Death, Dying, and Recovery
So, our first person has been knocked to negative HP. this seems like a good time to explain death, dying, and recover.
Whenever you have a number of hitpoints greater than 0, you are fully functional. Nothing is wrong with you. you can do anything you normally do. even at 1 HP, you are still fully functional.
At 0 HP you are considered 'Disabled'. When disabled, you can only take a standard action or a move action in a round. If you take a move action, you are fine. But if you take a standard action, you drop to -1 hit points, and are dying. The reason is that you are on the verge of dying, and the stress of a vigorous activity will put you over the edge. If the standard action does something to heal you, such as you cast a cure spell on yourself, then you don't drop to -1.
if your HP drops to anywhere from -1 to -9, you are considered 'dying'. When you are dying, you are unconcious and bleeding to death. You cannot take any actions. You lose 1 HP each round as your life bleeds out from you. When you reach -10, you are Dead.
The standard method of recovery from a state of dying is one of your friends provides medical attention, either magically, or through mundane means. Any spell which heals you but doesn't get you out of the negatives automatically changes your status from 'dying' to 'stable'. When you are stable, you no longer lose HP every round. However, you are still unconcsious. A stable character recovers hitpoints naturally at a rate of 1 HP per level for after 8 hours of rest, or 2 HP per level for a full day of rest. You can also help an ally stabalize without magic by making a Heal Check. The DC is 15, so you must get a 15 or higher on the check to stabilize someone. This is considered First Aid. You can also use the Heal Check to provide Long-Term Care, which doubles the rate a person heals naturally, to 2 HP per level for 8 hours of rest, or 4 HP per level for a full day of rest. You cannot provide First Aid or Longterm care for yourself, obviously.
You can also become stable on your own through your body's own natural healing abilities, but this is very difficult. Each round, you have a 10% chance to stop the flow of blood naturally. To see if you stabilize, roll 1d10. If you roll a 10, you are considered 'Stable'. If you fail, you lose 1 HP. However, even if you stabilize, you are still in danger of dying without help. Once you've stopped rapid loss of HP, you must make another check every hour to see if you wake up. If you make this check, you wake up and are considered disabled, even at negative hitpoints. If you fail this check, you lose another hitpoint. And of course, there is always the chance that something comes by and finishes killing you while you are unconcious.