D&D 5E Do you let PC's just *break* objects?

[Maxperson]

They can't know hit points by that name, but they'd be able to tell soon enough who was tougher and more resilient than who - particularly among the warrior types for whom toughness is part of their trade - when it came to stamina in combat and-or taking a physical beating.

If hit points are purely physical, yes. Because they are skill, luck, divine intervention, etc., they would not be able to pin down why it is that they are lasting a bit longer. There's nothing they can pin down as hit points. One fight they might last 5 rounds due to skill. Another fight they last 5 rounds not so much due to skill, but some luck and a cleric's god causing the enemy to stumble and strike a glancing blow instead of a killing one. There's no way that they can pin it down to purely them, assign any kind of number to it, and identify that as hit points.

Put another way, they wouldn't know that Reginald has 57 hit points and Aloysius 45 but they would know that it takes a little more to put ol' Reggie down for the count than it does to knock Al out.

That's actually not true. Variable damage means that 45 and 57 can go down at the same time, the 45 hit point guy first, or the 57 hit point guy first.

 

[greg kaye]

If hit points are purely physical, yes. Because they are skill, luck, divine intervention, etc., they would not be able to pin down why it is that they are lasting a bit longer. There's nothing they can pin down as hit points. One fight they might last 5 rounds due to skill. Another fight they last 5 rounds not so much due to skill, but some luck and a cleric's god causing the enemy to stumble and strike a glancing blow instead of a killing one. There's no way that they can pin it down to purely them, assign any kind of number to it, and identify that as hit points.

That's actually not true. Variable damage means that 45 and 57 can go down at the same time, the 45 hit point guy first, or the 57 hit point guy first.

Of course, they can. There might be a question as to what extent they'd want to (as useful that information might be in assessments for a fighting force), but they clearly can.

If there was one thing that might be measured it would be fighting/survivability potentials. These are things that someone such as a boxing coach could give special attention to. A character with 11 HP is, one way or another, measurably harder to down than one with 10.

With assessment in a context like boxing it would become ever clearer that there was a 10% difference between the two participants.
Gamers watch dice.
Pundits watch outcomes.
Either way, the watchers can be aware of any flow of "lucky punches" one way or another and still make a clear assessment of an issue such as the durability of boxers.

 

[nevin]

If hit points are purely physical, yes. Because they are skill, luck, divine intervention, etc., they would not be able to pin down why it is that they are lasting a bit longer. There's nothing they can pin down as hit points. One fight they might last 5 rounds due to skill. Another fight they last 5 rounds not so much due to skill, but some luck and a cleric's god causing the enemy to stumble and strike a glancing blow instead of a killing one. There's no way that they can pin it down to purely them, assign any kind of number to it, and identify that as hit points.

That's actually not true. Variable damage means that 45 and 57 can go down at the same time, the 45 hit point guy first, or the 57 hit point guy first.

true people get so tied up what they think a normal outcome with statistics would look like that they forget all the outliers and other non average outcome's happen, just not as often. I've seen a player burn every single extra ability to roll the dice 3 times for one check and roll a 4 each time. I've also played in a game where one of our players never once rolled below 15 and we changed her dice out 6 or 7 times for an entire........campaign it was insane. But those events were within the probability model We only witnessed one of the millions of outcomes that average out to normal.

so the guy with 15 hitpoints could go down last as well. Not likely but it can happen. since we determine it by random dice. each instance of Random isn't always close to norm even though all rolls for all the games average out to normal.

 

[pemerton]

Imagining what someone who doesn't know that fire kills trolls would do, were they confronted by a troll, is not method acting nor even akin to method acting. It's just making up a story about a person!

 

[greg kaye]

true people get so tied up what they think a normal outcome with statistics would look like that they forget all the outliers and other non average outcome's happen, just not as often. I've seen a player burn every single extra ability to roll the dice 3 times for one check and roll a 4 each time. I've also played in a game where one of our players never once rolled below 15 and we changed her dice out 6 or 7 times for an entire........campaign it was insane. But those events were within the probability model We only witnessed one of the millions of outcomes that average out to normal.

so the guy with 15 hitpoints could go down last as well. Not likely but it can happen. since we determine it by random dice. each instance of Random isn't always close to norm even though all rolls for all the games average out to normal.

None-the-less,

..., they would know that it takes a little more to put ol' Reggie down for the count than it does to knock Al out.

A rival boxer would need ~a little more of those successful, 15+ type rolls to put ol' Reggie down for the count than ... to knock Al out. Spectators would be watching the hits land and would have the opportunity to make note of differences.

 

[nevin]

but still in the range of statistical probability. the good boxer could fumble every roll 20 times in a row while the weak guy just hit him every third time. Not likely but then it appears earth having life is one of the least likely outcomes for a planet and here we are the planet that got 10 natural 20's in a row and I may be understating the low odds as I haven't done any math.

 

[greg kaye]

but still in the range of statistical probability. the good boxer could fumble every roll 20 times in a row while the weak guy just hit him every third time. Not likely but then it appears earth having life is one of the least likely outcomes for a planet and here we are the planet that got 10 natural 20's in a row and I may be understating the low odds as I haven't done any math.

And then the veterans choosing the new set of guards would note the hits landed by the successful fighter - but that, as far as discerning eyes were concerned, would not affect judgment on the resilience of the people receiving the blows. If anything it might be even more impressive. "Wow, it took all those hard hits to knock that one down."

 

[nevin]

not sure what that has to do with how likely it is. But people being what they are and conflating winning with ability more likely the guy with 15 htpts would get hired by someone to be a bouncer or captain of the guard or in modern life become a boxing news man becuase they were the guy that took so and so down. Even though a million people would be far better qualified for whatever reward the guy got.

the guy that went down would only be thought well of by the other boxers. Everyone else would consider him the loser that lost to a wimp.

Just how people are. Losers get trashed and lotto winners get all the attention. The reality of how it happened is only cared about by a few individuals.

 

[greg kaye]

not sure what that has to do with how likely it is. But people being what they are and conflating winning with ability more likely the guy with 15 htpts would get hired by someone to be a bouncer or captain of the guard or in modern life become a boxing news man becuase they were the guy that took so and so down. Even though a million people would be far better qualified for whatever reward the guy got.

the guy that went down would only be thought well of by the other boxers. Everyone else would consider him the loser that lost to a wimp.

Just how people are. Losers get trashed and lotto winners get all the attention. The reality of how it happened is only cared about by a few individuals.

I don't want to conflate with anything. All I said was that:

I could imagine 5e characters trying to envision the lives of players and wondering how we could know about things like cholesterol levels, BMI indexes etc.
Characters immersed in the worlds of D&D may be very familiar with things like level jumps, acquisition of hit points, and the trading of hit dice over a short rest. These are the things that they live with and with which they may have become very familiar.

I'm just arguing the hit points issue, not the other variables that may make someone a good ~bouncer.

 

[nevin]

ahh got off track sorry