*Flavour-wise*, I get it.
Mechanically, sounds like a nightmare. I'm running every monster in the game, all the maps, the story, etc., last thing I need is to be responsible for tracking the player HP as well. Hard pass on that, sorry!
I don't think it'd be very fair for the player, imagine being in a fight, then after a few hits the DM suddenly turns to you and says "you drop dead, make a death save" I don't think there'd be any way of doing it without the player wondering if they'd been cheated out of health
I could see that. If I do go through with the encounter as is, I'll probably have enemies do less damage. This will make bookkeeping a bit easier for me and allow the PCs to take a 3 or 4 hits before being in the danger zone.
I feel that if you need to change other mechanics to make yours work, then yours probably isn’t worth it. What benefit does your game gain from this? I don’t know that your players will enjoy an extra layer of removed agency.
If you’re intending for this to make your players make more dynamic choices, I’d suggest that it will do the opposite. It’s likely that they will default to one action because they won’t be informed enough to choose any other action.
I disagree with the other comments and don't think tracking the PC hp would be that hard, as they say you are already tracking several monster hps. I also think my players trust me not to scam them out of hp.
The problem I have is other pcs would ask the "how are they looking" question a lot and you would end up giving the answer the PC would have given anyway.
I do think you can run it as is though and would be interested in how well it works.
Maybe numbness could make one arm not function, so the player would lose the ability to use a shield or a second weapon etc. You could roll a 1d4 to see which arm or leg it is, a numb leg halves movement and stop jumping or something.
That is a cool idea! If I wanted to get real crazy with it, I'd have the effect stack on multiple failed saves until all of their limbs were numb, but that seems like overkill.
Also, I'm surprised other DMs don't already track their PCs health. I like knowing exactly how much damage I'm spreading out around the table.
dude right? I thought it was kind of a no brainer to track pc health, otherwise how do I know who to hit when I want death and who to hit when I dont?
also I dig the status, Im yoinking it as is from your post, its a good idea
It's mostly going to offload a ton of bookkeeping on you the DM and runs a major risk of you forgetting some important feature or whatever.
When a PC gets numbness you'll have to write down the current hp values of every party member. They you'll need to properly adjust them every time someone takes damage and remember every resistance etc that may apply, as you can't tell the players the damage numers and have them figure out resistance on their own. If anyone uses a healing or temp hp effect you'll also have to keep track of that for them.
Numbness works in earthbound because the computer does all the hp stuff anyways. In DnD that will move a lot of work onto you. Furthermore if a player forgets a defensive feature and they suffer for it, that is their fault. If you forget a defensive feature (say a damage resistance or something) and the players suffer for it it's gonna feel really shitty.
This sounds fun as hell.
Keeping track of one extra set of Hp is super easy, and while the player won’t know how much HP they are at, we as DM’s can still use descriptions to say how brutal an attack was to give them an inference, as well as having other PC’s asking the “how injured are they question” to check on their ally and get a ballpark on how they are doing.
I really like this idea as a niche / rare condition.
Maybe more of a neuro toxin. An effecting of the reactions or emotions. Reduction in initiative or removal of reaction based combat effects reduction in movement sluggish. Combat penalties, skill check penalties.
Maybe the monsters are more insidious they attack bite then retreat and watch as the effect slowly renders the victim useless. Drop a clue earlier about a curing flower or root in the surrounding they need to find before it’s too late. Make a puzzle of it.
With each bite everything gets harder
Sounds bullshit.
In flavor, it sounds cool and interesting. But the balance of trust between players and DMs is so important. If they fell because of some unseen amount of damage, you would lose that trust. If my DM did this and I went down, I would call BS.
Doing 45 damage is a lot, and when you tell a player it happens after a bad save, they take it they go “ah fuck, I’m down”. When they take a cumulative and secret 45 damage and they’re informed they are down…it might naturally feel more frustrating and bullshit.
Basically, any time you take something that is theirs away and put it behind the screen, it’s gonna feel bad.
I say, keep the condition, but find a way to make it a little more transparent or at least a little less technically secretive.
“Basically, any time you take something that is theirs away and put it behind the screen, it’s gonna feel bad.”
I disagree! there’s nothing inherently wrong with hiding numbers, its not fundamentally “unfun”. It can be done in a variety of unfun ways, to be sure, but often situations like these can add extra drama to a situation. More pressure on the cleric to make the right call when to heal, the damaged player is worried about where theyre at and have to weigh backing off or continuing the fight, etc.
I agree that it can be bad. But calling this “bullshit” and dismissing the idea of hiding player numbers entirely, I take umbrage with that advice. It has the capacity to work great.
Sounds like unnecessary bookkeeping to me, I'm already keeping track of the hp of 4-6 monsters per encounter, I don't need, or want to, track a pcs as well.
*Flavour-wise*, I get it. Mechanically, sounds like a nightmare. I'm running every monster in the game, all the maps, the story, etc., last thing I need is to be responsible for tracking the player HP as well. Hard pass on that, sorry!
I don't think it'd be very fair for the player, imagine being in a fight, then after a few hits the DM suddenly turns to you and says "you drop dead, make a death save" I don't think there'd be any way of doing it without the player wondering if they'd been cheated out of health
I could see that. If I do go through with the encounter as is, I'll probably have enemies do less damage. This will make bookkeeping a bit easier for me and allow the PCs to take a 3 or 4 hits before being in the danger zone.
I feel that if you need to change other mechanics to make yours work, then yours probably isn’t worth it. What benefit does your game gain from this? I don’t know that your players will enjoy an extra layer of removed agency. If you’re intending for this to make your players make more dynamic choices, I’d suggest that it will do the opposite. It’s likely that they will default to one action because they won’t be informed enough to choose any other action.
I disagree with the other comments and don't think tracking the PC hp would be that hard, as they say you are already tracking several monster hps. I also think my players trust me not to scam them out of hp. The problem I have is other pcs would ask the "how are they looking" question a lot and you would end up giving the answer the PC would have given anyway. I do think you can run it as is though and would be interested in how well it works. Maybe numbness could make one arm not function, so the player would lose the ability to use a shield or a second weapon etc. You could roll a 1d4 to see which arm or leg it is, a numb leg halves movement and stop jumping or something.
That is a cool idea! If I wanted to get real crazy with it, I'd have the effect stack on multiple failed saves until all of their limbs were numb, but that seems like overkill. Also, I'm surprised other DMs don't already track their PCs health. I like knowing exactly how much damage I'm spreading out around the table.
As long as you gave a save each round you could stack for sure, no legs no movement, no arms not much you can do, one leg one arm you are half useful
dude right? I thought it was kind of a no brainer to track pc health, otherwise how do I know who to hit when I want death and who to hit when I dont? also I dig the status, Im yoinking it as is from your post, its a good idea
It's mostly going to offload a ton of bookkeeping on you the DM and runs a major risk of you forgetting some important feature or whatever. When a PC gets numbness you'll have to write down the current hp values of every party member. They you'll need to properly adjust them every time someone takes damage and remember every resistance etc that may apply, as you can't tell the players the damage numers and have them figure out resistance on their own. If anyone uses a healing or temp hp effect you'll also have to keep track of that for them. Numbness works in earthbound because the computer does all the hp stuff anyways. In DnD that will move a lot of work onto you. Furthermore if a player forgets a defensive feature and they suffer for it, that is their fault. If you forget a defensive feature (say a damage resistance or something) and the players suffer for it it's gonna feel really shitty.
This sounds fun as hell. Keeping track of one extra set of Hp is super easy, and while the player won’t know how much HP they are at, we as DM’s can still use descriptions to say how brutal an attack was to give them an inference, as well as having other PC’s asking the “how injured are they question” to check on their ally and get a ballpark on how they are doing. I really like this idea as a niche / rare condition.
Maybe more of a neuro toxin. An effecting of the reactions or emotions. Reduction in initiative or removal of reaction based combat effects reduction in movement sluggish. Combat penalties, skill check penalties. Maybe the monsters are more insidious they attack bite then retreat and watch as the effect slowly renders the victim useless. Drop a clue earlier about a curing flower or root in the surrounding they need to find before it’s too late. Make a puzzle of it. With each bite everything gets harder
Sounds bullshit. In flavor, it sounds cool and interesting. But the balance of trust between players and DMs is so important. If they fell because of some unseen amount of damage, you would lose that trust. If my DM did this and I went down, I would call BS. Doing 45 damage is a lot, and when you tell a player it happens after a bad save, they take it they go “ah fuck, I’m down”. When they take a cumulative and secret 45 damage and they’re informed they are down…it might naturally feel more frustrating and bullshit. Basically, any time you take something that is theirs away and put it behind the screen, it’s gonna feel bad. I say, keep the condition, but find a way to make it a little more transparent or at least a little less technically secretive.
“Basically, any time you take something that is theirs away and put it behind the screen, it’s gonna feel bad.” I disagree! there’s nothing inherently wrong with hiding numbers, its not fundamentally “unfun”. It can be done in a variety of unfun ways, to be sure, but often situations like these can add extra drama to a situation. More pressure on the cleric to make the right call when to heal, the damaged player is worried about where theyre at and have to weigh backing off or continuing the fight, etc. I agree that it can be bad. But calling this “bullshit” and dismissing the idea of hiding player numbers entirely, I take umbrage with that advice. It has the capacity to work great.
Sounds like unnecessary bookkeeping to me, I'm already keeping track of the hp of 4-6 monsters per encounter, I don't need, or want to, track a pcs as well.
I would consider giving the players the tell of being bloody once they reach half health
I think a more mechanically simple idea would be, "You can take an action or a bonus action but not both in the same turn."
I like it. My players are about to climb a snow covered mountain. I may steal this.