What happens to end of turn Saving Throws to end a condition after combat ends?

Question

If a player gets the condition from a Chilling Touch:

Target must make a successful DC 13 CON saving throw or be unable to regain HP. The effect can also be ended with a Greater Restoration spell or comparable magic. Repeat saving throw at end of each turn, ending the effect on itself with a successful save.

and combat ends without a successful save, what happens? Does the effect just go away immediately? Do they stay in combat time making saves until they succeed? Do they stop making saves and require a Greater Restoration spell? Can they "take 10" or "take 20" to end the effect? Seems like a fairly serious condition requiring Greater Restoration to end it if it just goes away after combat ends. I cannot find any RAW on this and Internet searches only talk about Death Saves which I understand stay in combat time until made, character dies, or someone heals or stabilizes them.

I think you’re playing D&D 5e, could you confirm that? Also, I think it would really help us help you if you mentioned exactly which effect we’re saving g against, is it a particular monster’s effect? — Thomas Markov, Sep 18 '22 at 15:23
I see you mentioned “Chilling Touch”, is this effect from a particular monster? I think it would help if we had the full context here. — Thomas Markov, Sep 19 '22 at 10:38
After doing some research, I can’t find any monster with exactly the wording and feature you mention. Is this a homebrew monster you’re asking about? Or maybe a monster from a third party source? If so, what is it called and what is its source? — Thomas Markov, Sep 19 '22 at 11:06
@ThomasMarkov I would guess it's from a translation, paraphrase, or altered copy of the "Swarm, Sluagh" — Exempt-Medic, Sep 19 '22 at 11:36
Related: Are rounds just for combat, or should we be using them at other times in the game? — Kirt, Sep 19 '22 at 14:39

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 19 '22 at 13:27

One round is six seconds, so out of combat they attempt a saving throw every six seconds.

The rules for combat tell us:

A round represents about 6 seconds in the game world.

So if in combat, you attempt a saving throw once per round, then out of combat you get to attempt a saving throw once every six seconds. So with a DC of 13, this effect should work itself out in short order when out of combat. Roll a few saves until you succeed and you're good to go. The only time you would ever consider using greater restoration on this effect is if you were in combat still and desperately needed to be able to regain hit points right now. Otherwise, just wait it out.

It is from the Slaugh Swarm from ToB. I had thought about waiting it out after combat, but what was giving me fits was the higher lever spell needed to get rid of the condition during combat, so it seemed like it was trivializing it by making it just disappear. @Thomas Markov your answer makes sense that it would need the higher magnitude spell during the heat of battle. — R3141592654, Sep 19 '22 at 19:41

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 19 '22 at 16:24

Unless a new encounter is going to happen within a few minutes of the end of the current encounter, this can be handled narratively. I'd go with "it takes a minute after the combat ends for you to shake off the effects of the Chilling Touch". Increase the time to "a few minutes" for exceptionally difficult saves.

Let's run the numbers for a check that requires the player to roll a 16 or higher (25% chance of success). At 10 tries per minute the chance of success after 1 minute is 94%. For checks that require a lower roll, the odds will be even higher.

Even for checks that require the player to roll a 20, the chance escaping the condition after 1 minute is 40%, and it rises to 64% after 2, and 92% after 5 minutes.

Unless a crisis emerges within these few minutes following the combat, the condition will almost certainly be relieved, so there is little value in "playing this out".

What happens to end of turn Saving Throws to end a condition after combat ends?

2 Answers2

One round is six seconds, so out of combat they attempt a saving throw every six seconds.