Hit or Miss: Missed

In case you haven't seen my latest notes in "Hit or Miss" or "Hit or Miss in Detail," I decided not to continue my thoughts on the topic because Greg Stolze already discussed the topic in forum.rpgnet.com in February 2010. Of course, the existence of this article disproves my decision, but here we are. It was either this or I not spend the next few minutes writing this and posting it to my unread blog. And then where would we be?

So, I guess I'll just summarize some of what I intended to write because, for all I know, Greg Stolze and others on that forum may have already stated everything worth stating on the topic, and I would rather be blown out of existence by a sphere of annihilation than unintentionally reiterate something on the Internet.

To summarize, for whatever edition of Dungeons & Dragons or its simulacra or retro-clones you are playing, characters have hit points equal to their Constitution (or Stamina, etc.) and a random number of miss points for each level (equivalent to the hit points they would have gained for each level). Various editions use different dice for different classes. Heed them or houserule them as thou wilt.

I think I would simplify my earlier thoughts on significant wounds thusly: Once hit points are lost, the victim's attack rolls, initiative rolls, and saving throws (or attribute checks) are penalized at −1; once hit points are reduced to 50% or less, they are penalized at −2. Penalties disappear as hit points are healed (−2 when hit points rise above 50%; −1 when all hit points are healed). Critical hits remain unchanged for whichever version of the rules are being used. Actual hits, which reduce hit points, are therefore consequential, but remain uncomplicated.

And that's (probably) all I'll say about this topic.

(Drat. That's far more than I intended to say.)