Dungeons & Dragonshas a strange relationship with death. It’s the game’s fail state. If you get hit too many times, you die. Simple enough, right? The risk of death is what makes combat tense and exciting, at least at lower levels. But losing your beloved character isn’t fun, and losing your beloved character to a random fluke of the die feels awful.

So how do you keep life-or-death tension without punishing players for the slightest mistake? The answer is 5e’s death saving throw system. This system keeps characters from dying immediately, but it racks up the tension with increasingly tense dice rolls.

A player character dying at a masquerade ball in Dungeons & Dragons.

Updated on June 05, 2025 by Jack Filsinger:With the release of the 2024 Player’s Handbook, there have been some minor tweaks to how death and being knocked unconscious works in Dungeons & Dragons. We’ve updated this guide with everything you need to know to make death saves in DND, and even how to potentially come back to life should you fail.

How Does Death Work In DND?

Every creature in D&D has a certain number ofhit points,or HP. Hit points represent how much of a beating you can take.

A sickly peasant lad will only have a few hit points; a powerful monster like a Tarrasque will have hundreds.

Three adventurers gather around a burning funeral pyre in Dungeons & Dragons.

When you successfullymake an attack, the creature you’re attacking loses hit points. However, during combat,when a creature successfully attacks you, you lose hit points.

The more hit points you have, the more damage you can withstand;the closer you are to zero hit points, the closer you are to death.

An image showing various dice rolls from a 1 to a 20 in Dungeons & Dragons.

What Is Massive Damage?

One of two things happenswhenyou reach zero hit points.What happens when you reach zero hit pointsdepends on whether the damage is considered massive or not.

Once you’ve reached zero hit points,check how much damage you have left over from the attackthat knocked you down to zero.

The Archlich Vecna in full armor with glowing purple eyes in Dungeons & Dragons.

For example,if you have ahit point maximum of 20, and you take 45 points of damagefrom a single attack,you would die instantly.

What Is A Death Saving Throw?

When a character is reduced to zero HPbut hasn’t taken more damage than their hit point maximum,they fall unconsciousand fall prone.

An unconscious character can’t take actions, drops whatever they’re holding, and any attack targeting them is a critical hit.

A druid in green robes casting lesser restoration on a fallen warrior in Dungeons & Dragons.

When a character starts their turn with zero HP, they mustmake a special saving throw. This is calleda death saving throw.Unlike most saving throws,death saving throws aren’t tied to an ability score.

Spells and abilities that give a character advantage on their saving throws can improve their chances, but otherwise, it’s all up to chance.

A cleric attempts a raise dead spell surrounded by glowing white light in Dungeons & Dragons.

How To Make A Death Saving Throw

Roll a twenty-sided die (d20).If the roll is10 or higher, you succeed; otherwise, you fail.

Mark down whether you succeeded or failed, and wait for your next turn.A single success or failure does nothing on its own, but as these rolls stack, you may suffer consequences.

A magic user calls forth a magical skull using necromantic magic in Dungeons & Dragons.

If someone attacks you while you’re making death saves, mark off an additional failure. If the attack is acritical hit, mark off two failures.

You want toavoid having three failures, andyour goal is to get three successes. Here’s a breakdown of the effects of each roll.

A wizard with glowing eyes and a mystical staff and gray hair floats in Dungeon & Dragons.

1

2-9

10-19

20

Instantly gain one HP and wake up.

If you succeedat a death saving throwthree times,you become stable; you’re no longer in danger of dying. Your character willstay unconscious for 1d4 hours and then wake up with 1 hp.

If you take any damage while unconscious, you have to start making death saving throws again.

If you failat a death saving throwthree times, your character dies.

If you want more of a challenge, you cantry the optional Meat Grinder Moderulesfrom Tomb of Annihilation. In Meat Grinder Mode,the DC for death saving throws is set to 15. If you roll below a 15 in Meat Grinder Mode, you fail your death saving throw.

This ruleset is perfectfor people who think 5e Dungeons & Dragons is too easyorwant a more ‘old-school’ tabletop experience.

Do Monsters Need To Make Death Saving Throws?

Most monsters don’t need to make death saving throws; when they fall to zero hit points, they die.

When attackinga monster or creature,you can choose to reduce the enemy to one hit point and knock them unconsciousrather than kill them if you so choose.

Just make sure youcall this in advance.

At the DM’s discretion,a powerful villain or story-important NPC might follow the same rules as the players, getting to make death saving throws just like you do.

How To Help A Dying Character

If your character is still on their feet, you canhelp your friendwith their death saving throws in a number of ways.

The easiest way to help a dying character is toheal them magically, with a spell like Cure Wounds. you may alsouse a bonus action to administer a healing potion.

Any magical healing gets a character back on their feet, no problem. Once healed, they no longer have to make death saves.

If you can’t heal them magically, you can try tostabilize them.

First, you mustbe within melee distancewith your ally, then,make a Medicine check by using the Help action. If youroll 10 or higher,your friend becomes stable,and they can stop making death saving throws.

The Healer’s Kit can help you stabilize a characterwithout needing to roll. Spells likeSpare the Dyingcan also helpstabilize a character.

What Happens If A Character Dies?

A character who has diedcannot be healed, cannot move or take actions, and is (for all intents and purposes)out of the game. Unless you use magic to bring the character back,they’re gone.

The DM can choosehow they’d like to deal with character death.Some DMs will actively attempt to killyour characters and will make it hard to come back from the dead; if you’re playing an “old-school” D&D game,they might believe that it’s their job.

Other DMsdon’t like characters to dieunless it feels earned and will make it easy to bring your character back.

You shouldtalk to your DMwhile you’re creating your characters to figure out what their approach is so that you’re able to plan accordingly. It’s an important part of any good Session Zero.

Either way, once a character is dead, you’ve basicallygot two options:bring them back through magicormake a new character.

How To Resurrect A Character

If you want tobring back your dead character,you’ve got to use a necromancy spell likeRevivify,Raise Dead, Resurrection,orTrue Resurrection.

Coming back from the dead is an ordeal;these spells are fairlydifficult, expensive to cast,and havelingering side effects.

Depending on your campaign setting, resurrection may not be permitted.

Many of these spellsrequirea diamond worth at least 500 gp, which the spell consumes. Most of these spellsalso require that the character has been dead for less than a certain amount of time.

Many resurrection spellsalso have penaltiesfor the caster and the target. For example,some resurrected characterswill have to take a -4 penaltyto just about every rollthey make until they’ve made four long rests.

Other spells, like Resurrection, incur a penalty to the caster.

Casting Resurrection on a player who’s been dead for more than a year prevents you from casting spells again until you finish a long rest.

As mentioned,there are plenty of spellsand magical effectsthat can help out dying characters.Here is a breakdown of all of them.

2

Dead creature can’t become undead and extends the time limit on raising the target from the dead by ten days.

3

Creature that died within the last minute returns to life with 1 hp.

5

Creature that died within the last 10 days returns to life with 1 hp.

Creature that died within the last 10 days returns to life in a new body.

7

Creature that died within the last 100 years returns to life with full HP, all injuries healed.

8

Creates an inert physical clone of a creature; upon death, the creature’s soul moves to the clone body.

9

Creature that died within the last 200 years returns to life with full HP, all injuries and curses healed, can provide a new body if the original no longer exists.

Reshape reality. You can undo a single recent event, forcing a reroll… including a friend’s failed death saving throw.

How To Make A New Character

If you want tomake a new character, talk to your DMabout how they want you to go about it.Your campaign might have house rulesabout making a new character after a character dies.

Some DMs want you to make a character that’s the same level as the rest of your adventuring party, and others want you to start back at first level. Some DMs might not want you to make a new character at all because the story’s about fated heroes.

If you do make a new character,consider how they might tie in to your previous character, if at all. Your new charactercould be a former ally, a family member seeking revenge, or even an NPCfrom another chapter of the campaign.