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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
The "everyone at full fighting ability at 1 hp" conundrum
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<blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 7829942" data-attributes="member: 97077"><p>The Basic Rules say this:</p><p></p><p><em>Dungeon Masters describe hit point loss in different ways. When your current hit point total is half or more of your hit point maximum, you typically show no signs of injury. When you drop below half your hit point maximum, you show signs of wear, such as cuts and bruises. An attack that reduces you to 0 hit points strikes you directly, leaving a bleeding injury or other trauma, or it simply knocks you unconscious.</em></p><p></p><p>So it seems like the DM could probably just point to this part of the rules and then be consistent with descriptions along these lines, effectively communicating through narration the HP status of the monsters. "The orc is cut and bruised, showing signs of wear, but still aggressively in the fight." The player then knows that it's below half its hit points and is still fighting at full strength. To that end, hit points are at least some amount of meat in addition to "mental durability, the will to live, and luck." We just don't necessarily need to decide it's all one thing all the time.</p><p></p><p>In general, I tend to leave the effect of a monster's attack on a PC somewhat vague, leaving room for the players to describe the fictional impact on the character if they want to. For the other way around, I describe the impact to the monster appropriate to the theme (which tends toward hilariously gory but not always) without describing what the character does (which is the player's role).</p><p></p><p>For me, I use Roll20 and the HP bar is revealed on the monsters, so it's never a mystery how badly the monster is hurt. I could even show the HP if I wanted to and have no objection to doing that, but the players opted to just see the bar. So players will have a pretty good idea if <em>sleep </em>will be effective, for example.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="iserith, post: 7829942, member: 97077"] The Basic Rules say this: [I]Dungeon Masters describe hit point loss in different ways. When your current hit point total is half or more of your hit point maximum, you typically show no signs of injury. When you drop below half your hit point maximum, you show signs of wear, such as cuts and bruises. An attack that reduces you to 0 hit points strikes you directly, leaving a bleeding injury or other trauma, or it simply knocks you unconscious.[/I] So it seems like the DM could probably just point to this part of the rules and then be consistent with descriptions along these lines, effectively communicating through narration the HP status of the monsters. "The orc is cut and bruised, showing signs of wear, but still aggressively in the fight." The player then knows that it's below half its hit points and is still fighting at full strength. To that end, hit points are at least some amount of meat in addition to "mental durability, the will to live, and luck." We just don't necessarily need to decide it's all one thing all the time. In general, I tend to leave the effect of a monster's attack on a PC somewhat vague, leaving room for the players to describe the fictional impact on the character if they want to. For the other way around, I describe the impact to the monster appropriate to the theme (which tends toward hilariously gory but not always) without describing what the character does (which is the player's role). For me, I use Roll20 and the HP bar is revealed on the monsters, so it's never a mystery how badly the monster is hurt. I could even show the HP if I wanted to and have no objection to doing that, but the players opted to just see the bar. So players will have a pretty good idea if [I]sleep [/I]will be effective, for example. [/QUOTE]
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