Obryn
Hero
Of course the PCs are every bit as imaginary as the minion kobolds. The difference is that players are playing PCs, and therefore the PCs are a heck of a lot more important and therefore have a special status in the game.In truth, someone *is* playing them: the DM; and while the usual DM might not bother getting in the heads of each little Kobold to find out what it's thinking the possibility of doing so is and always has been present in the game.
Put another way, the PCs are every bit as imaginary as the minion kobolds.
For example, Alice can use Diplomacy for her PC, Shalestra, to convince the NPC King Plotdevice to send troops to aid you. On the other hand, Alice can't have Shalestra use Diplomacy to convince Bob's PC, Duncan, to send his henchmen. Why? Because Bob deserves a lot more agency over his PC than the DM deserves over King Plotdevice's attitude and well-being.
Why does the hit point total of an ogre the party never meets matter? An assassin can kill King Plotdevice with a crossbow off-screen and nobody needs to worry about 'hit points' at all.Gameplay convenience suggests that off-screen things carry their stats with them at all times as they could become on-screen at a second's notice. The Ogre hiding in ambush in its cave has 45 h.p. before the party meet it, 45 h.p. when the party meet it (though probably not after the party meet it!) and 45 h.p. if the party never meet it at all.
And while if you know the party are never going to meet it you might not bother rolling up its actual h.p. total it still undeniably *has* a h.p. total; you just don't know what the actual number is.
The DM has - or should have - no investment in the well-being of individual kobolds. The DM is playing the game, but is not one of the players with a PC of their own. (Unless they're running a DMPC, which is terrible for all the reasons I'm laying out here re: investment in the well-being of what should be an NPC.) I find this claim of "being nice to the DM" really suspect.It's not a very nice thing to do to the DM either, yet 4e consistently wants to hand her 8 HD (or 8th level) monsters with 1 h.p. that should, by virtue of their Con. score and natural toughness, have a lot more than 1.
Hahah, what? Why's it ridiculous? Because you said so? Like hit points are a physical characteristic of fictional beings?If a Giant (Elite) has 95 h.p. against a 3rd-level party that same Giant has to have 95 h.p. against a 20th-level party, even though those 95 aren't going to last nearly as long.
If a Giant (Minion) has 1 h.p. against a 20th-level party then that same Giant has to have 1 h.p. against a 3rd-level party, whcih is ridiculous, of course.
If a Giant (Elite) has 95 h.p. against a 3rd-level party but that same Giant has but 1 h.p. against a 20th-level party then your game-world's mechanical consistency just went out the window; also ridiculous.
"Hit points" are just a gameplay convenience, and if the party should be mowing through them at 20th level, giving them 1 hp is dandy. You've successfully modeled what you were trying to model.
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