New Era: Sol 366 Edition

• Introduction
• New Era vs. D&D 5e

Classes

• Delver
• Mercenary
• Ranger
• Researcher
• Chanter
• Magus
• Guardian
• Investigator
• Scholar
• Artificer
• Sage
• Witch

Characters

• Character Creation Guide
• Ability Scores
• Skills
• Knowledges
• Specialties

Feats

• General Feats
• Skill Feats
• Backgrounds
• Career Backgrounds
• Flaws

Ver. 1.3.1

Link to Latest Version ^[?] Bookmark this link to always go to the latest version of this module. The URL in your browser will always come to this version.

Copy

Death

Whenever a character's hit point total is reduced to zero, that character receives the Dying status effect. The dying character loses consciousness, falls prone, and begins taking damage to their life points.

While a character is Dying, on the start of their turn, they make a Death (Constitution) check with a set difficulty of 15. On a success, the character stabilizes and wakes up with one hit point. On a failure, the character loses 5 life points.

Any further damage a character takes while Dying is dealt to their life points. If a character's life points drop to zero, the character dies permanently.

Stabilization

A Dying character can be stabilized by a successful Death check, or by the Stabilize (Medicine) action. When a character stabilizes, they regain one hit point and lose the Dying status effect. However, any damage taken to life points remains until the character receives First Aid.

Instant Death

If the blow that knocks a character unconscious would reduce their hit points to less than zero, the difference is dealt to the victim's life points. This means that any single hit that deals more damage than the target's current hit points and life points combined, results in immediate death. Some GMs refer to this as being "chunked."

Ability Score Death

A character can also die if any of their ability scores are reduced to zero via ability score damage. A character that is dying from ability score damage cannot be stabilized, meaning the character faces certain death unless the ability-lowering effect is treated or clears on its own in time.

Handling Player Character Death

Barring some miracle or special ability to resurrect the dead, character death is permanent. When a player character dies, it's necessary for that player to create a new character in order to continue playing.

Depending the point in a gaming session at which a player character dies, that player may not be able to immediately rejoin with a new character. Part of the GM's responsibility in handling the death of a player character is to introduce the new character into the party in a way that makes sense for the setting and story of the campaign. If a player character dies in the middle of a difficult quest, the remaining players have to make the decision whether to continue onward or to retreat and regroup. While regrouping is usually the best option, as pressing on while short one member poses a risk to the entire party, retreating is not always possible or may come at a cost, such as giving up the current objective. If the group presses on in its weakened state, they risk the loss of additional player characters, which can make the situation even more dire for those who survive, possibly leading to a Total Party Kill (TPK) in which all player characters die.

A total party kill causes the current campaign to end with the party having failed their mission. A new party may restart or retry the objective from a different perspective, or the group may simply leave the failed campaign and move on to a new one.