In our home games and when an enemy is took to below zero the party is informed that they are unconscious and bleeding out, and the fight goes on. They can save them if they choose to, take them prison, whatever, but for speed and ease we always assumed any left as is will bleed out and die.
They may encounter another adventuring party, where I intend to allow the other party the chance to stabilize. What is the DC to notice that an enemy is alive and unconscious while looting the bodies?
It doesn't make a difference but I intend to have everyone involved take tens behind the screen on this one.
I would put it at DC 15; this is the same as hearing a whispered conversation, which I would rule the same as noticing their chest rise and fall still, or hearing them breathe, etc.
+5 for being distracted, by looting, conversation, bandaging own wounds.
-2 for favorable conditions, from looting the body in question.
18 DC total.
-2 favorable conditions for having ranks in Heal.
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It's gotta be more than a DC 15. Perhaps a DC 15 heal check if you actually walk up and check to see if he's dead. To know that someone has stopped approaching death is very hard to tell. Why do people die? Internal bleeding, something very hard to see, is a very real threat. How do you know that someone's internal bleeding has stopped?
To see if they actually died or are still alive should be fairly simple. To see that they stabilized should be difficult. DC 25 or 30 perception when not directly observing the person at least. If they check the body, the same check to stablize someone with heal or that check +5 for perception is how I'd rule.
Of course, I am of the opinion that enemies should be automatically Coup de gras at the end of every battle as a merciful act to end their pain and suffering. A religious character may intervene and let them have their last breaths in order to have their death bed repentance.
Yeah...In my group (provided no one objects) it's just assumed that every enemy is coup de grace'd at the end of combat assuming sufficient time unless the GM specifically says an enemy escapes or we are forced to flee from combat by overwhelming numbers.
Frodo, I follow you on the high DC to tell the difference between stabilized and still dieing. The one I was going thinking about was telling the difference between unconscious and dead.
In the end it was a moot point, the party found the group so repulsive they immediately coup de graced them all. Normally they leave the fate of poor mooks caught between them and their goals to the fates, not this time.