Monsters left on 1HP?

[DragonLancer]

Serious topic, though it may sound silly. Does this happen to anyone else out there or is just me and the groups I play with?

Almost every fight (and I've kept logs just to prove to myself that I'm remembering it once in a blue moon) at least one opponent, usually more than one, ends up being left on 1HP. Doesn't matter what they had to start with, or whether it rolled HP or max. The players lay into them, and it gets left on 1HP.

Is this just me? This vexes me.

 

[AeroDm]

Well, the frequency would depends on how much damage your players deal and how many opponents there are. If you examine it at the extremes, if your players only dealt 1 damage, then every foe would reach 1 HP. If you had many foes, then you'd expect more to randomly end up at 1 hp. In other words, this should be more common at lower levels with larger mobs. If you are experiencing it at higher levels with more potent monsters then it is indeed strange.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

IME, foes left at 1HP don't get left there for long...

 

[fba827]

It happens in my group too. I wouldn't say it happens "frequently" but it does happen once in a while...

 

[Mercurius]

I'm a big fan of "flexible hit points." When the outcome of the fight becomes certain, any hit by a PC on a monster could kill it, no matter what the remaining HP are. This is also the case for a dramatic hit from a player - say a critical hit in a key moment.

Of course I don't tell the players this!

 

[blargney the second]

It happens with greatest frequency when the monster's hit points are a multiple of the party's average damage -1. (ie. if the monster has 30 hp and the party does 29 damage on average, then landing at 1 hp will be the most common occurence.)

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Regardless of how, why or frequency, don't let it bug you.

My very first game of D&D- waaaaay back in the library of East Middle School in Aurora, Colorado in 1977- concluded with my human fighter and another guy's human Mage (down to his last MM spell) facing off against a Purple Worm.

We tried to back out of the room, but it was hungry and we were on the menu.

So the Mage launched his MM while my guy positioned himself between his ally and the worm.

My dice went cold- the Mage actually was doing more damage with his darts and then his staff than my fighter's 2Hd sword. Finally, I got a couple of solid whacks in that really turned the tide of battle.

Then the Worm got a 20...and et the Mage.

A few more rounds go by with the fighter and Worm trading blows. Then came the round in which the 2 combatants had simultaneous initiative...and my guy was down to 4HP.

I rolled poorly, the DM rolled another 20- end of game.

I was bummed for 2/100000ths of a second, but the way things went was sooooooo cool that everyone in the room was stoked.

As we were cleaning up, the DM revealed that the Purple Worm had been whittled down to 4HP as well. It didn't matter- I was hooked and I knew it.

If the barely-standing foes make for good, memorable adventures & table stories, why should you care if they're fighting enemies who should be prone and unconscious?



It didn't matter.

 

[DragonLancer]

It doesn't bug me like that. I don't annoyed or angry about it. I just find it peculiar that so many of their fights, low and high HP, end up on exactly 1 HP.

I figured I'd ask just to see whether it was something that happened a lot to others or just some qwerk of my games.

Well, the frequency would depends on how much damage your players deal and how many opponents there are. If you examine it at the extremes, if your players only dealt 1 damage, then every foe would reach 1 HP. If you had many foes, then you'd expect more to randomly end up at 1 hp. In other words, this should be more common at lower levels with larger mobs. If you are experiencing it at higher levels with more potent monsters then it is indeed strange.

It is indeed strange, for this happens at all levels and HP of monsters. Very curious.

 

[Is_907]

I only see this is as a slight, tiny "problem" if your players know how much HP the monsters have. If you're tracking it in the open or if you tell them exactly how much damage total has been dealt etc.

When I DM I usually keep that to myself, to allow flexibility. It's my game, my story, as the DM, so if I want to rewrite a monster's stat block to include 1 less HP on the spot, I can do that
I also prefer not to tell players DCs for checks or anything like that really. I'm the kind who rolls checks for players if it's something they're not actively aware of doing (which is why I like the Passive concept in 4e.)

Anyway, I'm on a tangent now.

So yeah, it happens. How you deal with it is up to the play style of you as the DM and your player.s

 

[DragonLancer]

I think you misunderstand my post. I didn't post it as a problem to be solved, more as a curiosity whether the same experiences were held by any one else.