What are hit points?
Wolk
Member Posts: 279
I have seen a few discusions on attributes, strengh, wisdom and dexterity. However, I haven't seen any on hit points. What do they mean to you? How do you justify gaining more by level up or by constitution?
I see HP as an indicator of fatigue and weariness from combat.
The way I see them, they are not only some indicator of how many hard blows you can take. One really hard blow will kill you whatever happens. A level 20 fighter getting an axe through his brain should die like a level 1 mage getting an axe through his brain should die. (The axe might miss the fighters brain since it's smaller...)
The difference between those characters is that the former has battle training. He will be abble to block the axe with his sword or something. The blow he blocked would then leave him tired and he might have a scratch left by the blow, but nothing really serious. HP from level up and class is how to avoid injury blows your armor/shield didn't block completely or you didn't entirily avoid. It is the deffensive counterpart of your THAC0 getting better as you level up.
I can't really roleplay them by getting severely injured because your fighting capacity stays the same even after you get injured, even on an adrenaline rush you would still feel the effects of an injury, which would end in you hitting less often and getting hit more. Only a character with high CON should be abble to endure some pain, others are just too weak for it. Also why non fighters don't get as much from CON, they don't feel as much pain daily.
Getting close to zero HP means that you are so tired/distracted that the next blow you won't block perfectly (AC) will end up by you dying or getting severely injured after which the enemy kills you.
Come share your opinion on the mistery of hit points!
(This is a roleplay question, I know what hitpoints are!)
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Comments
SCARY_WIZARD, Nobody Cares
Miss: Blows that miss...miss. They don't even hit a shield!
Connect: If the score To-Hit connects and the Damage Die is less than maximum, then you dodge and get some sort of nebulous fatigue (Nonlethal Damage, I still love you!
--If the damage is maximum, then you get a telling blow - your armour or protective enchantment fails to absorb most of the shock of the blow; you got a pretty nasty scrape that'll heal... It smarts.
Critical: The blow connects and it hurts! There's scarification, too. Even if you roll a 1 on damage, it still hurts.
-Critical and Fumble Tables are also fun! Those make for stories. Dungeon Crawl Classics...sort of goes over the top, though.
If a blow is a killing blow, then it's enough to cause death. You'll be sort of unconscious and "out", but well, you aren't getting up from that unless you're lucky!
-I use -10 Hit Points and you're dead. I coddle.
--Critical killing blows are nasty - severed arteries, shorted nervous systems, pommel bashes to the sinuses (eugh!), crossguard meets helmet, and the like.
--...while those with maximised damage...just suck - beheadings, and all that mess.
Judgement comes into the equation, of course. Monsters & Magic is a fun system with a cool "Effect Points" mechanic, which is like numerical judgement!
- at -10 THACO, it means that i keep doing evasive moves in order to avoid getting hit. This should exhaust me. And yet, as long as i don't get "hit" (successful THACO hit), i don't lose HP = i don't fatigue
- if it's only fatigue, how come it takes DAYS to recover. After a good night of sleep, i should get back all my HP
Anyway, i don't think everything needs a realistic explanation. Sometimes (always?) fun and gameplay are more important than realism.
A level 1 Fighter is strucked by a fireball, he takes it right in the face and die instantly.
A level 20 Fighter is strucked by the same fireball, he manages to dodge it partially and/or block it with his shield and is only a little burned.
It represents a combination of skill and luck, when the level 20 Fighter have only a few HPs remaining and he takes a blow from a sword, his luck runs out and the sword cut an artery or something and he dies.
My sword-wielding duelist, on the other hand, has a lot of hit points because he's gotten really good at minimizing the effects of the attacks he can't avoid entirely. Twisting your body to the left to turn a lethal hit into a glancing blow, parrying just enough to send your opponent's sword to your shoulder rather than your chest, that kind of thing.
For both of them, it's more about resolve than anything else. True, the Heavy will probably be able to keep fighting even after taking several arrows to the chest (i.e. critical hits), but for most normal combat it's his resolve that keeps him alive, knowing that whatever wounds he faces in this fight, they're not as bad as death. The more you fight, the more you realize that and are willing to keep fighting.
At the other end of the spectrum, one of my favorite mage implementations had hundreds of hit points, rivaling even the party's minotaur fighter; for her, it was the result of her magic keeping her protected, a reflection of her partially transcendent nature. She also used a custom-made class where spells cost hit points to cast, so that when her magic ran out, so did her health.
Hit points are what you make of them. What I've never really understood was in Third Edition rules, why there's a distinction between Natural Armor and Damage Reduction--since it seems to me they both are conceptually doing the same thing (keeping an attack from dealing damage by having really thick skin).
Being an open wound each time doesn't make a lot of sense. Immagine reading a novel and you read this.
"CHARNAME took a sword to the belly. Then another. Then another one. A sword chops his arm. Then an axe hit his neck and he almost got beheaded. However, he still has hit points so he keeps fighting. The party's mage casts a fireball and kills every enemy, but CHARNAME standing in the middle of the crowd made his save and still survives but is severely burned. He is almost dead. The two cleric then proceeds to cast twelve cure light wounds on the fighter and his arm grows back and his head gets reattached."
I'm sorry if you took my last comment as sarcasm or any way to insult you. it wasn't my intention.
@Dee
I see a good way to explain dammage reduction. Immagine a lich in 2nd Ed. It is immune to normal weapon. Immagine you find a way to make the ceiling fall on the lich. The ceiling isn't magic. Should the lich be immune to hit or should the raw force behind the hit still damage it? It should logically take some dammage. The same could go from a heavy blow from a half-orc barbarian swinging a greatsword at the lich with all his strengh. The sword wouldn't cut the skin of the undead, but it should still get injured from the impact. Why 3rd ed has dammage reduction Magic.
Missread your post, i'll try to come up with a theory on Natural AC...
Natural AC would be that you wouldn't feel much injury if you get hit, as if you had scales or very hard skin which the sword couldn't pierce or cut through.
Dammage reduction would be the reduction of the impact when you mannaged to cut through the skin or scales. It would be harder to keep piercing through it.
Not very precise, but it's hard to find roleplay explanations for gameplay mechanics.
*intense stare*
HEH HEH