D&D (2024) Jumping ahead: Bring back Bloodied for monsters

[beancounter]

Bloodied is something I kept, if only to inform players. I usually don't mention how many HP an enemy has, but I concede that character, in-universe, have a lot more information on whether a foe "looks wounded" or not. So I freely inform then when creature are at half-HP. Informing them with a spore attack would improve the situation ;-)

I used bloodied to inform players as well, but it doesn't take much for the them to figure out the monster's hp.

When you say bloodied, all the players have to is add up the damage they inflicted so far, and multiply by 2.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I like bloodied in 4e. I think it will make 1D&D better.

 

[payn]

I like bloodied in 4e. I think it will make 1D&D better.

Work in the levels of effect like PF2 did, with bloodied, and you got yourself a great idea.

 

[cbwjm]

Bloodied was a great keyword, I use it for some monsters and it would be great to have for PCs as well, so that when they get bloodied, things like gnolls get a lot scarier as they suddenly make more attacks (if I'm remembering 4e gnolls correctly)

 

[DND_Reborn]

Thoughts?

Why do this only when a creature is below half hp? That makes no sense to me: you have a feature, something you can do, but you can't do it until you're seriously "injured".

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Why do this only when a creature is below half hp? That makes no sense to me: you have a feature, something you can do, but you can't do it until you're seriously "injured".

Hysterical strength exists:

Hysterical strength - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[DND_Reborn]

Hysterical strength exists:

Hysterical strength - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Which is fine, if it is more or less universal.

And even then why half HP? Why not when you are hit by a critical hit? I mean it seems too arbitrary that every creature is suddenly considered "bloodied" at half HP.

Doesn't seem like anything I would have liked in 4E, so I'm hoping it won't make it going forward.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Why do this only when a creature is below half hp? That makes no sense to me: you have a feature, something you can do, but you can't do it until you're seriously "injured".

normally it was to recharge something (like a dragons getting there BW back and get to use it as a reaction) or something like "Blood in the water" where some creatures got bonus (in 5e advantage) vs targets that are bloodied.

I made a martial boon called "You never get hit when your back's to the wall" (i was going through an 80's lyrics phase) and it allowed our 'ranger'* to dodge as a bonus action when bloodied.

I also had a barbarian like monster that 'raged' when bloodied

 

[DND_Reborn]

Out of curiosity, when a creature is bloodied does it lose features as well?

I mean, your caster is below half hp, so you have disadvantage on concentration checks, for example.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Which is fine, if it is more or less universal.

And even then why half HP? Why not when you are hit by a critical hit? I mean it seems too arbitrary that every creature is suddenly considered "bloodied" at half HP.

Doesn't seem like anything I would have liked in 4E, so I'm hoping it won't make it going forward.

It's always going to be arbitrary, whether it's specifically half-HP or recharging when you take a critical hit, or some other "you get more powerful/recharge a mechanic the more hurt you are" mechanic, just like HP and AC are abstractions.