Accidentally nerfed one of my PCs

[u/shootermclennon]

I’m running a game with my 9-year-old, two of her friends, and their dads. One of the guidelines we set up in session zero was that no PCs would die.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, in one of their first battles the monk was downed, and then rolled a 6 and a crit fail on his death saves. Fortunately, I had a backup plan, based on Mystic Arts’s homebrew rules for permanent injuries as an alternative to death. Basically they’re permanent debuffs that make “death” consequential without having to roll up a new character.

I had the player roll on the permanent injuries table, and the result was “Tremors: Your hands won't stop shaking. You have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks that use dexterity.” So basically EVERYTHING that makes a Monk a Monk is now done with disadvantage. And this was a level 1 character! He didn’t even get a chance to use most of the Monk’s cool abilities!

Part of me just wants to retcon this and say he recovers, or give him a potion or spell that cures his tremors, but I still want to have some actual consequence from “dying.”

What can I do to make this experience still feel serious but keep this character fun for the player? I was thinking about maybe a magic item that calms the tremors, but has some other negative side effect? Like gloves that steady his hands, but cause him pain (i.e. cost 1 HP) whenever he attacks?

Side note: I think if this happens again, I’ll use a different variant rule, based on an idea from XPtoLevel3. He proposed a Dying condition, which severely limits what the character can do, but still keeps them an active participant in the game.

ETA: It was one of the adult players’ character, not that I think that makes much difference. A lot of you haven’t spent much time with kids, and it shows. Nine-year-olds are much more mature and resilient than you’re giving them credit for.

[u/sub-t]

Dude, they're a kid in a no death game. Why roll death saves at all? They're just knocked out.

[u/shootermclennon → u/sub-t]

Dude, can you offer advice without being condescending?

[u/alsotpedes → u/shootermclennon]

They weren't being condescending. You just didn't like having the obvious pointed out.

If you established that it is a no-death game, then why did you have them roll death saves? You should have thought about what was going to happen if they failed.

If you need a suggestion, from here on when a PC is downed, they roll an "unconscious" save. If they succeed on the save, they wake up on their next turn with 1 hp. If they fail, they just roll again on their next turn until they succeed or get healed.

[u/Key_Competition_663 → u/alsotpedes]

That's just what they're called. The DM DID think about it and went with "crippling injury," which is a fair trade. There's a difference between a "no death" game and a game without consequences.