Unconscious
- An unconscious creature is Incapacitated (see the condition), can’t move or speak, and is unaware of its surroundings
- The creature drops whatever it’s holding and falls Prone.
- The creature automatically fails Strength and Dexterity Saving Throws.
- Attack rolls against the creature have advantage.
- Any Attack that hits the creature is a critical hit if the attacker is within 5 feet of the creature.
Causes
Common Causes: getting tired, the spell Sleep, Brass Dragons, Jackalwares, Homunculus, Drow, and Vrocks
Affected Groups
Why it matters to players: Possibly the most overlooked condition, Unconscious makes night ambushes deadly and assassin work a lot easier. If your character is Evil aligned or just has dark tendencies, this will come up. This is the only condition more deadly than Paralyzed, and even then only by a slim margin.
Most, if not all, Unconscious effects end upon taking damage so it has more nuance than Paralyzed which often doesn’t care how much damage you are taking. When you get lucky enough to attack an Unconscious target, put as much damage as you can into that first hit. Poison your blade, Smite with your highest slot, cast Hunter’s Mark, use Savage attacker, cast Fireball at a high level, or use whatever other tricks you have to play because this is the time to play them.
Being Unconscious yourself is not very fun since it effectively skips your turn, but thinking of solutions your fellow players can use to wake you up can be. Taking damage or being shaken awake are the most common ways to cancel this effect, but these can come from a lot of places. Familiars or friendly NPCs can use their action to shake a player character awake thereby keeping the other players focused on combat. If you are Unconscious but have a sizable amount of health back, then you can start to consider how to get the smallest amount of damage dealt to you. These can be anywhere from the Cleric casting the spell Spirit Guardians and allowing you to take damage from it (you don’t automatically fail Wisdom saves while Unconscious) to the simple, effective method of throwing a dart at the downed character outside 5 feet.
Why it matters to DMs: Unconscious isn’t generally game-breaking since its easier to counter than other effects and is fairly rare in terms of monster abilities (excluding Drow which is almost a guarantee to knock out some of your players), but it will become a factor if a player suggests a night-time ambush.
Unconscious is more “give and take” than some of the other status effects. Namely, your players should be able to attack sleeping targets in proportion to the number of times it is used against them. The exception to this is that we haven’t known a DM savage enough to kill players in their sleep without any warning or back and forth, but we are sure they are out there. Being killed without any work to balance it against player choice isn’t going to be received well. The DM is supposed to put barriers in their campaign for the players to overcome, not be actively looking for a chink in their armor to ruin them with.
Most, if not all, Unconscious effects end upon taking damage so it has more nuance than Paralyzed which often doesn’t care how much damage you are taking. When you get lucky enough to attack an Unconscious target, put as much damage as you can into that first hit. Poison your blade, Smite with your highest slot, cast Hunter’s Mark, use Savage attacker, cast Fireball at a high level, or use whatever other tricks you have to play because this is the time to play them.
Being Unconscious yourself is not very fun since it effectively skips your turn, but thinking of solutions your fellow players can use to wake you up can be. Taking damage or being shaken awake are the most common ways to cancel this effect, but these can come from a lot of places. Familiars or friendly NPCs can use their action to shake a player character awake thereby keeping the other players focused on combat. If you are Unconscious but have a sizable amount of health back, then you can start to consider how to get the smallest amount of damage dealt to you. These can be anywhere from the Cleric casting the spell Spirit Guardians and allowing you to take damage from it (you don’t automatically fail Wisdom saves while Unconscious) to the simple, effective method of throwing a dart at the downed character outside 5 feet.
Why it matters to DMs: Unconscious isn’t generally game-breaking since its easier to counter than other effects and is fairly rare in terms of monster abilities (excluding Drow which is almost a guarantee to knock out some of your players), but it will become a factor if a player suggests a night-time ambush.
Unconscious is more “give and take” than some of the other status effects. Namely, your players should be able to attack sleeping targets in proportion to the number of times it is used against them. The exception to this is that we haven’t known a DM savage enough to kill players in their sleep without any warning or back and forth, but we are sure they are out there. Being killed without any work to balance it against player choice isn’t going to be received well. The DM is supposed to put barriers in their campaign for the players to overcome, not be actively looking for a chink in their armor to ruin them with.
https://halflinghobbies.com/every-condition-and-how-to-use-them-in-dd-5e/#Blinded
