When your NPCs reach 0 HPs, do they die instantly or do you actually keep track of them in the negatives?
What happens when your cleric suddenly decides to Channel Energy in the mids of all those "slaughtered" enemies without Selective Channeling? Will they spring back to life?
What about the end of combat? Will you have your PCs find survivors when they look for loot?
99% They die at 0 HP's, except times when PC's take special care to avoid this, where i drop them unconscious.
I track negatives on the off chance that the mostly evil party might want to interrogate them - that and coup de graces are always entertaining.
I keep track. Channel energy might bring someone back into the fight--either intentionally or accidentally--there's the possibility the PCs might want a prisoner to question, or even that an enemy might recover later to vex them a second time.
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When your NPCs reach 0 HPs, do they die instantly or do you actually keep track of them in the negatives?
What happens when your cleric suddenly decides to Channel Energy in the mids of all those "slaughtered" enemies without Selective Channeling? Will they spring back to life?
What about the end of combat? Will you have your PCs find survivors when they look for loot?
A) Most of the time, I let them die, when they enter the negatives.
B) Unless there was some special occasion, I wouldn't have enemies "spring back to life" like that.
My reasons for A), is that it is easier, and makes combat faster. If I count npcs at negative hp as dead, the players should be able to do so too. Doing stuff that forces them to check each enemy for lifesign (or attacking an extra time to be sure), is counterproductive to my goals for the game.
That said, there might be circumstances, where it would be great to have the enemies rise anew, due to a badly planned channel.
C) Whenever it is dramatically appropriate. And I find it often is:-)
I don't keep track of enemy HP after they get below zero unless I know that the casters want to use Death Knell.
When your NPCs reach 0 HPs, do they die instantly or do you actually keep track of them in the negatives?What happens when your cleric suddenly decides to Channel Energy in the mids of all those "slaughtered" enemies without Selective Channeling? Will they spring back to life?
What about the end of combat? Will you have your PCs find survivors when they look for loot?
I keep track. Same as the PCs. Clerics learn to be a bit careful :) There are survivors and sometimes it comes back to haunt, or help, players depending on what they did. Combat should be "messier" than a lot of GMs make it.
I keep track of negative HP for all my NPCs. It's easy with a spreadsheet.
My DM keeps track for all foes - which has come back to haunt the party when they didn't do 'cleanup' for whatever reason.
I would probably note the amount of negative hit points they had when they fell, but I probably wouldn't bother with further bleed damage, stabilization rolls, etc. If that turned out to be important for some reason, I'd roll that stuff afterwards.
I keep track until the last guy goes down, then assume they're all toast unless the party wants to go coup the lot (or suck out there life force or something) because there's nothing as funny as a Channel Positive Energy bring the boss you took out in the first few rounds back to his feet behind the current line of battle as you fight his demoralized bodyguards.
To be honest I usually don't bother 0 hp equals dead for most opponents.
Now, if we're talking about a major named NPC, then yes, I will keep track.
That being said, as the GM I feel no qualms about bringing a major NPC back to trouble my players if they happen to kill him before his (dramatically appropriate) time, unless of course they take extreme measures to insure he is dead.
-Erich
Most of the time, I just let them drop without keeping precise track of their hp, and never give them a chance to stabilize. If someone channels or otherwise heals one of them, I can usually backtrack without too much difficulty.
It varies for various games, but usually 0 hp = unconscious and I keep a vague approximation or detailed number of how close to death they are. I don't bother with stabilization rolls, but I adjucate on the fly whether or not the hit was strong enough that they're merely unconscious or they're bleeding out (usually it's the latter). This allows them to be healed when necessary and saved (something my Players like to do) or not.
I do this for NPCs whether enemies or not.
I generally reserve stabilization rolls for major named NPCs, the faceless unwashed masses generally just are assumed to bleed out unless either the PCs or NPC intervene.
unless they have some kind of regen, fast heal, or that feat that leaves them staggered until truly dead I just let normal mooks die a -1.
mostly because a guy that suddenly stands up with 10 hps is just going to die again in a moment randomly extending the battle, If they clear the monsters and then those monsters attack them again and I say something like "oh yea... those guys you killed in the other room didnt all DIE DIE and they healed up and are after you again" I feel like it will just make the end of every battle after that more tedious.
Thanks for the answers everyone :)
mostly because a guy that suddenly stands up with 10 hps is just going to die again in a moment randomly extending the battle, If they clear the monsters and then those monsters attack them again and I say something like "oh yea... those guys you killed in the other room didnt all DIE DIE and they healed up and are after you again" I feel like it will just make the end of every battle after that more tedious.
I didn't mean like they clear a room, go to the next and then those guys fall them in the back because they healed up somehow.
But it provides some moral conundrum when their enemies are bleeding out. Sure they tried to kill them a minute ago, but now they're helpless. Let them bleed out? Actually kill them? Heal them and then what?
I dunno, I guess doing that every fight gets old, but every now and then as a reminder that the enemy might not just be some faceless masses?
Also the enemies that get healed and suddenly have 10 HPs again. Sure they would just die again if they rejoin the fight. But on the other hand they're prone, without weapon and most likely in a lot of pain. They might try to crawl away, or surrender.
In general I only track negative hit points for NPCs who have a potential role if they are revived. Most NPCs and monsters are "down" at less than zero (not AT zero, btw, but BELOW zero) hit points, and when the fight is over I will tell the players that some are dead, some are unconscious and let them sort it all out.
During a fight if one of the NPCs has the ability to heal, then I will be more aware of potential opportunities to revive a down NPC, but that usually happens in major fights, not your average garden variety PC beat down.
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I will only keep track of them if they have some way to be healed. Otherwise, they are immediately dead once they reach negatives. Though if the players want to interrogate them or something, I'll usually say they're just unconscious. Really, don't fiddle with the numbers too much, if it drags out combat. Once they're negative, they're gone, usually.
Mooks no. Random encounters no, unless they have fast healing or something.
Important named NPCs, yes. And if there's a cleric or other healer in the NPC party, yes.
But it provides some moral conundrum when their enemies are bleeding out. Sure they tried to kill them a minute ago, but now they're helpless. Let them bleed out? Actually kill them? Heal them and then what?
I tend to not bother with that conundrum. I know it probably adds a fun element to the game but I get the impression that its more trouble than its worth. players want things to matter. if you leave injured guys they start going out of their way to interrogate them because they figure you wouldn't do it if you didnt have information to hand out.
having said that if they clear a room and want information i will allow them to look for one that is not dead and heal him up for some question and answer time (which may or may not yield valuable information)
in other words... -1 usually equals meaningless bundle of loot unless they actively hope to engage the body for a specific reason.
For orc #12, bandit #19, or gnoll #37, I don't bother to track their HP below zero. If the PCs want to find one that they can revive and interrogate after the battle I'll use common sense and a die roll to determine if they succeed.
Important NPCs do get tracked.
No. Orc Ferocity. I also keep track of deaths if there is a necromancer around.
I like to keep track. Evil Clerics might try to help bring minions back into the fight, A presumed dead goblin might be found and be revived to alert the others of a potential threat changing the way the BBEG is postured when the PC's show up to the fight. However, unless they are an important NPC I don't worry about stabilizing rolls. Minions and monsters fail stabilize rolls automatically.
Mooks no. Random encounters no, unless they have fast healing or something.
Important named NPCs, yes. And if there's a cleric or other healer in the NPC party, yes.
Stupid editing limit! I meant no I don't track the little guys, yes I do track the important ones, or if there's a healer around.
I hate the editing limit too... :(
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Depends on what things are. Some monsters actually do die at 0 hit points after all like constructs and undead.
Usually my PC's think to finish off their foes and I'll give them the old Gygax, "Are you sure you want to do that?" line if they are having a rougher time then I expected and an energy channel is about to go off.
Otherwise it's situational given how rarely things are just barely knocked unconscious.
For the most part, no. But for the major NPCs and Big Boss NPCs I do.
I find the data tracking is not worth it.
I don't kill them, I let my evil cleric players do deathknell and be done with it.
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I would probably note the amount of negative hit points they had when they fell, but I probably wouldn't bother with further bleed damage, stabilization rolls, etc. If that turned out to be important for some reason, I'd roll that stuff afterwards.
What he said.
Unless my players tell me they are ensuring the enemy is dead by cutting off heads, burning the bodies, feeding them to hyenas, etc., I might leave an opening for survivors if I know a few creatures only went to neg HP. The survivors are almost never seen again so it doesn't really matter, but I might want to surprise them later when the party runs across a vaguely familiar monster with a horrible scar from some past battle.
Zero HP never automatically means death for NPCs unless they're undead or constructs or some other beast that instantly dies at 0. It just means staggered. At 0HP, I give my monsters three options: surrender, fight or flight. Intelligent monsters usually try to flee or surrender. Stupid or exceptionally violent ones usually don't. Not that it matters since my players never take prisoners and tend to kill anything that is obviously trying to flee, even in favor of attacking legitimate threats.
Zero HP is staggered, not dead, so they are still on the ground able to make an action (which pushes into negatives). Even in the negatives I will track their health if there is still battle going, for the very reason of clerics channel energy and effects like that.
Combat Manager makes tracking this smooth and easy.
Once the last bad guy is down then it is battle over and those in negatives are considered dead (unless special care is taken to keep them alive)
I keep track. Channel energy might bring someone back into the fight--either intentionally or accidentally--there's the possibility the PCs might want a prisoner to question, or even that an enemy might recover later to vex them a second time.
I do that too.
I use more undead than any other enemy type. Since they're destroyed at 0 hp unless they have a special ability that says otherwise, I don't have to track the negatives for them.
If it's another type of creature, I do track it into the negatives. For the most part it is a non-issue even then because my players love Coup de Graces. So far I've never had something survive into a second round in the negatives.
I always track it, seemed silly not to. Oftentimes things can turn around or someone left for dead (as mentioned) will come back to play an important role. I guess I kind of just assumed everyone did that sort of thing. Never played with a group that was just "dead" at 0 hp.
I usually don't bother tracking any specifics unless it could actually come up in the fight, through fast healing or the like. I usually just check to see if they actually die from the attack when it happens, but don't record a number if they don't. Instead, when someone decides to end/save them, they are automatically successful. So far, it has worked pretty well, and I don't think my players even notice the difference most of the time.
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I tell the PCs that they fall unconcious if they simply fall below 0. If it is clear that they should be dead (like the fighter just dealt 30 damage to someone who had 1hp left,) I say they died.
This allows me to have some ability to bring back foes if it is needed. A few players have picked up on this and coup de grace anyone they don't ever want to fight again.
I always track negative HP and stabilization rolls. There's no reason for NPCs to play by different rules than player characters.
I look at how low they are into negs & what their fort/con is. If they don't have a chance(like need a 20), then I don't track it and just call it unless they want to try and save them. If they have a chance & I want them to decide whether or not the NPC lives, then I'll roll it out.
Cause at a certain point, death is cheap in 3.X, and a cleric/druid/oracle/witch are right around the proverbial corner. If I need the npc alive for story reasons and there's a reason some other npc would take the effort to revive them, then they'll be back regardless of whether they were abandoned on the battle field at a stable -6. And why slow things down for every goblin/orc/whatever?
It's worth noting though that this almost never happens in my games, the Samurai with a Keen Katana typically murders NPCs with absurd damage so this comes up less than you'd think.
I usually keep track, unless there's no doubt it won't be important.
I don't really need to, most of my monsters are undead.
I'd sort of keep track if they were alive, though. If they're in the negatives, unless they're close -CON, I'd let the players or someone else revive them, if they want to.
99% They die at 0 HP's, except times when PC's take special care to avoid this, where i drop them unconscious.
I do the same.
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Due to bookkeeping constraints I assume they are bleeding out 1/round and don't bother to test for saving. I don't kill them at 0 HP though because they could very easily stand back up during the same encounter (either via fast healing, spell, etc). Especially at higher levels when downing an enemy to -3 isn't going to be the death of it, and one mass heal scroll later and they're probably back to 100%.