![]() ![]() It is with the damage mechanic especially that it becomes important to recognize the abstract nature of combat in D&D. Did it force the duellist to reveal his best riposte, or leave him with a scar on his cheek? Did it drive the orc back a pace with the ferocity of the strike, or even knock him to his knees? Did it find a gap in the dragon’s scales, or knock one of its legs out from under it? Did the rogue get caught in the flames of a dragon’s breath, or roll beneath the fire and only suffer some of the searing heat? Did the final blow simply nick an artery, causing death by sudden blood loss, or did the blade slide between the enemy’s ribs and pierce his heart? These are all representations of varying levels of damage. It is a measure of how effective a successful attack was. What Is Damage?ĭamage is the third element of the three-part combat system. Often, the way that we can determine this is based on the damage it dealt. ![]() In some cases, we must assume that some contact did occur in order for certain game mechanics to function, but generally it can be assumed that, as long as your target has 1 hit point remaining, a hit represents an attack that was turned away, either causing superficial damage or leaving the target more exhausted for having avoided it. However, from our definition of hit points we can understand that this does not necessarily mean successfully stabbing, slashing, burning, crushing, freezing, poisoning (etc.) your target. In the most basic game terms, a hit represents a successful attack that deals damage. The term ‘hit points’ refers specifically to the hit/miss game mechanic used to measure the success of an attack, but many people conflate it with the actual definition of hitting. Part of the issue is that “hit points” is, in many ways, misleading in its dual interpretation. It is preposterous to state such an assumption, for if we are to assume that a man is killed by a sword thrust which does 4 hit points of damage, we must similarly assume that a hero could, on the average, withstand five such thrusts before being slain! Why then the increase in hit points? Because these reflect both the actual physical ability of the character to withstand damage-as indicated by constitution bonuses-and a commensurate increase in such areas as skill in combat and similar life-or-death situations, the “sixth sense” which warns the individual of some otherwise unforeseen events, sheer luck, and the fantastic provisions of magical protections and/or divine protection. It is quite unreasonable to assume that as a character gains levels of ability in his or her class that a corresponding gain in actual ability to sustain physical damage takes place. Gary Gygax himself addressed this misconception, saying: This is ironic, because of all the conceptualizations of hit points, this is the only one which is definitively wrong. ![]() However, as is usually the case, the more vague the description, the more emphatically people cleave to arbitrary elements of the definition, and this has led many people to treat hit points as ‘the number of times I can be stabbed’. These descriptions are deliberately abstract as they allow a DM freedom in how they describe effects that alter hit points. Descriptions of hit points range from “how much punishment you can take before dropping” (3E PHB, 136) to “a combination of physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck” (5E PHB, 196). The central issue that must first be addressed is the nature of hit points. ![]()
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