Defiance in the face of death

[APersonAmI]

Heroic Defiance can delay the onset of any condition, even instantaneous or permanent, that is not hit point or ability damage. Does this include death?

[Whale_Cancer]

Death is not a condition. Condition is a rules relevant term and includes things like sickened, nauseated, etc., death is a state when you have more than negative your Con in HP.

[Bizbag]

Whale_Cancer wrote:

Death is not a condition. Condition is a rules relevant term and includes things like sickened, nauseated, etc., death is a state when you have more than negative your Con in HP.

If that were true, why is there an entry under Conditions on CRB 566 titled "Dead"?

[Rynjin]

Whale_Cancer wrote:

Death is not a condition. Condition is a rules relevant term and includes things like sickened, nauseated, etc., death is a state when you have more than negative your Con in HP.

;)

I'd probably allow it. It may even be the intention of the Feat (since it requires Die Hard), and it certainly seems to be the RAW.

[Bizbag]

Rynjin wrote:

I'd probably allow it. It may even be the intention of the Feat (since it requires Die Hard), and it certainly seems to be the RAW.

Likewise. It'd make for a great story and memory. Especially if your buddy gets to you in time to save your life.

Or you could heal yourself I guess, but that's just not anywhere near as dramatic. Unless you were alone... barely escaping the enemy, clinging to life, but refusing to give up until you could swallow that one... last... potion...

[Whale_Cancer]

Bizbag wrote:

Whale_Cancer wrote:

Death is not a condition. Condition is a rules relevant term and includes things like sickened, nauseated, etc., death is a state when you have more than negative your Con in HP.

If that were true, why is there an entry under Conditions on CRB 566 titled "Dead"?

I stand corrected!

I don't remember there being a "dead" card in the status card deck, which is probably why I didn't think it was a condition.

[Bizbag]

Whale_Cancer wrote:

I stand corrected!

I don't remember there being a "dead" card in the status card deck, which is probably why I didn't think it was a condition.

Fair enough. I'm not familiar with the deck, but it's probably because it's not a condition that can usually be removed during tactical combat (Breath of Life notwithstanding), and while it's easy to forget you're poisoned, one tends to not forget being dead.

[APersonAmI]

Bizbag wrote:

Rynjin wrote:

I'd probably allow it. It may even be the intention of the Feat (since it requires Die Hard), and it certainly seems to be the RAW.

Likewise. It'd make for a great story and memory. Especially if your buddy gets to you in time to save your life.

Or you could heal yourself I guess, but that's just not anywhere near as dramatic. Unless you were alone... barely escaping the enemy, clinging to life, but refusing to give up until you could swallow that one... last... potion...

This is totally how I feel about this kind of ability, another example being Orc Ferocity. You COULD spend that one standard action to heal yourself, sure, and it would probably be mechanically a good move, but it seldom is what I want do to in that situation.

In one campaign, I was surrounded by a whole bunch of zombiefied Halflings, which were going to rip me to pieces the following round. My response was to Suggest that the bad guy hand over the magic item that controlled the Halflings and made them not eat you to my still alive teammate. And then the Halflings ate me. And it. was. AWESOME.

Also: nice that consensus is that it works.

[Bizbag]

I always say, nobody likes dying in games, but everyone loves to remember dying in games.

I once had a Paladin who did the standard heroic-sacrifice thing; I held off a mob of zombies and Shadows with Turn Undead and such while my friends ran away. I delayed them a few rounds then tried to escape myself. I almost made it too, but then I died to Strength damage.

They managed to recover me... after killing a zombie of my corpse AND a shadow of my soul. We were medium level, so we used Reincarnate. On the dice roll, we rolled... my previous race, Elf. How fortuitous. Then we rolled for gender, and I got gender-flipped. That was an interesting experience.