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*Dungeons & Dragons
Removing Hit Points from the Game
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7580450" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>You could, except the games that implement static single digit hit points tend to have highly aggressive 'wound tracks' where each loss of hit points carries with it a commiserate debuff, which tends to change the problem from "every attack is save or die" to "every attack is save or suck". And while that leaves you with some opportunity to respond, typically you have relatively few options to do so because you are debuffed. They also tend to have mechanics that allow for more than a single point of damage to occur at once.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, none of that deals with the central problem being addressed which is:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yeah, that sounds bad.</p><p></p><p>In general, the classic D&D play style - popularized by Gygax as 'skillful play' and promoted by him in the 1e DMG - is that a fight does not necessarily take many resources from the party, but that resources are limited and so the loss of any one is concerning. Even if the fight is easy, players are required to minimize the amount of resources they expend in winning the fight because in the long term resources are precious - hit points and spell slots in particular, though older styles of classic dungeon delves might track ammunition and light sources as well. The party that spends hit points or spells unnecessarily finds itself later in the day or when trying to rest in trouble and hoping for luck to avoid loss. </p><p></p><p>There is a really great series of posts on EnWorld by Echohawk called the 'Monster ENcyclopedia' where he takes a specific monster and does an in depth review of the history of that monster in the game. One of the things that is most salient about those reviews is just how badly D&D has been inflicted with steady number inflation. Most monsters steadily increase their hit points and expected damage from edition to edition, with 2e variants having more than 1e, 3e more than 2e, 4e more still, and 5e the most of all. Correspondingly, it seems likely that the number of rounds in a combat and or the expected damage of the PC's must be going up as well.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Nigh instant regeneration is a problem, whether it comes about from magical or non-magical healing. Your hit point buffer isn't meant to make combat trivial or boring or grindy.</p><p></p><p>In previous editions, the problem you are describing only was inflicted upon particular play styles - typically event driven scenarios where the events were spaced far about in time (political adventures, for example) or location driven scenarios where the distance between encounters was great (wilderness adventures, for example) and where the magical healing available per day could get everyone back to healthy between encounters. </p><p></p><p>The problem with 'every fight has to be difficult' is that it works against any sort of naturalistic approach to the game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7580450, member: 4937"] You could, except the games that implement static single digit hit points tend to have highly aggressive 'wound tracks' where each loss of hit points carries with it a commiserate debuff, which tends to change the problem from "every attack is save or die" to "every attack is save or suck". And while that leaves you with some opportunity to respond, typically you have relatively few options to do so because you are debuffed. They also tend to have mechanics that allow for more than a single point of damage to occur at once. Anyway, none of that deals with the central problem being addressed which is: Yeah, that sounds bad. In general, the classic D&D play style - popularized by Gygax as 'skillful play' and promoted by him in the 1e DMG - is that a fight does not necessarily take many resources from the party, but that resources are limited and so the loss of any one is concerning. Even if the fight is easy, players are required to minimize the amount of resources they expend in winning the fight because in the long term resources are precious - hit points and spell slots in particular, though older styles of classic dungeon delves might track ammunition and light sources as well. The party that spends hit points or spells unnecessarily finds itself later in the day or when trying to rest in trouble and hoping for luck to avoid loss. There is a really great series of posts on EnWorld by Echohawk called the 'Monster ENcyclopedia' where he takes a specific monster and does an in depth review of the history of that monster in the game. One of the things that is most salient about those reviews is just how badly D&D has been inflicted with steady number inflation. Most monsters steadily increase their hit points and expected damage from edition to edition, with 2e variants having more than 1e, 3e more than 2e, 4e more still, and 5e the most of all. Correspondingly, it seems likely that the number of rounds in a combat and or the expected damage of the PC's must be going up as well. Nigh instant regeneration is a problem, whether it comes about from magical or non-magical healing. Your hit point buffer isn't meant to make combat trivial or boring or grindy. In previous editions, the problem you are describing only was inflicted upon particular play styles - typically event driven scenarios where the events were spaced far about in time (political adventures, for example) or location driven scenarios where the distance between encounters was great (wilderness adventures, for example) and where the magical healing available per day could get everyone back to healthy between encounters. The problem with 'every fight has to be difficult' is that it works against any sort of naturalistic approach to the game. [/QUOTE]
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