GM Tip - MORE Hit Points results in a WORSE game?
This topic is so polemic I can’t even start a conversation about it in a RPG group. 5e (and earlier versions) is to blame… again. But here is my safe haven, where I can talk outside the reach of fists and dice throwers.
Hit Point Inflation
Hit Point Inflation is when everyone become more and more durable as time goes on. Creatures with great amounts of hit points usually fight against other creatures with also great amounts of hit points. In this scenario, numbers alone can dictate the outcome of combat. In my opinion, this is probably the worst state your game can be in.
Math gets more complicated as numbers get bigger. In consequence, the game gets slower. It’s easier to subtract 1 from 3, instead of subtracting 783 from 2349. Same proportions, more brain energy wasted. Using a calculator might mitigate this particular problem, but clutters up your workspace — digital or not.
If the damage isn’t increased as well, the combat gets exponentially slower. Tactics and clever thinking doesn’t matter as much, especially tactics that use the terrain. If you trap an enemy with high hp, they can flee before getting killed.
In D&D, if you hit it with a chair, you would deal 1d4 damage… to a creature with 670 hp. It makes no difference. In this scenario, running towards the enemy and attacking them becomes the default option, unless the GM carefully designes a specific situation where this isn’t true. Designing such situation takes time and most of the time feels unnatural.
“But I like becoming stronger!” — But your enemies are growing in power too.
This may work in video games… kind of. But it surely doesn’t works for table top RPGs, or any game that tries to promote out of the box thinking.
Level disparity becomes unmanageable
Another problem that arises with Hit Point Inflation is that parties with members of different levels don’t work after certain thresholds. So, if you want your players to create new Level 1 characters after the death of their old ones, they may suffer an unfair contrast in power, both in defensive and offensive capabilities.
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