Conditions Related to Dying and Death

To understand the rules for getting knocked out and how dying works in the game, you’ll need some more information on the conditions used in those rules. Presented below are the rules for the dying, unconscious, wounded, and doomed conditions.

Dying

You are bleeding out or otherwise at death’s door. While you have this condition, you are unconscious. Dying always includes a value. If this value ever reaches dying 4, you die. If you’re dying, you must attempt a recovery check at the start of your turn each round to determine whether you get better or worse.

If you lose the dying condition by succeeding at a recovery check and are still at 0 Stamina, then you remain unconscious, but can wake up as described below. You lose the dying condition automatically and wake up if you ever have 1 or more Stamina. Anytime that you lose the dying condition, you gain the wounded 1 condition, or increase your wounded value by 1 if you already have that condition.

Unconscious

You’re sleeping, or you’ve been knocked out. You can’t act. You cannot add your proficiency bonus or Dexterity modifier to your Dexterity defence, you suffer -1d to perception Perception and you have the blinded and flat-footed conditions. When you gain this condition, you fall prone and drop items that you are wielding or holding unless the effect states otherwise or the GM determines you’re in a position in which you wouldn’t.

If you’re unconscious because you’re dying, you can’t wake up as long as you have 0 Stamina. If you’re restored to 1 Stamina or more via healing, you lose the dying and unconscious conditions and can act normally on your next turn. If healing is unavailable, then you can at least be stabilised so that you aren’t killed by a failed recovery check.

If you are unconscious and at 0 Stamina, but not dying, then you are stable and naturally return to 1 Stamina and awaken after sufficient time passes. If you are stable, then you don’t make recovery checks, even though you have 0 stamina. However, you do remain unconscious. If you take any damage, then you stop being stable and must start making recovery checks again. The GM determines how long you remain unconscious, from a minimum of 10 minutes to several hours (typically 1d4 hours). If you receive healing during this time, you lose the unconscious condition and can act normally on your next turn.

If you’re unconscious and have more than 1 Stamina (typically because you are asleep or unconscious due to an effect), you wake up in one of the following ways. Each causes you to lose the unconscious condition.

  • You take damage, provided that the damage doesn’t reduce you to 0 Stamina. (If the damage reduces you to 0 Stamina, then you remain unconscious and gain the dying condition as normal.)
  • You receive healing, other than the natural healing you get from resting.
  • Someone shakes you awake using an Interact action.
  • Loud noise is being made around you (although this isn’t automatic). At the start of your turn, you automatically attempt a Perception check against the noise’s DC (or the lowest DC if there is more than one noise), waking up if you succeed. This is often DC 5 for a battle, but if creatures are attempting to stay quiet around you, this Perception check uses their Stealth DC. Some magical effects make you sleep so deeply that they don’t allow you to attempt this Perception check.
  • If you are simply asleep, the GM decides you wake up either because you have had a restful night’s sleep or something disrupted that rest.

Wounded

You have been seriously injured during a fight. Anytime that you lose the dying condition, you become wounded 1 if you didn’t already have the wounded condition. If you already have the wounded condition, your wounded condition value instead increases by 1. If you gain the dying condition while wounded, then increase the dying condition’s value by your wounded value. The wounded condition ends if you complete an extended rest.

Doomed

Your life is ebbing away, bringing you ever closer to death. Some powerful spells and evil creatures can inflict the doomed condition on you. Doomed always includes a value. The maximum dying value at which you die is reduced by your doomed value. For example, if you were doomed 1, you would die upon reaching dying 3 instead of dying 4. If your maximum dying value is ever reduced to 0, you instantly die. When you die, you’re no longer doomed.

Your doomed value decreases by 1 each time you get a full night’s rest.