Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="DND_Reborn" data-source="post: 8606934" data-attributes="member: 6987520">Because it is an unfortunately side effect of the player knowing the PC is at 1 hit point, and for the character just knowing they were fortunate to survive such a fall and next time they might not be so lucky.Take the first part out, where the player doesn't know, and suddenly loss of hit points must be described more to represent the mounting danger the PC faces.Actually, it annoys me less than a lot of the other things in 5E (and prior editions). Back in AD&amp;D, for a while, I didn't let the players know their PCs' hit points. I tracked it all--the damage they took--how much they healed--everything. So, every hit became a narrative proportionate to their maximum HP. 5% was a dodge or parry, 10% a graze, 20% a cut, 33% a painful wound and bleeding, 50% a broken bone, wounding, and more. And so on...Again, this is the side effect that the player knows the HP, not that the character is more or less aware of it, depending on the narrative of their hp loss. It is only meaningful to the player because of the number, they see the risk, but the character is typically blissfully unaware.Given you example, what is a hit or first round loss of 95% to the PC? Are they potentially stunned? Do they suffer disadvantage due to injury? I would imagine so much damage might be from a critical hit, so perhaps a decent roll on the lingering injuries table (your hand is lobbed off!) might enforce something or a failed DC 15 CON save followed by a 1-3 will reduce the PC to 0 hp?There is more that could be done--but often doesn't happen or isn't used...</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DND_Reborn, post: 8606934, member: 6987520"] Because it is an unfortunately side effect of the player [I]knowing[/I] the PC is at 1 hit point, and for the character just knowing they were fortunate to survive such a fall and next time they might not be so lucky. Take the first part out, where the player doesn't know, and suddenly loss of hit points [I]must[/I] be described more to represent the mounting danger the PC faces. Actually, it annoys me less than a lot of the other things in 5E (and prior editions). Back in AD&D, for a while, I didn't let the players know their PCs' hit points. I tracked it all--the damage they took--how much they healed--everything. So, every hit became a narrative proportionate to their maximum HP. 5% was a dodge or parry, 10% a graze, 20% a cut, 33% a painful wound and bleeding, 50% a broken bone, wounding, and more. And so on... Again, this is the side effect that the player knows the HP, not that the [I]character[/I] is more or less aware of it, depending on the narrative of their hp loss. It is only meaningful to the player because of the number, they see the risk, but the character is typically blissfully unaware. Given you example, what is a hit or first round loss of 95% to the PC? Are they potentially stunned? Do they suffer disadvantage due to injury? I would imagine so much damage might be from a critical hit, so perhaps a decent roll on the lingering injuries table (your hand is lobbed off!) might enforce something or a failed DC 15 CON save followed by a 1-3 will reduce the PC to 0 hp? There [I]is[/I] more that could be done--but often doesn't happen or isn't used... [/QUOTE]

Verification