5E-style dying

[subtledoctor]

I thought of a way to put this into the BG games: where instead of dying at zero hit points, you fall unconscious and have to make three saving throws. If you fail any of the saves you die, and if you take any damage while unconscious you die. But if you make the three saves, or if someone heals you before you fail any of them, then you are stabilized and survive.

But... would this be worth the effort? Upon contemplation it strikes me as a more important for role-playing than for the combat system. I've never really had any problem with the way these games handle dying at 0 hp. And I don't know how much difference this would actually make - if you are unconscious and any damage will kill you, then this will likely only delay death by a few seconds in most cases. So like I say, maybe not worth the effort. I just thought I should mention it since I see a way to make it work, and I'll  forget it by the morning if I don't write something down before I go to sleep.

[Awachi]

Might be cool to implement this for enemies to start since it'd certainly be easier.

[lynx]

I don't see any value in it, to be honest. Enemies won't switch targets; a downed pc might even attract more attention due to being easier to hit, so the benefits would be decreased. But you die by failing any save anyway (much unlike 5E), so the small unpredictable window of time this buys is small.

[Guest SurplusKendalMintcakeStore]

I like the idea. I think it could bring a bit of dynamism to lower level combat, where single bits can be lethal and losing a party member can be highly punitive. As someone who tends to be a bit happy with the quick load when I lose a party member, I like a mechanic that encourages waiting before hitting the button.

 

it would work best if enemy AI heavily deprioritised dying targets most of the time (differentiated from other disabled states). The ability for other party members to positively affect the outcome could be fun too.

[The_Baffled_King]

I would have thought that the usefulness of such a mod depends almost entirely on enemy AI. If there is little or no chance of an enemy switching targets then the mod doesn't seem like it would do a lot (especially if the timings mean that an enemy will generally make another attack before a party NPC can cast a healing spell).

The Smarter General AI component of SCS makes non-dumb enemies de-prioritise helpless party NPCs when non-helpless party NPCs are nearby. If the changes you propose to make to party NPCs at 0 hp would cause SCS enemies to recognise that party NPC as helpless, then surely your mod will make an appreciable difference for SCS users?

I also second the comments of the guest above me about the particular value of such a change at lower levels.

For my part, I would be most interested in the applications of the mod for preventing game over once Charname specifically reaches 0 hp.

[ptifab]

I pretty much agree with everything that has been said above. That could save a lot of reloads at low levels by adding versatility in those harsh low levels battles ! And if SCS behavior reacts appropriatly, that could be really interesting. 

[Dan_P]

I think due to the RTWP combat, it's tough to make this actually useful. With an action game, you could dodge away. With turn based, you can have another party member immediately heal the character. Also, I suspect that people who are quick with the reload button, will reload anyways at 0 or low HP, even if using this, so it's mainly useful for no reload players.

If you do decide to do this, and you're keeping the character at low HP, I'd suggest making the character immune to damage for a few seconds after surviving. This would approximate the i-frames you'd get from rolling away in an action game. Obviously, a pretty gamey effect, but so is enemies retargeting just because a character is unconscious (if they're really out to kill you, they'd make extra sure you're dead).

[subtledoctor]

Yeah. I agree with everyone. I have something like this working in my psionics mod - while an ability is active, if you drop to 1 hp you don't die but you start seeing messages every round like "Charname: save vs. Death - 17" etc... until one of the saves fails and then you die. I suddenly had the thought, what if we applied something like this to everyone, permanently. But the actual utility? I'm not so sure. Mostly I think I like the idea of adding another 5E game mechanic to this ancient, creaky game engine...

[Endarire]

The idea matters more for nonreload runs.

[Ebonslayer]

I'm a bit late here, but personally I'd love something like this. I think one of the more annoying things in this game is the possibility of allies dying and me having to reload to a save god-knows-how-long ago I made. It's especially annoying in early BG1, but is an irritation throughout the entirety for the most part.

[Endarire]

Upon reconsideration, this mod style would help because it likely reduces reloads.