If I stab you and you fall down not moving I have no reason to stab you again in the middle of the fight if your party is still up fighting. So most DMs aren’t being nice by not finishing you off they are being realistic.
It's being realistic in the real world where being able to heal a downed person back to fighting fit in a few seconds is just nonexistent. It's not realistic in a world where such healers are common and part of the understanding of how fights work.
When I down someone with Bandits, it's 100% because I'm not a jerk that I move them on rather than kill the PC. Even Bandits will know that just because someone is unconscious, they could still get up and fight more, and it's going to be easier to kill them outright than to risk having the PC get up again if they don't take out all the healers in the next 6 seconds. When healers have those abilities in a world, it will affect the mentality and tactics of people in the world.
Most actual play doesn’t have healers in every npc party. If your world has tons of people running around with level 3 cleric abilities the entire world should function differently than D&D presents it. Have you ever noticed that most npcs working at temples and churches don’t even have cleric abilities?
Most actual play doesn't have many NPC parties. Clerics, who are mostly associated with parties, being quite warlike compared to your average Priests, are unlikely to be hanging around temples and churches. Clerics aren't Father Ted. The people bandits deal with are a lot more likely to have Clerics, Druids, Paladins and others with in-combat healing abilities than you would if you went to your local church. Also, what game are you playing? You don't need to be a L3 Cleric to be doling out healing spells as we've been describing. Clerics, and indeed all the previously mentioned classes as well as others, get multiple healing spells at L1. When you're still basically marginally above the average Joe. You're the kind of people that bandits have to deal with intruding into their lairs trying to clear them out.
First Bandits aren’t running into adventuring parties because there would be no bandits. Second at level 1 a cleric is t yo-yoing a party. If it saved all its spells for healing word that’s two. It’s also giving them only enough health to go down again if they get hit. If you want to run your world as if clerics are all over the place go for it, but base D&D doesn’t support this model. Your world would be functionally different than forgotten realms, Grey hawk, or Dragonlance Which is 100% okay. I think Ebberon might function in this respect.
This isn't really a change at all from the 5e PHB. It just simplifies the wording, changes 0 HP to a Dying condition, and changed how death saves work, which is an improvement. But let's look at 5e first:
When you drop to 0 hit points, you either die outright or fall unconscious, as explained in the following sections....
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.
Unconscious
An unconscious creature is incapacitated, can't move or speak, and is unaware of its surroundings.
The creature drops whatever it's holding and falls prone.
The creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity saving throws.
Attack rolls against the creature have advantage.
Any attack that hits the creature is a critical hit if the attacker is within 5 feet of the creature.
In 5e, you're still unconscious, incapacitated, and prone, and fail two death saves on an auto-crit. None of that has changed. The only difference is stabilizing via death saves.
5e: stay at 0 HP and remain unconscious and regain 1HP after 1d4 hours.
OneD&D: Regain 1 HP, remain unconscious, and start a short rest. So after 1 hour, you have 1 HP plus a roll of your hit die.
Also, the improvement to Spare the Dying is massive. You can pick a player back up without using a spell slot. They can use both Spare the Dying and Healing Word on a single turn to pick two players back up.
I do think the death save critical fail and instant kill rules should explicitly contain an exception for level 1 characters. Sure, level 2 characters are pretty weak as well, but level 1 characters are kind of in a tier by themselves as far as fragility goes. And if this means that monsters will now have a harder time killing level 1 characters, then so be it.
Speaking of death saves and One D&D, are death saves intended to be modified in any way, such as by the bless spell? I know that both the 2014PHB and the 1DD rule for dying says that you roll a d20 and the "If the roll is 10 or higher, you succeed." It says the roll, not the result, which sure looks like it's the number on the die that matters. Again, this is not a new thing, and the 2014 PHB had text to let us know that modifiers were meant to work with death saves. You are in the hands of fate now, aided only by spells and features that improve your chances of succeeding on a saving throw. In the new document, which we are told is meant to replace that part of the 2014 PHB, this has been shortened to: You’re in the hands of fate now; roll a d20. If the roll is 10 or higher, you succeed. This does leave us with a specific rule whose wording appears to contradict the general rule for saving throws.
With this change, we don't have any indication that the result of your death saving throw should be anything other than the number you roll on the die. Is that intentional?
I do think the death save critical fail and instant kill rules should explicitly contain an exception for level 1 characters. Sure, level 2 characters are pretty weak as well, but level 1 characters are kind of in a tier by themselves as far as fragility goes. And if this means that monsters will now have a harder time killing level 1 characters, then so be it.
Speaking of death saves and One D&D, are death saves intended to be modified in any way, such as by the bless spell? I know that both the 2014PHB and the 1DD rule for dying says that you roll a d20 and the "If the roll is 10 or higher, you succeed." It says the roll, not the result, which sure looks like it's the number on the die that matters. Again, this is not a new thing, and the 2014 PHB had text to let us know that modifiers were meant to work with death saves. You are in the hands of fate now, aided only by spells and features that improve your chances of succeeding on a saving throw. In the new document, which we are told is meant to replace that part of the 2014 PHB, this has been shortened to: You’re in the hands of fate now; roll a d20. If the roll is 10 or higher, you succeed. This does leave us with a specific rule whose wording appears to contradict the general rule for saving throws.
With this change, we don't have any indication that the result of your death saving throw should be anything other than the number you roll on the die. Is that intentional?
I agree in both the PHB and the playtest for OneDnD it is not clear and I intend to make state that in the feedback survey.
Back to the OP the change in the rules on dying is the spare the dying cantrip now gets a PC back up as an unlimited resource. Dying ends when hitpoint are restored, Spare the dying restores 1HP and so the pc is back up ("still unconcious and start a short rest" applies only if you get a 3rd succesful death save)
My original post was snarky and earlier test feedback. Possibly orc ancients paladin could be neat with death ward, durable, epic recovery feat , possibly lucky if it helps or healing feat (recovery, lay on hands too), and adamantine armor to negate crits ?
(orc + ancients + epic boon if ever end game + deathward come up from 0hp )
Aura of life or bless the party to fit the theme (better death saves with bless + paladin aura or 0 to 1 hp recovery + aura)
”While you're wearing it, any critical hit against you becomes a normal hit.”
Durable;
“Defy Death.You have Advantage on Death Saving Throws.“
First Bandits aren’t running into adventuring parties because there would be no bandits.
Second at level 1 a cleric is t yo-yoing a party. If it saved all its spells for healing word that’s two. It’s also giving them only enough health to go down again if they get hit. If you want to run your world as if clerics are all over the place go for it, but base D&D doesn’t support this model. Your world would be functionally different than forgotten realms, Grey hawk, or Dragonlance Which is 100% okay. I think Ebberon might function in this respect.
This isn't really a change at all from the 5e PHB. It just simplifies the wording, changes 0 HP to a Dying condition, and changed how death saves work, which is an improvement. But let's look at 5e first:
When you drop to 0 hit points, you either die outright or fall unconscious, as explained in the following sections....
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.
Unconscious
In 5e, you're still unconscious, incapacitated, and prone, and fail two death saves on an auto-crit. None of that has changed. The only difference is stabilizing via death saves.
Also, the improvement to Spare the Dying is massive. You can pick a player back up without using a spell slot. They can use both Spare the Dying and Healing Word on a single turn to pick two players back up.
I think I need to just pickup revivify
I do think the death save critical fail and instant kill rules should explicitly contain an exception for level 1 characters. Sure, level 2 characters are pretty weak as well, but level 1 characters are kind of in a tier by themselves as far as fragility goes. And if this means that monsters will now have a harder time killing level 1 characters, then so be it.
Speaking of death saves and One D&D, are death saves intended to be modified in any way, such as by the bless spell? I know that both the 2014PHB and the 1DD rule for dying says that you roll a d20 and the "If the roll is 10 or higher, you succeed." It says the roll, not the result, which sure looks like it's the number on the die that matters. Again, this is not a new thing, and the 2014 PHB had text to let us know that modifiers were meant to work with death saves. You are in the hands of fate now, aided only by spells and features that improve your chances of succeeding on a saving throw. In the new document, which we are told is meant to replace that part of the 2014 PHB, this has been shortened to: You’re in the hands of fate now; roll a d20. If the roll is 10 or higher, you succeed. This does leave us with a specific rule whose wording appears to contradict the general rule for saving throws.
With this change, we don't have any indication that the result of your death saving throw should be anything other than the number you roll on the die. Is that intentional?
"Not all those who wander are lost"
I agree in both the PHB and the playtest for OneDnD it is not clear and I intend to make state that in the feedback survey.
Back to the OP the change in the rules on dying is the spare the dying cantrip now gets a PC back up as an unlimited resource. Dying ends when hitpoint are restored, Spare the dying restores 1HP and so the pc is back up ("still unconcious and start a short rest" applies only if you get a 3rd succesful death save)
My original post was snarky and earlier test feedback. Possibly orc ancients paladin could be neat with death ward, durable, epic recovery feat , possibly lucky if it helps or healing feat (recovery, lay on hands too), and adamantine armor to negate crits ?
(orc + ancients + epic boon if ever end game + deathward come up from 0hp )
Aura of life or bless the party to fit the theme (better death saves with bless + paladin aura or 0 to 1 hp recovery + aura)
”While you're wearing it, any critical hit against you becomes a normal hit.”
Durable;
“Defy Death.You have Advantage on Death Saving Throws.“
Epic boon recovery feat feat:”
Just dont die.
Ez.