Hit or Miss in Detail

[This article is an elaboration of "Hit or Miss."]

Characters begin with hit points equal to their Constitution. They acquire miss points as they level up.

Attacks that cause damage reduce a character's miss points first. Such attacks cause no harm whatsoever and are considered misses.

When a character's miss points are reduced to zero, further damage reduces a character's hit points. Such attacks always cause harm and are considered hits.

Any reduction of hit points causes a physical wound of some sort even if it is only a prominent scar. In general, any attack that reduces a character's hit points by 50% can be considered a significant wound that may impose a penalty to attacks, movement, or attribute checks until healed. Any attack that reduces a character's hit points by 75% can be considered a grievous wound that may result in permanent disability. The specifics of such wounds can be determined by hit location, random tables, GM fiat, or—if the GM consents—victor's choice.

Healing always restores hit points first. All of the usual methods of healing are effective in this regard.

Miss points can only be recovered when hit points are at maximum. Miss points are recovered by time and, possibly, the acquisition of good luck or good karma (depending on the game system and/or the GM).

With this rule option, I recommend that zero hit points should equal death. No death saving throws, no countdowns, no Constitution depletion. This compensates for the high number of hit points with which characters will start.

In a future article, I may address miss point acquisition and recovery as it applies to some well-known level-based fantasy role-playing games.

[This is my first blog post using my new System 76 computer running Linux. Freedom at last!]

[Edit: Replaced 25% with 50% for significant wounds and 50% with 75% for grievous wounds.]

Hit or Miss

Since at least the late 1970s and the publication of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide, there have been those (including E. Gary Gygax himself) who assert that hit points are not merely physical damage capacity (at least where player characters are concerned), but are a combination of luck, divine will, and "plot armor." If this is truly the case, then why not call it what it is? In pursuit of this line of reasoning, I propose a new rule. Make the hit point maximum static, and let player characters gain "miss points" as they level up.

In the case of Dungeons & Dragons and others of its ilk, make hit points equal to a character's Constitution (or its equivalent stat in other games). When characters level up, they gain miss points instead of hit points. When a character sustains damage, it is deducted from the character's miss points first. When those are depleted, the damage is deducted from the character's hit points. Until the damage starts to reduce hit points, no actual physical injury occurs. Healing occurs in reverse order: first hit points, then miss points. All of the usual healing methods are effective to restore hit points, but time alone restores miss points. Or maybe new rules could address additional miss point recovery along the lines of luck or karma acquisition.

Hit points as hit points are silly, but if you're going to keep them, you might as well run with it, hit or miss.

[See also "Hit or Miss in Detail."]