Herremann the Wise
First Post
If there is one sacred cow D&D will forever be lumped with, it is hit points. I noticed a message from one of the introductions mentioned the abolition of hit points - I'd be very interested in looking at this idea too (but perhaps started on another thread). However, I think I have come up with a natural solution of sorts, combining the reduced onus on having a cleric in 4E with the grit and reality of wounding.
Essentially, hit points have been loaded with a variety of different meanings, all lumped together in the one bag. However this produces a number of anomalies:
- A low level fighter falls from 100ft up and they are left as mush on the ground.
- A high level fighter falls from 100ft and somehow manages to get up and continue fighting at full ability.
- A barbarian with amazing constitution brought to zero hps will take quite a while to recover.
- A wizard of the same level and with a very poor constitution will heal much more quickly in comparison.
- Two fighters are in the same poor physical condition (-4hps) but one is much higher level than the other. A cleric can heal the lower level one back to full operation with a minimum of effort. The same cleric with the higher level fighter would be fully spent healing him.
Now while you can come up with reasons why each of these happen, they are all things that show the strain when there is a disconnect between the underlying mechanics and the flavour they are trying to present.
With hit points, the cause of the above anomalies is due to hit points being forced to represent two things:
- Physical damage
- Skill, luck, divine favor, being able to turn a disabling blow into a lesser one and so on.
The key to unravelling all of this is to split hit points explicitly into these two things:
- Hit Points: representing actual physical damage (and the capacity to take this damage)
- Combat Points: all the other things (and more as you will see)
The following is part of what I originally wrote (I'll post the rest later):
HIT POINTS & COMBAT POINTS
There are two sets of point totals that tell you how healthy your character is in an encounter: hit points and combat points.
- Hit Points represent the amount of physical damage a character can take before becoming incapacitated or worse. When a character loses hit points, they have taken a physical injury. When a character reaches zero hit points or below, they are surviving on will power alone and start taking serious *1* long term injuries. When a character’s hit points reach their racial death limit or below (for humans it is -10 hit points), then they *2* die.
- Combat Points represent how *3* skilled the character is at avoiding serious injury as well as their reserves of energy to keep performing heroic acts of skill and endurance. A character may lose combat points by either:
• Being “hit” in combat, the resulting “damage” is subtracted from the character’s combat points. Compared to hit point damage, this type of damage is more representative of the damage that was avoided or lessened. This “damage” momentarily makes things harder for the combatant in a specific combat but has only minor impact outside of the immediate encounter. For example, the wildly swung axe head that your character almost avoids; the *4* blow brushing their arm on the way past rather than severing head from neck.
• Spending combat points to perform special heroic manoeuvres such as tumbling through a group of enemies untouched, cleaving from one foe into another or attacking a foe with all of one’s might to deal as much damage as possible. A character can attempt a myriad of combat manoeuvres; all costing a varying amount of combat points.
When a character is hit they normally take the damage from their combat points. However, if a character falls to zero combat points, they are effectively spent, exhausted to the point where any further damage or blows are taken directly from their hit points instead.
Note here as well, that while a character’s combat point total will increase across their adventuring career as they gain more and more experience, skill and expertise, a character’s hit point tally remains pretty stable across the lifespan of a character. There are very few ways how a character can increase their maximum hit point total.
As such, the player’s focus when playing their character is using up combat points where possible to avoid taking “real” damage – a loss of hit points. However, while combat points act as a shield and buffer to a character’s hit points, there are other ways how a character can lose hit points:
- If a character takes a *5* critical hit, then they subtract the critical damage from both their combat points and their hit points. Note here that armor will almost always reduce the number of hit points damage received.
- Most offensive magic will do some level of hit point damage, even if it is only minor.
- Falls from height and other times where damage is directly taken (there is very little if any skill component in avoiding it) are directly deducted from a character’s hit point tally. This makes such hazards dangerous, even for high level characters.
*1* If a character takes hit point damage when at zero or lower hit points, they receive a long term injury – determined by rolling on the requisite table. This could include being blinded, having a broken leg, paralysis or at worst, instant death. Powerful priests and clerics can assist in the healing of most of these injuries. Injury “Tracks” are used to monitor these wounds.
*2* Death is not always instant. Sometimes a character will take several minutes to die, where unfortunately, nothing can be done but to ease their pain; healing, magical or otherwise does not work on a character at or below their racial death limit. This is normally a good opportunity to say goodbye or to say one’s heroic last words.
*3* Combat Points in terms of skill may be interpreted in several ways:
• The ability to perform at one’s peak, even when under pressure or injured
• The ability to turn a serious blow into a much less serious one
• A character’s physical and mental endurance to keep going in combat
• The element of luck, divine favour or inner power that defines how a combatant fights, despite what’s going on around them and what they seem to suffer.
*4* The blow is still going to sting but after the battle, it is nothing a bandage and a kiss won’t fix.
*5* Critical hits work similarly to 3.x rules in that if you roll within a “critical range” and then confirm with a second roll, then your character has delivered a critical hit - applying damage to both combat point and hit point tallies.
HEALING HIT POINTS & RESTORING COMBAT POINTS
The restoration of hit points and combat points is a key part of what makes the dual point system elegant. Hit points are generally restored slowly (through different types of healing) while combat points are restored quickly (usually a short rest to quickly clear the wits or a longer rest to be back to one’s best).
Hit Points can be *6* healed by:
- Natural healing: a small amount that is healed every day with a good night’s rest – eight hours uninterrupted. This amount is based on a character’s race as well as their constitution bonus or penalty. For example a human normally heals 2 hit points a day, a Halfling (notoriously quick healers that they are) heal 3 hit points a day while half-orcs (sometimes poor healers) heal only 1 hit point a day. However, if one’s constitution bonus is higher than the racial norm, then they receive that bonus in hit points natural healing instead. For example, a human with an excellent constitution score of 17 will heal 3 hit points a day instead of the normal 2 hit points.
- Assisted healing; normally a small amount based upon a Heal skill check. This usually requires the use of unguents, curatives and other material as well as the time to apply them properly (from five minutes for a quick fix, up to many hours for a serious piece of surgery). The difficulty of the heal check is affected by:
• How injured the character is. If the character is below half their normal hit point total then it is more difficult, and if they are below zero hit points, it is much harder still and could involve other factors.
• What level of healing they are trying to provide (a quick fix, to some serious stitching to a full on act of surgery).
Once a successful heal check has been done, another cannot be attempted unless the character receives further hit point loss or until after they have had their good night’s rest.
- Divine healing: this usually involves a specific act of divinity, an appeal or prayer from a divine *7* character to their deity for power or assistance. There are several forms of divine healing:
• Curing Rituals: such acts of divinity take a modicum of time, must be carefully prepared and require the utmost concentration from the divine character. A curing ritual must be performed in a quiet, peaceful place and manner – obviously when not in combat. The healing is applied gradually over the time it takes to perform the ritual. In addition, success partial or otherwise is not always *8* guaranteed.
• Healing Prayers: This will heal almost instantly a specific number of hit points but it will be arduous upon the healer, requiring some form of additional sacrifice on their part. The amount of healing is relative to the divine connection between the healer and their deity. Because of the direct role played by the healer, this is a suitable method of healing for combat encounter situations.
• Laying on of Hands: Certain high ranking divine characters can perform a laying on of hands. This instantly heals a number of hit points across a round of action. The number of hit points healed is relative to the *9* divinity factor of the healer and the laying on of hands may be continued for as many rounds of time as the healer is able. The act of Laying on of Hands is special and has a variety of subtle costs attached to it.
- Magical healing: usually in the form of a healing potion or salve. Some of these are little more than a distasteful mix of ineffective herbs while others are quite powerful. However, others that have been divinely crafted are the most powerful of all, healing a certain number of hit points per round for a number of rounds.
Combat Points can be restored by:
- A Short Rest: resting for *10* five minutes. This restores a number of combat points (CPs) equal to half of a character’s maximum combat point total. Obviously, this cannot restore more CPs than a character’s maximum number of combat points. However, this maximum number of combat points may be penalized (and thus the limit of combat point restoration reduced).If a character has received hit point damage, then the most a character can be restored to is their normal combat point maximum minus the amount of damage they have received. For example if Tordek normally has a maximum of 43 combat points but he is currently suffering 5 points of hit point damage, then the most his combat points can be restored to is 38 (43 minus the 5 damage).
- A Long Rest: resting for an *11* hour. This restores a characters CPs to their maximum level. As mentioned in the short rest section, this maximum combat point total is penalized by the amount of hit point damage they are currently suffering.
- An Extended Rest: resting for eight uninterrupted hours. This will restore combat points like a long rest as well as assisting in a variety of other ways (not related to CPs).
- Getting One’s Second Wind: this restores a small number of combat points determined by several factors up to a limit of a quarter of a character’s maximum combat point total. Normally, a character needs to take a Long Rest to be able to “use” their second wind again.
- Inspiration: some characters are particularly adept at inspiring their allies. If a charismatic character performs a particularly *12* heroic act, then the DM may offer them the opportunity to inspire their allies. This will restore a certain number of combat points to all allies able to *13* witness the act of heroism or inspiration.
*6* The following types of healing (natural, assisted, divine and magical) only affect the restoration of hit points, not combat points.
*7* Player characters usually fit into one of three categories: martial, divine or arcane.
*8* Certain deities may only empower the healing of the injured who worship them, or there may be other factors that determine whether a deity will answer the healer’s prayers.
*9* The divinity factor of a divine character is a point tally like a combat point or hit point tally. The number of divine points may be increased by performing certain acts consonant with the beliefs and tenants of the character’s deity. The tally is decreased by performing certain acts of divinity such as a laying on of hands, smiting an enemy of one’s deity or performing the ultimate act of divinity, a divine resurrection. Such divine acts each have an individual cost (again which would be dependent upon the character’s deity). The divinity factor of a divine character is the upper limit of divinity points that they can achieve and is dependent upon a variety of factors. If a character performs acts not consonant with their deity, then penalties may be applied to their divinity factor (which can only be assuaged through penance, atonement or a divine quest).
*10* Five minutes roughly defines the amount of time required for a short rest. However in game terms, it is an arbitrary time determined by the DM that means the party has devoted enough time to clear their wits, rub their bruises and bandage their scrapes and cuts. The DM is well within their right to interrupt this short rest with an encounter if such an encounter makes sense. If the short rest is interrupted, then obviously the party receives no benefit or restoration of combat points.
*11* Likewise for an hour, this rest is defined by the DM. The DM will inform the PCs if this rest is interrupted (and thus whether they get the benefit of short rest or maybe not even that). Alternatively, some DMs may feel a long rest should take longer than an hour; and thus tailor their game to suit.
*12* A heroic act could be downing a significant combatant, successfully performing a highly difficult combat action, getting a critical hit, performing a devastating spell or instantly healing and reviving a badly hurt ally. The DM is the arbiter of whether an act meets such criteria and informs the player concerned so they may act upon it accordingly.
*13* Witnessing in this case means that the heroic act is sensed in some way. Normally, there has to be a visual component but the DM may allow other methods of perception.
Essentially, hit points have been loaded with a variety of different meanings, all lumped together in the one bag. However this produces a number of anomalies:
- A low level fighter falls from 100ft up and they are left as mush on the ground.
- A high level fighter falls from 100ft and somehow manages to get up and continue fighting at full ability.
- A barbarian with amazing constitution brought to zero hps will take quite a while to recover.
- A wizard of the same level and with a very poor constitution will heal much more quickly in comparison.
- Two fighters are in the same poor physical condition (-4hps) but one is much higher level than the other. A cleric can heal the lower level one back to full operation with a minimum of effort. The same cleric with the higher level fighter would be fully spent healing him.
Now while you can come up with reasons why each of these happen, they are all things that show the strain when there is a disconnect between the underlying mechanics and the flavour they are trying to present.
With hit points, the cause of the above anomalies is due to hit points being forced to represent two things:
- Physical damage
- Skill, luck, divine favor, being able to turn a disabling blow into a lesser one and so on.
The key to unravelling all of this is to split hit points explicitly into these two things:
- Hit Points: representing actual physical damage (and the capacity to take this damage)
- Combat Points: all the other things (and more as you will see)
The following is part of what I originally wrote (I'll post the rest later):
HIT POINTS & COMBAT POINTS
There are two sets of point totals that tell you how healthy your character is in an encounter: hit points and combat points.
- Hit Points represent the amount of physical damage a character can take before becoming incapacitated or worse. When a character loses hit points, they have taken a physical injury. When a character reaches zero hit points or below, they are surviving on will power alone and start taking serious *1* long term injuries. When a character’s hit points reach their racial death limit or below (for humans it is -10 hit points), then they *2* die.
- Combat Points represent how *3* skilled the character is at avoiding serious injury as well as their reserves of energy to keep performing heroic acts of skill and endurance. A character may lose combat points by either:
• Being “hit” in combat, the resulting “damage” is subtracted from the character’s combat points. Compared to hit point damage, this type of damage is more representative of the damage that was avoided or lessened. This “damage” momentarily makes things harder for the combatant in a specific combat but has only minor impact outside of the immediate encounter. For example, the wildly swung axe head that your character almost avoids; the *4* blow brushing their arm on the way past rather than severing head from neck.
• Spending combat points to perform special heroic manoeuvres such as tumbling through a group of enemies untouched, cleaving from one foe into another or attacking a foe with all of one’s might to deal as much damage as possible. A character can attempt a myriad of combat manoeuvres; all costing a varying amount of combat points.
When a character is hit they normally take the damage from their combat points. However, if a character falls to zero combat points, they are effectively spent, exhausted to the point where any further damage or blows are taken directly from their hit points instead.
Note here as well, that while a character’s combat point total will increase across their adventuring career as they gain more and more experience, skill and expertise, a character’s hit point tally remains pretty stable across the lifespan of a character. There are very few ways how a character can increase their maximum hit point total.
As such, the player’s focus when playing their character is using up combat points where possible to avoid taking “real” damage – a loss of hit points. However, while combat points act as a shield and buffer to a character’s hit points, there are other ways how a character can lose hit points:
- If a character takes a *5* critical hit, then they subtract the critical damage from both their combat points and their hit points. Note here that armor will almost always reduce the number of hit points damage received.
- Most offensive magic will do some level of hit point damage, even if it is only minor.
- Falls from height and other times where damage is directly taken (there is very little if any skill component in avoiding it) are directly deducted from a character’s hit point tally. This makes such hazards dangerous, even for high level characters.
*1* If a character takes hit point damage when at zero or lower hit points, they receive a long term injury – determined by rolling on the requisite table. This could include being blinded, having a broken leg, paralysis or at worst, instant death. Powerful priests and clerics can assist in the healing of most of these injuries. Injury “Tracks” are used to monitor these wounds.
*2* Death is not always instant. Sometimes a character will take several minutes to die, where unfortunately, nothing can be done but to ease their pain; healing, magical or otherwise does not work on a character at or below their racial death limit. This is normally a good opportunity to say goodbye or to say one’s heroic last words.
*3* Combat Points in terms of skill may be interpreted in several ways:
• The ability to perform at one’s peak, even when under pressure or injured
• The ability to turn a serious blow into a much less serious one
• A character’s physical and mental endurance to keep going in combat
• The element of luck, divine favour or inner power that defines how a combatant fights, despite what’s going on around them and what they seem to suffer.
*4* The blow is still going to sting but after the battle, it is nothing a bandage and a kiss won’t fix.
*5* Critical hits work similarly to 3.x rules in that if you roll within a “critical range” and then confirm with a second roll, then your character has delivered a critical hit - applying damage to both combat point and hit point tallies.
HEALING HIT POINTS & RESTORING COMBAT POINTS
The restoration of hit points and combat points is a key part of what makes the dual point system elegant. Hit points are generally restored slowly (through different types of healing) while combat points are restored quickly (usually a short rest to quickly clear the wits or a longer rest to be back to one’s best).
Hit Points can be *6* healed by:
- Natural healing: a small amount that is healed every day with a good night’s rest – eight hours uninterrupted. This amount is based on a character’s race as well as their constitution bonus or penalty. For example a human normally heals 2 hit points a day, a Halfling (notoriously quick healers that they are) heal 3 hit points a day while half-orcs (sometimes poor healers) heal only 1 hit point a day. However, if one’s constitution bonus is higher than the racial norm, then they receive that bonus in hit points natural healing instead. For example, a human with an excellent constitution score of 17 will heal 3 hit points a day instead of the normal 2 hit points.
- Assisted healing; normally a small amount based upon a Heal skill check. This usually requires the use of unguents, curatives and other material as well as the time to apply them properly (from five minutes for a quick fix, up to many hours for a serious piece of surgery). The difficulty of the heal check is affected by:
• How injured the character is. If the character is below half their normal hit point total then it is more difficult, and if they are below zero hit points, it is much harder still and could involve other factors.
• What level of healing they are trying to provide (a quick fix, to some serious stitching to a full on act of surgery).
Once a successful heal check has been done, another cannot be attempted unless the character receives further hit point loss or until after they have had their good night’s rest.
- Divine healing: this usually involves a specific act of divinity, an appeal or prayer from a divine *7* character to their deity for power or assistance. There are several forms of divine healing:
• Curing Rituals: such acts of divinity take a modicum of time, must be carefully prepared and require the utmost concentration from the divine character. A curing ritual must be performed in a quiet, peaceful place and manner – obviously when not in combat. The healing is applied gradually over the time it takes to perform the ritual. In addition, success partial or otherwise is not always *8* guaranteed.
• Healing Prayers: This will heal almost instantly a specific number of hit points but it will be arduous upon the healer, requiring some form of additional sacrifice on their part. The amount of healing is relative to the divine connection between the healer and their deity. Because of the direct role played by the healer, this is a suitable method of healing for combat encounter situations.
• Laying on of Hands: Certain high ranking divine characters can perform a laying on of hands. This instantly heals a number of hit points across a round of action. The number of hit points healed is relative to the *9* divinity factor of the healer and the laying on of hands may be continued for as many rounds of time as the healer is able. The act of Laying on of Hands is special and has a variety of subtle costs attached to it.
- Magical healing: usually in the form of a healing potion or salve. Some of these are little more than a distasteful mix of ineffective herbs while others are quite powerful. However, others that have been divinely crafted are the most powerful of all, healing a certain number of hit points per round for a number of rounds.
Combat Points can be restored by:
- A Short Rest: resting for *10* five minutes. This restores a number of combat points (CPs) equal to half of a character’s maximum combat point total. Obviously, this cannot restore more CPs than a character’s maximum number of combat points. However, this maximum number of combat points may be penalized (and thus the limit of combat point restoration reduced).If a character has received hit point damage, then the most a character can be restored to is their normal combat point maximum minus the amount of damage they have received. For example if Tordek normally has a maximum of 43 combat points but he is currently suffering 5 points of hit point damage, then the most his combat points can be restored to is 38 (43 minus the 5 damage).
- A Long Rest: resting for an *11* hour. This restores a characters CPs to their maximum level. As mentioned in the short rest section, this maximum combat point total is penalized by the amount of hit point damage they are currently suffering.
- An Extended Rest: resting for eight uninterrupted hours. This will restore combat points like a long rest as well as assisting in a variety of other ways (not related to CPs).
- Getting One’s Second Wind: this restores a small number of combat points determined by several factors up to a limit of a quarter of a character’s maximum combat point total. Normally, a character needs to take a Long Rest to be able to “use” their second wind again.
- Inspiration: some characters are particularly adept at inspiring their allies. If a charismatic character performs a particularly *12* heroic act, then the DM may offer them the opportunity to inspire their allies. This will restore a certain number of combat points to all allies able to *13* witness the act of heroism or inspiration.
*6* The following types of healing (natural, assisted, divine and magical) only affect the restoration of hit points, not combat points.
*7* Player characters usually fit into one of three categories: martial, divine or arcane.
*8* Certain deities may only empower the healing of the injured who worship them, or there may be other factors that determine whether a deity will answer the healer’s prayers.
*9* The divinity factor of a divine character is a point tally like a combat point or hit point tally. The number of divine points may be increased by performing certain acts consonant with the beliefs and tenants of the character’s deity. The tally is decreased by performing certain acts of divinity such as a laying on of hands, smiting an enemy of one’s deity or performing the ultimate act of divinity, a divine resurrection. Such divine acts each have an individual cost (again which would be dependent upon the character’s deity). The divinity factor of a divine character is the upper limit of divinity points that they can achieve and is dependent upon a variety of factors. If a character performs acts not consonant with their deity, then penalties may be applied to their divinity factor (which can only be assuaged through penance, atonement or a divine quest).
*10* Five minutes roughly defines the amount of time required for a short rest. However in game terms, it is an arbitrary time determined by the DM that means the party has devoted enough time to clear their wits, rub their bruises and bandage their scrapes and cuts. The DM is well within their right to interrupt this short rest with an encounter if such an encounter makes sense. If the short rest is interrupted, then obviously the party receives no benefit or restoration of combat points.
*11* Likewise for an hour, this rest is defined by the DM. The DM will inform the PCs if this rest is interrupted (and thus whether they get the benefit of short rest or maybe not even that). Alternatively, some DMs may feel a long rest should take longer than an hour; and thus tailor their game to suit.
*12* A heroic act could be downing a significant combatant, successfully performing a highly difficult combat action, getting a critical hit, performing a devastating spell or instantly healing and reviving a badly hurt ally. The DM is the arbiter of whether an act meets such criteria and informs the player concerned so they may act upon it accordingly.
*13* Witnessing in this case means that the heroic act is sensed in some way. Normally, there has to be a visual component but the DM may allow other methods of perception.
