One of the most interesting licenses of many role-playing games, video games included, is the magic of life points. The characters are receiving damage little by little and, if they run out of life points, that is when they fall to the ground and there is danger of death. But there are no intermediate states. If the character's health points are healed, he can calmly get up off the ground as if nothing had happened. In the case of Dungeons & Dragons, this has been the case for a lifetime. Well, the truth is that, as we saw in the entry of the Aiming rule , even in the one about blunders , the issue of injuries in Dungeons & Dragons is something that has never been treated in too much depth, neither received nor inflict them.

Yes it is true that there are attacks and spells that have some additional effects to the loss of life points, but nothing too long-lasting, and always reversible. Virtually all the damage that can be produced and received in the game is limited to the loss of life dissonant whispers 5e. Okay, then there is a thing called Vorpal Sword that fully charges this principle, but it is the exception that proves the rule. In all other cases, we are talking about a damage bar that empties and refills depending on the circumstances. This can be, colon, boring. And unrealistic. I mean, in no case do I think that a role system has to be totally realistic.

Precisely, part of the grace is the simplification , which makes it playable. Rolemaster had 20 degrees of armor and you rolled on a different table depending on the weapon you used, but that was not very useful and cumbersome. It had its charm, but it certainly made it all a bit more complicated. What I mean is that, at times, it can be interesting to show a little more complexity in the damage, especially if this has some narrative repercussion. Because to be honest: have you ever rolled injuries in Dungeons & Dragons? Your character has fallen twice in the last battle, has had to make saving throws against death and, in addition, the giant got critical in one of his attacks. What additional consequences does all this have? None. A long break, and the character is one hundred percent back.

And maybe we can take advantage of this type of situation to introduce some variety to the unearthed arcana and give a dimension to the wounds, something similar to what dozens of role-playing games are already doing, which contemplate the possibility that the characters suffer sequels beyond hit point loss.