D&D General What “hit points” is?

[Sepulchrave II]

I think that viewing hit points in terms of their wargaming roots might be useful, and there are certain artifacts of wargaming which are deeply embedded - the d8 standard hit die and the d8 longsword damage has always seemed a relict of this sort of approach (originally d6/d6); it's a sort of natural balancing point, from which other extrapolations can be made.

A "Hero" with 4 hit dice - later the 4th-level Fighter title - represents exactly that in the context of miniature wargaming; other wargames also found ways to represent heroes or fantasy monsters - I'm thinking specifically of Phil Barker's WRG rules, which expand on rules for unit commanders to make them more durable in a similar sort of way.

 

[Hriston]

Hit point is what you loose when your character take damage.
and damage is what make you loose hit points.

Maybe I should have titled my post “What are hit points/damage?” Given that damage is quantified in hit points, I think defining one with the other is nonsensical, which I’m pretty sure is what you intended with your post. I believe this highlights that dealing or taking damage has no direct effect on the fiction until the hit points are at 0. Expecting the system to provide such an effect is asking it to do something it wasn’t designed to do.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Hitpoints are what I lose when I see another thread about hitpoints.

I'd've thought that'd've been SAN.

 

[BookBarbarian]

@Hriston nice delve into the history!

To put it simply, it is a measure of how hard something is to kill.

In 5e at least it also seems to be a measure of your ability to avoid the "Unconscious" condition. So I like to reframe it as a measure of one's ability to move and fight (or otherwise act) and leave it at that.

I agree with the rest of your reasoning.

 

[Celebrim]

@Hriston nice delve into the history!

In 5e at least it also seems to be a measure of your ability to avoid the "Unconscious" condition. So I like to reframe it as a measure of one's ability to move and fight (or otherwise act) and leave it at that.

I agree with the rest of your reasoning.

Then you agree with pretty much all of my reasoning, since I mentioned 5e's novelty with respect to what is at stake with being reduced to zero hit points and what this says about the default 5e genre. Personally, I think 5e would be more coherent without a death save at all.

 

[BookBarbarian]

Then you agree with pretty much all of my reasoning

True. I has having my usual internet stroll into pedantry.

 

[Bacon Bits]

To answer this question, you have to go back 48 years to 1971, the date of publication of D&D‘s predecessor, Chainmail. Chainmail is primarily a set of rules for resolving large-scale medieval battles, and, as such, it’s primary combat-resolution mechanic answers two basic questions, which are: After one minute of melee combat, did your opponent kill any of your men, and did you kill any of your opponent’s men? Getting to the kills without a lot of extraneous fiddling around is key to speed of play in this type of game.

Hit points made a lot more sense to me after I played a bit of Warhammer. In that game, every normal figure has 1 hit point. Every hit you deal, if it beats the toughness and armor of the defender, kills a figure. Heroes, and some other figures, are special in that they might get extra hit points: 2 or 3 hit points. Also, heroes can make friendly figures take a hit for them if they're adjacent (the so-called "Look out, sir!" rule).

This means, conceptually, that everything has 1 hit point and every weapon deals 1 damage.

Because D&D is smaller scale, the low detail of tabletop wargames feels a bit coarse. The idea in D&D was to take that scheme and add some dice to it for variety. Instead of having 1 hit point, you had 1 hit die and instead of weapons dealing 1 damage, they dealt 1 die of damage. d8 was the "good" hit point and weapon die size. Now you see how the system builds from there. d6 Hit Dice are a bit worse than a soldier, and d6 weapons are a bit behind the average weapon. d4 is much worse, while d10 or d12 are much better, etc.

 

[Celebrim]

True. I has having my usual internet stroll into pedantry.

That's OK, I set up camp and just live there.

 

[Krachek]

Maybe I should have titled my post “What are hit points/damage?” Given that damage is quantified in hit points, I think defining one with the other is nonsensical, which I’m pretty sure is what you intended with your post. I believe this highlights that dealing or taking damage has no direct effect on the fiction until the hit points are at 0. Expecting the system to provide such an effect is asking it to do something it wasn’t designed to do.

my Post is a joke,
I remember a short story about IQ test, a journalist ask some test creator,
can you define IQ? And he reply, IQ is what my test mesure!

hit points are a game mechanic.
interpretation is really different for Dm depending on style and experience.

 

[FrogReaver]

What is distance? It's what the meterstick measures!