D100 Hit Points

D100 - Tackling the problem of hit points

D20 Theory and Problem

The hit points in D20 represent many things: constitution, endurance, experience, luck and skill. It is not really that high level character can take more damage then a low level character. It is more accurate to say that the high level character is able to lessen the effect of damage through their skill and experience. D20 models this by increasing the hit points with each class level. The system works but is not perfect. There are two problems I endeavor to solve and best summed up with quotes below.

No Diminished Capacity Until Unconscious

“So I have 50 hit points, and I keep taking damage in melee. But there are no adjustments to my skills until I reach zero, where in I collapse and can’t use any of my skills.”

Tends Break Down Outside Normal Melee

“If I shoot an arrow into my enemies head, he is dead weather he is level 1 or level 10, but in this game my enemy could be buck naked, 10^th level and take shots from my bow all day.”

D100 Solution to Hit Points

Rather then tackle these problems separately we dealt with them simultaneously by borrowing some from the Top Secret S.I. model for damage by zone. A character’s body is divided into 10 zones. Each zone has the same number of points. The number of points per zone is based on the character’s constitution.

D100 Zone Chart

Diminished Capacity Solved

Should a player loose all the points in any of 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and/or 9; that part of the body becomes unusable for an action. Without an arm or hand, a bow can not be plucked. With out a leg, the character can not run or even stand easily. Without a hand or arm the sword can not be wielded etc.

Break Down outside Normal Melee Solved

A character’s capacity for damage per zone never increases, regardless of skill level. A character that has lost all the points in zones 0, 1, 2 and/or 3 is effectively killed. The character’s skills, armor and luck will help the character avoid damage but the amount of damage the body can absorb does not change.

In Conclusion

In future posts I will explain the impacts of skills and armor on damage avoidance. The points per zone concept has gone through many iterations in play testing, some better models became overly cumbersome for players. This concept is a fair balance between playability and realism.

D100