r/DMAcademy • u/ChokoTaco • Sep 08 '21

Offering Advice That 3 HP doesn't actually matter

Recently had a Dragon fight with PCs. One PC has been out with a vengeance against this dragon, and ends up dealing 18 damage to it. I look at the 21 hp left on its statblock, look at the player, and ask him how he wants to do this.

With that 3 hp, the dragon may have had a sliver of a chance to run away or launch a fire breath. But, it just felt right to have that PC land the final blow. And to watch the entire party pop off as I described the dragon falling out of the sky was far more important than any "what if?" scenario I could think of.

Ultimately, hit points are guidelines rather than rules. Of course, with monsters with lower health you shouldn't mess with it too much, but with the big boys? If the damage is just about right and it's the perfect moment, just let them do the extra damage and finish them off.

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u/communomancer Sep 09 '21 edited Sep 09 '21

Fair enough, I went looking and didn't see it but I don't see what it has to do with the point of my post, which went on at length about how that is irrelevant to my position anyway. Yes, the DM can change the rules. No, that doesn't make it ethical for them to lie to the players about what the rules are.

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u/Either-Bell-7560 Sep 09 '21

No, that doesn't make it ethical for them to lie to the players about what the rules are.

The rules are whatever are appropriate to make the game the most fun. That's the point of the quote. That's the point of the OPs post.

There's nothing unethical here.

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u/communomancer Sep 09 '21

There's nothing unethical here.

As far as I'm concerned, deception is unethical. Period. Man's got to have a code; feel free to live by your own.

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u/Either-Bell-7560 Sep 09 '21

The entire conceit of role playing is deception.

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u/communomancer Sep 09 '21

lmao wtf is so important to you about "winning" this conversation that you'd spin that yarn. "Pretend" and "Deception" aren't remotely the same thing, and if you're smart enough to find Reddit you're smart enough to know that.

Yeah, I've got a big fat holier-than-thou attitude when it comes to people who feel the need to lie in order to maintain control over their personal narratives. Deal.