low HP situations

[evilbob]

I don't know if this has been brought up before, but as a DM, I noticed that a player is often in much more danger when they have something on the order of 2 HP rather than -2 HP, especially when going up against a single, powerful, offensive-based monster. In other words, when they have 2 HP and are still a threat, they are much more likely to be attacked and killed than if they are at -2 and bleeding. Are there any prevailing wisdoms or house rules out there dealing with this sort of problem (which only exists as an extension of the abstract numbers-crunching of HP damage representation), such as allowing PCs to feint dropping or perhaps giving bonuses to withdrawing if your HP total is under 10% of your max? Or is the prevailing wisdom more along the lines of "after they die a couple times, they'll start to learn to run?" Advice/suggestions appreciated.

 

[RangerWickett]

You could use a wound point system, where after they run out of hit points, they still have wound points equal to their Constitution. If they have any WP damage, they get a -2 to most rolls, which gives them good incentive to stay down. But they can keep fighting and risk dying.

WP should only heal 1 per day in this system, or 1 point per die of magical healing.

 

[K'Plah Q'Houme]

"after they die a couple times, they'll start to learn to run?"
That's the way it works in my campiagn. You can always try to fake that your are death with a succesfull perofrm skill check. Otherwise it's all up to the DM.

 

[the Jester]

At high levels it's even worse. If you have 50 hp but are fighting something that deals an average of 65 points per hit, you won't even necessarily think you're in mortal danger until it's too late. My fix has been a custom feat (Cling to Life) that lets you reach a negative hp total equal to your con + your character level before dying. Only one pc has taken the feat yet, but it's already saved her life once.