When a character regains consciousness mid-fight after their initiative passed, do they get a turn?

Question

I have a problem understanding regaining consciousness. From what I know, a creature that loses its consciousness during the battle needs to have its HP to be raised above 0 once again. But what if the fight is still going on? Let's say, we have 3 heroes fighting an enemy, with this initiative order:

Hero 1
Hero 2
Monster

Hero 1 was struck and fell unconscious the previous round, and his turn passes automatically. Hero 2 now heals Hero 1 and he regains consciousness, however his turn has passed. So is he able to perform his lost turn in this round or does he need to wait for Monster's turn and the next round?

Thomas Markov · Accepted Answer · 2022-02-12T18:20:33.023

8

“The initiative order remains the same from round to round.”

The rules for initiative state:

The initiative order remains the same from round to round.

There are very rare exceptions to this rule¹, but being knocked unconscious then restored to consciousness is not one. There are no rules related to unconsciousness and healing that change when your turn occurs, so you cannot act until it is your turn again.

The tactical complications associated with this rule are explored in this Q&A: How to break the "Death Loop" resulting from unfortunate initiative order

^{1 For example, the Androsphinx has a lair action that forces everyone to reroll their initiative scores.}

edited Feb 12 '22 at 18:20

answered Feb 12 '22 at 13:14

Thomas Markov

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And what if Hero 2 was knocked out the previous round and Hero 1 wakes him up before it's actual Hero 2's turn? Is he able to perform? If I'm understanding correctly, he is? – Jack_Russell Feb 12 '22 at 13:28
3

@Jack_Russell Correct, if Hero 2 is brought back to consciousness prior to, or even during his turn in the initiative order, he may act on his turn. – Thomas Markov Feb 12 '22 at 13:35
See also: this answer – Kirt Feb 12 '22 at 16:04

RHS · Answer 2 · 2022-02-23T11:09:53.517

They didn't miss their turn

There is nothing in the rules that says an unconscious character misses their turn.

They get their turn like everyone else. It's just that there is typically not much they can do in their turn because of all the restrictions one gets from the unconscious condition.

But there are things that might trigger on their turn. For example, an unconscious character on their turn makes death saving throws if they are also in dying state. If there are spell effects that allow them to make saving throws at the end of their turn (e.g. Slow) these also trigger on their turn in normal initiative order. If they are in the area of effect of a spell that activates on their turn (e.g. Cloudkill) this too happens on their turn in normal initiative order.

Since they didn't miss their turn, they also do not get another turn once they regain consciousness, or else they would have had two turns.

When a character regains consciousness mid-fight after their initiative passed, do they get a turn?

2 Answers2

“The initiative order remains the same from round to round.”

They didn't miss their turn