Unconscious: what remains after waking?
Unconscious bundles several effects and explicitly leaves one of them behind when it ends. Track held objects and posture as well as the immediate attack and saving throw consequences.
Use it at the table
- Apply Incapacitated and Prone; drop held objects, set Speed to zero and mark the creature unaware of its surroundings.
- Give incoming attacks Advantage, automatically fail Strength and Dexterity saves, and apply the five-foot automatic-critical rule to hits.
- When Unconscious ends, the creature remains Prone. Resolve standing and recovering dropped objects separately.
Make the call
A healing effect ends a character’s Unconscious condition. Does the character automatically stand up and recover the weapon they dropped?
The ruling
No; they remain Prone, and the dropped weapon remains a separate object to recover.
The definition explicitly says the creature remains Prone after Unconscious ends. It also required held objects to be dropped; ending the condition contains no instruction to return them to the hands. Resolve the current scene from the actual position and equipment state. The cause of unconsciousness determines whether a particular healing effect ends it.
Watch for this mistake
An incoming attack still needs to hit. The automatic Critical Hit clause applies only when the attacker is within five feet. Do not apply it to every distant hit.
Ask the table
What ended Unconscious, where are the dropped objects, and what movement is needed to stand?
The source rule
SRD 5.2.1, page 191. Read the official PDF.
While you have the Unconscious condition, you experience the following effects. Inert. You have the Incapacitated and Prone conditions, and you drop whatever you’re holding. When this condition ends, you remain Prone. Speed 0. Your Speed is 0 and can’t increase. Attacks Affected. Attack rolls against you have Advantage. Saving Throws Affected. You automatically fail Strength and Dexterity saving throws. Automatic Critical Hits. Any attack roll that hits you is a Critical Hit if the attacker is within 5 feet of you. Unaware. You’re unaware of your surroundings.
Source and reuse
This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 (“SRD 5.2.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.
The explanation, example and table prompt are Table Ready adaptations; source text has been reflowed and tables reformatted. This guide and its printable card are available under the same CC BY 4.0 license. Independent reference; no official affiliation. These rules are optional for our system-neutral adventures.