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Message: <blockquote data-quote="IanArgent" data-source="post: 4378681" data-attributes="member: 21673">Hit points and healing surges are purely metagame mechanics. The only thing a character should be able to observe (on either side of the screen) is whether their opponent is "bloodied" or not. There is no "in-game" explanation for or observation of hit points. At that point, the whole premise of the monsters targeting the people with less hit points fails. Everyone knows the hit point status of their own side because, honestly, there's no way to prevent it (especially on the monsters' side). That does NOT mean they should have any idea how much HP any of their opponents have - just whether they are bloodied or not.Also, remember that PCs are by definition special people; they have attacks beyond "basic attack". I would find it metagaming to have a monster know the details of every PC class. Elites or solos might know the basics of character classes they have encountered; but the vast majority of PC-race NPCs in the world do not have PC classes.OTOH, armor types are observable, as are defense values. (When attacking a defense, if an attack roll succeeds against an easy DC for the target's level (see p 42) the attacker knows the value of the targeted defense score regardless of the success or failure of the actual attack). Likewise, the attacker can track how much damage they've done to the target and correlate that with the enemy's "bloodied" state, giving them a rough guide of how much HP they have left. (Yes, I know this conflicts slightly with the metagame nature of HP - OTOH, if HP are a metagame artifact, they are a metagame artifact when dealt as well, and everyone can be generally aware of the metagame artifacts they have generated or are under the effects of).</blockquote>

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