Hit Point Damage in Dungeons & Dragons and DCC

“As has been detailed, hit points are not actually a measure of physical damage, by and large, as far as characters (and some other creatures as well) are concerned .. Damage scored to characters or certain monsters is actually not substantially physical - a mere nick or scratch until the lost handful of hit points are considered - it is a matter of wearing away the endurance, the luck, the magical protections."

– Gary Gygax, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeon Master’s Guide, 1^st edition.

I see online commentary about modern 5th edition D&D, DCC and other modern iterations of the original game we love, and I notice that debates abound regarding surviving a 30 foot fall, being able to be stabbed 17 times with a longsword before dying, and it occurs to me – many of these people have missed the point about what hit points were designed to originally represent, and most people don’t have access to the original writings of Gary Gygax explaining the design ideas around hit points.

In DCC, a starting character has 1d4 hit points, and upon gaining 1^st level gains another hit die of 1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 1d12, what have you – but did their skin become tougher, did they become more inured to pain, did they gain muscle mass and durability?  Well, probably a bit, but not 47 hit points worth when they are a 5^th level warrior – odds are their ‘physical capacity for damage’ is still about 8 hit points at best.  The rest is scratches, near misses, and all the other things that Gary discusses.

Now a hill giant or iron golem probably are accurately represented by hit points correlating with ability to withstand damage, but for everything else, want to make your combats with player characters sound more epic?  Here’s a random chart to describe damage until we get down to the last few hit points, and remind folks that ‘hit points’ are not meant to solely be ‘meat points’.  You can roll on the chart, or just use it as inspiration for your narrative to the players as Judge.

D20	Combat Examples
1	“Your foe tears your favourite cloak!”
2	“You stagger back, and need to catch your breath”
3	“You block the blow, and your hand is jarred from impact”
4	“A mere scratch, but you better bind that later”
5	“You aren’t sure how that blow didn’t connect, that was lucky…”
6	“You fake a dodge to the left, but your foe won’t fall for that again”
7	“Sweat drips in your eyes as you fight, distracting you”
8	“You start to breathe heavily from the exertion of combat”
9	“A blow glances off your helm, and your ears ring”
10	“Your armor absorbs most of the blow, but a bruise starts to rise”
11	“Your foe rushes you, and you are knocked a bit off balance”
12	“You don’t seem as certain about victory as you were a bit ago”
13	“An armor strap snaps, that’ll need repairing later … if there is a later …”
14	“Your shield arm is growing tired, and your shield starts to dip”
15	“A slashing wound to your forearm has blood dripping to your sword hand, loosening your grip”
16	“Your shoulder pauldron is dented, and it’s a stinging blow”
17	“You ache from exertion”
18	“Your foe grins and changes their stance, you can tell they see openings in your defense.”
19	“Your side starts to throb from a shallow cut.”
20	“Your armor digs into your flesh painfully as you continue to fight”

 Got any ideas on how to expand this?  Drop me a note at archadethered@gmail.com.