How much blood in a hp?

[der_kluge]

Look, repeat after me.

D&D is a game.

Hit points are an abstraction.


Down this way lies only madness. MADNESS, I tell you.

Stop now.

 

[Umbran]

Hit points are an abstraction, and do not cleanly translate into physical bodily damage in a simple and regular way.

 

[Slife]

What Hit Points Represent

Hit points mean two things in the game world: the ability to take physical punishment and keep going, and the ability to turn a serious blow into a less serious one.

 

[Sound of Azure]

As others have said, HP are an abstraction.


Even if you were to take HP as a literal measurment of blood, the average person has 14 hp to lose before they die (-10 hp). 4 hp damage makes a commoner disabled....(at 0 hp), that is.. almost passing out.


Pedantry rocks!

 

[Nyeshet]

Well, if you are a typical commoner, then 1 hp equals ~1/4 of your blood supply - or at least 1/4 of the decrease needed to lower your blood pressure to lethal levels. However, rather akin to anime characters that seem to have scores of gallons of blood under high pressure inside their bodies, as you increase in level you apparently gain more blood, thus being able to bleed more before falling unconscious or dying. Of course, I expect then that the deaths of higher level characters should virtually cause a fountain of blood perhaps lasting for several seconds before the pressure lets off.

Or maybe not.

 

[Andor]

Has anyone ever needed a drop of blood in game, to sign something perhaps, and not had the GM say "OK, take a point of damage" or even 1d4?

 

[Masquerade]

Has anyone ever needed a drop of blood in game, to sign something perhaps, and not had the GM say "OK, take a point of damage" or even 1d4?

Yes. A small cut is not at all disabling.

 

[cattoy]

Yes. A small cut is not at all disabling.

Kind of depends on where that cut is located, doesn't it?

 

[Storyteller01]

Hypo needles are stated at doing 1 hp of damage.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

How big a prick does it take to equal a point of damage?

Suppose you prick your finger on a pin and squeeze out a drop of blood, does that constitute 1 hp of damage? Slash a finger? Chop off a finger? What level of wound takes the average man 1/4th of the way towards death?

Discuss.

It is UTTERLY unanswerable. HP are not defined beyond being a measure of "health". They do not equate strictly to physical damage. Even if one assumes they do then the amount of damage is variable based on many other factors. 1 point of damage to a 1st level 3hp wizard is not the same value in physical damage as it is to a 200 hp 12th level barbarian even though the damage may be inflicted by the same pin-in-the-finger. When you start talking about size it falls apart even further. The pin in the finger of a giant, or even a mundane elephant might be genuinely physically insufficient to penetrate the skin to a depth that could even strike nerves or draw blood, but D&D hit points and damage systems DO NOT CARE. D&D is simply NOT BUILT in a way that the above questions are even meaningful.