Death Saving Throw

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A Death Saving Throw is a special type of Saving Throw that a Downed creature must make to avoid dying. Typically, Death Saving Throws are only performed by player characters, Companions, and certain notable Non-Player Characters. Most enemy creatures simply die when reduced to 0 Hit Points.

Rolling Death Saving Throws

The Death Saving Throw tracker, with one success on the left and two failures on the right

When an eligible creature is reduced to 0 Hit Points, they fall unconscious and become  Downed. While downed, the creature must use their full turn to roll one Death Saving Throw per round.

The die rolled is a  d20 and the Difficulty Class of the roll is 10. A roll of 9 or lower results in one failed save, and 10 or higher results in one successful save. A "critic failure", a roll of 1, results in failure regardless of the modifiers to the roll.

• Bonuses to Saving Throws from conditions (e.g. Bless or Aura of Protection) and bonuses from items that specifically add to Death Saving Throws (e.g. Family Ring) are added to this roll.
• Proficiency Bonus is not added to the roll, as you cannot be proficient in Death Saving Throws.
• An Ability Score Modifier is not added to the roll as Death Saving Throws are not tied to any Ability Score.
• Bonuses to generic Saving Throws from items (e.g. Safeguard Shield) are not added to the roll, as of Hotfix #6.

If the downed creature rolls a total of three failures, they  die. If the creature rolls three successes before rolling three failures, they become Stable - though still unconscious - and no longer need to make Death Saving Throws.

Note that stabilised creatures will retain their current failed save count. This means, for example, if they have one failed save and three successes, two more failures will cause death even while stabilised. Death saving throw values are reset upon healing or Helping the stabilised creature.

Healing a Downed creature

At any time while  Downed, if a character is Helped or healed by another creature they immediately lose the Downed condition. The character will return to consciousness and no longer need to make Death Saving Throws. However, for the round in which they are healed they may only take Bonus Actions.

Note that granting a creature Temporary Hit Points is not the same as healing them, and does not remove the Downed condition.

Receiving damage when Downed

Whilst  Downed, if a creature receives ranged damage (either magical or martial), they automatically fail one death saving throw per damage application (for example, 3 separate Magic Missile hits would cause the target to fail 3 saves and instantly die).

A critical hit against a downed target results in 2 failed saves. Further, melee attacks are always critical against a downed target.

Reviving the Dead

A  Dead creature cannot be healed by normal means and can only be resurrected by powerful magic.

Methods of revival include:

•  Revivify
• Scroll of Revivify
• Scroll of True Resurrection
• Revival through Withers' services for 200 gold

Gallery

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  An example of something impossible