Hit Points and Character Death

 

I'm reading a lot of posts asking, "What do hit points really measure?" or something similar. Where hit points seem to jump the shark for people is when a high level character falls 100 feet, gets up, dusts himself off and walks away - or the giant fights with one hit point as effectively as he did with fifty.

D&D seems to me to be about resource management - and hit points are just another resource to manage. Do I have enough to get through another encounter? If not, am I in a safe place to rest? If not... how do I manage my resources? 

So here's my proposal for hit points (almost certainly not original of course - but I haven't seen it exactly like this anywhere).  

NOTE that this is, of course, an untested work in progress :)

Health, Hit Points, Damage and Recovery

Health Points at 0 Level - all characters roll 1d8 for Life Points, Creatures have their Hit Dice in Life Points

Hit Points are rolled at each successive level according to class and added to the Hit Point Total, as normal. Hit Points represent exhaustion, tenacity, skill, survival instinct, and the blessing (or not!) of the fates and are easily lost and fairly quickly recovered. 

Damage in combat and adventuring (with some few exceptions, see below) reduces Hit Points until they are exhausted, then Life Points are reduced accordingly. Additionally, once Hit Points are exhausted, Life Points are drained normally (that is, a 0 level human, or a levelled character who has 0 Hit Points remaining, who is hit for 5 points loses those 5 Life Points) and each point is a wound or scar (see below). 

Each time a character takes 10 or more hit points in damage in a single round, regardless of how many total Hit Points the character has, his or her Life Points are reduced, one Life Point per 10 Hit Points of damage, rounded down (1 Life Point for 10-19 Hit Points, 2 Life for 20-29 Hit Points, etc.) with a subsequent Wound or Scar (see below).

Hit Points are recovered with Rest, while Life Points with Recuperation.

Rest: for every 10 minutes of rest, recover one Hit Dice of Hit Points.

Recuperation: for every 2 hours of recuperation, recover all Hit Points and 1 Life Point.

On Death, Dying and Dismemberment

Characters reduced to 0 Life Points are Dying. Dying Characters make a death save every round. A Death Save is a d20 rolled against the PC’s Constitution score, adjusted by his or her Constitution bonus. Two successive failed Death saves and the Character is dead. If a Dying Character is tended to by another Character (or NPC), the Death Save is rolled at Advantage.

Wounds and Scars: When a Life Point is lost, the Character receives a wound or scar appropriate to the situation. Roll on the general wounds and scars table below, adjusted by the number of Health Points lost in a single round and the Character’s Constitution Bonus (adding the Life Points lost, subtracting the Constitution Bonus).

Roll 1d12	Effect
1 or less	a surge of adrenaline returns 1d4 hit points per every other level (1d4 at 1st and 2nd, 2d4 at 3rd and 4th, etc.) At the end of the combat, the adrenaline drains away, hit points are reduced to zero, and the PC faints for 2d6 rounds.
2	No Effect
3-4	Minor Scar. It’s just a flesh wound, really. A little blood, a little pain but no lasting effect except a little scar (as determined by player and DM)
5-6	Major Scar. Out of action for remainder of combat and heal at half rate for 24 hours. Permanent scar (as determined by player and DM)
7	knocked down, disadvantage on rolls next round
8	knocked out for 2d6 rounds, unless wearing a helm. With helm, only stunned for 1 round. Disadvantage for 1d12 subsequent hours
9	broken bone (DM's choice), 2d4+9 weeks to heal.
10	severed limb (DM's choice or roll randomly) will die in 3d6 rounds unless tourniquet applied, wound cauterized with fire, or Cure Serious Wounds cast (CSW used for this will not restore lost hp).
11	fatal wound (gutted, stabbed through lung, broken back, etc.) die in 1d6 turns.
12+	instant death (decapitated or other grievous wound).

NOTE: While death is generally final, there are some rituals of the Church of the Holy Saints that can potentially resurrect a dead Character. In addition, the clerics of the old gods (Druids) can employ spells like Reincarnation to keep a Character’s Soul from traveling to the great beyond and magic users are able to trap souls in the Mortal Realm (in decaying bodies or as disembodied spirits). 

Zero Hit Points/Real Hit Points

Today's Post: Death and Dying...

Death's Door: at 0 hp, PCs roll on the following table. If they survive, the roll (that is, don't roll a 2-4 which have their own rules for what follows), the PC falls unconscious (if not using the CP idea below - if using that...then when CP reaches zero, do this - though that makes things more complicated). They begin to lose one hp per round thereafter. When the PC reaches a negative number = to their CON score, they die.

(The following chart is taken directly from Trollsmyth's Blog):

2d6	RESULTS
2 or lower	instant death (decapitated or other grevious wound).
3	fatal wound (gutted, stabbed through lung, broken back, etc.) die in 1d6 turns.
4	severed limb (DM's choice or roll randomly) will die in 3d6 rounds unless tourniquet applied, wound cauterized with fire, or Cure Serious Wounds cast (CSW used for this will not restore lost hp).
5,6	broken bone (DM's choice), 2d4+9 weeks to heal.
7,8	knocked out for 2d6 rounds, unless wearing a helm. With helm, only stunned for 1 round.
9	stunned for 1 round, unless wearing helm. With helm, only knocked down.
10	knocked down.
11	no effect.
12+	a surge of adrenaline returns 1d4 hit points per every other level (1d4 at 1st and 2nd, 2d4 at 3rd and 4th, etc.) At the end of the combat, the adrenaline drains away, hit points are reduced to zero, and the PC faints for 2d6 rounds.

NOTE - additional attacks on "death's door" PCs are automatic hit... So, not only do fallen PCs have to be tended to - they have to be defended, too... AND, additional attacks are rolled on the table again...but with a SINGLE d6. The reverse holds true, too - NPCs who use the death's door rule (classed NPCs, I suppose) can automatically be hit when at death's door...

ALTERNATE HIT POINT IDEA (HP & CP)

Now, I really like the idea that HP represent something like LUCK or ENDURANCE or whatever - that is, they are really abstract, so the reduction of HP doesn't affect your ability to fight...until you reach zero. But someone had a post about using something like CON for "real" HP, after HP run out, or something. So the HP regenerate at a quick rate (say 1/Turn or something) and quaffing some ale can boost HP since they are an abstract of bravado, luck, experience, etc. or whatever. CP (that would be Constitution based Hit Points) regenerate very slowly (say the standard of 1/day or whatever). And what if HP don't regenerate before CP?

PROBLEM: First and foremost - PCs are unkillable...Think about this: level 1 fighter 6 hp, CON of 15 (okay, so he was honest in his rolls) would give him, essentially, 36 hp til he dies. Admittedly, "only" 21 til he falls unconscious... and maybe rolls on the above table...but still. That's a pretty powerful first level character. Even the lowly MU at level 1 has 2 hp, CON of 9 - still has 11 hp before he falls unconscious...

What I like about this idea is that it delays death enough that a combat can be finished and the PCs can tend their wounded (staunching wounds, etc). I also really like the fact that this doesn't "scale" - that is, it's a real boon for low level characters, but as PCs gain in levels (and HP), they still retain the same "death's door" abilities (they have the number of rounds = to their CON to be tended to or they die, assuming the roll on the table wasn't deadly...) and the same number of CP (CON based HP). So, really, it's not the death's door rule that I need to fix (I rather like that even during a long combat, it would be possible to save a fallen comrade) but the CON based HP that I need to figure out if it's too overbalancing. I DO like the idea that characters are more survivable at early levels. I'm concerned that they'd be TOO survivable...