D&D 5E Would you change a monster's hit points mid-fight?

As the title asks: it's the middle of an encounter, would you change a monster's hit points?

This might be during a boss fight where the PCs roll well and it looks like the big bad is going to die before taking a turn. Or maybe during a long fight that looks like it might drag. Or perhaps a tense fight where the party is toeing on a TPK.

Would you?

Jester Canuck said:

As the title asks: it's the middle of an encounter, would you change a monster's hit points?

This might be during a boss fight where the PCs roll well and it looks like the big bad is going to die before taking a turn. Or maybe during a long fight that looks like it might drag. Or perhaps a tense fight where the party is toeing on a TPK.

Would you?

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Yes I will and have done so. I usually do it when I see the combat starting to drag and the players are starting to be bored.

No.

Subjectively, it feels like cheating to me. As a DM I'm free to make up whatever I want, but once it's there I feel like I need to deal with it's "reality" through the rules, just like the players. Sure, no one will know but me, but it just doesn't feel right to do otherwise.

If I need to alter the course of an encounter, there are plenty of more palatable options available, the simplest being that reinforcements arrive for one side or another.

Yes, sometimes as a DM I get the encounter setup wrong. As I have a higher number of players and have a few solos in my converted AP, it is easy to do. In those cases, hp odds the easiest way to fix things on the fly.

Nope. If I notice a monster that I thought would be tough but goes down like a chump, and the party didn't have super hot dice or badass tactics that were responsible for the easy victory, the NEXT monster I stat up will probably get more hit points.

Jester Canuck said:

As the title asks: it's the middle of an encounter, would you change a monster's hit points?

This might be during a boss fight where the PCs roll well and it looks like the big bad is going to die before taking a turn. Or maybe during a long fight that looks like it might drag. Or perhaps a tense fight where the party is toeing on a TPK.

Would you?

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No. Definitely not.

Jester Canuck said:

As the title asks: it's the middle of an encounter, would you change a monster's hit points?

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I often do - when the monster gets hit and takes damage.

iserith said:

No. Definitely not.

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I'm surprised - do you feel that changing a monster's HP mid-encounter doesn't achieve the goals for play?

If the monster had a lot of HP left, and the PCs were on the ropes, I would be more inclined to make that fact obvious to the players so they could try and flee.

Mishihari Lord said:

No.

Subjectively, it feels like cheating to me. As a DM I'm free to make up whatever I want, but once it's there I feel like I need to deal with it's "reality" through the rules, just like the players. Sure, no one will no but me, but it just doesn't feel right to do otherwise.

If I need to alter the course of an encounter, there are plenty of more palatable options available, the simplest being that reinforcements arrive for one side or another.

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To me this is the kind of thinking that can hurt a game.

I will give you an example. I was playing in an Eberron game and the DM gave us all magical weapons or items at character creation mine was a bow that did extra damage to elves. For five levels and months of actual play time we never saw any elves where the bow could be used. I was patient even if I was slightly bummed and kind of wished I had a magic item that fit better in the game. But finally evil elves and me with one darn arrow left. The baddie was about to murder a hostage so I fired my bow at a range penalty and I rolled a 20 and then rolled another 20 and then rolled max damage it was a thing of beauty the table went wild until the DM tells us the bad guy show no effect to any of the damage and then proceeds to kill the hostage,

The DM then explained that he wrote the encounter with the bad guy wearing a brooch of shielding and even showed me his typed up notes that he didn't cheat. And technically he didn't cheat but that din't change the sour taste in my mouth over it. As a DM I have a lot of power to make the game fun for players and in case like this the player fun would outweigh any desire to 'not cheat".

I don't see any reason to prolong a combat that is dragging on and on and no one is having fun just because I wrote one number down for HP.

Now I won't change a big baddie just so he can go if the players take him down first then that is how I let it stand.

The DM most important job is to facilitate the fun at the table and that should always take precedence over the rules.

Nope. I might design adventures around PCs, but once I create (or randomly roll) something it has its own "life" and I don't alter it in the middle of the action, either for or against the PCs. As a DM, I focus more on being a steward of the game world than I do on being a storyteller. I make stories, but that's really in the player's hands at the end of the day, because they have all the choices. The most important thing only I can do is create a world with integrity where they know that everything they find or interact with exists regardless of them, and can be explored from that perspective. (Which is exactly how I'd prefer DMs to run it for me.)

Elf Witch said:

To me this is the kind of thinking that can hurt a game.

I will give you an example. ...

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That being said, that is one tough example! I'd probably let the dice fall where they may, and then (greatly) increase the odds of running into other hostile elves fairly soon after, and/or specifically design an adventure with hostile elves to fight.