DnD is a fantastic game. However, there are a lot of rules that you need to know to be able to play the game properly. One of the things you need to know is what happens when your character runs out of HP.
Does your character immediately die? Do you get a chance to save yourself? These are all things I will discuss below in greater detail.
Characters do not immediately die when they run out of HP in DnD. Instead, they get to do so-called death-saving rolls on their turn to see if they can survive or not. To survive, they have to roll three rolls of 10 or higher on a d20 die. If they roll three scores under 10, however, they’re dead. You can heal and/or stabilize a character at 0 hit points before they have to do this.
Now that you’re aware of the basic principles of running out of HP and rolling to save your life in DnD, let’s get down to some detail. Read more to find out all about near-death experiences in DnD.
What Happens When You Run Out Of HP In DnD?
As I mentioned before, when it’s your turn and you have zero HP (“hitpoints”), you have to roll a d20 die and see if you can survive. However, your teammates can heal you before you have to take this risk.
It’s also worthwhile to mention that you can crit with these rolls — both critical success and critical failure rolls. If you roll a 20, you instantly recover from your near-death state with 1 HP, and if you roll a 1, you have to count that as two failed rolls instead of one.
How often do you get to a position where you actually have to perform death-save rolls? Well, that depends entirely on your team’s ability to heal you.
Even if you have people with healing capabilities, this healing might have already been used previously. Even in this case, however, there are still other things players can do to save you. These things include for example “first aid” (see the PHB for more information)
You can also get hit again when in this “near-death state”. When in this state, your character is unconscious and hits you receive count as failure rolls for the death-saving dice rolls. Also, if you take damage equal to your maximum health pool, you die instantly.
How Do You Regain HP In DnD?
There are multiple ways to gain HP in DnD. However, not every healing effect is equally available when half-dead on the ground in combat.
So, let’s go over those first and go from there. First and foremost, you have abilities that heal. Most parties have at least one character that can apply a heal to teammates. There are currently 7 classes that have the ability to heal: Clerics, Bards, Rangers, Paladins, Favored Souls, Artificers, and Druids.
There’s a cantrip called Spare the Dying you can use in these situations as well. This is a cantrip that can be cast without preparation and that does not demand a spell slot. If this is done to a character that is on the brink of death with 0 health points, it stabilizes them.
This means that the character in question does not have to do the previously mentioned death rolls. This means, also, that first aid is massively useful in these situations to avoid unnecessary deaths. Spare the Dying is available for Clerics and Artificers.
A stabilized individual can still get slain, however, it just means that they don’t have to roll for death saves anymore. You also have the Healer’s Kit, which can be used to stabilize creatures that are at zero hitpoints. By doing this, you also spend a use of the kit.
Can You Heal With 0 HP?
You can absolutely be healed when at 0 HP, although you can’t do it yourself since your character is unconscious. If you do get healed, you have the ability to short rest. This kind of depends on your DM as well.
The PHB says that short rests take about an hour, an hour in which your character focuses on eating and resting. Now, a round in DnD is around 6 seconds long, which means that your character will have to sit there for a long while, turn-wise.
Some DMs allow this, some don’t. If you’re lucky, you don’t have to do this and your teammates can heal you up instead. Of course, there are better alternatives than short resting, but it’s an interesting mention.
Do You Get HP Back On Level Up?
Your current HP does not increase when you level up in DnD, your maximum HP does. For example, if you’re on 15/20 HP and then level up to gain 5 maximum hit points, you will be at say 15/25, not 25/25.
The same goes if you’re at maximum HP. 20/20 HP does not become 25/25, but 20/25, which means that you would require some sort of heal to be at max HP when you level up.
Of course, DnD is a game where house rules exist, which means that you don’t have to follow everything down to the finest details. Some players find it tedious to not be at max HP on level-up, so they just ignore this detail.
Can You Get Resurrected In DnD?
If your character does not pass the death saves or gets bashed while unconscious, you can get resurrected. There are currently six different spells that can resurrect players in DnD. These are Wish, Reincarnate, True Resurrection, Raise Dead, and Revivify.
These spells all resurrect the target player with some conditions, and some remove negative effects and so forth. Another way to resurrect a fallen teammate is to bring him to a priest, although that availability varies depending on the adventure.