D&D General Dumb Idea: Hit Points As Ablative Plot Armor That Doesn't Regenerate

[Reynard]

I would loathe this. I would rather not play at all than play this way.

Not trying to stop anyone who likes the idea from trying it. Just throwing in my thoughts because the OP asked for reactions.

What about it makes it untenable for you?

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

I had not considered the idea of folks just retiring to avoid their ultimate fate. That feels like cheating?

I feel such a thought experiment would be gamed, much like the rest mechanism is gamed into the 5 minutes advernturing day.
It would be all the more gamed that I feel most people are awful at planning and wouldn't start to worry about HP as long as they have say, 10% of their initial allotment.

Your 1st level character would become reckless. "I behead the king and claim the crown, and if any guard in the throneroom says anything, I'll kill them all". Hey, I am 500 HP left.

You'd stil need the "ko" mechanics you alluded to, and that removes the interest of having HP as plot armor as a replacement mechanics. It would be an additional mechanics, that wouldn't provide a lot of added benefit except ensuring campaigns are effectively capped a the level affordable according to the HP budget.

 

[ezekielcroe9]

To a certain extent, it will also fall on the players not to abuse the system so blatantly and cooperate to create the fiction and gameplay that will benefit the table as a whole. Any TRPG system can be exploited and abused because it's all humans interacting and negotiating with each other, based on slightly different interpretations of the rules between each other.

 

[Charlaquin]

To a certain extent, it will also fall on the players not to abuse the system so blatantly and cooperate to create the fiction and gameplay that will benefit the table as a whole. Any TRPG system can be exploited and abused because it's all humans interacting and negotiating with each other, based on slightly different interpretations of the rules between each other.

How do you imagine this system could be exploited?

 

[ezekielcroe9]

The previous posts already discussed some of the ways it can be abused:

What's your IC justification that a 20th level hero can last 20 rounds in the acid pool but 1st level ones only last one round? I'd use that same justification.

As is, the 20th level character can swim for 19 rounds EVERY DAY with no ill effects. They just need a good nap between acid baths.

I'm not sure this thought experiment is any less 'realistic' than the current hit point system.

I feel such a thought experiment would be gamed, much like the rest mechanism is gamed into the 5 minutes advernturing day.
It would be all the more gamed that I feel most people are awful at planning and wouldn't start to worry about HP as long as they have say, 10% of their initial allotment.

Your 1st level character would become reckless. "I behead the king and claim the crown, and if any guard in the throneroom says anything, I'll kill them all". Hey, I am 500 HP left.

You'd stil need the "ko" mechanics you alluded to, and that removes the interest of having HP as plot armor as a replacement mechanics. It would be an additional mechanics, that wouldn't provide a lot of added benefit except ensuring campaigns are effectively capped a the level affordable according to the HP budget.

But to me, I see this as a players intentionally trying to break the game, rather than the system itself being bad. We can layer additional rules and conditions to manage these exploits, but the nice thing about Reynard's original idea is that it's simple and clear.

I also did see your post about setting HP based on level, which I think is a nice small addition.

Overall the rule could work very well for some tables looking for more narratively compelling journeys where the stakes are higher for high-level characters, like the lower HP pools also signal that their character arcs coming to a close.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Overall the rule could work very well for some tables looking for more narratively compelling journeys where the stakes are higher for high-level characters, like the lower HP pools also signal that their character arcs coming to a close.

There would need to be a strong buy-in from the players. I don't think my example about reckless players would only happens when they intentionally try to "break the system". It's like retirement. If you have enough fund to live 5 years comfortably, then you shouldn't retire... only to discover that you'll live for 20 years afterwards. People misestimate their lifespan, and they might just misestimate their character gamespan: if they expect the game to last for 10 sessions, they will be ok with losing 100 HP per night, and be unhappy when they all discover that the game is actually enjoyable for 30 sessions... at which point they'll have replaced their original characters with newer ones, each coming with their 1000 HP allotment, and adopted a similar burn rate as the rest of the group. So you might end up playing a superhero game than D&D already is, without any ill intent from the players.

 

[ezekielcroe9]

Sure, but perhaps that could be managed when you can implement some kind of rule where the HP refreshes when you reach a threshold like Level 10... Or award HP as rewards for completing quests or milestones.

 

[Gimby]

I wonder if, instead of a large, hard-to-conceive-of number, you could, say, go with a game statistic. Call it Fate, call it kismet, call it "plot armour", call it whatever you like.

Each player character begins with a certain amount of Fate; in honour of cats, let's say 8, so that you have "nine lives" - your starting "life" plus eight more from your Fate. But you could make the number as big or as small as you like.

When a player character reaches 0 hit points, they don't go through the death saves business while unconscious. Instead, they lose 1 Fate and are restored immediately to full hit points.

If a player character reaches 0 hit points while they have 0 Fate, that's it: they die.

Isn't this essentially WHFRP's Fate Points?

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

What about it makes it untenable for you?

Not that poster but the loss of healing, punitive nature of melee vs ranged (which is favored enough), punishing martial characters who trade blows more than casters, altering a fundamental part of the class power budget... the list goes on.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Thinking about it more, I feel like this could be used in a campaign that's all about achieving a very specific goal. Rather than a loop of play, which matches the current rules of healing every night, this would be like one big countdown timer. Can the characters stop the BBEG, find the Macgiffin, or prevent the apocalypse before they run out of Hit Points???