When your DM asks you how many hit points you have left...

[MerakSpielman]

...do you tell him? Or do you just want to hear the bad news?

Ultimately, the question is deeper - do you want your DM to fudge the dice to keep your character alive, especially in small encounters that weren't intended to be lethal?

(poll upcoming)

 

[Crothian]

If he asks I'll tell him. I don't want him to fudge the dice but at the same time I'm not going to withhold information that is asked for.

 

[MerakSpielman]

The assumption is that he's going to fudge the numbers. Dice have been rolled, he looks down at them and makes a slight grimace, then hesitantly asks you how many HP you have left.

 

[jrients]

I'd rather be dead than pitied by the DM.

 

[Crothian]

The assumption is that he's going to fudge the numbers. Dice have been rolled, he looks down at them and makes a slight grimace, then hesitantly asks you how many HP you have left.

Doesn't matter, I'll tell him. Then if I think he is going to fudge I'll ask him not to. But I'm not going to be amnipulative to not have him do it.

 

[The_Warlock]

If my character has obviously been beaten on and its fairly logical that few hit points remain, I tend to counter with, "How much damage did I take?", since I don't mind dying, especially if death occurs with style, though I'll fess up if asked again.

If it's not in a situation where I'm teetering on survival, I just tell the DM the current number, since there are a fair number of effects and spells that are based off of hit point totals.

Of course, I'm rarely a player, so I don't have to say often...

 

[MerakSpielman]

I.. urm... kind of accidentally killed an uninjured monk in one round. Player wouldn't tell me how many HP he had, and said to just tell him the damage. Thing was, he had just pissed off the lead member of a flock of arrowhawks, and I play encounters as though the monsters are rational thinking beings (when their Int is above 6, anyway). So the lead hawk asked all its minions to direct their lightning beams at the offending character. He got hit by 3 of them for a total of 6d8 points of damage. This was a 6th level monk with decent CON bonus. I thought he could take it... but it brought him down to exactly -10 hp.

I felt kind of bad... it was just a random encounter to spice things up, after all. But the player shrugged it off and started rolling a new character and figuring out a way to work him into the ongoing story. I like it when they're good sports about these things.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I'd always tell the DM any time he asks, I think it is only reasonable.

When I'm DM I need to know how many hp each PC has as base (and currently) so I can judge threats appropriately.

BTW, on Sunday the DM didn't ask the half-orc barbarian's player how many hit points he had left (it was about 10) since the clay golem went "critical hit, 40 damage! Critical hit, 38 damage!). Poor old Fragh was (literally) pasted...

 

[Henry]

Actually, I usually don't tell him, so much as I threaten him.

DM: Wow, the troll hit you three times, AND rended you mercilessly... how many hit points do you have?

Henry: *smiling* How many did he deal?

DM: Henry... how many you got?

Henry: What'cha got? Hmm? C'mon, bring it! BRING IT, BOY!

I'd prefer to let the dice fall where they may... There are other character concepts out there I have yet to try.

 

[Mallus]

I tell the DM straight up...

As to the "deeper question", it really depends on the nature of the campaign.

If a game is centered around tactical challenges, at the level of each individual combat encounter, then I don't want any fudging.

But if a game is primarily one of strategic and/or narrative challenges, then I don't mind a bit of fudging during an enounter. In those types of game, the danger of failure (in the PC plots, plans, machinations) replaces the danger of death.