bleeding and stabilization

[davidhoff]

My character (wizard 4th level; no regeneration ability) was killed and lost all hit points...then it said I stopped bleeding and had stabilized and I started gaining hitpoints one-by-one until I recovered.  Question: Does this always happen?  What does it depend on?  My party partner (4th level fighter; no regeneration ability) died as well, but he never stopped bleeding and bled to death and never stabilized...why didn't he stablize as well.

Thank you for your help.

Davidhoff

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

When knocked between -1 and -9 HP, your status goes from Alive to Bleeding To Death. While Bleeding To Death, you lose another hit point every round, but have a chance to Stabilize during those rounds.

If you Stabilize, you begin gaining 1 HP each round until you reach 1 Hit Point, at which point you get up, Alive.

If you reach -10 HP, however, you are Dead, and must be Raised or Respawn.

If at any point while Bleeding To Death, you are healed (by any means) you automatically Stabilize.

Can't remember the chance at Stabilization each round.

[Pseudonym]

Pretty sure it is 10% chance each round to spontaneously stabilise. Please note correct spelling of stabilize (sic).

[twidget658]

For the math on it: Every character, regardless of Constitution and leaving aside things like Regeneration, has a 10% chance of stabilizing on any one hit-point loss when bleeding to death.
 
 So, when dropped below 0 hitpoints, your chances of bleeding to death are:
 

• -1 == 38.7% chance
• -2 == 43.0% chance
• -3 == 47.8% chance
• -4 == 53.1% chance
• -5 == 59.0% chance
• -6 == 65.6% chance
• -7 == 72.9% chance
• -8 == 81.0% chance
• -9 == 90.0% chance

So, really, what you should hope for upon being struck down is "Oh [insert deity of choice], please let me just be one hitpoint under...".

 
 Originally posted by darkstorme. This was in a thread some time ago on a completely different topic. I'll post it here so it will be easier to find in the future,

[lonnarin]

Gotta love those Statistics majors.

Though keep in mind, even Archimedes rolled natural one over 50 times in a row in the crafthall. Chance and fate rarely coincide.

[darkstorme]

Gotta love those Statistics majors.

Computer Science majors, thank you very much!

And bear in mind, of course, that the percentage chance of bleeding to death is true at that hit point level.  So while you've only got a 38.7% chance of bleeding to death if you've got nine hit points to go, when you drop to -2, you've only got a 57% chance of getting out of this alive, same as anyone else at that HP total... and so on, and so forth, while you watch your lifeblood spill out onto the (forest loam/spray-swept rock/dungeon floor - choose one).

It's only the odds of failing to roll the saving 10% for that many successive rolls that remains constant.

[Hellblazer]

Something I was wondering. It seems that when you are at a lower level you actually stabilize a lot more than a higher level that bleeds to death.

[davidhoff]

Thanks to:

Stephen Zuckerman
twidget658
lonnarin
darkstorme
Hellbalzer

I can't say how pleased and impressed I was with the quickness and accuracy of your responses.  I now know exactly how I will die next.  Thanks and best to you all.

[minerva]

Hellblazer it might be that at higher levels you come across critters that are hitting you for bigger damage amounts. This means fewer close encounters of the bleeding to death kind and more of the you're really dead kind...

[Dorganath]

It's only the odds of failing to roll the saving 10% for that many successive rolls that remains constant.

I just want to highlight this statement, because this is the key mechanic that controls whether or not one will stabilize with each check.  So each time the check happens, there's a 10% chance your character will stabilize.  And that chance is the same no matter what the current hit points may be.

The statistical distribution is over a very large sample.  On a smaller scale, it would be still within the realm of possibility and probability to die 80% of the time of being reduced to -2 HP, for example.  It's all in the roll of the dice.

[Dorganath]

Something I was wondering. It seems that when you are at a lower level you actually stabilize a lot more than a higher level that bleeds to death.

Hellblazer it might be that at higher levels you come across critters that are hitting you for bigger damage amounts. This means fewer close encounters of the bleeding to death kind and more of the you're really dead kind...

There is no level-dependent factor for whether or not one will stabilize.  It's 10% each time it's checked, regardless of any other factors.

[Hellblazer]

Minerva I did ment when bleeding to death, not straight from living to dead.

And thanks Dorg

[Eight-Bit]

Hellblazer it might be that at higher levels you come across critters that are hitting you for bigger damage amounts. This means fewer close encounters of the bleeding to death kind and more of the you're really dead kind...

What she is saying is there's a greater chance that you're not going to be in the low negative hp when you're killed due to the damage dealt by higher level creatures.

[Hellblazer]

and I fully understood that before I even posted my first post. I was specifically refering to when you are bleeding to death. But Dorg already answered me on that.