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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 7262419" data-attributes="member: 63">Normally we interpret HP as a sort of 'ability to avoid serious injury' points. If you have 30 HP and a troll deals 10 with a bite, well, you got gnawed on for a half second but pulled free. After all, you've still got 20 HP, which is enough to survive a few sword strikes, so you're clearly not hurt too badly.I propose an inversion. You still have HP, but damage you take doesn't reduce it. Rather, your HP is the maximum amount of magical healing you can receive in a day. Call it Healing Points.Any hit that does damage actually wounds you. Any hit that does at least 5 damage is a 'light wound' and typically involves getting fingers or toes chopped off, or slicing open your eye. Any hit that does at least 10 damage is a 'moderate' wound, which might be the loss of a hand or foot, or a slight case of being disemboweled. Take 15 damage or more, and that's a 'serious' wound, which is the loss of a full limb, or having your intestines torn out, or your spine broken. Anything that does over 20 damage is a 'critical wound,' like having your heart exploded by a lightning bolt, your lungs withered by necrotic magic, your skull caved open, your entire outer layer of skin being dissolved in acid, or everything below your waist frozen solid and then shattered.There'd be charts to determine what happens with light, moderate, serious, and critical wounds. People love random rolls.As horrific as those injuries are, any time you receive magical healing you A) deduct the amount healed from your HP for the day, and B) recover from a wound of the appropriate damage threshold.Now, the injuries have consequences. If you lose a finger, you have disadvantage on actions using that hand. If you lose an arm, a lot of stuff becomes impossible, and you start making death saving throws from blood loss. A critical wound prevents almost any useful action, and probably kills you within a few rounds. But hey, receive a 4d8 cure spell, and your shattered limbs regrow in an instant and you're good to keep fighting. Heck, maybe you don't have a spellcaster who can heal! Just make a Heal check to stanch the bleeding, and when you spend healing surges during a rest, you sew your old limb on. It'll have a scar, but that just gives you more style.Sure, this is a terrible idea for a normal game, but if you intend to trap your PCs in a psychic nightmare for Halloween and torment them with gruesome wounds that turn their beloved bodies into giblets, I hope you'll consider my proposal.</blockquote>

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