Any combatant that reaches 0 hit points is Incapacitated and unable to act. They then start a 10 round count down, and if they are not stabilized at the end of 10 rounds, death occurs.
An ally (PC or NPC) can attempt to stabilize an incapacitated character to prevent death in several ways:
When a character has been stabilized after reaching 0 hit points, he returns to 1 hit point (or more if the magic involved healed hit points). He still must roll on the Injury Table for an effect. If you apply a Poultice of Regeneration or if your Stabilization Check was a critical success, then the injury roll will be made at advantage.
d20 | Description | Effect |
---|---|---|
1 | False Hope | The stabilization effect was unsuccessful and the target is already dead |
2 | Feeble | Lose 1D6 STR |
3 | Shaky | Lose 1D6 DEX |
4 | Weak | Lose 1D6 CON |
5 | Addled | Lose 1D6 INT |
6 | Confused | Lose 1D6 WIS |
7 | Disfigured | Lose 1D6 CHA |
8-13 | Maimed | Lose a body part. The loss could lead to one of the following permanent conditions. (armless, blinded, disfigured, dumb, enucleated, lame, maimed, mauled, scarred) |
14-19 | Busted Up | Disadvantage to all checks until safe rest |
20 | Standing | Immediately heal 1D8 HP |
A Medicine check (only one attempt allowed per day) will allow the injured character to ignore the penalty from ability score loss or Disadvantage to checks for eight hours. Character must have bandages and/or needle and thread or suffer Disadvantage to the check. If he uses a healer's kit, he gets advantage.
There are manifold ways to heal hit points through magic and herbalism and the like.