Respect player autonomy, don't try to force outcomes If you start controlling PCs, the players are out of a job. The DM's job is to run the world and make rulings. etc'īut remember you are just 1 player at the table. But I think your line of thinking doesn't lead anywhere good.Īs DMs it's enticing to get ahead of ourselves and go from writing encounters to writing a book - 'first the players go here then they see the NPC and talk to them and get the clue then the NPC dies then the players go over there. There are as many ways to play D&D as there are DMs. There are of course still spells which would be able to save the NPC, but instead of cure wounds or potions, they'd need revivify (3rd level 300 gp) or better, or a greater restoration (5th level 200 gp) used before the NPC dies (excluding any exhaustion caused by lack of food or water). And in my experience, giving players an explanation like 'They died from Exhaustion, so were never making death saves' appeases players who wants NPCs to use the same mechanics as them. Calling speaking despite their injuries such an exertion seems completely reasonable.

Exhaustion is given by the game most commonly for overlong days, and exerting oneself beyond a normal day (see marching for more than 8 hours in a day). Not reduction to 0 hit points, just dead outright.Ī creature with 5 levels of exhaustion can reasonably be called dead tired, with disadvantage on everything, halved max hit points, and a speed of 0. It's the exhaustion condition, and it's 6th level has the rather simple effect: 'Death'. The game has a mechanism for modeling exhaustion.

Npc rations ancient warfare 2