Okay, very sincere question, why do people have issues with the 4th death saving throw?
I’m not new to Critical Role (I was a big C1 and C2 fan because of all the free-time Covid gave me, then I dropped C3 after the Laudna resurrection because the constant references to C1 kinda broke me), but I am new to C4. I tried to start it on release but the overture episodes really put me off (too many characters introduced at once, the cold-opens felt weird and over-produced, exposition was a bit too heavy on everything Thjazi related, etc.). BUT, after seeing how emotional E36-37 made people and having seen enough of the early episodes to know I liked Tyranny and Wick more than any of the other cast, I decided to just kinda drop in and watch them with very little context. I liked them, but I also walked away saying “Wow, that 4th death save was bullshit”. But then, for catching up purposes, I went back and started watching through some more of the (post-overture) sessions, starting with the Soldier’s Table. Turns out, this 4th death save-type stuff has kinda always been in this campaign.
You wanna talk RAW-ruining bullshit? The last time Wick’s life was really on the line, back when he was getting executed in Castle Sloak, he was given the option to FULLY STABILIZE after ONE SAVING THROW! That, or toss out FREE INSPIRATIONS! Back in C2, that costed a 100GP Pearl and a third level spell slot! The periapt of wound closure, which Mollymauk had (LOL) and stabilized him upon knockout, costs an attunement slot! Those are really powerful magical effects that Sam got for just, going down to 0!
Yes, all of the press materials for this campaign have talked about how deadly it is, but if you give Brennan’s homebrew mechanics even a cursory glance, you’ll see that the main characters do have more than a little bit of plot armor! And considering everything about Wick’s character, isn’t he the most qualified to wear some plot armor at a time like this? His grandmother came back to life, didn’t she?
(I am aware it was a ruse, but still, that event “occurring” makes his own “resurrection” in a setting without revivify more impactful, or at the very least, a more fitting ability.)
There is some real-time calculus happening behind Brennan’s eyes in E37. You can literally see him processing what opportunities would be fair to offer to Wick. And, given his grandmother’s resurrection and Tyranny’s newfound purpose in The Pit, I see why his offered options were “heroic sacrifice to get Tyranny home or a complete bet on self-resurrection”. It makes the most sense for that moment! It follows everything Tiger-Mommy told Tyranny in the moments before the fight!
At the very least, it certainly makes more fuckin sense than giving out heroic inspirations to Teor across a courtyard while he was dying LOL.
TLDR: Death saves in hard combats were bullshit long before E37 (see: Casimir fight at Sloake), and the 4th death save wasn’t really a betrayal to the campaigns premise. It was just a substitute for the weird mechanics Brennan introduced earlier in the series, catered specifically to Wick and Tyranny’s arcs to create a better story—which should probably be the end goal, right?