Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Hits to Kill?

I’m just thinking this through out loud. There’s no plan here. As usual.

Cassowary School of Gladiator Kicking
Like a bard college, but for kicking gladiators

Idea one: I want to make hit point healing go way faster than it does without using healing surges. My brain pooped out an idea. 

What if you roll your hit points every day? Like, you head out into the world. You know how many HD you are but not how many HP you have. But when you come into contact with some effect which alters your hit points, then BAM! You roll them up and see what you get. 

As long as you live until the next morning, you will wake up “fully healed” and roll them all the next time danger strikes.  

Neither damage nor boons carry over past midnight. 

Dwarves Only Carry the Necessities

Idea two: what if you got your second hit die at first level? You don’t get another hit die at level 2, but you do get to re-roll your dice and take either the second result, or the first result plus one hit. 

What do you think?

5 comments:

  1. I've heard people justify HP as 'how you feel that day' and roll them every day. Slept badly? Got a cold? That must be why you've only got 2HP. Alternatively, got a good night's sleep and feeling great, that's why you have 7HP. HP in this case measure not physical health in terms of how much damage you can receive, but something like luck with resilience. If you're more alert you have more capacity to avoid or mitigate trouble.

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    1. Oh, very much so.

      It occurred to many folks, chief among them Oakes Spalding, that monster hit points don’t exist until they’re needed - by entering the PC’s world. So why would the PCs have hit points until they are needed?

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  3. Interestingly, OD&D had players re-roll their hit points at each new level as opposed to simply adding another die when they advanced. Great post!

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    1. Yep, we do that at my table. But we only take the higher total. Thanks for the encouragement :)

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