The idea of hit points has been around since the inception of Dungeons & Dragons. In their simplest form, hit points are a way to keep track (numerically) of how well a character is doing physically at any given time, an especially important thing to know during heated battles. It is a value that represents how much damage a character can take before dying; how many wounds he/she can withstand and how much blood can be lost. It is the primary measure of the health of a PC.
In fact, this idea is so entrenched in DnD culture that the 4e Player’s Handbook (PH) doesn’t make more than a passing mention of hit points (HP) until page 293!! That’s a long way to go into a 315 page rulebook without a detailed explanation of something as central to the game as HP.
On page 293 of the PH, the designers have this to say about hit points:
Over the course of a battle, you take damage from attacks. Hit points (hp) measure your ability to stand up to punishment, turn deadly strikes into glancing blows, and stay on your feet throughout a battle. Hit points represent more than physical endurance. They represent your character’s skill, luck, and resolve – all the factors that combine to help you stay alive in a combat situation.
The PH goes on to define maximum HP, bloodied value (1/2 max HP rounded down), and dying (when current HP drops to 0 or below). Then it talks about how one regains HP (through healing). All in all, there is about a page
and a half about hit points.
So what’s the big deal? Well, when I was first introduced to DnD, way back when I was a wee little lad of about 9 years old, I had a 9 year old’s perspective of HP. I thought of HP as a direct measure of how much damage you could take, in terms of open wounds, before death ensued.
Here’s an example of how I thought about it:
Grandak the Mighty Orc hits Frundar the Nimble with his battle-axe, doing 3 points of damage. This blow causes a huge gash on Frundar’s right upper arm and he is bleeding down onto the hilt of his trusty short sword. He retaliates by lunging at Grandak and pushing his sword into the orc’s abdomen, followed by a twisting action, and doing 7 points of damage, causing a large laceration. Grandak is stunned by the attack and looks down to see his own intestines peeking out, along with blood spilling out like gravy (he is down to about 2 HP at this point) and also sees blood squirting from the wounds in his legs (where he was previously injured). He swipes at Frundar again, but his swing is dodged by the dexterous halfling. Frundar makes a final piercing blow at Grandak and hits the orc, nearly severing his left leg from the knee down (Frundar rolled a critical hit). This causes the orc to immediately drop to the ground, dead from his wounds.
The point of the above description? It all revolves around how much blood the creature is losing, which in turn determines how alive it is. In other words, I equated HP directly with wounds, or directly with blood loss. As I have aged, though, I have come to understand that this isn’t exactly the way it should be. At least, not in 4e.
Why? Because it doesn’t make sense to equate HP directly to wound size or wound count or amount of blood. Doing so conjures images of the Black Knight of Monty Python fame. You know, the one who gets two arms and a leg cut off by King Arthur and yet hops around on one leg, spurting blood, and still says “It’s just a flesh wound.” (For reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4) If this was the way it was supposed to work, a creature that begins with 78 HP and is down to 3 HP would have huge open wounds in vital areas of his body and would have almost no blood left in his body, possibly would even be missing limbs, but would still be standing and able to fight in battle. This doesn’t make sense and bends the suspension of disbelief to the breaking point.
So how do I think of HP now? Well, when a creature gets hit and takes damage, it is not necessarily in the form of an actual bloody gash. A hit represents some combination of powerful hits that knock the air out of your character, trying to maintain concentration, expending energy to dodge blows (i.e. fighting off battle fatigue), and the absorption of actual hits by your armor*. So as your character is in the middle of battle and gets hit, he may not be bleeding from horrible gashes and severed arteries, his loss of HP represents how tired he is becoming, how much his lust for battle is waning, how fatigued he is getting, how his ability to dodge is lessening, as well as actual physical damage. When a PC’s HP drops to zero or below, that indicates that his resolve is depleted and the injuries have built up to a point where he cannot remain conscious.
This doesn’t mean that individual hits aren’t serious, or that there are no actual gashes, lacerations, or blood loss, but it does allow for a more creative interpretation of the loss of HP due to one hit. I also think that this way of thinking about HP is closer to the intent of the designers of 4e than thinking of it as a direct measure of health. Don’t think so? Go read page 293 in the 4e PH.
This way of thinking about HP makes the most sense and allows for continued suspension of disbelief because it doesn’t require the PC to become the Black Knight. It doesn’t require the PC to finish the fight without arms or legs which, consequently, will spontaneously regenerate as long as he takes an extended rest after the battle. Yes, it’s true, an extended rest magically heals all wounds in 4e, so don’t worry about those missing limbs, 6 hours of sleep will regrow those severed limbs! This doesn’t mesh with any reality unless you think of HP as the more indirect measure of damage as I have described it.
What do you think? How do you interpret HP? Is it a strict, direct measure of actual physical health, or is is something more ambiguous?
Until my next post, I wish you good gaming.
~DM Samuel
*A quick digression: Armor Class (AC) also represents the ability of your armor to absorb damage, but in this case it’s from hits that didn’t land solidly, which is why AC is a type of defense. HP may be likened to AC in that a component of HP may represent your armor’s ability to not split under a crushing blow (a sold hit). This is a subtle but important difference and is the reason that HP is not a true defense, but rather an intrinsic characteristic of the PC.
Agreed.
In our 4e games we equate Hit Points to something more akin to Stamina. It’s the ability of our adrenalin-fuelled body to carry on, withstanding punishment and pain up until the point when the adrenalin subsides.
When your character finally has time to rest and take stock of his injuries (ie, Second Wind or a Rest), that’s where the wounds really take their toll.
When you spend a Healing Surge you’re effectively saying “Yep, that one’s gonna leave a scar”. It’s translating the in-combat damage into actual wounds. When you run out of HP, you’re exhausted. But when you’re out of Surges, you’re dead. Healing (either magical or natural) involves diagnosing what injuries require treatment (ie, spend a Healing Surge) and are just flesh wounds.
I’ve said it before: Healing Surges are the new Hit Points.
Where it breaks down a little is the idea that PCs are back to their full complement of Healing Surges after every Extended Rest. If you prefer a grittier, more dangerous game, it’s just a matter of changing that to (for example) only regaining one Healing Surge per Extended Rest. This simulates a much longer healing period, but still keeps the flavour of the game.
I think once people recognize that hit points are more exhaustion than large gaping wounds, then other non fatal options open up for the players.
In standard 4E rules you just say you are not trying to kill target and when they hit 0 hit points they pass out.
But I also like to allow a PC to opt to disarm and intimidate the opponent instead of knocking the target out. So what would have been a killing move, the targets hit points drop to 1, has its weapon knocked from their hands and has a sword to his neck.
greywulf,
Thanks for the comment.
Yes, you’re ideas are in line with mine. And I do like the idea of the grittier, regain one or two healing surges per extended rest, campaign. Maybe, if I start a Dark Sun campaign I will do that.
[insert evil DM cackle]
Or I could unleash that on my face-to-face campaign players as some magical effect of the new continent to which they are traveling…. hmmm, must think this through…
[end evil DM cackle]
I also like the “Healing Surges are the new hit points” phrase. That is a really good way of looking at it.
~Dm Samuel
JesterOC,
Thanks for the comment. Yes, I do like the non-fatal damage option, and have utilized it frequently. It is also complicated tactically by the need to refrain from attacks that cause ongoing damage if you want to not-kill a creature. You can knock the creature out with the intention of interrogating it, but when it’s turn comes up and that 5 ongoing fire damage (that it failed its save for at the end of its last turn) takes effect, it dies… sad PC, no interrogation :)
~DM Samuel
To go with the grittier theme, when monsters do a critical hit in my campaign, they don’t do more hit points, they steal healing surges.
I started with half your remaining healing surges, but this seemed too drastic. I’m at 1/4 remaining healing surges, with at least one gone each time.
This shows that critical hits really are critical.
On the counter side, the players do 2x maximum damage to monsters.
Ohhhhh, that’s Nasty!! I like it.
A mechanism like that does go a long way to make the game much more dangerous. If/When I decide to use these things I’m really going to have to adjust the challenge level of my encounters based on these new healing surge house rules…
Interesting propositions that could change my game drastically.
Thanks for the awesome ideas.
~DM Samuel
Thanks for the support!!
~DM Samuel
I like the HP-as-stamina angle, although in that vein I think it might be a good idea for characters involved in melee combat to lose a certain small number of HP per round *just for being in combat*. Not taking hits, not using abilities but just for being in melee combat.
Let me explain: As a younger man I did chungdokwan (“Great Wave”) taekwondo. This included full-force fighting (with pads), exactly the same as it is done in the Olympics, except that while Olympic rounds are 2 minutes, ours were just 1 minute. Here, it was like this (skip to 3:26 to see the real action):
It may not look it but *it is freakin’ tiring*. Not to hit, not to block, but just to move around and remain alert. After 1 minute like this, even with only a half-dozen hits exchanged, you’re a bag of sweat, legs aching, nerves frazzled, panting like a dog, your spit all gummy and acidic. Probably burning 50 calories a second. Lots of bouts are won or lost simply because one guy gets too tired.
So yeah, it totally wouldn’t be necessary to cut a foe to pieces in order to incapacitate them. A long enough physical fight and anything will get too tired to go on (except, y’know, the undead or constructs). And you could easily extend the principle by saying that drawing a bow or casting a spell uses up stamina as well.
Cool video – Actually it DOES look freakin tiring – they are constantly moving and vigilant… see that guy bouncing the whole time, ready to make speedy evasive maneuvers or bust out with an assault – that takes a huge amount of stamina.
Yeah, that is an interesting idea – a mechanic akin to: “for every 6 second round, each combatant loses 2 HP.”
I agree that this meshes well with the “HP as energy/stamina” concept. I would suspect, though, that many would find it ‘unfair’ to place that sort of HP ‘penalty’ on them. Especially if I imposed the mechanic in the middle of a campaign. It has merit though… let me consider it (along with all of the other ideas here) and try to implement some things into my campaign.
~DM Samuel
If you were to use that mechanic then:
1.) Taking “total defense” would reduce or eliminate the penalty: You’d be playing it cool, trying to conserve your energy.
2.) There would need to be some new supporting Feats or Powers like, “Conserve Your Energy” that reduce the penalty or negate it for a certain number of rounds.
My interpretation of it has been like this: Until bloodied, damage comes in the form of glancing blows and small cuts, powerful strikes that reduce the player’s stamina, as in the shock of blocking that ogre’s club with your shield reverberating through your arm, or the arrow barely penetrating your armor but blunting itself as it does so.
When a character is bloodied, I say that their stamina has been weakened to the point where they can no longer avoid the deadlier hits, so the arrow will hit their armor head-on, and pierce their arm, the shield will be pushed back by the club and hit them head on.
Therefore, healing when not bloodied is a matter of restoring stamina (making Inspiring Word much more realistic, btw) and healing when bloodied can be be actual closing of wounds or restoring the stamina necessary to defend yourself again.
During and extended rest, it’s assumed that the resident magical healers are using their healing powers as they recharge every five minutes or so.