Ahnehnois
First Post
Poll question cut off. Should read: "In your D&D game, how much does a character know about his own hit points (his total, how much damage he has, and how it compares to other things)?"
I don't know that anyone's ever asked this here directly before, but it seems interesting.
The question is specific to what the character understands, not the player (if you're drawing a distinction).
The first response is not to be taken that you know the exact number, but may be something close to that. For example, it would indicate that if you have 15 hit points, you know that a 20 ft fall won't kill you, but a more serious fall might. If you have lost 20 hit points, you know that a Cure Light Wounds isn't sufficient to heal you up, but Cure Moderate might be and Cure Serious definitely will. These are the kinds of decisions I'm talking about.
The second is to indicate that you know something, but very little. For instance, you might realize if you dropped below half hit points, you had some damage, but you probably wouldn't be able to recognize your remaining health to any more specific level than a quartile. You couldn't necessarily make reliable judgments like the above regarding specific sources of damage and healing and exactly how close you are to death, but you know something.
The third is fairly radical, and would indicate that you can only observe objective consequences, like being dropped or perhaps (in 4e terms), being bloodied. You could be at 1/100 hp and not know that you were close to dying. At most, you'd realize you'd almost been stabbed a few times recently, but you wouldn't have any sense as to when your luck is about to run out.
***
This has significant play implications, so I'm interested to see how people feel about this.
I don't know that anyone's ever asked this here directly before, but it seems interesting.
The question is specific to what the character understands, not the player (if you're drawing a distinction).
The first response is not to be taken that you know the exact number, but may be something close to that. For example, it would indicate that if you have 15 hit points, you know that a 20 ft fall won't kill you, but a more serious fall might. If you have lost 20 hit points, you know that a Cure Light Wounds isn't sufficient to heal you up, but Cure Moderate might be and Cure Serious definitely will. These are the kinds of decisions I'm talking about.
The second is to indicate that you know something, but very little. For instance, you might realize if you dropped below half hit points, you had some damage, but you probably wouldn't be able to recognize your remaining health to any more specific level than a quartile. You couldn't necessarily make reliable judgments like the above regarding specific sources of damage and healing and exactly how close you are to death, but you know something.
The third is fairly radical, and would indicate that you can only observe objective consequences, like being dropped or perhaps (in 4e terms), being bloodied. You could be at 1/100 hp and not know that you were close to dying. At most, you'd realize you'd almost been stabbed a few times recently, but you wouldn't have any sense as to when your luck is about to run out.
***
This has significant play implications, so I'm interested to see how people feel about this.
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