You have 28 hit points and are bitten by a vampire spawn. Because you are already damaged the vampire spawn's bite does enough damage to bring you to 23 damage. You'd still be conscious. But the necrotic part of the bite reduced your hit point maximum by 6.
So do you now have 22 hit points total because of the 6 point reduction and are therefore unconscious and dying because you took 23 total damage out of 22 total hit points? There was some disagreement at the table tonight so I wanted to get some unbiased opinions.
I don't think so. At the beginning, you have 28/28 hp. You take 23 damage and your HP maximum is reduced by 6, so your current HP goes down by 23 and your max HP goes down by 6, so at the end you're at 5/22 HP.
Effects that reduce your maximum hit points do not reduce your current hit points unless they say so. In the case of the [monster]vampire spawn[/spawn], only maximum hit points are reduced. Your current hit points have already been reduced by taking the damage. This question has been coming up a lot lately, which is weird, but whatever haha.
ftl’s numbers are correct. You’re at 28; you take 23 damage which brings your to 5; your max hit points are reduced by the necrotic damage you took, but this doesn’t affect your current hit points at all, so your max goes to 22 but your current stays at 5.
If the max hit point reduction also reduced your current hit points, you’d essentially be taking the necrotic damage TWICE.
As Saga and ftl point out, it is all about the order. Your max hp reduction is almost always the last step, and is almost always by the amount of damage that you previously took.
You have 28 hit points and are bitten by a vampire spawn. Because you are already damaged the vampire spawn's bite does enough damage to bring you to 23 damage. You'd still be conscious. But the necrotic part of the bite reduced your hit point maximum by 6.
So do you now have 22 hit points total because of the 6 point reduction and are therefore unconscious and dying because you took 23 total damage out of 22 total hit points? There was some disagreement at the table tonight so I wanted to get some unbiased opinions.
I don't think so. At the beginning, you have 28/28 hp. You take 23 damage and your HP maximum is reduced by 6, so your current HP goes down by 23 and your max HP goes down by 6, so at the end you're at 5/22 HP.
Effects that reduce your maximum hit points do not reduce your current hit points unless they say so. In the case of the [monster]vampire spawn[/spawn], only maximum hit points are reduced. Your current hit points have already been reduced by taking the damage. This question has been coming up a lot lately, which is weird, but whatever haha.
ftl’s numbers are correct. You’re at 28; you take 23 damage which brings your to 5; your max hit points are reduced by the necrotic damage you took, but this doesn’t affect your current hit points at all, so your max goes to 22 but your current stays at 5.
If the max hit point reduction also reduced your current hit points, you’d essentially be taking the necrotic damage TWICE.
As Saga and ftl point out, it is all about the order. Your max hp reduction is almost always the last step, and is almost always by the amount of damage that you previously took.
Thanks for the help, everyone! This is how we ruled it last night but we weren't sure if we were right at the time.