Disabled - A Question

[Supplement Four]

Question: A 3rd level barbarian with 22 hit points is reduced to just 3 hit points during a combat encounter. He's hit again, suffering another 7 points of damage.

Does his hit point total drop to 0? Or does it drop to -4?

I ask because the answer tells if the Disabled state is worthwhile or not. The book says that, at exactly 0 HP, the character is considered Disabled (not dying).

It seems that neither answer to this question is a good one. If the former is correct, then it is unrealistically hard to deal a killing blow on an opponent (you'd have to hit them once they're disabled).

OTOH, if the latter answer is correct, then it is a very small, small percentage of the time that a character becomes disabled.

I may have to tweak this rule so that the disabled state is more probable but not 100% guarranteed when a killing blow is made. It could be a Fate Point option, too.

 

[Clovenhoof]

By the Rules As Written, he drops to -4 and is "dying".
The "Disabled" mode is valid for exactly 0HP only.
And yes, I also think that it's rather stupid. The odds to land at exactly 0HP are tiny. Normally you're either up and about or down and dying.

(the Fierce classes have the Diehard chain, which alleviates the problem for them, but does nothing for the rest of the world.)

You could introduce a house rule that makes 0 HP a "stop sign" at least for PCs and important NPCs, i.e. in the situation you describe they would drop to 0 HP, not -4.
Mobs/Fodder/Extras are typically treated as "dead" when they drop below 1HP anyway.