Hit Points and Unconsciousness

Sometimes combat doesn’t go well for the players. Every once in a while, a monster will wear a party down, and with one terrible attack, knocks an adventurer unconscious. What happens then?

Any player that loses enough Hit Points to reduce them below zero Hit Points is considered to have zero Hit Points. At that point, they are unconscious, unable to move or take actions. They are in grave peril. For DnD Adventure Club Game Masters, we have two options:

The Adventure Club Option

For beginning players and for young players, keep character death off the table and consider heroes knocked to zero Hit Points as simply unconscious.

Rules as Written

The official consequence of reaching zero Hit Points is Death Saves. In the first round, after a player is knocked to zero Hit Points, begin rolling Death Saving Throws. A player needs to roll one Death Save every round. To do this, have the player roll a 20-sided die. No pluses or minuses apply; this is a straight roll. If they roll between 1 and 10, they score one failure. If they roll between 11 and 20, they score one success. A player who scores three successes before they score three failures is still unconscious but stable at zero Hit Points. A player who rolls three failures before three successes becomes permanently dead. Additional damage after a player falls unconscious counts as one failure. Keep rolling saves until a player has either three failures or three successes.

A successful WISDOM Medicine check of 10 or higher can stabilize an unconscious character at zero Hit Points. Magical healing (spells, potions, or abilities) can pop an unconscious player back into action.