D&D 5E Hit points explained

[Artturi Laitakari]

After reading D&D 5e damage rules I concluded thus far:
Hitpoints 50% to 100%

• Describe fatigue from blocking and dodging attacks, you have not been really hit yet.

Hitpoints 0% to 50%

• Describe bruises you have gotten, next day you have a lot of bruises in your body.

Hitpoints 0

• Someone knocked you out, this is the first point where you have gotten some real damage.

All damage, slashing, bruising and piercing is actually bruising damage, same for magic. D6D is a PG-13 reality, nobody gets serious damage, or bleeds.
Death= serious coma, you seem dead, but are not.

Bleeding -> doesn't exist.

Even "reality rules" that slow down healing in DMG make healing pretty fast considering it's only bruising.

 

[Yunru]

Well historically 50% health or less has been referred to as "Bloodied", so I wouldn't say that.

 

[Azzy]

Well historically 50% health or less have been referred to as "Bloodied", so I wouldn't say that.

Historically? You mean in one edition of the game?

 

[Yunru]

Historically? You mean in one edition of the game?

As in "in the past", yes

 

[CapnZapp]

There's no single explanation that works for all cases.

Except "hit points are hit points"

Trying to explain it further is just going down a rabbit hole. There have been thousands of discussions on this topic and none of them have reached a general consensus.

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

 

[Iry]

Hitpoints 50% to 100%

• Describe fatigue from blocking and dodging attacks, you have not been really hit yet.

Hitpoints 0% to 50%

• Describe bruises you have gotten, next day you have a lot of bruises in your body.

Hitpoints 0

• Someone knocked you out, this is the first point where you have gotten some real damage.

Hit points are an abstraction that can represent almost anything you want, from sheer superhuman toughness, to incredible luck, to flesh wounds, to simple fatigue.

But a long time ago I actually asked Gygax when I was attending Gen Con. He told me to think of it as "points until you get hit."

That's still pretty vague, but I always thought he meant 'until you take a vital hit' or something like that. Either way, it stuck with me to this day.

 

[Imaculata]

I've always presumed that your hitpoints represent wounds you can take that are not life threatening. In other words, wounds that do not cause a life threatening amount of blood loss, and can easily be patched up. It isn't until you reach 0 hp, that you take a hit in a vital organ, in my opinion. At that point you are dying, unless you receive immediate medical aid.

 

[Fanaelialae]

No single guideline can explain hit points.

Consider the case of an assassin with a poison dagger. Even at full hp, if the dagger hits, the target will have to save versus poison. Clearly that is not a case of a blocked attack or a mere bruise. The target must have been cut (even if it is only a scratch) in order to introduce the poison to the bloodstream (which in turn prompts the saving throw).

As to your other point (that healing of bruising is fast even with the slow healing rules) consider that just because the hp loss might indicate bruising, doesn't mean that those hps are necessarily lost until the bruising entirely fades. I've had plenty of bruises which hurt quite badly when they occurred, but by the next day were negligible despite being unsightly.

 

[Nagol]

After reading D&D 5e damage rules I concluded thus far:
Hitpoints 50% to 100%

• Describe fatigue from blocking and dodging attacks, you have not been really hit yet.

Hitpoints 0% to 50%

• Describe bruises you have gotten, next day you have a lot of bruises in your body.

Hitpoints 0

• Someone knocked you out, this is the first point where you have gotten some real damage.

All damage, slashing, bruising and piercing is actually bruising damage, same for magic. D6D is a PG-13 reality, nobody gets serious damage, or bleeds.
Death= serious coma, you seem dead, but are not.

Bleeding -> doesn't exist.

Even "reality rules" that slow down healing in DMG make healing pretty fast considering it's only bruising.

Well, I'm sure your players will be relieved that they can only receive riders such as poisoning/disease once they go below 50% hp. After all, if they haven't really been hit, the spider can't have injected poison with that blow, right?

Hit points should be treated as they are: a high-level abstraction designed for play as opposed to a strong emulation of damage infliction.

 

[Eubani]

People tried to discuss what hit points are and that they are not just meat during DOAM discussions unfortunately many grogs were too thick and others didn't want fighters to have nice things.