D&D (2024) Allow players to know a foe's hp?

[Yaarel]

Also, I use the "bloodied condition" to make morale checks for the monsters. That is when the confrontation "gets real", and they decide whether they feel like dealing with it or not.

If there is a group, I check again when one of them goes down.

 

[J.Quondam]

(Not 5e specific, but...)
Most campaigns in the past, I've put three "scratch marks" on a wounded foe, usually at 80%, 50%, and 20%.

 

[aco175]

All of that to save time on the guessing game to speed up game play at my table.

Another thing I do to speed up time is to have the player roll the monster damage against themselves so I can move on to the next thing.

 

[tetrasodium]

I do not let them know hp beyond rare one off edge cases. My VTT of choice has an option to have multiple x/y type boxes in attributes & I usually have one for actual HP with raw numbers plus a second that starts at like 2/2 or 4/4 that gets displayed to visibly show something completely at my whims but is usually somewhat closeish to eyeballed where on a scale of N/2 & N/4 or whatever I'm using.

I do it like that because when I was just using one that reflected the true HP percentage I found that players got too focused on practically counting pixels to metagame monster toughness

 

[Ath'kethin]

I typically give a general idea of a monster's condition - "it's barely hurt," "it's badly injured," "looks like it's on its last legs," etc. Stuff a character would be able to see and assess easily enough.

 

[Charlaquin]

The rules list visual descriptions.

The status that I communicate are:
• "Fresh" and alert at or near total hit points
• "Bloodied" at half hit points or less
• "Downed" at zero hit points

Bloodied is obvious. That is when an attack leaves a mark. When a boxer lands a solid punch. When fatigued boxers get sloppy. When sword fencers dancing around suddenly draw blood. When fightsports shift from grappling to beating the snot out of someone. Etcetera.

Downed is obvious. Theres a sword sticking out of their belly.

Same here.

 

[GMMichael]

I'm interested to know how EN Worlders run hp knowledge in their games? Are players aware of current health of foes and if so to what extent?

Hit points are not tied to health. See: full HP after long rest.

What impact does this have on your game and why do you like it... if indeed you do like it? What would changing the method do to your games?

I give players indicators of opponent health up to 50% HP. It depends on what's happened in the battle - winded, wounded, panicking - are all valid statuses.

PCs never find out opponent health below 50% because the opponents have fled by then.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Not a poll option as I read it, but I describe how beaten up a foe is: "He looks like he's on his last legs," "she only has a few scratches and still has a big grin on her face as she attacks," etc. I honestly thought this was how almost everyone did it.

 

[Vael]

I use Bloodied and some variant of "near death" ... and I will laugh and tell them when the monster they just hit for 5 damage had 6 HP ... or when they significantly overkill a monster.