It happens. Adventuring is a high-risk enterprise. Characters in this campaign will die, sometimes because they were reckless and sometimes because luck was against them. Fortunately, D&D is a game, and death doesn’t have to be the end.

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Death and Dying Rules

1) At 0 hp or less, you fall unconscious and are dying.
Any damage dealt to a dying character is applied normally, and might kill him if it reduces his hit points far enough (see #2).

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 1d20.
Lower than 10: You get worse. If you get this result three times before you are healed or stabilized (as per the Heal skill), you die.
10-19: No change.
20: You get better! You wake up with hit points equal to one-quarter your full normal hit points.
I will allow action points to be applied to these saving throws as well, but only a natural 20 will result in the healing.

If a character fails any three death saving throws in a single encounter, he dies. For example, if a character who goes negative (during which time he fails two death saving throws), is brought back up to positive hit points again, then drops negative again, and fails a third death saving through in the same encounter, he is still dead.

4) If a character with negative hit points receives healing, he returns to 0 hp before any healing is applied.
In other words, he’ll wake up again with hit points equal to the healing provided by the effect — a cure light wounds spell for 7 hp will bring any dying character back to 7 hp, no matter what his negative hit point total had reached.)

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.

Some Specific Clarifications

Die Hard

Q: Does Bransen have to roll saves if he is in negatives even if he is conscious?
A: Yes. However, he will know when he’s about to kick off and can time his healing spells as appropriate.

Action Points

Q: Can we no longer spend an action point to immediately stabilize or to prevent our characters from going below -(25% max HP)?
A: If you are negative but not yet at -25% max HP, you cannot spend an Action Point to stabilize and avoid further death saving throws. If you are struck down to a point that takes you below -25% max HP, you may spend an action point to be at a HP total one above -25% max HP (i.e. one hp away from death). You must continue to roll death saving throws at this point.

Delay Death

Q: Let’s say Bransen has delay death on and get cut down to -85 hp… am I still making death saving throws every round until I can heal, or does the spell prevent me from having to make saves as well?
A: You must still make death saves every round you are negative. If you acquire three before the end of the encounter, you are dead once the duration of delay death expires.

• Last Updated August 7th, 2008.

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Coming Back

After discussion with the group, I have decided to utilize the negative level variant used in the Cold Blood campaign (see “The High Cost Of Dying”). Thanks to DarthKrzysztof, Jonathan Drain, Andy Collins and J.D. Wiker.

Making a New Character

A player may decide that he or she wants to make a new character rather than continue adventuring with his or her existing one. Or maybe a new player is recruited for the campaign. Players should follow the guidelines on page 199 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide when creating PCs above 1st level.

In general, D&D encourages continuity of characters in the adventuring group. Players get a greater sense of accomplishment if they develop their characters over time. The group is more effective – and has more fun – if they learn the strengths, weaknesses, and quirks of the PCs they’re adventuring with. A sense of teamwork is hard to develop if the roster of the PCs is always shifting.

But there are times when making a new character is the best option. Under the following circumstances, a new character may be warranted.

• A new player joins the campaign.
• An existing PC dies, and the party doesn’t have access to magic that brings her back to life.
• An existing PC is unable to adventure for an extended period of time. Perhaps he was turned to stone by a medusa cult, which then absconded with the statue. The rest of the party intends to rescue him, but until that happens, he should have another character to play so he’s not left out.
• The players find they don’t have a character to cover a key party role. If the player of the sole PC cleric moves away, another player might make up a new cleric so the party still has access to healing magic.
• An existing PC has become difficult to play, and the player is amenable to a new character. Perhaps a player started with an ogre barbarian character, but the the players find they prefer political intrigues and urban adventures.
• A player is eager to try a new race or class.

A new player creates his first character at the current XP total of the lowest level existing PC.

A player may replace a slain PC with a new character. The new character begins play one level lower than the deceased character and with an XP total that conforms to the percentage of XP the deceased character would have needed to reach the next level. For example, a base line 10th level PC (45,000 XP) needs an additional 10,000 XP to reach 11th level. If the character died when it had 45,000 XP, it is considered to have earned 0% of the XP it needed to gain a new level. A new character replacing this deceased character would begin play at 36,000 XP (0% from 9th level to 10th). Likewise, a base line 10th level character who had earned 9,000 additional XP (for a total of 54,000 XP) that died, would be replaced by a character with an XP total 90% of the way from level 9 to level 10 (or a total of 44,100 XP).

A new character replacing an existing, living character begins play at the beginning of the level lower than the player’s previous PC. For example, if a player wants his 9th-level paladin to ride off into the sunset, his new character starts with 28,000 XP, the beginning of 8th level.

In some circumstances, leniency is in order. If the lowest-level PC is magically imprisoned, I may allow the player to create a new, temporary character at the same level until the original PC is rescued. The idea is to avoid situations where a player would be punished for sticking with an existing PC rather than creating a new one. It’s bad for continuity if a player picks a brand new 10th-level character over a longtime PC who will come back from the dead at 9th level.

New characters may outfit themselves using the starting gold for their level listed on Table 5-1: Character Wealth by Level on page 135 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. As a general rule, new characters can spend no more than half his or her total wealth on a single item, and no more than one quarter of the total wealth on consumables, such as ammunition, scrolls, power stones, potions, wands, dorjes, or alchemical items.

To avoid undue riches flooding the party coffers, new characters replacing slain PCs may EITHER outfit themselves as outlined in the above paragraph OR simply come in and take the valuables of the slain character. If the first option is exercised, the dead character’s belongings are either returned to his or her family, sold to cover funeral expenses, or buried with them.

The Silver Phoenix Adventuring Company charter take measures to alleviate losses of dead characters’ possessions by restricting ownership of items acquired by the party. The charter outlines how a character comes to own an item found by the party. New characters begin play owning all of the items purchased with starting gold.

• These rules apply to all characters as of April 5th, 2008.

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