Hit Points, Hit Point Bloat, and Body Points

Hit Points (in B/X) represent the number of "points" of damage a character or monster can take during battle before dying. Any creature reduced to 0 hit points (or less) is dead. 

Page 34 of the AD&D Player's Handbook explains further. "Hit points represent how much damage (actual or potential) the character can withstand before being killed. A certain amount of these hit points represent the actual physical punishment which can be sustained. The remainder, a significant portion of hit points at higher levels, stands for skill, luck, and/or magical factors. A typical man-at-arms can take about 5 hit points of damage before being killed. Let us suppose that a 10th level fighter has 55 hit points, plus a bonus of 30 hit points for his constitution, for a total of 85 hit points. This is the equivalent of about 18 hit dice for creatures, about what it would take to kill four huge warhorses. It is ridiculous to assume that even a fantastic fighter can take that much punishment. The same holds true to a lesser extent for clerics, thieves, and the other classes. Thus, the majority of hit points are symbolic of combat skill, luck (bestowed by supernatural powers), and magical forces." (Emphasis mine.)

The 5th edition Player's Handbook drops much of the explanation provided above and simply states "Your character's hit points define how tough your character is in combat and other dangerous situations."

Hit Point Bloat (HPB for short) is a term describing the state of characters at higher levels where they have so many hit points they are nearly invincible; the fear of death becomes almost non-existent and it makes combat encounters an hours long slog of "death by 1000 cuts."

HPB can also lead to some comical scenarios. The character with 85 hit points in the example cited above could easily walk off of a 60' cliff and fear nothing from the fall, since falling damage is calculated as 1d6 / 10' fallen. For the group that wants some semblance of realism in their game, this doesn't make sense. Even the optional rule in 5E which addresses massive damage by forcing a system shock roll if damage from a single source exceeds half of the character's hit points (Dungeon Master's Guide, pg 273) would not come into play, as 36 (max damage in this scenario) is less than half of 85.

So what to do?

Below is one of my home-brewed solutions that my players enjoyed the most. I may offer up additional details (such as reducing the severity of a critical hit by sacrificing hit points) in another post, but the core basics are as follows:

Body Points
These represent the physical body, and loss of these points indicates a serious injury. Normally, these are lost only after all of one's hit points have been expended, BUT a critical hit, or any other form of damage that the DM adjudicates, may effect body points directly. 

In our games, a critical hit is defined as either a natural 20 on the attack roll, OR an attack roll that is 10 above the score needed. For magic damage, failing a saving throw by 10 points or more, or rolling a natural 1 on the save, may result in the spell delivering body point damage.

I give 6 body points to player characters which may or may not be adjusted by their Constitution score (depending on how deadly one wants the game to be.)

Body point damage is rolled with an exploding* 1d6, and the DM may declare other die types depending on the potential severity of damage. In the 60' cliff example cited above, the DM can declare that such a fall would deliver 1d6+3 body points of damage to make the players think twice before leaping.

Should the character survive a body point wound, they suffer a penalty of -1 for each point of body point damage.

Body points recover at a rate of 1 point per week, with cure spells healing 1 body point per level of the spell, so a 1st level Cure Light Wounds would heal 1 body point, OR 1d6+1 hit points at the caster's discretion.

For "cannon fodder" types of monsters or "normal people" I assign 3 body points to reflect the above average standing player characters have and to give the players a bit of an edge, since their being outnumbered is fairly common. For climatic enemies or physically larger foes, I assign 6 to 8 body points, and for monstrously huge foes, like an ancient dragon, I assign 10 to 12.

*exploding 1d6
Anytime a body point damage roll is a 6, another d6 is rolled and added to the total. This provides a small chance for that miracle shot that finds the "soft spot" in between a dragon's scales that proves fatal, or fells the giant with a miraculous slingshot strike.

Now, I know many players will balk at the idea of some 1st level goblin rolling a 20, then a 6, then a 5 and instantly killing their 13th level fighter who, with their 18 Constitution, had 9 body points. 

As I mentioned earlier, there are other options players are afforded to prevent an instant death at the hands of some seemingly innocuous foe, but I often wonder if high level characters should enjoy their status of near invincibility, or should the chance of death always loom over the heads of those who seek fortune and riches at the end of a blade? Shouldn't the lower level bowman have a chance, however small, to slay the mighty Smaug?

Debate is always a good thing.
Until next time.