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So, what exactly happens when you die or lose consciousness (due to gaining the dying or sleep conditions, for example)? I assume that the RAI isn't intended to create a bunch of standing corpses, but nothing says that you fall prone when you die or go to sleep, as far as I can tell.
Am I wrong?
If not, how have you been handling this at your tables? I've been running with the idea that dead or unconscious characters "fall down" on their next turn, but I'd like to play RAW if I can. What's the rule?
So, what exactly happens when you die . . .
People have been asking this for millenia
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Common sense might tell you that they immediately fall prone, while it might tell someone else that instantly hitting the floor upon reaching -1 hp is unrealistic or counter to RAI. What if someone was readying or delaying his action to catch any allies who drop with a heal spell, to keep them on their feet?
EDIT: What happens in PFS play?
The Goblins comic has an interesting take on this. When a character is in negatives he can't act in any way, but can see around him and speak. The author justifies this even, as players are still aware of events and talk to the other players.
I've thought about ruling that way, before... but to my knowledge, the rules do call out that a dying character is unconscious. My table is pretty hardcore RAW.
The rules don't work by RAW alone. The game fails hard. Even the devs have said that.
If people were intended to be able to take actions after death it would make a for a strange game.
A dying character is a condition that takes you out of combat, and put on you on the path to death. It is not different than taking a blow to the head that cracked your skull. You might not be dead yet, but you are most likely going to be unconscious, and without medial attention will die.
When you are dead the soul leaves the body.
Dead: The character's hit points are reduced to a negative amount equal to his Constitution score, his Constitution drops to 0, or he is killed outright by a spell or effect. The character's soul leaves his body. Dead characters cannot benefit from normal or magical healing, but they can be restored to life via magic. A dead body decays normally unless magically preserved, but magic that restores a dead character to life also restores the body either to full health or to its condition at the time of death (depending on the spell or device). Either way, resurrected characters need not worry about rigor mortis, decomposition, and other conditions that affect dead bodies.
Going strictly by RAW the soul leaving the body does not really mean much, but your group is going to argue that strictly just have them remember the NPC's follow the same rules they do.
As far as I am aware your soul leaves your body within a few seconds after your death and after a short moment of disorientation you begin to drift away into the great stream of souls that leave the material plane and head into the great beyond to pharasmas Boneyard. On this path the soul may fall prey to Astradaemons or other fiends, or be ressurected and drawn back into his body. This journey takes months in material plane time but for the soul it seems like a journey of only a few minutes.
After you reach pharasmas Boneyard she judges you and designates the resting place of your soul (matching your believe or alignment if you lack faith).
Otherwise: You drop prone and become a corpse. You may take no actions not even mental ones and are encouraged to not distract the other players with your medical condition.
You burst into confetti.
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I was talking with my son about this the other day. You know, some people think that you go to heaven and God tells you how bad you have been. Some people think you turn to nothing and life has no meaning. Other people think you burst into confetti. But the truth is that you go to the Astral plane that most closely aligns with your personal alignment. Then I asked my son, "what alignment are we?" And he said "we're Neutral Good dad, we're Neutral Good."
I almost cried
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So a man dies and finds his soul detached from his body. After a few seconds an Angel appears, and tells the guy he's dead. "Normally we'd just send you to heaven to be judged," the Angel says. "But this time we've been studying the preferances of mortals and have decided to give you a list of suggested options instead."
"Okay," the man says. "what are my options?"
The angel shrugs. "Well, you can a)go to heaven to be judged; b) fade into nothingness and cease to exist; or c)burst into a spectacular array of rainbows and confetti. What is your choice?"
the man thinks for a moment. "Well most everyone who gets judged is sent to hell, so that's out. And i certianly don't want to cease to exist, so I'll go with option c."
"Okay," the Angel states.
"So how does this work, exactly? Does my body vanish or do I-" The man never finishes his sentence as his soul explodes into a colourful shower of rainbows and confetti and he is never heard from again.
The End