A DETAILED LOOK AT HIT POINTS
Some Examples And Numbers Behind The Scenes

Hit Dice and Hit Points in the AD&D system are often misunderstood. As they are a bit abstract, this is not surprising. Few have trouble envisioning various skill-rolls in other systems. Particularly, skills like dodge or parry. Nor do they have difficulty seeing how a weapon might bounce off armor should it fail to do at least a certain amount of damage. And though they surprisingly can grasp so many hit points for a limb (or other hit location), they can't as easily grasp having so many hit points for the entire system (the body and no hit locations) without problems. But the AD&D combat system took a more abstract approach in order to simplify combat. This does not mean they tossed away realism, but only that in may be harder to see or understand.

Many players may often wish to know exactly what is going on in the name of realism, and this is not always apparent in such an abstraction. To that end, I have tried in various articles to explain what may be transpiring on the game mechanical level, how your PCs may think of it, and how this is all far more realistic than most people initially give it credit.

In case you missed them or would like to review them, the two companion articles may be found by following the links below:

The Justification Of The Hit Point System (Are Hit Points Realistic Or What?)

A Brief Look At When To Act Injured In AD&D (Why Are Our Adventurers So Tough They Never Seem Hurt Even When They Are?)

This article continues to add more detail and define certain terms to help aid in our discussions. It is a more mathematical treatment, but the mathematical skill level is low since it only requires simple percentages. The important thing to remember is this: Despite the fact this level of detail is not overly complicated or hard to calculate, it would be prohibitive if one had to do it in order run their game or play their character. No one is being asked to do this and this is NOT required to play. The math simply points out what is happening and how one may perceive their character's hit points and injuries and healing spells or even natural healing.

If you wish to stop and examine the examples, then you may acquire a greater understanding of how the abstract hit point system is working. This knowledge will allow you to visualize hit points and injuries better and see how they are perhaps more realistic than you thought, but in actual practice, you never actually need to do any of these calculations during a game for anything, or even at anytime after you are done reading this. These numbers just help players understand abstract hit points better if they really wish to know what's happening.

Naturally, we still use hit points in the abstract during actual play, so we will still just have Max HPs and Current Damage and that's it. But now armed with a better understanding of what is really happening behind the scene, the abstract concept of hit points may not offend one as much by seeming to be as unrealistic as they may have once appeared before reading these articles. Well, that's the theory anyway, so let us proceed.

First we will define some numbers:

M = Maximum Total Hit Points. This is the total on all the character's hit dice and constitution bonuses (or penalties). Normally, they may not have more hit points than M until they gain more levels.

P = Physical Maximum Hit Points. This is a character's maximum real or physical hit points. They come from only their first hit dice and their constitution bonuses on all dice. The maximum is used on the first dice. All other dice are ignored. Constitution bonuses (but not penalties) on the first and subsequent dice are added to this as well.

For example, with constitutions of 18 each, first level characters from each of the four primary classes would have:

P = 6 for a MAGE since (4+2),
P = 8 for a ROGUE since (6+2),
P = 10 for a PRIESTS or CLERIC since (8+2), and
P = 14 for a WARRIOR since (10+4)

As they go up in levels, you continue to add the constitution bonuses for each hit dice to P, but not the rolled score on the hit dice. These will be the characters' physical hit points or their real hit points.

Q = Quasi-Maximum Hit Points. A character's Maximum Hit Points (M) minus their Maximum Physical Hit Points (P) is everything else. These hit points come from their other hit dice beyond the first. They represent the character's connection to god or some higher power, their inner strength, their chi, their luck at avoiding damage, their classes' skill at avoiding damage, and any other way you wish to describe their hit points beyond the physical. Q = M-P.

C = Current Total Hit Points. Characters frequently take damage, and when they do, any remaining hit points are their current hit points. C = M-D.

D = Current Damage. This is how much damage a character has taken. D = M-C.

p = Current Physical Hit Points. Small p designates how many physical hit points a character has left out of P (when damaged).

p' = Current Physical Hit Points of Damage. Small p' designates how many physical hit points a character has lost from P (when damaged).

q = Current Quasi-Hit Points. Small q designates how many quasi-hit points a character has left out of Q (when damaged).

q' = Current Quasi-Hit Points of Damage. Small q' designates how many quasi-hit points a character has lost from Q (when damaged).

NOTE: P = p + p' and Q = q + q'

To Reiterate:

M = Maximum Total Hit points.
P = Physical Maximum Hit Points.
Q = Quasi-Maximum Hit Points. Q = M-P.
C = Current Total Hit Points. C = M-D.
D = Current Total Damage. D = M-C.

The other intermediate numbers that may be useful are:

p = Physical Current Hit Points.
p' = Physical Current Damage.
q = Quasi-Current Hit Points.
q' = Quasi-Current Damage.

NOTE: C = q + p and D = q' + p'

Now, any time a character is damaged their player may, if interested, make the following calculations:

C/M = The percentage of total hit points your PC has left.

D/M = The percentage of total hit points your PC has lost.

For example, Alpha (a 7th level warrior with 50 HPs) has taken 23 points of damage. Alpha has a constitution of 16 (+2 HP to each HD). If keen to see it, his hit dice record looks like this:

10/4/2/6/5/9 (+14 as +2 bonus on each of his 7 HDs is +14).

For Alpha, we can see the following:

M = 50.
P = 24. That is from the maximum on first hit dice plus the constitution bonus of 2 for each of his 7 hit dice. (10+7*2 = 24)
Q = 26. M-P=50-24=26.
C = 27. M-D =50-23-27.
D = 23. (Given: This is from various wounds or injuries).

C/M = 27/50 = 54% of hit points left.

D/M = 23/50 = 46% of hit points lost.

The numbers are given to be complete, but this level of detail is not necessary. 46% is the number with which we wish to further work. This number represents both how injured your character really is AND how injured they appear to be. This is accomplished by losing 46% of the Quasi-Hit Points AND 46% of the Physical Hit Points, thus adding to 46% of the total hit points.

In this case, Alpha has lost 46% of P or 46% of 24. This is roughly 11 HPs. Of his 24 real hit points, he has lost 11 and has 13 left.

Thus, p = 13 and p' = 11.

NOTE: When necessary, round up for p or p', the physical hit points. That way one may never round down to 0 physical hit points remaining and still be conscious as they have positive quasi-hit points left. If this were allowed, it would make this look strange. After determining the positive number of physical hit points remaining, p, the quasi-hit points remaining would simply be q = C-p .

Also, Alpha has lost 46% of Q or 46% of 26. This is roughly 12 HPs. Of his 26 Quasi-hit points, he has lost 12 and has 14 left.

Thus, q = 14 and q' = 12. Or even more simply, D-p' = q' or 23-11=12.

The sum of damage from both kinds of hit points is 11+12=23, as it should be.

Why all the math? What good is it? Well, simply put, it would be wrong to envision damage only coming from the quasi-hit points first until that quasi supply ran dry and only then starting on the physical hit points. If we did that, we could have a 50 hit point warrior with 23 points of damage and he would appear not to have a single scratch on him. We don't want that. If he lost 46% of his hit points, he should look like that. With this level of detail, he both looks like he lost 46% of his physical HPs and he has lost 46% of his total HPs.

NOTE: All this makes when to roleplay your PC's injuries a bit more difficult. If one had 90% damage, they'd be 9/10ths dead and should act injured or even act less than capable of continuing the fight. Yet AD&D suggests as long as your PC has positive hit points they can continue to fight at full capacity. The solution is that in some way, one's quasi-hit points supports them and allows them to continue (sometimes almost as if not seriously injured). Perhaps the adrenalin rush is partially explained in this way, but it is mostly the favor of the gods or the connection to the universe. But we should draw the line somewhere; the question is, "Where?"

To that end we will assume as long as C>=P, your PC may act virtually uninjured even when they have numerous scrapes, scratches, abrasions, or pulled muscles, etc. These are all still superficial injuries and will not stop a determined character. How much realism you wish to roleplay when C<P, however, will be up to you or your DM. The DM may insist on negative combat modifiers at this point or simply rule your PC cannot act as if they are uninjured. They may, for example, limit how much your PC can carry, how fast they can move, how negative to hit or damage they are, or other penalties such as how it might effect your climb roll, stealth rolls, or other skills. This is all very realistic and even fun, but one need not play this way if they dislike this amount of realism. But if that's the case, they probably aren't reading this article anyway.

If you wish to roleplay your injuries, clear this with your DM. Even some DMs may be annoyed if you go off on some roleplaying tangent each time your PC stubs their toe. Most good DMs, IMHO, would welcome excellent roleplaying of one's injuries, but only up to a certain point. For example, if Alpha had a paper cut, I'd be annoyed if his player thought to make a big issue of this. But I would begin to welcome and even encourage players to start roleplaying their character's injuries when C<P. This is the only additional notice you may have to make on your character sheet. What value "P" has so you know when your PC crossed that line and it is time to act or roleplay differently.

If Alpha now received a CLW ( Cure Light Wounds ) spell, this would heal 1d8. Let's assume we roll an 8 (God be praised!). His former damage of 23 is now only damage of 15. Reworking the numbers, we find:

M = 50. P = 24. Q = 26. These remain constant until he goes up a level.

C = 35.
D = 15.

Alpha now has 30% damage (15/50=30%). He went from 11 to about 7 in physical damage and from 12 to about 8 in Quasi-damage. 7+8=15.

I can't stress the fact enough that none of these calculations are ever needed to play. They only serve to help illuminate the sort of thing actually happening behind the scene, so to speak.

In brief, the percentage of total damage is the same as the percentage of physical damage and the percentage of quasi-damage. No one should be attempting to distinguish between the kinds of damage (real of quasi) certain weapons or spells do. We are not trying to do anything like that. Nor should anyone think "subdual" damage is more quasi than real based on this. It may or may not be, but those subdual rules are completely different from anything we are looking at here.

Let us now look at Gamma, a 5th level mage with 6 hit points of damage. Without going into as great a detailed break down, we simply see that Gamma has:

M = 14. (No constitution bonus)
P = 4.
Q = 10.
C = 8.
D = 6.

So, D/M = 6/14 = 43% damage.

MAGICAL HEALING

Thus, when Gamma has 6 points of damage and Alpha has 23 points of damage, anyone looking at both of them would (or should) think they were about equally hurt. The phrase, "You look half-dead." would not be misplaced directed at either character. Yet, the party cleric, Rho, could more easily heal Gamma than she could heal Alpha despite appearances. When she cast a CLW on Gamma, the mage's cuts and scrapes may completely disappear. But when Rho cast the same spell on Alpha, it would seem to have done little in comparison. Wouldn't this appear odd to Rho?

The answer must be, "No." Rho and other characters are able to perceive in some very real and tangible way some people have more life energy or stronger connections to the universe, or god, or what have you, than other people. Not coincidentally, this correlates well with also seeing some people are harder to kill than others. The fact there is more going on here than meets the eye is not alarming to Rho since many things are not visible, though often accepted as true anyway. A person's fighting prowess, their piety, or their luck all cannot be seen simply by looking at them, but such things exists nevertheless. Thus, simply because her spell doesn't "appear" to work equally as well on two different men (who looked to be about equally injured) doesn't mean there is some deep mystery here or it should be particularly alarming to her. She sees this phenomenon often enough not to be surprised by it. She may even understand it.

In fact, observing this may lead Rho to think Alpha is more in tune with the powers beyond, and she'd be right more often than not. However, as CLW may do 1 HP or 8 HPs of healing, she may be looking at something else. For example, she may have healed Gamma for 8 but healed Delta (Gamma's identical twin in all respects) for 1. Thus, concluding Delta was more in tune with the universe than Gamma might be something she would deduce, but it would be erroneously deduced.

Clerics do not know what their players roll on their dice, nor would Rho necessarily feel she made a stronger connection with one spell than she did with another (rolled better on the first than the second). Your DM may allow some vague feeling of how well one is doing, but game numbers and game detail is mostly never known on the character level.

Rho might incorrectly think Delta was more in tune with the universe than Gamma after casting only one spell on each, but only after casting CLW on both of them several times and observing definite patterns and tendencies would she more accurately know the true picture and see they were about the same. In time, after many castings on her companions, she would discern Alpha was more powerfully aligned (had more hit points) with the universe than Gamma or Delta, but those twin mages were about the same with each other. This only takes time and experience, so it will be assumed (after sufficient time) characters with healing skills may correctly deduce relative power levels of their traveling companions to some degree of accuracy. Just bear in mind doing this too quickly or with too few examples may look too much like you are using Out Of Charter knowledge.

But what do Alpha and Gamma think? They both look half-dead. Do they both feel half-dead? Neither feels great, that much is certain, but both understand their limitations. Gamma feels another hit or two and he'll be history. Alpha, on the other hand, feels he can avoid them better and keep going longer, though he could use some divine favor from Rho as well. But he'd probably know (assuming they are comrades) that if resources were limited, Gamma may be in greater need. Therefore Alpha would trust to his skill and fighting prowess to survive more than Gamma could. But then, this is not surprising since a warrior would think that about a mage. So even when both are half-dead, Alpha's confidence is less diminished.

NATURAL HEALING

Natural healing becomes a problem, however, under the old rules. At the old rate of about 1 HP of healing/day, it looks odd when Alpha needs 50 days to heal yet Gamma needs only 14 days to heal. Assuming comparable constitution scores, they should heal physically at about the same rate. Yet it would appear Alpha heals more slowly. Why?

One way to fix this would be to make physical healing come first. Then, only after a character's hit points surpassed his or her first hit dice worth of hit points and thus be completely healed (physically) would their vast reservoir of quasi-hit points begin to accumulate. Unfortunately, this will not jive with the above system since it requires, at times, a different percentage of damage on each front (physical and quasi). This is too complex for simplicity's sake.

But 3rd edition AD&D has adopted a new rule in their attempt to address some of the same problems. Natural healing would now be 1 HP/hit dice/day. Thus, Alpha, a 7th level warrior, would heal at 7 HPs a day while Gamma, a 5th level mage, would heal a 5 HPs a day.

Multiclass characters (this is still primarily 2nd edition even if I borrow from 3rd edition) heal at their average level (1 HP for each full hit dice).

This natural healing assumes rest or restful activities. This would mean, for example, a 6th level character should regain 6 HPs/day or about 1 HP every 4 hours of complete rest. Sitting on a cold dungeon floor or similarly uncomfortable conditions, however, would not be restful, even if completely inactive. The character must be warm, well fed, and resting (no combat or spell casting). Most field conditions, therefore, will either not allow natural healing or only allow a fraction of the normal rate (perhaps half or even one quarter or less. Ask your DM).

NOTE: Remember not to use the number of levels, but the number of hit dice. It is 1 HP/(Hit Dice)/day. A 14th level warrior would, therefore, not heal 14 HPs/day but would only heal 9 HPs/day since warriors are limited to 9 hit dice.

Bed Rest is even better than simple rest, and when a character is in a warm bed they may regain one and one half times the normal rate (round down). Finally, under the skill of a character with both healing and herbalism skills, a character may heal at one and three quarters the normal rate (round up). The DM may adjust all figures according to circumstance.

Natural healing is slower than magical healing, but it happens in a similar fashion as far as the numbers are concerned. Thus, both physical and quasi-hit points will come back simultaneously and the percentage of damage for both will remain identical.

In any event, it solves (or at least mitigates) the problem of a fixed rate of healing for all characters no matter how many HPs they might have at maximum.

FURTHER EXAMPLES

ANALOGY:

EXAMPLE 1:

These numbers do not necessarily correspond to real AD&D numbers, levels, hit dice, etc., and have been selected for ease of mental computations only.

Warrior A has a 100-gallon drum to fill, but he has a 10-gallon bucket (since he has 10 dice and that strong a connection to the universe).

The drum is partitioned into two sections (P and Q), P with 10 gallons and Q with 90-gallons. But there is a connection (a hole) in the wall so each are filled to the same percentage (for example, if P is 36% full, Q is also 36% full). P and Q are married together is a very special way.

Warrior B has a 20-gallon drum to fill, but he has a two-gallon bucket (since he has two dice and that weak a connection to the universe).

Both may fill their bucket once/day and dump it into their drum. Both will take 10 days to fill their respective drums.

This is akin to natural healing. Doing it this way, physical healing appears to occur at the same rate for both high and low level characters.

Cleric C has a healing spell bucket. It is fixed in size (call it a 10-gallon bucket). She may fill B's drum in two castings, but she'd need 10 spells to fill A's drum.

This appears odd to many people who may have believed magic healing simply was normal healing only faster or simply accelerated natural healing. It is not in this system.

EXAMPLE 2:

A, is a 100 HP warrior (10 real, 90 quasi) has 50 damage (5 R + 45 Q).

B, is a 20 HP warrior (10 real, 10 quasi) has 10 damage (5 R + 5 Q).

Let us say CLW heals 10. But 10 what? R? Q? Well, since it comes from god (mostly) and deals partially with god's power (mostly), that's up to him to some degree.

CLW on A heals 10. He now has 40 damage (4 R +36 Q). This spell physically healed only 1 HP (it seems).

CLW on B heals 10. He now has no damage (0 R + 0 Q). This spell physically healed 5 HPs. What's up with that? Why the huge difference? Isn't damage, just damage? Isn't it all the same? No. Why does CLW treat some damage differently?

I guess the reason is simply that god sees fit you pay him back what he lent you first before fully taking care of your own needs. More of the CLW's power is then directed to pay back god and less is left to heal physical wounds. You don't have to think you're being cheated or anything because of this as having more HPs is the better deal anyway. But it does mean CLW is working on both the Real and Quasi fronts (they work together, like in any good marriage).

FINAL THOUGHTS

All of this sort of implies all people will become fully healed in a matter of days after being injured (no exceptions). Reality is not like that, however. Average or below average constitution scores may cause one to heal more slowly (thus non-adventurers might take a week or two to recover from something like major surgery or any serious injury). And each HP may never fully heal, but only mostly heal. For example, each HP may act independently and heal asymptotically. 90%, 95%, 99%, 99.5%, 99.9%, 99.99%, etc. and never really gets there. Thus, even small injuries may nag at you for days or weeks even after for all practical purposes, you have full HPs.

It may even be suggested some injuries effectively, though temporarily, lower one's constitution, thus making them heal more slowly than normal as well. Eventually, their constitution may return while they heal.

Or, for even more realism, the DM may make natural healing a function of constitution as well as level. For example, instead of 1 HP/(hit dice)/day, it could be 1/2 HP/(hit dice)/day plus CON/3 HPs/day (round down). However it is done, the point is a variety of factors may affect its normal rate. So if a 0th level person sprains their wrist, how many HPs is that? If it takes two weeks to heal, doesn't this imply it must have been at least 14 HPs of damage? No, of course not. It only shows not all injuries are going to follow this abstract schedule, nor should they. But for game purposes, it is close enough, and with magic, we can virtually ignore all these minor problems since magic will take care of it.

Or one may even have internal injuries and continue to lose hit points as they bleed internally, losing hit points faster than they can recover them and eventually dying without proper care.

Furthermore, you may have sustained permanent damage. Scars, maiming injuries, nerve damage, or a variety of other problems may actually reduce a character from full capacity or complete mobility and full function. Also, diseases, infections, and other complications are often ignored by this system. This is in large part due to the fact it is assumed healing magic automatically takes care of a great many of these problems so we need not bother with them.

Or even more powerful healing magic may be needed to alleviate specific afflictions (poisons, diseases, nerve damage, etc.).

Regeneration or Cure Disease or Cure Serious or Critical Wounds may be required to become fully healed. Quite literally, time does NOT necessarily heal all wounds. And when a character does not have access to healing magic, for realism's sake, the DM may insist on some of these consequences.

Fortunately, with knowledge from the gods and much practical experience, it is also assumed most adventurers know the virtues of alcohol as an antiseptic and they do properly care for their injuries even when magic is not handy.

Finally, some special injuries may be ruled to occur. A broken leg, for example. How many hit points is that? No one knows in this system, so the DM will have to adjudicate such things. He may easily rule, however, that when and if such a serious injury did occur, it might take magic or even more powerful magic to fix it. A CLW may be too weak to fix a broken leg, though a Cure Serious Wounds may suffice, for example.

Is all this necessary? Well, no. Any amount of realism added simply makes a game more realistic, but this is not necessarily better, and we must be aware of this. It could take hours longer to deal with the bookkeeping or minute detail placed in the game, and that may be less than fun for many. Fortunately, most of this article deals with things we need only know about to add realism. We don't have to deal with it during the game. It just gives us, perhaps, a new way of looking at things. That alone may add the extra realism, and as no extra bookkeeping is required to do it, this is probably a good thing.

So, even though one can calculate and look at their character's numbers to see more realism, it is often enough just to know that the realism is there, even if normally buried beneath our notice. The important thing here is that the simplicity of the abstract hit point system is preserved, it is realistic, and it is very playable. I like that. I hope you do too.

© January of 2001
by
James L.R. Beach
Waterville, MN 56096