D&D General Hit Points are a great mechanic

[Voranzovin]

Hit points are the worst game mechanic except for all the other mechanics that have been tried from time to time.

Forgive me for responding to a post from a week ago, but I can't keep up with these threads!

Anyway, this right here is the correct answer. Hit points will make an absolute mess of your games fiction. They are impossible to square with other systems in the game like healing and poison. They're bad for simulation because they make absolutely no sense. They're bad for narrative because they dont actually mean anything. They're bad for gameplay because any system that describes a creatures toughness through a purely abstract numerical value will, given sufficient time and abrasion, inevitably bloat.

The only thing worse then hit points is literally everything else. Wound tracks add too much complexity and frequently result in death spirals. "Debilities" and other similar systems work fine in a PBTA but dont work in a game like DnD where "how far am I from death?" is an important tactical consideration. WP/VP is just hit points, but even more impossible to square with any kind of meaningful fiction.

Hit points are a great game mechanic.. .but only because we're grading on a curve.

 

[loverdrive]

True, but fantasy fiction is only one source of inspiration for RPGs.

Girlie I'm begging you to read what I'm quoting
I was responding to the claim that people shrugging off hits isn't happening in fantasy fiction — it does, fantasy heroes get immaterial grazing hits from nameless mooks all the time

Whether it's the only or even a noteworthy source of inspiration is a pancakes and waffles situation

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Whether it's the only or even a noteworthy source of inspiration is a pancakes and waffles situation

twitter NOT the only place where well articulated sentences still get misinterpreted

 

[Clint_L]

Hit points are a fantastic game mechanic, which is why they have been applied to a vast array of games since their invention. As a roleplay mechanic they have strengths and weaknesses. They're less dramatic than a lot of other systems, but make death a lot more predictable, which is essential ina game like D&D which is geared towards long-running campaigns.

Narratively, I find them easy to work with, because they aren't really anything, so I just let my imagination fill in the story. My assumption is that real damage isn't happening until the character is getting close to or at 0 HP, so everything until then is wearning them down, using up their luck, etc.

They're kind of a blank slate.

 

[James Gasik]

Ok, so here's my attempt at a 5e wounds system (largely inspired by Earthdawn).

If a creature is reduced to 0 hit points or takes damage from a single source in excess of their Constitution score, they suffer a wound. For each wound a creature has, the amount of healing they receive is reduced by 1.

A wound can be removed after completing a long rest at the cost of a healing surge.

One wound can be removed every 24 hours with the use of a Healer's Kit and a DC 15 Wis (Medicine) check.

The regenerate spell removes 1 Wound from the target for every 10 minutes.

 

[Stormonu]

Chronicles of Ramlar had a fairly interesting system for handling wounds. It somewhat reminds me of Battletech's Armor/Internal Structure system. It also allowed for "Impairments" and other conditions.

Spoiler

The tiny number in the upper left was the Hit location (roll d% to hit, using the 1's digit for location, "0" was attacker's choice). Top number. The top large number was the "protection value" - an attack had to do enough damage to get past the protection value before it got to the "meat" of the bottom number. If a limb hit 0 "meat" points, it would inflict conditions - Leg goes to 0, you're limping around; Your weapon arm goes to 0 and you can't hold a weapon any more, etc. Likewise if you lose all the points in a limb, further hits are applied to the upper chest; once it goes to 0 you're out of action.

 

[Rainbow Scissors]

I don't know if "incompatible" is the right term. Plenty of fictional fantasy heroes shrug off massive damage. Look how many arrows it took to kill Boromir, and he was able to linger long enough to deliver his last words to Aragorn! And let's not get started on pulp fantasy icons like a certain Cimmerian...

It's better to say that in your preferred narrative, nobody has "plot armor" and anyone can die. Like, say, The Black Company novels.

Conan gets hurt sometimes, and there are even stories in which he is at risk of death due to things like infection, fever, and poison. Sure, as a protagonist, he does have some amount of plot armor, but, even so, the situation is never presented in such a way that he can just ignore risk.

Even when comparing the plot armor of protagonists from novels to contemporary D&D hitpoints, I feel it is a valid observation to say that HP is somewhat unbelievable, even if considering leeway given by narrative tropes.

Overall, I like the simplicity of HP, but I also think the pendulum of D&D could swing back toward being a few notches more grounded and be a more enjoyable game. There are times when I wish I could play concepts or tell types of stories that worked better within the structure of the game. I have seen posts elsewhere talking about D&D not really being that great at telling stories that once were D&D stories, and I can understand why people might feel that way.