Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="ezo" data-source="post: 9364534" data-attributes="member: 7037866">If you're in the relative center of a 90'-cone of red dragon's breath, there is no dodging, and you are pretty unlucky. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Anything you can do is all about the saving throw. On average you're still taking 45 damage if you make the saving throw, just 10 points shy of the 55 average for wading in a stream of lava. Of course, the odds of you making that DC 24 saving throw is pretty darn low in general, so you are most likely taking 91 damage... well above the average for the lava.I disagree. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />How deep is the lava? How wide is the stream? What equipment is the PC wearing? How quickly can they get through it?Durability and will to live, as well as luck, still plays a part.[HR][/HR]To be clear, I hope you understand I am just playing Devil's advocate here... right? There are no mortal means to survive "wading through lava" and just keep on going. I believe it is possible to survive, certainly, people have survived in real life, albeit with protective gear. But such things are akin to those who survive 20000-foot falls and live.IMO the real issue in such cases is hit points, and the fact players know how many they have. You're PC has 54 hit points? Sure, jump 50 feet down to wade into a fight, you'll probably have about 40 left and can always be healed. It is just a part of metagaming that is not easily avoided.There is also the issue that what should obviously be "meat damage" for hit points it so easily recovered with a short or long rest. Although I know simplicity is always a goal--given it is a game--there are times when I wish designers had embraced more uses for damage to Constitution and reducing maximum hit points.Constitution is long-term damage, requiring several days or weeks to heal without very powerful magic.Maximum hit points is medium-term, requiring days, maybe a week or so, to fully heal.Hit points are very short term, recovering them in hours or a day at most.d20 Star Wars with Vitality / Wounds approached this, and it is why I think it is one of the better systems. Other games have systems with "stun vs. physical" or "non-lethal vs. lethal", but D&D doesn't make this distinction with hit points, so you have to simply accept it or rule as common sense might dictate--especially since there are no longer save or die effects. An option that also appeals to me from Vampire is "aggrevated damage", which something like lava and dragon's breath would deal, which would reduce hit point maximum as well as hit points.Another thing I've seen in the past is when hit points to 0 are like "vitality", and going negative is "wounds". Or many groups use a level of exhaustion at 0 hit points.Finally, my personal favorite for simplicity using hit points is just to change the rule for Instant Death to have a PC die if the overflow damage after reaching 0 hit points exceeds the Constitution score. This way, even if you get 100 hp, you don't have instant death at 100 additional points, but likely 12-20 at most.He might have survived if he hadn't taken the falling damage by foolishly jumping down 50 feet...Of course, if he's that confident then perhaps he didn't need my help anyway?Viewing hit points "as a resource" is part of the hit point problem, along with the fact that hazards like falling damage can't result in critical damage. Instead of 5d6 damage, if you might possibly face 10d6, losing a third of your hit points before facing the foe, you might give it some more thought and go the safer route.But hey, you want to take the leap, go ahead and jump. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification