Massive damage is a nice concept, but the save or die aspect seems a little unforgiving. Here's my alternative:
Massive Damage (Optional Rule)
If you ever sustain a single attack that deals an amount of damage equal to half your total hit points (minimum 50 points of damage) or more and it doesn't kill you outright, you must make a DC 15 Fortitude save. If this saving throw fails, you instantly drop to 0 hit points and gain the disabled condition. Any effect that would stop Bleed restores your hit points to what they were before dropping to 0 (plus the amount healed, if any).
If you take half your total hit points or more in damage from multiple attacks, no one of which dealt more than half your total hit points (minimum 50), the massive damage rule does not apply.
I like this, but why effects that stop bleed? It doesn't feel right.
The rule makes sense though, because this amount of damage would likely put put into shock.
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I always thought this rule was kinda wimpy, almost anything you are going to be hitting that hard is going to pass it's save on pretty much anything but a 1, even the squishy wizard survives it most of the time. The rule we had in place was for every 5 points beyond 50, increase the DC by 1, of course this was 3.5 when it was just simply 50 points. Most monsters have good fort saves so they still tend to pass it.
I always thought this rule was kinda wimpy, almost anything you are going to be hitting that hard is going to pass it's save on pretty much anything but a 1, even the squishy wizard survives it most of the time. The rule we had in place was for every 5 points beyond 50, increase the DC by 1, of course this was 3.5 when it was just simply 50 points. Most monsters have good fort saves so they still tend to pass it.
>_< I was gunna mention that too. But hey: here's some numbers because I love them.
By the time a barbarian(first to get this far) with a con 18 gets enough hit points to survive 50 damage (5th level) his fort save is an 8 (4+con) without gear. Call it a nine with items and he's saving on a roll of 6, and what the hell is hitting him for 50 damage at level 5?
Take the wizard now, call his con a 12 (who the hell knows why) and he's got 56 hp at level 9, and his fort bonus from his class is a 3, only one lower than the barbarian, and he has 4 more levels of gear...
/shrug
How about a save DC of 10+(damage taken/10)? This way, the minimum is still 15, and it scales with how many hit points you have (and thus need to lose).
Better, and how about for simplicity's sake you simply apply the "unconscious" condition, rather than going to zero and then jumping back up to whatever it was before failing the save?
Since this effect is far less punishing than "you die" perhaps the minimum effect is removed? I'm sure the rule was trying to prevent 1st level characters from dying instantly after taking 3 damage from a kobold. But even if you made it as low as ten I think that it would be better, as an offset to the fact that you only fall unconscious and the dc would only be 11 (that barbarian from before would still only need like a 6). They could however, coup de grace you of coarse.
further thoughts?
We're using this variant. It's less deadly, but also less discriminating towards characters with multiple weaker attacks and allows for ganging up on enemies (and PCs):
Massive Damage: If you ever sustain damage exceeding half your maximum hit points, including temporary hit points, during 1 round of combat you are staggered for 1 round and you must make a DC 15 Fortitude save. If this saving throw fails you are staggered for an additional 1d4 rounds.
It's been well received so far.
How about a save DC of 10+(damage taken/10)? This way, the minimum is still 15, and it scales with how many hit points you have (and thus need to lose).
That's what I do, but I set the massive damage threshold at Con + HD and if you fail, you drop to the margin of failure (or 0, if you auto-fail).
Big boost for classes with good Fort saves and defensive abilities like Evasion and Uncanny Dodge.