Knights & Knaves Alehouse

Or you could do one of these...

1. Once the character is at -3, they can last a number of rounds equal to half their Con score (rounded up or down, depending on the DM's degree of sadism).

Thus, that hardy fighter (18) can go to -12, but the spindly mage (8) only lasts to -7.


2. The character can go to negative hit points equal to half their Con score (rounded up or down, depending on the DM's degree of sadism).

Thus, that hardy fighter (18) can go to -9, but the spindly mage (8) only lasts to -4.

I was always told by the guys in the comic shop that you had to make a system shock roll at 0 hp not to die and then another one every round.

I looked up the rule in the dmg last night and that -3 option is so vaguely worded as to be almost meaningless. It's no wonder that no one I've ever played with used it.

After some debate over the years we've moved to a simplifide method. If you go to -10 your dead. If your healed during combat you can act following round. If your brought to -whatever in combat your still alive until you die at -10. Going below -4 leaves scarring etc. If not bleeding while down your stable till the conclusion of combat (so if smashing damage for instance).
We did away with the resting requirments as they tend to break the action and drama (how often do you see a group retreat for a week to heal in television TV or novels) never mind characters acting like pussies when they start getting low in HPs (players really shouldn't know exactly how close they are to going into negative territory in the first place). I understand the reasons why this resting rule was included (realism being one of them) and its history related to OE. but the fact that dungeons usually are located away from civilization makes for a boring game if you play this btb. Unless of course you wimp out and use multiple PCs per game as some do. The problem with that is that its more difficult to get into one character and the result is more gamey (where PCs become your "pieces" rather then you on some level)

This has been coming up a lot in my games of late. The party is low level, ranging from 1st - 3rd. Strangely, there's not a single fighter among the PCs in last few sessions (there is a 1st and 2nd level fighter NPC). So just one or two hits can put any of them into the negative. The 3 clerics in the party have brought the PC that takes point out of the negatives with CLW a number of times -- so many times I'm getting a bit uncomfortable with it. In the last session, I had him roll a system shock when he was brought back from below 0 for the third time in the same session. Btw, I think this player likes the scarring.