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