How do you tell how wounded a PC is?

[strongbow]

I'm sure DMs have run into this one.

(Dm) The orc swings (rolls) threats (rolls) and hit you with a massive blow (rolls) for 27 points of damage, slicing into your left hamstring.

(PC Fighter) Quick cleric, heal me, I only have 4 HP left.

(Cleric) No problem, I always know how wounded you are; I keep track of your HP on a piece of paper.

For the players that actually like to roleplay telling how wounded someone is, how do you DMs do this? To make my point, a PC cleric will eventually figure out about how many healing spells it takes to completely heal a character in the party, thus gaining some idea of how many "Hit Points" a character has. So while the cleric may have some idea, they aren't going to know that Joe Blo Fighter is exactly at 4 HP.

The cleric might be able to observe Joe Blo and see that he is at less than a quarter max HP. While characters have no concept of HP as such, reasonable observations from experience might tell this much.

How about this:

1)Must have line of sight.
2)The check is a free action
3)Would you say a Heal Check or Wisdom Check would be more appropriate?
4) I think adopting someone along the idea of how the appraise skill is used might be the most appropriate. If someone could help me put this into numbers, I would appreciate it.

For example, off the top of my head:
The cleric estimates Joe Blo's HP to within:
DC 30 Practically to the exact HP
DC 25 5%
DC 20 10%
DC 15 20%
DC 10 33%
DC 5 Below half or above half health

Now if the cleric is standing right next to the fighter, that would provide a +5 circumstance bonus.

I would like to find a middle ground here. I am tired of asking players how wounded their characters look, yet I don't want to be cheesy and know exactly how much HP everyone has left.

Comments, solutions, and criticism welcome.

 

[trentonjoe]

This is how we do it:

In comat if someone wants to know the status of a PC hit pointwise the questioning PC asks theplayer "HOw do you look?"

THe questioned player responds with a qualitative answer. THe list is long and everyone has their own definition but the common answers are:

good
okay
not so good
bloodied
in a lot of trouble

We have found this works pretty good. If the characters can see each other they don't need to "actually" respond in character but if for some reason the characters can not see each other the PC's must talk it out. This runs into problems sometimes (barbarian rage, silence spells, long distance conversations through battle).

If someone needs healing in combat our standard respons is "MEdic!" We all know what that means!

 

[Romotre]

First of all, speaking is a free action so the fighter could scream "ow i can see my bones that's bad heal me." the way we do it is, you can roughly gauge at what % a character is at. if a chracter with 50 HP is it for 25, you know from expiernce that he's at ABOUT half health. I don't allow character to say "i'm down 9 so a cure light should do my fine"

 

[CullAfulMoshuN]

When DMing for my more experience group I actually write down all their hit points at the start of combat and don't let the PCs know their exact total, I just give a status update everytime their hitpoints change from either taking damage or receiving healing.

Found that this works quite well but newbie or bad roleplayers tend to kick up a fuss that they don't have control over every aspect of their character.

CullAfulMoshuN...

 

[Crothian]

Metagame!! Healing is the most metagamed aspect of the game. And people really don't even think about it.

Keeping track of the HP for the PCs is a good way to go as long as you have a consistant way of describing how wounded they are. When I did this I used a simple percentage system

76-100%: Slightly wounded to ok
51-75%: Wounded to slighty wounded
26-50%: Seriosly Wounded to wounded
1%-25%: Die to seriously wounded

it was nice and simple and i could easily do the calculations in my head.

 

[The Souljourner]

We generally assume that a person knows how hurt he is and can effectively communicate this to the party cleric. Thus we don't worry about people saying "I'm down by 10". We just assume that the character is actually saying "I got hit by a couple sword blows" and the cleric happens to know that one cure light is probably going to be enough to stitch him up right.

For opponents who aren't going to explains the nuances of their wounds, our DM uses standard computer RPG terms. "He's in the red" means he looks like he could die at any time. "in the yellow" means he's pretty hurt but looks like he could fight for some time still, and "in the green" means he's not seriously hurt yet. Of course, that just applies to opponents whose anatomy is immediately apparent. For constructs and stuff, he just says "Uh.. you've hacked off a few chunks... it doesn't seem to notice, but you are doing damage"

I find that people sometimes go way overboard when trying to not metagame. I mean, yeah, it's nice to say "you took a massive blow from the orc, you're feeling pretty hurt"... but that can easily lead to misunderstandings. Does pretty hurt mean you're going to die in the next hit or does it mean you're at 40% hitpoints? Your character would know, but you may not. That's why hitpoints are useful. A character who's been in many battles will know how much damage he can take and when he needs to start making a strategic withdrawl, and the cleric will know when Joe Fighter needs some quick healing before the next sword blow takes him out. It's just expedient for players to use hitpoints, and doesn't really hurt the game at all.

-The Souljourner

 

[Sinjin the Rogue]

In my group, we also assume that the cleric can how badly someone is wounded by their appearance or by how the person communicates his/her wounds to the cleric.

However, our challenge was in determining what happens when a character's hit points fall below zero but above -10. The character is unconscious and on the ground. In the middle of combat from a few feet away, it may be very difficult for the cleric to ascertain the number of hit points the character has before death.

Originally, I would spout out, "you are at -3 hit points". However, true to form, the cleric would wait for 5 or 6 rounds before healing the character, because he knew he had that long to wait.

So, our house rule is that once a character drops below zero hit points, I only tell him/her that she is unconscious and in danger of death, unless he/she can stablize or receives healing. Doing this emphasizes the necessity of healing a character immediately. The cleric isn't forced to take a specific action, but failing to act in time will have terrible results for the character.

 

[The Souljourner]

That's a good point Sinjin, I hadn't thought of that, but it makes sense. I've seen the same thing, where the healers in the party know they have some time, so they wait a little bit before giving the healing to try to pick off some of the bad guys first. I'll do that the next time I DM.

-The Souljourner