table more easily. But with that being said, 'can' is an intentional choice. You have to choose to use it, and you can choose not to. You can choose which of the features like this that you use if you have several. Since you have to choose to use it you should declare that you are doing so (or not).
Think Princess Bride: "If you didn't say it, you didn't do it." :)
You absolutely should declare when you're using or activating one of your abilities. Your DM is not a mind reader. If they attack you and land a crit, only THEN for you to say "but I was raging so I take half", they're gonna be ticked.
As for relentless endurance, yes it's definitely an optional ability. You don't bounce back to 1 HP the first time you're dropped to 0 HP in a day. You choose when to bounce back up. If the enemy is on their last legs, or your Cleric is up next in the turn order, etc. then you may decide not to use the ability and just let things play out.
This seems more like a topic about clearly declaring actions than it is about relentless endurance. As far as the ability itself is concerned, my DM allowed me to use it more effectively than the base description states. When I used the ability, I declared I would feign being killed or incapacitated. My DM ruled that this wasn't unreasonable as sitting at 1 HP was "living dangerously". I used my turn to Second Wind and drink a healing potion, after a cleric heal, I was ready to jump back into the fray.
I don't think feigning death while using Relentless Endurance is unreasonable at all, it's a clever use of the ability. As a DM I'd probably have you roll a Deception check against the passive Insight of the enemies, to see if they buy it :)
Thank you everyone for your input! After thinking it over and reading what everyone said here I agree that it is important to verbally declare one's actions and without that there is no retconning bout undeclared intentions.
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One of the Half-Orc's racial traits is: When you are reduced to 0 HP but not killed, you can drop to 1 HP instead once per long rest.
The word 'can' (my bolding) seems to indicate that this is an optional ability and the player can choose to have their half-orc just fall unconscious at 0 hp. Does anyone have a different interpretation that this happens automatically?
The main reason I"m asking is my DM is pretty strict on if a player doesn't verbally declare something, regardless of their intent, then it didn't happen. So, for example, my half-orc barbarian is attacking and I am adding in his +2 rage damage but then when he's attacked on his turn since I didn't verbally declare he started to rage then he doesn't benefit from his rage resistance.
I think you should declare what you're doing, so we can understand it at the table more easily. But with that being said, 'can' is an intentional choice. You have to choose to use it, and you can choose not to. You can choose which of the features like this that you use if you have several. Since you have to choose to use it you should declare that you are doing so (or not).
Think Princess Bride: "If you didn't say it, you didn't do it." :)
You absolutely should declare when you're using or activating one of your abilities. Your DM is not a mind reader. If they attack you and land a crit, only THEN for you to say "but I was raging so I take half", they're gonna be ticked.
As for relentless endurance, yes it's definitely an optional ability. You don't bounce back to 1 HP the first time you're dropped to 0 HP in a day. You choose when to bounce back up. If the enemy is on their last legs, or your Cleric is up next in the turn order, etc. then you may decide not to use the ability and just let things play out.
This seems more like a topic about clearly declaring actions than it is about relentless endurance. As far as the ability itself is concerned, my DM allowed me to use it more effectively than the base description states. When I used the ability, I declared I would feign being killed or incapacitated. My DM ruled that this wasn't unreasonable as sitting at 1 HP was "living dangerously". I used my turn to Second Wind and drink a healing potion, after a cleric heal, I was ready to jump back into the fray.
I don't think feigning death while using Relentless Endurance is unreasonable at all, it's a clever use of the ability. As a DM I'd probably have you roll a Deception check against the passive Insight of the enemies, to see if they buy it :)
I could see that as well. In my cases, I was literally rocked off my feet and chose not to get up until I had some HP back. ;p
Thank you everyone for your input! After thinking it over and reading what everyone said here I agree that it is important to verbally declare one's actions and without that there is no retconning bout undeclared intentions.