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Old 09-06-2020, 08:59 PM   #1
Dalin
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Saint Paul, MN
Default Death checks

The Injury section in Exploits (p. 59) dictates that a player should roll vs. HT if they are knocked to -1xHP and each multiple thereafter until -5xHP. If they fail the check, the character dies (or suffers a mortal wound). If they succeed, they may continue checking for unconsciousness and taking actions. When knocked to -5xHP, the character is dead without rolling for a check.

This leads to a potentially weird situation for someone who is attempting to heal themselves while at negative HP. Let's say you're a buff barbarian with 25 HP. You're knocked to -51. Without any healing, you could take 24 injury before suffering another death check. If you drink a minor healing potion, you're suddenly in more danger from a relatively minor wound. Let's say you gain 2 HP to -49. Now if anyone hits you for one point, you need to roll vs. HT again.

Obviously this is a weird edge case, but it came up during a game this evening and didn't seem quite right. It leads to the potential of a character not wanting certain quantities of healing.

Has anyone dealt with this? Any not-too-complicated house rules to get around it?

Thanks!
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Old 09-06-2020, 10:12 PM   #2
Stix4armz
 
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Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Lancaster, Ca
Default Re: Death checks

It doesn't come up that often. If someone is taking that much damage they're usually out of the fight or they're a berserk barbarian. However, my group definitely tries to be economical about our healing, that successive penalty per casting means you don't want to waste healing when it's barely any or the person isn't don't getting beat up.
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Old 09-06-2020, 10:17 PM   #3
malloyd
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Default Re: Death checks

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dalin View Post
Has anyone dealt with this? Any not-too-complicated house rules to get around it?
Simplest fix is you don't make another death check for passing through a threshold until you have passed through the one above it in the other direction. Hence the reason you don't make one at 0 x HP, since you didn't start above 1 x HP.
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Old 09-07-2020, 12:51 PM   #4
Dalin
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Saint Paul, MN
Default Re: Death checks

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Originally Posted by malloyd View Post
Simplest fix is you don't make another death check for passing through a threshold until you have passed through the one above it in the other direction. Hence the reason you don't make one at 0 x HP, since you didn't start above 1 x HP.

I like this. Clean and simple. Thanks for the tip!
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