D&D 5E How cognizant are you of the rules of the game?

[The Crimson Binome]

In my experience, this rarely happens. Even when it does, those DMs also narrate misses as impacting shields and armor, which negates the PCs ability to know when he has hit via an impact. Other than when blood is drawn, though. Even when blood is drawn, the result of a large hit can be a scratch if the creature has a lot of hit points.

That sounds like a bad DM, then. A hit to the armor which deals no damage should be narratively distinct from a hit to the armor that deals damage anyway.

Even so, the PC is unaware since he can't possible know how many luck, skill, fatigue, etc. hit point he has or has lost.

So you have some sort of system where every character has two distinct sets of HP, only one of which is visible to the character, but both of which inform how the player makes decisions as the character? Surely you see how that makes no sense.

If you don't want to RP, and you just want to play a game where you march your pawns around in the dungeon, then that's fine. This being a Role-Playing Game, and us discussing this in a Role-Playing forum, such a perspective carries little weight here.

 

[Phantarch]

That sounds like a bad DM, then...If you don't want to RP, and you just want to play a game where you march your pawns around in the dungeon, then that's fine. This being a Role-Playing Game, and us discussing this in a Role-Playing forum, such a perspective carries little weight here.

 

[Maxperson]

That sounds like a bad DM, then. A hit to the armor which deals no damage should be narratively distinct from a hit to the armor that deals damage anyway.

Only to the player. The PC is not involved with the narration, so there is no difference to the PC.

So you have some sort of system where every character has two distinct sets of HP, only one of which is visible to the character, but both of which inform how the player makes decisions as the character? Surely you see how that makes no sense.

No. One set of hit points which is not visible to the character. Hit points are a player construct.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

No. One set of hit points which is not visible to the character. Hit points are a player construct.

And a healing potion does what, exactly? Why would any character spend an entire pound of gold on this?

 

[Maxperson]

And a healing potion does what, exactly? Why would any character spend an entire pound of gold on this?

It heals you of course. The PC imprecisely knows when he is in bad shape and needs to take a potion. What the PC does not know is that he is at 5 out of 23 hit points. Hit points are a player construct and only the player knows that he should take a potion of healing or extra healing or whatever to manage the numbers. The PC just acts out that choice by choosing one potion over the other.

 

[NotActuallyTim]

And a healing potion does what, exactly? Why would any character spend an entire pound of gold on this?

Because it increases virility, grows hair on your chest, doubles your money and tastes like victory!

Note to self: from now on, all healing potions are made from snake oil, and get sold exclusively by traveling con artists.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

It heals you of course. The PC imprecisely knows when he is in bad shape and needs to take a potion. What the PC does not know is that he is at 5 out of 23 hit points. Hit points are a player construct and only the player knows that he should take a potion of healing or extra healing or whatever to manage the numbers. The PC just acts out that choice by choosing one potion over the other.

Okay, that's good. It sounds like you're contradicting what you said earlier, so hopefully it was just a miscommunication. At least the character is making a decision based on information that it can observe, albeit imprecisely.

Because running out of luck or plot armor isn't something that the character could observe. Vaguely defined "bad shape" is real information, corresponding to an actual change within the game world.

 

[Maxperson]

Okay, that's good. It sounds like you're contradicting what you said earlier, so hopefully it was just a miscommunication. At least the character is making a decision based on information that it can observe, albeit imprecisely.

Because running out of luck or plot armor isn't something that the character could observe. Vaguely defined "bad shape" is real information, corresponding to an actual change within the game world.

Yeah, but there's no way for the PC to know hit points and damage from visible effects. A PC fighting a 30 hit point ogre could crit in round one, missing entirely as the ogre luckily dodges out of the way. That PC would not know he dealt any damage. 3 rounds later he hits again, missing two more times for no damage and then hitting for 10 points, causing a small gash in the ogre's arm. He just did less damage, but it was the only hit he could see, and even then some of it was skill as the ogre blocked the attack from doing more with his arm. 2 rounds later he hits again for 5 points of damage killing the ogre. This is the weakest attack, but it the sword takes the ogre through chest and heart killing it. From the PC's perspective, this is the greatest hit he has had, and the one that did the most damage, even though it was the weakest and did only 1/3 of the crit damage in round one.

A PC can get very imprecise info. Only the player is going to be tracking numbers and have a clear idea of what is going on.

 

[MechaPilot]

Because it increases virility, grows hair on your chest, doubles your money and tastes like victory!

Note to self: from now on, all healing potions are made from snake oil, and get sold exclusively by traveling con artists.

Female adventurers everywhere: "Umm, do you have one that's not chest-hair inducing?"


Also, if you're interested in making potions more flavorful in game, might I suggest that you check out these random tables.

 

[NotActuallyTim]

Sorry, but we carry extra strength hair growth. "For the Sasquatch in you!"