Various Dangers

When you are subjected to a hostile spell or other sudden danger, you will sometimes be given the chance to make a saving throw. Each character has three saving throws:

1d20 + Relevant Ability Modifier + Base Save Bonus + (Other Modifiers)

Your Base Save Bonus is determined by your class and level. The DC for a saving throw is determined by the attack or danger that prompted the save.

A natural 20 is an automatic success on a saving throw, while a natural 1 is a critical failure (which may result in additional harm at the discretion of the referee). Critical failures apply only to saving throws.

If your ability score is changed for any reason, recalculate the associated modifier. This may result in changes to your modifiers for skills, saving throws, and so on. If the change is not going to last very long, use the “temporary changes” boxes on the character sheet.

Temporary Ability Damage. Poisons, diseases, and other effects can temporarily lower an ability score. Temporary ability damage heals naturally at a rate of 1 point per eight-hour rest. This natural healing does not occur if the cause of the damage is still present. For example, if you take ability damage from a disease, the damage does not begin to heal until you recover from the disease.

Permanent Ability Drain. Permanent ability drain is usually associated with attacks by powerful undead creatures. Drained ability points do not return on their own, although they can be restored with powerful divine magic.

Change in Hit Points. If your Constitution modifier is reduced by 1, you immediately lose one hit point per level. If your Constitution modifier is increased by 1, you gain one hit point per level. These changes apply both to your current and maximum hit points.

Ability scores of zero. A character cannot function with an ability score of zero.

If you fall more than 10 feet, you suffer 1d10 damage per 10 feet fallen (to a maximum of 100d10 for a typical humanoid character without a parachute). As usual, if you take 50 points of damage or more, you must make a DC 10 Fortitude save or die.

A creature exhausted by the cold remains exhausted until it warms up and takes a one-hour rest (rather than the eight-hour rest normally required). A creature exhausted by heat remains exhausted until it cools off, drinks some water, and takes a one-hour rest.

Multiple failed exhaustion checks against extreme heat or cold deal damage as normal, but this damage does not stop at 0 hit points. A character that passes out from heat or cold continues to make endurance checks and may die from the damage inflicted.

If you (or your clothes) are set on fire, you take 1d6 damage the first turn, 2d6 damage the second turn, and so on. You can beat out flames as a standard action with a DC 15 Reflex saving throw, or automatically if you stop, drop, and roll (leaving you prone).

If you inhale thick smoke, you take 1d6 damage per round unless you pass a DC 15 Fortitude save. On a failed save, you become exhausted until you can breathe clean air.

Saving throws. A character who is poisoned must immediately make a Fortitude saving throw. On a failure, the character suffers the poison's initial effects. Whether or not the initial save was successful, the character must make a second saving throw 10 minutes later against the lingering effects of the poison.

Curing poison. Curing a poison (such as with the neutralize poison spell) prevents all further effects, and ends any ongoing effects such as unconsciousness. Curing a poison does not reverse any ability damage already dealt by the poison.

Caring for a poisoned character. You can use the Heal skill to help another character who has been poisoned. If you succeed on a Heal check against the DC of the poison, the patient gains advantage on the saving throw against the lingering effects of the poison. Only one attempt can be made to provide this help, and it requires constant care until the effects of the poison have passed.

Poison immunity. Venomous creatures are immune to their own poison. Non-living creatures are immune to all poison, as are many extraplanar beings.

If you are exposed to disease, you will suffer no immediate ill effects. However, after an incubation period, you must make a Fortitude saving throw. On a success, the disease has no effect—your immune system has fought off the infection. On a failure, you develop symptoms and suffer the effects of the disease. Like poisons, most diseases cause temporary ability damage. Ability damage dealt by a disease does not heal naturally until the disease is over.

Once your symptoms appear, you must make a Fortitude saving throw each day. On a failure, you take damage from the disease again. If you make successful saving throws on two consecutive days, you have fought off the disease and take no further damage.

Caring for a sick character. You can use the Heal skill to help a sick character by examining them and treating their illness. If you succeed on a Heal check against the DC of the disease, the patient gains advantage on the next saving throw against the disease. Only one attempt can be made to provide this help each day, and it takes one hour.

Exposure to raw magical energy can sometimes cause a creature to undergo unpredictable changes known as mutations. A mutation may be either harmful or beneficial. Certain monsters, such as the dreaded Mutation Demon, have the power to deliberately inflict harmful mutations on other creatures.

A creature subjected to mutagenic energy is normally granted a Fortitude saving throw to negate the effect. On a failure, the character suffers a mutation (selected at random from a table). Mutations are permanent unless cured by a spell such as cure mutation.

Some horrible creatures possess the ability to drain a victim’s life force, usually with a mêlée attack. A successful energy drain attack bestows one or more negative levels.

Each negative level applies a −1 penalty to all ability checks, and causes a spellcaster to lose one spell slot at the highest level available. These penalties are cumulative. A character with negative levels cannot gain a level until the negative levels are removed.

Negative levels can be removed with spells such as restoration. Alternatively, you can remove negative levels one at a time by spending experience points and spending a week of downtime training, in the same way as when gaining a level. The XP cost to remove each negative level is equal to 100 × (your level − your current number of negative levels). For example, a level 4 character with two negative levels would pay 200 XP to remove the first negative level, then 300 XP to remove the second negative level.

If you accumulate a number of negative levels equal to your level, you die. In most cases, a creature killed by energy drain returns as an undead monster.

Unlike in real life, characters in fantasy adventures sometimes come back from the dead. This is allowed only once per character. For this to happen, another player character must either cast an appropriate spell, or hire an NPC to do so.

To have an NPC cleric cast raise dead costs 1,000 sp or (at the cleric’s option) 500 sp and the completion of an assigned task. This spell only works if the body has been recovered.

Alternatively, an NPC druid can be hired to cast reincarnate. This costs 500 sp, and requires only a small part of the body. A reincarnated character returns to life in the form of a random creature, which may be an animal, humanoid, or magic beast.

Otherwise, you can start over with a new character at first level. Believe it or not, this can be a lot of fun once the disappointment of death wears off.

After you die, you can decide retroactively on the contents of your dead character’s will, respecting the conceit that when you wrote it you didn’t yet know about anything that was destined to happen on your final adventure. It is entirely admissible to leave your belongings to a previously unmentioned heir (your new character).

Optional rule: At the referee’s discretion, you may create a new character with XP equal to 1/3 the total amount accumulated by your most experienced previous character. For example, if your previous character earned a total of 600 XP (reaching level 4), your new character starts with 200 XP (and can spend 100 XP during character creation to advance to level 2).