History Main / StatDeath

** Strength drain is normally non fatal, but if some undead like Shadows bring your strength to 0 they'll instantly kill you and turn you into one of them.

* In older editions of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', zero Constitution is fatal. Zero in Strength or Dexterity means you're physically helpless and immobile, but you can still use some mental or magic powers. Zero in any mental stat means you're comatose and drooling. Certain monsters do circumvent this, however: Anything that is entirely non-alive like golems and undead has null Constitution, anything that's utterly immobile has 0 Strength and Dexterity, and any completely mindless automaton following basic instructions can have 0 Intelligence. (In 4th edition, stat damage was no longer possible; 5th Edition brought it back, though it tends to be very circumstantial.)

* One of the [[ScrappyMechanic lesser-appreciated mechanics]] of ''VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime'' is the fact that running out of MP incapacitates your characters just as well as running out of HP: however, enemies are also subject to this, you gain enough MP that this isn't a huge issue against most common enemies, and a good number of special attacks also cost HP to use.

A rule where death occurs as a result of a primary stat being reduced to 0. Your [[GlassCannon extremely out-of-shape Wizard]] tried out an unidentified ''-5 ring of strength''? [[MadeOfPlasticine His bones and organs are crushed under his own weight]]. Your [[DumbMuscle profoundly stupid fighter]] got his Intelligence sapped by a Mind Flayer? [[TooDumbToLive He forgets how to breathe]]. And woe to the hero whose Dexterity falls to 0, who suddenly [[DeathByFallingOver slips on a banana peel and breaks his neck]].

* In ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'', you die if aging causes ''any'' stat to drop to zero. If some other force drops a stat to zero you're rendered all but helpless.

* In older editions of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', zero Constitution is fatal. Zero in Strength or Dexterity means you're physically helpless and immobile, but you can still use some mental or magic powers. Zero in any mental stat means you're comatose and drooling. Certain monsters do circumvent this, however: Anything that is entirely non-alive like golems and undead has null Constitution, anything that's utterly immobile has 0 Strength and Dexterity, and any completely mindless automaton following basic instructions can have 0 Intelligence. (In 4th edition, stat damage is no longer possible.)

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* In ''TabletopGame/BetrayalAtHouseOnTheHill'', players have four stats - Might, Speed, Knowledge, and Sanity - on a meter that determines how many dice you get to roll for those checks (and how many spaces you can move in a turn for Speed). Unless a Haunt changes the rules for it, the player dies if any of their stats run out.

[[folder: Board Games ]]
* In ''TabletopGame/BetrayalAtHouseOnTheHill'', if any of a character's four stats (Speed, Might, Knowledge, and Sanity) are reduced to the skull at the bottom of its counter and the haunt is in effect, that character dies.
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* In ''VideoGame/ArxFatalis'', max health is calculated by formula "Max health = 2*Constitution*(Your Level +1)", meaning that simply leveling up gives you enough health, even if your Constitution is at absolute minimum of 6, and making CN a DumpStat. However, HilarityEnsues if a lich randomly decides to cast a [[ThatOneAttack Curse spell]], decreasing all your stats by 10 — which, according to the above formula, means instant death for anyone with CN below 11.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', some enemies — thankfully not the player characters — are subject to this. Certain creatures (like Ultima Weapon and the monsters in the Cultist's Tower) are made of magic, and thus will die instantly if their MP is exhausted. This is why the game gives you the Rasp spell.
* Characters in ''VideoGame/{{Darklands}}'' are incapacitated when their endurance is reduced to 0 and killed if their strength is reduced to 0.
* Zigzagged in the first two ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games: under normal circumstances, stat loss cannot drop any primary stat below 1 (or 2 if the stat in question is boosted by a trait). However, if the stat loss is caused by radiation sickness and it would drop any primary stat to 0 or negative, the player character keels over instantly, even if they haven't actually reached deadly dose yet.

* In older editions of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', zero Constitution is fatal. Zero in Strength or Dexterity means you're physically helpless and immobile, but you can still use some mental or magic powers. Zero in any mental stat means you're comatose and drooling. Certain monsters do circumvent this, however: Anything that is entirely non-alive like golems and undead has null Constitution, anything that's utterly immobile has 0 Strength and Dexterity, and any completely mindless automaton following basic instructions can have 0 Intelligence (In 4th edition, stat damage is no longer possible.)
* In ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' you die if aging causes ''any'' stat to drop to zero. If some other force drops a stat to zero you're rendered all but helpless.

** If a creature has 0 Toughness then it dies. No, you can't regenerate it; no, being Indestructible won't save it. Creatures simply can't exist if they don't have positive toughness. The same [[StoneWall clearly]] doesn't apply to Power.

* This is the way damage works in ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'', where the ''only'' damage is to your physical statistics - if two of your physical stats hit zero, you're helpless; when the third joins them, you die.

** Its second edition has a SanityMeter instead for mortal humans, Integrity...[[SubvertedTrope which cannot actually hit zero]] except under very special circumstances (read here; there's precisely ''one'' monster that can do that, and it does so explicitly as part of eating its target). Rather, an Integrity 1 character automatically gains a [[StatusEffect Condition]] representing his or her fraying sanity, [[BackFromTheBrink but it's always possible to buy your way back up]].

** Although this has now been removed in recent versions, though if your stats drop to zero you are probably going to get eaten by the first enemy that comes by...

* In ''VideoGame/ArxFatalis'', max health is calculated by formula "Max health = 2*Constitution*(Your Level +1)", meaning that simply leveling up gives you enough health, even if your Constitution is at absolute minimum of 6, and making CN a DumpStat. However, HilarityEnsues if a lich randomly decides to cast a [[ThatOneAttack Curse spell]], decreasing all your stats by 10 - which, according to the above formula, means instant death for anyone with CN below 11.
* One of the [[ScrappyMechanic lesser-appreciated mechanics]] of VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime is the fact that running out of MP incapacitates your characters just as well as running out of HP: however, enemies are also subject to this, you gain enough MP that this isn't a huge issue against most common enemies and a good number of special attacks also cost HP to use.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', some enemies--thankfully not the player characters--are subject to this. Certain creatures (like Ultima Weapon and the monsters in the Cultist's Tower) are made of magic, and thus will die instantly if their MP is exhausted. This is why the game gives you the Rasp spell.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'': An interesting case where there is a [[MagiBabble long-winded explanation]] about this sort of demise, and nothing to do with your Stamina having just been reduced to 0. All ''sapient'' beings possess five graces: Heart (Willpower), Sword (Valor), Ring (Temperance), Cup (Compassion), and Staff (Conviction). If your Heart grace is reduced to 0, you simply cease to be something that matters. You're even less transient than the dream of a [[TheFairFolk creature made of dreams]]. This is not something that Creation-born have to worry about, but they can still have StatDeath if all their ''other'' graces are reduced to 0, which is usually the result of being soul-ravished by the aforementioned dream-creature.
* Can generally happen in games where aging is represented by the periodical lowering of attributes. At least one edition of ''TabletopGame/{{RuneQuest}}'' even spells out that yes, it's possible to "ugly away" by Charisma dropping to 0 from old age.

** A player loses the game if they need to draw a card and there are none left in their Library. As the Library represents the player's mind, with many cards that disturb it implying [[MindRape cracks in sanity]], this can be thought of as the player finally succumbing to madness from intelligence draining.

* In older editions of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', zero Constitution is fatal. Zero in Strength or Dexterity means you're physically helpless and immobile, but you can still use some mental or magic powers. Zero in any mental stat means you're comatose and drooling. (In 4th edition, stat damage is no longer possible.)

[[folder: Table Top Games ]]

* Inverted in ''TabletopGame/DarkHeresy'' and its spinoffs. Two of your character's stats are [[ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow Insanity]] and [[TheCorruption Corruption]]; if either of them ever reaches 100, the very least that will happen is the character is unfit for use by a player. 100 Corruption in particular usually means becoming either [[AGodAmI a lesser daemon]] or [[BodyHorror a Chaos Spawn]].

** In most game lines, having your Stamina brought to zero causes you to swiftly weaken and die of illness in days. Similarly, if your KarmaMeter (Humanity for vampires/Prometheans, Morality for mortals, etc.) hits zero, the character becomes a monster, either literally (vampires) or figuratively (most everything else). They may not die, but they become unplayable.

** ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasyRoleplay'': Creatures generally die if their [[{{Constitution}} Toughness]] score is reduced to zero, such as from disease.

-->--[[VideoGame/DungeonCrawl Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup source code]]

* In most games in the ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'' having your Stamina brought to zero causes you to swiftly weaken and die of illness in days. Similarly, if your KarmaMeter (Humanity for vampires/Prometheans, Morality for mortals, etc.) hits zero, the character becomes a monster, either literally (vampires) or figuratively (most everything else). They may not die, but they become unplayable.
** It's second edition has a SanityMeter instead for mortal humans, Integrity...[[SubvertedTrope which cannot actually hit zero]] except under very special circumstances (read here; there's precisely ''one'' monster that can do that, and it does so explicitly as part of eating its target). Rather, an Integrity 1 character automatically gains a [[StatusEffect Condition]] representing his or her fraying sanity, [[BackFromTheBrink but it's always possible to buy your way back up]].
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' has a rule that states: "If a model's Strength or Toughness are ever reduced to zero, it is immediately removed as a casualty." Though in practice this is a very, ''very'' rare occurrence. Other stats (apart from [[HitPoints Wounds]], obviously) can be reduced to zero without penalty, though that usually means the model will be very easy to kill if attacked.

* ''TabletopGame/ArsMagica'': {{Inverted|Trope}} with the rules for aging. Middle-aged characters start to make annual dice rolls to avoid life-threatening maladies; they also get a new "Decreptiude" ability score that increases over time. At Decrepitude 5, the character is on their deathbed and beyond the reach of mortal magic to save.

* In ''TabletopGame/BetrayalAtHouseOnTheHill'', if any of a character's four stats are reduced to the skull at the bottom of its counter and the haunt is in effect, that character dies.

* ''Warhammer 40000'' has a rule that states: "If a model's Strength or Toughness are ever reduced to zero, it is immediately removed as a casualty." Though in practice this is a very, ''very'' rare occurrence. Other stats (apart from [[HitPoints Wounds]], obviously) can be reduced to zero without penalty, though that usually means the model will be very easy to kill if attacked.
* ''{{Exalted}}'': An interesting case where there is a [[MagiBabble long-winded explanation]] about this sort of demise, and nothing to do with your Stamina having just been reduced to 0. All ''sapient'' beings possess five graces: Heart (Willpower), Sword (Valor), Ring (Temperance), Cup (Compassion), and Staff (Conviction). If your Heart grace is reduced to 0, you simply cease to be something that matters. You're even less transient than the dream of a [[TheFairFolk creature made of dreams]]. This is not something that Creation-born have to worry about, but they can still have StatDeath if all their ''other'' graces are reduced to 0, which is usually the result of being soul-ravished by the aforementioned dream-creature.

->@@[=case KILLED_BY_STUPIDITY:=]@@
->@@[= if (terse)=]@@
->@@[= desc += "stupidity";=]@@
->@@[= else if (_species_is_undead(race))=]@@
->@@[= desc += "Forgot to exist";=]@@
->@@[= else=]@@
->@@[= desc += "Forgot to breathe";=]@@
->@@[=break;=]@@

* Characters in ''VideoGame/Darklands'' are incapacitated when their endurance is reduced to 0 and killed if their strength is reduced to 0.

* In ''BetrayalAtHouseOnTheHill'', if any of a character's four stats are reduced to the skull at the bottom of its counter and the haunt is in effect, that character dies.