Death and Dying
Changes and extensions to the OSE game rules
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Characters at 0 Hit Points or Less
When a character is reduced to 0HP or less, they are in grave danger and may die. To determine their fate, roll on the table below:
1d20 | Result |
---|---|
1 | The character has died |
2-10 | The character makes an immediate Save vs Death. On a failure, the character is dead. Treat a success as if an 11-19 was rolled |
11-19 | The character has been wounded and will be unconscious for 2d6 Turns or until magical healing or first aid is applied (see below) |
20 | The character is actually not gravely injured at all - fate, the blessing of gods or luck is on their side. The character awakens immediately with 1d6 HP |
Taking Further Damage While Unconscious
- Characters that are down are sometimes subjected to additional attack (from predators or ruthless foes) or are caught in damaging effects like fire or damage-dealing spells
- For each such instance (each additional attack, each round of fire damage, each damaging spell) another roll on the table above is required. Rolls of 11-20 are treated as 'No Result'. In this case, the character does not receive any special benefit, but does not need to hazard a Death Save either
- Fictional positioning may indicate that the character is simply dead and therefore no additional rolls are needed. For example, a character falls into a lake of lava or is devoured by a swarm of hungry rodents
Recovering From Near-Death
A character that is unconscious from Hit Point loss will eventually regain consciousness. The exact manner in which they do so depends on their method of recovery:
Natural Recovery
- The unconscious character awakens 2d6 Turns after being knocked unconscious with 1 HP/level
Magical Healing
- Magical healing includes healing by spell, potion, or some other magic item
- The unconscious character awakens immediately with Hit Points equal to the amount of healing done (but not beyond max HP for the character)
Regarding Hit Points
- Hit points represent the training, skill, experience, and luck of a character, not just their hardiness or overall health
- When hit points are lost, the character is not actually wounded (except perhaps superficially like a cut or bruise)
- Hit point loss more represents a character slowly being worn down or the last-moment parry of an otherwise deadly blow
- As hit points dwindle, the character becomes more off-balance, slower to react and more worried that they are over-matched
- When the 'killing blow' finally lands, it represents that actual wounding blow - a thrust, crushing blow or other serious wound