Hit Points

Hit points (h.p.) are a measure of the amount of damage a character can take based on their class, weight and experience level. For the players' common use of the term "hit points," the "total number" or "maximum number" refers strictly to the number of hit points that characters and monsters possess. However, this page discusses the construction an meaning of hit points in the game system.

Hit Points Possessed

All creatures that weigh 3 lbs. or more are considered to have a minimum of 1 h.p. Some very light or small creatures may yet have 1 h.p., such as giant centipedes and rot grub ... but this reflects the danger presented by these creatures due to their characteristics. For the most part, however, the 3 lb. minimum should be considered a guideline for determining whether ordinary rats, kittens, bunnies and so on are considered to have any hit points at all. The lack of hit points should always assume that if the creature is hit, it is killed. Creatures without hit points do not affect experience gained.

All creatures that possess hit points must possess at least 1 hit die (HD). Creatures with multiple hit dice will have a designated die roll that indicates their hit points per die. With many monsters, the number of total hit points possessed is usually a condition of mass and strength; however, for humanoids and other intelligent creatures, the number of hit points possessed is determined by training, or experience levels. These greatly increase the number of a creature's hit points. From this, We must understand that hit points derive from two sources: the creature's mass and their experience levels, which are then combined.

Biological Units (BU)

To better understand what a hit point is, the substance of what makes a creature's hit points must be examined. Hit points that derive strictly from a creature's physical presence are called biological units. Bio units are indistinguishable from hit points for most creatures and for non-levelled characters, such as common folk or humanoids. An orc without any special training has 1 hit die; and this hit die provides the orc with 1-8 h.p. We can also say that the same orc has 1-8 BU.

Because the number of hit points per die is determined by the orc's mass, we can note that most orcs weigh between 151 and 290 lbs. If a particular orc weighed only 145 lbs., it would only have 1-6 h.p. or BU. Conversely, if an orc weighed 295 lbs., it would have 2-8 h.p. or BU. Note that a gnoll, which has 2 HD, weighs an average of 280 lbs. — not that much different from an orc. However, gnolls are viewed as tougher than orcs, so that it gains 2-16 total h.p. (1d8 per die). A gnoll weighing more than 290 lbs. would have 4-16 h.p.

Common orcs, gnolls and other non-levelled characters or monsters do not die at 0 hit points, but in fact will survive until they reach -4 hit points. The space between -1 and -3 h.p./BU indicates the point where the creature has been severely injured but is not actually dead. This means that an orc with 8 h.p. would not be killed until they had sustained a total of 11 damage. However, according to the negative hit points rules, the orc would probably not be conscious at -2 or -3 h.p.

To understand the health of the orc (an any other creature), we can scale its BU as shown. As we move to the left end of the scale, health declines and at -4, death occurs. As we move to the right, health improves and the orc reaches maximum BU. At -3 BU, the creature's situation is very dire; in fact, at any point below zero, the creature is distressed. At zero, the creature is exhausted and seriously needs rest. Between 1 to 3, we might consider the creature is tired, or in combat terms, beat up. Between 4 and 6, banged around somewhat but mostly ready; and at 7 or 8, strong and eager.

An example with less BU, say 1, would have "beat up," "banged around" and "eager" compressed into a single point. An example with many more points would have finer distinctions. Anyone with zero or more BUs will be considered reasonably healthy, though in need of rest and recuperation. Anyone with a negative BUs will be ill, damaged, crippled or near death, depending on how far below zero they are.

BUs and Training

How does training change the above structure? Training effectively decreases the damage that is done to the creature's number of BUs by expanding the number of hit points. Consider this second table that's shown. Imagine that the orc has received training and has become a 1st level fighter. It rolls a d10 for additional h.p. over and above it's former BU, getting a "5" on the die. Because it is levelled, it now adds +2 h.p. between each of its former negative levels of health, so now the orc will not die until it is reduced below -9 h.p. The remaining new h.p. are interspaced between its former BU, widening the gaps between being feeling "beat up," "banged around" and "eager. Where formerly it would have taken 1 damage to reduce the orc from 8 BU to 7 BU, now it takes 2 damage to cause the same reduction in well-being. And as the orc increases in experience levels, this gap is widened further.

Effectively, this means the damage done by enemies is lessened by the combatant's experience, without changing the actual dice rolled. That is why a lion easily tears up a creature with 8 h.p.; but our newly educated orc, with 13 h.p., would sustain the lion's attack much better — with the lion always doing the same damage, whatever its opponent.

Composition of BU

On the scale towards vitality, it is established that any person who is not chronically ill will have a positive number of BUs. This does not mean that everybody would be vigorous enough to possess 8 BUs. The actual number of BUs possessed depends upon the condition in which the body is kept, complimented by the condition the body possesses at birth. We can extrapolate BU as a composite of different elements that combine to form vitality - for any creature, regardless of intelligence: Activity: alternately metabolism, the body's capacity to transform food to energy, to enable action and the pursuit of survival. Depreciation: degradation of the body's health due to disease, injury and failure to successfully endure and heal from damage. Happiness: the state of the body and mind's freedom from distress or discontent. Health: the soundness of the body, freedom from chronic disease or ailment. Heredity: the transmission of strong genetic characteristics from parent to offspring. Initiative: the reaction time of the body's systems. Maturity: the development to peak physical development with experience and survival. Nourishment: the nutritional balance that has sustained the body.

There may be other possibilities, but on the whole these cover the principle aspects of life. The important thing to understand is that BUs do not derive from training or skill. The elements above do not derive from training. Training can enhance all of the above, but these things provide a measurable contribution to hit points before training can occur.

This is key. There must be some measure of each, that in turn combine to produce the number of BU that the creature possesses above zero. The combination would not be the same from individual to individual. Many creatures would have a composition that was very poor, providing them with few hit points; other creatures would have a rich composition, providing them with many hp. This is what the die determines when it is rolled randomly against the creature's total mass and hit dice.

Given this system of BUs, it is safe to argue that individual combatants would know how strong they were - and that among intelligent creatures it would be easy to identify which of their number ought to be standing guard and which would deserve to work as lackeys. Thus, when encountering large numbers in their lair, the combat trained soldiers on the front line would have hp in the upper range of the random number of hp generated; and virtually every support person (beyond personal body guards) would have less. This does not mean that the numbers were not randomly generated for everyone in the lair - only that, once each person randomly demonstrated their strengths, the lair naturally ordered itself according to each individual's strengths.

still needed?

Hit points are not an expression of the body getting stronger or being able to take more damage. The amount of damage that can be taken does not change because the physical condition of the body does not change. Hit points are added due to changes in the combatant's perception and skill, not due to the combatant developing a greater capacity for taking damage. It can be argued, however, that the combatant is better able to ignore damage that has been done - but this, too, is a characteristic of perception, not strength.

Hit Points from Levels

For player characters, the number of BU they possess is also random, rolled for their mass. A halfling will probably have a d4 rolled while a human may have a d6 or a d8, potentially 2d4 if they are very large. Then, because they have a level, the character receives more hit points deriving from that level: d4 for mages and illusionist, d6 for thieves and assassins, a d8 for clerics and so on. Details for that can be found under Player Characters. For non-player characters these are rolled randomly. Player characters benefit from getting their maximum hp for their level upon character generation.

For example, a non-player 1st level fighter, weighing 182 lbs., would roll a d8 for their hit points derived from mass (BU) plus a d10 for their hp derived from class. The average of these rolls is 10. A player running a fighter with the same weight would still receive a d8 for their mass hp but would automatically receive 10 hp (the maximum), to ensure the player's fighter begins with above average hp (14.5).

When a non-player fighter goes up a level, the number of hp are increased by 1-10. However, when a player's fighter goes up a level, it is established that a '1' cannot be rolled by a player - so the increase to hp will be 2-10. Once again, this is intended to give players the edge.

These extra hit points that derive from class, or rather experience and training, should not be viewed as a layer of protection over top the combatant's BU. Rather, as the player grows in experience, the added hit points 'spread out' the biological units, in effect putting hit points between them. See the figure below:

In the example, the non-player character Yazina is first level. She has rolled 4 points for her BU mass and 3 points for her class hp, giving her a total of 7. Because she is classed, she has 10 hit points below zero instead of 4 (once again, see negative hit points). Because of that, the physical effect she would experience from being struck if she had no level is slightly mitigated by the few hit points she has gained through modest training (I say modest because she rolled poorly and only gained 3 hp, possibly from a poor roll or because she is a mage).

Whereas before, -1 hit point for a non-leveled combatant indicated a subdued illness (see above), now that is described by -1 to -3 hit points. Now -4 to -6 hit points indicates a serious illness and -7 to -9 a critical illness. Remember, it is at -4 that a leveled character has to roll to see if they are still conscious. Yazina gets these extra 6 hit points below zero because of her leveled training.

On the plus side, the three gained hp Yazina gained are all applied to vitality. Were she to get another level, the separation between her four points of BU (which do not increase with level!) would grow wider and wider. Any actual physical harm she received would only happen at the points where her BU was diminished, not her hit points. The damage that reduced her from 7 hit points to 6 would also reduce her BU from 4 to 3 - so a first attack against her would nick her arm or graze her face or leave a bruise. Another point of damage, dropping her total from 6 to 5, however, would not cause any physical effect.

None of this, at this time, is accounted for in game terms in my world, but interesting for the sake of role-playing (I do not expect players to keep track of this, it is theoretical knowledge that might apply if a character were to wonder if what they looked like after a battle). I am still considering how details like this may be made use of - for the time being, it is satisfying to understand what damage a combatant receives causes a physical effect and what only serves to lower a character's potential to go on fighting.

It is meant to be a change in thinking, not a change in the original game principles. Hit points and damage in the game remain largely unaltered by this change, so that no grand restructuring needs to be made to classes or existing monsters. It is added structure without needing to tear everything down and start again. For a more relaxed discussion of the rules suggested here, see my blog post BU to HP, particularly the comments below. Note that the blog post comments do not properly describe hit points lost to Wounds as written in this wiki.

See Attacking in Combat