in 5E Dungeons & Dragons, many combats have characters dropped to 0 hit points, healed a little (e.g. by healing word) and return to fight until dropped, and then the cycle repeats. No chance of dying except massive damage. Do you like this? #dnd Disagree that this equates to “no chance of dying.”
But mileage will vary hard on that depending on planned encounters.
Basically I like the deathnand dying system without adding things like exhaustion.
— Dan Dillon (@Dan_Dillon_1) May 19, 2019
I agree with Dan. Yes, healing will bring a pc back up and prevent death, but that healing requires resources. Once those resources are used up, the chance of death rises dramatically. In a game where players are allowed the “five minute workday,” death will rarely be a concern. Healers moving into position to even cast healing spells (line of sight is real for healing word, y'all) provokes opportunity attacks, has to contend with terrain. What if the downed character is in a dangerous area that exposes the would-be savior? (we lost two PCs to that).
— Dan Dillon (@Dan_Dillon_1) May 19, 2019
It's a complex issue and boiling it down to "no chance of death" is highly inaccurate in my experience.
— Dan Dillon (@Dan_Dillon_1) May 19, 2019
Oh yeah. The setting of a combat encounter is important. Strategic decisions by enemies and terrain difficulties can have a big impact on the use of those resources. This is something I need to get better at. We had two people go down inside the range of a symbol of stunning, fighting helmed horrors (Immune to stunned). My warlock with his force damage could only watch helplessly as they failed death saves. Made for an amazing story questing for a lost artifact to resurrect them, tho
— Dan Dillon (@Dan_Dillon_1) May 19, 2019
If reduced to 0 hp your unconscious. At this point ( in the game I run ) you can not benifit from healing word or potions, witch means the healer must touch you ie. cure wounds .
That’s not what the spell says. Being unconscious doesn’t make you invisible, move you out of range, or turn you into an undead, a construct or an object.
And while you cannot quaff a potion yourself, someone else can always force it down your throat; sure, half of it will probably end up in your lungs (never do this at home), but eh.
It comes down to 3 Death Saving throws in 5E. Yes massive damage will out right kill you but you have to go neg. as much as your full health bar. Reason for the death saves is to basically give a party time to stabilize you to save you. Now 5E unlike 3.5E you can move into threat range you do not take an attack of opportunity. Only if you cast in melee or try to leave a threat range without using a full round disengage. Now from there you need a medkit. But with a medkit you can stabilize down teammate without being attacked yourself for doing so.
Casting in melee range does not provoke AoO either. Only movement does.