Very soon (hopefully this weekend) I’ll be compiling our house rules into a PDF document so that everyone can have a printed reference copy at the table when we play. I want to get it done before that so everyone can have any character creation modifications easily referenced for when we restart, which is now looking like it will be the 24th again.
I mentioned in the previous post how much house rules talk and how many actual “house rules” supplements there would be in the d20 game design community as a result of 4th ed.’s more restrictive licensing and the fact that the 3.x license stands forever and ever, amen. One of the things a few major designers have mentioned, including some who helped create 3.x, is that characters should probably get more feats than they do. The general consensus seems to be feats as they are at 1st level, then another at 3rd, as the system stands now, but from there a feat every other level as opposed to the current every third level rule. Thoughts?
Matt was the only person to actually respond to the Death & Dying post, so if anyone else has any input, please comment. As it stands, I like some of what the rule does, but not all of it, and Matt really touched on some of what bothers me about it. So unless there is an outcry or other reaction, I am going to implement the system, as follows:
1) At 0 hp or less, you fall unconscious and are dying.
The disabled state only applies to characters that have the “Diehard” feat, which appears in a modified version later in this post.
2) Characters die when their negative hit point total reaches -10 or one-quarter of their full normal hit points, whichever is a larger value.
3) If you’re dying at the end of your turn, roll a d20.
Lower than 10: You get worse. You lose 1d6 hit points. If this would take you past your point of death (see #2), then your character is dead. If you roll this result (lower than 10) three times before you are healed or stabilized, you die, regardless of your hp. As per the Three Strikes rule, the first two times a character would be dead they are instead gravely injured. Adjust your hp total to one point above your point of death and consider your character stable but in need of extreme assistance.
10-19: No change.
20: You get better! You wake up with hit points equal to your character level. This gives a character just enough hit points, on average, to avoid death from another attack (although it will most likely knock them unconscious again).
4) If a character with negative hit points receives healing, he automatically stabilizes.
Beyond that though, it works like any other healing. You can still be unconscious and at a negative hp total after receiving healing.
5) A dying character who’s been stabilized (via the Heal skill)
doesn’t roll a d20 at the end of his turn unless he takes more damage.
And here is the modified feat:
Diehard
Prerequisite: Endurance.
Benefit
When reduced to between 0 hit points and your point of death (see above), you automatically become stable. You don’t have to roll a d20 to see if your condition changes each round.
When reduced to negative hit points, you may choose to act as if you were disabled, rather than dying. You must make this decision as soon as you are reduced to negative hit points (even if it isn’t your turn). If you do not choose to act as if you were disabled, you immediately fall unconscious.
When using this feat, you can take either a single move or standard action each turn, but not both, and you cannot take a full round action. You can take a move action without further injuring yourself, but if you perform any standard action (or any other action deemed as strenuous, including some free actions, swift actions, or immediate actions, such as casting a quickened spell) you take 1d6 points of damage after completing the act.
