How about situational Hit Points?

[Yesway Jose]

I wondered before about decoupling hit points/dice from power level and expertise.

Then I thought about minions and how their 1 hp is considered to be subjective relative to the heroes.

Personally, I think the terms "hit points" and "bloodied" are a misnomer. I would prefer to say Life or Fate or Destiny Points.

I imagine that almost every time a character is declared to be successfully hit, they may be just about to die. But like an action hero in a Hollywood movie, they are destined to cheat death over and over.

Perhaps it's as if you have a choice after every hit: "Would you like to spend x destiny points to avoid a fatal blow?". Of course, the answer is always yes, so you automatically deduct the hit points and your PC survives with a small cut or bruised ego. Perhaps his deity guides the way to safety. Perhaps the timeline splits into 2 parallel universes, and you chose the timeline where the PC doesn't die. Perhaps your PC's soul kicked Death in the crotch.

But whenever it gets down to single-digit hit points, your PC has used up all his heroic destiny and is now a regular schmuck like everyone else.

So if hit points is destiny, is it always fixed, or can it be situational? If monsters can become minions, what does that mean for PC hit points?

Can an epic-level warrior find the Holy Chalice, then retire to a nice log cabin, and start losing hit points, although still retaining his level and all associated feats and powers?

Can a PC enjoy 100 hit points in battle, but then does something completely stupid and against his destiny, and dies taking 1d6 damage after a simple Jackass stunt?

Can the PCs travel to another plane where reality is more gritty and their gods are far away, or enter the palace of the Emperor-King, and they retain all their levels, but lose half of their maximum hit points?

In D&D, hit points are married to level and to be chipped away slowly, but if it's as intangible and fickle as Lady Fate, can it fluctuate according to circumstance? Are there situations where it would be fun and/or fair to modify the PCs' hit points, instead of raising NPCs' power level?

 

[the Jester]

3e's ability damage is a wonderful way to emulate this, as long you add the caveat that some non-Constitution ability damage can be lethal.

 

[Yesway Jose]

3e's ability damage is a wonderful way to emulate this, as long you add the caveat that some non-Constitution ability damage can be lethal.

Ability damage in general requires changing a bunch of numbers. Con damage affects skill checks, etc.

I'm not saying that PCs should be punished with lower stamina, or forcing them to edit their character sheet.

I mean simply and temporarily changing the number of maximum hit points in a certain area or circumstance.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

An interesting question. My gut reaction would be no. Not because it can't be a good idea, but because of the stark shift in thinking about their character the player has to do. It would be oh-so-easy to trip oneself up by momentarily forgetting the changed circumstances. (Considering how often I've seen, and read about, a player forgetting something obvious about their character, this seems like a disaster waiting to happen.)