Mike Mearls Games
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Death or Glory!
🕑 Added 2025-08-12 12:00:17 +0000 UTCFirst up, Gen Con was a blast. Easily the busiest I have been at the show in a long time. It's wild to consider how much tabletop gaming, and Gen Con along with it, have grown since I started designing games. I had to spend last week getting caught up on both work and home fronts, but now I should be back into the groove.
And speaking of which, I had the chance to playtest some material at the convention with an all-star cast of players. The game went great. We had one character swear his soul to Orcus in order to resurrect a slain halfling thief, so that was cool.
Speaking of death and dying, I've put some work into how I'd like the game to function when a PC hits 0 hit points. I thought long and hard about the consequences of getting dropped. In Odyssey, dropping to zero gets you levels of exhaustion. Pile up enough levels, and you're dead. That's a deterrent to characters pogo sticking from 0 to 1 hit points over and over again.
I also think that putting a character out of the fight at 0 hit points is a little boring. If a PC drop, that's usually a tense, crazy fight. Why force a player to sit on their hands when you could temp them into burning out their character in one epic, final stand? As the rules below show, in Odyssey players can choose to keep fighting at 0 hit point so long as they don't mind piling up more exhaustion levels. Nothing like going out in a blaze of glory to etch your (former) character's name into the annals of a campaign.
Here is the current draft of the rules for hitting 0 hit points. It's a relatively small tweak, but I think giving players the chance to push their characters to the brink of death adds a lot more drama to the game. I also removed stabilizing characters. Instead, you can use bandages and a DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) check as an action to heal 1 hit point to a character at 0.
My thinking is that the levels of exhaustion are a steep enough penalty that the game can be a bit more generous in allowing you to pop back up from 0. The first level of exhaustion or two aren't so bad, but soon enough you are stuck with significant penalties.
The action economy also tilts against burning actions to prop up downed characters. Unless you have a way to keep a dropped PC up, burning an action to restore a PC who is then dropped again is likely to lead to defeat. You are usually better of throwing damage down range until you can keep a downed PC up.
Dropping to 0 Hit Points
When a creature drops to 0 hit points, it either dies outright or risks dying.
Instant Death
Here are the main ways a creature can die instantly.
Monster or NPC Death. A monster or NPC dies the instant it drops to 0 hit points, although a DM can ignore this rule for an individual and treat it like a character.
Hit Point Maximum of 0. A creature dies if its hit point maximum reaches 0.
Massive Damage. If the attack or effect that reduces you to 0 hit points dealt damage greater than your bloodied value, you must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or die.
Exhaustion. You die immediately if your exhaustion level reaches six.
Dying
If you reach 0 hit points and don’t die instantly, you gain a level of exhaustion and are dying. Dying creatures must make death saves.
Death Saves
Whenever you start your turn with 0 hit points, you face a choice: defy death or attempt a death save.
Defy Death. If you choose to defy death, you gain 1d2 levels of exhaustion and then take your turn as normal. During this turn you ignore the penalties to tests and speed due to your level of exhaustion.
Make a Death Save. You cannot move, use actions, or swap equipment this turn. Instead, roll a d20 to make a death save. This is a special roll rather than a test and ignores all bonuses and penalties you normally apply to tests (including the penalty for your exhaustion levels). If the roll is 10 or higher, you succeed. Otherwise, you fail and take a level of exhaustion. If you roll a 20 on the d20, you regain 1 hit point and can take your turn as normal.
Damage at 0 Hit Points. If you take any damage while you have 0 hit points, you gain a level of exhaustion. If the damage is from a critical hit, you gain two levels of exhaustion instead.
Comments
James FARINHA
I will try it, but I will add that, while Defying Death, you cannot heal yourself during this round. It should feel like a noble sacrifice to help the rest of the party succeed the battle. Not be used as a trick to drink a Potion and join back the fight as normal (yet exhausted). I always have this problem when the PC go to 0HP, then someone cast Healing Word as a Bonus action and the PC can take his turn as normal before eventualy going back to 0HP without any issue ; rounds after rounds...
Brent P. Newhall
Thanks for publishing this! I, too, have a problem when PCs get to 0 HP and then just have to sit there rolling death saving throws. I've handled this by buffing stabilize so that it brings the PC back to consciousness with 1 HP. This puts the PC out of action for a little while, especially if they're some distance from the rest of the party (subtly encouraging PCs to stay together in combat!), but usually only for 1 or 2 rounds. It also creates some useful tactical tension for the party: do I take a swing at the orc shaman so it loses concentration, or stabilize the sorcerer? That said, I love the idea of letting PCs continue to fight at 0 HP at a cost. I don't use exhaustion much in my games, mainly because I have a tough time remembering the effects of each level. I'm sure if you use it a lot it's second nature, but it's relatively complex if you haven't. I wonder if you could instead have PCs take a cumulative -1 on D20 rolls every time they act at 0 HP?
