We’ve been a little obsessed with death saving throws lately.
Over the past week we’ve covered how DMs can make death saving throws a little more exciting for the players, as well as a number of ways that PCs can be insta-killed — skirting the throws completely.
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So, naturally, we decided it was a fine time to take a look at some of the heaviest throws of the game from a player’s perspective, because it can honestly be a little confusing what exactly will affect a death saving throw.
Let’s take a look at the wording, to start things off (via Roll20.net):
Whenever you start Your Turn with 0 Hit Points, you must make a Special saving throw, called a death saving throw, to determine whether you creep closer to death or hang onto life. Unlike other Saving Throws, this one isn’t tied to any ability score. You are in the hands of fate now, aided only by Spells and features that improve your chances of succeeding on a saving throw.
Roll a d20: If the roll is 10 or higher, you succeed. Otherwise, you fail. A success or failure has no Effect by itself. On your third success, you become stable (see below). On your third failure, you die. The successes and failures don’t need to be consecutive; keep track of both until you collect three of a kind. The number of both is reset to zero when you regain any Hit Points or become stable.
Rolling 1 or 20: When you make a death saving throw and roll a 1 on The D20, it counts as two failures. If you roll a 20 on The D20, you regain 1 hit point.
Damage at 0 Hit Points: If you take any damage while you have 0 Hit Points, you suffer a death saving throw failure. If the damage is from a critical hit, you suffer two failures instead. If the damage equals or exceeds your hit point maximum, you suffer Instant Death.
Okay so, sounds pretty simple, right? There aren’t any ability score or proficiency modifiers, so you’re just rolling a d20 and hoping for a 10 or above.
…Well, not really.
This being D&D, after all, means that there are still plenty of ways that savvy enough players can give themselves a little boost heading into death saving throws. The specific wording come from that first paragraph: “Unlike other Saving Throws, this one isn’t tied to any ability score. You are in the hands of fate now, aided only by Spells and features that improve your chances of succeeding on a saving throw.”
This means that you can actually get bonuses to death saving throws through magical means, including the likes of Bless, Resistance, or a nearby Paladin’s Aura of Protection.
Which is all well and good, but you’d expect the spellcaster to drop a healing spell, or at the very least a Spare the Dying — on you rather than Resistance if they’re planning to use an action to help you out.
Nine Hells, simply a medicine check to stabilize would be better than giving a +d4 to your next death saving throw, right?
So let’s assume that there’s no one around to help you out, magical or not.
There are still a select few ways that players can give their characters a better shot at survival during death saving throws, depending on the class and feats they chose prior to ending up in this fatal situation.
Because death saving throws count as saving throws, mechanically, it means that you can essentially give yourself advantage if you’ve taken the Lucky feat (and haven’t used your days worth of luck up on shenanigans at the tavern), if you have an Inspiration die that you completely forgot about from a few sessions back, or if you’ve got something like the Fighter’s Indomitable ability, A Chronurgy Wizard’s Chronal Shift, A Wild Magic Sorcerer’s Bend Luck, or any other number of saving throw-altering abilities.
A full list of such abilities can be found at this rpg.stackexchange.com thread here.
All this is to say that players are in no way beholden to the fates of the gods dice, and that you could stack your character full of death-save-altering abilities if you reaaaally don’t want them to die.
Though, as many D&D players know, there’s no preparing for that double nat-1 throw.
In that case, you’ve just got to hope you’re playing with a merciful DM.
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