# Death
##### Heroism Points, Death Points, and Stamina
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# Heroism Points
Since before there were fantasy roleplaying games, wargames used health points to denote army standings. In the first edition of Dungeons and Dragons, Gygax and Arneson used a numerical value to denote the health of a character. Overtime it was seen as a brutal way to play, as hp was lost, more and more horrendous conditions were applied to your character. This is a **Death Spiral** mechanic and it was quickly removed for the sanctity of the game. The name hit points, however, was not removed. Five editions later the game has transformed so much that the world of health tracking has been lost to an ancient system of realistic mechanics scrapped to the tithes of game design long ago. [Matt Colville](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZdS8lP-Sdo) coined the idea that your HP in D&D is not relative to how healthy your character is, but a measure of their heroism. In reality whether you have 1 hit point or 500 hit points your character can act in exactly the same ways so the game uses hit points to measure how heroic you can be, until you are taken down by the enemy.
Heroism points are not the first theoretical measurement of character strength in D&D. Armor class is not a measurement of whether or not you are hit or missed directly. It's a measure of whether or not your defense has been compromised. I like to think of the characteristics of a character's AC broken down into separate categories of dodged, blocked, and widthstood. Dodging an attack is the most obvious approach, but it's difficult for enemy to miss you all-together, and it's more likely that your armor was hit if you are wearing plate than for you to dodge the attack completely. Having the strength to widthstand that attack is something that only capable warriors can accomplish given that the minimum to wear that armor is a strength requirement. Blocking attacks is something that constantly happens throughout battle. Consider the medium-class of armors like chainmail. Difficult to maneuver in, but your body can easily put objects between you and the enemy as to make sure that no one blow compromises your armor. Most blocked attacks could even be considered hits when followed up on, but just shy of hitting a vital point. The theoretical consideration of armor class along with other systems like it allow hit points to also be considered in this light. Taking full considering of how Wizards' takes hit points into consideration in their SRD document.
The semantics of combat are very much based around modern movie tropes in combat. The one-shot fight scene pays homage to very relative factors in fantasy. The reality is that despite all that happens in combat, from fireballs being slung left and right to intense back-and-forths with the front line combatants it only takes as much as 30 seconds before you are knocked down. The dice gods help you measure your heroism, and you run out pretty quickly. Healers can help you regain heroism as well as restoring you from unconciousness. A fact of the matter, however, is that once you really delve into the idea that heroism is limited strictly by whether or not you are concious, you begin to wonder how heroism affecst people, and if heroism can be gained or otherwise removed. Thus there have been some systems introduced that factor herosim into their design and ultimately attempt to rectify the unimmersive state that D&D 5e currently resides in.
Don't get me wrong, D&D 5e is an amazing fantasy roleplaying game with a system that trumps all else, but the game in its current state still has flaws. It was Wizards' decision to make the game open source and easily editable that allows me to write about how I am going to fix this system and find peace in subtle complexity. Here is what the SRD document has to say:
>##### Hit Points
> Hit points represent a combination of physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck. Creatures with more hit points are more difficult to kill. Those with fewer hit points are more fragile.
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> A creature’s current hit points (usually just called hit points) can be any number from the creature’s hit point maximum dow to 0. This number changes frequently as a creature takes damage or receives healing.
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> Whenever a creature takes damage, that damage is subtracted from its hit points. The loss of hit points has no effect on a creature’s capabilities until the creature drops to 0 hit points.
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# Death Points
Heroism points manifest themselves as a representation of whether or not your character can continue to do heroic act, but also characterize it as conciousness. When you fall unconcious in SRD your character has a chance to die. If you character is attacked in that state you are effectively at the whim of the first death saving throw you make while unconcious, if you haven't already made one or die outright from the critical hit dealt to you when an attack is made at melee range. The system that D&D 5e uses is unfathomably brutal compared to modern game design, and based on how often the game uses straight death as a means of a challenge the system I implement is based around the idea of allowing for the system to continually challenge the players while also prolonging character life at higher levels.
Death points are a mechanical representation of heroic stamina. In fantasy storywriting the main character spends most of the story being brought down, but always coming back at the last moment for victory. Up until just after the climx of the story does the character even have a realistic sense of fear of death in the viewer's eye. The trope we are attempting to emulate can be brought even further given that the character is not longer being viewed, but played. The consideration that death points are a measure of heroic stamina, makes them akin to willpower. The less willpower your character has, the more likely they are to die as a result of battle.
The measure, of this willpower is dictated by both your character's constitution, or physical resilience and proficiency, or skill in their given class. By making death points scalable on mechanics already present and relevant in D&D 5e's system, we let in the possibility for the amount of death points a character has to increase on both potential factors. Because you could potentially have more chances or more willpower over time, your ability to spend that willpower at early levels is therefore, not lost completely. Because this system is also non-terminating, just as death saving throws in SRD are non-terminating we have the possibility for growth in the future and balance to be achieved despite whatever unfortunate events befall a character in the early stages of the campaign.
The proposition then is: Are death points more balanced than SRD? I would not only argue that they are balanced when put against the death saving throw system, but they are also closer in balance among all of the classes. Evasive characters in D&D, those who have a lower chance to fall unconcious are more likely to survive simply on the basis that the SRD system allows them to scale appropriately alongside their non-evasive counterparts. Because characters who are non-evasive typically have more death points, and a DM can still responsibly distribute death point loss among characters within the system. Characters who are still more likely to recieve death point loss have more death points, and this proves the stability that the system provides. Even if that stability isn't ideal it is any more stable than what is provided in SRD.
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Death points are still considered a complex mechanic under the basis that their loss, while relying on properties already associated with the system, are still too specific. The underlying mechanics behind stabilization, unconciousness, and death saving throws are still too difficult to simplify in reality. Given this truth, I only provide verbose descriptions when it comes to a mechanic such as this.
In the [Core Rules Changes](https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/BJZWzQV7oM#p8) section of the Marmadas World Guidebook the section on Death is as follows:
>##### Death Saving Throws
> Gain a resource called *Death Points*, where the amount of death points you have is equal to your Proficiency bonus + CON modifier. If you would fail a death saving throw while you have any amount of death points remaining you lose 1 death point, become stable, and gain 1 point of exhaustion upon regaining conciousness. If you would critically succeed on a death saving throw you become stable. Upon fumbling a death saving throw you lose 2 death points instead.
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>While **unconcious**, a stable creature does not lose stabilization from taking damage(Taking damage while concious does remove stabilization). Upon reaching 0 death points, the character reverts to the SRD rules for death saving throws.
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> Note that gaining exhaustion after losing a death point is considered a brutal rule.
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# Stamina and Exhaustion
Conditions are one of the most confusing and open design spaces in the mechanics system in D&D. Both areas explorable for inside and outside of combat as well as simple conditional mechanics to entire systems of staged conditional variables. Conditions are messy and complicated when you factor in how many flavors and types there are and can be.
[Exhaustion](http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/BJ70eEUI7) is a measure of the mechanical reprecussion of a character's stamina. A system like this when implemented poorly, results in either a **Death Spiral** too quickly or allowing for characters to go exhausted unpunished in a realistic mechanical sense. The rules detailed by Exhaustion in their SRD state are treated very closely like a standard condition, but where they apply is at the opposite time as most conditions are applied. While most conditions are applied during combat, Exhaustion is typically applied outside of combat, and dealt with outside of combat. Though the base mechanics for exhaustion deal with a very combat-centered way, the actual enumeration of exhaustion occurs typically outside of combat.
For this reason, I exclude exhaustion from the standard list of condition, while still treating it like one. The expectation that I place on exustion is that it has to match the expectations of stamina in real life. At first you are not at your peak, then you are below your peak, so exhausted that eventually that you are capped at what you are capable of doing, and then so to the point where you are incapable of doing the most basic of tasks, like running, attacking, and casting spells. The current exhaustion list is also too short, the stages are removed easily with the right composition of players, but the ability to create a reasonable dent in the amount of exhaustion a character has puts them too close to death too easily. There is no easy way to impose exhaustion like a punishment without killing the character accidentally. This mechanic is hard to implement and that is why it seldom appears in combat.
So what did I do to exhaustion to make it better? I further expanded on what justifies gaining a point of exhaustion, what removes it, and I reiterated some of the specific rules regarding it. I also put an extra mode before death on the exhaustion table, effectively placing a middle ground on the table between levels 1 and 7. My version better illustrates the turning point between nuisance and life-threatening as well as places level 4 at the center of all of this, making it the best place for a character who is thoroughly exhausted, but not in a life-threatening sense. For a DM is it mechanically more beautful and makes use of some more creative elements of the mechanics system not currently in place.
When placed in conjunction with [Death Points](#p3) it allows for the reasonability to suggest that gaining exhaustion upon losing a death point is a fine adjustment. My stamina rules for D&D 5e put the cap on all of the other rules changes I have been suggesting in each of these manuals and brings the game closer to what I believe to be an even better sense of cohesion between the mechanics of the game and realistic fantasy.
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### Transcipt of an Example of Demonstratable Fantasy Stamina
> Rhogar, the Dragonborn Monk had received too much damage and became unconcious while fighting **The Hungry** *[MToF]*. **The Hungry** is grappling Rhogar.
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> Rhogar fails his Death Saving Throw, losing one death point (now 5) and becoming stable.
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> Rhogar receives healing, becomes concious, and gains one point of exhaustion.
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> **The Hungry's** Hunger ability actives and proceeds to attack Rhogar and deals enough damage to render him unconcious. Because he took damage while concious, Rhogar loses stability upon going unconcious.
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> Rhogar fails another death saving throw (now 4).
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> Rhogar receives healing, becomes concious, and gains one point of exhaustion.
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> **The Hungry** knocks Rhogar unconcious again, rendering him unstable again.
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> Rhogar fails another death saving throw (now 3).
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> This process is repeated until Rhogar has lost 4 death points, with 1 remaining.
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> Rhogar dies while unconcious.
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> Rhogar remains dead for 9 rounds (54 seconds) until *Revivify* was cast onto him.
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> Rhogar becomes concious with 4 points of exhaustion and 1 death point remaining.
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> ##### Review
> The reason Rhogar has no way to actually respond to this issue was because of the initiative order. If Rhogar's turn was proceeded by the healer he would have an action available to escape the constant death spiral he was apart of.
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> The realistic reason that this result makes sense is beacuse Rhogar is effectively out of stamina. When Rhogar regains health he is wretched out of a stable 'near-death' state and it effectively pushing himself beyond normal limits due to the will of the healer in combat. We describe this effect in nature as adrenaline.
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> By repeating this healthing effect while Rhogar is at a loss of stamina takes real time off of Rhogar's life in order to allow him to fight. This mechanically dissuades healers from continually healing their allies only when they are at low health because of the natural disadvantage Death Points create in that situation. Character's are more likely to die when they are put unconcious more often, and this is intended as both a mechanical balance and a descriptive balance.