Narrate This 3 HP Hit

[dd.stevenson]

Holy moses these polls are finicky.

The question is meant to be: "Elspeth the elven ranger takes 3 HP damage while at 16/16 HP. She is wearing a chain shirt. How would you prefer to narrate this hit? (Choose your most favoritist option.)"

 

[delericho]

"The orc looses its arrow. At the last moment, Elspeth notices the incoming projectile and twists to evade, but too late to avoid it entirely. The arrow punches through her armour, grazing Elspeth, but not doing serious harm."

The closest equiavlent in your poll is the second one, but I don't care for the phrasing, which would seem to minimise the impact or play it for laughs. Of course, that might not have been your intention.

But the way I handle it is that any hit, even for 1hp of damage, represents some actual contact. However, a greater amount of damage does not necessarily equate to more damage (whether that "greater amount" is in terms of the absolute value, 50hp vs 3hp, or as a percentage of the whole, that is, whether Elspeth has 16hp total or 160). The only attack that gets narrated as having some significant effect is the one that kills the character.

(This also has the advantage that it makes things like poison nice and consistent - if 1hp represents at least a nick, that gives a vector for the poison to enter; if DR or other effects reduce the damage to 0 then the poison is also negated. FWIW, 3.5e is my edition of choice.)

 

[herrozerro]

I voted other, mainly because of a few reasons. I would have gone with the second or third option but there was no way to vote for multiple. Secondly I tend to allow the player to narrate their own damage. If a player likes to play it off as luck, that's cool. If a player likes their character being a meat wall taking wounds, that's cool too.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

"She gets hit for 3 hp."

Losing 3 of 16 hp isn't anything special. If I wanted to get all flowery for such a hit, I'd soon repeat myself. Games session would be spent with inept odes to the banal.

Better to spare me the effort and the players the pain.

 

[dd.stevenson]

The closest equiavlent in your poll is the second one, but I don't care for the phrasing, which would seem to minimise the impact or play it for laughs. Of course, that might not have been your intention.

The purpose of the phrasing was to limit the hp loss to mostly psychological factors.

 

[Ahnehnois]

The first one seems a little excessive, but given that it's almost 20% of the character's hp, maybe not by that much.

I do agree that just saying "you take 3 damage" would also be reasonable in this situation.

 

[Sage Genesis]

The poll doesn't include enough options.

The arrow might "miss", but Elspeth had to twist and turn so much that she sprained a few muscles and tired herself out to account for the damage.
The arrow might fail to pierce the armor but some blunt impact goes through.
The arrow might nick an unarmored part that is a minor graze, but the damage is more due to a sense of pain than embarrassment.
The arrow might strike her in the forehead and pierce the brain but she yanks it out and grins as the blood flows down here face, and she says "I gain power with every thing I kill, a single arrow can't possibly hurt an elf who has reaped a thousand souls!"

 

[the Jester]

Could be any of these, depending on the mood, how fast the combat is going vs. how long I want it to last, etc.

 

[SkidAce]

Elspeth lost nearly 25% (20%) of her total hit points, so describe her as losing one of her four limbs, probably an arm.

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I'm kidding...I like most of the answers, it depends on the combat I guess.

 

[Iosue]

I'd probably say either, "You take 3 damage," or something along the lines of, "The armor turns the arrow, but you feel like you've been hit by a blow."