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Yep, yep.
I've done it once, and I'm about to do it again.
Until they learn to dismember or disintegrate or incinerate or atomize or otherwise utterly destroy their fallen foes.
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I wouldn't suggest springing this on a group totally unexpectedly.
My group usually has a thing were down enemies are down and we don't "finish them off" because we don't like to think about the implications of having to make sure something is really dead by walking through and smashing their faces in.
I think it's fine if it happens before combat is really "over" but if you have them get up after the PCs have walked away from the fight...I think it feels cheap.
The first time this came up it scared the crap out of our group. We had just put down this large killer robot...and then it got back up, twice. We didn't realize it was spending RP to stabilize and we ended up destroying the entire facility to make sure it was dead.
If you're going to spring it on players, I'd suggest putting in a plot option to stop the enemy too.
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That sounds great! I can’t wait to pull this one on my group!
I suggest only using this with thematically appropriate bad guys. Not everybody. Just bosses or fun recurring villains. Not even all of those. Only when it makes the story more fun for everybody.
Bring them back so when the players say "I thought that guy was dead" you can say "I got better" or "The rumors of my demise were greatly exaggerated" or "It was just a flesh wound".
If you do it often enough that those lines aren't funny anymore, then you've done it too often...
To me, it seems like if a monster has RP left to get back up after stabilizing, combat can't really end. If everything in sight is dead but the initiative count is still going, I'd suggest everyone readying an action to shoot the first hostile you see.
I would disagree.
This leads to meta-gaming. The PCs should never act like they know they are still in rounds. The players should never make decisions like their PCs know they are in rounds. Otherwise you get this:
Ysoki: OK, it's dead. Let's go
Vesk: I, uh, I can't move.
Shirren: Why not?
Vesk: I dunno. I just can't.
Android: It is simple. Just put one foot in front of the other.
Vesk: I seem to be stuck here.
Shirren: Oooooh, I see now. You can't move because it's not your turn.
Vesk: Turn? I thought the monster was dead. Aren't we out of combat?
Ysoki: Maybe it's not dead after all.
Android: It appears to be thoroughly deceased.
Vesk: Yep, we're in combat. I just tried to shoot it but I can't shoot, either.
Ysoki: Then how are we talking so much?
Android: Logical. We speak because combat banter is a free action that can be taken out of turn.
Ysoki: Oooooh, OK.
Vesk: Well, who's turn is it anyway?
Shirren: I think Ysoki killed it. Who was after Ysoki?
Android: It is I. Therefore, I conclude that it must be my turn.
Vesk: Can you shoot it?
Android: Yes, it seems that I can. (fires gun at stable monster)
At least for me, I'd prefer the PCs and the Players be equally surprised when that monster stands up and attacks them again. Or comes back in a later scene in the story. Or bites them when they try to loot it's body.
Or shows up on the witness stand when they're on trial for "murder hobo crimes"...
That does make sense, for cinematic reasons, but it starts tossing rules out of the window immediately. If there’s no initiative count, then you’re not in combat. If you’re not in combat, there’s no turns. If there’s no turns, you can’t do something that happens on your turn, like spending a resolve to get back into the fight.
If you're not in combat rounds, then it's always your turn. It's everybody's turn all the time. Nobody needs to "take turns" like we do in combat, but we're still taking an infinite number of undelimited turns and can do anything in our out-of-combat turns that we could do in any combat turn. Anything except attacking someone - for that, we need to roll initiative again.
If this concept is not true, then it's impossible for me to do other things out of combat like shoot my rifle up into the sky, or to pick up my rifle from the ground, or reload my rifle, or any number of other things because I'm not in in combat, there's no turns, and I can't do something that happens on my turn. Which also makes no sense.
So if I CAN fire my rifle into the sky, or reload it, or pick it up, even when out of combat, then I CAN use a resolve point to recover.
That said, recovering from the brink of death with resolve points is risky and time-sensitive. Waiting too long means you (or the NPC) could die. It should be done immediately to be safe. But that doesn't mean the enemy needs to jump up and announce its successful recovery right away. Because of the time sensitivity here, it makes sense to stay in rounds until the enemy successfully recovers.
But that doesn't mean the PCs need to also stay in rounds unless they're doing something that is also time sensitive and/or could interfere with the enemy's recovery (like searching or stabbing fallen enemies). Also, it doesn't mean the players need to know whether or not they're really in rounds since their characters wouldn't know.
So I just tell them the fight is over and let them decide what to do. Leave? OK, then there are no more rounds and the enemy uses its resolve point. Stand around talking about stuff? OK, then there are no more rounds and the enemy uses its resolve point. Search bodies? OK, the enemy uses its resolve point and then I'll roll a bluff check to see if it can play dead while they're searching it - if it succeeds then OK, then there are no more rounds and the enemy plays dead, otherwise, I say "Surprise, this one is still alive and it attacks on its initiative and, oh yeah, we're still in rounds!".
If nothing else, it seems like a check (whether perception or perhaps medicine) to notice a creature has stabilized and is alive is appropriate, even if done in secret from the party and with penalties to notice unless they are actually next to the enemy when/after they stabilize.
If nothing else, it seems like a check (whether perception or perhaps medicine) to notice a creature has stabilized and is alive is appropriate, even if done in secret from the party and with penalties to notice unless they are actually next to the enemy when/after they stabilize.
I would agree, but I'd only give them that if they were still paying attention to the enemy in some way. Looting it, searching it, stabbing it to make sure it's really dead.
Perception to see it DO something, Medicine to see if it's alive or dead. As long as it doesn't stand up or make noise or start crawling away, this would be an active Medicine check.
If the PCs just leave, they get no checks. If they're standing around talking about their next move, they get a passive Perception check if the creature actually does something. If a PC states he's making a Medicine check, then he gets one. If some PC says he's watching the fallen enemies to make sure they're dead, I may give the enemy a Bluff vs. Sense Motive check to fool that PC.
As for storytelling, I really don't mind doing the recovery off-camera. You know, like in every Friday the 13th movie when you think Jason is dead but then Jamie Lee Curtis (or literally everybody else in all of the movies) looks away for a moment, then looks back, and Jason isn't there now...
Ah, the age old question: how do you do your passive perception checks and your active perception checks?
Easy. I know their perception modifiers. I roll dice. I tell them if they see something. Or I tell them nothing. Sometimes, I roll dice for no reason at all. Actually, I make a habit of doing that from time to time. Just so they never know when dice hitting the table on my side of the screen actually mean something or not.
Lately, I haven't even needed to do that. I just tell them to roll perception. If they all fail, I say "Nothing to see here, move along" and they do. They could metagame it and start searching for random stuff, but they're good players. They play what their characters know, not what they know.
If your players won't play along with that, when they fail the check tell them they found/ didn't find the credstick hidden in an unusual place.
