If D&D did not have HPs, how would you keep track of damage?

[jdsivyer]

Okay, I'm curious

I've seen dozens and dozens of threads and thousands of comments regarding the obscurity which is Hit Points in D&D. A lot of people aren't overly fond of them.

So...if you could remove the Hit Points system from D&D, what would you prefer it to be?

And I know there are people out there who HAVE removed Hit Points from D&D, so how do you handle a pc's Health and keep track of damage?

For the record, I'm not a huge fan of Hit Points, so if I read a good alternative I hope you don't mind me adopting it for my D&D games

 

[Crothian]

I like M&M's Damage save.

 

[Aus_Snow]

I'll second M&M (or True20, if you prefer). Also, there's CP2020, Grim 'n Gritty, World of Darkness. . . quite a few fairly well known RPGs, in fact, that don't use HPs.

Even the ones that do use HPs, I like there to be some kind of other indication of health, how wounded the character is, whatever. The main thing I don't like about many HP systems is that being at full is exactly the same as having 1, then suddenlt at 0, or -x, whichever, everything changes dramatically.

For D&D, HP + condition tracking = a good compromise/solution, IMO. See Star Wars Saga Edition for one version of this kind of combination, more or less. Not necessarily the best, or one I'd end up using for D&D, but it's a start.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Condition monitor like White Wolf uses in the new world of darkness. I like how it reflects degradation of ability when you get really hurt.

I also like the Cyberpunk 2020 method where you make death saves and the amount of damage suffered (and the modifier to the death save) is modified by your BTM (Body Type Modifier). The healthier you are, the more resistant to damage you are.

 

[vagabundo]

Ideally I'd like a straight forward wounds system added:

- Name change HPs in to "combat skill". They are spend to avoid injury if the PC is able to defend themselves.
- Once they are spent or if a character is helpless I would have damage accumulate as wounds minus the armours DR.
- Wounds negativity impact all rolls (So having 2 wounds equals a -2 on all rolls).
- Once the amount of wounds equals the con score then the character is dead
- Optionals: If wounds remains untreated for a certain lenght of time then it might get infected - using the disease rules.

This was something I've cooked up in 3.x but it would need to be modded to work with 4e.

 

[Psion]

I'd use HP, I just wouldn't have it be so inconsequential to recover if you have taken a lot of damage. My (3e) homebrew variant makes it increasingly likely as your HP winnow away that you will sustain an injury with game-significant (and often difficult to heal) side effects.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Condition monitor like White Wolf uses in the new world of darkness. I like how it reflects degradation of ability when you get really hurt.

I was gonna say that too. But in a way it is also HP, just a more complex one. You still got essentially health points, just lots fewer and their dots that degrade differently depending on how damage is dealt. Plus the additional costs of lower health.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Hit points and D&D are kind of one and the same. Without hit points the game starts to become something other than D&D. The concept of being able to take more abuse as you increase your skills is central to the D&D class and level system. My answer is,that if I were to change the system away from hit points, then it would no longer be D&D.

 

[Thanee]

I would use a hole puncher to punch holes in the character sheet (different classes get different sizes of paper to represent how much damage they can withstand). Anything you cannot read anymore you cannot use, because you are so wounded.

Not sure how to do healing, though...

Bye
Thanee

 

[mmadsen]

And I know there are people out there who HAVE removed Hit Points from D&D, so how do you handle a pc's Health and keep track of damage?

As others have pointed out, the answer's easy: use a Damage Save. Or use its mathematical equivalent, a second AC-like defense score. First you roll to hit, and then you roll to hurt.

Your question assumes a hit point point of view, where damage has to be tracked, when, really, knowing whether a hit was a flesh wound or a critical wound is what matters.

Now, for game-play reasons, we don't want our heroes dropping from one or two bad rolls, but we can add back in hit points as purely intangible as luck points, used to modify to-hit and to-hurt rolls against important characters with divine favor. (Tough warriors without fate on their side would not have any such luck points, just high AC-like scores.)