D&D General How does your PC interact with hit points?

[Vaalingrade]

But does the character say that? Do the people in your setting have a concept of hit points, do the people in the setting talk using game mechanical terms? Also, how does the character know that they have 23 hit points? How does it feel to them to have 23 hit points? How does that feel different from having 40 hit points?

They feel it the same way we feel that we're not okay. We know there's degrees of being not okay and what they indicate: are you tired, woozy, physically injured, anxious, like you're losing the fight. You don't know discreet numbers and percentages, but you know enough that you can describe it usefully in words.

Of course, of HP were meat, you could weight the viscera scattered around you whenever you lose an HP as a percentage vs your starting body weight too.

 

[Shiroiken]

For those who don't reveal PC HP, how do you handle healing spells or short rests?

While I was not a player in this game, I did know of one campaign where the players knew nothing about the mechanics of the game, with all numbers being given in general terms. The DM rolled up a bunch of characters using 4d6 in order, then describing them results for the players to pick, then add race & class. The players never knew their HP either, as those were rolled as well. The players determined their actions, never rolling a single die; everything was rolled by the DM behind the screen. The players were completely at the mercy of the descriptions by the DM, determine how and when to use healing based solely on this. I think with the right DM and group, this could be really fun, but I'd have to trust the DM to actually be rolling the dice and describing things correctly (I don't want to just have free form storytelling).

 

[Bill Zebub]

While I was not a player in this game, I did know of one campaign where the players knew nothing about the mechanics of the game, with all numbers being given in general terms. The DM rolled up a bunch of characters using 4d6 in order, then describing them results for the players to pick, then add race & class. The players never knew their HP either, as those were rolled as well. The players determined their actions, never rolling a single die; everything was rolled by the DM behind the screen. The players were completely at the mercy of the descriptions by the DM, determine how and when to use healing based solely on this. I think with the right DM and group, this could be really fun, but I'd have to trust the DM to actually be rolling the dice and describing things correctly (I don't want to just have free form storytelling).

I agree it could be fun. But I also enjoy the gamey side of the game.

 

[Lanefan]

How does my PC interact with hit points?

Painfully, most of the time.