In the heat of battle, is hit point loss a wound?

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Peanutbutter Jelly Time!

Each and every "hitpoint of damage" can be described as stamina-damage or meat-damage depending on the thematic needs.

You are at full HP and take a 1HP swing from a wyvern's tail, necessitating a Con save against poison? Which you then fail? Well, then, you at least got scratched in the process.

 

[Hussar]

The only hit point that matters is the last one. Everything else is just bumps and bruises. It's the only interpretation that actually makes sense given healing times and the complete lack of any actual consequences of taking damage.

 

[Lanefan]

Early h.p. - luck, endurance, minor nicks
Mid h.p. - endurance, nicks, bruises
The last 10 or so h.p. - more significant injuries, cuts, head shots
0 to -10 h.p. - wounds fatal if not treated
-11 and below - fire up the barbeque

Lanefan

 

[the Jester]

It very much depends.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

A character acts at full capacity while they have 1 or more hit points. It is hard to justify any form of serious injury under these conditions. At zero hps or below, the character goes down. This presumably means they have been physically attacked hard enough to incapacitate them (although I've never been a fan of auto-unconciousness).

As such, hit points are best used as an abstraction to represent morale, luck, skill, toughness, divine providence, and so on rather than having anything to do with physical injury. Physical injury is what happens if you go to zero hps or below and could just as adequately be represented (if not a lot more so) by some form of condition track, separate pool of "wounds" or some other mechanic better representing physical damage.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Ti-bob]

"Hit points measure the degree of Script Immunity of a character."

Hit Point represent ANYTHING which means that the character should not die and can continue fighting or acting; lack of Hit Point means means that the character should would fall over. It screen time is over!

A character have many hit point if the spectator believe they are important to the story and expect them not to give up easily. If a character is important to the story, it have more Hit Point then an unimportant one.

Blood or not, wound or not is not important to Script Immunity.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Everything that inflicts HP damage involves some form of physical harm to the body.

Your HP total (and now your Hit Dice) represents the reservoir of Positive Energy your body is capable of containing at once. Fighters have high HP because they are healthy and physically active. Wizards have low HP because they constantly expend their life energy on casting the spells. Hit Points are obviously your body's ability to generate instant healing, while Hit Dice are the 'deeper' reservoirs of energy that restore your corpse to health when you rest.

That's also why your ability scores go up when you level. It's not diet and exercise. You're more full of life stuff.

 

[thewok]

I chose "It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!" because that's the only option with which I fully agree.

I don't view hit points as any real measure of physical injury. For me, everything up until 0 or below is an awkward parry, an arm-jarring block, or a twisting dodge that screws up your footing. Then, when the hit points hit the 0 threshold, every hit becomes a physical injury (unless it's subdual damage). Some may be more serious than others, and some may not be as serious as they seem upon initial examination.

Scratches and bruises can happen at any point in the dwindling of hit points. They're superficial, and they don't mean anything. It's so incredibly easy to bruise or scratch a person that trying to assign some sort of hit point value to such an injury is a waste of time to me.

 

[mlund]

It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

Seriously, though, it all depends - who's taking the damage?

Humanoids with more than 1 or 2 Hit Dice are probably taking nicks and bruises at best until something bloodies then (a wound), or kills them (a mortal wound). You really can't be run through or disemboweled and keep fighting. An attack that creates a relevant wound as opposed to a flesh wound is going to put you out of a fight and probably at serious risk of dying without magical healing.

Big dumb monsters with a ton of meat to them by just being a Dragon / Golem / Cave Troll? Wounds wounds and more wounds. It's just that the PCs can't get at the vital stuff until the foul beast has been beaten down or they have some sort of amazing opportunity (Vorpal Sword Critical, massive Rogue Sneak Attack).

The narrative device is the responsibility of the DM and should be used in appropriate contexts to the best effect. Just be careful not to narrate yourself into a corner!

- Marty Lund

 

[underfoot007ct]

I think we need to have at least 5-6 more threads just like this one, and all the previous threads. Just to see if anyone ever changes their opinion, but I doubt anyone is being swayed on either side of this never ending debate.