So yeah the other day I was thinking of something. How would damage in D&D look like? Like, i would imagine a attack that would do 1 damage would be a superficial wound, while more damage would make it look worse. But in D&D, no matter how big the damage is, it just heals completeley in a day most of the time. Do scars and things like fire marks even exist in D&D? Like if someone gets hit by fireball, wouldnt they have a burn scar at least? Or are the adventurers just really powerful? Sorry if this is wierd but it played in my head for almost a day now :>
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A new DM durrently doing Lost Mine of Phandelver with a new party!
Figuring out the rules and way of playing trough my mistakes :)
The damage system is always going to be abstract - some people see them as nicks, grazes, and bruises. Others see them as the character wearing down, the swings getting closer and closer to connecting until the one which drops them to 0 connects properly.
I tend toward superficial damage to characters. I have toyed with the idea of lingering injuries based on how much you heal in one go (non-magically). My spitball idea would be that the extent of the injury depends on the number of hit dice expended in a rest - if you roll high on the hit dice, you heal more and thus avoid any major injuries. If you roll poorly, then you need to roll more dice and thus receive a lingering injury.
I might explore this more today, you've got me thinking on it!
In my own D&D campaign i probably want it to be at least semi-realistic. I know that if you would take this too seriously, all of the party members would probably be stuck with long time wounds, but there must be some way to play with it, right? Of course not everything would leave scars, but things like wounds that deal a lot of damage or things like fire or other types of magic... It would be fun exploring that!
One problem is that me and my party are not really experienced yet, and we have had only one session yet, the second being saturday. I'll just drop this idea to them, and see how they would react. One of the characters is in fact a wizard, and my campaign runs to at least level 5, so we are gonna meet the ''I cast Fireball'' thing at some point. I would just feel like some things like fire (Magic or normal could differ) would leave some kind of a (burning) mark, just like poison or lighting and other types of magic. Maybe this is too difficult to start at the first campaign, but it would be fun to do at some point :)
Anyways time to think more of how this could possibly work. It kinda fasinates me now, hihi
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A new DM durrently doing Lost Mine of Phandelver with a new party!
Figuring out the rules and way of playing trough my mistakes :)
The damage system is always going to be abstract - some people see them as nicks, grazes, and bruises. Others see them as the character wearing down, the swings getting closer and closer to connecting until the one which drops them to 0 connects properly.
Naughty Dog pulled a similar justification in the Uncharted games. Canonically Nathan Drake's health bar isn't his life but his luck, it only takes one bullet to kill him but the more he's being shot at the worst his chances of dodging.
For D&D I have to be honest and admit I've never given it much thought. As a DM I love to narrate my players getting shot with arrows or slashed with melee weapons but never cared much once they're out of combat. Maybe they're all casting healing magic on each other while they take a long rest and we just don't mention it?
The damage system is always going to be abstract - some people see them as nicks, grazes, and bruises. Others see them as the character wearing down, the swings getting closer and closer to connecting until the one which drops them to 0 connects properly.
For D&D I have to be honest and admit I've never given it much thought. As a DM I love to narrate my players getting shot with arrows or slashed with melee weapons but never cared much once they're out of combat. Maybe they're all casting healing magic on each other while they take a long rest and we just don't mention it?
Could be, but wouldn't that be wierd if the ones using magic regain all spell slots? Also most of the time in a Long Rest they are sleeping and resting, not actively using magic...
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A new DM durrently doing Lost Mine of Phandelver with a new party!
Figuring out the rules and way of playing trough my mistakes :)
The damage system is always going to be abstract - some people see them as nicks, grazes, and bruises. Others see them as the character wearing down, the swings getting closer and closer to connecting until the one which drops them to 0 connects properly.
For D&D I have to be honest and admit I've never given it much thought. As a DM I love to narrate my players getting shot with arrows or slashed with melee weapons but never cared much once they're out of combat. Maybe they're all casting healing magic on each other while they take a long rest and we just don't mention it?
Could be, but wouldn't that be wierd if the ones using magic regain all spell slots? Also most of the time in a Long Rest they are sleeping and resting, not actively using magic...
Well a long rest is 6 hours rest over an 8 hour period son they've still got 2 hours to bandage each other up and kiss their boo-boos better
1 damage for someone like a commoner would probably be equivalent to being pounded for 6 seconds or eating one big ol haymaker. 1 is already a forth of their health. For someone like an adventurer, 1 damage would probably be something like a small nick on their arms or a bruise at level 1.
Rules wise, you become Bloodied at half health, which is probably the point where the people start looking a lot worse for wear. Instead of imagining everyone getting stabbed in the chest constantly, hp could also be a symbol of how well one's guard, so think of describing how their shields dent or a direct hit sends a few chains from one's chainmail flying apart.
This may also be a good opportunity for me to direct attention toward my forum thread over in the Adverts forum, where I have the Gritty Guide to Realistic Resting:
These two combined do a lot to address the two biggest immersion breakers in the game (IMHO) which are pop-up fighting (better to heal the dead than the living) and long rests curing all ills. Could be worth a look for this subject!
I used to think that it was cuts but now I think it’s more like damage on tools and armour. At half health they start to get to cut(slashing, bludgeoning and piercing), burn scars(fire), frost on fingers(cold), other for necrotic, force and radiant
In my own D&D campaign i probably want it to be at least semi-realistic. I know that if you would take this too seriously, all of the party members would probably be stuck with long time wounds, but there must be some way to play with it, right? Of course not everything would leave scars, but things like wounds that deal a lot of damage or things like fire or other types of magic... It would be fun exploring that!
One problem is that me and my party are not really experienced yet, and we have had only one session yet, the second being saturday. I'll just drop this idea to them, and see how they would react. One of the characters is in fact a wizard, and my campaign runs to at least level 5, so we are gonna meet the ''I cast Fireball'' thing at some point. I would just feel like some things like fire (Magic or normal could differ) would leave some kind of a (burning) mark, just like poison or lighting and other types of magic. Maybe this is too difficult to start at the first campaign, but it would be fun to do at some point :)
Anyways time to think more of how this could possibly work. It kinda fasinates me now, hihi
As mentioned HP is a bit abstract. 10 points of damage on a 1st level is not the same as 10 points on a high level PC. An explanation form years ago is that a higher level character learns how to twist and turn and position himself so that the brunt of a hit is glancing or hits a strong/reinforced piece of the armor. So to equate hits to open wounds maybe create a chart of [percentages, have a PC with 12 points and one with 103 points. Both receive 10 points of damage, figure out what percentage is 10 points of the PC total and X precent = description.
For magic, you probably want the same thing, but the damage description may be different. Does physical damage come from the fire of fireball or the pressure difference created by a blast? If you are ever with close proximity to an explosion like an IED you may not show any physical sign of damage, but you are concussed, disoriented and not thinking straight.
I describe hits that don't drop someone to zero is minor injuries, the type that won't bother you after a day and will heal after a few days. For example, for a ghoul's Claw attack, I would describe it as scratching at a PC's arm, rather than gouging out deep claw marks.
So yeah the other day I was thinking of something. How would damage in D&D look like? Like, i would imagine a attack that would do 1 damage would be a superficial wound, while more damage would make it look worse. But in D&D, no matter how big the damage is, it just heals completeley in a day most of the time. Do scars and things like fire marks even exist in D&D? Like if someone gets hit by fireball, wouldnt they have a burn scar at least? Or are the adventurers just really powerful? Sorry if this is wierd but it played in my head for almost a day now :>
This is where I'll point to two places.
1. The 2014 DMG has optional rules for injuries which might help a little with this line of thought. I've actually modified those tables in a personal effort to end the yo-yo of characters going down, then right back up again consequence free. I wanted to encourage players to assist not just all out attack, to make the healing options a legitimate part of the equation in combat. The official rules literally say that 'damage usually leaves no lingering effect'. Great for if you're running an adventure where the party are unkillable superheroes, but not so good if you want to run something a little more gritty. For my money, including injuries makes a bit of sense and it's an optional rule from 2014 that enhances the gameplay rather than weakens it.
2. Other game systems. Modern D&D really is built to favour the player characters heavily. The party aren't meant to suffer long term consequences of their actions in the newer 2024 ruleset. I've played and run a lot of other systems however, and there are quite a few who do damage and injuries, and long term effects so much better than D&D could ever really dream of. I tend to encourage DMs to look at other game systems for this reason alone. Read other systems, see if there is stuff you like better than how D&D does it, then import those things into your games. I think it's sometimes easy to lose sight of just how imperfect and in many places weak a system 5e, and 5.5e really is. It's popular, but popularity does not equal quality.
Rules as written though, adventurers just are super powerful.
The damage in DnD is unrealistic, seeing as you can just heal in a long rest. I think that what CunningSmile hits it pretty good there, where the party is just using "healing magic" through the rest and getting rid of whatever damage they took.
I think it's fun flavor to give your character scars from particularly nasty wounds (dragon breath, ogre club to the face) and if you want to encourage storytelling and narrative growth you can always steer your players in that direction with inspiration and other rewards for going down the storytelling route.
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He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
As others said, it’s meant to be abstract. But the main idea is that hit points are not meat points. They are (again, as others have said) luck, but also learning to dodge and roll with the hits a bit more as they level, a combination of all of those things
It’s one of the reasons, besides game balance, given for why martials have bigger hit die. They are up in physical fights more and get better at dodging. But sooner or later, they get tired and their luck runs out, then that one last hit knocks them down.
Also realizing they aren’t meant to reflect getting actually, physically hit again and again helps it make more sense that a long rest fixes everything. They get a chance to breathe and refocus, and the next day, they’re ready to go again.
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So yeah the other day I was thinking of something. How would damage in D&D look like? Like, i would imagine a attack that would do 1 damage would be a superficial wound, while more damage would make it look worse. But in D&D, no matter how big the damage is, it just heals completeley in a day most of the time. Do scars and things like fire marks even exist in D&D? Like if someone gets hit by fireball, wouldnt they have a burn scar at least? Or are the adventurers just really powerful? Sorry if this is wierd but it played in my head for almost a day now :>
A new DM durrently doing Lost Mine of Phandelver with a new party!
Figuring out the rules and way of playing trough my mistakes :)
She/her preferred.
The damage system is always going to be abstract - some people see them as nicks, grazes, and bruises. Others see them as the character wearing down, the swings getting closer and closer to connecting until the one which drops them to 0 connects properly.
I tend toward superficial damage to characters. I have toyed with the idea of lingering injuries based on how much you heal in one go (non-magically). My spitball idea would be that the extent of the injury depends on the number of hit dice expended in a rest - if you roll high on the hit dice, you heal more and thus avoid any major injuries. If you roll poorly, then you need to roll more dice and thus receive a lingering injury.
I might explore this more today, you've got me thinking on it!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
In my own D&D campaign i probably want it to be at least semi-realistic. I know that if you would take this too seriously, all of the party members would probably be stuck with long time wounds, but there must be some way to play with it, right? Of course not everything would leave scars, but things like wounds that deal a lot of damage or things like fire or other types of magic... It would be fun exploring that!
One problem is that me and my party are not really experienced yet, and we have had only one session yet, the second being saturday. I'll just drop this idea to them, and see how they would react. One of the characters is in fact a wizard, and my campaign runs to at least level 5, so we are gonna meet the ''I cast Fireball'' thing at some point. I would just feel like some things like fire (Magic or normal could differ) would leave some kind of a (burning) mark, just like poison or lighting and other types of magic. Maybe this is too difficult to start at the first campaign, but it would be fun to do at some point :)
Anyways time to think more of how this could possibly work. It kinda fasinates me now, hihi
A new DM durrently doing Lost Mine of Phandelver with a new party!
Figuring out the rules and way of playing trough my mistakes :)
She/her preferred.
Naughty Dog pulled a similar justification in the Uncharted games. Canonically Nathan Drake's health bar isn't his life but his luck, it only takes one bullet to kill him but the more he's being shot at the worst his chances of dodging.
For D&D I have to be honest and admit I've never given it much thought. As a DM I love to narrate my players getting shot with arrows or slashed with melee weapons but never cared much once they're out of combat. Maybe they're all casting healing magic on each other while they take a long rest and we just don't mention it?
Could be, but wouldn't that be wierd if the ones using magic regain all spell slots? Also most of the time in a Long Rest they are sleeping and resting, not actively using magic...
A new DM durrently doing Lost Mine of Phandelver with a new party!
Figuring out the rules and way of playing trough my mistakes :)
She/her preferred.
Well a long rest is 6 hours rest over an 8 hour period son they've still got 2 hours to bandage each other up and kiss their boo-boos better
1 damage for someone like a commoner would probably be equivalent to being pounded for 6 seconds or eating one big ol haymaker. 1 is already a forth of their health. For someone like an adventurer, 1 damage would probably be something like a small nick on their arms or a bruise at level 1.
Rules wise, you become Bloodied at half health, which is probably the point where the people start looking a lot worse for wear. Instead of imagining everyone getting stabbed in the chest constantly, hp could also be a symbol of how well one's guard, so think of describing how their shields dent or a direct hit sends a few chains from one's chainmail flying apart.
This may also be a good opportunity for me to direct attention toward my forum thread over in the Adverts forum, where I have the Gritty Guide to Realistic Resting:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/off-topic/advertisements/182105-guide-to-gambling-dice-games-for-d-d-duckslayer?comment=6
And to my DMsGuild thread where I have the guide to impactful dying, which is a Copper Bestseller!
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/dungeon-masters-guild/156841-duckslayer-games-grittier-consequential-and?comment=25
These two combined do a lot to address the two biggest immersion breakers in the game (IMHO) which are pop-up fighting (better to heal the dead than the living) and long rests curing all ills. Could be worth a look for this subject!
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
I used to think that it was cuts but now I think it’s more like damage on tools and armour. At half health they start to get to cut(slashing, bludgeoning and piercing), burn scars(fire), frost on fingers(cold), other for necrotic, force and radiant
As mentioned HP is a bit abstract. 10 points of damage on a 1st level is not the same as 10 points on a high level PC. An explanation form years ago is that a higher level character learns how to twist and turn and position himself so that the brunt of a hit is glancing or hits a strong/reinforced piece of the armor. So to equate hits to open wounds maybe create a chart of [percentages, have a PC with 12 points and one with 103 points. Both receive 10 points of damage, figure out what percentage is 10 points of the PC total and X precent = description.
For magic, you probably want the same thing, but the damage description may be different. Does physical damage come from the fire of fireball or the pressure difference created by a blast? If you are ever with close proximity to an explosion like an IED you may not show any physical sign of damage, but you are concussed, disoriented and not thinking straight.
I describe hits that don't drop someone to zero is minor injuries, the type that won't bother you after a day and will heal after a few days. For example, for a ghoul's Claw attack, I would describe it as scratching at a PC's arm, rather than gouging out deep claw marks.
This is where I'll point to two places.
1. The 2014 DMG has optional rules for injuries which might help a little with this line of thought. I've actually modified those tables in a personal effort to end the yo-yo of characters going down, then right back up again consequence free. I wanted to encourage players to assist not just all out attack, to make the healing options a legitimate part of the equation in combat. The official rules literally say that 'damage usually leaves no lingering effect'. Great for if you're running an adventure where the party are unkillable superheroes, but not so good if you want to run something a little more gritty. For my money, including injuries makes a bit of sense and it's an optional rule from 2014 that enhances the gameplay rather than weakens it.
2. Other game systems. Modern D&D really is built to favour the player characters heavily. The party aren't meant to suffer long term consequences of their actions in the newer 2024 ruleset. I've played and run a lot of other systems however, and there are quite a few who do damage and injuries, and long term effects so much better than D&D could ever really dream of. I tend to encourage DMs to look at other game systems for this reason alone. Read other systems, see if there is stuff you like better than how D&D does it, then import those things into your games. I think it's sometimes easy to lose sight of just how imperfect and in many places weak a system 5e, and 5.5e really is. It's popular, but popularity does not equal quality.
Rules as written though, adventurers just are super powerful.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
The damage in DnD is unrealistic, seeing as you can just heal in a long rest. I think that what CunningSmile hits it pretty good there, where the party is just using "healing magic" through the rest and getting rid of whatever damage they took.
I think it's fun flavor to give your character scars from particularly nasty wounds (dragon breath, ogre club to the face) and if you want to encourage storytelling and narrative growth you can always steer your players in that direction with inspiration and other rewards for going down the storytelling route.
He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
"When are we gonna take a snack break?"
As others said, it’s meant to be abstract. But the main idea is that hit points are not meat points. They are (again, as others have said) luck, but also learning to dodge and roll with the hits a bit more as they level, a combination of all of those things
It’s one of the reasons, besides game balance, given for why martials have bigger hit die. They are up in physical fights more and get better at dodging.
But sooner or later, they get tired and their luck runs out, then that one last hit knocks them down.
Also realizing they aren’t meant to reflect getting actually, physically hit again and again helps it make more sense that a long rest fixes everything. They get a chance to breathe and refocus, and the next day, they’re ready to go again.