Draw Steel Dying & bleeding cheat sheet
Death saves, bleeding, and stabilization. At-the-table reference for Draw Steel.
Draw Steel dying and bleeding rules: what happens at 0 Stamina and below, why there's no death save, and how the Bleeding condition drains Stamina.
Reaching 0 Stamina
- You are dying, but you're not unconscious: you can still act, though you gain the Bleeding condition and can't Catch Breath on your own.
- There's no death save to roll each turn. Dying is a state, not a countdown roll.
- You die outright once your Stamina drops to negative your Winded value.
Why there's no death save
- Draw Steel skips the D&D-style death save: a dying hero keeps taking main actions, triggered actions, and free strikes, subject to Bleeding's own drain.
- The danger is cumulative damage, including Bleeding, pushing Stamina further negative, not a random roll each turn.
- Healing that restores Stamina above 0 removes Bleeding and immediately ends the dying state.
Helping a dying ally
- Any healing effect that restores Stamina above 0 ends the dying state, there's no separate stabilize roll.
- A dying hero can't Catch Breath to spend their own Recovery; an ally's heal or ability is what restores their Stamina.
Bleeding
- Bleeding is a condition: you lose 1d6 + your level Stamina after you take a main action, a triggered action, or make a Might or Agility roll.
- It doesn't trigger at the start of your turn, only when you take one of those actions or rolls.
- Bleeding continues until treated (First Aid, a healing ability) or you die.
- While dying (0 Stamina or lower) you are always Bleeding, and it can't be removed until your Stamina is back above 0.
- Like any other condition, Bleeding doesn't stack: you are either Bleeding or not.
Common mistakes
- There are no death saves in Draw Steel: don't import D&D's roll-to-not-die loop.
- 0 Stamina is dying, not unconscious: a dying hero can still act, but is Bleeding and can't Catch Breath on their own.
- Bleeding triggers on actions and Might/Agility rolls, not at the start of the turn.
- Bleeding does not stack: it's a single condition like any other, not a running total from every source that inflicted it.