BriarMonkey
First Post
No.
That said, I could potentially see something like getting your hit dice at 1st level, then only 1HP per level thereafter. That would still be pretty grim and deadly, but not quite as ridiculous as only ever having 1HP.
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The ONE Hit Point World
- Thread starter Sir Robilar
- Start date
No.
That said, I could potentially see something like getting your hit dice at 1st level, then only 1HP per level thereafter. That would still be pretty grim and deadly, but not quite as ridiculous as only ever having 1HP.
WizarDru
Adventurer
No, not for me or anyone I play with. At least, not as a D&D game, as someone else mentioned. Entire classes would become pointless. When all classes are equally deadly, those who specialize in dealing damage or combat applications weaken appreciably.
The notion that this would reduce fighting is, IMHO, exactly the opposite of what would happen in a game world. Now, anyone willing to dare can topple them mightiest warrior, if they get the drop on him or are lucky. A child with a rock could defeat Smaug, potentially. In a world where everyone is fragile, the power will go to those who can be less fragile either by skill, magic or equipment.
Consider: what good are healers in a world where injury only falls into two categories: healed almost immediately or DEATH? Archers now become the mightiest warriors, able to kill from a distance, under cover (assuming mages never get past first level). The incentive to surrender or submit now becomes the last option: sheer numbers will win a battle, even if those number consist of hobbled old men with knives against minotaurs warriors. I mean, people haven't exactly stopped fighting in the real world, where lethality is still pretty high: this isn't going to change much in that regard.
I don't doubt that you could play a game like this and find a way to make it enjoyable. But even a show like Doctor Who features it's share of combat (side note: the old Dr. Who game from the 80s, iirc, did not feature a 1 h.p. system...it was more like FASA's Star Trek). But why would you bother doing this in D&D, then? Why not something like Dread?
Certainly you can't make this one change -- give everyone exactly one hit point -- without making other changes, because all kinds of things'll get knocked out of whack, but the point of the thought experiment is to see how things would change and how we might fix them.
For instance, without giving fighters enormous numbers of hit points, how else might we make them tougher in combat? We might improve their AC, or give them the option to turn a lethal hit into one that merely destroys their shield, or whatever. Or we could keep them fragile and make them even more lethal offensively, with more attacks or bonuses to initiative or free counterattacks, etc.
If any combat might kill you, then better fighters would no longer feel safe taking on lesser fighters. So "why not?" fights should dwindle. Instead, as in real life, "tough" might simply mean "willing to fight" and thus likely to win in a game of "chicken".
I think many, many people would be happy to see the need for healers disappear -- but a healer who could bring you back from "mostly dead" would be a veritable miracle worker, worth quite a lot.
Or we could just reduce the to-hit or rate-of-fire of archers.
If we reduce all hit points to one, other elements of the game must change, or balance is lost, but it's not clear that balance can't be restored.
prosfilaes
Adventurer
You don't build a bicycle by removing one of the wheels from a tricycle. You've made a change that affects every single element of the game; that makes Magic Missile into a die, no save effect, that makes Evasion one of the most awesome powers, that makes Maximize Spell and Power Attack worthless, etc. etc. etc. You need to restart from the beginning; write a new game that keeps what you find important about D&D.
The first thing I'd do in a ONE hit point World is to research all ways to get both temporary hit points and damage reduction/resistances. In 4e getting the former isn't difficult, but the number of temp hp you get is too low to protect you from an average hit.
Several racial abilities would be of great help, e.g. the Halflings' ability to force an attacker to reroll a successful attack or the Goliaths' gaining DR.
I think you could make it work in 4e with a setting that takes it into account, i.e. a setting with races and powers to dampen blows in one way or another. I think that would be an intriguing design challenge
Several racial abilities would be of great help, e.g. the Halflings' ability to force an attacker to reroll a successful attack or the Goliaths' gaining DR.
I think you could make it work in 4e with a setting that takes it into account, i.e. a setting with races and powers to dampen blows in one way or another. I think that would be an intriguing design challenge
Yes and no. If you have a working tricycle, and you've never seen a bicycle, you can greet the suggestion of a two-wheeled bike one of two ways: (1) It'll never work! One corner'll drag on the ground! (2) Hmm... I guess we'd have to put the two wheels in line and find some way to balance it. I'm not sure we can do that, but if we could...
Even when you didn't literally have one hit point, you started with one hit die, which amounted to a saving throw against the first hit and certain death from the second.
prosfilaes
Adventurer
You can't put the two wheels in line; there's no way you can bend the metal that way. It'll break. You'll need to start with fresh metal, which is all I'm asking you to do here.
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