Death & Dying Rules in Every Edition of D&D and Then Some, Part 3: Core Death Mechanics
Rules for character death in every edition, compared & ranked by deadliness.
Death & Dying Rules in Every Edition of D&D and More
Core dying mechanics
Coming up
My goal for this series is for you to gain the knowledge and confidence to modify the death mechanics in your games. Rules covering death loom over play. They decide the outcome of many of the most dramatic moments in many games. As a result, players develop a sense of how much danger their characters are in and this sense informs their decisions.
Once you have played enough versions of Dungeons & Dragons, you may start to miss subtle yet decisive differences among the rules. Tables also introduce rules from other versions of the game without noticing. Putting these rules side-by-side may help draw your attention to the distinctions and can help you think about how they affect your games.
Part 3 and the upcoming Part 4 describe and compare the core death mechanics in every edition of D&D and in many related games. Parts 1 and 2 covered less well-known rules that expose different priorities among their authors. But Parts 3 and 4 deal with the dying rules most used at the table.
I cover these rules in genealogical order: Part 3 covers the editions made by TSR (1970s-1990s) and the newer games based on those editions created by other companies. I’m throwing in 3rd/3.5 edition because its dying rules are closer to the earlier games than to those that come after.
Between Part 3 and 4, I describe and analyze the death and dying rules of the following games:
Original Dungeons & Dragons (OD&D, 1974, retroclones like Swords & Wizardry, and a house rule for OD&D attributed to Gygax)
Basic D&D (1977 Holmes edition)
Basic/Expert D&D (1981 Moldvay/Cook edition and retroclones like Old School Essentials and Basic Fantasy RPG, including BFRPG’s optional rules)
BECMI (1983)
The Black Hack, 1st edition
Stars Without Number & Worlds Without Number
Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC)
Knave, 1e
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D), 1st edition (1977 - 1979)
AD&D, 2nd edition (1989)
D&D, 3.5 edition
Pathfinder, 1st edition
D&D, 4th edition
13th Age
D&D 5th edition
Five Torches Deep
Starfinder
Pathfinder, 2nd edition
For the purpose of illustration, I give an imaginary example, a 3rd level character named Aelez with 22 maximum hit points (a likely or unlikely number of hit points for a 3rd level character depending on the edition). How much damage must Aelez be dealt in order to meet the Grim Reaper using these dying rules?
The TSR Editions of D&D
Death at 0 Hit Points
A character or monster dies when damage reduces their hit points to 0 or fewer.
Aelez meets her end when she is dealt 22 damage.
Games employing this rule: OD&D (1974), Holmes Basic D&D (1977), Moldvay Basic D&D (1981), BECMI D&D (1983), AD&D 2nd edition default rules (1989), Dungeon Crawl Classics (0th level characters only)
Unconscious at 0 Hit Points, Death at the negative of the character’s level
When damage brings a character down to 0 HP or less without killing the character, that character is unconscious and begins bleeding to death. They lose 1 hit point every round if unassisted. When a character’s hit points are reduced to the negative of that character’s level, including from further damage, they die.
Aelez, a 3rd level character who begins with her maximum hit points (22), is knocked out of action when she is dealt 22 damage and meets the Reaper when she is dealt 25 damage.
Games employing this rule: Original D&D (1974) house rule attributed to Gary Gygax (also shows up in Swords & Wizardry as an option)
Save vs. Death Ray at 0 Hit Points, Again for Further Damage and Every 10 Minutes
When damage brings a character down to 0 HP or less, they must roll a Save vs. Death Ray. If the roll fails they die. They must roll again if they are dealt additional damage. They must also roll every 10 minutes or until healed by magic up to 1 hit point or a healing skill roll made with a -5 penalty.
Aelez has a chance of meeting her end when she is dealt 22 damage.
Games employing this rule: The Rules Cyclopedia based on BECMI suggests using this variant rule if you remove from the game magic that brings people back to life.
Save vs. Death at 0 Hit Points
When a character’s hit points are reduced to 0 or fewer, roll a Save vs. Death Ray. If the roll fails, the character dies. If the roll succeeds, the character remains unconscious yet alive for 2d10 rounds. If their wounds are not bound or magically healed within by the end of this time, they die. If their wounds are treated or magically healed, they awake after the end of the 2d10 rounds.
A spellcaster who was reduced to 0 hit points and ends up regaining consciousness loses all remaining prepared spells.
Aelez has a chance of meeting her end when she is dealt 22 damage.
Games employing this rule: Basic Fantasy RPG optional rule
Out of Action at 0 HP, Random Result Once Danger Passes
A character reduced to 0 Hit Points is taken “Out of Action” and is unconscious and cannot take actions. Once the danger passes, they may roll on the Out of Action table to determine what happens to them.
Damage needed to outright slay Aelez with full HP: 22 but only 1-in-6 chance of death once the battle is over (so essentially its not possible for Aelez to be slain outright since they could be healed in the meantime).
Games employing this rule: Black Hack, 1st edition
Dead, Dying or Incapacitated at 0 HP, Depending on Source of Damage
A character reduced to 0 hit points is defeated. Unless they receive aid, they die after at most six rounds. If they were defeated by a heavy weapon, an explosive or other severe injury, the referee may rule that they are instead killed instantaneously. If they were defeated by less-than-lethal means and their attacker was not attempting to kill them, they might become incapacited or rendered unconscious instead of dying.
To aid a dying character, an ally must use their main action and make an appropriate skill check to save them. A stabilized character regains 1 hit point after ten minutes of recovery. While they may move and act, any further damage kills them automatically. They require a week of bed rest and care to recover further.
Damage to outright slay Aelez with full HP: 22 if circumstances are right
Games employing this rule: Stars without Number, Worlds Without Number
Bleeding Out at 0 HP, Death in One or More Rounds, Chance to be Spared
When a character reaches 0 hit points, they collapse and start bleeding out. They will “die” after a number of rounds equal to their level unless healed.
If the character was bleeding but is healed, they permanently lose 1 point of Stamina (an ability equivalent to Constitution) and gain a scar from their wounds.
Additionally, if a “dead” characters body is found after the battle and within an hour of “dying”, the dead character’s player rolls a Luck check. If successful the “dead” character turns out to have been merely incapacitated. They awake with 1 hit point and receive a -4 penalty on all rolls for 1 hour and and lose a permanent point of a random physical ability (Strength, Agility/Dexterity, or Stamina/Constitution) due to a permanent injury.
Aelez must be dealt 22 damage to be knocked unconscious and start bleeding out. Without aid she would appear to die in 3 rounds but even then she might survive. Aelez cannot be slain instantaneously.
Games employing this rule: Dungeon Crawl Classics (characters of at least 1st-level only, all others die at 0 hit points).
Unconscious at 0 Hit Points, Death at -1
As it says.
Games employing this rule: Knave 1st edition
Unconscious at 0 Hit Points, Death at -10
When damage brings a character down to 0 HP or less without killing the character, that character is unconscious and begins dying. They lose 1 hit point every round if unassisted. When a character’s hit points are reduced to the negative of that character’s level, including from further damage, they die.
Other characters may take one round to bind the wounds of the dying character to prevent further hit point losses, while leaving the stable character unconscious. Any cure spell restores the character to 1 hit point, and no more, and to consciousness. If the character regains consciousness, they are weak and feeble, unable to fight and barely able to move. They no longer have access to spells they had prepared and is feverish. On the other hand, a heal spell restores hit points as normal and the healed character is restored to health, able to move and fight normally, but prepared spells are still lost.
Attempts to bind a dying comrade’s wounds seem to automatically succeed.
Aelez becomes unconscious after being dealt 22 damage and meets her end when she is dealt 32 damage.
Games employing this rule: AD&D 1st edition default rules, AD&D 2nd edition optional rules and Player’s Option: Combat & Tactics.
AD&D 1st edition default rules also adds ambiguous text that could suggests a character many only loses consciousness at -3 hit points (so perhaps they can act normally at -1 or -2 HP). A character brought back to 1 or more hit points remains in a coma for 10 to 60 minutes and then must rest for a full week before doing anything other than moving slowly to a place of rest (implying they cannot rest in a dungeon as I interpret it) and eating and drinking. A character who has reached -6 to -9 hit points will bear scars and possibly loss of a member, based on the source of the damage dealt to them.
The negative hit point optional rule in Basic Fantasy RPG works similarly to 2nd edition’s optional rule except that a character with negative hit points remains consciousness. They may not fight, cast spells or move more than a few feet without help.
Disabled at 0 HP, Unconscious at -1 HP, Death at -10 HP
If a character’s hit points fall to 0 hit points exactly, they are “disabled” and only able to take a single move or standard action each turn (a turn is when a character acts during a round in 3rd edition and later editions, rather than 10 minutes as in earlier editions). If the character takes any strenuous actions, they suffer a further point of damage after that action.
A character with hit points between -1 and -9 is considered dying. They fall unconscious and cannot act. They lose 1 hit point every round until they die or become stable. On the turn after a character’s hit points are reduced to -1 to -9. Roll a hundred-sided die. If the result is 10 or less, they become stable and no longer lose 1 hit point each round. Another character can also try to stabilize a dying character by getting a 15 or higher on Heal skill roll or automatically by any healing effect that restores 1 or more points of damage.
When character’s hit points reach -10 or lower they die.
Healing that increases the dying character’s hit points to 1 or more restores them to their normal capacity. They can cast spells they had prepared before they were dying.
Aelez is slain outright when she dealt 32 damage.
Games employing this rule: D&D 3.5 edition. D&D 3.5 likely has the most detailed death and recovery rules in any edition of D&D.
Pathfinder 1st edition works almost the exact same way except that instead of death at -10 HP, death occurs at a negative amount of HP equal to a character’s Constitution score, which likely exceeds 10. With this rule and a Constitution of 12, Aelez would need to be dealt 34 damage before she meets her maker.
This concludes the list of core mechanics in this article. Graphed the numbers look like:
I took out the games where characters don’t die at a certain number of hit points.
Families of Death Mechanics
Death at 0 or -1 HP (OD&D, Basic D&D, AD&D 2e, Basic Fantasy RPG default, Knave 1e)
Dying and incapacitation or unconsciousness at 0 HP, lose 1 HP per round, death at a negative number of HP:
Negative of character’s level (OD&D Gygax’s possible house rule)
-10 (AD&D 1e, AD&D 2e option, Basic Fantasy RPG option, 3rde/3.5e D&D)
Negative of character’s Constitution (Pathfinder 1e)
Possibility of instantaneous death at 0 HP, otherwise must be healed in a number of rounds (Basic Fantasy RPG option, Stars Without Number, Worlds Without Number, Dungeon Crawl Classics)
Schrodinger's death: death is determined randomly after the immediate danger passes (Dungeon Crawl Classics, Black Hack)
The above mechanics constitute a large branch of the D&D family of death rules. What distinguishes the above from those that I’ll cover in Part 4 is that none of these mechanics involve accumulating a number of failed or successful death saves or introducing other values to track.
I am fond of death at a certain number of negative hit points. It preserves the possibility of instantaneous death from a trap or from the blow of a giant’s club. Without the cushion of other intervening rules, players must do their utmost to avoid such dangers rather than mitigate them after the fact. When we talk about effects that deal damage in D&D we are talking about sharp swords, a dragon’s fiery breath, and falls from great heights. We shouldn’t need to clutter the system with additional mechanics beyond hit point loss to determine whether these are deadly.
Rankings
Based on my experiences playing in most of these games, here are my rankings of systems from the deadliest to the most forgiving based only on their core rules covering death:
OD&D, Basic D&D (all), AD&D 2e, Knave, Basic Fantasy RPG, Dungeon Crawl Classics at 0th level
Stars Without Number, Worlds Without Number
Basic Fantasy RPG with save vs. death option
DCC if body cannot be recovered
OD&D with Gygax’s supposed house rule
AD&D 1e, AD&D 2e death at -10 option
D&D 3e/3.5, Basic Fantasy RPG with -10 option
Pathfinder 1e
DCC if body can be recovered
Black Hack 1e
When it comes to systems where a dying character has time to be stabilized or healed, the number of allies and availability of magical healing factor in.
What role for randomness?
The above mechanics vary in whether they involve randomness. Aside from the damage dealt to a character, in some of these systems a dying character has a predictable clock. In AD&D 1st edition, if a spear through the shoulder reduces a character to -4 HP, the players at the table know they have exactly 6 rounds before they die of a bleeding wound because their untreated wound causes them to lose 1 hit point each round. Barring further attacks that is. I find this implausible. For me death should be surrounded by chaos and uncertainty. One rule I have introduced to address this in my games is to roll to determine the number of hit points lost each round. I have experimented with 1d3 and 1d4. This way the character reduced to -4 HP in the above example, could die in 6 rounds if their wounds are left untreated or they might only have 2 rounds. Are their allies going to gamble and wait? Another option I’ve considered is 1d6-1 (average = 2.5). That leaves the chance that the dying character loses no hit points in a given round, even if their wounds aren’t stable.
First aid
In describing the mechanics of each game, I have sometimes noted the rules governing how wounds are treated. Can a dying character only be saved by magical healing or can mundane first aid also stave off death? In every case, magical healing is guaranteed to work. In some games, mundane medicine is also guaranteed to work. In others, it requires the provider of that aid to roll one kind of check or another. Either way this first aid usually takes just one round. Depending on the game, a round can represent anything from six seconds to a whole minute. A minute is plausible to me but six or ten seconds is not.
Another rule I’ve played around with is the idea that the provider of first aid rolls an ability or skill check. If successful, they make progress towards stabilizing the dying character. For instance, in one implementation of my previously mentioned system where a dying character loses 1d4 hit points every round, a successful first aid check only reduces the die rolled from 1d4 to 1d3, then from 1d3 to 1d2, and then finally from 1d2 to stable. (This is inspired by Dungeon Crawl Classic’s dice chain). This makes even more sense to me if the progression is from 1d6-1 (average = 2.5) to 1d4-1 (average 1.5) to stable. With these variations, performing first aid is a dramatic race against death. Its not a one and done application of a Band-Aid nor can you set your watch by it.
Another question regarding first aid is whether its always necessary. In the Dungeon Crawl Classics rules for recovering the body, the “dead” character might turnout to be alive and stable. The body’s ability to heal can be astonishing and I think DCC’s rule reflects that. Further building on my home rules, I’ve considered a rule where a dying character who loses no hit points for a round becomes stable and is no longer dying (unless they receive further wounds). While rolling 1d6-1 each round to determine hit points lost this only occurs 1/6th of the time, reflecting that its unlikely if the wound isn’t immediately treated or if the first aid is thus far unsuccessful. While rolling 1d4-1, it occurs 1/4th of the time, reflecting how some first aid maybe benefit the character.
After effects
I’ve described the after effects of being dealt mortal blows and somehow surviving them. But I haven’t analyzed the rules governing lingering injuries or scars. And I don’t intend to here. More interesting to me is the immediate after effects. In D&D 3.5 once a character has been healed back to 1 or more HP, they immediately regain all of the capacities they had before facing off with Death. Yet in earlier editions, that character is barely able to move and cannot attack or do anything else arduous. They also cannot remember spells they had prepared before they were knocked out. They may require days or weeks of bedrest to fully recover. This renders them quite vulnerable rather than bouncing back like a superhero or demigod. Their life becomes quite humble a while as they would not be able to defend themselves even from the commoners in the towns where they seek rest. The tables are turned and this could lead to new roleplaying opportunities in the place of respite. If it wasn’t for bedrest, how would Faramir have met Eowyn?
In Stars Without Number, the rules indicate that even a single blow during their week of recovery can kill a character. This means they may wish to find a safe stronghold with sturdy doors and trustworthy guards or their allies may need to protect them for this period. Due to rules like this, I feel these rules relate to the deadliness of the system and I factored them into a couple of the rankings as a tie-breaker.
In compiling this list I noticed how AD&D 2nd edition introduces a distinction between cure magic and heal magic. Heal spells are significantly higher level. The first cure spell is a 1st-level spell while heal is 6th level, requiring an 11th-level priest to cast. While both are miraculous from a certain standpoint, heal spells remove all injury and restore a character at death’s door to their full capacities immediately, while cure magic leaves them alive but with a recovery period ahead of them. I may keep an eye out for opportunities to introduce this distinction to more games I run.
Do you use any other rules covering death? Next week, I’ll cover the rest of the systems on my list and add them to the rankings. After that, I may cover miscellaneous death mechanics like ability score loss, energy drain, exhaustion, and poison.