Does Aegis of Recovery save a dying barbarian?

[The Great Rinaldo!]

Scenario: Level 7 barbarian with 14 CON gains 14 hit points when raging. If he takes enough damage to go below zero hit points, his rage ends and he loses those hit points, causing him to immediately be dead.

Would an Aegis of Recovery kick in in time to save him?

[Skylancer4]

It would seem so. There are no stipulations about how going below 0 causes the healing. Just because it isn't damage pushing the character below 0, the Con loss is still causing the condition to occur and the healing to happen.

[The Great Rinaldo!]

Actually , my question is whether the healing happens before the death condition. In other words, does it go:

1. Damage takes you to below zero
2. Healing kicks in, possibly keeping you conscious
3. If still unconscious, rage ends, lowering CON and total hp

or

1. Damage takes you to below zero
2. Rage ends, lowering CON and total hp
3. Because hit point total is now -CON, you are dead, and healing cannot affect you

[Matthew Morris]

You forgot option #3.

Damage takes you below zero
Range ends lowering Con and total HP.
You are dead, and the aegis burns out healing your dead body. :-(

Personally since the Aegis seems to work as an 'interrupt' I read it as option #1. Amusingly this could mean that you drop to below zero, and the aegis burns out before you hit the ground, so you never lose rage.

[LazarX]

The Great Rinaldo! wrote:

Scenario: Level 7 barbarian with 14 CON gains 14 hit points when raging. If he takes enough damage to go below zero hit points, his rage ends and he loses those hit points, causing him to immediately be dead.

Would an Aegis of Recovery kick in in time to save him?

I would generally pretty much allow the Aegis to save the character in most cases. It's one of those areas where I will intentionally override RAW, even if it says otherwise, as I will always try to allow even one round of opportunity to save a character if at all possible.

[Umbranus]

I would use 1b:
- Damage takes you to below zero
- Healing kicks in, possibly keeping you conscious
- no matter if you're still conscious, rage ends, lowering CON and total hp because you have been below 0 for a very short time.