Death save outcomes at a glance
| Roll | Result |
|---|---|
| Natural 20 | Regain 1 HP, become conscious, no longer dying |
| 10 to 19 | One success |
| 2 to 9 | One failure |
| Natural 1 | Two failures |
| 3 total successes | Stable (unconscious, no longer dying) |
| 3 total failures | Dead |
When death saves start
You begin making death saving throws when you drop to 0 hit points without dying outright and are left unconscious. At the start of each of your turns while dying, you roll a plain d20 with no modifiers added. This is not tied to any ability score, so two characters at 0 HP have the exact same odds.
Track successes and failures separately as they accumulate. You need three of either. They do not need to happen on back-to-back turns, and reaching three failures ends the character even if you had already banked one or two successes.
Taking damage while dying
Being at 0 HP is dangerous beyond the die roll. If you take any damage while at 0 HP, you suffer one death save failure automatically. If that damage came from a critical hit, you suffer two failures instead.
There is also an instant-death rule. If a single instance of damage reduces you to 0 HP and the leftover damage equals or exceeds your hit point maximum, you die on the spot with no saving throws allowed. A level 1 wizard with 8 HP taken from full to negative 8 or worse is simply gone.
Getting back up
Any healing above 0 hit points ends the dying state immediately, restores consciousness, and wipes away accumulated successes and failures. A single point of healing is enough to get someone off the ground and back into the fight.
If nobody heals you, an ally can use an action to stabilize you with a DC 10 Wisdom (Medicine) check. A stabilized creature stops rolling death saves but stays unconscious at 0 HP. After 1d4 hours, a stable creature regains 1 hit point on its own.
How Adventure Codex handles it
Adventure Codex tracks death saves with the full 5e rules built in. When a character hits 0 HP it surfaces three success and three failure markers, applies the natural 20 and natural 1 special cases, and clears everything the moment healing lands. You tap the outcome and the app keeps the count straight, so the table can focus on whether help arrives in time.
Frequently asked questions
How many death saves do you need to die in 5e?
Three failed death saving throws. They do not have to be consecutive, and any successes you have already rolled do not cancel them out.
Does rolling a natural 20 on a death save do anything special?
Yes. A natural 20 means you regain 1 hit point immediately, become conscious, and are no longer dying. A natural 1 counts as two failures.
What happens if I take damage while at 0 HP?
Taking any damage while at 0 HP causes one death save failure, or two failures if the hit was a critical. If the damage equals or exceeds your hit point maximum, you die instantly.