Death Check

Any time your hit points are at a negative number, but you are not instantly slain (i.e. your hit points have no reached a negative total equal to your CON score (not modifier) + your character level), you are Dying. While dying, you must make a death check at the end of each of your turns to determine whether you continue to bleed out, or stabilize. A death check is resolved as follows:

Death Check: d20 (no modifiers*) vs. a DC of 12

* – some rare modifiers exist, such as the Diehard feat.

If three of these checks are failed in a row (over the course of three rounds), your character dies.