Is He Damaged?

[airwalkrr]

I've noticed my players often expect to know things that their characters would have no way of knowing in combat. Here are some of the most common ones.

-Did it look like I bypassed his damage reduction?
-Did it look like I bypassed his energy resistance?
-Is he regenerating or simply fast healing?
-How many hit points are you down?
-Are you stunned or just dazed?
-Did he just use a spell-like ability?
-Did you stabilize or are you still dying?

My question to you, En World, is what do you do in situations like this? Do you just allow the players to have omniscient information about the PCs and NPCs of the world at any time, or do you have restrictions on it?

Personally, I never tell my PCs anything other than what their characters would observe. To me, it is fair and realistic that the PCs know how much damage is being dealt, so I always call out damage aloud. If they ever started writing everyone else's current hp total down in plain view I would put a stop to that, but to me it should be sufficient for you to know that your ally has taken about 5 hits which averaged around 15 points of damage over the last two rounds to decide whether or not to heal him. One of my biggest pet peeves however is the dreaded "Are you stable?" question. There is simply no way to tell that kind of thing without taking a pulse or listening for breathing. A person on death's door is going to have very shallow breath and will not be moving much unless they are dying of a seizure. Noticing something like that as a "free action" in the middle of a pitched battle is simply ridiculous in my opinion and I'm sure I'm not alone. My other pet peeve is when a player hits for 30 odd points of damage, and metagaming that the monster probably has some kind of DR asks if the full damage went through. Again, this is not something that I think would be necessarily obvious. I follow the rules to a T on this one and only inform PCs that there is a damage reduction effect when the entire amount of damage is negated, otherwise, in answer to the "did my damage all go through" is simply "you don't know, but the attack did injure him." I feel that is fair enough. I have a hard time believing any PC could be so keen as to be able to determine the difference between 25 points of damage and 30 points of damage when they are swinging their sword 3 times a round and dodging enemy attacks at the same time.

 

[calypso15]

I've noticed my players often expect to know things that their characters would have no way of knowing in combat. Here are some of the most common ones.

-Did it look like I bypassed his damage reduction?
-Did it look like I bypassed his energy resistance?
-Is he regenerating or simply fast healing?
-How many hit points are you down?
-Are you stunned or just dazed?
-Did he just use a spell-like ability?
-Did you stabilize or are you still dying?

-Your blow seems to simply bounce off of the creatures hide, leaving nary a mark.
-The demon grins wickedly at you from amidst the fire, his hide unsinged.
-Lop off a bit and you'll find out.
-3/4, 2/3, 1/2, 1/3, almost dead.
-You can't tell.
-Make a Spot check... you didn't see him perform any hand motions nor speak any words.
-That's going to require a full-round Heal check.

Calypso

 

[Numion]

I've noticed my players often expect to know things that their characters would have no way of knowing in combat. Here are some of the most common ones.

-Did it look like I bypassed his damage reduction?
-Did it look like I bypassed his energy resistance?
-Is he regenerating or simply fast healing?
-How many hit points are you down?
-Are you stunned or just dazed?
-Did he just use a spell-like ability?
-Did you stabilize or are you still dying?

I think most of these would pretty obvious to the viewer. A fighter who's been swinging his sword a lot would know if there's an unduly resistance to his blows. Likewise a I think a mage should also know if there's a resistance to the energy type he's using. At least after a spellcraft check.

 

[Bront]

I've noticed my players often expect to know things that their characters would have no way of knowing in combat. Here are some of the most common ones.

-Did it look like I bypassed his damage reduction?
-Did it look like I bypassed his energy resistance?
-Is he regenerating or simply fast healing?
-How many hit points are you down?
-Are you stunned or just dazed?
-Did he just use a spell-like ability?
-Did you stabilize or are you still dying?

I put it in RP terms (for the most part, I don't get questions like this at all though.

Did it look like I hurt him? (Much more viable and answerable question, maybe an int check or KN check if I want it complex)

Is he healing? (Spot check might reveal damage that isn't healing, or how it's healing to tell the difference)

Are you injured? How badly? (Works well enough for me)

Stunned vs Dazed (Never had that come up, stunned would be less responsive though).

Spell like ability? Again, spot check to notice, or KN roll to know the ability, or spellcraft to see if it's spell like. But again, may have been an item...

Stabilize vs Dying (Is he bleeding badly? yes is stabilized, no is dying. Not going to kill a PC over a technicality)

 

[Huw]

-Did it look like I bypassed his damage reduction?

"It felt like you hurt him, but he only looks slightly hurt/doesn't look hurt at all."

-Did it look like I bypassed his energy resistance?

"He looks unharmed/you hurt him" (latter regardless of whether he had DR or not)

-Is he regenerating or simply fast healing?

"You don't know. Make a heal check (if he's down)."

-How many hit points are you down?

(To a player) "Down X" (To a monster) "Unhurt/hurt (visible wounds)/on the floor"

-Are you stunned or just dazed?

"You don't know"

-Did he just use a spell-like ability?

"Make a spellcraft check - Didn't look like a spell."

-Did you stabilize or are you still dying?

"His bleeding's stopped/he's still bleeding"

 

[Plane Sailing]

If he's stunned, he drops anything in his hands. If he's dazed he doesn't.

plus someone who is dazed doesn't lose his Dex bonus to AC, someone who is stunned does - so it seems to me that there is a clear visual difference there.

To my mind, the only one on that list to which I'd say "you don't know" is the last one... stabilised or dying. All the others are going to be visually obvious (e.g. if he is regenerating he is taking subdual damage and recovering it. If he is fast healing then he is taking real wounds and then they seal up, or however else they describe it in the DMG).

I don't see this as a problem. DMs are likely to provide too little information rather than too much in my observations.

Cheers

 

[airwalkrr]

Part of the problem, PS, is that I don't think PCs were intended to have omniscient knowledge of these kinds of things as evidenced by spells like status and deathwatch.

 

[MarkB]

Part of the problem, PS, is that I don't think PCs were intended to have omniscient knowledge of these kinds of things as evidenced by spells like status and deathwatch.

As I recall, the rules specify that when damage reduction is effective against an attack, the attacker should be aware that not all his damage got through. Likewise energy resistance should be fairly obvious, though less so to characters other than the one inflicting the damage.

A creature with regeneration takes no physical damage (except from the exempted damage forms), whilst one with fast healing will take wounds and then heal them, so the difference between the two is fairly obvious.

I wouldn't let a character know another character's exact hit-point state in-character without something like status, but they can make a rough estimate easily enough (to within the nearest 25% of full health).

The difference between Dazed and Stunned can be made out through the character's actions. Aside from the item-droppage mentioned, a stunned character will barely react to any attack, whilst a dazed character will at least attempt to dodge a direct threat.

Since spell-like abilities provoke AoO, and are subject to disruption and spellcraft checks, there is presumably some form of visible display, even though they are activated mentally.

As for whether a dying character has stabilised, there ought to be some visible difference between somebody who's seconds away from death and someone who may take hours to die or even pull through. I'd require a Heal check (say, DC 10) to say for sure.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I've noticed my players often expect to know things that their characters would have no way of knowing in combat. Here are some of the most common ones.

-Did it look like I bypassed his damage reduction?

The wound heals up before you're done cutting vs he howls in pain should make it obvious.

-Did it look like I bypassed his energy resistance?

Usually I say how much damage got through. If someone rolled 30 damage, I'll tell them the monster took 20 damage.

-Is he regenerating or simply fast healing?

No, you can't tell.

-How many hit points are you down?

I'm in the red!

-Are you stunned or just dazed?

Stunned looks a bit different (you lose the Dex bonus to AC).

-Did he just use a spell-like ability?

He just concentrated on something.

-Did you stabilize or are you still dying?

Can't tell, but I've been unable to avoid this one.

 

[pvandyck]

I allow for some information, as I don't think it's fair for a player to be clueless. I think a competent fighter, whirling away with his daggers, should know if he's hurting his target, and not be clueless that he's not getting by the DR. I also like to quantify it a little, as every number in this game is simply to support the "simulation" of combat. Less than that is like a storyteller system, which can descend into "I shot you!" "Nuh-uh! I have a invisible shield" childish disagreements.

I allow a person to know the hitpoint status of creatures and other pcs (that have a Con score), veiwing them at a distance, by making a Heal check DC 15. They only get a thumb-sign - up 100% - down 0% - or somewhere in the middle. That's also a free action. I wouldn't let them know non-lethal damage information, but it's never come up. I would use this same approach with energy resistance. You have to know some Healing.

I tell a player if something "didn't take any damage from your hit" or "Didn't take as much damage as it should" with DR issues. Players can usually figure out if DR is 5 or 10 after a few hits, because they know what damage they have done in their attacks, and I'm OK with that.

I will also use the knowledge (nature for plants, local for humanoids, arcane for magical beasts) skills to give players information even before combat starts. I have them roll, the higher the more they know. If they roll 30, I almost read them the stat block and description. If they roll 15, they only know the "high points" - "Displacer beasts displace!" or "beholders have eyes that fire spells!". In this way, they may actually know the DR or resistances, basic number of hit dice, etc. While this may offend players that like a more story-teller or roleplaying approach, it works well with my rules-heavy, tactical, combat-likeing group. Those who have the knowledge can't pass it on to others until it's their turn in combat, and only with brief sentences.

I also tell my player what reach a creature has, as I feel this is a phyically event thing just looking at a creature. I don't think it's fair to surprise a player who is walking up to the creature with some nasty AOOs. If it seems like the creature's shtick is to conceal that, however, I wouldn't tell them unless they made their knowledge check.

That is what I have used regularly.

As to these other particulars:

I wouldn't tell them the difference between regenaration and fast healing just by viewing it. Maybe the knowledge check would have told them, though.

I wouldn't allow them to tell the difference between dazed and stunned without some kind of fairly difficult Healing check.

I WOULD allow knowing the difference between some supernatural ability and a spell-like ability (by looking at it happening) with a fairly easy spellcraft check.


pvandyck