Does a Periapt of Wound Closure make you almost unkillable?

Question

Characters are often brought to 0 hit points, by mundane attacks or magic (with some effects specifically reducing the target to 0 hit points). In following rounds, the character must make death saves, unless stabilized. A character could die of massive damage (exceeds hit point maximum + current hit points) suffered during a single effect, but in my games that is rare (would only happen in a poorly planned encounter with a low-level party).

The Periapt of Wound Closure stabilizes you "whenever you are dying at the start of your turn." Once stabilized, you begin dying again (and get a death save failure) if you take any damage, but unless you take damage equal to or greater than your hit point maximum, the periapt will stabilize you again at the beginning of your next turn, and the death saves reset to zero. So it seems the only way to kill a character wearing the periapt is:

1. Do massive damage.
2. Damage the 0 hp character with two or three[1] separate attacks/effects in one round.
3. Remove the periapt.

As I mentioned above, 1 will be rare in my campaigns. 2 and 3 seem unlikely during combat, and I would only have it happen if the party was facing a long-time adversary who was aware of the periapt. "You again! Minions, attack Fred, and don't stop until there's no pulse!"

Having a party member exit the combat due to unconciousness can be a big problem, but of course one of the biggest problems of 0 hp is that it puts a timer on the party to try to stabilize/revive the character before death. At first I thought the periapt was a neat magic item, now it seems much more powerful than I realized. Am I presenting its function correctly, or is there something in the rules that I am missing?

[1] As pointed out in a comment below, a successful attack from within five feet against an Unconscious character is automatically a critical hit, causing two death save failures. So three death saves in one round could come from three damage sources that don't meet this criteria (ranged, AoE spells, reach weapons, etc.), or one that does combined with additional damage from any source.

Answer 1

Yes

(But it turns out that's not so great.)

As far as I can tell, your reading of the rules is correct: yes, a Periapt of Wound Closure does render you pretty much immune to bleeding out and dying of slowly failed Death Saves. That's kind of the point.

While that's a useful and valuable ability, worth spending money on, it's not actually all that useful. The main thing to consider is that it doesn't actually help you win a fight, it just helps you not die. Once you're down, even with the periapt, you still need healing magic to make it back up again and start usefully contributing to the combat (or a natural 20, which the periapt actually makes impossible as you don't get to roll death saves at all). In pretty much any situation in which healing is available, the #1 priority is getting downed people back on their feet anyway, optimally before their turns so they can do something rather than miss their turn. Yes, there are exceptions, but they're rare enough that it seems reasonable an expensive (in terms of attunement slots if nothing else) specialty magic item should be able to save you in such a circumstance.

If there's no healing magic available - well, the periapt is a bit more useful. But monsters are rarely going to waste time taking swings at downed foes - it's a waste of time when there are more dangerous threats, and intelligent enemies (who could use tactics and try to swiftly eliminate an opponent) would likely understand that without a healer on the field, they're already eliminated. So yes, the periapt does keep you safe in such a situation. But it's already not a very common situation, and again all it does is keep you alive, not let you contribute. If the rest of your party drops, you're dead periapt or no periapt.

Answer 2

No, it doesn't make you almost unkillable.

Yes, you are presenting it correctly.

(I hate it when the question in the title and the one in the text have opposite answers!)

As you say: The Periapt of Wound Closure stabilizes you "whenever you are dying at the start of your turn." If you are dead at the start of your turn then its just a pretty ornament.

It is actually quite easy to kill a downed opponent (PHB p.197):

Damage at 0 Hit Points. If you take any damage while you have 0 hit points, you suffer a death saving throw failure. If the damage is from a critical hit, you suffer two failures instead. If the damage equals or exceeds your hit point maximum, you suffer instant death.

Remember, a creature on 0hp is Unconscious, a state which, among other things includes (PHB p.290):

• 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.

So the victim is really easy to damage and, if you are within 5 feet, only needs 2 hits to kill.

Answer 3

Just found this while trying to find the name of the item.

For anyone coming across this, my GM had a reasonable way to stop it. Combat was over for the most part. Part of our group was trying to get to the downed members, but in that time the enemy tried to kill our sorcerer who had the Periapt. As the name suggests, his wounds closed on his turn. The enemy was confused so he searched him for what might cause it, because he wasn’t stupid. The only item he had on him other than weapons and armor was his periapt so the GM did an intelligence check and he took the item.

Depending on the encounter, enemies aren’t always mindless or stupid. You just have to evaluate the scenario.

Answer 4

Hey was looking into some solutions as well and stumbled onto this.

My group around lv10 is fighting a demilich along with summonable gargoyle minions so 1 shotting a PCs full health at 0 isn't happening.

Even though one of my players had the periapt for a while and it has saved them a few times, it really only 'thwarted' me with the demilich howl (on a successful save you fear the demilich on a fail instant 0 hp) and while I'm not an adversarial DM by any means and bend over backwards to have my mobs fumble when theyre in the corner (not that I wont kill my players but doing things like stabbing while down is a big no no unless that mob has NO other options)

I've been looking for a way to counter the player but just realized this: ANTI-MAGIC FIELD! It suppresses the effects of magic items.

The demilich has it as a lair action so that works but it only lasts a turn so at most I can get him to fail a single save or so. I think it would still offer that fear factor I want to instill even if it doesn't kill him (although if I want, I can have the demilich instruct one of the minions to attack mid turn since the demilich only inflicts saving throws and no attack rolls. (I leave KO characters out of AoEs, it would be unfair to change it now especially since I'm not really out to get anyone in particular).

If you have a smart or prepared boss (or a beholder), it can use an anti magic field to counter the periapt.

Answer 5

There are ways to kill downed characters. Many enemies have multi-attack. It isn't unreasonable for an enemy to spend time making sure a downed person is dead. Take the aftermath of real battles where soldiers would check for survivors to either finish off, capture, or heal. Also you can use ranged attacks to cause someone to fail a death save. As they're prone you have advantage on the attack and if they hot they fail a death save. If you use spellcasters on the enemy side equip them with magic missile to essentially instantly kill a player that has gone down or instead of having the enemy who was fighting and downed them find another target have them double check that the person is dead (i.e. attack them at least once before moving on).