Fast ways to track Hit Points...need help

[Gundark]

I have been bothered by the how long combat is been taking me. Our group has tried out True 20 and we definetly like how fast the combats go. On the other hand d20 gives us a level of complexity that we enjoy. I have been attempting to convert the damage and recovery system over to regular d20. The problem is that it falls apart when it comes to CR.
So I am going back to the drawing board with Hit Points (as this seemed to be the big reason why combats where dragging on). So my question is: what do you do to track Hit Points effectively and quickly? I could use some help.

 

[Crothian]

I tell the players the damage they take, they keep track of their HP, they tell me the damage the enemies take, I track the enemy HPs.

What about tracking HP takes so long for you?

 

[Jdvn1]

I don't use numbers to keep track of hit points, I make boxes. Five hit points per box. If something has 100 hit points, that's 20 boxes (I normally would make a 5x4 grid of boxes or something). Whenever damage is deal, I count by fives and mark off boxes. If, say, 17 damage is dealt, I cross off 3 boxes and put 2 tallies in another box. If 21 points of damage is done later, I cross off 4 boxes and put a tally in the box with 2 tallies.

 

[ThirdWizard]

I write an underlined name with a number under it. Then when they get hit, I cross that out and write the new total under that. If they take non-lethal damage, I put the non-lethal damage in a box and count up in that box beside the hp. It takes maybe 5-8 seconds to do this. When the paper is used up, I flip it over or pick up a new sheet.

 

[Henry]

When I DM, I usually count damage instead of hit points, as well.

If I have a monster with 10 hit points:

He gets hit for 4 damage, I mark "4" on the sheet.

He gets hit for 2 more, I mark "6." When he gets to 10, he's down and dying.

For non-lethal damage, I keep track separately, but adding the two together lets me know if I'm up or down.

When I play, I subtract HP and add non-lethal as per the rules.

 

[Aaron L]

Well, for fun once we made these hit point trackers. Theyre construction paper, 3 wheels sandwiched between 2 rectangles, one of the rectangles has 3 boxes cut into it, and the wheels have numbers 0 - 9 around the edges, and the wheels are held in place with paper fasteners through the centers, and the rectangles are glued together at the edges. Pretty neat and I used it a bit.

 

[Quasqueton]

I tell the players the damage they take, they keep track of their HP, they tell me the damage the enemies take, I track the enemy HPs.

What about tracking HP takes so long for you?

My thoughts, too. Of all the things folks can and have complained about being complicated with D&D, this is the first time I've heard of tracking hit points.

Quasqueton

 

[kenobi65]

Scratch pad. Party encounters 5 20-HP bugbears, I write "20" five times across the top of the paper. (With multiple monsters on the board, I'll note on the scratch pad which "20" relates to which mini on the battlemat, to alleviate confusion). Bugbear #3 gets hit for 9 HP, I subtract 9 points from his "20", and write "11".

For nonlethal damage (mostly comes up when fighting critters with regeneration), I run a separate total for nonlethal damage received immediately to the right of the monster's HP total; that total starts at 0, and goes *up*. When the nonlethal damage total is higher than the current HP total, the critter falls down.

 

[Gundark]

What about tracking HP takes so long for you?

It's not so much a problem at lower levels. At higher levels it's a pain, the chipping away of a large hit point total is time consuming. Once you factor fast healin/regeneration it can get confusing. Also with larger combats...ie..Tracking that orc #4 has 12 hit points left, Orc #5 has 2 left, etc. That sort of thing.


Edit: Corrected mistakes..clarified

 

[Henry]

It's not so much a problem at lower levels. At higher levels it's a pain. Also with larger combats...ie..Tracking that orc #4 has 12 hit points left, Orc #5 has 2 level, etc. That sort of thing.

as a couple of people noted, tracking additively may help the situation. As addition is a few tenths of a second faster than subtraction, those tenths really add up after a few rolls, so counting up to 'equal' the hit point total may do it.