Get Rid of Hit Points?! (Ep. #84)
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- Опубліковано 31 лип 2024
- Ogres have 59 hit points. So do owlbears. Red dragons have 256. Thats a lot of subtraction--and math sucks! Speed up combat by 10-20% by replacing hit points with HITS! Professor DungeonMaster elucidates on how hit points as we know them can be easily replaced--without your players ever knowing the difference!
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Professor dungeon master here, throwing out rules like they were his family China.
Made me laugh out loud. Showed it to my wife. She laughed too. Well done, sir!
Ep. #200: Get rid of Dice?!
@james Deer nothing in this video was about called shots to vulnerable organs or insta kills. It was just about how to simplify the behind the screen work for the dm. You don't have to take his advice, but you should critique what he actually says instead of making up problems.
Only Reads Title: “Okay guys, you all start incapacitated and bleeding out on the floor”
Reason why this is so valuable is that the monsters don't have emotions if the DM doesn't have emotions for them. And if the DM is being a referee not a antagonistic DM; this has a aim to entertain and be a good host. Rather, this makes semi complex subtraction and addition much quicker and simpler with the illusion of grandeur all in the aim of making the story and Adventures even more exciting
Absolutely.
Love the idea. Less math behind the screen, especially when running a fight with multiple monsters like Orcs, goblins, and such. Just use tally marks. Saves time and speeds up combat. Thanks for sharing your years of experience with us professor.
When I flicked my eyes over the title, I thought it said "Get Rid of Hip Joints"
But I am just a poor old man… My legs are grey. My ears are gnarled. My eyes are old and bent.
I understood that reference
I laughed out loud (a few times) during this video - the Frazetta paintings followed by the Algebra book was genius - thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and ideas!
This is exactly why people who want exciting roleplay - not tactical miniatures combat - should play more elegantly designed systems like those built with the Powered by the Apocalypse ruleset. I played D&D for 25 years, played Apocalypse World once, and never looked back.
I agree, almost all the problems with D&D could be solved by simply playing another system. I almost always play Savage Worlds, its like all the good stuff about D&D with all superfluous crap scraped off.
Dungeonworld for me. Moves are so much nicer and the spectrum of success and failure instead of being so binary. Love it
Like the old Star Wars D6 system? It’s probably the best known system that doesn’t use hit points. My favorite version is Mini-6 Bare Bones. It helps that it is free.
@@weirdguy564 It's different than the Star Wars system. You can look up the "powered by the apocalypse" system, but basically it works like this:
1. The GM never rolls. The GM moves the fiction forward in response to player rolls. All rolls have consequences.
2. Roll 2d6 and add modifiers. There are three results bands: Full success, partial success, and failure
10+ = Full success: player does what they attempted and gets a bonus (for an attack that might be "do extra damage," "Frighten your enemies," "take control of the situation," or "avoid taking damage," among others.
~6 = Failure: The GM chooses from a list of options, usually including "GM's choice," and a list of possible consequences, including but not limited to doing more damage, putting the player in a bad spot, setting up a future event (in a fantasy setting this might be something like cracking open a portal to another plane after failing a casting role), etc.
7-9 = Partial success: This is where it gets really interesting. The player succeeds (for example does damage if they are attacking or steals something if they are pickpocketing), but they have to choose a consequence as well, such as making another player vulnerable, losing something, taking damage, or opening themselves up to vulnerability. For some "moves" (the term for actions), the GM chooses the negative consequence. The consequences are determined by the fiction (you do what the story is telling you would be cool).
There are a number of game changing effects. First, every. single. roll. is dramatic. None of the BS of D&D where you have 10 rounds of plinking away at some boss monster. Even swinging a sword every round can have different outcomes.
The game is in the players' hands. Every roll is setting up a roleplay because the players are determining the consequences, and thus driving the story. There are no "I swing, I miss, next" rolls. There are no "Double damage... but I rolled two 1s, so actually that sucks." When players act dramatic things happens. And instead of the focus being on numbers, the focus is on the story.
Finally, the system elegantly accommodates for "real world" actions. In D&D cool cinematic actions like tripping, tackling, disarming, swinging from ropes, smashing someone with a chair, etc. are locked behind a byzantine rule set and have underpowered effects on the story. In the Powered by the Apocalypse setting, pretty much anything you can imagine slots seamlessly into play.
How does anyone take so long??? Played D&D for one year found Merp/Rolemaster, never played D&D again. Now this is enriched by Forbidden Lands (year zero engine of Mørk Borg fame) as of late. Both are great and I only watch D&D vids for Gm-ing ideas.
Gary Gygax invented the Hit Point as an optional rule for "fantasy" figures like Orcs etc. in his original game rules, Chainmail,
Amazing idea for small hordes or minions that assist the BBEG. You don't want the minions to bog down combat but at the same time you want to them to soak damage and slow down the party's action economy so its not all focused on the BBEG.
One of my favorite systems, Star Wars D6, is a lot like what you’re describing. No hitpoints, most minions go down in one hit. When you get hit (based on the severity of that hit) you incur one of statuses: stunned, wounded, mortally wounded, or killed. If you’re stunned twice you’re wounded, if you’re wounded twice you’re mortally wounded... and so on. Makes for quick deadly combat.
I wish D&d was like that, I’ve always hated hit points, love 5e but all the math is so bloated, plus this, minus that, subtract and roll 30d10’s for some OP spells. We try to just strip it all back to basics. Love ICRPG for some great ideas on how to do that.
I think the best combination employs both hit points and a table of wound percentages. Anything that takes 50% of your hit points or life pool or whatever means a Constitution roll. Like call of Cthulhu
As a DM your stance on capping player hitpoints makes me uncomfortable... BUT your stance on throwing monster HP out the window for a hit system, has me inspired!
Personally, I like down-scaled HP far better than hard cap (Of course, with damage down-scaled as well). Like the alternative where you add your HD to your constitution score (sorcerer with 14 con = 6+14 = 20HP) where you can actually increase your HP by putting points in constitution, but you don't get that absolutely ridiculous gap of like ~10 HP at lvl 1 and ~100 HP at lvl 10 and counting. I find it absolutely ridiculous that the same person at the begging of an adventure can die after 2 goblin hits, and later he can brave 16 goblin blades without even breaking a sweat. I don't care that they are now "more experienced adventurers". If they have so much experience, they should use it to figure out how to avoid getting surrounded by 16 goblins, not to magically absorb all their hits.
DungeonCraft is like a salad bar. Take what you want. Leave the rest.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 You can keep those cherry tomatoes xD
Yeah capping player HP will produce a bunch of irate players. Really I feel like you can only get away with something like that if your players really trust you, otherwise they'll probably end up rebelling. Nowadays so many people care a bit too much about following the rulebooks blindly. Honestly though I'd probably recommend just trying to switch them to Dungeon World or Savage Worlds and away from D&D, you'll get the same effect without having to break so many D&D rules.
The thing is though, short of sci-fi augmentation or magic enchantment, the human body and mind are only capable of so much. Look at Arnold or Bruce Lee, or in the case of skill Bob Munden and Olympic athletes; even with years of entire days dedicated to you will plateau and with age and injury, backslide. That's no like discipline, let alone the adventurer who doesn't always have time to train and sometimes has stresses like skiping meals or sleep, and getting injured.
I thought PDM had finally gone too far, even for me. But nope. 2 minutes out I've got my DM notebook out and I'm writing this down.
Also, I just want to say (again) how much I love the D&D nerds who flip out about anyone playing D&D with house rules. Their tears feed my soul.
" Now, now, please no more tears for the moment. It is such a wast. You should save them later for true sweet suffering."
Over 20 years of play, I found D&D or any RPG nerds just hide behind the rules so they can put and keep down other players that are " outside " of their main playing group.
@@krispalermo8133 Yeah I have had this experience as well. Some players like the hobby to be exclusive. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for everyone else, it's not an exclusive hobby
@@Billchu13 I had a lot of problems dealing with " exclusive " players. A lot of them 20 years ago before AD&D2e switch to 3e. I love 3.5e for the math and multi-class ability.
AD&D core books state, " If you don't like a rule, don't use it."
After that, I am a Power Gamer Rule Lawyer.
If it is a FUN ideal, I want to see if I can make it work.
Like a new player that is nine years old, asking if they could play a gnome spell caster and have a copper dragon mount. The owner of the game shop look at me, and told me to get it done.
D&D is meant as classic folk story telling with dice rolls to influence the out come off the story.
Didn't your grandpa ever tell you stories about fairies and giants when were a five year old.?
Funny that snowflake murder hobo tell people they can't play dragons cause it is childish.
Basically Minions from 4th ed. Funny how that edition keeps cropping up when fellas try adding new engaging mechanics to their games.
4th edition to 5th edition is the posterchild for baby-with-the-bathwater
Because that's what that edition did.
the only problem with 4e is that it was called D&D, if it had been given a new name, I guarantee it would still be around and folks would love it
It makes a better battlefield or warfare game than a traditional adventure game like D&D is normally seen as
@@Oboro86 Honestly, I don't understand all the dislike of 4th edition at all. I started with AD&D, played through 3rd and 3.5 and welcomed the fresh breeze that 4th edition provided, after the complexity and imbalance of 3rd edition had driven me and my players away from the hobby, seemingly for good. I'm still playing 4th, with some houserules borrowed from 5th edition. And it's still massive fun. The good thing about 4th edition adventures, for instance, was that almost every single encounter was mapped out using templates that could be built with the official D&D Dungeon Tiles, and prepared ready-to-play in the adventure book, especially useful if one was intending to use miniatures (as I happen to love). And for those who did not like collecting miniatures, one simple token box such as the Monster Vault was enough to have plenty of play chips to represent monsters, npcs and heroes on a grid. It was very player- and DM-friendly in its own way.
This video made me feel like boomerang. You were losing me but once you explained it, it made sense and fun, I was back. Definitely going to try it next time I run a game
A combination of lowered HP for Players and Monsters who have 1 or 2 Hits (instead of HP) is exactly the system used by the D&D Board Games.
Cool--and to think I just buy those games for the minis. I should have been reading the rules instead of tossing them out!
...also ICRPG, where pcs have 1 or 2 hearts worth of HP, and each heart is worth 10 HP
I honestly feel like when combining all of these ideas and rules together we get what amounts to a brand new system. Not a bad thing, mind you, just an observation.
Interesting take, thanks!
I think a game that has STR,INT,WIS,DEX,CON,CHA/AC/HP is D&D. Check out the video "The Rules I Use." Thanks for taking the time to comment!
As always, your videos are well made, straight to the point and educational. Thanks Professor DM, I'm gonna start trying this.
I incorporated some of these elements into the homebrew system I wrote years back. The bulk of the combatant enemies are "mooks" that take 1, 2, or 3 hits to knock out (or kill if you're a murder-hobo). For major-mooks (bigger enemies) they used the same wound system that the players used. Flesh wounds go first, then serious wounds, then you're dead. You could trade-out serious wounds for negative effects to avoid death. So, rather than taking your last serious wound, you could choose to have your arm mangled instead. You lived, but you had to deal with a penalty for a time. Wounds kill, injuries make you suffer. Combat was super fast in my system.
Brilliant video, as always. My closest friends and I who DM for our collective do this and have often discussed it, but have never seen anyone else explain it so effectively. My hat's off, professor. Nat 20 rolls on Wis, Int, and Cha.
Thanks!
Really wasnt into this until you said dont use it for pcs and the main villians. Also... when you said lie to your players - im sold..always a good idea
LOL. They can't handle the truth!
They way I see it--the entire game is a lie! Certainly DMs can lie about arithmetic. Cheers!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 your attitude about streamlining and making everything faster is the best change ppl can make for table top gaming. More roleplaying more dice rolling more story more killing. Less math and reading.!
Update: It worked out VERY well!
I think too often I want those bandits to be a lot harder, but having my party just roll over them was just as exciting. Each thug took 2 hits (unless they did only 2 damage. I counted that as a half hit), and the battles went much faster!
I really like this now!
"The more combat can drag on."
I find that more amusing than I should.
In retrospect I might change that phrase. I love combat. I'm just done with it after 25 minutes.
I am glued to your videos since I discovered them. Honestly videos like this one blow my mind. Its so obvious so why did it take me 40 years to learn this information? For shame :(. This and the no initiative system are a must if you're bored with doing paper work and want to play a fast paced action adventure. Professor Dungeon Master you're a genius.
Great point about keeping the cinematic focus on the game. You really should write a book on these ideas. I think it would do really well!
I will be using this in my next game. I’ve been slowly preparing my players for the idea of a hit point cap. They are not completely on board yet but are willing to give it a shot. I too remember the good old days of 1d4 HD Thieves and M-U’s... as always great video and thank you for sharing. Looking forward to more. Thursday’s are one of my favorite days because of Dungeon Craft. Thanks again
awesome video! I've been applying all your DM tips for everything and it all works so well for my group. especially your video on how you seed up combat. great content as always. keep it up. Many thanks.
I actually love this idea. Quick and simple. Great tip.
Dude!! This is genius!!!!!!!!!!!! I can’t believe I never considered this. Thank you so much. In one video you became one of my favorite posters on UA-cam
The improvement in quality and delivery is clear and amazing. Congrats on one more amazing video.
I'm waiting for dungeon craft...the book! I truly enjoy the video's. Ty.
Icrpg does this mechanic
You'll be waiting a long, LONG time. I'd never say never, though.
Dungeon craft book?
Uh, hell yea!
Of not a book....... maybe a podcast?
D&D 4e did this with minions. Anything labeled a "minion" dies in one hit no matter what, and you could call anything a minion. Another game (forgot the name of it) had NPCs that they labeled "mooks", which also went down with one hit
13th Age uses "books." Both systems have the right idea.
Even World of Darkness had reduced health levels for henchmen and other minion types.
This is why I use Minions in my 5e games. This is a rule from 4th Edition that I really enjoyed that they unfortunately left to rot in 4th. The concept is, any throw away mobs die in one hit. And I have Elites that take two hits. The boss or leader I keep normal.
That was the best part of 4th edition!
I agree, I had stolen some henchman rules from another game before I played 4th but seeing it in DnD was a pleasure.
I like the reference to the classic 1981 Dragonslayer, and the idea of counting hits rather than hit points is one that I have adopted for my games. Thanks!
Dragonslayer looks incredible. Very dark and I don't like the ending, but the dragon is better than any CGI crap.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 100% agreed!
I will have to give this a try I like the concept and look forward to testing it out. Thanks for sharing.
I've just tried this approach with my players. It is really fast and very dynamic. Thank you a lot for the idea!
We started using the "Hit Method" in our D&D group a few weeks ago. Combat is SOOOOO much faster!!! Thank You!!
Started using this a while back...not on anyone's suggestion, but out of pure laziness and desire for battles to seem more action focused. I actually switch between counting hit points and counting hits...hitting DCs and lying to PCs about Target numbers, simply to keep the ball rolling. Players feel like superheroes, but also feel like they narrowly avoided a character death...sometimes it seems so damn tense and even difficult, but really, the PC was destined to be victorious... it is all about how the game feels. Great presentation here.
Dude. You are a genius. Going to use this for my current campaign. Thank you good sir
Very helpful, I love the thought and time put into developing the idea. Thanks for a great video!!
This is a classic discussion and argument. Hit points represent fighting prowess not every blow is a piercing sword blow. The concept is the opponent slips the blow at the last second but they tire and get small wounds that make them a little slower etc. the last few hit points are the actual structural damage. Of course I applaud DMs running the game the way they want so go for broke Professor!
The problem witg treating it that way is that you eventually end up with a Kung Fu movie in which nobody can touch the one guy (or often slight woman) who wades through a horde of enemies who have arguably have some experience. In real life, even Musashi who trained his whole life would only risk fighting one -maybe 2 at a time (though many over the course of the same encounter). "Two dogs can kill a lion," and all that.
I’m definitely using this in my games from now on. Funny enough a lot of the problems I’ve been having as a DM, you end up have the right video for.
Cool! Please don't hesitate to suggest video topics. I will make them (it just may take time--DC is scheduled out 8 weeks ahead of time.)
Professor DC, this is a great idea. I have seen it used for minions. A minion just needs one hit to be killed. This allows each player to feel like they are part of an epic battle. When they meet the big boss, they play it out hp by hp. I like how you keep it in the background. The players need to see their own hp going down to increase the drama. They will soon realize they need some healing or retreat to fight another day.
Merry Christmas!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Yes, Merry Christmas Professor!
I’m interested to hear this... I’ve had many ideas on how to do this going back to my simple days of even playing hero quest. A hits a hit!! You sir also have a hit with your channel wish you could do more than once a week!
I used to have hero quest as a kid and stupidly sold it at a garage sale a few years later. Now it goes for hundreds on eBay.
J.Sanime that’s unfortunate I have mine still and the expansions .... and wouldn’t dream of selling because it’s amazing!!!!
Thanks for this video. I really like this idea, I have a group of 7 kids under the age of 12 and they are so OP’d now even combat takes forever. Our games go for about 5-7hours a session. We started adding more and more players and to make them feel like they contribute I put their XP very close to the more experienced players and now a round of combat takes like 12min per round. I’ll try this out at my next game. Thanks!
Interestingly, when I run campaigns, I didn't know if anyone else did this. Often, when my party is facing multiple lesser enemies, I would use the exact method you described. Being very adept and quick with mathematical computations in my head (a necessary function for my regular job, and just being a math nerd overall), this method came to me as I was just utilizing ratio and percentage functions. You absolutely correct, this does reduce interruptions in combat encounters. Another thing I do with some critical damage situations is to use percentage of full health rather than just rolling dice and multiplying the result; it's quicker to indicate that the PC just suffered a 25% HP loss and reduced movement speed (or whatever other malady) from a critical hit than to compute die rolls from the same.
YES! That's what Tracy Hickman does--use percentages. Check out XDM 2nd Ed.
I've ignored HP since my second DM session, I've always let them believe their attacks do more or less by flavoring their hit based off of damage. I've never looked at it from a pure hit perspective like you said, I just use the moments to base what the end will be. I do like this idea of hit tracking though.
This is great! I have been using addition instead of subtraction for a while. This will be just faster again!
This is sound advice and I may well use it on my next session! The last point was important - I was just wondering how my players would react to this when you addressed my worries.
-No Hit Points? THIS IS MADNESS!!!
No... this is Dungeon Craft!!!
-Give them nothing and take from the EVERYTHING!!! :ppp
That episode's title brought to my mind those two lines from the movie 300
Keep up the good work Professor!!
Love the 300 allusion. And allusion in general!
1:57 "How do you want your game to feel?" So glad you said that -- D&D, like any art, should create an emotional effect that transmits a message -- hopefully a positive one, not a selfish of fascist one. This is a critical question that too many DMs do not ask themselves. I am 100% on-board with the "feel heroic" (as opposed to murder hoboism, including selfish looting of treasure and other criminal PC behavior). I remember what it felt like when in early 1982, I went through the original "Tomb of Horrors" module. I felt a sense of wonder, awe, and fear. The reason i felt that is because I was in a strange environment trying to solve terrifying problems that kept emerging. I think when you add these elements and, it can create an effect that makes the players actually feel something, maybe even feel heroic if they are experiencing them while their PCs are in the act of service to others (which is what heroes do). Heroicism requires both a motive to serve and the ability to do so while overcoming peril.
This info made a huge difference in the games I run, I will never go back. Thank you!
Preach Professor! I've been doing it this way for a few years now and my players don't even realize it. So much faster and easier.
Very solid premise that keeps the game moving. Well done.
Yeah I agree with this guy. I like to think of RPGs back when we were playing Link/Zelda where you have hearts, and how when you got another heart, it didn't mean you could get lazy, but it made you feel more powerful and you could take on bigger challenges and risks. And you knew how many hits that you could take.
In games nowadays, you don't know how to feel about what your chances are against a foe because the numbers are so abstracted from how you could think how many more hits you can take.
And in the games that I play, even with health bars, a hit could take away your entire healthbar, or more than half your healthbar, or barely dent your healthbar.
But in zelda/link you learned how many hearts an attack can deal to you, and you can visualize it.
Check out Index Card RPG. It has monster HP in hearts. Each heart equals 10hp.
Professor, thank you for opening my eyes. I wondered for a long time what was wrong with this system before it ended up here on your channel. I have been campaigning for several years. Heroes with 5 or even 7 attacks have become the torment of this game. Ultimately, I said I didn't want to continue this. Now I know everything. Thanks.
I came in skeptical with an open mind..... and I left a buyer! You are a goldmine sir!
Love it! Honestly, it feels like this is a great role for CR (minimum one) then a goblin - 1hit and so.
Art of the Genre does this with swarms of goblins and such. 1 hit 1 death.
Love it! I already do that (depending on the game). Glad I'm not the only one
I run Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars RPG and I found your video and advice COMPELLING and applicable to the FFG Star Wars game. I think your advice is good - you always want to make the game ABOUT the players and as CINEMATIC as possible. Excellent! Thanks for sharing this wisdom!!! :)
I love the idea and I'm looking forward to seeing how you handle it. I've found that counting up from zero rather than down from the maximum can help because adding is easier than subtracting. I'd like to move to a system of rounding damage to the nearest multiple of 5 or 10 and using hash marks to track damage, but I haven't gotten there yet. I find that changes need to be introduced incrementally to give both players and the GM a chance to get used to them.
It's a little like that. Only 6 more hours!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 The suspense is figuratively killing me.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 Inspired by your video, I tried the following method in my last D&D session: for each player's damage total, I immediately round up to the near increment of 5 HP and track the damage dealt by marking down an X for each increment of 10HP and a / or \ for each increment of 5 HP, combining two slashes to form an X when I can. Then, when I need to tally the damage received I simply count up the Xes. Players like hearing that their damage is being rounded up and I don't overload my brain with simple math while simultaneously trying to extemporize exciting narration. It's not exactly what you describe, but seems to hew pretty close to the spirit of your idea while also being usable for major villains without the players feeling like their success is coming down to DM fiat.
@@JaredHayter That's such a good idea I would have stolen it. Bravo, sir!
Another good video Professor! And well timed I might add. I was just considering a similar set of rules for my home game. The idea I had was to just allow monsters to absorb a number of hits equal to their hit dice.
Not a bad idea!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 This is what the Scarlet Heroes system does, if you've ever looked into it. It allows a single PC to be the equivalent of 4, mostly by taking monster HD as HP! (And also giving an extra attack and reducing incoming damage by 4)
I like your alliteration of d&d vs algebra.
Thanks, Adam!
Lol everyone gotta hate on THAC0.
All any game RP game is is math. Unfortunately that is why we have the term META in games. Heck, Dungeon Craft was using it the whole video.
This is all stuff I used to do in high school when I would run games. I always felt like I was a cheatin' cheap DM (though my players and friends always enjoyed the game). Rules lawyers would ultimately beat me down and tell me I was ruining the experience... For them.
It's nice to find a channel and a DM that subscribes and promotes ideas that I thought were heresy (and they are, in a very good way). I look forward to more!
I agree!! Great idea!!!
It'll ceertainly make it easier to teach newbies too!
Great video!! one thing i remember of 4e are the "Minion monsters" all has 1hp and were designed yo the cinematic feel of run to the hoard and kill them all!
Yes. That was THE best thing about 4E.
Only tracking hits is how it is done in "Old School Hack", which is my favourite D&D variant.
Heros have 5 hits and that is all they get, ever. Fighters have an upgrade "Scars as armour" to increase this to 7 hits.
Monsters fall into categories of toughness.
1 hit Minions and vermin.
2 hit Guards and creatures.
5-10 hit Bad guys, monsters and evil villains.
11-15 hit Freaky big monsters.
Weapons do 1 hit, heavy weapons do 2 and a critical hit does +1 hit.
Unfortunately, Old School Hack has been abandoned since it was first published in 2011.
I have to check it out. Sound cool!
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 www.oldschoolhack.net
I've actually been doing this for the past 3 years it's much easier and it lets you direct the flow of combat and story. 5th edition has been streamlined to help cut down combat time and this helps even more
Cool!
Excellent article. Honestly I think I would need to practice this consept befor dm-ing it.
New video on a similar subject tomorrow. Don't miss it!
Very interested, looking to forward to hearing about the innovation
Looking forward to you looking forward to it!
I like the concept it's really good. I've done this many times. Rounding the damage around to help make things good n fun
I like your core concept: namely, reduce the amount of stuff that isn't focused on the PCs. _However_ I feel this method may remove much of the challenge. Here's my reasoning. Every action the players perform needs to be noticeably impactful. That goes right along with your philosophy. Now consider buffs:
I'll be giving a 3.5 example just since that's what I'm most familiar with. Your party is facing a moderately tough encounter. So things take multiple "hits". The party bard gives a battle cry, and Inspires Courage. Depending on the level, this is giving +1,2,3,4,5 to hit and damage. It's definitely impactful. But to have it be impactful in the "hit" system... it has to add a full hit! That's doubling the player's damage output. That's far more than buffs normally do. And any damage buff would have the same inflated effect.
It also has the effect of either buffing everybody to the damage output of a DPS, or nerfing the DPS. While a orc sergeant might be 3 hits for the fighter, he might be 5 hits for the healer.
I have no issue with the "1 shot 1 kill" method for weenie encounters. But trying to scale that up while maintaining challenge seems tough.
I watch Dungeoncraft, the good one with Professor Dungeon Master!
Really excellent! I already adopted this system from watching your earlier videos and I think it has worked out great! The problem I faced was that my players, poor short sighted fools that they can be at times, felt cheated because their good rolls felt pointless as goblins and bandits were going down too easily. It wasn’t until they faced something more challenging, where they didn’t just trivially remove it, and where they were very much threatened, that I think they got it.
Simple and luminous. And beautiful.
Fantastic video, and greetings from Italy! When i'll DM d&d or Pathfinder, i'll use this method!
This "Hits" system it's very similar to Savage Worlds's: PC and Main Antagonist can be Shaken (stunned, surprise, etc.) and sustain 3 wounds before getting Out of Combat. Non-Important npc's and enemies have only 1 Wound, so that's means: Healthy > Shaken (or directly OOC) > Out of combat.
Combined with class-less characters and the "no need" to balance 70% of encounters, it makes Savage Worlds my main system!
I actually just got Savage Worlds. The lead designer is a fan of this channel. Thanks for watching!
Love this video from Professor dungeon master. I use similar alternate rules because it realy accelerate combat. Nobody at my table love combat that drag for hours. I just know hardcore strategist like having combats for hours.
Yes I am planning to use this in doses for my kids. I'm revamping the whole game to suit a little faster and player oriented game. They just want to sort out whether this action figure hit that action figure and whether he got knocked down. This really helps!
Alot of things you talk about I disagree with but this one I have used for a long time and completely agree with
That makes so much sense. Thank you for this!
Kevin Crawford did something like this for the heroic rules of his OSR games - instead of having hit points, you'd simply treat the number of hit dice the enemy had as the number of times they could be hit before they died.
This is the concept behind my homebrew system where characters have 3-5 HP and most all hits do 1 damage.
Nice. In my home-brew they start with 7 hp and most hits do 3 damage. Note the odd numbers.
Heresy! Such arrogance! Harrumph! (Actually, yet another great idea! Keep up the good fight, Professor!)
Will do!
I always find it funny when D&D players stumble upon an innovation that countless other games have been doing for decades like it’s an amazing revelation.
Great advice as always! This has always been a bugbear (lol) for me! I started to just use a similar system in battles I didn't want to keep adding and tracking single digit hits and off number counting. Thanks again for me awesome help! PDM
Thanks, Jim. I'll have 3 more videos in the next 2 weeks. Tune in!
I used a system like this 2 weeks ago, it worked great because the players rolled very poorly. The War Band they were fighting was comprised of 6 orcs, 5 with 1 hp and the captain with 6. The combat still took longer than I had hoped due to bad rolls. As you suggested they rolled for hits and damage, they didn't need to know that a hit would be a kill. Everyone had fun and what could have been an hour of combat was over in 15 minutes.
On the Facebook page, I thought "blasphemy", but hearing this out loud and seeing how it's done; I'm sold. I absolutely love it. This Saturday's game is going to be much easier on me.
I love this idea! I'm going a step further and using the player's to-hit bonus to subtract from the total number of hits needed instead of giving them a better chance to hit thus making them heroier heroes! I will make it so that the total hits needed cannot go lower than 1 though. I don't want to encourage "that guy" who decides that his seductress really has looks that kill.
Anywho. THANK YOU for once again improving my game!
0:19 Wearing his +1 Vest of Protection! Hell yeah!
You could do it this way, or you could switch to Modiphius' Conan 2d20 system which basically does it this way. Fun as hell too.
I have been doing this for years, over a decade now, and only very, very rarely seen or heard of anyone else doing this. Nice to see I'n not the only one out there.
You are so on target it is amazing. I find the whole fear to have real death as a possibility in the game is killing the real fun.
Holy shit! As a newbie dnd DM who also hates maths (I know, wth am I doing being a DM then lol ?!) your hit point system is hella convincing!
Especially since it's only applicable to low and mid-tier enemies, excluding heroes and high-tier/legendary enemies!
You've convinced a future dnd DM!
Stay tuned. I just remade this video. It will air sometime next month.
@@DUNGEONCRAFT1 you've earned a sub!
This reminds me of how Minions worked in 4th edition. I really like the idea that most monsters are just one solid hit from death.
Interesting, you always seem to being up great points for conversation 😎🤘
My players keep track of their individual hit points because "muh rulezbook". But instead of keeping track of hit points for my monsters/villains, I just set a number for how many times players successfully hit them before they go down. Goblins=1 Orcs/Bandits=2 Dragons=12. Dividing the Monster Manual Hit Points by 7 is a good rule of thumb for simple hit tracking. The players still roll damage with their attack rolls because it makes them feel good and gives intensity to the narrative, but I'm not wasting anytime calculating remaining hit points on monsters.
that's very interesting, what abt like really good weapons or spells? like why should a character buy a nice new weapon with extra dmg when their crap sword does the same thing? or is it all for the feel of it?
That was excellent! Focus the game on the players by abstracting away the number-crunching for the hit points of the NPCs. Think of your role-playing game as a play or a movie. Great video, Professor! Thanks very much. You really should codify your ideas into a book. Not a set of rules per se but a set of useful guidelines. I would buy that in a heartbeat!
Been doing this, it works like a charm. The players faces light up when they take minions down. Agreed to keep counting on the part of the players and the big bad.
I tested out Amber diceless rules on my game (I asked you about it last week). The game worked out smoothly except for one player getting taken down, even with a lot of foreshadowing and pc making a foolish move. They dont seem to mind if theyre succeeding 95/100. I guess thats where the dice comes in.
I was absolutely against this as you were talking.... right up until the point where you said "Don't do this with your major battles, and especially not with your players". Now it sounds like a pretty darn good idea. Great video!
Man. I want to play in one of your games! I bet it feels crazy epic
This is fairly close to wounds in Savage Worlds: you got a toughness that you have to exceed to wound a character; you exceed by a certain amount and you gain additional wounds. Named characters (pc's, bosses, major threats) have 3, mooks only have 1 wound before they bite it. Damage under toughness is ignored as a graze or scratch.
I was thinking the same thing. Though the one time I tried SW for a fantasy setting, it didn't quite feel right. I feel like HP actually work well ONLY for Fantasy because they let you survive those big, ridiculous hits that make NO SENSE to survive... like in Fantasy settings
@@tsmcgu I think the Bennie and magic healing gives you that high fantasy feel in SW; it just does not feel like d&d because of the swingy dice and dramatic ups and downs.
D&D is its own fantasy sub genre where it is a reasonable thought to go toe to toe with a 12 ton giant or a frontal assault on a dragon is tactically valid. That is quite rare in most of the fantasy genre, by in large.
Generally, not all fantasy stories are high action with Die Hard levels of plot armor; ie Lord of the Rings has Frodo almost die from the first wound he receives from essentially a poisoned blade and he has to be carried the rest of the way to get healing. They also run from giants and do not even think of fighting the dragon when they find out he still is there.