Secret hit points?

[5ekyu]

DM: "Alexa, subtract 15 hitpoints from the Lich"
Alexa: "Calling Mitch"
DM: [facepalm]

Worst case was when TV triggered Alexa to call my friend's ex while we were there.

AWKWARD!!!

 

[FieserMoep]

Do you want your Palading to "Tap on Hand" all the time, healing 1 HP asking you when the dude he fingers meticulously looks better than before?
Do you want your Life Cleric to reform the healing practice of the Sword Coast by establishing the medical Pain Scale and getting into arithmetics to link live experiences gathered by case history to the level and thus possible HP pool of a class aka occupation and then triangulate them with the according healing spell and slot level, rivaling any self respecting insurance company in both arbitrary and overly detailed calculations?
Do you want every strike at the PCs result in the question of "How do I feel about this now?" followed up by the Question of how that description of their state compares to the one you gave them five sessions earlier for they try to figure out a pattern anyway.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Since increased workload & annoyed players aren't what I'm aiming for....

How can you call yourself a DM?

 

[Slit518]

Just a brainstorm I had for a variant to increase tension in combat.

The DM rolls each PC's hit points, but keeps them secret from the players. The player tracks damage, just counting upward towards an unknown limit. When damage equals or exceeds hit points, the PC is at zero, all normal rules apply. If the PC survives and regains hit points, the DM rerolls their hit points and keeps the new total secret.

So basically, players don't know exactly how close to dying they are.

Thoughts?

A twisted part of me likes this.

 

[Shadowdweller00]

As DM, I try to keep track of player hit points ANYWAY. Because a fair few enemies make targeting decisions based on how injured/fatigued they think the characters are. And because, while I NEVER fudge rolls as DM, occasionally I might decide, if the PCs have played well and if it's setting appropriate, that there only needs to be three guards in the next patrol rather than four.

 

[Umbran]

Thoughts?

Heck, in my very first D&D game, the players didn't even get to see our character sheets. We played totally blind to the mechanics. As kids, this was a great aid - rather than get hung up on what the rules said we should be able to do, we could concentrate on what we thought out characters would try.

The GM had to do rather more description, but it worked well. It would probably fail for spellcasters beyond the early levels, I suspect, but for 1st level characters played by kids, it probably made our entry into the complicated game easier.

 

[FrogReaver]

It occurs to me that a pc fighting a monster should have a pretty good indication of how the monster is doing. So if the justification for giving players their go is they know how they are doung then why doesn’t the same ever apply to seeing monster hp?

i think maybe we are looking for justifications if our preferred play style rather than really thinking about if what we are saying makes sense

 

[Rya.Reisender]

It occurs to me that a pc fighting a monster should have a pretty good indication of how the monster is doing. So if the justification for giving players their go is they know how they are doung then why doesn’t the same ever apply to seeing monster hp?

i think maybe we are looking for justifications if our preferred play style rather than really thinking about if what we are saying makes sense

Are there many DMs that keep monster HP a big secret?

 

[Yunru]

It occurs to me that a pc fighting a monster should have a pretty good indication of how the monster is doing. So if the justification for giving players their go is they know how they are doung then why doesn’t the same ever apply to seeing monster hp?

i think maybe we are looking for justifications if our preferred play style rather than really thinking about if what we are saying makes sense

I was unaware that PCs could literally feel the monster's pain? How the monster is having to hold back because the last attack bruised it's bones etc.
Y'know, stuff logically only that person would know.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Are there many DMs that keep monster HP a big secret?

It's how I do it, and it's how I've mostly seen it done. Though "big secret" might be an overstatement. I don't have to trumpet the fact that a given monster has 52 hit points, but it's not like I'm gonna start booting players from my table if they figure it out.