Dying just got better

Filed under D&D 4E Preview on February 6, 2008
Keywords: 4E, hit points

The 4E previews in Dragon’s Design & Development column have certainly stirred up the D&D fanbase, though I think Wizard’s has created more controversy than positive hype. I can’t say that any of the changes so far has really excited me.

Until last Friday.

I’m very impressed with this new mechanic. It appears well thought out, and a definite improvement over 3E/3.5. If my PC is at either 0 or negative HP at the end of a turn, he’s dying and needs to make a simple, d20 dice roll to prevent death. Goodbye and good riddance to the percent chance of self-stabilizing. And no more healing “debt.”

I would have gone further and eliminated the negative HP countdown all together. I think Rule 3 in the “Try It Now” sidebar simulates “bleeding out,” makes the need to scale the Death threshold for higher levels irrelevant, and streamlines the mechanics to create smoother and quicker gameplay (less math = more fun).

Finally, I’m glad they’ve made this rule applicable to PCs only. It was a “why didn’t I think of that” moment for me as I read the following paragraph:

Monsters don’t need or use this system unless the DM has special reason to do so. A monster at 0 hp is dead, and you don’t have to worry about wandering around the battlefield stabbing all your unconscious foes. (I’m sure my table isn’t the only place that happens.)

Unfortunately, my “table” was one place that this happened as well. I’m not sure about the players, but I found it annoying as a DM–and a huge drag on resources–to have to track negative hit points each round, or note what goblin was just unconscious and what goblin was really dead. Of course, if I was really on the ball, I would have just implemented a house rule exempting monsters, but it’s nice to see the 4E designers making it canon for me.

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