(animated) D&D 5E Death 

Fun fact: A common misconception is that a nat 20 on a Death Saving Throw (DST) counts as two successes. In fact, according to the PHB pg. 197 under the bold term "Rolling 1 or 20" it says the following: "When you make a DST and roll a 1 on the d20, it counts as two failures (video was correct). If you roll a 20 on the d20, you regain 1 hit point." Just an interesting misinterpretation. Unless of course this rule was overturned in Xanathar's or a reprint of the PHB then feel free to chastise me for this comment. I'm just running on the books I do have.

You can also use a Healer's Kit to stabilize a dying person without making a medicine check. Like spare the dying but with money.

funfact if you are downed anyone with magic missile can just outright kill you for one spell slot

Great Animation, however there was one mistake in 5e DnD rolling a 20 on a death save instantly restores 1 hp so you are back in combat.

Don’t forget the (unofficial but very commonly used) Chunky Salsa Rule! "Any situation that would reduce a character's head to the consistency of chunky salsa dip is fatal, regardless of other rules." God, I love roleplaying games.

One minor nitpick, at least for rules as written: If you roll a 20 on a death save, you instantly gain one hitpoint, effectively putting you back in the fight.

Heyyy! I just realized Tanzy's friend was Wades In Shadows! Neat.

The one time I've ever seen anyone go unconscious was me. Then I rolled a four and a one on my death saves. Fortunately the GM remembered at that point that he'd accidentally skipped the turn of an NPC that could use Lay On Hands in the previous round, so he allowed me to retroactively return to life as if the NPC in question had done so.

You can actually add modifiers to Death Saves if something affects saving throws in general, such as the bless spell, bardic inspiration or a paladin’s aura. Monk’s actually become proficient in all saving throws at high levels, including death saves.

You got to feel bad for that poor girl. When she was awake and conscious all her friends were still there but when she woke up after being knocked out only one friend was left alive. The only bonus that she gets is that she didn't have to watch her friends die one by one.

Note that if you are making death saves, you are unconscious and therefore you become prone, which means that attacks not within 5 ft. also have disadvantage, so they are just flat.

Are we not going to talk about how a pc that only had 13 hp wanted to track down a dragon?

When a dragon asks if you've come to look upon its majesty YOU SAY YES!

Grave Domain Clerics being able to cast the Spare the Dying Cantrip as a Bonus Action at 30 feet when only level 1 has probably saved so many low level lives.

I often play enemies according to how I think they'd function. Basic undead know you aren't dead yet and have no concept of self preservation. Meaning they are relatively easy to kite and trick but if you go down they will keep wailing until you are as dead as they are. Most beasts have some sense of self preservation and prefer to down an active threat before finishing off a downed enemy. Humanoids are a coin toss. The more vengeful ones may prefer to finish PCs off while others may prefer to deal with the active thread first.

Fun fact. According to Jeremy Crawford, in 5e Monks gets to add their proficiency bonus to death saves once they hit the right level and get their class ability. The ability gives you proficiency in all saving throws, death saving throws count according to the designer

As many others have said, you regain consciousness with 1 HP on a critical success, but the other thing I'd point out is that your rolls can have a modifier on your save. If you're in a paladin's aura of protection, you get to add their CHA bonus as long as the pally is conscious herself. There might be other things that apply. Basically it's a saving throw, so if you have an ability that affects "saving throws" generally, it should work. Indomitable should let you reroll a death save for instance.

Funny thing about this video, the visual for getting hit for your max HP instant killing you, made me misinterpret it to be Half your max HP under 0, so if you had 60 Max HP and got to -30 you died. I DM a campaign and when I brought this up my players all cleared it up for me, so I didn't fuck anyone over YET. (Also one of them said that death saving throw failures stayed on a character when they get healed up and we all looked at him like "???" and turns out he had one really mean DM)

ACTUALLY. If you get a crit fail it counts as 2 failed death saving throws (as you said) BUT, a crit success instantly heals you 1 hit point. Currently holding the book in front of me.

_Magic Missile the unconscious_ *INSTANT DEATH!!!*

"Only one party member remained" Is that Wades in Shadows?

2:56 Wades in Shadows Cameo. Also just realized the druid appeared in the puzzle video.

My best friend learned about the death rules really quick in his first campaign. We were doing a quickie for his birthday, with our party (goliath wizard, turtle guy monk, and a kobold cleric because we wanted to mess around for a one-off) coming up to a large tower in an open field that we had been sent to to retrieve an ancient staff which we naturally intended to keep for ourselves. My character (the goliath wizard) kicked in the door to the tower, and it was pitch black inside, as well as eerily quiet. The kobold leaned in to see what she could find with her dark vision and it looked like a totally normal room, though she couldn't see the whole thing due to its size. Then, my friend (the monk) got impatient, so he picked her up and chucked her into the center of the room. Critical success. His first ever roll. Yeah, our *healer* just got thrown like a baseball into a giant spider nest on the far end that she couldn't see. Long story short the battle SHOULDN'T have been difficult, except our only source of health was desperately fleeing for her life further into the building (kobolds are not smart) and the DM was rolling HOT. Somehow, the monk that we deliberately made tanky to AVOID anything like this got completely overwhelmed by the one giant spider in front of him coupled with the two small but venomous spiders on his back (which had disadvantage because of the shell). Unconsious in his first combat encounter because he went a bit chaotic stupid and got insanely bad luck afterwards. The DM let me roll for medicine and heal him a bit because that sucks for your first ever campaign. It was a fun session though, we even tamed one of the spiders.

The only other party member alive after the Druid wakes up looks like Wades In Shadows from the Cold Road episodes.

Back in 1990, I created a D&D character and named him using a completely random name generator. His name? Zee Walsul Every other player in the campaign gave me he'll for that. "What kind of name is Zee? that is stupid!" Feeling vindicated now.

A ranged attack on a prone character causes disadvantage, so a ranged attack ends up being a standard attack since they are also prone unless the PC is somehow unconscious standing up.

"The elemental steps on your head to make sure you are dead." ~Matt Colville, Villain, Game Master, and quickest funded Kickstarter creator ever.

Fun fact, the Monk ability Diamond Soul, that gives proficiency with all saving throws. Death Saving throws are technically under that umbrella, so you can become proficient in death saves

Dragons: when a monster only fights intelligently for entertainment; not because they need toto win.

A small bit of errata: 1. I'm sure everyone knows that Nat 20's give you 1 hp not 2 successes. 2. Your death saving throws can have modifiers, it just doesn't have an ability modifier. If you have an active spell or ability that gives you a bonus to all saving throws, that includes death saving throws. 3. All attacks made against unconcious creature do have advantage, but because the creature is also prone, all attacks from a distance greater than 5 feet have disadvantage. Since instances of advantage and disadvantage cancel, then attacks made from more that 5 feet are at neutral. Effectively, if you are further than 5 feet, you attack without advantage or disadvantage and a hit counts as a death save failure. You also cannot agin advantage or disadvantage since any instances of one cancels all instances of the other and you already have both advantage and disadvantage. So for example, attacking an unconcious creature with a bow beyond its normal range. You get advantage from the creature being unconcious and disadvantage from being more than 5 feet from the prone creature and from being outside the bow's normal range. Even though you have more sources of disadvantage, they don't cancel in pairs. If you have any number of advantages and any number of disadvantages, you are comsidered to have none of either. So adding more advantages doesn't help and adding more disadvantages doesn't hurt. Ideally, of course, you would get within 5 feet. You have advantage and auto-crit on a hit, dealing 2 death save failures.

One spell I love, and hope to see you cover is the Heat Metal spell. So we were trespassing on a pirate ship, and behold, our Rouge tripped the alarm. This trapped us on the ship, as the gangplank was then guarded. My Bard then saw that one of them was in Metal Armour. He retrieved a small hunk of Iron from his satchel, and using some fire from the wizard's spells, cast it on that Armour. Rolling for max damage, and a bonus action to do it again, the pirate turned out to be made of water, and was promptly evaporated. So that was the day I fell in love with the heat metal, and the day I first truly fell in love with D&D.

A crit save on a death save wakes you up with 1 hp

Last Saturday, our most recent session, we fought against several naval captains (and may have started a war in the process, more at 11). As the evasion tank of the group, I (lv 5 Kensei Monk with a buffed AC of 23) decided to keep the leader busy while my squishy comrades started clearing out the rest. This big bad hombre had 3 attacks, and made attack rolls of 25, 27, and a Nat 20. This guy hit *hard.* The first 2 hits were enough to knock me down to 0 hp, and the DM regretfully said "I already rolled to attack, so I suppose he stabs you in the gut while you're on the floor." On the ground, on the opposite side of a wall of fire, with 2 failed death saving throws already. Immediately afterwards, it was my turn. The situation *did not look good.* Sometimes, you already know what's going to happen, and rather than mourn, you gain a zen-like attitude; no sense fighting the inevitable. Before rolling my DST, I said to the party, in character: "Men, it's been an honor." Nat. Goddamn. 1. The first death in the campaign, and it could not have been more poetic. Let this be a lesson to all, no matter how well things seem to be going, no matter how high of a hill you believe yourself to be on, it can all come crashing down in one, single moment.

so the fighter had 51 or less max HP? fighting a dragon with a 66 damage breath attack? hmm

OH MY GOD TANZEE LOOKS SO CUTE

Also, a Death Saving Throw is... a saving throw. So anything you have that gives you a bonus to saves, like a certain cantrip, does so here too.

I'm still waiting on a video of that guy shouting: "Transmutation is the key, my boys!"

And of course with the Colville reference. Never not step on players heads (if thats the game they wanna play, or its shadowrun)

Poor girl's friends died. The silver lining of this is least one survive and she didn't have to watch them die

I'm a novice DM playing with novice players so I've kind of ignored death mechanics, saying "0 hp? You're unconscious." Then saying that by some bullshit means they're fine a few turns later. I'm glad I have the real mechanics laid out here.

When it comes to kicking a downed character, i always do it based on what i believe the enemies personality would be. A common orc would probably move on to the nearest threat when their current one is down. But a girallon zombie would savagely rip apart the first thing it gets one of its many hands on.

I saw somewhere that a DM should do the death saving throws for that player behind their screen because the other players might make choices based on knowing the results of their party member's DST which would be meta gaming.

On a natural 20 you gain 1 hp and can act on your turn.

Attacks against unconscious targets do have advantage, but anyone who's unconscious is likely to also be prone. So ranged attacks will also be at disadvantage, making them normal again. So just the melee attacks at advantage in most situations.

Important question: why are players of a level where their fighter has less than 50 max HP fighting a freaking ADULT BLUE DRAGON WITH WIZARD LEVELS? They're what, level 5, vs a CR14 monster?

I have a modification to the death save in that my players can add their constitution modifier to the saving throw which means a good con score makes it more likely to succeed and a bad one makes it easier for you to die.

A doctor once told me the secret to not dying was just not to do it. "It's not worth it," he said. So he suggested becoming a Long Death Monk or a Zealot Barbarian, so I could laugh in the face of death.

A nat 20 on a death save stabilizes you and revives you with 1hp if I'm not mistaken

you should make a video about how to cope with the prospect of your character dying. as loathe as i might be to admit it, some people, myself included, just get too invested in their own characters always remember: you control how your character came to be and what drives them to do what it is that they do. you have very little control beyond that as to how your character's story will play out. that is up to the will of the gm and the eldritch gods that dwell within your dice.

I recognize the tip of that black snout. That's Wades-In-Shadows!

My goliath fighter had a traumatic experience with griffins at level 2. He fought four of them at one time and kept going down but I kept rolling nat 20s on my death saves so I kept just getting back up. Needles to say I ate all of those flying chickens

Nope, a crit success instantly brings you up with 1 HP.

Regarding the "step on the head, to make a you're dead": In military/combat strategy, it's usually highly inadvisable to keep on attacking an incapacitated enemy, as killing them completely doesn't affect the enemies force strength, wastes attacks that can be used on still active combatants AND leaving wounded alive ties up more of those still active combatants in helping them instead of attacking you.

I'm pretty sure rolling a nat 20 will bring you back to 1 hp automatically.

My DM loves to triple tap an unconscious player with a level 1 magic missile...

A Crit 20 returns you to 1 hp, and you immidiately wakes up. Not two successes.

Man. Wades been through some shit...

Just a small tip: regardless of being unconscious or not, any attack made at a prone target with a ranged weapon must be done so at disadvantage because a prone target is harder to hit! Not like it is a massive issue with the video but it may save a character one day!

OMG you mentioned Matt colville!! That's bonus points in my book!!

Nearly lost my first character on *the first session* from riding a magic plant, RNGesus and a crit fail from an arrow. Thank the lenient DM he gave the players just enough leeway to bring me back, since I failed the first two saves, (rolled again for kicks) would have failed the third save, and *was* the Cleric with Medicine.

a crit success doesn’t actually count as 2 saves but it restores 1 hp instead

You made a small but significant mistake: death saves are not always unmodified, a bonus that ads to all saving throws also ads to death saves! (This is one of the reasons a paladins aura is so good for instance).

Worth noting is that monks get proficiency in death saves. Jeremy said so somewhere, just don't have the link handy.

Incorrect - if you roll a natural 20 on your death saving throw you immediately gain 1 hp & are awake. (PHB p. 197).

Can we find out what happened to Tanzy? It’s been 3 years. I need to know what happened!!!

I'm playing my first long form D&D campaign. During one session the party heard a commotion and disturbance outside of the abandon ruin we were exploring. I had my character run to the door and hold his attack until something came through. As the door opened my character stood waiting and watching. An angry medusa burst through the doors. My DM tried to be kind and give me an out, but I knew deep down my character stared into those sullen amber eyes of doom. My character spent one turn feeling his life slip away, his feet slowing turning to granite. With his last moments, my character threw the mysterious box he had just found to ensure it's survival. In a moment that will be burned into my memory forever, that box transformed mid air filling the room with a gigantic boat. As my characters chest and neck began transforming, He cried out, "I told you it was magic!" all that remains is a statue with a smug, satisfactory grin on it's face. It's my first character death and probably won't be my last, but I can't think of a better way for him to have died. No death saves, no remains to bury, just a magnificent statue that will be a memorial. That is, until our cleric gets greater restoration and decides whether or not he wants to brave the Medusa's lair.

I have a very dangerous enemy in my D&D campaign known as a Darkwraith (Name stolen from the dork souls obviously). They are powerful Death-Knight like undead, that start out as merely one and a few minions, but as Player Characters die to it, or die anywhere near it's lair, (Of which there have been 3), the Darkwraith will show up in the middle of combat, making a stealth check against the players who are likely occupied with other undead tearing at them, to attempt to drag an unconscious player away. If this happens, and it HAS happened, players have a REALLY bad time. Because what happens when a Darkwraith drags you away? Not much for that particular session, but in the NEXT session, assuming the players have not rescued the unconscious player character, that player character is killed and reanimated as a new Darkwraith. Now, that's all well and good, a new undead creature, but here's the kicker: They keep their character sheets, all stats, feats, abilities, they gain new weapons, and more. Their HP is raised by their constitution score, they gain resistance to slashing, piercing and bludgeoning damage, but are vulnerable to Radiant damage and holy water, and any time they are not in combat they are dormant as they patrol the crypts, regaining their spell slots in the same time as a short/long rest of dormant patrol. Now, this gets worse. Imagine, being a player and coming face to face with the mangled, grievous face of your last character with burning red eyes, reaching out from the dark. These Darkwraiths all have certain abilities on top of their previous ones, including Wraithwalk, which allows them to move through solid objects, consuming double their speed every 5 feet through. Darkwraiths also have the Dark Hand attack, which is a grapple move, that if it lands on a player, their maximum HP is reduced by up to 12d6 on a failed constitution saving throw meeting or beating the Darkwraith's in-life spell save DC (16 if not a spellcaster in life) and they are restrained until they break free with a strength save meeting or beating the Darkwraith's own strength score. NOW IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH I GOT MORE. When a Darkwraith reduces someone to zero hit points with the Dark Hand, since their maximum HP is technically and temporarily reduced, if you lose let's say 30 HP to Dark Hand, but had 45, your new HP maximum is 15, which means you are extremely susceptible to being instantly killed by the next damage of Dark Hand, and if you're KO'd by it, obviously you cannot resist. If the Darkwraith then kills the player, they will immediately attempt to disengage from the fight, dragging the character away to be converted into a new Darkwraith, unable to move through walls while transporting the body, to give players a chance to intervene. Now, 3 characters have died in their domain because Darkwraiths are so dangerous, which means there are 4 total Darkwraiths, three of which had player character sheets and ALL of the abilities they had in life. They were a hunting party of undead, powerful abominations of nature. But there are ways to see them coming and escape them; When in the dungeon the Darkwraiths populate, the player characters can always see the Darkwraith's mini on the map, as it slowly patrols, dormant, so they can plan around them. Darkwraiths can sense player characters who are alive within 20 feet of them through walls, and begin to chill the air within 30 feet of players (Again, through walls). So a Darkwraith is unlikely to catch the players off guard as long as they just look out. However, the Darkwraiths typically wait, and ambush when the party is already occupied with other enemies (Of which there are many in the crypt.), making it surprisingly easy for them to appear out of a wall, and begin to assault an isolated PC. Needless to say; The players became rather afraid of the Darkwraiths and the crypt they inhabited, but they were also interested in unraveling the various mysteries of the crypts.

It's worth noting a few things: Many people have already commented on this, but for sake of completeness I'll also mention this: rolling a natural 20 on a death save doesn't count as 2 successes in 5e RAW; rather, it causes you to regain 1 hp (and thus you're instantly stabilized and stop making death saves). Death saves do not benefit from your constitution modifier (or any other skill modifier for that matter), but... any ability, spell, or magic item that benefits saving throws in general also benefit death saves, such as bardic inspiration, bless, paladin auras, cloak of protection, stone of good luck, etc. Being a halfling does allow you to reroll a 1 on a death save. However if the reroll is also a 1 (yes, only a 1/400 chance, but it can happen) the 1 stands. (This also applies to the lucky feat, if your DM hasn't banned the feat or alter it, but I comment based on RAW since I have no idea what a DM has homebrewed.) A grave cleric's "sentinel at death's door" ability can be used to negate the critical hit caused by someone attacking an unconscious player from within 5 feet, thus turning two death save failures into a single death save failure. This can save lives. The "spare the dying" cantrip (pretty much mandatory for a cleric to take IMO) can be used to instantly stabilize a dying player, essentially as if they succeeded 3 death saves. They still have 0 hp and thus are still unconscious, but are now stable and don't have to make death saves. This usually takes an action and has a range of touch, but... for a grave cleric it can be cast as a bonus action from a range of 30 ft.

I thought 20 on a death save meant you were instantly revived with 1 hp.

this sounds like a session that was quite interesting.. would love to hear more about their adventures up to when they met the dragon.. and the fight.

I recognize that shoulder and snout at the end, that's Wades-in-Shadows!

All the Clerics are saying "Spare the Dying", while I'm over here thinking "I'm busy! You're only mostly dead. You'll be fine."

Nat 20 on a Death Saving throw is an instant stabilize and you get up with 1 HP

Actively dying... Just like the rest of us.

My question is what was Ruin doing anywhere near a dragon hunt at 15hp? My mans, at least get healed to half health.

Oh boy do I have a story about death saves. Our Kobold sorcerer who hadn’t officially joined the party yet became terrified of my character because he was a bloodhunter(werebear). He ran away and then we caught him in an alley. My other party member had a gun pointed at the Kobold. Eventually things settled down, but we found his room to try and apologize. He said three big words. “I pass out”. My Dm took this as him having a heart attack because he didn’t specify non lethal. He failed all three death saves while passing one. He then died. All this before we even got into combat once. Unless you count the squirrels that ambushed us. I have advantage on smell and hearing based perception checks because of the order of the Lycan. I hear him stop moving and go to pull open the door which was bolted shut. I roll. Natural 20 and just pull the door off of its hinges essentially. Thankfully there was a high enough level Paladin that could cast revivify. He comes back to life. The subsequently throws up on my character. We all then go to sleep. That was an interesting second session.

This might be an excellent opportunity to revise an older video. There are a few inaccuracies that actually tripped me up in play in the video so redoing it would be hugely beneficial for newer players.

The dragon burrowing underground like that is such a cool concept.

Pour one out for my boy Ruin

The fighter only had something like 50 max health. A average damage of an adult blue death's breath attack is 66. What the hell were these guys doing here at (I'm assuming) level 5 or 6.

OH SHIT WAS THE ORHER PRTY MEMBER WADES??

One thing you missed. If you are trying to make an attack on a downed character that is more than 5 feet away you are likely at disadvantage as they should be prone in most situations thus the advantage is canceled.

A team of two took on a blue dragon with less than 51 max hp? Some brave adventurers

that dragon tho they solved the puzzle and still died xd

I think a paladin's aura of protection, a bless spell and other abilities that grant bonus to saving throws are added to death saving throws.

I guess you probably already have schedules for this, but a nice follow up to this video would be a breakdown of ressurrection methods (and maybe ways to make them more interesting? eh, dunno)

I always roll death saves for my players behind the dm screen so they don’t know how close they are to death. Even after they die I keep rolling dice until someone checks on them so they never know for sure how long they’ve been dead or how much longer they have.

THE ONE OTHER CHARACTER IS WAIDSINSHAFOWS FROM COLD ROAD!

It makes me wonder why DMs dont make bosses, or certain enemies/NPCs make death saves. It would be terrifying to kill a boss, and see the DM keep rolling for something. And to see the character again later, because they survived their death save, and left when they woke up.

Character deaths and the RPs that come with it are very much amazing as they are heartbreaking

This is why you should always have a Cleric with the Spare the Dying Cantrip. It lets you instantly stabilize someone by just touching them.

Love the Matt Colville reference

Just recognized Wades in Shadows. He went through a lot.

Just be glad it's far more forgiving than older edition of DND. 2nd killed you off at negative 10, losing 1hp a round of bleeding out if you weren't bandaged by an ally. All attacks automatically hit and if no combat is going on is instant death as per the sleep/held type rules. Worse if you get healed it only brings you up to 1hp and you have extreme fatigue and can barely function for a day. Oh and you earn half exp for the rest of the session/adventure for nearly dying. On the issue of massive dmg I do believe it was if you took 50 or more dmg from a single attack you had to roll a save vs death or instantly die. Which was kind of BS as most player skills never count as a single attack but monsters like dragon breath weapons tend to do so.

The other living character looked mighty familiar...

I use the following rule when players want to help out a dieing player. They roll a med check DC 10 on a pass it counts as a pass on a death save, crit counting as two, on a fail they make it worse. I use this mainly so spear the dying and med kits are more useful.

Zealot Barbarian level 15 is immortal in a game without losing limbs. He just needs to drink a healing potion before he calms down after single-handedly killing off those pair of red dragons.

What's more interesting to me is how to bring characters back. After you die, there are lots of spells to revive you; Revivify (3rd lvl), Raise Dead (5th lvl), Resurrection (7th lvl), and True Resurrection (9th lvl). Making these spells more interesting or finding alternative ways to revive dead player characters is far more interesting than how to kill them. Matt Mercer's rules for reviving dead players is something along the lines of you roll 1d20 + your spellcasting modifier. If it's higher than a DC 10, the player character is alive. If they die again and you try again, the DC goes up to 12. Each death adds a +2 to that DC. Additionally, others may aid in the reviving ritual, adding symbolic gestures to the deceased or making promises to them that can help guide their soul back to their body. There are also other cool narrative alternatives to just spells. Example; If you're a cleric/paladin or a character who worships a god or just play a character whom a god would favour, death may be an opportunity to speak with your god directly. Perhaps they send you back because your journey is not over. Or perhaps because you have been such a devout champion that letting you die would be a waste. Or perhaps because they see something promising in you that may lead to greatness. These could all be reasons to have a god show mercy to a dead character. Maybe they could even multiclass into paladin afterwards if they weren't already one. This could be really cool if the player was down for it.

I love these vids because I find myself watching them now and again for both their entertainment and educational value.

Why the heck would anyone down to 15 HP attack a grown-ass dragon's lair?