Death

Fierce battles are a standard part of RPGs. These battles are often difficult in order to make the game fun and challenging. In order to add the element of danger and risk it is possible for the characters to lose, and typically losing means death.

In 3.5 D&D, you can die from hit point damage or from "instant death" effects that typically involve a saving throw. Death from hit point damage occurs when you are at -10 hit points. At low levels this means that death is rare because most hit will not drop you over 10 hit points. Also large area of effect attacks are rare and will not tend to finish off the dead. But as you reach mid levels, area of effect attacks and hits that do over 10 points of damage are common and death from hit point damage becomes common. Once dead you can be brought back by a 9th level cleric via Raise Dead. It costs a lot of money and the raised character loses a level. It is a fairly significant penalty. Eventually at 17th level a cleric can use True Ressurection that brings a character back without level loss, although the money cost is still significant. One of the basic game effects is that as characters become more powerful they also tend to die more. At low levels death is a serious thing, while at high levels it becomes less serious, but much more common since damages go up and often monsters have to kill a character in order to take them out of the battle since healing can easily bring back fallen but non-dead characters.

In Paizo's 3.75 attempts are made to make dying a little more difficult as well as making the penalty for death less severe. Instead of -10, a character dies at -10 or negative their constitution, whichever is less. This makes it a little harder to die, but not by a huge amount. The more substantial change is the essential removal of the death penalty. Instead of losing a level the character gains negative levels. These negative levels can be then removed by further spells. The effect is that while casting the spells to bring someone backs get slightly harder and more expensive the huge penalty for dying is gone.

In 4.0, they make dying much harder to do and much easier to come back from. Instead of dying at -10 or negative your constitution you die at negative half your hit points. But this is balanced out by the fact the healing, while easier to get in 4.0, is much more limited. In 3.5 a cleric can hit a dying character with a Heal spell and bring them to full. In 4.0 healing is based on percentages and most heals heal you a straight 25% of your health. Also while a high level 3.5 healer can pump out very large amounts of healing, in 4.0 there are more limits on the number of heals you use during an encounter and a total cap of how much healing a character can receive. In 4.0 it is possible to be out of the combat without being dead as compared to 3.5 where those brought to negatives are extremely easy to bring up with a little bit of healing. Another key aspect of 4.0 is that save or die effects are largely removed. Effects like this still exist, but are replaced with the effects that allow multiple saving throws. For example, a medusa's gaze only has a 12.5% chance to turn you to stone even if you do the equivalent of failing your 3.5 save. And you also get 3 rounds to try and save yourself from this gradual effect. Being brought back from the dead is also fairly easy in 4.0. Any character can get the spell to raise the dead, although some get it more easily than others, and you do not need a cleric. It costs money, but there is no experience loss.

Hero System does not really deal with death. You can die, but getting knocked out is much more likely. But Hero is much more of a toolkit than a fully balanced game and whether a character is allowed to create a healing power or even a raising power can drastically effect how the game plays out.

In MMORPGs, death is common. It is typically easy to die and any penalty is very minor. In World of Warcraft, hitting 0 health means death. No negative buffer, such a buffer would be meaningless given the prevalance of healing in that game. Death involves having to run back and taking some damagae to your equipment. However, the game is designed so that for most of the interesting encounters death takes you out of the battle.

In fiction, death is rare. Because there is no real risk like in a game, the heroes don't tend to die. In the few cases they do die and come back, it is never an easy or simple process and typically the story revolves around it.

So what is the purpose of death in a RPG? Well, it is a tactical element. It is a way to remove a character from battle. It is also a penalty for losing. Your character's life is what you risk when you go and adventure. It can also be a story element. In general I think death has one major positive effect in the game and one major negative effect. The positive effect is removal from combat. Characters being taken out of combat makes combat more dangerous and more interesting. It gives the sense that you are losing or that the battle is close. The negative effect is mainly a story effect. If death is essentially a fine you have to pay it loses meaning. It also has effects on the game world. It being brought back from the dead is just a matter of cash won't the rich constantly be bringing themselves back? Murder mysteries and assassinations need special interventions to make them interesting or else they will be solved with a simple spell. In terms of modeling fiction easy resurrection is a total failure.

So how should death be handled? Im my opinion, it should possible to be taken out of combat, but it should be very difficult to actually die. Resurrection should not be something easy or trivial. Fourth edition D&D does this pretty well. It allows for a condition that is out of combat but not dead. In 3.5 and 3.75 this condition is there for low levels, but quickly disappears as injuries drop you to death more easily and heal spells can easily pull you out of this condition. In these editions you have to be killed in order to really take you out of combat. You reach a situation where as DM you are forced to make monsters attack unconscious characters because those characters can so easily be brought back up with healing. Both 3.75 and 4.0 both made dying harder and resurrection easier. But in my mind you really only need to do one of these things. If dying is rare, ressurection can be rare also, or if resurrection is easy then dying can happen all the time. I favor the first case.

To fix the issue of frequent death one possible solution is to extend the out of combat but not dead state. One way is to extend the range you can have negative hit points like what 3.75 did. But with save or die effects and large heals this is only a minor patch. Another possibility is to introduce a kind of near death condition. Once a character has lost all their hit points or been hit by a save or die spell they could enter a near death state. Maybe in this state healing has much less effect and can really only prevent death. Or maybe once you are given positive hit points you must still spend a certain number of rounds stunned or nauseous before you can fully act again. If it required 3 rounds of no actions and 3 rounds of only a move action before a character could participate in combat again, you would have the aspect of a character being taken out of battle without them actually being killed. This mechanic could then be toyed with by other mechanics. You could have spells that specifically removed this near death condition. You could have feats that allowed you to recover from it quicker or maybe allowed you to survive in it longer than normal.

Once dying becomes hard, you can make resurrection more difficult and more of a story element. You could require resurrection to include a trip into the underworld to bring back the dead. Perhaps the characters must fight an underworld guardian in order to free their friends soul. Very Greek mythology. Or maybe to bring a soul back you must perform some sacrifice, perhaps a life given willingly or some pledge to complete a quest. A kind of holy justice motif. Or you could have something more horror movie-ish. When you bring back the dead you rip a hole between the world of the living and dead and resurrection will also spawn undead, perhaps powerful undead. As such resurrection would normally be completely forbidden and not something you could just pick up at your local church.

ALTERNATE RULES FOR 3.5 and 3.75
When you are at negative hit points you are unconscious and you lose 1 per round until you are at negative half your total hit points. If you are healed magically, someone with the Heal skill spends a full round and makes a check, or if anyone spends 3 full rounds tending you you stop losing hit points. If you reach negative half your total hit points, you get a single fort save (DC ??). If you fail you are dead. If you make the save you are alive but comatose. Any damage will instantly kill you.

Once you go below 0 hit points you gain the condition Half Dead. If your hit points are made positive you spend 3 rounds stunned and 3 rounds nauseous. Only spells and effects that specifically remove Half Dead will shorten the duration of this stunning and nausea. Once you hit negative half your hit points, if you make your save you are Near Death. Near Death is like Half Dead, but requires 10 rounds of stunned and 10 rounds of nausea. If a character is Half Dead or Near Death with positive hit points and they go negative and then positive again they total rounds of stunned of nauseous get reset, but never reduced.

All "save or die" abilities are changed so that they have a damage with them. A successful save indicates that you take the damage. A failed save indicates that you are reduced to 0 hit points regardless of your total and then immediately take the damage. All "save or death-like-effect" abilities like being turned to stone, have an intermediate effect. The intermediate effect takes affect after the first failed save. The character has one round suffering the intermediate effect and then they get to make another save. If they fail again they take the full effect.

All spell effects that bring characters back from the dead no longer cause level loss, but act as a summoning spell four levels higher that either summons undead or other-worldly guardians that as hostile to the caster. Or the caster and perhaps some other are effected by a Quest/Geas spell as determined by the DM. Raised characters start in a Near Death state.