Breaking Down D&D - Hit Points in 5e/5.5e, OSE/OSR, Pathfinder, and other TTRPGs

Understanding Hit Points and How to Use Them to Enhance Your Role Playing

by Chris@Dragon Sol

Note: while the title calls out D&D and some of the specific mechanics are 5e centric, this article and the concepts presented in it generally applies to any 5e/5.5e variant, Old School Renaissance/Revival (OSE/OSR)variant, Pathfinder/Starfinder, or other Tabletop Role-playing Game (TTRPG) that uses hit points.

Hit Points, in Tabletop RPGs like 5e and PF2e, are used to mark when your character dies.  There are a lot of explanations that state they are a measure of the character’s life, vitality, resilience, etc.  But they aren’t.  Not exactly.  As a measure of “life” then the loss of hit points would hamper a character’s abilities.  But in most TTRPGs like 5e a character with 1 hit point, or HP, is just as effective as a character with 100.  So hit points are a measure of “survivability”.  And that is a good thing, as long as you use hit points that way.

Hit Points are really a character’s resource they expend to block, dodge, or otherwise absorb a successful hit without taking physical damage.  If your character took physical damage on each successful hit then they’d be a walking collection of injuries and would find it more difficult to actually fight.

While many video games use hit points, not many use them in the way D&D 5e does.  Typically, as you lose hit points you lose life and your character’s abilities are reduced.  You slow down, vision is obscured, accuracy is reduced, etc.  But there are some modern video game examples that we can use to illustrate the 5e version of Hit Points.

The Uncharted franchise is the chief among them.  In Uncharted Nathan Drake seems like he can be repeatedly shot without dying and that he only needs a quick breather to shrug off the bullet wounds.  But in actuality the life bar in Uncharted represents Drake’s “luck”.  None of those attacks are actually hitting him until the last one.  But they are chipping away at his luck or aura or what have you.

Similarly in Cyberpunk the character can get hundreds of hit points, but a couple hacks by a blade will still take you down.  No matter how strong you are, a blade or a bullet always has the potential to be lethal.

Hit Points in TTRPGs like 5e are kind of like that.  They represent your character’s ability to survive combat.  A novice boxer can be knocked out with a quick punch, but a veteran knows how to take a punch and can usually take many before it affects them.  So your character isn’t exactly taking “damage” when they lose hit points.  At least not in the beginning.

If we go back to older editions of 5e and adopt the “bloody” condition we can see how this occurs as hit points are lost.  A character or creature is described as “bloody” when they lose half or more of their hit points.  You can imagine that during a fight a character takes many hits, but none of them cause any physical damage for a while.  Instead they chip away at the combatant’s “combat ability”, causing them to lose endurance or vitality or luck or favor or aura or whatever you want to flavor it as.  It’s not until they drop below half of their HP that the first drop of blood is drawn.

This actually is very similar to fencing duals in the past where the winner would be the one to draw first blood.  And once your character is bloodied, then things start to get real with the risk of death rising as your combat ability begins to falter.  

Even though bloodied, your character or the creature is still just as effective as they were at full hit points.  It's when hit points are reduced to 10% that the risk of death is ever present and it is also at this point that you can consider the wounds taken from a hit to be more than superficial.  And then once an attack reduces the character to 0 hit points they fall unconscious and begin the death save.

We can see all of this illustrated beautifully in the Princess Bride, in the duel between Inigo Montoya and Count Rugen, the six-fingered man.  As they start their fight they look like they are failing to hit each other.  But they are successful hits that are reducing each character’s hit points, but no one is bloodied.  Of course Count Rugen then manages a sneak attack and mortally wounds Inigo.  Inigo is about to die when he uses his Second Wind to regain hit points and is returned to his combat effectiveness.  Now he goes on the attack and bloodies Count Rugen with two swipes on his cheeks.  He then deals a mortal blow by running him through with his rapier.  

Sidebar: Bloodied & Wounded Conditions

The Bloodied condition is a condition from 4e that represents a character or creature having half or less of their maximum hit points.  This condition didn’t really have any other mechanical effect, but it could interact with or instigate other mechanics.  It was mainly a way to describe the state of the character/creature.  In this way it is still a popular condition used by many 5e tables with the GM describing the hit as drawing blood.  This gives the players an idea of their opponent’s stats in a way that the character’s would be able to observe.

Many third-party and homebrew creatures also use the bloodied condition to indicate a change in creature abilities or tactics.  A creature may attempt to retreat or get an automatic recharge or change in some other way once they realize they may be in mortal danger.

The Wounded condition is another homebrew condition that has a fair amount of popularity.  There are many implementations of this, but the basic idea is that most combat does not cause a wound, but in some cases it does occur, wounds being something that affects combat ability, sometimes permanently.  While playing with wounds is a table by table decision, it is strongly suggested that the Wounded condition be used sparingly with only a select number of weapons or abilities that can cause a wound or it is limited to when hit points are reduced to 10% or less.  In this case it represents a character’s/creature’s brush with death.

Calculating and Gaining Hit Points

In 5e hit points are calculated based on the Hit Die of the character class and the character's Constitution modifier and then any other modifier that might be relevant.  At first level it is the maximum number on the hit die plus the Constitution modifier.  Note: a negative Constitution modifier is subtracted (or the negative is added) to the hit die number to determine hit points, but it can never reduce it below 1.  Every time a character increases a level they gain hit points based on the hit die for the class they increased in level (which may change if multiclassing).  You can roll the hit die to determine the number of hit points, or take the die average, or roll and take the higher of the roll or the die average, all depending on the GM and your table preferences.

Hit Dice

A hit die is a die, typically a d4, d6, d8, or d10, that represents the character class’s survivability.  The tougher the class the larger the die.  

Hit Dice are used in two ways.  The first is to calculate max hit points when leveling up.  The second is to recover hit points, but more on that later.

Max Vs. Current vs. Temporary

There are three terms used with hit points: Maximum, Current, and Temporary.

Maximum

Maximum Hit Points is the most hit points you can have (without the use of Temporary hit points).  This is what is calculated during character creation or when leveling up.  There are a few spells or occasions that may lower or raise the Max hit point threshold, but those will be explained in the effect or by the GM.

Current

Current Hit Points is how many hit points your character currently has.  This is probably the most crucial element a player must track.  It is also the number that changes the most often.  And because of this it is also the biggest reason for needing a new character sheet as you rub a hole in your paper erasing through it time and time again.  If you play with a paper character sheet then it is suggested you invest in some erasable labels (like Avery 5429 labels).

Temporary

Temporary Hit Points are a special class of hit points.  Some abilities, spells, or affects grant a hit point bonus to the character.  Like the name implies, these are temporary and are lost after a long rest.  Temporary hit points are the first hit points lost when damage is taken.  They also do not stack.  If your character has more than one effect granting temporary hit points they can only use one.  You can replace your current temporary hit points with a new set if the new set has more though.

Healing and Restoring Hit Points

Healing and restoring hit points occur in three main ways: hit die, magic healing, and resting.

Hit Dice

A character has one hit die (based on the character class) for each level in that class.  During a short rest they can use the hit die (up to the maximum number they have) to recover hit points.  They roll the die (or take the average) and add their Constitution modifier, thereby restoring that number of hit points to their current HP.

Using hit dice is the primary hit points recovery method during the adventuring day.  It is available to everyone during a short rest.  A number of hit dice (up to your maximum available) are rolled with your character’s Constitution modifier added for each hit die rolled.  That total number of hit points are recovered.

Note: if someone proficient in cooking makes something to eat then those that consume it can regain 1 additional hit point per hit die used during a short rest.

You can think of it as catching your breath.  In that regard you are restoring your “combat ability” like stamina and vigor.  You are not actually healing broken bones and stab wounds.  Though minor cuts will seal up and other bleeding will stop.  A good table rule that supports this interpretation of hit points and hit dice recovery is to mandate that hit dice must be used to recover hit points to a minimum of ¾ of a character’s maximum HP during any short rest (as long as hit dice are available).

Magic

Magical healing is the second way to recover hit points during an adventuring day and, except for a few abilities that allow hit dice to be used in this way, how hit points are recovered during combat.  Magical healing is caused by spells, spell-like abilities, magic items, and healing potions.  Healing spells, abilities, and magic items all describe how and when the healing occurs and what the end effect is.  Healing potions are a little different.

Healing potions are not the normal magic potion.  They are given a special categorization within 5e because they are by far the most used potion.  This is seen in their price and their crafting specifications (basically being half that of any other potion).  Many tables don’t even consider healing potions (at least lower level ones) to be magic.  They are more herbal remedies and apothecaric tinctures and salves.  In the 5e interpretation of hit points, healing potions are similar to a couple of aspirin, pain-relieving ointment, or even a bottle of gatorade.  In other words, anything that helps you quickly recover your combat ability.

Note: Some magic, like restoration magic, heals more than hit points.  It can heal disease and injury as well as regrow limbs and end conditions (like blindness).  

Resting

Short rests do not restore hit points outside the use of hit dice.  However, uninterrupted long rests restore characters to their maximum hit points and half of their total Hit Dice.  This causes some confusion and argument when you think of the loss of hit points as injury.  Somehow sleeping 8 hours magically heals all cuts and bruises?  Well…no.  But as we’ve said, that’s not what hit points represent.  If you use the wounded condition, then recovering from a wound usually takes a number of long rests to complete.  But recovering your hit points is done in just one.  Provided it is uninterrupted.

If your long rest gets interrupted, say by a random encounter, then you get nothing.  You must start the long rest again.  If this seems harsh to your table then consider the option of regaining half your hit point (and spell slots and abilities) for the first half of the rest and half for the second.  That way if you get interrupted you have half your resources back.  Of course, to get them all back you would still need 8 hours uninterrupted.

Nonlethal Damage

You always have the option to hit and cause “non-lethal” damage.  As the name implies, this damage does not kill, but instead simply renders the target unconscious.  This is typically a player character to creature attack.  Since creatures typically do not get death saving throws, reducing them to 0 hit points kills them out right.  With nonlethal damage hit points are tracked exactly the same way except when the creature is reduced to 0 they are knocked out instead of killed.  In fact you can use lethal damage all you want until the last blow and then knock them out with nonlethal damage.

If a player character is attacked with nonlethal damage then it is the intent of the GM to render the characters unconscious for some narrative purpose.  In this case a death save is not usually allowed, and the players should trust the GM and not gripe about it.

Role playing with Hit Points

Now that we understand what 5e and other TTRPGs actually mean by a “hit point”, how can we use that number to inform our role playing?  

The first thing you can use hit points for is to determine the relative strength between anything else with hit points.  If you are able to determine a foe’s hit points, either before combat or by determining when it gets “bloodied”, then you will have an idea of their combat ability and be able to compare that to yours.  This is a good data point for your strategy and knowing if you should retreat or not.

Another thing hit points are useful for is determining a combatants attitude in a fight.  Most creatures with an ounce of self preservation will engage in a fight as long as they think they have the upper hand.  And the upper hand is not being bloodied.  If they bloody their opponent first they might keep the attack on even when they get bloodied.  But if they are bloodied first they might be thinking about retreating.  And if they get close to death then running away is much more likely.  Of course there are many factors that can affect this attitude, but the percentage of hit points left is the primary gate check to continuing to fight or running away.  Especially as they compare to the opponent.

In fact, a GM can use that percentage as a simple morale system.  If you roll percentile dice above the percentage of remaining hit points, or just the number of remaining HP, then their morale breaks and they want to run.

As a player you can use hit points in a similar manner.  When you are still above 50% then your attitude towards the fight is easy.  Once bloodied you start taking it more seriously.  The closer you get to 10% the more desperate the fight.  And if you fall below 10%, into the mortal danger range, then perhaps it is time to live to fight another day.

Hit Points: Wrap Up

Hit points are simply a way to determine how far away from death your character is and can be used to determine their attitude towards an encounter and inform some of their actions.  Are they going to be offensively minded or defensive?  Are they worried about their opponent outclassing them or do they have things well in hand?  And most importantly, are they going to be able to survive long enough to get a good eight hours of sack time for a new day of adventuring.

Next → Player Character Abilities: What are Abilities, How to use Ability Scores, and Other Abilities not Covered in the Core Rules