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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GM Dave" data-source="post: 5782837" data-attributes="member: 6687992">I find that Hit Points are one of the great 'dials' of the game and I don't think designers give them enough consideration.1>  By changing the ratio of hit points to damage a designer or DM can change the length of combats.  I use this ratio on my monsters to control roughly how many rounds of combat a battle will last.  I keep track of the damage out put of my players and their average bonuses to hit to figure out roughly how many hit points of monster with matching defenses are required to last 1 round, 3 rounds, or a slug fest of 10 rounds.This is an important tool for me as I play with a group that averages eight players and can go from as low as four to as high as eleven on a game night.  Modifying the monster's hit point totals to match the capabilities of the players allows them to play non-fighters and still be in rewarding and challenging fights.2>  By changing the ratio of hit points to damage a designer or a DM can change the feel of combat.  When I wanted my players to run through hordes of monkey people, I kept the hit points down to be sufficient that most players could dispatch a monkey person in one or two blows (6 hit points was the magic number for first level Pathfinder characters that night).  The monkey people were given weapons that did d4 and d6 which slowly added damage but would not instant kill a player.I also had a huge Frankenstein gorilla that did 2d6 damage which was a threat for being able to 1 hit the players.The players had a range of feeling very superior to being mortal by the range of hit points to damage.   This model could easily be extended to the Superhero feel of players having 50 hit points and most opponents being able to do 1 hit point of damage back per attack.  Many video games make great usage of this design to make an opponent seem unstoppable with a million hit points until the players later get attacks that do tens of thousands of damage.3>  One of the problems with most DnD and similar products is the hit points are designed around a 'work day' assumption of so many battles to be fought.  If the players fight more or less battles then the amount of hit points can be too low or too high for the suggested monster challenges.Player's hit point totals should be a base amount with a multiplier set by the DM based upon the number of combat encounters the DM plans for the players to face in a single day.  If the DM likes single encounter per day play then the players have just enough resources to be challenged to get through that one encounter and if the DM likes five fights in a single day then the players have the hit point resources to play that style of game.The alternative is to do what most video and online games do and consider the hit points are near to full for each battle.  This makes the hit points more of burst reserve that is good at the start of each battle with a bit of down time to recover.  Then it doesn't matter how many fights occur in a single day as the hit points will start near full at each battle (more a measure of physical conditioning like sending a player out to play football.  Real damage occurs when the player gets tired and then makes a mistake that gets them seriously hurt).4>  I think that more traps should be built like monsters and have hit points that allows the player to wreck the machine if they wish.  This is not the pit trap which is more of a environmental hazard like a river of lava.  I am referring to things like the pendulum blade traps and the arrow traps that should have the option to bash them to remove the hazard instead of having a person make several reflex rolls to 'dodge' by the trouble.</blockquote>

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