eponymous-rose:

Also, just because it’s a pretty darn critical part of the show that confused me while watching Critical Role the first time around and I’m sure it’s something that might baffle folks jumping in on the second campaign, here’s how injury and death work in this show. Keep in mind that in the heat of the moment sometimes elements of this get forgotten and/or judgment calls are made that shift a bit from the rules here and there!

Instant Death

• When a character takes enough damage to go below 0 HP, they are considered unconscious and at 0 HP. The only time negative HP matters is if the damage they take with one strike brings them to the negative of their maximum HP, in which case they are instantly killed—so, as an example, if a character has been previously injured and is at 5 HP out of their maximum 21 HP, an attack that does 26 HP of damage would bring them to -21 HP and that would be a character death.
• Some spells and traps can also cause instant death—Power Word Kill, a 9th-level spell, automatically and instantly kills any creature with fewer than 100 HP; Disintegrate, a 6th-level spell, instantly kills (and renders to ash) any creature it brings down to 0 HP; Finger of Death, a 7th-level spell, instantly kills any creature it brings down to 0 HP and brings them back as a zombie in service to their killer; if a creature goes to 0 HP due to damage from being submerged in lava or acid, they may be instantly killed and their body may be unrecoverable, etc.

Death Saving Throws

• Assuming instant death isn’t on the table, a character knocked unconscious has 0 HP and death saving throws become a thing. Every time their turn comes around in combat (or a 6-second period passes outside of combat), they have to make a death saving throw, which is just a d20 rolled with no modifiers.
• If they roll 1-9, that’s a failure.
• If they roll 10-20, that’s a success.
• If they roll a natural 20, they regain consciousness with 1 HP.
• If they roll a natural 1, they fail two death saving throws instead.
• Three failures total (not necessarily in a row) will result in the death of that character. Three successes total (not necessarily in a row) means that character is considered stable—still unconscious for a few hours at 0 HP, but no longer needing to make death saving throws.
• If a character is attacked while they are unconscious, all attacks against them will have advantage. Attacks against them from within 5 feet are automatic critical hits. A successful attack against an unconscious creature automatically results in a failed death saving throw. A successful critical hit against an unconscious creature results in two failed death saving throws. This means that a single enemy with two attacks or two enemies with one attack each standing next to an unconscious player character can kill them before they even get a chance to start rolling death saving throws. When a character goes down, they have to get back up again fast.
• Once a character is stabilized, their death saving throw counts (successes and failures) reset, even if they get knocked unconscious a second time in the same fight.

So You’re Unconscious; What Now?

• While it’s possible for an unconscious character to regain consciousness or get stabilized on their own (for the former, they need to roll a natural 20 on a death saving throw, and for the latter, they need to roll three successful death saves before they get three failures), usually the risk of leaving them and hoping for the best is dangerous enough that they’re going to need a little help.
• A healing potion can be administered by another character (in combat, this takes their action), which will return the injured character to consciousness with the number of HP specified by the healing potion (depending on the potion’s rarity, this could be 2d4+2, 4d4+4, 8d4+8, …).
• Likewise, a healing spell bumps the injured character to consciousness with the number of HP specified by the spell. The most commonly used and versatile healing spells early in the game are Healing Word, which can be cast at a distance as a bonus action but is less powerful, and the more effective Cure Wounds, which requires physical contact and an action to cast.
• Failing both of the above (since potions are expensive and spell slots are limited), something like a medicine kit can be used with a successful Medicine skill check to stabilize a character at 0 HP so they no longer have to make death saving throws. 

So You’re Dead; What Now?

• If a player is killed, they’re not necessarily out of the game right away.
• In the D&D 5e ruleset, there are several spells that automatically bring a player character back from the dead. In Critical Role, those rules have been changed and homebrewed to be a lot more harrowing: with any sort of resurrection magic, there is always a chance of failure. Permanent character death is far, far more likely in CR than in a non-homebrewed D&D game. No pressure or anything.
• According to Matt’s rules, attempts to reverse character deaths involve having to roll a d20 and meet a particular Difficulty Class target. That Resurrection DC starts at 10, but if a character was previously resurrected successfully, that DC increases by 1 for each successful resurrection, making it harder and harder to bring a character back to life.
• The lowest-level spell to reverse death is Revivify, a 3rd-level spell. The conditions for its casting are access to a diamond worth 300 gp, which the spell consumes, and the caster has to get to the dead character within one minute. Since this spell is generally a stopgap measure in the middle of combat, Matt’s condensed his homebrew resurrection rules to a single dice roll, a d20 plus spell ability modifier, which has to beat the Resurrection DC. If it fails, the players get one more chance if they can gain access to more powerful magic. If it succeeds, the character returns to life and consciousness with 1 HP and their Resurrection DC increases by 1.
• If Revivify isn’t an option or fails, usually the next step is finding someone who knows the spells Raise Dead (5th level) or Resurrection (7th level). The former consumes a diamond worth 500 gp and must be cast within 10 days, and the latter consumes a diamond worth 1000 gp and can be cast anytime within a century. Both of these spells, if cast successfully, leave the revived character with penalties for several days as they recover, while a successful Resurrection spell cast more than a year after the character’s death can also rebound a bit on the caster. Reincarnate is a 5th-level spell (1000 gp diamond, must be cast within 10 days) that carries a high chance of the character returning as a different race.
• For all of these spells, a Resurrection Ritual is done on Critical Role rather than just having the spell automatically succeed. This ritual requires the character’s body.
• For this ritual, three player characters (or NPCs) can come forward to make contributions, each culminating in some sort of skill check (with advantage/disadvantage granted and DC set at the DM’s discretion). 
• Each successful skill check decreases the final Resurrection DC by 3 (increasing the chance of bringing back the dead character), and each failure increases the Resurrection DC by 1. 
• In the end, it’s still one single d20 roll that determines whether the character returns, and there is always a chance of failure if the Resurrection DC is not met. CR doesn’t have dice cams, but these die rolls are important enough that they generally get photographed and stuck up on Twitter as proof.
• Once one of these spells fails, the character cannot be recovered by normal means, and the player may bring in a new character… or the players may all make some very strange journeys in search of alternatives.
• There two 9th-level options, but they are extremely rare magic in the world. The spell True Resurrection is an option that requires 25,000 gp in diamonds, but it will succeed automatically even in Critical Role’s ruleset, barring extreme circumstances. Likewise, a carefully worded Wish spell could be used to bring a character back to life (with the usual caveat that Wishes often don’t go exactly how you’d expect).

Basically, as in all things Critical Role, the story can supersede the rules, and a character’s resurrection can be foiled by outside forces (or by their own unwillingness to return).

This feels like a vaguely cursed post to make, but there’s always a lot of uncertainty flying around when things get especially nasty in combat, so it can be helpful to be on the same page as the players!

@awkwardwriterpilot @darknessintheflamesoflight